#I’ll draw on my iPad for like 6 hours a day and then one day just forget I have it for like a week

[marblish0220]

Fervently working on my robo stylization. By the time the season starts… I will be ready.

[catacamacat]

OMG your art is so good!!

do you have any tips? painting apps sugestion? I'll take ANYTHING!!!

have a nice day (er... night)

Heyy

Thank you so much! Means a lot <3

(Literally a lot, like… you ask me? Me of all people?)

I’ll try my best, pls keep in mind that i’m not a professional or anything, I’m talking about my personal experiences. I hope I didn’t forget anything

(Edit: IM SO SORRY IT’S SO MUCH, I’ve been yapping for the past one and half an hour since 4AM ToT you don’t have to read everything ofc, I still hope that everything makes some sense 🥲)

I’ll put most of it under a cut :)

Painting apps:

I have always used procreate for my digital drawings, but there are many good cheap/ free alternatives.

Since our school uses IPads to work it installed “Sketchbook” on our devices, and even though you can’t use all of the pens without paying there should be more than enough for free (I’ve never used a digital pencil that has been so comfortable to draw with for example)

But my favorite is and will always be procreate

Time:

I’ve been drawing for a bit more than 6 years, and sometimes I’m still very insecure about most of my drawings, I mean that when I look at them I’m just not happy or I think it’s not good enough…

But I always keep in mind how freaking horrible, like for real horrendously bad my drawings were in 4th grade when I started, and then I’m pretty happy with how far I’ve come ^^

Just know that this feeling will probably always be there, no matter if you’re a beginner or a pro, idk it’s just from my perspective, everyone has their own experience.

Inspiration:

For me one of the most important/ helpful things is inspiration. I personally am often very energetic when it comes to drawing something that plopped up in my head, it just brings the fun, you know?

For me my biggest inspiration so far to draw is TMNT. And I mean it, I don’t just say that because I’m hyperfixated to them. Ever since I’ve discovered the turtles far more than a year ago, drawing has been the most fun thing in the world.

For me the turtles are incredibly fun to draw, there are so many possibilities since there are so many different versions of them, and four of them. I don’t think I could ever grow tired of drawing them, and I think nothing has ever improved my art as much as them since they are so much easier and fun to draw than humans (imo)

There was a time period that last until around three weeks ago where I didn’t really was in the tmnt fandom anymore, idk how that happened but I hope it will never happen again. Anyway, I was trying to draw in anime- style or something like that, and as far as I can remember it was really hard and for me not really fun/ felt forced. The turtles always look how they are supposed to look, but humans… nah —~—

What I want to say is that you should also find something that’s fun for you to draw and that fills you with inspiration and energy.

Quantity:

A tip from me: draw every day

(but include breaks when you need it)

Of course it’s not always possible, but since I heard that tip somewhere on YouTube (also a really good way to improve) a couple of years ago, I was never able to forget it. I mean I didn’t do it of course, but somehow it still helped… in a way…yk?

I mean there are always times where you don’t draw, maybe over weeks and even months during art block or other reasons, but the more often you draw, the better you become at it.

(Btw I personally believe it’s impossible to draw every day, for me at least. But i don’t know, that sentence never left my mind and I think there has to be some reason for it)

People:

It can be really helpful to have people you look up to, especially in the beginning, for example was I a really big fan of Skottie Young (still am) and that guy who drew some of the TMNT idw comics (forgot his name rn), and trying to draw somewhat like them for practice really helped me to get better. It also can be good to have people around you that are artists. Can be

And now something somewhat more complicated:

Be careful about the people you are surrounded with, because according to what kind of person you are, they can really, really make you feel shitty about how you draw, or maybe bring you to a point where you don’t feel joy when drawing at all

Here’s what I mean:

For example take me. I don’t know how many people feel this way, but I’m for some unexplainable reason completely “allergic” to criticism. I know it’s not a good thing, but I also know it’s not really my fault.

Every time I’m drawing something, I just want to have fun with it, and for me it’s the most important thing when I draw. And having people around me all the way that have studied drawing, criticizing my work and telling me what’s wrong, maybe even make fun of it it something I really, really can’t live with. Of course it can be a really good thing to take those criticisms, but for me it was/is just annoying, like REALLY annoying.

For a long time I couldn’t really draw anymore when someone of that people was sitting next to me, and there have been quite a few of them. It completely took the joy of drawing away from me, no one should let that happen to them. (Luckily it’s better now)

Idk if that what I intended to say was said… 🤷‍♀️

One last, the most important thing:

Always have fun with and enjoy drawing <3

Good day/night/or whatever 💜💜💜

[firstdivisiongirl]

helloo !! id like to ask for a matchup if that’s alright? (youre on break rn though so take your time dw!) I’m not too sure how to req a matchup so sorry if it’s too much ghdkvhdk

to start off with my hobbies and interests, there’s a LOT of them and they’re very contrasting- I’ve probably spent the most cash on drawing (investment on a drawing iPad aaaouurg), but I also spend a lot of my time writing and singing! On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I also enjoy blacksmithing, welding, and boxing a lot!! Im also a huuuuge history buff and I really like psychology as well!!

I really like spicy foods and fruit flavored things and hearing people ramble about things they're passionate about, and I like puzzles n stuff that makes me think :]] dislikes consist of chocolate, angry yelling, crowded spaces, and boring people !!

I'm a very 0-100 person where I'm either very low energy and distant, or high energy. Im pretty impulsive as well, at least when it comes to my own safety whether it be for a dumb reason or important. I very rarely talk about my interests to people who I'm not 100% comfortable with, but when I am it's VERY easy to urge me into infodumping about fuck all I can talk about my interests for actual hours and I get really emotional if I'm told to be quiet fjdjfusjf- id like to think I'm pretty ambitious and witty as well, I'm quick to snap back at people. In terms of outside of my social circle however, I'm very much so an introvert and have a very hard time meeting new people :']

SORRY THIS IS SO MUCH I DONT KNOW HOW MUCH OR HOW LITTLE I SHOULDVE PUT IF YOU WANT ME TO SEND A SHORTER ONE THRN LMK I TOTALLY WILL!!! AGAIN TAKE YOUR TIME WITH THIS ILL BE HAPPY WITH ANYTHING YOU MAKE :DDD (and feel free to call me :] anon!!)

I'll be doing a matchup for you too but since I just followed you I don't know you very well yet, BUT ITLL HAPPEN I SWEAR

~ :]

Hi :]. It’s so nice to hear from you! Of course you can have a matchup! I always have time to do this! I’m back from break and it sucked, but this was great to come back and do! This one was kind of hard. I was torn between like 6, but after some thinking, lots of outlines and lists. I came up with it!!

Your most like a combination of Sabo and Chopper!!!

Sabo:

You both are very impulsive and will do anything

Sabo is a 0-100 kind of guy just like you!

Both of you are ambitious and witty as well as emotional

Both love writing. You guys would write an amazing book together. I’d love to see it

Lastly, you both are emotional and hate boring and terrible people.

I could definitely imagine you joining the RA

Chopper:

Both could talk anyone’s ear off about everything you love. Chopper would definitely talk about medical stuff all day if he could

Chopper is a little introverted around strangers like you. But I do feel like you would be better at hiding than him 😊

Chopper is a little intimidated by crowds like you

Chopper like sweets and fruits are sweet so….

He also is afraid of Nami who yells. You hate yelling. Enough said.

But when you two find friends, you’ll come out of your shells and flourish!

I hope you like it! You said you would do a match up for me so just DM me and I’ll give you any info you need! Thank you :] for the request! 💙🤍

[latenightdecaf]

Entry 6 - of light gaze and worrisome face

part of let the pile of good things grow series - series masterlist

previous entry here

Yoongi x reader

Ft. nonidol!bts

Producer!yoongi, roommate!yoongi, soft!yoongi

slow burn romance, friendship, slice of life

series of drabbles/one shots

no warnings for now

A/N: starting to get the hang of this again, it’s been a while so i’m just going where my imagination takes me. So i’ll probably be posting another one for tomorrow before the motivation leaves me. Hope you all like it.

Word count: 1,953

Pacing back and forth in the living room as you’re having this conversation with your friend and also editor, Hye Jin. Talking you out into the possibility of taking in another project that would put an indefinite pause to your own book.

“I couldn’t possibly say no, she had this whole speech on how she wanted to make this book for her baby. To read to her when she’s old enough. Words from a loving mother for her newborn child, my goodness.” You stopped and sighed. “I know, but having to accept this means also putting your book on hold, you’ve been working on that for months now—is that really something you are willing to do?” Hye Jin reminded you on the other end. You stopped on your tracks, not saying a word and just looking blankly over the view from your living room. Thinking to yourself, ‘I can’t believe it’s summer already.’

Yoongi who have just woken up and is getting himself some water in the kitchen and were just looking intently at your back not particularly eavesdropping in your conversation, but just looking. You haven’t even realized he walked in.

“I know you, you’re just running away from this. You’ve been so scared of finally publishing something that is yours and yours only. So when a small window of opportunity presents itself you immediately took the ticket to leave.” Hye Jin, your editor who has became a good friend to you throughout these years, has always been good to you—she can so easily read you, too.

“You know for someone who’s actually trying to get pregnant for months now, you don’t seem to understand her feelings. Of course, I’m just here to help.” Weak argument on your end, you know she’s right when she said that you were running away. “You’re always there to help. But what about you? You know for someone who doesn’t want to have kids. I’m surprised you’re too adamant to do this.” Her statement made you laugh. “Have you changed your mind?” She added.

“I may not want kids, but I’m not heartless.”

And those were the last phrase Yoongi heard from you as we backed to his room.

Your conversation with Hye Jin went on for a couple more minutes only to end up with some sort of a compromise.

“You’ll need minimum 3-4 months, and probably maximum 6/7 months to wrap this all up? You need to get this done more quickly. That’s my only deal.” You sighed in defeat. “I’ll try.” Ending the call and waving the white flag. You too were also not sure of what you’re getting yourself into. Is it just you running away? Or is this the small part of you feeling guilty again.

“You’ll need minimum 3-4 months, and probably maximum 6/7 months to wrap this all up? You need to get this done more quickly. That’s my only deal.” You sighed in defeat. “I’ll try.” Ending the call and waving the white flag. You too were also not sure of what you’re getting yourself into. Is it just you running away? Or is this the small part of you feeling guilty again.

Weeks later, Yoongi’s packing up for their fishing trip that his friend, Jin insisted they would come. He felt like he has no choice but it might be good reason to go our for a change.

“Hey, I thought you said you guys were going camping? Why do you have your equipments with you… you poor corporate slave.”

He laughed at your remark. You’re still looking at his stuff all puzzled and confused by how heavy it all looks. You leaned on the kitchen counter as you watch him put his stuff out from his room.

You asked again, “Dont you think it’s a little too much? Cant you leave some stuff? Do you even have clothes in there? How bout food? Not important? Music is life?” He laughed. You’re good at making him laugh.

He finds all of your worrisome-sarcastic remarks endearing. He looked at you and said, “Look, it’s like you—you not taking your ipad everywhere you go. Or that small sketchbook you have. You draw every chance you get, you draw in the middle of lunch or while waiting for someone. And if not your ipad, you draw even on table napkins and ask the waiter for more. It’s the same for me.”

You let out a smile at his comparison.

“Okay okay, point taken mister. Point. Taken. But my ipad wont break my back—just saying.” You teasingly replied.

“Maybe i can leave some.” Looking at his bags and talking to himself as he puts some of his stuff back in his room and minutes later he’s done preparing for their camping tomorrow.

“All done?” You asked as you look over to a now somehow reduced luggage. “I’ll help you put some of it in your car.”

You carried with him some of his bags as he is the type to have everything ready before leaving.

As you walked down the stairs, just carrying the lightest possible baggage you could ever find. “You sure you have enough food in here?” Lifting the bag and shaking to hear whats inside. “I mean i know you can certainly whip anything and turn it into a meal but this looks like there’s just ramen in here.”

He finds you cute when you worry.

“We’ll do grocery tomorrow on our way, no worries.” That statement puts you at ease. You reached the ground floor and towards his car. “That sounds good. I mean—just incase the fishing thing wont work out. You know, like last time? There might be a lot of fish in the sea and then suddenly there’s none for you—i mean that in the most literal sense. Not just in women, you know—just incase.” Teasing him again and bringing up the time he went home from a fishing trip. He was so tired, they didn’t caught a single fish. And the trip was cut short and they all immediately went home. He declared then to never go with Jin again but I guess, he love that Hyung of him a lot to be packing all these for yet another fishing trip.

There’s a good sense of companionship between the two of you. The way you can always make him smile without even trying. The way you always tease him lightly. He’s known you for a while, has seen you with your friends and he knows that you’re just the warmest person—to everyone, not just to him. But it looks like something has been bothering you lately, he even offered if you wanted to go with him on their fishing trip, assuring you that Jin and Hoseok are good people and nothing bad will happen. But you respectfully declined. Not just because you don’t eat fish but because you just need some time alone. Not that Yoongi has ever been a bother to you in any way too but just alone would be nice, you thought.

Yoongi will be gone for the whole weekend and possibly be returning on Sunday afternoon. You don’t have any particular plans just work and then some more work. As soon as you’re both back into the apartment you asked, “You’re leaving tonight? At midnight?”

“Yeah around that time, why?” Yoongi confirmed.

“Nothing.”

“Are you okay?” He asked, as you stopped in front of the refrigerator to get yourself some coffee.

“Yeah, why won’t I be?”

“You do know you say that a lot.” Yoongi grabbed himself a glass and grabbed the pitcher in your hand and you just smiled. “There’s not much meat left in the fridge, couple of things are missing too. You want me to go to grocery before I leave?” Leaning in the kitchen sink and drinking your coffee. You let out a deep sigh unknowingly. “No, I’ll go. Don’t worry.” You left your empty glass onto the sink. “I’m just saying, I can go if you’re not up for it.” You shake your head to reassure him, “I don’t mind, okay? I’m going to be fine.” You walked passed him as you went to your room.

Yoongi definitely knows that something’s been bothering you for days. He doesn’t want to pry, if you don’t want to talk about it. He just keeps looking at you, just in case you want to talk—these days your mind has always been elsewhere and there’s just so much work to be done.

You wanted to say goodbye before he left but you fell asleep in the middle of the evening and woke up half past one. You went outside to check and it looks like he already left. You got yourself some water from the kitchen and there’s a post-it left in the fridge that says, “Got you some groceries, call me if there’s anything.” You opened fridge and he even refilled your ice creams. You know you couldn’t have a more thoughtful cat. Even when he went away for almost a week for work and you were dying from a sky high fever, you never really called him for anything. But he constantly reminds you that you always can.

Yoongi volunteered to drive this time for some odd reason. It’ll be an almost 2 hour drive from Seoul to Daejeon, he actually doesn’t mind driving and quiets enjoy it more than he’d ever admit. Everything is set, their fishing trip as orchestrated by his hyung, Jin and Hoseok who had no choice but to be dragged unto this trip. They’ve been his friends for the longest time, being in the same company who also works in the industry. Hoseok, a renowned choreographer and Jin, one of the company directors in his agency. He never would’ve agreed to yet another fishing trip if only Jin didn’t promised to have everything paid for and ready to go. He held Hoseok hostage though and so he has no choice but to go as well. Sleeping at the passenger’s seat they both drifted away as Yoongi drives.

They have gone to multiple fishing trips over the years, some where even overseas during their vacation and something wrong always turn out like the time they have to cut the trip short because they have been sitting in the boat for hours and they haven’t caught a single thing. The owner of the boat found it odd too.

But to Yoongi’s surprise everything’s turning out smoothly, on their second day of camping they were able to caught a lot of salmon and have it for dinner. Stuck in his own thoughts while grilling some salmon, Jin shouted. “Yoongi-ah! You’re burning it.” Immediately going back to reality, and thankfully saving the precious fish from burning. “What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“No it’s nothing, Hyung.” He replied as he kept tending to his almost burnt fish.

Once grilling is done they all gathered to have their dinner with some drinks. Soju and beer is always present and with Hoseok around to play some games. In the middle of all the silliness that is Jin and Hoseok and taking the game way too seriously for their own good. Jin asked Yoongi, “Why are you always staring at your phone?” He immediately hide it and said, “No nothing, hyung.”

“What are you thinking of again?” Knowing how Yoongi is sometimes, Jin pried as Yoongi kept looking distracted the entire trip. “Nothing, Hyung. Really.”

“Okay, it’s your turn.” Giving him his Nintendo, he eventually added “If this is about Hyuna, just let me know if you don’t want to work with her again. Maybe we can do something about it.” Yoongi let out a chuckle and drank a shot of soju. “Hyung it’s nothing really, it’s not about her either. The work is fine, we actually finished it sooner than I thought. You must have heard it already.” Jin eventually took the game from Yoongi replied, “I did, you guys were really professional about all this.”

“Of course.” Yoongi proudly replied as he sneaked a peek into his phone again. Unconsciously waiting for some call.

moodboard sr: x x x

[hexalene]

What's your wildest cruise ship story?

Oh shit I meant to post this sooner whoops

Uh

I have less “ONE BIG THING” stories and more of like, a series of surreal Events that happened to me over the course of the years and years I went on cruises (my family could go on cruises for free, so we abused the shit out of that for reunions and vacations for a long time)

So here’s a few of those, and I SWEAR TO GOD they’re real, and I might have photos buried somewhere to prove some of them, but idk, that’s like effort.

-I loved wandering around ships super super early in the morning. Like, crack of dawn early. I’d usually go hang out on one of the open floor restaurant areas around the middle of the ship, which had built in window seats you could curl up in. Pillows n shit too. Super comfy. I’d draw and listen to music, ect. One morning, I looked up and saw the Black fucking Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean sailing by. Did not believe my eyes. It and four other ships, two of which were for non-pirate movies, were being sailed into a bay on the island we were headed to. I did manage to get a distant shot of it when I got on land.

-In 2006 (date relevant) I met two men in two different families, who were not related and had never met, named Tony Stark. As this was before the movie came out, I was left tragically alone with no one to be awed at this strange coincidence with me. One of them was even a dark haired man with a nice goatee.

(The other was a cute chubby grandpa type)

-Given the opportunity to demonstrate how corporations rig the system against the consumer, my father brought me down to the casino level and sat down across from a very fancy claw machine that dispensed iPads and other expensive tech prizes. He told me, “some people will win, and I’ll tell you when they will.”

I was like “okay dad sure” but we sat there for HOURS, and dad would say “okay, this guy will win if he goes for this prize” or “this guy will lose” and finally, “that woman will win an iPad.” Of course, most were losers, but he was DEAD ON every time someone would win. After a while he explained that the machine would only dispense prizes after collecting the money to pay for two more of whatever was won. He’d just sat there and done the math on the people playing the game and when it added up, he’d wait to see what they went for and let me know if they won. It had absolutely nothing to do with skill.

To make his point, he waited, counting out loud the money being put in, before standing up and slapping the button randomly on one of the lower rank prizes. He won an otter box phone case and told me that no one will ever give you the chance to win out at a loss to themselves, so don’t make a bet unless you’ve rigged the game to win. I was 14.

-uhhh what else

-The dance troupe arranged to do shows suffered a tragic undisclosed accident, so the short term bullshit to entertain people in the theatre was an honest to god passenger led talent show. Surreal on its own, but one of the passengers was a contortionist, and ran off to get their suitcase.

Now, they did a lot of fun bendy stuff, very weird, very cool, but they asked for volunteers at one point. I, my sister, our cousin, and two other kids were asked to come on stage. I was the oldest, maybe 12/13ish, my sister and cousin were 9, and the other two kids were between 6-9.

This MADMAN, without straining any of us to bend in any weird or uncomfortable way, managed to fit all five of us into his empty suitcase. I was in the damn thing and I have no idea how he managed it. He then zipped us all up inside and walked around the stage a bit. And it was fine, like not uncomfortable or hard to breath or anything!

I remember getting out of the suitcase clearest of all. We’d all been fit inside so snugly, in this order:

Me, stranger kid 1, cousin, sister, and stranger kid 2. To get us out, he lay the case flat and lifted my sister up. Somehow this like??? Was like those monkey in a barrel toys, we all just neatly unfolded with her, no tripping or falling or anything. That feeling, where one moment I’m staring at my cousins’ feet and some other kid’s elbow, and then I see the dude lift my sister and then all of us just RISE WITH IT and unfold like a flower blooming I have no idea if this makes any sense at all but it felt magical.

- Something bad happened back home, but we didn’t know what. My dad had a business meeting but mom wanted to see the beach. We got off the ship, and like, HARDCORE struggled to find a way to get to a beach, any beach. We were in....Mexico, somewhere in the neighborhood of Chichén Itzá, maybe an island nearby I think? There were some massive ruins somewhere, I remember that much.

While mom hunted down a beach, my siblings and I sat under a giant box fan, near a TV. Something was happening, the employees were changing the channel, trying to find the clearest signal to the American news. I remember looking over at the grainy footage being interrupted by commercials and other signals and piecing together through the static and the employee trying to translate that back home, the 2008 financial crash was happening and that mom’s insistence that we find a beach and have fun was because that business meeting dad had stayed behind to deal with was him trying to make sure we’d still have a house to live in when we got back to the states, and she didn’t know if this would be the last truly carefree time we had before we went home to face the music.

-However, mom’s eternal struggles to find a beach didn’t begin in 2008. The previous trip we’d taken had another Beach Adventure.

That time, it was also just mom and the siblings. I don’t remember why dad was staying behind, maybe a poker tournament or something?

We disembarked and the struggle began. Nothing was in English, other than the scant few signs the cruise ship put out to guide passengers off the docks. However, THIS was not a problem, as I was about as fluent in Spanish as a third grader restricted to the present tense, and this worked well enough to get us around.

There was a massive bus to a beach, just PACKED to the gills with Americans. As we waited in line, a nondescript man came up to us, and said, “that bus will go to a very crowded beach with many other passengers of other ships. I know a better beach, and cheap! I’ll charge only half of what that bus will charge you and my beach is much much nicer!”

You might be thinking that common sense would tell us not to get in a random unmarked car with an un-uniformed man offering an amazing half off deal to a perfect isolated beach in broken English on a largely rural island, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong.

My mother is a sweet devout catholic lady with a hidden core of raw chaos. Her idea of a nice day out in the snow with her tiny children was to strap us in the back, drive to the massive Schnuck’s parking lot, gun it up to 90mph, and hydroplane/drift like a fucking drag racer across the ice, laughing. Common sense does not exist in any normal capacity in this woman.

We spent an incredibly tense, silent, 45 minutes driving into the wilderness packed into a tiny car with no AC, sweating with heat and nerves as he drove us out in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly the driver pulls over. There is literally nothing but trees and cliffs for miles and miles. Mom is clutching my hand, my baby brother, and her knitting needles. The driver runs quickly to the center of the road, leans over, and picks up a huge tortoise that had frozen up when his car approached. He carried it over to the grass, and pat it goodbye.

Before he comes back Mom turns and looks at me and says, “a serial killer probably wouldn’t save a turtle, I think we’ll be okay.”

[asktehkoopz]

This is another ask for the Mod! I hope you don’t mind 😅. I was wondering what drawing program you used, do you use a tablet or draw on a computer? When you’re drawing, are you the kind of person who can come up with ideas on the fly? Or are you like me where you wake up at 3am like “HOLY MOTHER OF PEANUTS THATS A GOOD IDEA!”, then scramble to find something to write it down. And finally, how long do you usually spend from piece to piece. I know time can very on the complexity of the work, but on average how long do you spend drawing? Thank you again for responding to my last ask, you’re very kind 🥺. You actually inspired me to finally draw again, and while I’ve recently only drawn Princess Daisy I hope that I’ll continue to improve and get better. So thank you again.

((OOC: I don’t mind asks! I just hope y’all don’t mind me answering them so late! And you’re so sweet, too. ;o; I’m glad you’re starting to draw again. I hope that you’ll post them to share with us!

1) What drawing program do I use? Tablet or computer?

I used to use Paint Tool Sai back in the beginning days of my blog seven years ago, which I used on my laptop!

Since then, I’ve go between Clip Studio Paint (which I highly recommend picking up, the desktop edition goes on sale for about $15-$20 VERY often) and Procreate on my iPad!

I tend to try to use Procreate since my laptop stopped playing friendly with CSP for long periods of time, but sometimes it’s just way easier to use CSP. For moments like that, I have to use my desktop computer, but that gets uncomfortable to sit at sometimes.

2) When you’re drawing, are you the kind of person who can come up with ideas on the fly?

Depends on the purpose! (Though I do sometimes scramble at 3 AM to write down a good idea. That’s how I ended up with my Sonic and Shadow blog.)

If it’s something like a koopz update, for sure I plan it out by thumbnailing first. [Example here]

If it’s something like an ask meme or a one-off answer, then I tend to do it on the fly. [Example here]

3) How long do you usually spend from piece to piece?

Gooooood question. The answer is longer than you think. And probably longer than I think, too.

Koopz answers with 10+ images are easily clocking in about 7-10 hours, according to Procreate, because I’m very anal about the quality in my posts. (Which isn’t new, I did this on my King Candy blog, too). And that’s with the more sketchy pencil like I’ve been doing for the Gerudoling asks. The clean line ones are waaay more.

For full color art pieces, that also tends to be 6+ hours as well.

I’m very... slow. hOILkjmlfd

Anyways I hope this answers your question, and again, thank you for being so kind to me and also for sending this ask!))

[vkelleyart]

Damn you’re so impressive to being a working parent on top of being an amazing artist!

You are so kind, @poprocksromance. Thanks so much for being a cheerleader, because I’ll be honest: I don’t feel impressive. 

I feel… really tired. lol 

I actually put off answering this ask because when it comes to being a working parent and artist, I have SO MANY THOUGHTS. This month’s been excessively hard because I wear too many hats in my life and my neutral state is putting out fires before I can skive off and draw, usually at the expense of sleep.

Take this past Tuesday for instance:

6 AM: Husband is already out the door to work, but both kids crawl into my bed to doze until it’s time for them to be up. There is now hot, humid air in my ear and a small, sharp knee in my back. I am not dozing. I am thinking about drawing.

7 AM: Breakfast. Kids pull the covers off of me and whinge about being hungry. Spend next hour feeding kids, breaking up fights over legos, making lunches, and getting them ready for school. Inexplicably, no one has clean pants.

8 AM: Holler at everyone that we are late and I’m about to lose my mind because instead of putting on shoes, my kids are still arguing over who gets the red lego piece. More thoughts about art trickle in: “Man, I really hope I can carve out some time for drawing today because this sh*t is bananas.”

8:30 AM: Zoom across town to drop off children. Kiss heads. Wave goodbye. Try not to rear-end other, larger vehicles being driven by people who don’t understand how the drop-off line works.

9 AM: Back home. Time for Morning Pages. This is the daily act of emptying my head into a journal at the beginning of the day for 30 minutes just so I can plow into the chaos without having a panic attack. Each entry mostly consists of me pep-talking myself into doing my day job because food, shelter, college education savings, blah, blah, blah. Then it’s planning and email checking. I promise myself that, if I can just finish this next video edit task, I can reward myself with drawing artwork.

10 AM: My Video editing software update has made all the PNG files turn pink. I assume it’s for no earthly reason than to delay my progress and piss me off. I promise myself I will figure out the glitch in the next hour so I can earn myself time to draw.

1 PM: I have updated my operating system, reinstalled my drivers, troubleshooted with Adobe and Apple. The fucking files are still pink.

2 PM: I convert all PNGs to JPGs. Videoediting software now refuses to read .MOV files recorded after I updated my operating system. I mutter all the expletives and stare longingly at my tablet. This is gonna be a while.

3 PM: Rush out the door to pick up kids. Kid is complaining of a tummy ache. Come home with kid, put on the tea kettle, and read Kevin Keller together until tea is ready. Am screaming internally about video editing conundrum the entire time.

4 PM: Hubs is home. I run back to the computer. There is no way to uninstall most recent version of video editing software. Find and install Handbrake to convert every .MOV file I am using into .MP4 as a workaround until I can figure out what the everloving hell is wrong with my project. I tell myself I will draw after dinner if I can just figure this out.

5 PM: Praise Crowley for leftovers.

6 PM: Video editing issue is still going, but I’ve identified the workaround and am slowly piecing my project back together. My sketchbook is next to my desk. I do not touch it.

7 PM: Husband is coming down with something. Asks if I can single parent while he lies down for a bit. I agree (because he did it for me last week when I was down for the count). I ask the kids if they want to draw with me. They do not. They want to run around outside like one of them didn’t just complain about a stomachache three hours ago. I tell myself I will draw after they go to sleep.

8 PM: Bedtime. Clean kids. Pick up toys. Brush teeth. Read books. Sing songs. Hold hands until the littlest goes to sleep. Snoring (hopefully) at 9.

9 PM: Take shower. Try to reset. No more video editing tonight. I will draw instead! *nods defiantly*

9:30 PM: Husband wants to share about his stressful week. He’s got freshman this semester. Problematic ones. And too many; 28 in his class alone, and he’s the department head, so he needs to do all the fixing. I sit with him and listen.

10 PM: Youngest kid is coughing. Wakes oldest kid.

10:30 PM: Kids sleeping. Husband downstairs working. I’m in bed, iPad in my lap, Procreate open. Tonight’s work in progress: Simon and Baz holding hands.

I stare at it. Make a couple of adjustments to the line art. Then I put it away and turn off the light. I have nothing left––no energy, no vision––to give to it.

11 PM: The lights are out. My eyes are open. They don’t close until sometime after midnight.

Because I am thinking about drawing.

This is not a rare day in my life. This is tame compared to some days. To get through it, I tell myself this is all temporary. That one day I’ll be able to live off my artwork and I won’t be a slave to Adobe Premiere or the government or the myriad infectious illnesses my kids bring home. I also have to actively talk myself out of feeling jealous or furious at other, younger creators who don’t have to support a family, who talk about playing video games all day when they’ve got artist block, who complain about being bored, and who have the luxury of putting off whatever it is they don’t feel like doing so they can draw. My struggle is no one’s business or fault but mine and probably also Capitalism, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sting that people are out there living the dream and taking it for granted.

Anyway, this is a very long way to say, thank you for your compliments. I am trying––every single day of my life––to make something beautiful. Sometimes, that’s fanart or my comic. Most times, though, it’s the life I’m trying to give my family.

[bryan360]

My YCCTEAM’s Wireless Switch Pro Controller - Part 7 (Battery Charging Test)

Hey guys! I’m finally back to bring my next YCCTEAM’s controller part topic that I’d promised for this year. I’m hoping I’ll finished this for later months to give the results of how good was my pro controller is. It will take time though, so I’ll make sure to show the most of my YCCTEAM’s controller this year.

Anyways for the next topic, you probably know about I’ll be doing gyro control testing since I’d talked though from my pervious part topic last year. Actually I wanted to change plans a little cause I haven’t got myself a tablet stand so it can hold my tablet to help me recording video while using my controllers on hand. It would be tricky if I don’t have alternate items to hold my tablet, I even use my GulitKit Dock at first with my iPad Mini before giving up. It was last weeks ago, but one day that I actually got a right tablet stand so it definitely fits for my tablets and just I ever wanted to making recordings of me playing my YCCTEAM controller with my hands. Can’t wait to show it for next time soon, but for now I’m started off my next topic part for my YCCTEAM Controller with battery charging; which I happened to finished this last two days ago for February 2021. As you can see from my first edited photo on top🔝 is the instructions that I would needed those items I’d use my Nintendo Switch Console/Handheld with: The YCCTEAM Pro Switch Controller, Its 40-Inch Type-C Cable, and GuliKit Pocket Dock. I would have go to the other options by using my Samsung/Apple Adapter I’d use for my tablets....except my Samsung USB Cable worn out and ripped so I can’t plug it for the adapter cause reasons. That being said, I’m fine to do charging test by using with my GuliKit Dock.

Here’s the second edited pic of me plugging my Type-C Cable into behind my pocket dock; where the USB Socket from the middle should be. Looks simple enough, but should take note though if you wanted to play games while you needed to charge the controller you’ll would have to get it closer by sitting chair like I was. It was a 40-Inch Type-C Cable that I’d checked the length was not long enough. So its best that I can use my chair to get close of playing games with my controller while it’s charging.

Here’s the third edited pic after plugging my type-c cable into my pocket dock, but later come to plugging with my YCCTEAM Controller to see how it look when charging in place. Again, It would be tricky since my 40 Inch Type-C Cable wasn’t long enough to hold my controller while it charging. I’ll just place my controller til it’s fully charged, but at least knowing I had my chair to sit and play my controller while charging.

Here’s the fourth edited pic where I started my YCCTEAM Pro Controller’s Battery Charging Test by putting back my GuliKit Pocket Dock next to the T.V.; mostly plugging my ac adapter for power on my Nintendo Switch (for charging as well) and the HDMI Cable to connect my T.V. to help display screen from my Nintendo Switch console. I can’t leave without my Type-C Cable though as I’ll using it to charge my controller. Good thing from last weeks ago that’s I powered down the controller after playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate game. So let’s get into it.

Here’s the fifth edited pic that I actually got this first before showing putting back my GuliKit Dock next to my T.V. However it’s a same thing where I’d charging my controller and shows that is actually working. Thought it could only works if I putting on my Switch console/handheld into the dock to see if it can charge, but guessing without my Nintendo Switch on dock can work other ways. Nice! 👍

Now for the sixth and final edited pic I took screenshot from my Samsung Galaxy Tab E. Even though I’d said I wanted to keep safe my tablet til I’ll be getting a new USB Cable sooner or later, but at least the battery from my Tab E still have more juice to handle so why not to use it as a stopwatch to count on how much charging time for my YCCTEAM Controller full? It really took more hours that I want to stay during nighttime, but worth to check out the results of my controller charging a little. I got 3 hours and 43 minutes as I kinda not expected since I checked online to see my controller’s charge time was “2.5 hours.”

My Thoughts:

I can take this as a long battery charging results I gotten; even I should’ve gone this during the morning for the last 2 days before going to bed. ^^* Nevvertheless, 3 hours of charging my YCCTEAM’s Controller was not bad to took. I can still be using my controller to play one of my games while charging for 3 hours left. If not, I can leave it to charge full and maybe doing drawing drafts to take waiting time I wanted.

Now that saddles, I was thinking for the next topic about spreading playtime with my YCCTEAM Controller til the battery runs out eventually. That way, I can use my tablet again for stopwatch results. Although if or not will be my Samsung Galaxy Tab E, at least my iPad Mini will work out differently. See ya guys next time! 👋

Pervious Posts for my YCCTEAM’s Pro Controller Topic:

Wireless Switch Pro Controller for Nintendo Switch/Switch Lite (Part 1) - Link Here #1

My YCCTEAM’s Wireless Switch Pro Controller for Nintendo Switch/Switch Lite Unboxing (Part 2) - Link Here #2

My YCCTEAM’s Wireless Switch Pro Controller for Nintendo Switch/Switch Lite Comparison with my Xbox One (Part 3) - Link Here #3

My YCCTEAM’s Wireless Switch Pro Controller for Nintendo Switch/Switch Lite Comparison with my Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons (Part 4) - Link Here #4

Testing Buttons (Part 5) - Link Here #5

Rumble Feature Testing (Part 6) - Link Here #6

[drshojo]

The World, My Childhood And My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

Hello friends!  

Its Dr. Shojo coming at you with a post that will be divided into three parts!

Part One: The world as we know it! 

The world has changed a lot since we last connected. For starters, TOILET BOUND HANAKO KUN HAS NOT ONLY A PHYSICAL RELEASE BUT A GORGEOUS ANIME! And not only that, but MY NEXT LIFE AS A VILLAINESS: ALL ROUTES LEAD TO DOOM! IS GETTING AN ANIME AS WELL! The last time I wrote about Katerina there wasn’t even an official English translation of that long-ass light-novel-title. And now?

A WHOLE ANIME. A BISEXUAL HAREM AWAITS! I am JAZZED!

Do you think it’s my fault? No matter, I’ll take all the credit. All the manga I talk about are getting anime adaptations. I’LL DO MY DUTY AND TALK ABOUT SOME MORE!

But first. Let us address the Covid-19 shaped elephant in the room

I deeply regret that it took a whole-ass pandemic to get me back to writing. In my defense, I bought an iPad and started drawing like 900 kokichi oumas. I was really busy with that. And then I started reading fanfiction. Then that got me thinking about how fanfiction such an interesting look into how people interpret fandom, use it for wish fulfillment and escapism, and good god is everyone OK cause that bulimia fan fic was super detailed....and I am officially on a tangent. Off track. Ahem.

We are all staying inside a whole lot more which means y’all probably need some reading material and Dr. Shojo has your back! Go read “Horimiya”! It’s amazing! Ahhhh, my work here is done! I'm serious, if you’re here for a Shojo rec, that’s it! There's also like 8 million more Otome Isekais to check out now. It’s like they’re multiplying like rabbits..............

As a Doctor, I must advise you to stay inside and read some manga and practice social distancing. Embrace your inner hikikomori. 

Allright? All good? Okay now one final disclaimer:

This post is going to be talking about something a little different than usual and I want to start by giving you some context about who Dr. Shojo is in real life. 

Part Two: Dr. Shojo Exposed 

You see, when I was little I was obsessed with Japanese media. This doesn't surprise you at all I can tell. Probably because I walk around calling myself Dr. Shojo and shout about manga that you should read.

Anyways, the reason why I was obsessed wasn’t because of the big eyes or the spikey hair or the interesting new culture. It was because it tended to have more character development and overarching plotlines than the media I was used to in Canada. Dexter’s Lab, Magic School Bus, pretty much everything I saw on TV was episodic in nature, so imagine how much my mind was blown when I saw Naruto and Card Captor Sakura, heck, even Pokémon had the Indigo Plateau! Here were kids that were learning more and more each day and got to see enemies become friends and vice versa. They lived and grew older just like me. Except they were cooler than me. And had more interesting lives than me. I gotta tell you, I was so sad when I was 12 and Kero didn’t tell me I had latent magical powers. But there was magic in my life and it was the magic of a complex narrative story. And not only that, it had a sense of movement and had cool costumes. I was hooked immediately.

Also, fun fact, at that age I happened to be a complete and utter tomboy! I loved pretending to fight my friends in the playground and was really worried that puberty would ruin my life because being a girl sounded so CUMBERSOME.

Which leads me up to my confession. Before I became Dr. Shojo, I was in fact......Dr. Shonen.

Bleach? Naruto? One Piece? I've read every single chapter there is.  

Hundreds of hours of watching fight sequences. Another fun fact, I only got into shojo because my aunt bought me volume 7 and 8 of Fruits Basket thinking “all mangas like the same right? Kids love comics?” It’s a tribute to how episodic western media was back then that she thought buying volume SEVEN and EIGHT was a REASONABLE PLACE TO START READING.

Now you might also say, Hey! Dr Shojo! Cardcaptors was a shojo! And you are right! but back then the anime was marketed to boys over here in the west and they actualy like, edited out episodes that they thought wouldn't interest boys?! Second fun fact, Once when I was in Grade 3 I was told I was not allowed to join a club under the stairs cause I was a girl and it was BOYS ONLY. The point of the club? To talk about how great Cardcaptors was! I Kid you not!

So anyways, your pall Dr. Shojo loves Shonen manga to this day!

The only reason I made this Dr. Shojo blog specifically about shojo is because, being a tomboy with no female friends, reading shojo manga was the first time I really thought about what it meant to be a girl and fall in love. And y i k e s. Shojo manga, like most media, fails miserably most of the time in displaying real world relationships. Or at least, it  doesn't prepare you for how disappointing everything can be. When I had my first kiss, I was thinking about how it didn’t feel at all like how I felt reading Zen and Shirayukis kiss in Akagame No Shirayuki Hime. Those were formative years, and shojo was one of the only places I saw romance being talked about for younger audiences. I liked reading romances where no one had any sexual experiences and were figuring out what love meant to them. But let’s shelve this topic for now.

The point is that gender roles are dumb and if you have an open mind there's a world of stories out there for you. Take this time inside to read something you wouldn’t normally. Critically think about the ways that the worlds you see in stories and how you experience the world differ. What are the messages a story is trying to tell you? And why do you like the stories you do? Reflect on how the stories you tell yourself color your view of the world. Even mindless entertainment leaves an impression on us. Anyways.

Whilst you're doing that, I'm going to absolutely lose my hecking mind over the Shonen Jump series MY HERO ACADEMIA: Vigilantes!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Part Three: I downloaded the one month free trial of the Shonen Jump app and made you read all that, so I can tell you that today Dr. Shojo is going to rant about a spin-off of a shonen manga

THAT’S RIGHT, OF COURSE I READ HERO ACA AND YES I DID PICK UP THE SPIN OFF SERIES. SHONEN JUMP LETS YOU READ ALL THE NEW CHAPTERS FOR FREE ON THEIR APP. KIDS, IF YOU LIKE SHONEN AND YOU’RE PIRATING ON A SCANLATION SITE STILL GET OUT BECAUSE YOU DON’T NEED TO SEE THOSE WEIRD PLASTIC SURGERY AND DENTISTRY ADDS ANY MORE.

SHONEN IS HERE AND ITS LEGAL AND ITS FREE FOR YOU. GET OFF MANGA FOX OR MANGA ROCK OR WHATEVER THE KIDS ARE USING THESE DAYS.

OK, so by this point in the article you have learned two very important things about me: 1) I love Shonen manga and 2) I read a lot of fanfiction.

Specifically, I read an absolutely biblical amount of My Hero Academia fan fiction and let me tell you, A solid chunk of it is vigilante/ Deadpool / criminal with a heart of gold themed.

So when I saw Hero Aca had a spin off, and it was about vigilantes, I was NOT SURPRISED IN THE SLIGHTEST. Ao3 sure is powerful.

Now, if you will permit me a tangent in a post full of tangents—HOLY CRAP, THERE ARE TOO MANY VIGILANTE AUS. I CAN'T KEEP TRACK OF EM. IT’S THE ISEKAI PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN. I GET AN EMAIL A FIC HAS UPDATED AND I’M LIKE IS THIS THE FIC WHERE DEKU HAS AN ABUSIVE MOM OR THE ONE WHERE HE HAS SPLIT PERSONALITY DISORDER OR THE ONE WHERE HE’S VIGILANTES WITH HITOSHI. OH WAIT, nvm, it’s the one where deku has a healing quirk.

OH WAIT WHICH OF THE 6 DEKU WITH HEALING QUIRK VIGILATE AU FICS IS THIS ONE?! ARGH WHY DIDN’T I WRITE A DESCRIPTION IN THE BOOKMARK FOR THIS!

My gripes aside, there's a reason why there's such an abundance of vigilante story telling—

Deadpool made like an absolute buttload of money and people love sass and memes.

People have a desire for a story in which they see themselves. Or, how they think of themselves.They like a story about someone who maybe came from nothing. Someone who has less money, maybe someone who is unlucky and had some bad breaks. Someone who never learned they had magic, never got their Hogwarts letter, never saw Kero, someone who never got that God-level quirk from All Might. And if your on Ao3 They want someone who also has seen a lot of memes and kind of wants taco bell and is also questioning their sexuality a bit?

Enter our new hero VIGILANTE DEKU.  

But the cannon can't do this, cause hey, Deku is the chosen one. Albeit, chosen by All Might, He’s got his own thing to do. But how can we still cash in on a vigilante story?

And thus enter our New-New hero KOICHI HAIMAWARI—code name Nice Guy and then later The Crawler. True to his relatable roots. He’s just a dude in an hoodie who can go about as fast as a bike.

First off, I love Koichi. He wants to be a hero and fight crime, but most of the time he has to run away because at the end of the day he's just a dude.

He’s cute but not wildly good-looking, A bit of a nerd but not like an extreme okaku. He’s got a part time job and hates violence.

And this is where Koichi really shines—in every day stuff. He helps out wherever he can. Often, that just means listening to people complain and maybe helping his friends out with whatever they’re going through. He’s the kind of guy who smiles, not because he's especially brave, but because he just takes things one at a time and doesn't sweat the past. I think it’s really telling that he missed getting into hero high-school because he skipped the entrance exam to help someone. He’s the kind of person who lets us experience the superpower of human decency and empathy. And you know what? That’s something the world need desperately.  

This theme of human decency is really the driving force of Vigilantes—it’s a manga about how the laws are there for a reason but sometimes they unfairly impact the poor and vulnerable. It's about how a lot of criminals are just people who fell into bad social circles or on bad times. People have the capacity for cruelty and violence but that’s never all they are.  

Now, speaking of crime, the entirety of Hero Aca falls into some murky water when it comes to its evil doers. Much of the fandom has a huuuuuge problem with how much the franchise is willing to sweep under the rug in the name of redeeming their baddies. RE: people getting mad about forgiving Endeavor’s child abuse, or Bakugo’s suicide baiting. Or Mineta’s blatant sexual harassment.

But this theme is in Vigilantes even more than it ever was in the main series. To start off with, there’s this guy who tries to rape Pop Step early on, and the later he later winds up befriending everybody. It becomes a running gag that each new villain winds up befriending the other villain guys and then they all open a cat café together.

Using jobs as a way to lift people out of lives of crime is great and all but in the story there is no nuance or consequences for past wrong and well.....it feels very weird.  It's like Vigilantes plays at having an opinion about moral ambiguity and the complexity of human existence and then just.......lets everyone get along because who has time to get into all that. Make of that what you will but it sits weird for me personally.

Anyway, let's move on and talk about POP STEP our main girl!

I love pop stars and I love vigilantes and a guerrilla performer is defiantly a character I could get behind. And I think they do a good job with Pop. She is actually kind of shy, but has this secret edgy persona she puts on when she performs. She is every girl on tumbler in the early 2000s. I also looooove that they make her not that great a singer. SHE’S GOT PASSION AND CHARISMA and maybe not born talent but like why should that stop you! Talent can be earned through practice and this is a great lesson to show people.

Unfortunately, Pop is also a great example of everything wrong with romance in Shonen.

It’s established early on that Pop loves Koichi because she is the girl he rescued all those years ago and yada yada yikes we’ve heard this one before. Many times before.

Sure, it's fine that they’ve met before, but gosh am I sick of damsels in distress. It's like she can't love him just because she respects what a great guy he is in her life and in the community at large, no no, she just needs to be rescued on top of that. And LOLOLOL isn't it funny he never noticed she was a girl because she was a child with short hair?! Once he realizes she has boobs now they will for sure fall in love! That’s how love works!

She's just with him all the time—nothing romantic ever happens she just gets a little tsundere.

I am never ever going to believe Koichi likes Pop because he spends like sooooo much time with her and they never have like, a moment. The first time he considers her is when Makoto is like, ‘hey I would love to get together with you, but have you thought about if you are crushing on Pop’. (Also this entire plot point is suspect—she's arbitrarily falling for Koichi cause he.......is the protagonist?)  

Say what you will about shojo, they give you the emotional conversations, the moments where you think.....ahhh I can see why she is falling for him. They give you context! Shonen likes to just say HERE’S A GIRL YOUR AGE. YOU CAN DATE LATER WHEN THE ADVENTURE IS DONE.

Just when they might get together, Pop suddenly turns evilllllll. The evilllll beeeees made her eeeevilllll (and more sexy).

*Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

Because why on earth would they get together if Koichi didn’t get to rescue Pop one more time?

I’m tired. These troupes are tired. I’m sure you are too. HOWEVER! If your still with me, Let’s move into why I'm really writing this post. Let’s get to the part that got me screaming to my friends, who by the way, don’t even care bout Hero Aca….but listened anyways. May you all find nakama like these my friends.

Anyways,

HOLY FUCK ERASERHEAD’S ENTIRE BACK STORY IS IN THIS AROUND CHAPTER 60 AND IT IS WONDERFUL AND ABSOLUTLY HEARTBREAKING AND IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTER BACKSTORIES I HAVE EVER SEEN AND IS THE REASON WHY THIS SERIES IS A MUST-READ FOR MAIN SERIES FANS.

AND BY ALMIGHT.  

WHY. IS. IT HERE.  

I present to you my late night text messages to my friends

ALSO, AIZAWAS TEACHER IS PRINCE?!?!?!

AHEM, so as you can see, I kinda lost my shit.

And now, I would like to formally defend my claim that DESPITE HOW AMAZING IT WAS, ERASERHEAD’S BACKSTORY HAD NO BUISSNESS BEING IN THE VIGILANTES SPIN-OFF MANGA.

Eraserhead, aka Aizawa Shouta, is a side character who is working with the police on some crime stuff. He is not a main cast member in this spin off. He’s a guest character that fans of the main series will be like OH COOL. GRUMPY CAT MAN LIKES CATS ON HIS OFF HOURS TOO. LOVE THAT FOR HIM.

So, my imagine my absolute surprise when Aizawa runs into Koichi and the following happens:

It starts to rain, so, like in any good manga, this means some great FORCED BONDING TIME

Except no. It doesn't because rather than start talking, Aizawa JUST STARTS REMEMBERING—ABSOLUTLY SILENTLY TO HIS OWN PRIVETE SELF—HIS ENTIRE TRAGIC BACKSTORY.

AND THIS GOES ON FOR CHAPTERS.

THIS GOES ON LONGER THEN ARC ONE IT FEELS LIKE.

I LOVE IT, BUT KOICHI IS ABOUT TO JOIN ATSUSHI NAKAJIMA IN THE DUBIOUS CATEGORY OF “PROTAGONISTS THE SERIES FORGOT ABOUT IN LIEU OF COOLER SIDE CHARACTERS”.

AND LO IT HAS NO BEARING ON THE REST OF THE PLOT, CHARACTERS, OR STORY

What the ever-loving-just WHY?

WHY?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

SURE, IT’S A COOL TIE-IN.

YES, OF COURSE I LOVED IT. I SHIP ERASER MIC, I DREW THIS FOR HECK’S SAKE:

AND YET I AM ANGRY.

I AM ANGRY BECAUSE MY FRIDAY WAS RUINED BECAUSE VIGILATES SUCKER PUNCHED ME WITH AN AMAZING STORY THAT REALLY WASN’T PLOT RELEVANT AND PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE.  

IS THIS WHY THEY TOOK LIKE NEXT-TO-NO CARE WITH POPS ARC?!?

I mean its ongoing, so it’s too early to say but—

In conclusion—

Excuse me one more,

AIZAWA WAS TAUGHT BY PRINCE!?!??!?!?!?!? PURPLE RAIN PRINCE!?!??!?!?!? WHAT!??!?!?!

It’s so ABSURD that I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I HAD TO WRITE PARAGRAPHS TO JUSTIFY YELLING ABOUT THIS ONE THING. WHAT THE ABSOLUTE—

Ahem,

Anyways, I hope you liked this weird rant/personal-story/random-diatribe in three parts.

If you’re reading this, thank you, stay safe, and I’ll be back with more shojo manga next time.  

Ciao!

Dr. Shojo

(aka Dr. Shonen)

[jungkooks-left-tiddie]

I hope you get run by a fucking aeroplane ❤️

Warnings:  Mild cursing, Old men being assholes.

Word Count: 2.8k words

Kavya

August 27th, 2020; 6:30pm

New Delhi, India. 

"Is the editing for the new manuscript done?" Kavya leaned down to assess the work that was being done. 

"It's coming along well, ma'am. Just cleaning up the text." The intern gave her a nervous smile.

 "That's good to hear." She said, going through the progress that the editing department had made. "Be sure to crosscheck after you're done editing." 

"Yes, ma'am!" Just then, Kavya's secretary came rushing in.

"Ma'am you have a meeting with the Illustration Team in a few minutes," Kavya glanced at her watch and frowned upon realising that she didn't have much time to make it across the building to the main conference room. 

"Thank you, Mitra. Just hand me my iPad and I'll be off." Kavya briskly walked to the room where the meeting was meant to be held, greeting the workers passing by. 

"Ma'am, the cover design team is ready with their designs," Rachel, the head of the cover design department dressed Kavya.

"Wonderful! I'll ask Mitra to schedule a meeting when I'm free," Kavya paused, glancing at her schedule, "Actually, could you please e-mail it to me?" Rachel smiled gently.

"Of course we can, I'll make sure you get the updated presentation with the notes and all of the other requirements as well." 

"Thank you so much; you honestly have no idea how much you've helped me today." Kavya shook her hand and hugged her for a moment. 

"Of course. I understand how much stress you're under, the least I could do is help you out!" Rachel smiled yet again. 

"Rachel, you're a life-saver and I would love to stay and chat, but I've got to get going to the Illustration Team's meeting," 

"Of course," Rachel made shooing motions with her hands, "Off you go!" Kavya laughed and ran towards the direction of the main conference room. 

"Ma'am you're here!" The head of the illustration team, a man in his mid-40's named Mohammad Aamir smiled and shook her hand. 

"Thank you very much Mr Mohammad. I'm truly excited to see what you have planned for today." 

"Oh I assure you, Ms Agarwal, you will not regret trusting Mr Mohammad's department this time," Two of the workers in the marketing department took their seats as Aamir gestured one of his workers to begin the presentation.

Kavya took out her iPad and started noting down the small changes and corrections that needed to be made. This launch was going to be one of the biggest events in the history of her company and she needed to make sure that everything was immaculate, including the character drawings that would be included in this particular book. 

"We initially had a bit of a dilemma deciding what features this character should have; but we managed to get through all of it and decided upon 5 main options," The character designs were on display, impressing Kavya as these were much better than she expected. 

"We have also included 5 sub-designs, for a more variety of options," The worker turned to face the board members in the meeting room, 

"It's also worth mentioning that we have designed a variety of expressions, postures, and costume; keeping in mind the aesthetic impact and its significance to the storyline,"

"We have constructed the design for the costumes in the locations after carefully studying the different kinds of clothing worn by the locals and also not forgetting the cultural significance of the clothes and accessories," He flipped to the next slide. Kavya was thoroughly impressed until now, but of course, all good things come to an end.

"So as you can see here, the inspiration for the design of the diving gear was inspired by the modern-day swimsuits, focusing especially on the plunging necklines—"

"Pardon my interruption, but why does the diving gear look like a swimsuit? I thought I put special emphasis on the fact that the scene consisted of the characters going scuba diving?" The person presenting the PowerPoint looked uncomfortable under Kavya's piercing gaze. 

"Yes, but isn't this what women wear for swimming?" 

"They do, but this is what women wear when we're talking about beaches and swimming pools; not when they're going 140 feet underwater. Do you not know what scuba diving is?" 

"Yes, ma'am; but actually—"

"Ms Agarwal, are you not overreacting? It's a great marketing point. I mean swimwear is swimwear, am I right?" Gopal Das, a pesky man on the marketing team snickered, clearly proud of his seemingly intelligent statement. 

"Mr Das, It seems that your age has dwindled down your common sense. I'm sure all of you present here know that scuba divers have to wear protective gear to make sure they survive the pressure that the water exerts at that deep of a level. I'd like to see you dive in the Bay of Bengal with nothing but your underwear. Should be easy, right?" That seemed to shut the man up, but of course, sexist fuckers are everywhere. 

"I agree with Gopal sir, this-" The man said, pointing towards the pathetic excuse for a scuba diving suit, "Is a great attention point. People want this."  He crossed his pudgy hands. 

"I have said it before and I will say it again," Kavya took a deep breath and looked at them angrily. "I'm not going to compromise knowledge over what you claim are marketing points. I have made it clear time and time again on why design accuracies are important; and I stand by my statements." Kavya tried to convey her point in the most diplomatic way possible, but these two dumbasses were really testing her patience. 

"Well, we will not compromise sales to something as trivial as a mere swimsuit," 

"I agree with Mr. Roberts. It seems to me that you are letting your personal experiences get in the way of what could've been a successful launch!" If Kavya was mad before, she was absolutely furious now. 

"Mr Das, Mr Roberts, that's enough." The stern voice of Aamir snapped her out of her rage. 

"Let me make one thing crystal clear. So as long as you are in this company, you will not promote objectification. It's not that hard to think from the brain and not your genitalia." She glared at the two men. 

"To answer your previous statement Mr Das; yes. My experiences are getting in the way. So are the millions of people who constantly face the same issues." 

"Do you want to know what I think Mr Das?I think you and Mr Roberts are letting your personal fetishes come in the way of what otherwise was a great illustration. It's honestly not that hard to keep your perverted tendencies to yourself. And if you refuse to follow basic human decency; we'd be extremely glad to find a replacement." She had enough of their boomer heterosexual bullshit. 

"Now if you'd excuse me," She gathered her things and exited the room in fury. To think that she had hoped men would change; but as always, they continued to disappoint her (Like they do in bed). 

"Ma'am, wait!" The person presenting the PowerPoint came up to her. "I'm sorry for the disappointing design of the diving gear today. I wanted to use a complete different idea, and a much more humane and accurate one, but Gopal sir insisted that I use that for better marketing," He apologised, bowing his head slightly. 

"It's ok, uhhhh..." 

"Pavan, ma'am."

"Right. It's ok Pavan. I'm glad you are one of the few people in the illustration team with basic human decency. I understand your position, and I'm glad that you approached me. I also first-handedly know how much of a douchebag Gopal is," Kavya smiled slightly, hoping to ease some of his nerves. 

"Thank you so much Ma'am! I promise I won't disappoint you next time!" He bowed. 

"You better not. I have seen your skills, and you're far too creative and talented to let a person like Gopal boss you around." She patted his shoulder, smiling when he thanked her repeatedly. 

"Yes, Ms Agarwal," Aamir walked up to the both of you, looking extremely down, "I apologise for the way Mr Das and Mr Roberts spoke this meeting. It was completely out of line and disrespectful of them. I assure you, if I had known of this issue--"

"Mr Mohammad you don't have to apologise," Kavya smiled at him. "It wasn't your fault, so you must stop blaming yourself. I know those two men disturbed the flow of the meeting, but I stand by my previous comment. Pavan here," She looked at the employee, who was a little flustered, "Had amazing designs up his sleeves and the presentation overall was not bad."

"I think we can definitely improve some of them, but the inspiration, cultural and locational significances were completely accurate," Aamir looked a little bit happier after that statement. "I have noted down the changes that need to be made, and if you could e-mail this presentation to me, I would gladly note them down in the respective areas so you and your team could correct it." Pavan nodded enthusiastically. 

"I will send it to you very shortly ma'am."

"Excellent! I'm afraid I must go now," Kavya frowned a little.

 "Of course Ma'am. It was an honour talking to you,"

Kavya couldn't be more happier that  she that she could finally go home. Those last 30 minutes in the conference room were the most exhausting 30 minutes in the entire month. And suffice to say, she was ready to flop down on her bed and take a much-deserved nap.  Of course she knew that she had a shit ton of work to finish before sleeping, but the thought of doing it in the comforts of her home gave her something to look forward to. 

"Tired?" Maya Patel, her friend and CEO of Patel Publications, leaned against the doorframe.

"You have no fucking idea," Kavya started packing her stuff, getting ready to leave. 

"How was the meeting?"

"The most irritating meeting I've ever been to. Two hours of amazing illustrations and all of that had to come to an end because of two old men's perverted tendencies. 30 minutes of continuous sexism and objectification does things to one's brain." 

Maya looked like she'd smelled something nasty. "It was that bitch, Gopal; wasn't it"

"Yes, but this time he had a little minion. It's that other guy you hate, Kevin Roberts."

"Ugh," Maya made a puking face- "I hate them both so much, I always wanted to kick their pathetic asses out. And now my dream is finally coming true!" They laughed. 

"But seriously. I am going to fire them. There have been way too many complaints about them in general and I finally have the proof I need."

"Oh when you do fire them, please invite me so I can record that shit in full HD," Kavya walked inside the elevator, Maya following shortly behind. 

"No, because you will go on a vacation. That I asked you to go to." Maya crossed her arms. 

"More like forced me to go on one," Kavya snorted, but stopped once she noticed the stern expression on Maya's face.

"Ok look, I'll take a vacation when I want to," Kavya made her way to the parking lot where her Kia K5 was parked. 

"Besides, you need the new manuscript, right?" She smiled at Maya, who shook her head and smiled lightly. 

"I do, but that doesn't mean I don't want you to take a short break. It's concerning how much stress you take up. I just want you to relax" 

"Ok, I'll think about it. For now, I just want to go home and take a long nap," Kavya switched on the radio and set out on the road, noticing how most streets were suspiciously empty.

'That's weird,' She thought, 'The streets in Delhi are never empty.' She brushed it off and flipped through the radio stations to find the ones that played old songs, her personal favourite. 

The peaceful melodies of the retro songs calmed her on her drive back home. They were the kind of songs that put you in such a trance that you don't know where the time flew by. And of course, very shortly, she parked her car in her buildings allotted parking space. 

She greeted the security guard who was on patrol and entered the elevator. After entering the passcode to her apartment, she directly went to the fridge to get some cool water.  

Kavya then tossed her blazer and purse aside, ran to the bedroom, flopped on the bed and groaned loudly. Paying no mind that her lipstick would most likely stain the towel she had lain on the bed.

"I better freshen up," She sighed and went to complete her nighttime routine, which just consisted of taking a long hot shower and doing her 7-step skincare routine. After which she folded her clothes and tossed some of them in the washing machine. 

A late-night snack was well due, as Kavya did not have her dinner yet; and of course, Red Wine is a must!

"11pm chicken sandwiches are the best," She munched on her sandwich as she scrolled through her twitter to see what her friends shitposted today. 

She doubled in laughter over Maggie's posts, nearly choking on lettuce. Eventually she calmed down and filled herself in the news and gossip she's missed out on. 

"This is the best time of the day," She told herself as she read the texts she'd received today. 

The conversation seemed like it had no end to it, so Kavya skimmed it until she saw herself tagged. 

To say that she thought about it would be an understatement. Kavya had no clue for how long she sat there thinking about the road trip before the notification of the email brought her back. She slapped her face a few times to prepare herself for all the work she had to finish.

The entirety of the next 4 hours was spent in Kavya carefully noting down every single detail and making the necessary changes. And soon enough it was 3 am and she was finally done with both the cover design and the character designs. Throughout these 4 hours, however, the only thing on her mind was that road trip idea her friends were talking about.

So she made up her mind. Kavya quickly emailed the corrections she'd made in both the documents. And dialled Maya's number.

"Heyy, Maya? Remember that vacation you were talking about? I'm going to take it."

[snowgloberoundandround]

Tagged by @hpfangirl13 !!! (HAPPY MAGNUM FINALE DAY, GIRL!!!!!!!!!!) *raises a glass*

What is the colour of your hairbrush? Black and teal, and then I also have a blue Olaf one

Name a food you never eat? Green beans are the devil’s vegatable.

Are you typically too warm or too cold? Always too cold

What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Singing through Kacey Musgrave’s “Golden Hour” album in the shower

What is your favourite candy bar? Butterfingers

Have you ever been to a professional sports event? Baseball lots (which I love) and one or two hockey games. Someday I’ll make it to a soccer match...

What is the last thing you said out loud? “By themself”

What is your favourite ice cream? Rainbow Sherbert and Mint Chocolate Chip

What was the last thing you had to drink? Starbuck’s pink drink

Do you like your wallet? LOVE it. It’s a Beauty and the Beast design from Loungefly

What was the last thing you ate? Salad

Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? Gosh I wish

The last sporting event you watched? Marble Olympics. My family (including my cat) has been fixated on it this quarantine

What is your favourite flavour of popcorn? @emberslovesthearmadillo makes the most AMAZING cheesy garlic popcorn and wE GET TO DO MOVIE NIGHTS AGAIN REAL SOON IMMA STRAIGHT UP CRY OVER HERE

Who is the last person you sent a text message to? One of the vets at work

Ever go camping? About once a year and we were supposed to go at the end of May but that’s not happening :c

Do you take vitamins? So many, unfortunately

Do you go to church every Sunday? I try to, but sometimes my chronic fatigue is real bad and I’ve gotta stay home and rest after a long work week, but we have a livestream so I almost always watch that if I’m resting at home.

Do you have a tan? I most definitely do not but it’s finally getting warm so I am READY (I’m gonna burn so hard)

Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza? Chinese food! I’m Asian at heart

Do you drink your soda with a straw? That would imply that I drink soda

What colour socks do you usually wear? The brighter, the better! My favorite socks to wear to work though have syringes and stethoscopes and various organs all over them though

Do you ever drive above the speed limit? SWEATS I try not to but I definitely do

What terrifies you? Got attacked by wasps one time and that was a real bad time

Look to your left, what do you see? My iPad that is blankly begging me to stop procrastinating on drawing mom’s present

What chore do you hate? Loading the dishwasher. Slimy food? HATE it

What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? Tinkerbell from OUAT

What’s your favourite soda? Again, bold of you to assume I drink soda

Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru? I’d go in if I could but alas, desperate times

Who’s the last person you talked to? My mom

Favourite cut of beef? Cheeseburger

Last song you listened to? Butterflies by Kacey Musgraves

Last book you read? The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages

Favourite day of the week? Friday because Magnum and Blue Bloods!!!

Can you say the alphabet backwards? Yes but I’d have to mentally say it forward in between every letter to remember the order

How do you like your coffee? Loooove me a caramel macchiato or caramel frappuccino

Favourite pair of shoes? Definitely my thigh-high suede boots

The time you normally go to bed? Well two nights ago it was 7pm and last night it was 10:30pm and I’d say somewhere between the two is normal

The time you normally get up? 6 on work day, but if I’ve been off for several days in a row I start pushing 9

What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? Sunsets, but I treasure the moments I see the sunrise

How many blankets on your bed? Ummmm I think I have ten right now. I’m constantly shamed in my household for hoarding all the blankets.

Describe your kitchen plates: Green plates with apples are the staple kitchen ware, but we have red ones we use a lot too. Minimalistic white ones for the nights my brother decides to go master chef

Do you have a favourite alcoholic beverage? I consider black coffee to be hard liquor

Do you play cards? My family FEARS my prowess at Dutch Blitz. It gets REAL up in here

What colour is your car? The fact that the paint is legally called “space gray” may or may not have been influencing factor in my purchasing of the vehicle in question. (I also fondly call it the Millenial Falcon)

Can you change a tire? Mmm probably in a pinch

Your favourite province? I’ve only been to British Columbia but I do love it

Favourite job you’ve ever had? What I do now! Surgical Vet Assistant

How did you get your biggest scar? I’ve got a six inch vertical incision below my belly button where they pulled 2.7 liters of fluid out of my abdomen, as one does

What did you do today that made someone else happy? I told a golden retriever she was a good girl and she stuck her nose in my face waiting for me to say it again

Tagging any one who wants to do it! Tag me so I can see your answers too! ^^

[rosieromances-blog]

My Quarantine (and Everyday) Daily Routine

*Photo by the amazingly talented laiteuxcaffe. I do not own it.*

As an introvert and homebody, I tend to spend the majority of my time at home. In fact, my life is relatively unchanged from before the quarantine began. I’m realizing how absolutely blessed I am to not have to change my life and exactly what it means. I still get to work, a phrase I wouldn’t have been happy to say a few weeks ago. I live with my boyfriend and our friend, so I get to see the person I love the most. I have a dog, so I have a reason to leave the house every day. I serve an amazing God who I depend completely on. He takes care of me perfectly. I have all I need. So, with that, here is what I’ve been doing while my boyfriend has been home!

7:00 - My alarm goes off. I like to know when its 7am, so I don’t over sleep. But lately, since my boyfriend doesn’t have to get ready for work, we stay in bed until about 7:30/8. 

8:00 - I get out of bed, throw on some comfy clothes, usually an oversized sweatshirt, and head out to the livingroom to let my puppy out to pee, and then to the kitchen to get coffee. My boyfriend is usually already in there making me toast!

8:10 - I get cozy with my coffee and toast, one with butter and one with strawberry jelly, and sit on the couch with my ipad. I then spend the next hour (if I don’t get distracted with social media) to two hours doing devotions using the Bible app. I follow about five so I read through them each of them. I really like this time of the day, so that’s why I spend so much time doing it.

9:30/10:30 - I begin on my boyfriend’s breakfast. He eats the same thing every morning for breakfast -- a tofu scramble made with tofu, onions, tomatoes, spinach, and breakfast potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and tumeric. It ends up looking very similar to an egg scramble. He eats this with flour tortillas. It is an EXCELLENT source of protein and super delicous. I replace the tofu with eggs when we don’t have tofu. I eat a little bit of this too, or I’m satisfied with just my toast from earlier.

11:00-1:30 - I watch my boyfriend play video games while I catch up on my blogs, or scroll pinterest and my other social medias. 

1:30 - I’m pretty hungry at this time, so I’ll make some food. Usually some sort of instant soup lol I’m pretty simple. Othertimes I’ll eat leftovers from the night before. 

2:00-4:30 -  Free time. I spend watching TV, practicing french, drawing, reading (non erotic romance), writing blog posts, or whatever I want! I love that I get to spend my day the way I want to.

4:30/5:30 - Dinner. My boyfriend has been making dinner really early lately, and I love it! I’m happiest while the sun is up, and almost useless once it goes down, so to get everything done before it goes down is ideal. We eat, usually grilled chicken, rice, and veggies with avocado and kimchi, and watch Chopped or any other Food Network show. 

6:30-8:30 - Show time. My boyfriend and I watch our shows during this time. Lately, it has been Schitt’s Creek. I’ve seen the series already, but I’m watching it again. It is absolutely wonderful, well, after the 3rd season. Other shows we might watch are Downton Abbey (I haven’t seen all of it so no spoilers!) or  The Witcher.

8:30 - Bedtime routine. I get ready for bed really early because I like to read for a few hours before bed. I wash my face, brush my teeth, tie up my hair, and hop in bed. I turn on my oil diffuser with lavender oil in it, and get to reading. I’m currently reading The Chief by Monica McCarty. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you all!

10/10:30 - Sleep time!

My day may seem a little boring for most, but I really enjoy being able to do things on my own terms. Like I said, I feel so blessed during this quarantine. It is very important that you practice gratitude. Many people are unhappy with 2020, but my 2020 has been amazing. The key? God and gratitude! 

♡ Rosie 

[areyounotthrowingawaymysocks]

Playground (Daveed x Emmy/ Anthony x Jasmine)

Pt. 1 Pt. 2 Pt. 3 Pt. 4 Pt. 5 Pt. 6 Pt. 7 Pt. 8 Pt. 9

Pairing: Daveed Diggs x Emmy Raver-Lampman and Anthony Ramos x Jasmine Cephas-Jones

Word Count: 2217

Warnings: Bullying, Injury, Hospital, Surgery

Author’s Note: This was originally a short, fluffy fic about the kids playing together at the playground. Then I decided to re-write it while editing today and this was the end result. Whoops!

While Emmy and Jasmine were at work together, both currently working on a new musical, Daveed and Anthony decided to band together to take care of the three kids. Daniele, Callie, and Michael were five now and were all in the same kindergarten class. The two couples tried to get the kids together at least once a week, and they regularly watched each other’s kids so that they could still have date nights and some child-free time. 

On this particular Saturday, Daveed and Anthony decided to take the kids to the local park where they could run around and get some energy out. The park also had a playground where they would be able to play on the jungle gym and swings for a while before heading home for dinner. 

Daveed and Daniele arrived at Anthony and Jasmine’s apartment around two, after a long and messy lunch of mac and cheese and fruit snacks, the only things she would eat when Emmy wasn’t home. Anthony opened the door to reveal Michael running around the apartment in just his underwear while Callie was playing quietly in the corner with her dollhouse. It never ceased to amuse Daveed how different the twins were. He sent Daniele over to play with Callie and then made his way over to Michael and tried to convince him to put on some clothes. After about fifteen minutes, Michael was finally dressed and the group made their way down the street to the park.

As soon as they arrived, all three kids joined a game of tag with a few other kids who were already playing. Daveed and Anthony took a seat on a nearby bench where they could chat while still keeping an eye on the kids to make sure no one got hurt. After about twenty minutes of tag, Daniele and Callie came over to ask if they could go over to the playground now. They called for Michael and made their way over, the girls heading straight for the swings while Michael ran for the sandbox when he saw there was a dump truck that no one was playing with yet. 

After a little while, Daniele and Callie decided to head over to the jungle gym to practice their gymnastics. Their were some older kids hanging out there too, but they stayed on the lower bars like Anthony had told them to so they weren’t worried. Daniele was showing Callie the new flip she had learned in class when one of the bigger kids came over to them.

“Are you babies done yet?” she asked, her hands on her hips, glaring at Dani and Callie. “Why don’t you go play with the baby toys over there?” she pointed at the baby swings across the park.

“M-my Papí says I can p-play here if I w-want!” Callie retorted, her small voice wavering as the older girl stared her down.

“Y-yeah! D-daddy said we could p-play f-flips!” Dani added, moving to stand next to her friend.

“Well, only big kids can play on the bars. Prove that you’re big kids and we’ll let you stay,” another girl added.

“Fine!” Daniele shouted, climbing up the ladder to the higher bars.

“Dani! Papí told us not to go up there!” Callie called after her, looking back towards Anthony and Daveed who were busy talking and didn’t notice the altercation their daughters were in.

“It’s fine, C! We’ve been up here before! C’mon!” Danielle called from the top of the ladder.

Callie hesitantly made her way towards the ladder and began climbing up after giving one more glance towards her father. When she reached the top, she couldn’t help but feel proud of herself for making it up so high. She could see the whole playground from up here. Michael was still in the sandbox, currently dumping sand down another kid’s shirt. She could see Anthony and Daveed, still on the bench, unaware that their daughters had climbed up higher than they were supposed to. But before she could get too comfortable up there, the older girls were back.

“Now you gotta do a flip up here,” the older girl said, demonstrating by flipping herself backwards so she was hanging by her knees, “Your turn,” she said as she flipped back up.

Daniele hesitantly adjusted herself on the bar and then helped Callie adjust herself. They squeezed hands and then let go as they flipped back. Daniele felt her legs slip off of the bar, and the next thing she knew, she was on the ground, searing pain in her left arm. 

“Dani!” Callie called as soon as she realized what had happened, “Hold on! I’ll be right there to help you!” she yelled to her as a tear slipped down her cheek.

“Here, I’ll show you the fastest way to get there,” the older girl said before pushing Callie off the bar, laughing as she fell to the ground next to Daniele and then running off with the rest of the older kids before they could get caught.

Callie hit the wood chips below with a thud. The pain was instant and all she could do was scream. Anthony heard her and he and Daveed went running, shocked to see both of their daughters lying on the ground below the jungle gym. Daveed could tell just by looking that Daniele had broken her left arm, the swelling and bruising already setting in. Callie was in even worse shape. The broken bone in her leg had pierced her skin and she was bleeding. Anthony was using his sweatshirt to stop the bleeding while calling an ambulance. He told Daveed to call the theater and have Emmy and Jasmine meet them at the ER. Michael had noticed the chaos and the crowd that had formed and made his way over. Daveed kept him turned around while simultaneously cradling Daniele so that he wouldn’t see his sister’s injury. After he reached the theater and confirmed that the girls would meet them at the ER, Anthony had him call Stephanie to pick up Michael so he wouldn’t have to be at the hospital with them. He explained to his son that he was going to have a special sleepover with Auntie Steph and that he’d get to watch movies and pick whatever kind of take out he wanted for dinner. 

After what felt like an eternity but in reality was probably only a few minutes, the ambulances arrived to take the girls to the hospital. The EMTs quickly splinted Daniele’s arm to keep it stable on the trip. They took a bit longer with Callie because they had to bandage her wound before they could splint her leg. When they finally arrived at the hospital, they put the girls in a shared room because they had been crying for each other the whole trip. They were both given pain medication so they were super sleepy and a little loopy when Jasmine and Emmy arrived. Both women were in a frantic state, clearly having gotten quickly changed out of costume and jumping into an Uber as soon as they got the call. 

The girls were both taken back for x-rays, Jasmine having to go with Callie who was convinced that she was being taken away from her parents forever. Fortunately, Daniele’s arm was a clean break that would heal with just a cast. She chose purple, to match her new sneakers, and was excited to have all her friends draw on it at school on Monday. Callie, unfortunately, was going to need surgery to realign her bones and place several screws. Anthony and Jasmine were nervous, as was to be expected, but they were grateful to be at a pediatric hospital with a world renowned orthopedic team who they felt would do everything they could to help their daughter heal as quickly as possible. 

Daniele was allowed to go home after her cast was put on, so she said goodbye to Callie and wished her good luck with her surgery. Emmy promised that they would come back to visit the next day once Callie was recovering and that seemed to calm the girls down a bit. The Diggs family made their way home, leaving Callie and her parents to prepare for the long night ahead of them. Despite the heavy pain medications, she was still in a significant amount of pain, which the doctor said was to be expected with her injury. Her surgery had been booked for 7am the following morning, and she would be unable to eat all night, so they tried to come up with some different ways to distract her both from hunger and pain all night. Luckily, the hospital didn’t have a restriction on visiting hours, so Cynthia and Mario came over around 9 with a big bag of supplies they had picked up from the apartment: pillows, blankets, dolls, art supplies, books, stuffed animals, movies, the iPad, and Anthony’s laptop. They also grabbed changes of clothes for all three of them, toiletries, and phone chargers. Stephanie had also stopped by the apartment and grabbed anything she would need to take care of Michael for the few days they were expecting to be in the hospital with Callie and a few days after so she could recover at home in peace. 

Around 2am, Callie was awake and crying from pain, Jasmine doing her best to hold her without hurting her leg while they waited to hear back from the doctor about giving her more pain meds. Jasmine put Lion King on for her, one of her favorite Disney movies, and was singing along to some of the songs, quietly kissing her head, trying to calm her, to no avail. Callie was just whimpering at this point, too tired to fully cry. Anthony excused himself from the room and Jasmine assumed he was going to go beg the nurse to page the doctor again. 

Twenty minutes later, the nurse came in with more pain meds for Callie. Jasmine thanked her and the woman offered her a small supportive smile in return. Jasmine was so grateful that Callie had a nurse who was so attentive to her needs and was helping to make sure she was as comfortable as possible until she had her surgery. With the additional medication, Callie quickly fell asleep. Jasmine noticed that Anthony still hadn’t returned, so she texted him to see if he was okay. When she didn’t get a reply, she decided to go look for him, hoping Callie would stay asleep for a little while.

She found him crying on a bench in the family waiting area. She quietly slipped next to him and wrapped him in a hug, rubbing steady circles on his back to help steady his breathing.

“Bubba, match my breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Good job. Keep going,” she coached him, feeling his breathing begin to regulate, the tension being released from his body.

“My fault,” he muttered into her shoulder, his voice wavering from tears.

“What do you mean, Bubba?” she asked, holding him so she could see his face.

“It’s my fault she’s hurt. I shoulda watched her better,” he said, turning away, unable to look her in the eyes.

“Bubba, look at me,” she said, turning his face so she was looking at him, “I know how hard it is to watch both of them at once. Especially somewhere like the playground. She’s gonna be okay. Let’s go back in there with her before she wakes up again looking for us.”

The next morning, Callie was brought down for pre-op around 5:30. By 7, she was pretty doped up from the medicine the anesthesiologist had given her, but she was excited that when she woke up from her “nap” her leg would be fixed and she would have a purple cast to match Dani. When she was wheeled back to the OR, Anthony and Jasmine were led to a waiting room, where both of their mothers were waiting already, along with Cynthia and Mario. They all waited together, taking turns comforting Anthony and Jasmine until a nurse came out to tell them that Callie was out of surgery and should be waking up shortly. She explained that one parent could come sit with her now and that the other could join once she was fully awake. Jasmine followed the nurse back and took a seat next to her sleeping daughter, admiring how peaceful she looked for the first time since they had arrived at the hospital. 

A few hours later, Callie was back up in her hospital room surrounded by her family. Everyone had come upstairs to see her once she was moved back up and they all brought gifts. Jasmine’s mom had gotten her a new Barbie, Anthony’s mom got her a stuffed pig, her current favorite animal. Mario and Cynthia had stopped at the American Girl store and gotten a set of crutches and a cast so her doll could match her. Stephanie brought her a box of her favorite cookies, and Michael had drawn her a picture. She was still a bit drowsy from the anesthesia and sore from surgery, but Callie was grateful to be spending a day surrounded by her family who cared about her so much.

[mistressofuniverses]

‘It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’     Process Breakdown - Part 2/2

...

It’s been a while.

It’s literally been like the better part ot a month.

I have no excuses.

(also, thanks Kristen for liking the other part which then reminded me that I hadn’t done this one.)

Anyways. This portion should be fairly straightforward.

I took a picture of the sketch under clean light, managing to avoid any shadows because it was like 6 in the morning and I didn’t want to turn on the scanner which is about 700% louder than a scanner has any right to be. A little bit of color grading and some cropping later and what I ended up with was this:

Now, I don’t know about you, but I absolutely loathe trying to do line art digitally. I hate outlining things and as an artist who’s medium is predominantly HB#2 pencil because I don’t have money (and am also not a big fan of pens, but that’s a conversation for another time), my drawings tend to be finished once I put down my pencil. I have officially scanned one drawing that was still mostly just a sketch into Sketchbook which forced me to outline things.

Since I loath outlining things and the original drawing had pretty clean lines, I decided to just run with it as my line art.

Luckily for me, Sketchbook allowed me to just multiply the layer which kept the line art and simultaneously darkened it for me.

Step 1: line art. Done.

(Except for the eyes. The eyes needed help. I had to redraw one of them entirely from scratch)

Next up, laying down flats. And thank you to all of the various speed paints that I watched on YouTube that showed me the easiest way to lay down flats.

“Obviously not the end result but I was messing around with the background colors and thought this looked cool”

[This was also the point in time when I realized that I had to color in the sleeves.]

[Reason one why you keep at least one artist friend on hand when you are working on a project]

I have somehow almost perfected shading spheres to look 3D and have a slight glow which really characterizes the crystalline or gem-like quality of them while working on various drawings that will likely never see the light of day. I do not understand any of my skills but I’ll take what I get.

Shading was a bit of a monster as it always seems to be.

Quick note: I was actively trying to shade with skin tones. After having worked on this piece for several consecutive hours. I was literally starting to lose all ability to differentiate between similar colors.

[Reason two why you keep an artist friend on hand when you are working on a project.]

[I would like to just apologize here for the bright fuchsia background. I needed a very high contrast to actually see the shading of light grey on even lighter grey.]

I was pretty busy just shading from this point forwards. Nothing too special, just lots of work.

In the end, there is never any escape from line art. Outlining must be done despite all protests to the contrary.

Here’s a fun game for all of you digital artists out there. If you want to make your life really really challenging, try working with a weirdly small number of layers. 12 is pretty difficult but you really don’t know true challenge until you’re doing the 3-layer challenge.

And by 3-layer challenge I mean that since 2014 through till about a year ago, if I wanted to do digital art on my iPad, I literally had only 3 layers I could work within.

But feel free to try limiting yourself in that way for fun if you want.

[Glowy isn’t an actual word accepted by dictionaries but that does not stop the fact that Autocorrect is obviously a Black Star]

And it is here that we reach the point that you all started with once again. The final product.

Thank you for sticking this out. In fact, because you managed to make it through this, I’m giving you a little extra.

Back when I was starting to shade, I wasn’t certain whether I should use a black or white background for The Void. I decided to submit the version that had the black menacing void as I felt if worked best. However, in making these progress pieces, I messed around with the background and created a White Void, as traditionally seen back in Season 1 a lot.

I hope you enjoy.

[houseofvans]

SKETCHY BEHAVIORS WITH KIM SIELBECK

With a background in fashion, textile, illustration and printmaking, Honolulu based artist and designer Kim Sielbeck creates colorful, bold, and fun paintings and patterns inspired by lush landscapes in Hawaii. From murals to digital canvases, Kim recently created some our favorite customs as a Vans Custom Culture ambassador, using her signature color palette and designs! Find out more about Kim, what inspires her, and what she has coming up for the rest of the year.  Take the leap! 

Photography courtesy of the artist. 

Could you introduce yourself to everybody?  Hello! My name is Kim Sielbeck. I'm an illustrator living in Honolulu, Hawaii and have been here for about two years. Before that, I was in New York City for almost twelve years. I went to school at the School of Visual Arts. I grew up in a Coast Guard family and lived in Hawai'i as a child- it's much different being here as a grown up! Fun tidbits: I am a dog person, I was born in Alaska, I once broke my toe in mid-air taking a jumping photo.

How would you describe the art you create? How would you describe your particular technique? My work is colorful, bold, and fun. Mixing colors and choosing them before I start on a piece is something I love.  I limit myself to flat colors–this evolved from focusing on printmaking in school and working as a textile designer for several years. Pattern is important in my work, which also carried over from the textile world.

What are your favorite things to paint? What are your favorite things to paint on? I'm very inspired by the verdant, lush landscape in Hawai'i- the plants here are unlike any other in the world. I also love painting people relaxing and having fun. A lot of what I paint is a reaction to current events today. I paint the world I want to live in. As far as surfaces- murals are my current favorite! Painting on a giant wall, getting covered in paint, and working in a public space beats working in my usual set-up, which is an iPad or computer.

What’s a typical day in the studio for you like? And what are you currently working on in the studio? Every day is different. It usually involves a couple hours of combing through emails, finding the right balance of podcasts and music (with some dance breaks), and zoning out while I'm drawing. Currently I'm working on some new personal pieces- I just painted a portrait of my friends Sarah and Danny and their puppy. I'm also working on a few editorial pieces for some magazines!

My studio is very unique- it's located in the Old Blaisdell Hotel, which was one of the first hotels built in Honolulu. There are lots of other creatives in the building, and it's nice to take breaks and talk story with them during the day. We all support each other and it's a great community.

When you're working developing a new painting or piece, how does it begin - take us from sketchbook, to color choices, to finished painting?   A new painting starts as a tiny thumbnail to get the composition right. Then I'll start sketching right on the surface (normally wood panel) with a light underpainting. Picking color is something I do very early on- sometimes it informs the composition and the subject matter. I try to limit my palette to 5 or 6 colors per piece. Sometimes, I'll be 3/4 done with a piece and have another color idea- so I'll have to go back in and repaint entire sections of the painting. It's all trial and error, and you can always repaint something.

We love the colors and compositions of your works and designs. Can you tell us how you arrived at your color palette and how composition comes into play when you’re creating a piece? Years of working in the fashion and textile industry has given me a keen sense of color and color combinations. So much of my job as a textile artist was using colors that were popular for each season- we always had trend forecasting books laying around, and would often color or recolor a piece until it was right. We also limited our palettes to what commercial printers could print- usually no more than 8-15 colors per design. Additionally, color palettes were always the first thing we came up with when starting a design. I still have that approach today and often pick my colors before anything else is completely set in stone.

What tools will someone always find you using at your studio? I've got plenty of tubes of acrylic gouache laying around, lots of different brushes, and lately a lot of leftover house paint from murals. My go-to tools for commercial work include my iPad, desktop, and Wacom tablet. I'm able to leap from painting to digital work- most people can't tell a difference between the two!

How do you unplug yourself so to speak? What do you do to center or re-focus yourself if you find yourself stressed out about deadlines, art shows, and the sort? One of the reasons I moved to Hawai'i was to be able to unplug more. Prioritizing things like going outside and being in nature are great ways to step back and put things in perspective. I also make sure to keep a planner so deadlines don't creep up on me, and hit the gym to work out any lingering stress.

You recently worked as one of our Vans Custom ambassadors! We absolutely love the Vans you created for it. Can you tell us a little bit about the process, your concept, and the response you got? Thank you! I loved painting the Custom Vans... people always ask me where they can get a pair! My concept was to create one shoe with a tropical print and one with a desert print. They could be used to walk everywhere and anywhere across the globe. The colors I wanted to really pop- you would notice these shoes on someone's feet!

What do you enjoy about collaborations like this? If you could pick anyone in the world, who would you collaborate with? I've been a fan of Vans since I was a kid and tried to sneak into to the Warped Tour. I had big ambitions of skateboarding and surfing as a kid (I am finally learning how to surf!). The lifestyle, attitude, music, artistic improvisation, and boldness of skate/surf culture has always been magnetic, so working with Vans has been a dream job.

I love collaborating on all sorts of projects–I don't think I have one specific dream client. I love seeing my work adapted in new ways, like animation. I'd love to paint more murals, and also work on some big-impact projects that can reach more people and bring some color and joy into their lives.

What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps? A career is not something that happens right away- you have to constantly work for it and adapt. I was hoping right out of school I would instantly become a world-famous illustrator... not the case. It took a few years to find my style and voice, and that's ok. More advice is to always pursue outside interests, and grow as a person. I was in a punk/pop band for several years in NYC (shout out Puppies!), learned how to sail, and traveled a lot. All these things, while not necessarily being art-related, helped influence my work and life.

How did start becoming interested in art and design? When did you find yourself doing it as a career? Moving around so much as a kid, art was something that was a constant. I could express how I felt, what I was going through, and could make friends doing it. Early in high school, I realized I could maybe do it for a living. My parents sat me down and asked me to come up with a plan for college and beyond, so I had realistic expectations and saw the hard work it would take. A good work ethic, some luck, and many hours of practice helped me push through. When I graduated college in 2009, there weren't many jobs. I lucked out and got a full-time job at the textile studio, while freelancing on the side. Eventually, 8 years later, the freelancing became stable enough to do illustration full-time.

When you’re not busy creating art, how do you unwind and chill out? When I'm not in the studio I'm trying to explore new places, go on hikes, go to different beaches, or learn how to surf. At the studio, my brain is on New York speed, but walking outside I switch back to Island Time immediately.

If you weren’t an artist, what do you think you’d be doing instead?   I'd be a guitarist and lead singer, traveling the world in my amazing punk rock girl group.

So we gotta ask what are your FAVORITE Vans? I have some surf-green high tops I've worn for YEARS. I got them in Pasadena one night at an art opening when my sandals snapped in half. The Vans store was miraculously still open, and I ran in and grabbed them in the five minutes I had to spare. They saved my outfit and my night, and they've since traveled to London, Italy, Hawai'i, Japan, and beyond.

What’s coming up next for you? I'm going to Europe in September, for some work and some fun. I'm looking forward to a few bigger projects I can't talk about yet. I'm also working on some local Hawai'i projects, including working with the Humane Society. A beach towel collaboration with Surfer Towel's Christie Shinn (who you just interviewed!) just came out, too.

FOLLOW KIM | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | BEHANCE 

[fandomfanficandmore]

Story of Another Us Part 1 (Calum Hood)

pairing[s]: calum hood x oc

warnings: bitchiness? calum with a kid

word count: 2k+

The sun was barely beginning to rise when Harlow walked into her kitchen, answering emails and preparing for the day. The coffee maker had just finished brewing, Harlow pouring herself a glass before she took a seat at the island, enjoying what little quiet time she had before her daughter woke up.

Today’s agenda was packed- most days usually were- but today Harlow was particularly excited. She and her best friend Lennon owned a full-service branding business, complete with design, photography, and videography. They worked with the best of the best companies and everyone’s favorite celebrities on everything from designing new products to photoshoots for leading magazines- which is exactly what they’re doing today. Today, at their studio in Downtown Los Angeles, they were holding the photoshoot for an upcoming edition of Rolling Stone, the cover story being about one of Harlow’s (and her daughter’s) favorite bands, 5 Seconds of Summer.

If you asked Harlow why she likes the band, you’d think her response was the most cliche thing you’d heard, but it wasn’t.

Their music helped her through a hard time in her life.

Her past was a secret to most people, as it was something that was hard to talk about.

When she was 16, Harlow met Sam Peters. She was a sophomore, an invisible, and he was a senior, captain of the football team, and the most popular guy in school. She wasn’t sure how it had happened, but he fell for her, and she for him. After graduation, he attended a local community college and waited for her to graduate. That lasted about a year. He decided to enlist in the Army shortly before he turned 20.

The day she turned 18, he proposed. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was everything she had dreamt of and more. A few short months later- after his basic training- they were married and he was set to deploy for his first tour overseas. A few weeks after he left, she found out she was pregnant. She was ecstatic. A few days after, they had a short video chat where she told him the news. He was so happy.

She was 5 months along when she heard a knock on their front door. There stood a Chaplin, a sad expression on their face. Harlow knew immediately what had happened. Sam had been killed while serving his country. Her life had changed in a moment. She was 19, already widowed and a mother to be.

She can’t remember much in the months that followed, other than that she fell into a deep depression and in another 3 months, she had her daughter: Badgley Ann Peters.

After she was born, Harlow knew she needed to get better for her. She began by moving from Texas- where she and Sam had moved after he had enlisted- to sunny Los Angeles with her best friend and godmother to her daughter, Lennon. There, they started the business out of their small apartment and began growing it into what it is today. At the same time, she discovered that music was a way for her to cope and that this band of 4 boys around her age, helped her the most. She’d have their music on almost nonstop, dancing around and singing with her daughter.

“Hey, Har.” Lennon mumbled, walking into the kitchen and pouring herself a cup of coffee, “What time are we supposed to be at the studio?”

“8.” Harlow sighed happily, checking the time on her phone. 6:30. “I’ll be right back.” She drank the last of her coffee before standing up. She made her way up the stairs to her daughter's room and opened the door slowly. The mint room was covered with art and posters of 5 Seconds of Summer- like mother, like daughter. “Badge, sweetie. It’s time to get up.” She whispered quietly, taking a seat on the edge of Badgley's bed. She stirred, her eyes opening slowly with a tired hum. “Good morning sweetheart.” Harlow smiled down at her, placing a soft kiss on her head.

“Morning mommy.” The small girl let out a yawn as she sat up. Her brown hair was a tangled mess, making Harlow laugh.

“Time to get up. We have to head to the studio soon. Mommy has to work with some important clients.” Harlow said quietly as she stood up, picking her daughter up. “Do you want some of Uncle Fletcher’s waffles?” Harlow asked, watching as her daughter nodded tiredly. Sam’s brother Fletcher would come over every Sunday and make a large batch of his waffles- Badgley's favorite food- so they would have enough to reheat throughout the week.

Harlow carefully made her way down the stairs, carrying her daughter to the island and sitting her down in her chair.

“Good morning, Auntie Len!” Badge smiled at her aunt, whose face broke into a grin upon hearing her. I pulled some waffles out of the freezer, sticking them in the microwave as I watched.

“Good morning, Le! Did you sleep well?” Lennon asked her, making her light up.

“Mhhm!” Badgley answered with a grin, having finally woken up completely. “I had a dream Mommy mariwed Callie.” Callie is what she called Calum, a member of the band. He was her favorite member, as she loved all of the “drawings” he had on his body- that was appropriate for a 3-year-old to see, that is. Harlow stifled a laugh as the microwave beeped. She covered the waffles in syrup and strawberries before setting the plate in front of her daughter with a fork.

“She did?” Lennon laughed, casting a side glance at Harlow, who was blushing softly. They never told Badgley who their celebrity clients were, as they didn’t want to raise her to treat them any differently than she would anyone else.

“Yes!” Badgley cheered with her mouth full of waffle, making her mom and aunt laugh. “She wore a really pwetty purple dwess and they had a huge cake and he sanged his song for her.”

“That’s cute Badge.” Harlow laughed but hearing this made her nervous. She knew this was going to be all she could think about today, which would usually be fine, but he was one of today’s clients.

An hour later, the girls were at the studio, setting up for the shoot. Harlow set Badgley in the playroom before heading to her office to gather what she’d need to work while overseeing the shoot. Lennon was getting their photographer set up when the door opened, four rowdy men making their way inside, followed by a very tired looking woman.

Harlow took a deep breath before setting down her iPad and making her way over to the group. “Hi there! I’m Harlow Tallis. Welcome to Future Scars.” She smiled at the men, who let out a chorus of greetings. Lennon stepped over, extending a hand to Michael with a grin.

“Hi, I’m Lennon Copland. Harlow and I will be overseeing your shoot.” Michael broke into an excited grin. “I just need to finish getting the photographer set up. Harlow will show you to the green room.” I took a couple of steps ahead of the group, turning around with a smile. She caught Calum’s eye, a small blush creeping onto her cheeks as she waited for the boys to grab their things. “I forgot my bag in the car,” Luke let out a low mutter, making Ashton and Michael laugh, “I’ll be right back.”

Lennon looked over at her best friend with a smirk, watching as her celebrity crush approached her.

“Harlow, is it?” Calum asked with a smile. Harlow nodded slowly, making him chuckle. “I’m Calum. Calum Hood.”

Harlow took a deep, nervous breath. “Hi.” She choked out, making him chuckle.

“Nervous?” She nodded, making his smile grow into a grin. “I usually have that effect on people.” That made Harlow laugh, her nerves beginning to fade away.

“Is that so?” Luke reentered the building, allowing Harlow to finally lead them to the green room.

“So tell me, Harlow, how long have you been doing this?” Calum asked her as they walked through the building.

“Almost three years now.” She answered with a grin. She came to a stop right in front of the green room, her back facing the playroom door. “Here’s the green room. This’ll be where you get changed and can relax in between set changes.” She smiled, pointing to the open door of the room.

Three of the bandmates headed into the room, Calum staying behind with Harlow. He was about to say something when the door behind Harlow opened, a little girl popping her head out. She turned to Calum, who smiled softly at her, letting out a shriek when she realized who it was.

“Mommy!” She tugged on the bottom of Harlow’s shirt. “It’s Callie!”

Harlow let out a nervous laugh, looking up at the confused man.

“Callie?” He asked, the little girl nodding her head. He cast Harlow a soft smile before crouching down to the Badgley’s height. “You know who I am?”

“You’re from 5sause.” She answered with a grin.

“I’m Calum,” He chuckled, “it’s nice to meet you-”

“Badgley.” She smiled proudly at him. This was the first time she had pronounced her name correctly, which caught Harlow off guard.

“Badge-” She cut in, picking up her daughter with a grin, “You did it! You said your name right!”

Calum stood up, watching as the brown haired women high fived the little girl, who was a spitting image of her mother.

“What did you need, Badge?” Harlow asked the girl, who thought for a minute before she shrugged. “Did you run out of juice?” Badgley nodded for a moment. “Okay. I’ll go get you a new one. Go back and play, okay?” The woman tickled her daughter, whose laugh was like music to Calum’s ears. His smile never wavered as he watched Harlow set the young girl down and made sure she went back into the room before closing the door.

“So, was that your-”

“Daughter, yes.” Harlow nodded with a smile.

“She’s cute.” Calum laughed, “How old is she?”

“She just turned 3.”

Harlow took a deep breath. She knew what would come next in this conversation. It always ended the same.

“Aren’t you a little-“ He started.

“Look, I’m going to stop you right there. I’ve had this conversation enough to know what comes next. I don’t want to be slut-shamed over the fact that I’m a young mother. I made my choices and because of them I have my beautiful daughter, okay?” She rushed out before spinning on her heel, heading towards the kitchen and leaving the man in shock.

Calum watched as Harlow turned out of sight before walking into the green room and running a hand through his hair. His three bandmates watched as he took a seat, letting out a groan.

“What just happened out there?” Ashton spoke, taking a sip of one of the water bottles that the studio provided.

“I don’t know, mate.” Calum ran another hand through his hair before speaking. “I was just talking to that girl and then her daughter came out-”

“She has a daughter?” Luke asked, shock written on his face. “Isn’t she like our age?”

“I have no idea. I tried to ask, but she cut me off saying she didn’t want to be slut-shamed and then she walked away.” He shrugged. “Her daughter knew who we were, though.”

“How old is she?” Michael asked.

“Three. Her name is Badgley.” Calum smiled softly, thinking of the little girl. “She called me Callie.” His voice came out as a whisper. His friends looked at one another, knowing smiles on their lips. They had known Calum since they were teens, but they had never seen him this interested in someone, especially after just meeting them.

“So are you going to try and talk to her again?” Luke asked, making Calum break out of whatever trance his thoughts had put him in.

“Hm? Oh, I don’t know. She didn’t seem like she really wanted to talk anymore.”