#all you get is sketches cuz I have a lot on my plate help

[seeminglydark]

Bold of you to assume they won’t climb up there and smooch it off you, Hurricane. You’re talking to Cheer Caption Hold-My-Beer Caro after all.

[saltminerising]

Running An Art Shop With Minimal Crying 101

Hey y’all, not sure what compelled me to write this Now but I wanted to put together a list of helpful ‘good business practice’ tips for artists who want to start selling commissions on FR and want to build up a good reputation and make bank. I’m not sure if I’d feel comfortable throwing this on the forums personally so here you go, y’all have to look at my stupidly long possibly helpful brutally honest post cuz I don’t know where else to put this.

I’ve been doing art on FR since I was a young teenager in 2015 and through that time I’ve definitely learned some lessons the hard way. I’ve taken on more than I could handle, I’ve let commissions rot for months because I got overwhelmed… you know what I mean. Here’s some of what I’ve learned over the years that’s helped me run a consistently successful art shop for well over a year now.

I don’t have a tumblr and I don’t know how to add a ‘read more’ to a submission, so happy scrolling <3 I apologize for causing some people a very minor inconvenience

-Do not take prepayment for either more than three commissions at a time, or more than the number of commissions you think you can finish within a month or two, whichever is smaller. This is especially true if you’re like me and you have ADHD. Trust me, the more commissions people have already paid for you have piled up in your to-do list, even if they’d only take you 20 minutes each, you will get more overwhelmed and discouraged and people will wonder why it’s taking you so long. Even if you aren’t getting concerned PMs, a lot of people are just too anxious or polite to ask for updates. (On the flipside, if you commissioned someone and haven’t gotten any word/updates in a while, you’re not in the wrong to ask how things are going and when you can expect an update.)

-Full payment upfront is something I definitely recommend for smaller pieces (headshots, sketches, etc) you can finish in one sitting. However- if you’re doing a ref sheet, a rendered fullbody, etc, and you’ll be spending multiple sessions on the piece and getting feedback for it multiple times- split it up, take half upfront and half either after the sketch is approved, or before you send them the final unwatermarked version. I’ve done dozens of commissions like this and never had a problem, personally. There’s a low chance of a customer backing out on you if you’ve already started and sent WIPs because, y’know, sunk cost, and on the other hand it is reassuring to customers (especially if your shop is new) that if you drop off the map, they paid $20 upfront and got at least a sketch, instead of paying $40 upfront for an unfinished piece.

-In the same vein: if you’re doing a large piece like a rendered fullbody, ref sheet, etc, more communication is always better than less! I always stay on the safe side here. Some people will tell you they just want you to go apeshit and do whatever you think will look cool, other people might have much more specific ideas of what they want and how closely your artwork needs to match the image of their character in their head. Send them the sketch and ask them if they want any changes. Send them the lineart and ask if it looks good. If you’re working on a time-consuming painting that will take you weeks to finish, please please please, communicate! Send updates! Your customers will feel a lot less anxious about how long you’re taking if you keep them posted (plus this is just a personal thing but I love seeing peoples’ artistic process, it sparks joy!!)

-If, once again, you’re like me and stuff like painted fullbodies take you so much longer than other commission types- the worst thing you can do is underprice. Let’s say a detailed, shaded dragon fullbody takes you, for instance, 8 hours, maybe longer because you get burned out and can’t finish it in just one sitting, but you don’t think people will buy an $80/8kg fullbody. Do not lower the price you think your art is worth. If fullbodies take you really long compared to other art, or you get unmotivated, just… don’t offer painted fullbodies, or scenes with multiple characters, or whatever. If there’s a form of art you’re capable of creating but it’s faster, more fun, and gets you more money to do smaller things, just do more smaller commissions instead of taking the big ones. This one was a lifesaver for me.

-Once again in the same vein: It is okay to say no. Just because you are physically/artistically capable of drawing a detailed scene of multiple dragons with complex apparel, doesn’t mean you won’t get burnt out or bored. For me, larger pieces take exponentially longer because I just get bored and don’t want to work on them anymore. If someone asks if you can draw something that will require so much of your personal time and effort to go into a single piece, just say no. Sometimes I’ll say yes to some big commissions because I think the character is cool and inspiring and I want to draw them; otherwise, I will admit, I’ve said no to big commissions because I personally found the character boring as hell (though I wouldn’t phrase it that way). And that’s ok! 

-If you are going to be really busy in the near future, stop taking commissions. You have finals? Don’t say “sorry if things take forever, I have finals”… just don’t take the commissions while you’re busy. If you have too much on your plate, commissions will just stress you out more, and nobody likes to draw motivated by stress. There’s nothing wrong with temporarily pausing your art shop. Put your mental health first. And if you aren’t able to get commissions done on a regular basis because of mental health, or because you don’t give enough of a shit about other peoples’ characters: don’t do commissions. I don’t mean this in a bad way; I’ve been in that spot before and it’ll just cause more stress and guilt than it’s worth. 

-NO PARAGRAPHS. That sounds hypocritical of me writing this lol but do not put long paragraphs in your art shop, ever. I promise nobody will read it. Put your rules, and any other information, in bullet points that are one or two lines. Keep your rules clear, simple, unambiguous and short, or everyone will ignore it and I won’t blame them. Put titles and subtitles wherever you can. If you have a block of text longer than probably five lines, it will be ignored by most people. I have decided not to buy art from people because I didn’t want to have to dig through blocks of text for information.

….so yeah I think that’s about all I can think of at the moment. time to sit back and get yelled at for not being able to shut the fuck up and get to the point lol, hope you (yes you) have a great day c:

[writingforyourpleasure]

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Characters: GERARD WAY x Reader 

 Link to chapter four :   https://writingforyourpleasure.tumblr.com/post/616411340391759872/on-the-road-again

Warnings : None 

 Author’s note: Hello ! Hope you’re all doing okay during those strange times ? Sorry for not posting but I had my en-of-the-year exam, but it’s now done and , I only got a few homework to hand-over now and my second year in college’ll be done !Here you go thank you to keep reading .

5.      “ Pun-master “

  You woke up, feeling something or someone moving in front of you . You started to groan at the uncomfortable feeling not wanting to get up just yet.

“And what owe me the pleasure to be assisted by your presence tonight sir Way?” You said while looking for plates.

The mass finally moved away , listening to your complains .

You woke up what felt just five minutes later but probably was in reality hours after it. Your eyes fluttered slowly as if they were disconnected from your brain. A light shine from the outside was peeking through your tinted window as soon as you truly started to wake up , you realized that Gerard wasn’t here anymore.

“Right…” You breathed out to yourself. Honestly you didn’t want to wake up. You were scared , scared of overthinking this , and because of that you actually was overthinking it . Your brain wasn’t playing on your favor . You didn’t knew how you were gonna survive today. The worst was, you didn’t knew how to act with Gerard , what happened yesterday night wasn’t that big of a deal, really , but again ; you were overthinking it . You just wanted to act normal with him , and was prying your brain to not let you down once you’ll see him. You felt so stupid for having a crush on one of your coworker and friends. You got up and hoped for the best.

You got out of your nest , only to find that you were alone in the bus and that you already had arrived into the next parking’s venue . You went directly to the kitchenette and groaned realized that you guys were short on coffee. You finally resigned yourself and went for the shower.

You got out of the bus a dozen of minutes later to find the parking lot empty except for the security that was already keeping everything on check. You checked your phone to see that it was 3pm . You had enough time, to get yourself a coffee somewhere and not stressing about when to comeback since you didn’t had to repeat with Dex or anything. You put back in your , old black Green Day’s hoodie, pocket your phone . You’ve dressed yourself as unfashionable as it is socially allowed , your laziness was clearly reflecting itself through most of your actions today. You put your headphones on , listening to the last Fever 333’s album and searched on google maps for the nearest Starbucks, once again a reflect of your laziness you figured.

You arrived to the welcoming smell of dirty beans being ground and hot milk.

Once you got your order you looked around for a seat since the place was pretty full, luckily you got one in front of the glass and on both sides what appeared to be two couples . Great. You hope that you’ll be lucky and won’t have to witness the same amount of smooshing in both of them. The teenage one , on your right , were the ones all over each other, with the boy groping at every part accessible of his what-you-presumed-to-be his girlfriend. The one on your left were two men in suits holding each other hands while talking , you sat facing the widow and the other empty seat. You got out of your backpack your sketch book and a pencil starting to draw people passing by while music took you in other world. A tap on your shoulder took you of guard , you got off your headphones .

“Yes ?” you turned around your head to see who was trying to get your attention.

“Hey, is this seat taken ?” Dex was smiling down at you with a big smile.

You said nothing instead kicking the seat in front of you, back to the glass for them to seat.

“I feel like it’s been a while since we talked .” Dex said sitting and looking expectantly at you.

“What are you talking ‘bout we talked just yesterday.” You said not looking up from your sketch book.

“Don’t play dumb y/n , you know what I mean. Like just the two of us ?” Dex sighed , seeing that you decided to not play cooperative . This time you did look up to your friend with a blank expression . Watching their eyebrows furrowed in confusion. It’s true , lately you tried to somewhat distance yourself since you were trying to figure out what the hell was happening with Gerard and you knew that being close to Dex would not help one second . Your friend knew how to read you even when you tried to hide something as well as you could. You had thinked that if Dex was about to ask questions it would make it weird since you were all working together . If you fucked up at any moments , you’ll have nowhere to hide and sometimes it can be a great deal of pain . But apparently you didn’t succeed not to make it awkward since your friend was not so happy that you act a little colder than usual . You were already fucking cold to any strangers , so to be cold to them was shitty. You sighed and run a hand through your now greasy hair . You needed to take a shower quickly , maybe it could wait after the show .

“Hey earth to y/n, hellooo?”

“Huh yeah sorry I was gone for a few…”

“Yeah no shit .”

“Sorry… like for all of it it’s true I’ve been kinda avoiding you guys.”

“Meh it happens , I mean it’s okay we all got our own problems.”

Dex tried to stay warm inside of the Starbucks but you could sense that being against a cold ass window wasn’t helped them to get the warmth that provided the Starbucks.

“I’m so cold….” They whispered as they took a gulp from their drink.

“Well….then stand in a corner .” You replied taking a large gulp of your hot drink too.

“What-Why ?”

“Think..”

“No….. please tell me it’s not because of what I think dude.”

“Coz’ corners are 90 degrees.” You said with a smug smile.

“Ho god …. Ok you know what maybe it’s for the best to be socially distant haha. It is so bad please do not do that again?”

“You’re asking way to much to the pun master .”

“More like the master of fucking nothing y’mean .”

“What did you said peasant , I think I didn’t quite hear that ?”

“Ho nothing .” said your friend smiling like a fool.

“Y/N I’m still fucking cold !” Said your friend trying to warm themselves up by rubbing strongly their arms.

“And how is that my problem , my dear?”

“Someday I really am going to kill you , y’know?” Told Dex between their teeth, with a little grunt along the way.  

“Y/N , Can I borrow your scarf? I’m seriously freezing. ”

“Well I can’t turn into a heater for you now can I? So do you want me to set you on fire? Because, I mean it’s still an option? Like I have my lighter right here so….?” You joked while giving them your scarf.

They gave you a warning glance as if they believed you . Then on a very exasperate note they sighed and said :

“Why are you like this?”              

You both laughed at that getting some curious looks from other clients. Once both of calmed down you try to get serious talking about the elephant in the room .

“Hey , can I ask your advice on something?”

“Absolutely , but I only advise communication, homosexuality, or murder.” Answered your friend earning a smug know-it-all smile out of you.

You were about to start to get off of your chest the whole “Hey I think I may or may not like the lead singer of the band for which we’re working for.” They cut you off.

“WAIT!”

“Yeah ?”

“Are you absolutely positive this isn’t dangerous or something?” They looked very serious about this , which had the reflex to make you roll your eyes deep inside your skull.

“I’m 95% sure, but yeah, I’ve failed fourth grade math so…” You decided to answer her stupid question with a stupid answer.

“Ho okay then we’re good I failed second grade! So just before we start , how long will this take ? I got to pick up my dog at the salon. «You both laughed at that. «No but like seriously we’ll have to go back to the bus eventually . Maybe tell me along the way back?”

“Alright , alright” You both got up from your seats and finally got out of the Starbucks.

“So huh, you remember when we got the 1 week break , alright?”

“Right. “

“Well huh, me and Gerard started talking by text pretty often during this time.”

“Ho. Did you now ?” They said waving their eyebrows in a suggestive way.

“No not like that calm down, you demon fuck .”

“Always a pleasure to fill my responsibilities.”

“You weirdo….” You whispered under your breath.

“Ho do not act if you aren’t even weirder man ! “

“Anyway, I just , I don’t know . I think, I think I may like him y’know?”

“Well it’s pretty comprehensible , I mean he’s hot .”

“I’m not talking about this you twat!”

“Ho c’mon you can’t say he isn’t !”

“Haha ,He is , I ‘ve sight too I’d let you know. It’s just not the point here .”

“You do? Sorry it’s hard to tell when you dress yourself like that .

“You bitch!” You choked on your drink , coughing violently.

“I’m just kind of dreading to really assuming the whole ‘hey by the way I’m hitting on you’ I don’t want to make it weird during the tour , when we’re not even at the half of it. And I don’t wish for everyone to see that I am hitting on him. I’m not ready.” You explained to Dex , not really wanting to expose everything you and Gerard said or do , foremost because there’s not that much to say

“Maybe not hitting on him is a good call since if you do I’m pretty sure he’s gonna freak out hearing your lame puns.”

“May I recall to you that I’m the pun-master AND the master of pickup lines ?”

“You completely suck at pickup lines, bro.”

“No I don’t !”

“The last time you tried one of you’re pickup lines was on this poor cute girl in Louisiana when you said ‘Are you Google –“

“CUZ YOU’RE EVERYTHING I’M SEARCHING FOR !!!”

“Yeah no wonder it didn’t worked !”

“I’m a genius , you’ll miss me when I’m gone.”

“You wish . So why are you’re feeling attracted to the guy ?”

“Well you see my kink is when people actually care about my feelings and what I have to say. And Since I know him he seems to correspond to this criteria , so I find it pretty attractive and hot since it’s my main kink.”

“Yeah , too unrealistic. Settle for bondage like the rest of us.”

“Where you ever nice Dex ?”

“2012, worst year of my life.” You laughed at what your friend said . “No but more seriously y/n, just let it happen y’know? And when you have the feeling that both of you are having a moment then maybe hit on him but stay subtle y’know?”

“I just want him to take me out…”

“Like, on a date or with a sniper ?”

“He’ll have to surprise me .” You both laughed before changing the subject to the little surprise you’ve both had planned for Max, since he was spending all of his nights and days working on your band , you wanted to do something nice for him. You bought a cookbook a few weeks ago for him as a present for the occasion, he often baked pastries as a distressful way to exhale from work time. Even though the bus condition made it hard to cook anything big it already was a good start. And you bought some bottle of Irish hard cider, since he had said it was the best thing he ever tasted when you all took a vacation to Dex family house there. After getting back to the bus everything went pretty fast , but the talk with Dex about Gerard was still playing in your mind. Ames saw that you were lost in your thoughts most of the time and ask you several times if everything was okay, you tried to act like you didn’t knew what he was talking about and you all moved on with your day . Mikey, Frank , Gerard and Ray were already in your bus when you had come back from your coffee session, and they yelled at you for not texting them and taking them with you. You brushed it off saying that next time you would. Gerard had tried to share looks with you during the day but you were too much caught up into your head to notice.

The show this night was nice and almost too short even if you guys took a ten minutes on My chemical romance planning since you played a special song. Once you were backstage Ames and Billy started their routines taking everything off stage to let place for the boys. To go faster Max offered to help them. It gave you and Dex a chance to run to the bus to prepare your little plan. You took any cushions , pillow and anything fluffy you could find , when you were done the bunks were quite a mess but you didn’t want to think of it since you still had to prepare the hard cider and the cake you brought from the Mark & Spencer’s not having too much time to find anything else. By the time everything was served , you knew that My chem was done with their show too , so you decided to prepare them a part too , you made a point to serve a apple juice instead of the cider for Gerard , not wanting him to feel excluded or anything. Max had been held backstage by Billy and Ames who were your dearest allies as ever.

You installed yourself with every plates and drinks giggling between the two of you alone in the bus to stupid jokes.

A knock made itself hear through the bus and Billy appeared into the kitchenette area before being followed by Ames and Max , who where looking at you with huge smiles spread across their face and a snort from the three of them.

“What the fuck did you do with our beds ?” Asked Max between a laugh.

“Well we did a pillow fort !” Answered Dex.

“Isn’t that a little childish ? “

“Does it means you don’t want to join us ?” You asked Max.

A silence swept through the bus.

“…Move over .” Said Max entering your huge pillow fort and already going for the cake and drink.

“Wait there’s a party and you guys didn’t told us about?! “Said Frank entering your bus.

You handed a plate in his direction , earning a smile from him before he arrived by your side as well as everyone else too.

Frank was on your right while Gerard was on your right and all of you were in a cercle eating and joking about stupid stuff.

“Hey you look better than this morning it’s good to see.” Whispered at your side Gerard offering a sweet smile before readjusting a few locks behind his ear.

“Well It’s because in the end we migrate towards comfort , and I realized that I am most comfortable around you , all of you.” You said returning a bright smile to the man.The night went along before Frank spoke up .

“Guys how are you gonna clean this mess to sleep tonight ?” Painful groans made themselves heard from all of you.

[bringthekaos]

@catlynnhighlights-studies requested a how-to on the Crowley/Bentley pop, so here goes!

Unfortunately I didn’t take progress photos, so this is gunna be pretty wordy. Walkthrough below the cut!

Right. So. Step one: the pops I used. Cruella de Vil Ride version. As I’m typing this, Hot Topic has it for $15, which is cheaper than any of those eBay listings, but they shuffle through pops like hot cakes, so that’s why I’m not linking to that. The problem with her, though, is the face.

As you can kinda see, the lips, nose, cheekbones, and eyebrows actually have raised plastic. You can take the paint off easy as pie with acetone and a q-tip, but the raised plastic, you can’t work with. That, combined with the earrings made it pretty clear that this head would not work.

So really you can find any pop whose face you like, but if you like mine, I used Percy from Smallfoot. He’s cheap as hell (pun intended), and I found him at my local Barnes and Noble.

Now comes the hard part... removing the head. I used this tutorial to learn how (WARNING: a LOT of strong language in that video, but he is hilarious and made learning so much more fun). If you want a TL;DR version, boil a pot of water (enough to submerge the head), and hold the head under until you see air bubbles escaping from inside the head, probably a minute or so, or until the head gets kinda squishy. Bubbles means the glue is being weakened. Then yank that bad boy off. Now, you can run into problems getting the head off, which is exactly what happened to me. I’ll tell you how I fixed this, but I’ll do it at the bottom of this post. For now, I’ll assume you didn’t have problems getting both heads off. Don’t attach the Percy head to the Cruella car just yet! You’ll wanna paint them separately, or you won’t be able to reach Crowley’s clothes.

Step two: paint! Walmart (and all craft stores) have dirt cheap acrylic paints. You just gotta eyeball the colors you’ll need (lots of black, yellow for the eyes[some gold if you wanna be extra fancy like me], a rust color for his hair, and maybe a gunmetal or charcoal grey for the Bentley accents). Walmart also has combo packs of detail paint brushes for like... a dollar. They’re not great brushes for if you’re painting your Sistine Chapel, but for repainting a pop? They’ll work.

You don’t HAVE to remove the paint on the hair first, but I do, cuz it requires more layers of paint if you don’t, which can look globby/sloppy. I remove it with 100% acetone and cotton balls and q-tips. Just be extra careful near the hairline, cuz it’s easy to smear the removed color onto the flesh tone of the face. (Note: most Funko Pops are actually flesh colored, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally removing the flesh color from the face.) Also note: careful with how much acetone you use. It is possible to melt the plastic. (On that note, if you’re pouring the acetone into something, make sure it’s glass or metal—it will melt through styrofoam cups and even some Tupperware.) You’ll probably also want to remove the black of the eyes, cuz yellow on top of black will not give you that crisp bright color of his eyes. (I used a pencil to sketch out the pupil slits once the yellow dried to make sure they were perfect, then used a fine tip sharpie for the pupils.)

You won’t be able to remove any of the paint on the Bentley, because it’s not painted, but actual dyed plastic, but it’s not a problem since you’re putting a darker color on top. Just leave the grill and wheel rims silver, though.

Step three: attach the head. Assuming you had no trouble removing Percy’s head (and the little plate thing came off in one piece),

I suggest attaching the plate to the Cruella neck first. You can do this by holding a hair dryer to the hole on the center of the plate, then shove it onto the neck. Then line the plate with super glue or something, and smack the head on there! Voila! Crowley on a Bentley!!!

Now... the problem that I had. No amount of hot water was enough to get the Percy head off cleanly. I ended up having to use an X-acto knife to slice the whole plate thing off, and it came off in pieces. And Cruella’s was a different shape, so it wouldn’t work as a stand-in. So... I found myself without the plate that is used to mount the head. SO... I used Worbla. This is not something you can easily find, but if perhaps you know of it and have some, it is super easy. Cut a circle slightly larger than the hole on the bottom of the head, heat it up, and slap it on there. It will stick like a MF, cuz Worbla sticks to other plastics. Then, while it’s still warm, poke a small hole in the center (much smaller than the neck pole, because you want it to be a tight fit so that the head doesn’t sag), and shove it on there. Hold it in place until the Worbla is completely cool. If you don’t know what Worbla is, or don’t have access to it, I suspect you could easily use craft store air-dry clay, and do the same thing. Or Hell, even some cardboard. I didn’t even paint the homemade plate, cuz you can’t see it unless you’re underneath the Pop, which no one will be.

If you’re interested in the display diorama thing, it’s a piece of cardboard painted to look like a road, and yellow, orange, and red cellophane I got at the dollar store, chopped up to look like flames and hot glued to the cardboard. The light source is a string of firefly lights I had lying around, which I just placed amidst the cellophane and then plopped the car on top.

And of course if you run into trouble, if something isn’t clear, or if you have any questions whatsoever, I am happy to help! I love doing these things!

[da2sava]

Rhapsody of a Broken Heart

Anticipation | Episode 1

Featuring:

𝟏 | ���𝐢𝐚

𝟑 | 𝐇𝐞𝐬𝐬

𝟑𝟗 | 𝐋𝐢𝐫𝐚

~1600 words & ~7 mins of reading 

────────────────────────────

11 pm

Kia finally finished her painting of her mother, who fell asleep during posing, after long hours of working without taking a single break. She puts her brushes away and gets up to wake her mom up. She gets off the puffy chair she was sitting on and approaches her, reaching her hand out to wake her up. Lira eventually wakes up after a short while of being gently shaken.

“Mom I’m done, come look” Kia sounds somewhat tired while saying that. Her mom agrees. Kia helps her to get up and then Lira takes a look at the painting her daughter made.

“Whoa!” Lira didn’t expect to see such a well-made painting of her, it put a massive smile on her. Kia ended up receiving tons of compliments which made her feel confident about her teachers liking it too. Which after Kia went to clean up and let the paint dry. Once she was done, she was told to go rest, she did. Before her door was shut, her mom came in.

“Hey, Kia.” “...Yeah?” Kia asks while yawning. “I have a flight in 3 hours so I’ll get ready to leave. You will be alone for the weekend. Goodnight.” After this, Lira closes the door to Kia’s room. Kia spends most of the night dreaming about meeting her cousin for the first time in her life. The reason why they never met was that her aunt lives in UK but Kia in the US.

. . .

9 am

Kia wakes up, wakes up remembering about all the homework she has to do. It is surprisingly quiet it is at their place. Their neighbors usually sang karaoke at this time or clean up. She decides to use the situation to focus on her studies.

.

She calls her boy, Hess, over so he’d help her with things she doesn’t understand. He agrees to come over, Kia gets really happy but remembers that she has to study, not fool around with him.

Hess – Kia’s neighbor, best friend, and a boyfriend. Though, considering how long they’ve known each other for, you almost could call them siblings.

.

He comes right when Kia was making breakfast. She asks if he’d like to eat with her, he agrees. They chat while having a nice and tasty breakfast. Hess tells her about things that are getting worse between him and his family, he feels way better at her place because of how peaceful it is here, comparing to where he lives. Kia could never understand why his parents don’t like him, comparing to his little brother. She considered Hess a really kind, warm, and a clever person, not like his younger bro, who is still really young. They end up talking about Hess’s family for a long time and at one moment Kia remembers about her homework again and asks if he could help.

“Oh?...Yeah, of course. Is there a lot?” he asks. “I’m not sure, I’ll go check,” Kia responds, walking out of the kitchen.

Hess took care of the dishes while Kia was gone. After a while she returned with a bunch of books and placed them all on the sofa in the living room. She notices that there are no plates on the table and looks at Hess

“Did you wash the plates?” “I did.” He replies “Aww! You didn’t have to!” She chuckles “That’s a habit.” He says while approaching Kia, he notices the pile of books “Do you expect me to help you with everything?” “That would be nice if you did, you’re good at explaining.” “I am?” he seems to be slightly surprised “You really are! Don’t I tell you that all the time?” she grins He slightly blushes “I- Thank you..” That sounded somewhat shy Hess sits next to Kia and they begin working together.

.

After 2 hours they finish with the first subject out of 4. Kia gets up and stretches, she looks out of the window.

“Maybe we should take a walk?” she asks, turning to Hess “Is it warm outside?” “A little breezy but we can if you want to.” He replies “Get up. We’re going on a walk then.” Hess nods and gets up. He waits for Kia to quickly change into something she could go on a walk in. Soon after, Kia returns. They make sure to lock all the windows and the door of course.

. It was really peaceful and warm outside. One of the warmest days in the entire spring. Kia persuaded Hess to hold hands with her while walking. It doesn’t seem like he’s not enjoying it and he’s not even trying to hide that. They both seem to be happy to be together.

They speak about school some more. Hess will graduate soon and Kia graduates in a year. "So..you never told me what you will do after you're out?" She asks him. "Medical School." “Won't it take too long to study in a medical school?” “It will but I believe that it’s worth it.” He began telling her about his dream job being a doctor. He didn’t expect her to be interested but she was. It felt as if nobody had ever cared more about his dreams than Kia. It’s sad to know that there are people who keep everything to themselves. Luckily, Hess has Kia, who seems to be ready to listen to anything he’d say.

Suddenly, rain starts. It doesn’t ruin the mood these two were in, though the break was ruined. They went into a café and ended up studying here cuz Hess got a few books with himself... After the rain has stopped, they quickly went back into Kia’s place and continued to study.

.

11 pm

Kia and Hess spent their entire day studying and chatting. They agreed to have a sleepover. Hess fell asleep on Kia’s bed while she was making a sketch of him.

Once she was done, she noticed him sleeping. She lies down next to him and snuggles into him. Quickly after, she fell asleep without waking him up.

.

4 am.

Hess randomly woke up and saw Kia be slightly hugging him. That kind of made him blush. He isn't used to affection so it felt nice. He tried coving them both with a blanket, though his attempt was unsuccessful cuz he was afraid of waking up his sweetie. Instead, he pulled her closer, which, luckily, didn't wake her up. He managed to fall asleep.

At around 7 am they both were woken up by a call on someone's phone. It was Hess's mother calling. He didn't want to pick up and turned the sound off, going back to sleep, since they both were still really sleepy.

Z Z Z

"Wake up, sleepyhead!" Kia shakes Hess while telling him that. He gr0An "nn..what time is it..?" "1 pm already." She replies. "..what? ..oh..when did I even fell asleep?" "At around 11." He was still really sleepy but hearing that he've slept for this long surprised him. Kia gave him some time to properly wake up and waits for him in the living room. Hess comes after a few mins. He looks like a mess. "I'll take a shower." "Of course. Don't forget to take your clothes off." "I- pff- why wouldn't I?" "Last time you didn't." She giggles "Wait, really? I don't remembe- OH. Right. ahah." It kind of lightened him up. He peaced out into the bathroom... After a while he's out. Kia seems to be talking with someone over the phone. ....Hess' phone. He watches her do that. Seems like she's talking to his mom....or no? She's always so nice to everyone that its hard to say who exactly she's speaking to.

He goes to sit next to Kia. Right when she ends the call. "Morning!" She happily greets him. "More like 'good afternoon'. Who were you talking to?" "My mom" "..On my phone?" "Eh?" She looks at the phone she's holding. She gets up and goes into her bedroom. She walks out with a phone just the same as his. "Seems like we are phone mates," she says "..aw." his expression went <:) Its fun to have something that matches. Kia hands him his phone. He checks it and sees 3 missed calls from his mother. Kia notices it. "Not going to call back?" "I don't want to.." seems like he's just fed up with his parents to the point where he doesn't even want to listen to their voices.

She sits next to him. "Hey" He looks at her "yeah?" "I'll get a sibling soon." He's silent for a moment He's confused "..What? Is your mom going to give b-" "no---" Kia interrupts him. "What then? Adopting? And by the way...where's your mom?" "She's in the UK. She will bring my cousin tomorrow." "Ohh... I get it. So you will live with your cousin from now on?" "I think so?" "Why though? Did something happen to your cousins parents?" "I have no idea and hopefully didn't."

.

The day passed quickly. Kia spent most of her day telling Hess what she would love to do with her cousin and simply dreaming about her. Thought when the evening came, he said that he couldn't stay here any longer. It made K a little upset but she was glad that they spent so much time together.

.

Night. Kia is peacefully sleeping and having a nice dream about her meeting her cousin. She's not even sure if its a girl or a boy! And how old they are..or anything about them at all. Though, she thinks that her cousin must be younger since Lira, her mom, has a younger sis. At one moment her dream gets really realistic. As if someone us actually hugging her. Feels good.

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Thank you so much if you gave this ep a shot! It may seem to be a little boring in the beginning, but I swear that it will get more enjoyable in the future! :)

Tiny spoiler for the ones that will stay: no, the story wont be about these two. There will be a big amount of main/side characters and not all of it will be all so wholesome (;

[cddump]

Again (Sitting Two, 1950 words)

Casper left the coffee on the counter. After what he experienced, the shock alone was enough to jolt him onto the next level of being awake, though he knew even the strongest cup of coffee could only take him in particular so far. The longest a strong cup has ever given him energy was about two hours before he felt the extreme exhaustion that has always plagued him. At least the cold air was enough to keep him from collapsing on the street. The thought of falling asleep on the sidewalk only to be awoken by a stray dog has always been a fear of his. Then again, he had never thought about being caught in public with a stack of porno mags. Casper let out a quick laugh at the situation as he made his way through the quiet streets. He briefly considered calling for a cab to make the walk easier on him, but the trip went by quickly and without incident. In fact, having to wait for the cab to find him and then take him to the apartment complex would have most likely taken longer than simply walking there on his own. The apartment complex was a familiar sight to him, having seen it multiple times online. The small fenced garden formed an entryway with a proud oak tree on the right hand side of the center pathway that lead into the modern complex. Largely square in structure, the pale building in front of him reminded him of a skyline in and of itself. A thin rectangular section of the building stuck out taller than the rest of the building where the staircases rested, and each top floor room raised the roof by another foot or two while each corner was higher than the center rooftops. Casper smiled to himself. The building would be fun to sketch out when he had time to do so. Tall rounded garden lamps dotted the pathways, softly illuminating the walkway for him. The entrance's glass doors opened easily as he entered, and the right hand wall was lined with mail slots, complete with name plates. He could see his own name already placed on a mailbox at the end of the wall. The left wall had a small security room with a glass pane separating it from the rest of the lobby. A dark skinned man sat on a small swivel chair reading a newspaper. He wore a tan shirt and dark pants, and Casper could see a walkie-talkie sitting on the counter next to him along with a wall of black and white monitors on the wall behind him, surveying the various locations of the apartment complex. The man looked up from his paper as Casper entered, who smiled bashfully as he pulled out the key to his apartment. “I've just moved in,” he explained. The security guard nodded once before returning to his paper. He seems a little too lax for this position. Instead of fretting on it, Casper walked passed the lobby and towards the first hallway of the complex.

He had lucked out and managed to get a first floor room, which was a great plus for him. The idea of having to climb multiple staircases every day was a torturous one, and he was grateful for being able to dodge that particular bullet. The tile flooring caused Casper's footsteps to tap loudly in the empty hallway as he approached his room. Room 117 stood in a red door frame against the white walls, lined up along with the other red doors beside it. He reached for the door handle and thankfully found it to be locked. Thank god. The movers didn't leave all of his possessions unguarded. Just as Casper reached into his pocket for the key, he heard a door hastily thrown open behind him. “Stop right there, scumlord!” Turning around, Casper found himself face to face with a scrawny man in a white tank top and black shorts. His face had the beginnings of a beard outlined on it, and the spectacles he wore were large and round, like a literal pair of drinking glasses strapped to some frames. “How dare you try and sneak around into my new neighbor's apartment?! What did you do to him, did you eat him? Take his flesh for your own as a disguise?! Who sent you?!” With each word, the man got closer to Casper until he was pushed up against his room's door, and the man's face was so close, Casper could smell a faint trace of the man's dinner. Or at least, he hoped that was what the cheese smell was. “What are you talking about?” Casper clawed desperately at his door handle in an attempt to unlock it. “Hold up a sec,” the man said as he backed away, “is that a duffel bag? You homeless, man? I get that you want a place to stay but you can't just take advantage of an empty apartment.” “What?! No! No, you've got it all wrong! I'm the guy who's moving in here!” “Aha! So you did eat my neighbor-to-be! Are you a Skin Walker? You ain't walking in my skin, Skin Walker!” “A what? No, listen! My name's Casper. I just moved in today!” “Casper?” The man rubbed his chin in thought. “Well that's the dude's name, yeah. But how do I know you're the real Casper and not a Skin Walker? Or worse, an FBI agent pretending to be him?” Casper didn't answer and instead brought his hands up in a confused shrug. “That's a good point,“ the man responded, “and well made as well.” Casper decided not to tell the man that he never made a point, or even said a word. “So you're Casper, huh? My name's Alex. Alexander Blanket for long. Sorry for grilling you like that. We live in a scary world and gotta be careful, ya know?” “Uh...” Alex brought his hand up to shake, which Casper grasped carefully, afraid of what might happen when he did so. “You know why we're gonna be good friends?” Casper almost responded with 'because I'm going to avoid you forever,' but held his tongue. “Two reasons. The first is because you stayed totally calm while I was giving you the third degree. A smart man stays cool and collected during uncertain times. Men like us are hard to find. The second reason is because you've got a firm grip. Very firm. Shows confidence, just like me. Men like us are hard to find.” “You repeated yourself.” And the only reason my grip is so strong right now is because I'm terrified. “Repetition is good. Shows the importance of statements. But you knew that already because you're an important man. Like me. Men like us are hard to find.” “...Right.” It was then Casper realized they had been shaking hands for over twenty seconds, but he wasn't sure how to disengage. “You were smart to take the ground floor as a room, you know. Smart. Real smart. like me. Men like us--” “Are hard to find, yeah.” “See? Repetition.” “Why is the ground floor important?” “It stops the aliens.” “The...aliens?” “Yeah, the aliens. Keep up, man. You ever been abducted by aliens?” “Can't say I have.” They were still shaking hands. Alex's was particularly sweaty, which made Casper nervous, thus made him sweat as well. “Me neither. Know why? Cuz I always lived in a ground floor apartment. Aliens can only get you if you live in a house by yourself. It makes it easy for them. Of course, they don't mind snagging someone if they live in an apartment, but living on the ground floor makes it harder for them. It's even more difficult when you board up your windows.” “You boarded up your windows?” “You don't?! Maybe you're not as smart as me. Like me, rather. You still got a lot to learn I guess.” Casper finally pried his hand away from Alex. He wiped it against his jeans and did his best to keep a neutral expression at the cool air he felt against his wet hand. “Yo, lemme ask. Lizardmen or Molemen?” Casper blinked. “...Sorry, what?” “Which one do you think lives under us?” “I... molemen? I don't know.” “Interesting. It's because we live near Canada, right?” “Are you saying Canada hides molemen now? And what was that about aliens?” “Forget the aliens, man. Keep up. The colder atmosphere of Canada is too harsh for Lizardmen. That's your thought process, right? But it doesn't matter since they live deep underground. You didn't take that into account.” “...R-right.” “Either way, I'm gonna find out. I've been digging a tunnel in my room as a bunker for when the inevitable human wars come. That's why I demanded a ground floor apartment, you know.” “I thought you took a ground floor apartment because of the aliens.” “I told you to forget about the aliens, man. Keep up.” “Does the landlord know about your digging? Or did you get a permit or something?” “Pfft, of course not. What would be the point of a secret bunker if everyone knew? I'm only telling you because you seem smart and I want you to live when it comes to it.” “So you dug an illegal tunnel is what you're saying.” “Man, can you really say you're 'free' in this country if you can't even dig a hole without permission?” “I'm pretty sure one of the reasons you need permission is so you don't hit a septic tank or something.” “Don't let them brainwash you, dude. Think for yourself. I know you can do it, you're smart. Like me. By the way, I saw some burly dudes coming and going into your apartment earlier today. They your brothers? Boyfriends? All of the above?” “What the hell is wrong with you, man?” Casper's exhaustion was amplified as the conversation went on, and he was ready to go to bed. “Hey bro, what you do is your business. I ain't here to judge.” “They were movers. They were just bringing my stuff in for me... Wait, why didn't you stop them like you stopped me?” “Cuz they looked super strong, dude. They could probably kick my door down if they wanted to. My window's boarded up so I can't really escape this room if I needed to.” “Sounds like a fire hazard.” “You're a fire hazard. Sorry. I didn't mean that. Anyway. I gotta get going. That tunnel won't dig itself and I've got a meeting with someone tonight. Let me know if you need help with anything, yeah? That's what neighbors are for, after all.” “Right.” “Just not tonight. Starting tomorrow, let me know if you need anything.” “Helpful,” Casper rubbed at his tired eyes. “Peace, man. Keep your eyes peeled.” “I'll...do that.” Alex retreated back into his own apartment as Casper unlocked the door. Once inside, he slumped against the door and sighed heavily as he slid to the ground. Was this his life now? Living next to a conspiracy theorist? Another yawn escaped his mouth, but Casper knew he wouldn't be able to sleep now. Not for another half an hour, at least if he were lucky. A new location would definitely mess with his sleep schedule. He looked at the living room he had just entered and saw cardboard boxes stacked on top one another. “Might as well do some unpacking before going to sleep,” he told himself.