#also I love the gradient titles I think I’ll do gradient titled for all my fics forever actually

[paper-star-ships]

You're Still Here (TSFF)

Prompt: Carding your fingers through your lover's hair after a bad nightmare, not caring that it's sweaty or matted, but just that they'll be able to get a good night's sleep, even if it's at the sacrifice of your own.

A prompt carried over from the archived blog! (Thank you @catboyazure for the ask 🖤)

Warnings: Brief mention of gore (canon events), trauma, nightmares

♡ ♡ ♡

The night was soft and cold. Outside, the moon drifted slowly across the sky, and the stars dipped in-and-out of sight as storm clouds rolled in with the promise of rainy weather. Inside, a baby slept peacefully, paying no mind to the static of the monitor above, nor privy to the turmoil playing out only a couple feet away from her crib. 

“You’re okay, you’re okay…” Filly wasn’t sure what he’d dreamed about this time. It could’ve been the Baker family, or Mother Miranda and her lords, or Mia. Whatever it was, it had him in pieces beside her; tight breaths coming out in sharp bursts, eyes shining with unshed tears, hands clutching tightly at her clothes like she might disappear if he let go. 

“R-Rose…” 

She wasn’t sure if he’d actually spoken, or if her mind had incorrectly translated his shaky breathing. Regardless, she answered, “Rose is okay, she’s here, she’s okay, she’s just sleeping…” 

There was no point in turning the lights on. There was no point in waking Rosemary from her sleep; Ethan would calm down slowly, and eventually he’d crawl out of bed to make absolutely sure she was alright. 

All Filly could do until then was assure him of where he was. Far away from the mold-choked shell of the Baker house, or the nightmarish fairytale of the little village in Romania that didn’t exist anymore. She held him tightly to her chest, tucking his face into the crook of her neck and rubbing soothing circles onto his back as he continued to cling to her for dear life. 

“You-You’re here…” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her, and it hurt her heart a little to hear. 

Ethan had assured her, over and over again, that her absence in the three years between the Baker house and Romania was forgotten. They’d talked about it. She’d apologized more than once. He’d forgiven her more than once. But in these moments, when dark memories reached towards him with cold hands, he always seemed astonished that she was there when he awoke. She tried to tell herself it was because Mia and Rosemary had both been taken, with only one returned. That he was surprised she’d been spared the same awful fate. 

Still, in these moments, it was difficult not to blame herself. 

At her lack of response, his grip on her shirt tightened to an uncomfortable degree.

“F-Fil…?” 

In all her years of knowing him, Filly couldn’t remember Ethan ever sounding so small and scared. It made her heart ache. Ignoring the tears springing to her eyes, she shook her head. “I’m here, I’m here… I’m sorry, I-” 

But the apology died on her lips. This wasn’t about her, she thought scathingly. This was about him. She had hurt herself by hurting him all that time ago, and in the morning, when she apologized for the hundredth time, he would tell her again that he’d already forgiven her. 

For now though, she wasn’t the one in need of comfort. 

“I’m here, Ethan. I’m still here.” She shifted to hug him closer, and he responded by letting go of her shirt to wrap his arms around her in a bone-crushing hug. “We’re all still here.” She struggled through the words with how tightly he was holding her, but she tried not to fuss. If this was what he needed to assure himself that she was actually there, she would consider it a small price. 

Eventually, he let go. Like always, his grip got looser and looser as the need to check on Rosemary grew from a fleeting thought to a sharp spike of anxiety that demanded attention. 

The lamp on his side of the bed was turned on with a heavy click. Ethan slipped out of bed, looking almost sickly in the lamplight; pale and shining with a thin layer of sweat. He grabbed her hand as he went, hesitating for only a moment before flitting away to the crib at the end of the bed. 

As always, the sight calmed him down. 

Rosemary was still sleeping, undisturbed by the muted sobbing and hushed comforts only a couple feet away. She was whole, still. She was okay. 

“She’s safe.” Filly whispered behind him, having slipped quietly out of bed to place a gentle hand on his arm. He heaved a heavy sigh, unspoken tension finally releasing from his shoulders. 

“I know- I knew she would be. Thank God.” He said it like he didn’t quite believe it. Like he expected to wake up from this dream and be back in Romania, with a daughter in pieces and a newly-dead Mia. 

Filly couldn’t know what he felt–nor the extent to which he was feeling it–but she saw the look in his eyes and slipped her arms around him silently, pressing her forehead to his back to remind him that she was still here.

Some tension went away again. Not all of it, but some. 

They stayed like that for minutes, or hours, in silence only broken by Ethan’s slowly calming breaths. Later, when Ethan’s heart had calmed down and he’d finished memorizing the sight of his daughter safely sleeping, they would both slip back into bed to wait out the night. Neither would quite get back to sleep; Ethan would stay awake to keep himself from dreaming, and Filly would be upright beside him, holding his hand and making herself a comforting weight on his side.

As always, he would assure her that she didn’t have to stay awake with him.

As always, she would insist. 

“Just try to relax,” She’d say, and she’d rub patterns and shapes onto his palm until the tension vanished completely. “I’ll be here if you fall asleep.”

Then he’d smile at her; a weak but precious thing, and pull her close to whisper into her hair, “I know.” 

[koishiro]

Ermmm quick question… HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL AF BLOG?? Like pls share and help me out bc my blog is BARE and empty and looks nasty af, I wanna make my pinned posts and moodboards and just pfp and theme look pretayyy ☹️☹️

Awe thank youuu!!! >.< I think bc I’m such a minimalist in rl it’s easier for me to pick and choose. But here’s a tutorial that’ll hopefully help :33

NOTE! I do everything on my iphone (writing, editing, decorating my page etc just in case ur wondering if I do all this on a laptop/computer,,,I don’t :p)

ʚ The way I work is I’ll choose 3 main colours; a light colour, an in-between shade and then a dark colour. Mine for example : light colour: white, in-between shade: grey, dark colour: dark grey. It’s up to you whether you want ur dark or light colour to be ur main colour but I’d keep ur in-between shade as an in-between. (Think of ur in-between shade as a gradient, helping to blend ur light colour with ur dark colour)

AND CHOOSE COLOURS THAT WORK TOGETHER! Even when picking pictures like for example ur navigation or pinned page make sure the pics have the same three colour combo you used through ur whole blog even if its minuscule it’ll make a huge difference I promise u (so like I’d personally look out for white, grey and black accent pics for my blog on Pinterest) :

ʚ Even with moodboards I still work with the same mindset! :

SET YOUR THEME! Once you’ve figured out your colours and where they’ll go, set your blog’s theme from the editing page!!! (hint : I’d use your mid/gradient/in-between shade as your accent but it honestly depends on what ur after) :

ʚ What really helps is when you have a pic theme and what I mean by that is maybe use ur fav character from somewhere (like mines megumi from jjk) or maybe it’s a sanrio character like my melody. (I grab my pics from this Pinterest board if that helps which I also use for my moodboards)

Example :

⤷ I also found it helped my aesthetic when I added links into my bio to help find my carrd and navigation (here’s the link for the tut) it helps fill out ur bio especially if ur not sure what to put there :) — I know earlier I said I do everything on my phone but I’m not entirely sure if this is able to be done on a phone (android or iphone) so I’d use a laptop with this part if you can :))

Miscellaneous things you can add!

ʚ You can also customise ur ask page title (like mine is : send me a love letter ︎♡)

ʚ Keep ur writing post themes consistent — this helps readers actually remember ur work while also tying ur blog together.

For example, I always use this draft for my writing :

ʚ Fonts really help! I personally use the app : keyboard + + for free fonts (u just have to watch a few adds to unlock them)

ʚ I find it important to make sure whatever picture you add to your blog has a transparent background — not everyone has the same colour palette (like mine is permanently on Dark Mode while others will have theirs on Gothic) :

(I use Picsart for this)

ʚ Tags make a difference on your posts too! A separate tag index can also help ur followers know where to find certain posts for easy scrolling or maybe posts they want to avoid (like smut) :

ʚ For my pfp I chose a bright main colour like yellow to stand out against the dark grey of my blog and I usually leave this as the last step in my “blog decoration” just because I find it easier once all the main construction is done and then I can see what colour(s) I need to add back to tie my blog together.

ʚ I also like to hide my pfp/avatar from my bio bc it looks a bit too much and too big for me personally and it can sometimes clash with the colours you already have going on, I like a minuscule pfp but again that’s just preference :

Anywhoooo I think that’s it! Hopefully this helped and if you (or anyone else) have anymore questions or if you want me to personally help you with decorating your blog pls pls pls message me and I’ll be happy to help! ,,,Mwah! <3

[handsome-edvard]

Well, I did finally look into my WIP folders and the Don Judy fic I started in freaking 2022 was sitting there waiting for me like 👁️👄👁️ ma’am why would you leave me here for so long.

So here’s chapter one UNEDITED and ROUGH but finally freeeee (idk if I’ll finish this fic tbh).

~~~

Love Came With All That It Brings

The sky looks different where they’ve stopped for a break, a soft iridescent blue, fading into a gradient of lavender and pink which makes the alien moons more prominent where they seem to hang. To Don, they look as though they’ll tear through the atmosphere at any moment and fall on their heads. It wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen today, a thought which birthes a sardonic smile on his face.

The sound of footsteps approaching tear his attention away from the unsettlingly beautiful sky. Judy sidles up to him but she does not meet his gaze.

“How’s he holding up?” Don asks, a part of him still reeling from Evan’s accident earlier.

If Judy is also shaken, her face betrays nothing. “He’s stable,” she answers. “I didn’t want to scare him but I don’t think he’ll walk again.” She draws a shaky breath and it rattles past her lips. “I really thought I could save him.”

“You did,” Don says. “He wouldn’t be alive right now if it wasn’t for you. Hey—” Finally, Judy’s eyes are his, and Don can see that this whole thing is a lot for her. Sure, she kept her cool with someone’s life on the line, like a real doctor, but the pressure must have been immense. Evan is her third patient, ever. “You did great, Dr. Robinson.”

The title seems to have the intended effect and Don sees a small, grateful smile settle on her lips. Victor Dhar may not see her as a doctor yet, but after today, Don would rather be with Judy in the event of a medical emergency. He can even get past her ‘anger issues’, though to her credit, she placed his nose cleanly back into place. A precise fix for a precise break.

“We should get him back,” Judy says. “I can treat him further and his brother will want to know what happened.”

Don agrees and inclines his head for Judy to follow him back to the Chariot. Evan is asleep for most of the ride back, yet Judy hardly leaves his side, diligently checking his vitals every so often. When bumps on the road jostle the patient awake, Don hears Judy speak softly to Evan, comforting him by distracting him from the pain and the heaviness of his fate.

It seems five degrees warmer out once they reach camp. Don helps transport Evan to a supply tent that officially becomes their new medic bay. He clears out a few pieces of heavy equipment to give Judy more space to work. Aiko is there to help setup the medical supplies and once there isn’t much left for him to do, Don figures it’s best if he keeps out of the way. Yet he finds himself lingering hesitantly at the entrance of the tent. It feels like he should stay but that is foolish, as he can’t actually help with any of this stuff.

“Don?” Judy calls, breaking his idleness. “We need to tell Evan’s brother and I need to find my mom.”

The look she gives him is clear enough. It’s partly why he hasn’t left the tent yet. Smith is out there still and Don isn’t quite confident Judy should be dealing with the dangerous fraudster with everything that’s happened to Evan. Another part of him wants to deal with Smith himself.

“I’ll handle it,” Don says. “Comm me if anything.”

Judy acknowledges him with a nod and Don departs. He finds Evan’s brother after practically going in circles all around camp, but of Maureen and Smith, there is no sign. By the time hunger prompts him to give up, it’s dark out. Most people have retreated to tents, vehicles, or the odd Jupiter. Don forages for rations and heads back to the medic bay. Something tells him the doctor hasn’t left her patient. He finds Judy almost exactly where he left her.

“Didn’t find your mom and there’s no sign of Smith either,” Don declares to make himself known. “I think your folks might be on a little excursion of their own. We’re down a Chariot.”

“Alright. Evan’s doing okay,” Judy replies, her eyes glued on the vitals. “I told his brother I’ll need to keep him here a few more days, until he fully stabilizes.”

“Did you tell him about the…?”

Judy turns to look at Don. She nods somewhat sadly. “I told Evan too. He said he can still surf with prosthetics.”

Don huffs somewhat mirthlessly. “Well think fast,” he says, and tosses Judy the food ration. “Have that before you end up being your own patient.”

“Thanks.” Judy walks past Don, sitting on the crates just outside the tent. The way her head turns slightly toward him is an open invitation, so he takes the spot beside her with an exaggerated groan. “You know, you saved Evan too today. Thank you for doing that.”

Don tears into the food ration and takes a bite of the sandwich which is mostly synthetic food. The moment Judy refers to is not lost on him. In fact, this whole day and the one before have been rollercoasters. It did not take him long to accept he has more in common with the Robinson than perhaps either one of them could see.

“I know I said some things about your smuggling,” Judy goes on after a minute, and Don partly wishes she hadn’t continued with that. “I still disapprove of it and of your… deal, but… I also think you’re a good man.”

He can’t help the laugh that surfaces. It’s not forced but he can’t explain it either. There is nothing funny here but it still flows, before ending abruptly. “You don’t know anything abou me, Judy.”

“Maybe,” she answers. “But I know no one else would have moved that tanker if you hadn’t. I also know you’re a big cry baby.”

Don turns to meet her eye. She is smiling, he can see it, and a part him thinks that even though she disapproves of what he stands for, they can still be friends. So he smiles too. She knows a lot more about him than most people in this large camp of survivors, which is just as well, seeing as it wouldn’t do for so many people to be able to get him to throw away a perfectly reasonable business deal, lose fuel, yet save a life.

Somehow, only Judy can do that and he’s not quite sure what to make of this realization he most certainly does not wish to have.

“That mean we’re friends again?” Don says.

“I guess we can skip to that part.”

Her teasing smiles forces him to break eye contact and happily finish his food. His chest feels warm and it’s nice. He tells himself it’s because he hasn’t actually got any friends, though John Robinson may be a contender.

“Well, if you want the real Don West saga,” he nearly bellows, “I suppose I could spare a few hours to indulge you. It all begins with the nuns at my primary school…”

When he looks, Judy is smiling, and that makes Don proud of himself.

Chapter 2 and 3

[apompkwrites]

reader impact || first meeting: archon edition

series masterlist characters: venti, zhongli genre: fluff summary: a game has been released entitled genshin impact, consisting of otherworldly abilities relying on the basic elements of nature. the game follows the story of an interdimensional traveling twin in search of their other half. along this journey, they meet different characters that live in this world. including you. notes: i still don't know if this will be a series but last post would've been too long if i had all four in one

venti's playthrough -

hoo boy, venti's streams would be VERY chaotic.

this boy has nothing to tie him down except for his own mortality, but will that stop him? no.

lots of late night or early morning streams because his sleep schedule is practically nonexistent.

he does a lot of singing or storytelling streams, which is why the time is perfect.

he'll sing lullabies and read bedtime stories at night. in the morning, he'll sing soft songs to wake up his viewers and talk about the rare dreams he'd have once he passes out.

he'll also have drinking streams where he just drinks as much as he can. he's a drunkard, what can i say?

anyway, gaming is something he isn't opposed to, but mainly ones with music or just pure crackhead energy.

when his viewers suggest genshin impact, he'd be somewhat hesitant?

he needs games that are chaotic and filled with energy to keep his attention.

his mods and viewers, however, are able to convince him because of a certain drunken character.

as soon as he sees the non-spoiled description of your character, he's off to download.

he actually enjoys a lot of the adventure aspects of the game, even if he's known as a lazy streamer.

anyway, his viewers definitely should have warned him about your appearance.

they never told him you were such a cute character!

"don't be afraid. it's alright now, i'm back."

"HASGDGSJFK"

he shrieked when you started talking.

"HOW ARE THEY SO CUTE?!?!"

he gets sad when his character sets off dvalin...

you disappear and your dragon friend flies off... now venti's just sad he might've made you upset.

he's pouting the whole way through mondstadt, thinking of ways to make it up to you.

he doesn't care if you're a video game character, he loves you nonetheless.

and once dvalin shows up in mondstadt, he's genuinely excited. he knows your bound to appear again because your friend is here.

when you help venti fly behind dvalin, his chat is teasing him because of the grin on his face.

he's so soft for you, man...

he will spend hours just ranting about you when he's going through the domains with the standard characters.

when he finds the other statues in mondstadt, he likes to climb up it to admire your archon design.

even though he's known you for a few minutes, he will automatically recognize your face in the game.

he knows it's annoying but he can't help but ask his chat if he'll get to see you again soon. he really doesn't want to spend hours without hearing you and seeing you in game.

he likes to yell at paimon whenever she makes fun of you

he shrieks again when he sees you running past the fountain.

he almost cries when he sees you playing your lyre for the first time.

you're perfect in his eyes and all he wants is to spend every minute of this game with you.

although, he did have to take a break the first time he saw your archon form illustrated.

you just... look like an angel and his body can't handle that.

he loves listening to your tales. like the battle pass story that occurs every time it renews, he never skips it. soon, he'll memorize it and recite it with you once it appears.

"oh! i remember you two. you both scared dvalin away!"

"I'M SORRY"

please forgive him. he knows you won't because the game doesn't require it, but he decides to always call stormterror dvalin to make up for it.

"ah, right! i haven't introduced myself... i'm (name) the bard!"

please this boy is so smitten for a video game character.

when you're revealed to be the archon, he's not too surprised? i mean, he already recognized you from the statue.

he is so excited to steal the lyre for you.

it takes him a bit, though, just because he has a bad attention span and ends up revealing his location.

he's even more excited to learn you're a regular at diluc's tavern.

he would do anything to drink with you.

he'll reluctantly end the game there just because it's time for his bedtime songs/stories.

"i'll be back tomorrow, (name), my love! i promise!"

zhongli's playthrough -

zhongli's a really good streamer even when he doesn't try to be.

he is basically the king of just chatting streams.

daily tea times and storytime streams are a go!

his voice is what lures them in and his charm is what traps them there.

he's still poor, though...

he relies on the donations from his viewers but he always expresses his gratitude.

man's respectful, what can i say?

anyway, he does play games every now and then. he doesn't tend to enjoy fighting games though.

although, he's rather good at them... for some reason.

his gaming streams tend to be a lot longer because he picks games with an overarching story.

i'm talking long games like night in the woods, detroit: become human, really any long game with deep meanings and stories.

his viewers will pay for him to just sit there and read to them.

anyway, someone donates to him and recommends he play genshin impact because of the long story and hidden lore.

he definitely enjoyed the beginning of the story, but got even more attached once he reached liyue.

he seems very intrigued when he begins the quest by watching liyue's archon fall dead on the ground.

he would definitely go on a long rant about gods and goddesses that have fallen.

when he meets childe, he does take a liking to him.

now, this man is known for being stoic and serious, so it comes as a surprise when he almost loses his composure when you appear.

keyword being almost.

he manages to stay composed but his chat knows for a fact he's freaking out over you.

your fancy suit/dress reminds him of the anthropological tales of gods/goddesses and kings/queens.

let this man drink tea with you please--

"it is an honor to meet you. i have heard tell of you from mondstadt."

"... they have quite the pleasant voice."

his chat is going wild at this point.

they get to listen to two heavenly voices talk to each other at the same time?! it's a dream come true!

another man that will let your long lines of dialogue play, listening intently to the stories you tell his character.

he actually really likes the image of his character talking to you.

he's so short compared to you--

he also really likes your animation when you're standing still.

not your idle animations, even though those are really nice as well. i'm talking about the movement of your clothes when your character is standing there. it's just so... soothing to him.

the gradient of your hair color to your elemental gnosis is also a nice detail to him. he likes how there are subtle ways archons look compared to normal citizens in teyvat.

when he finds out you are also a person who struggles with money... oh boy, this man cannot relate more.

you both can be broke together.

he will look to his chat for help every time a bargaining option occurs.

similar to venti, he'd be able to tell you were an archon automatically, mainly because of the way you carry yourself and your design.

when you give away your gnosis, he was really interested in the fact that you were so dedicated to your title of the archon of contracts that you would just willingly give your gnosis away.

when he meets the adepti, his chat jokingly says that the yaksha is yours and his adopted child.

"... i would not be opposed to that idea."

all of the artists and writers in his chat are dying at this point.

he'd look up all of the lore, especially ones involving you, and use them for his storytime streams.

[sandibullock]

I was wondering if you could do a tutorial on this gifset that you did i really like ittt

Thank you for sending this in, anon! I’m glad you liked it and wondered how it was made :) Fun fact: the day before you sent this, I had just started working on my next set in that “Select Filmography” series. I hope you like that one too when it’s ready!

I think I should start by saying I’m pretty new to giffing myself and there might be more efficient ways of getting to the same result. However, the point here is to show you the process I went through to make this gifset and hopefully help you understand how to make a similar one.

To follow this tutorial, you will need some version of Photoshop and some giffing knowledge. I know there are multiple ways of making gifs so I’m just letting you know I’m using the timeline and the “Convert for Smart Filters” option (I don’t really know how else to call it).

Now let’s get started!

STEP 1 - CHOOSE THE SCENES

It might sound obvious but, in my opinion, this is the most crucial step. It’s also the one that takes the longest (along with step 7, aka the coloring).

At this stage, you need to have a general idea on how you want your set to look like so you can choose the scenes accordingly. In my case, I knew I needed two types of shots for each movie: one close-up for the main gif and one mid shot for the shape. I also needed to take two other criteria into consideration: the movement (because of the shape) and the lighting (because darker scenes are such a pain to color). Last but not least, I didn’t want the characters to be talking (but that’s just a personal preference).

With all of that in mind, you can start saving a few screenshots of scenes that meet your criteria (or at least some of them). In the end, there won’t be that many to choose from so be prepared to make compromises.

STEP 2 - MAKE A DRAFT

Now that you’ve preselected a few scenes, you can make a first draft. This will help you turn your general idea into something more concrete.

Basically, this is your opportunity to organize your thoughts. What size do you want your gifs to be? What shape are you going to use? On which side do you want the close-ups to be? Do you want all of them to be on the same side or do you want to alternate from one gif to the other? Do the scenes you chose work together (gif-wise but also set-wise)? Are you happy with the way it looks, overall?

By answering all of the questions you might have now, you’ll save yourself a lot of time, trust me. Of course, you can totally skip this step if you already know exactly which scenes you’re going to use and how you’re going to present them together.

To give you an idea, this is what my draft looked like for Atomic Blonde.

STEP 3 - PREPARE YOUR GIFS

Once you have a clearer view on how you want your set to look like, you can finally start giffing like you usually would (i.e. importing, cropping, resizing, etc.).

It should then look something like this.

The important thing to mention here is that you want both of your gifs to be the same number of frames (32, in my case).

Ideally, you should also aim for the ~same~ coloring (especially for the skin tone, since both gifs will be so close to each other). This bit is particularly difficult when you chose scenes which have opposite lighting (see my two uncolored gifs below). Remember how I insisted on steps 1 and 2? It was to help you avoid this. So my advice would be not to choose these types of contrasted scenes, unless you can’t do otherwise and you’re ready to suffer!

STEP 4 - MAKE YOUR SHAPE

To make your shape, you can click right on the Shape Tool (U) and select the last one, Custom Shape Tool. From the Shape menu appearing on top, you will be able to choose the shape you want from the drop down list and start drawing on your gif.

To be more precise with the dimensions, you can manually adapt the length and height from the Shape menu itself. I decided to go with the same ones as my gif.

Once your shape is positioned like you want it to be, you can drag and drop the shape layer under your gif. Next, you will have to click right on the gif layer/smart filter and select Create Clipping Mask. The result is as below. Note that if the size of your shape was smaller than your gif, you would still be able to reposition your gif with the Move Tool (V).

You can now export your shape gif, reopen it in Photoshop and convert it again to the video timeline and to a smart filter. This is where I’m not sure it’s the most efficient way of doing things but it’s the only way I found to keep the coloring of each gif separate. I also find it easier to work with a smart filter.

STEP 5 - COMBINE YOUR GIFS

To add your shape gif to your main gif, you can simply click right on the shape gif you just reopened and select Duplicate Layer. You can then choose the project which contains your main gif to duplicate it in there. Now go to your main gif and reposition your shape gif where you want it to be (how many times did I say gif here?). Finally, you can draw a new shape, using the same dimensions as in step 4, reposition it and choose any color you want from the Shape menu.

Since you will be repeating this process with your following gifs, I suggest you add a few guides so you know exactly where you should place everything to make all of your final gifs look the same.

(In case you’re wondering, the “Base” folder contains my adjustment layers/basic coloring for the main gif.)

STEP 6 - ADD THE TITLE

This step is pretty simple: go on the web and type “[name of the movie] title”. Download the png you like most, open it in Photoshop and resize it to a length of about 150-200 pixels. Next, duplicate the layer to your main gif and reposition it. In case you need to resize it again, select the title layer and go to Edit > Free Transform (Ctrl+T).

This is optional but in case you want to change the way it looks, know you can always duplicate the title layer and play with the blending options (see below). The good thing with a png is that you can also add some effects by clicking on the “fx” button.

STEP 7 - ADD COLORING (OPTIONAL)

To be honest, I had not planned on coloring my gifs. But I had already spent so much time on them and I was still unhappy with the way they looked. I mean, see how grey-ish they are? Not great...

So the only thing left for me to do was to add some colors. Now, since coloring is worth a tutorial on its own and it already exists, I suggest you read through becca’s mega coloring tutorial (and especially steps 3 & 5). Seriously, shoutout to her for making this incredibly useful tutorial. She is so talented and I love everything she makes!

My Atomic Blonde gif barely even needed coloring so I’ll show you what I did for my Tully and The Old Guard gifs.

For the first one, once I had found which colors to use with which blending option and opacity level, I only had to remove the colors from the left side of the gif because there was barely any movement in that scene (phew!). For the second one, on the other hand, I decided to color frame by frame because there was way more movement, in comparison. This is quite a tedious process, which is why you want to limit yourself to a certain amount of frames.

I’ll conclude by saying there are so many things you can do with coloring and what works with one scene might not work with another. So experiment with it: try different colors, play with the blending options and opacity levels, add some gradients and/or gradient maps, etc. Just know it will take some time to get to a somewhat satisfying result!

And that’s it... I hope this tutorial made sense and was somehow helpful. Of course, don’t hesitate if you have any questions! Also, if you do end up making a similar edit, pleeease send me the link or tag me in the replies or something ‘cause I would definitely love to see it!!

[oldtowrs]

˗ˏˋ LOVELY PRESENCE; obi-wan kenobi x handmaiden!reader

SUMMARY - the reader, a handmaiden and obi-wan’s love, visits the jedi temple to spend a last evening together before obi-wan is sent on a mission to corellia, and finds him in the middle of training. needless to say, obi-wan throws caution to the wind and shameless fluff ensues

WORD COUNT - ~4.3k

A/N - ayyy... its more of my golden boy, haha. i don’t know what you all expected really. this is really just shameless fluff for fluff’s sake. i hope you all enjoy. and please i don’t want to get any comments saying ‘they could’ve gotten caught, blah blah.’ yes i know, that’s the point. i said shameless fluff did i not? small font and no caps is intentional. and for the story’s sake, just pretend that no one saw obi-wan and the reader, okay? okay. also i’m going to tag @obaewankenobis and @karasong / @hellotherekenobi bc they liked the excerpt i posted from this piece. here’s the full thing enjoy :)

WARNINGS - obi-wan in a tank top. i said what i said. 

coruscant shone golden in the last rays of the setting afternoon sun. the buildings, huge pillars of metal and glass, reflected the golden light every which way, illuminating the many hovercraft that flew through the coruscanti airspace, looking like little trails of stardust in the sky. the sky, with its painted gradient of vibrant hues, and clouds which interrupted the color in such elegant ways, acted as a beautiful backdrop for the gleaming city.

as padme’s advisor and handmaiden, you had seen many beautiful sunsets and sunrises, the sun rising from or melting into one of the many beautiful lakes of naboo. but none of them could’ve paralleled the gleaming grandeur of coruscant, the seat of power of the republic, in her final golden hour.

but even as you admired the beauty of the city-planet, you knew there was a beauty more divine than that of naboo and of coruscant and of the whole inner rim combined: and he was standing before you in the gardens of the jedi temple,wielding his lightsaber in preparation for the mission he was to depart on come morning. his auburn hair fell into his slightly freckled face, into his beautiful blue eyes that shone like a thousand stars, as he moved. his jedi robes had been laid upon a stone bench, discarded in the heat of training, leaving him in nothing but his dark trousers tucked into his leather boots, and a black, sleeveless undershirt. the shirt revealed his freckled shoulders and muscular arms as he swung his saber in arcs about him, and the sun seemed to both seep into his skin like honey and glow upon touching the lovely freckles surface. every part of him was awash in gold as the sun kissed his skin and danced about his beard and hair, turning the auburn strands into warm, roughspun gold.

he was beautiful in all that he was, strong and dedicated and driven by peace and focus, as a high ranking jedi master and general should be. he was a honeyed, shining golden in the brilliant sun. and he was all yours.

obi-wan.

then, in a moment he had turned to face you, his lightsaber spinning in a wide, elegant arc until the hilt came to a halt by his head, the end of the saber outstretched, opposing hand pointing directly at you. those beautiful blue eyes that you so dearly loved seemed to shine with the light of a thousand stars as his gaze met yours. a smile immediately lifted the corners of his lips. he hurriedly began to make his way towards you, dropping the saber to his side, the blade withdrawing into nothingness as he forged his way through the gardens.

‘darling!’

the endearment was almost a sigh of relief, of comfortability, as it passed his sweet lips and graced your ears with its soft tenor and lilt of his elegant coruscanti accent.

he clipped his lightsaber to the leather utility belt about his hips, before taking your face in his hands and placing his lips gently on yours. his thumbs traced delicate circles on your cheeks, and you felt him smile into the kiss as your heated blush rose to meet his touch. he smelled of his soaps and colognes, of his soft linens, of the garden, of him, of home and you couldn’t help but sigh into the kiss happily.

panic filled your heart as you suddenly pulled away from him, hands delicately wrapping around his forearms, as you tried reluctantly to pull out of the kiss that had you falling faster and faster into his lovely orbit.

‘obi-wan! someone might see!’

obi-wan's eyes turned soft, the stars in his eyes dimming only so his love could shine through. he pressed a kiss to your forehead, and while you were still worried about being caught kissing a jedi, risking everything obi-wan had ever known, you couldn’t help but melt into the kiss, into his touch. your hands, significantly smaller and more delicate than his, slid gently up his bare arms to cover his as they continued to caress circles upon circles of his love into your skin.

‘don’t worry, sweetling,’ he murmured, the words gentle against your forehead as they graced the space-though it was limited-between you two. ‘there’s no presence but yours for at least the next several hundred yards.’

it was true. what with the galactic war, the jedi order had been spread thin. even the jedi council hadn’t had a meeting at which all members were present for months; or at least that was what obi-wan told you in the quiet hours of the night in which he returned, from long days of maintaining the order of the galaxy, to his chambers-to the image of you tucked delicately beneath his linens or your silks. those were the hours before his words turned sugary sweet and more intimate and began to accompany a plethora of gentle kisses.

obi-wan, being the powerful jedi he was, would be able to sense the presence of another being as they moved through the force; and if he was comfortable enough to bring you close and pepper your face with butterfly-like kisses, then you supposed you could allow yourself to relax into his touch.

‘and as lovely as your presence is, darling,’ obi-wan began, his callouses gentle against your skin as he moved to tuck a stray piece of hair behind your ear. ‘whatever are you doing at the jedi temple?’

‘i was sent on official business by senator amidala,’ you said, raising your chin into the air haughtily, a note of pride taking hold in your voice.

‘and what might your business be, my lady,’ obi-wan said, drawing ever near as his hands drifted down your arms and the elegant silks sleeves of your dress until his fingers found and wove themselves between yours. his thumbs continued their circular escapades on the surface of your skin-which you now realized was growing just as honeyed as his in the afternoon light.

you’ve bewitched me, master kenobi.

‘to admire and oversee the activities of a certain jedi master who’s lovely presence i will miss dearly after he leaves my side to go hunt down clues of the sith and of battleships and criminals on somefar off planet,’ you said, admiring the way the deepening wrinkles at his eyes gathered beautifully as a smile grew upon his lips-those soft, pillowy lips that you could drown in forever.

‘admiring a jedi?’ obi-wan laughed heartily, the sound of it rich and loving against your ears. ‘on such sacred grounds as these? you must have some courage, darling.’

‘if i remember correctly, master kenobi,’ you hummed happily, his title and reputation falling sweet like rose petals from your lips, ‘it was you who just kissed me on such ‘sacred grounds.’’

and there he was, again, leaning in close, slanting his lips against yours as though it would be the last time he would get the chance to kiss you, to take your breath away with such a simple action, to make your heart melt beneath his gentle touch--like he needed the constant reassurance of your kiss to weather the cruelties of a galaxy at war. and when he pulled away, absolute adoration lingered there in his baby blue eyes, as though stars had imploded along the lines of your lips as he kissed you, and their stardust had collected in his shining blue irises so that they may always remember your beauty and the stars that danced about your skin like little shadows.

‘my stars, darling,’ he sighed, ‘i would kiss you for eternity if it meant the first thing i would see when my lips parted forms yours was the sweet beauty of your face. i would kiss you for an eternity and longer if it meant i got to be in your lovely presence for always and forever.’

‘obi-wan, love, you’re making it really hard not to dread your departure already,’ you sighed, pouting ever so slightly in the way that you knew would pull at obi-wan’s heartstrings.

‘don’t worry, little one. i’ll come back to you, whole and in need of your sweet kisses,’ obi-wan hummed, pressing another kiss to your forehead. ‘and it just so happens that i have been relieved of my duties for tonight to ready myself for the mission.’

‘and what might that preparation include, master kenobi,’ you asked teasingly, and watching him preen under your endearment. his station was something to be proud of, to have worked so hard, to have come from nothing and to now be a jedi master and general, and the best negotiator and diplomat the order had. he embodied all the code stood for: compassion, patience, discipline. and you knew that deep down, somewhere, hidden away with his immense love for you was a mild sense of pride at all he accomplished-though he would never let it show.

‘i was thinking of spending my time with a handmaiden i rather enjoy the presence of--a handmaiden i have formed quite the attachment to.’

‘she must be a very lucky woman then, to have the affections of someone as accomplished and as endearing as you.’

‘oh, but i am the luckiest man in the galaxy to love her and call her mine.’

your heart swelled at his words. his?

obi-wan leaned down to kiss you once more, this time his hands finding purchase in the cotton and silk that made up the back of your dress, splaying themselves about your back as though he were cradling you ever closer to his chest in an almost protective manner.

‘yes, darling.’ he managed in between the soft pillowy kisses he pressed to your lips, the tip of your nose, your cheeks and forehead, any part of you he could reach with those wonderful lips of his. ‘all mine.’

your hands rested against his chest, the thin material of his undershirt allowing you to feel the muscle which rippled beneath his beautifully freckled skin from years dedicated to his training and to the order. the fabric was soft as your fingers trailed down his chest, to his hips where the cool metal of his saber kissed your fingers.

‘teach me,’ you murmured, lips brushing against obi-wan’s as the words left your lips. confusion drew his eyebrows together, a small crease forming between them in a way you couldn’t help but adore.

‘teach you what, sweetling?’ he asked, voice velvety and soft against your ears.

‘teach me how to use a lightsaber.’

a smile took over those soft lips you so dearly loved, and a laugh erupted in the evening air. he was beautiful when he laughed, color painting his cheeks and his hair falling out of his face as he leaned his head back in his laughter. you would’ve admired the lovely sound and the way his eyes wrinkled at the corners had your words not been cause for it.

‘why are you laughing at me? i’ve fought to protect senator amidala on many occasions with both a blaster and vibroblades. why not a lightsaber? or did you forget i’ve been trained in close combat as well, master kenobi.’

‘i never said no, darling,’ obi-wan sighed, coming down from his laughter to press a gentle hand to your cheek, thumb tracing circles into your skin. ‘however, the thought of you with such civilized technology is quite a fearsome one indeed.’

‘please, obi-wan?’

obi-wan’s gaze softened, knowing in his heart that you meant too much to him to deny you any one of your many requests.

‘i suppose,’ he sighed, worry mingling with the warmth in his crystal blue gaze, as he begged of you, ‘just promise me you’ll be careful. i hate to even think about harm coming to you, much less see you harmed by my weapon and under my supervision.’

‘i promise.’

its then that his fingers find the palm of your hand, guiding it into his strong, calloused, yet gentle grasp, as he pulls you from the sanctuary of the temple and into the wild delicacy of the gardens. a soft click sounds and the cool metal of obi-wan’s saber kisses the tips of your fingers as he pulls you close and presses the saber into your delicate hands. he wraps your fingers around the hilt, and raises your hand to kiss your knuckles, his beard tickling the skin there.

‘this weapon is dangerous as it is beautiful, darling. do you understand?’

‘yes, my love.’

he pulls you into the clearing in the center of the gardens, stone tiles sturdy beneath your feet. soon his figure is wrapped around your, your back pressed firmly against the strong musculature of his chest as his strong, star-freckled arms wrap around your own, guiding your hands and body into a stance he deemed worthy of training in.

‘you must always be aware of your body in position to your saber,’ he explained, his voice low in its velvety depth as he buried his lips in your hair, the top of your head grazing his delicate cheekbones. ‘you must always be aware and precise in your movements. one wrong move could prove fatal.’

as much as you wanted to focus on his words, his close proximity was very distracting. the heady, musk of him overwhelmed your sense in the most pleasantly soft manner, and the delicate brush of his skin against yours was enough to set your nerves alight in blissful agony. you wanted to melt into him, to meld into the softness of his heart, the warmth of his being and voice. there was so much of him that you loved, and it was just so close… he was just so close.

‘focus your thoughts, darling,’ he chuckled sweetly, the deep tenor of his voice rumbling softly in his chest as he pressed a sweet kiss to the crown of your head, into the softness of your hair.

‘sorry,’ you said sheepishly. sometimes you forgot just how strong his connection with the force was, and how he could read you like an open book. of course, you’d given him permission to do so--convincing him that you were okay with having his loving presence in your consciousness, that it wasn’t an invasion of your privacy. you had had to convince him that having his warmth in the corners of your mind was one of the most comforting feelings you’d ever known, that is wasn’t a burden or an overreach or a breach of your trust.

‘it’s okay, sweet one,’ he hums sweetly. ‘just focus on my movements.’

his hands wrapped around yours, pressing them into the hilt as he tilted the end of it away from you. blue light filled your field of vision as he ignited it.

‘this is called a low guard. it's a good place to start dueling, as you can move any which way from this position’ obi-wan explained, the passion for his practice and the dedication to his order seeping into the softness of his voice, turning the tone sweeter than honey. ‘focus on fluidity, and precision, darling. yes, perfect. now bring it down to your side, and up in an arc.’

obi-wan’s praise was enough to send your head spinning, and your heart reeling with contentment. there was nowhere else in the whole galaxy you wanted to be than in obi-wan kenobi’s arms, the callousness and softness of his hands pressed firmly into your own as he guided your hand down into a steep arc before bringing it down to the opposite side. his arm crossed over your body in a way that was reminiscent of the way he would wrap his arms languidly about your waist so as to hug you in the way he loved to in the early hours of the morning in which the two of you woke in the others chambers as the sun’s rays just began to kiss the clouds high above. your heart fluttered like a thousand butterflies pushing against the limits of your lungs in a campaign for freedom-a freedom to press your face into his chest, to give him a kiss for every star-freckled blemish upon his skin.

‘and that would be a basic defensive maneuver,’ he hummed, interrupting your wandering thoughts before guiding you through the motion a couple times to work it into your muscle memory. his tutelage continued on like this until the sky was only lit by the last remnants of the sunset.

‘let me try,’ you whispered into the small space between you. he let go, his skin leaving its precious contact with yours as your nerves almost screamed for him to come back.

you tried some of the maneuvers on your own, getting a feeling for the balance of the elegant weapon in your own hands. it was similar to its dagger analog, a defensive art you had learned upon padme’s admission into the senate. a smirk pulled at the side of your lips as an idea formed in your mind. just beware of the blade, obi wasn’t voice echoed in your memory.

quickly, you began the maneuver, turning around and wielding the blade in a flourishing so that it came to rest by your head in the way obi-wan had done upon your arrival to the jedi gardens.

mild panic and pride mixed beautifully in obi-wan’s face, pulling at it in ways that gently tugged at the light wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. obi-wan would be lying if he said that his heart did not jump into his throat in fear that something would go wrong, that you would hurt yourself in your playfulness. however, when he saw you, alive and unscathed, pride gleaming in your eyes as the flourish put him in a position that would’ve won you a battle, he couldn't have been more proud of you-his love wielding his lightsaber as if it was what you were born to do.

‘how’s my form, master kenobi?’ mischief dripped from your words, his title slipping off your honeyed tongue so elegantly that it elicited a delicate warmth in his chest, and a heated redness to his cheeks.

with a flick of his finger, the blade disappeared into the hilt, into nothingness, under his deft manipulation of the force, before he reached for you, pulling your small, delicate form into his. his arms wrapped around you, the silks and chiffons of your simple dress kissing his arms as he pulled you into him and placed his lips sweetly-albeit a little forcefully-in a kiss that melted both your heart and his own.

‘and when i thought you possibly occupy and melt any more of my heart, you’ve found a way to prove me wrong.’ he hummed into the small space between you, the vibrations and soft brushes of the suppleness of his lips delicate and heartwarming against yours

his heart felt as though it collapsed like a dying star before being reborn again as you buried your face into the warmth of his chest, his exposed skin soft against yours. one hand found purchase among the soft strands of the hair at the back of your head, as the other wrapped around your waist and pulled you ever closer against him. he pressed yet another kiss to your forehead, pushing his feeling of pride and love to you through the force.

‘it was utterly perfect, darling,’ he hummed sweetly, before pulling you from his chest and reclaiming his lightsaber from your deadly, yet delicate hands. ‘i knew you would be a terrifying force to be reckoned with, but i didn’t know you would look so beautiful doing it.’

at that, your heart swelled with pride, a smile tugging at your lips and a blush rising to consume your cheeks and tips of your ears. obi-wan couldn’t help but smile down at you-- the warmth which radiated from your heart and your soul and into the force for him to perceive was too sweet not to.

‘oh, obi-wan,’ you sighed, ‘i don’t deserve your kind words.’

‘you deserve the universe and more,’ obi-wan cooed, his delicate touch finding its way to your heated cheek as he moved to cradle it in his large, gentle palm, heart melting as tears of pure happiness stung your eyes as you melted into his touch. ‘my high praise is the least you deserve.’

‘obi-wan, will you spend the night with me? or can i spend the night with you? i don’t believe i can bare to part with you right now.’

‘i wouldn’t miss the chance to be in your lovely presence for the whole corellian system, darling.’ obi-wan hummed, thumb tracing its familiar patterns once more.

‘obi-wan,’ his name was soft-barely a whisper- on our tongue as you said it: the name of the jedi master you loved so dearly. ‘must you make it so very unbearable to part from you every time the war leads you away from coruscant… away from me?’

obi-wan’s gaze softened into sadnesses he dropped his gaze to his hands as they moved to hold yours, to feel their softness once more. he knew you missed him when he had to leave on these missions and risk their unknown circumstances. he dreaded the moment when he finally boarded the transport, slipping out of your sight as you watched from some hidden place in the jedi temple or the senate buildings. he could feel the pain your heart brought you in those moments as it radiated through the force. he would do anything to kiss away the tears that would form in worry at the corners of your eyes, to comfort you in his warm embrace, to wrap you up in his cloak and hold you close for eternity.

but he couldn’t. the many walls of steel, glass and space that separated you from him were too great to physically abound. so instead he would send you a sweet message of comfort over your commlinks, and press his thoughts and feelings into the back of his mind, into the depths of his heart. he would miss you, but his feelings would always act as his motivation, and he would always come back to you. obi-wan had lost so many people in his own life. he would never willingly put you through that pain of losing him. so he would fight valiantly and efficiently, cutting down the enemy or gathering intel in the manner that would certainly return him to you in the quickest and safest manner possible.

‘i promise i don’t do it willingly, my sweet’ he sighed, his voice soft and as comforting as he possibly could--though you didn’t miss the note of sadness that lined the edges of his words. gently, his hands pulled you close to him, so that there was barely any space between the two of you. one left your grasp to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear with great care and delicacy before resting his forehead against yours. your eyes fluttered shut in tandem with his, as to let the soft sensation of him so close to you overwhelm your senses.

and then his voice was warm and pleasant as it formed in your mind, as clear as your own.

i swear to you, my darling, for every time i leave you behind, i will always come back to you. i will not leave you alone in this galaxy by yourself. not ever.

your eyes fluttered open at the formation of the words, only to find his beautiful blue eyes staring sweetly into yours, into your heart.

‘and i’ll always be waiting for you upon your return, my love.’

‘i know, darling,’ he hummed graciously. ‘i know.’

and then, as the sun’s rays faded and the dark of night began to set in, in the safety and sanctuary of the verdant gardens about you, obi-wan kenobi kissed you, soft and sweet as his hands found the curvature of your cheek and the warmth of your body with his own. he kissed you, stardust dancing about your lips at his gentle caresses, in the safety of the gardens, where no one could separate you from him, where he could show you a small fraction of his love for you without the burden of the galaxy’s prying eyes.

‘what do you say i gather my things aboard the transport, and i’ll meet you in your chambers in, say-half an hour?’ he hummed, brownish auburn eyebrows tilting upwards as he gazed lovingly into your eyes, asking for your permission to occupy your time with his own sweet and lovely presence.

‘i’d like that very much,’ you smiled, revelling in the way a boyish grin covered his now slightly swollen lips. he parted from you to gather his robes hurriedly before returning to your side, to press three quick kisses, to your cheek, your forehead and, finally, your lips.

‘half an hour, then, my darling.’

and sure enough, there he was, standing in your doorway half an hour later, ready to scoop you up in his strong arms and spin you about with pure, love-filled elation. his lips would cover your face, your neck and collarbones, your shoulders-anywhere his lips could find the sweet pleasure of your soft exposed skin.

and for the rest of the night, he was yours-nuzzling his face into the comforts of your stomach as he cuddled into you, wrapping his arms around you in the most loving way, kissing you like you were the oxygen in his lungs, the blood in his veins, and the stardust which made up his being.

and when he left on the transport the next morning, your heart ached at the loving smile that pulled at his lips when his eyes met yours. and somehow you knew, all would be alright, that he would return to you in three-cycle’s time to kiss you and love you all over again.

i will come back to you, my lovely darling. i promise

[lordbelacqua]

show your process

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you'd like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

I have been tagged by @zavens​ (thank you, I know you know how much I love ranting) to chat a little about this gifset <3

you know the drill - everything is under the cut because I talk too much!

planning: my gif-making process is overall a pain, mostly because I never really “plan” it out, I just mess around until I make something I like. sometimes I do have a vision in my head but when I take it to PS and it doesn’t look as good, I get frustrated and close PS for like a week (lol I’m kidding, I actually spend five more hours until it’s turned into something I like).

this gifset wasn’t really planned but when zahraa sent a request for favorite season, I knew I didn’t want to do my typical rainbow set, so I wanted to experiment.

giffing: I won’t go much into detail about the gif-making and sharpening steps (if you are curious about that let me know, and i’ll discuss it individually) so i’ll only talk about the coloring and blending. the idea behind the blending is simple - gifs are supposed to represent the episode title, so I tried to take care of that as much as possible. I won’t analyze gifs individually because then we would be here all day.

the coloring insp behind the first draft of this gifset is this gifset here. in my head, I wanted to do a black and gold gradient over it. but, because I’m so unorganized and chaotic and because I almost never plan things out as I should, I realized, only at my last gif, that this gifset would look 10 times better if it was properly colored. so I re-did it.

if you are curious, this is the comparison of the first and last draft (you are free to tell me if you think I made a mistake re-coloring this):

one thing I love so much about this gifset is that I so deliberately worked on it. I have never before combined so many fonts in any of my gifsets, and I have never before used my own custom made shapes (like in 1x02 and 1x04). I really just sat down and said I’m going to make the messiest gifset this fandom has ever seen and i’ll have no regrets! lol.

arranging: something I absolutely hate about myself is that I’m so indecisive sometimes. I didn’t know whether I wanted this gifset to be an all 540x540 because I feared it would have been too long but again, I wanted everyone to see the gifs in full size and quality because I really liked it. I ended up taking the size insp from this gifset, and I don’t regret it. I also liked the idea of having b&w-only gifs to break up the monotony of the gifset and overall I like the look of it.

posting: honestly I was close to posting this 5 times before actually posting it because as you now know, I had 5 different versions of this gifset. the first draft of it was supposed to be posted weeks before the final draft and I only decided to color the gifset a few hours before finally posting it (I’m such a mess). This was posted at 9:01pm (central european time) because that’s when I usually post. I feel like this gifset resonated well with people; @zavens​ gave me such a detailed rant in the tags that remains one of my favorite comments on my content ever and other tags are just so lovely, it overall makes me like the gifset even more!

I’m tagging a few people but don’t feel pressured to do this, it’s all for fun (sorry if you have been tagged or already discussed the process behind these)!!! <3

@lmillers for this gifset | @mxrisacoulter for this gifset | @burningblake for this gifset | @lanternslides for this fic |

[rpschtuff]

Carrd.co

Hello roleplayers!! Are you looking for an easy, good-looking, and accessible place to host your blog info on outside of Tumblr? Is Google Docs just not cutting it for you? Then I have a solution for you. Consider checking out Carrd.co.

Carrd lets you create “simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything.” And I know what you’re thinking -- ‘One page? Surely I can’t put all my info on just one page!’ But I assure you, you can. Despite being technically one page, your content can be easily spread across multiple sections for clear organization, much like a blog with pop-ups or tabs here on Tumblr.

Check out this sample site I whipped up to see what I mean.

In this post, I will walk through how I made this sample Carrd site, to demonstrate how simple and customizable it is. But first, to answer what you’re already wondering -- what makes Carrd any better than Google Docs? And I have three answers for you:

There is no issue of privacy or security. Your account name and email is not accessible anywhere on your Carrd site, nor are any viewers visible.

Carrd is much more mobile friendly than Google Docs. I don’t even attempt to open Docs on my phone anymore, as they’re a bit of a nightmare and I can never do it anonymously. But I’ve never once struggled with a Carrd site. Everything is automatically put into a mobile friendly format, and if the automatic settings do mess up, you have the ability to go in and manually change how things will be displayed on mobile.

This may be a bit more personal opinion, but I found Carrd easier to customize as far as colors, images, backgrounds, etc. After about ten minutes, I was comfortably manipulating all of the elements on my site, and much happier with the end result than anything I’ve seen on Docs.

Join me under the cut for a walkthrough of creating the site linked above.

As a note, I’m not intending this to be a full guide to all of Carrd’s features, just a general overview to see how things are laid out. It’s fairly intuitive so once you see the basics, you should be able to play around with it more and get your site just the way you want it.

When you create a Carrd account, you will be given this screen. (If you’re on the main dashboard instead, click New Site.)

You can either explore premade templates below, or you can start from scratch by clicking the link in “blank canvas”. I prefer a blank slate myself, but I encourage you to check out the templates if they seem easier for you.

After clicking “blank canvas” you will arrive at this screen.

These are just Carrd’s instructions. I’ll hit ‘Okay, got it!’ to get rid of it.

The first thing I want to do is customize the background. It’s a good starting point. To do that, click on the three lines in the top right corner...

...and select Background.

Options will open on the left side of the screen, as seen here. Your customization options are fairly straightforward.

You can change the color...

Or change it to something else entirely. I’m going to use an image.

After uploading your image, you have the option to recrop it.

Now I hit accept, and this will be my site’s background.

There are other options as well, that can reposition the image, change its size, tile it, etc.

I can also add a gradient or a pattern to this image. I’m going to scroll down to Overlay and select Gradient.

And change those colors and the angle a bit.

Ahh, lovely. I’ll also add a pattern...

But that looks rather ugly. I think I’ll play with the color, size, and thickness a bit more.

I like that. Nice and subtle. Let’s call the background done.

Now let’s customize the page itself. This isn’t necessary, if you like the text directly on top of your background, but I like how neat it looks.

Go back to the three lines, and this time select Page.

Under Style, I’m going to change Default to Box.

You can change the position, padding, and other settings of the box in this sidebar. Personally, I want to round the corners...

...change the color...

...and change the opacity.

I’d also like to add a border...

...plus a customized drop shadow.

And we’ll call that done.

Now! Let’s see what this site looks like on mobile. In the top right menu, to the left of the save icon, is an icon that looks like a phone. Click that.

As you can see, your view resized to demonstrate how your site will appear to a mobile user. It’s a very good reference. I’m going to switch back to desktop now (the same button, which now looks like a computer monitor).

Let’s get some content on this site now! I’m going to start with the text that’s already present, that says ‘Nothing here yet! :)’. Click on that.

Options for this text will appear. First, I’m going to click the word Text itself. This will cycle through various options, such as default text, headings, subheadings, etc. I want this to be my site title, so I settle on that. (This step isn’t necessary at all, but I find it helps keep me a bit more organized.)

Now, for the content itself. The box is where I enter what I want this text to say. Markdown instructions for bold, italics, links, etc. are always below the box for easy reference.

I want to change how this text looks. Above Site Title, you’ll see an icon that looks like a paintbrush. Click it to reveal the next tab.

Here you can change color, font, size, weight, and anything else that strikes your fancy. There are a lot of options here and they’re pretty straightforward, so play around with it. Here’s what I settled on.

Remember you can check it on mobile, as well.

Time to add more text. Let’s start with a bio, maybe?

Hit the plus sign in the upper right menu to add new content, then select text.

By default, new text will match the formatting of the most recent text used. I’m going to the first tab, the one marked A, and making this text Paragraph.

Then I go back to the paintbrush tab to make some changes to the style.

Then back to the first tab to add some content. I’m just dropping in some lorem ipsum, since this is only a sample. Obviously you’d want something a bit more practical here.

Let’s say I want a link in there. I’ll follow the markdown format to get one (instructions are below the box, as always).

Now it’s in there, as the third sentence. You can see it underlined. But I want to customize that link. If I go back to the paintbrush tab, options for Link and Hover have appeared. I can change the color there.

And if I scroll all the way down, I can change the link style from Underlined to Plain.

That looks nice. I’ll call that done.

Let’s add a subheading to that section. I’ll add another text box.

Then click and drag it above the previous one.

On the first tab, I’m going to change this one to Main Heading.

Then customize it as before.

Now for the actual text itself.

Lovely.

Let’s add some rules! I want to add a new title, so for that, I’m going to select the text that says About. Then in the bottom left is a button that looks like two overlapping squares. This will copy the text, so we don’t need to reformat it identically.

Click and drag the new title where you want it, and change the text to what you want.

I’m going to add a list now. It’s one of. the other options under the plus sign.

As you can see, some bullet points have appeared. Markdown instructions are still under the box where you enter the content. I’m going to fill it with lorem ipsum again.

Under the paintbrush tab, you’ll see that there are multiple tabs. The first lets you change some style and formatting.

The second lets you change the bullets themselves. I’m going to play with that a bit.

The third lets you change the actual text formatting. (I don’t know why my purple bullet points disappeared, I must have hit an undo at some point without noticing. Pretend they’re still purple.)

And I’ll call that done.

Mobile check!

Not bad.

But the question of the hour, how do you make these separate pages? Let me show you. Under the plus sign, choose Control.

A blue dotted line will appear. Drag this to the top of what you would like to be a new section.

On the left tab, the type should read Section Break. Type in something simple and easy to remember under Name.

This has designated everything under the Control as a new section. We need to create a link to it in the very first section.

I prefer to use Buttons for this, but any link option on this site should work. I’m going to add a Button under the Sample Site title.

By clicking the small word Button (inside the box on the left tab), I can change its settings.

The Label is what the button will actually say. The URL is where the button will take me. I can enter any URL, but if I enter the name of the Control I made with a # in front of it, it will take me to that section.

There are options to. change colors of each button individually, but I prefer to go to the paintbrush tab and change their appearance altogether, so each new button in this group will look the same.

Unfortunately, you can’t properly preview the section breaks while you’re editing. So I’m going to publish this site now so I can view it. Go to the three lines in the top right and choose Publish. Fill out all the options there, then hit Publish. (You can also save as a draft here, if you want to keep your progress but aren’t ready to publish yet, but this doesn’t let you preview it properly.)

Now, if I hit view site, I will be able to see it properly. And as you can tell...

It only displays everything up until that first section break. And when I click the About button that I made...

...everything else appears.

So it’s working! Let’s go back to the editor and add another section break for the rules.

(As a note, you can also set something as a Scroll Point rather than a Section Break, so that any links will scroll down to that spot as opposed to hiding then revealing a new section. You may prefer that option, it’s in the dropdown under Type.)

Now I want to go back to my button...

...scroll down on the left options tab and choose Add.

This creates a second button within this group, that I can edit the same as the first.

Lovely. Let’s preview this in mobile quickly.

Notice how the buttons automatically resized for full width on mobile, and are displaying differently than they appeared on desktop? This is by default, but you can change this behavior if you wish. Select the buttons, and on the paintbrush tab, scroll all the way down until you see Mobile.

By default, it’s set to Auto, where it makes its best guess at what will work for mobile. If you switch to Manual, you can change its behavior.

If I change the dropdown under Layout from Stack to Default, it will display as it does on desktop.

For something as simple as buttons, this likely doesn’t matter, and full width buttons may actually be more mobile friendly. But it’s important to know where these options are, in case something is actually broken on mobile and requires fixing. Check everything on your site in mobile to make sure it actually works.

Let’s publish this again to preview it now.

Our new button looks good, and both redirect you to the appropriate place.

But wait!! Once you’re in one section... there’s no button to get back!! I’m trapped!! This is very important. Always provide a way to leave the current section, so your viewer doesn’t get stuck somewhere on your site.

The easiest way to do this is to add a new Control on your first section, called #home. Then, at the bottom of each section, add a button that will link back to it. (You could also add buttons for all the sections at the bottom of each, but I find that more tedious to set up. But it’s entirely down to your preference.)

Now if you republish the site, it should all be functional, and you can navigate it with ease.

Let’s check the actual site on mobile, too. I’m going to actually get out my phone and go to the URL.

It all looks good there, so I will call this one done.

And that’s a rough guide to using Carrd.co! Obviously this is geared more towards my style and preferences, but there are so many ways to customize this to suit your needs and tastes. I also didn’t cover things like images and videos, as I feel they’re pretty straightforward.

A few notes:

Carrd currently limits free users to only three sites per account. However, Gmail’s alias trick and SessionBox totally work. I run multiple Carrd accounts as easily as I run multiple Tumblrs.

A free Carrd site can only have up to 100 items on it. For my sites, I haven’t even come close to that limit, but I can see larger blogs or multimuses potentially struggling with that.

[offbrandmercyplates]

Okay I Have a Title This Time You Ready? Hear Me Out: Shenani-wings (Badum-tish!)

Heard you hurt your back and legs while trying to make the pattern for that cool sounding 50s dress you were talking about (at least, I think that’s what “drafting the pattern” means; I sewed a pillow shut once, I’m sure you can tell), so I decided to post this. Hope it makes you feel a little better!

Guess who’s back? It’s me, Yours The Author, coming to you with another fanfiction and something of a request of my own. I’ll state my request here so you can make a decision before the story begins: I don’t have a Tumblr, but I do have a fanfiction.net account that I’m fairly active on. Only if it’s okay with you, I would like to ask permission to post this story and the previous one I submitted on my account, with credit to you for the characters and AUs, of course (if you have a title in mind for that first fic, I’d be more than willing to hear it, because otherwise it would take me a while to come up with one of my own). If you’d rather I didn’t, that’s perfectly fine! I’m more than satisfied being featured on your Tumblr, so I won’t fret if you say no. Anyway, the fanfiction. Yes.

I don’t know where chapter two of the main story will start—right where we ended the first? Sometime/distance later? Who knows? —but this scenario of shenanigans with wings (get it? Get it?) popped into my mind one morning as I was slowly preparing to get up for the day, and I’d like to give it a shot. Let me know what you think! It’s a little more comedic than my last one, but I guess I just tend to default to comedy sometimes; hope that’s okay!

Trigger Warning (if it can be called that): mild action, awkward socializing, and a blatant Looney Tunes reference.

***

Shenani-wings

It was awkwardly silent as Emmibee and Gaster stood in the elevator that went from New Home to The Core. Gaster had watched her quietly as she looked with awe at the Capital’s city scape around the corner from Asgore’s house, but now that they were in an enclosed space with nothing but the shiny buttons and each other to look at, he seemed very interested in those buttons.

“…Nice weather, huh?” She said. She then proceeded to stare intensely at the corner of the elevator as Gaster stared just as intensely at her.

“The weather is always the same. Also, technically, there is no weather. We’re under a mountain,” he replied.

“…Oh yeah.”

The awkwardness cut deeper.

Emmi practically leapt out of the elevator when the doors opened, Gaster following more calmly after her. She looked around, once again amazed by the world she had inserted herself into. She had played and watched play-throughs of Undertale enough times to know the basic colors of the world, but there was only so much detail that could be shown via Earthbound-style graphics.

The dark blue walls were polished enough to reflect her face when she stood a foot away, and when she reached out to touch the wall, she felt a warm, thrumming energy zing through her fingertips. The lighter blue floor was also shiny, but not slippery. The traction was great, (there was no need to worry about slipping and falling off a crosswalk and being erased from existence haha what?) and she could feel another energy, this one a bit colder, thrumming through her legs from the floor. It was bizarre and exhilarating and nerve-wracking all at once. Perhaps it was because she was technically a new SOUL, physically in the strange world she had come to love via a video game. She wanted to run, jump, fly—could she fly? She—

“If you’ve finished examining the wall, we should probably move along,” Gaster’s voice cut in impatiently.

Emmi blinked and gave an apologetic smile to the skeleton before making a “lead the way” gesture.

They continued through The Core, Gaster leading the way and keeping Emmi from wandering into the wrong rooms out of curiosity. Eventually they reached another elevator, this one leading to a path that was a gradient of blue to orange. They were approaching Hotland.

Emmi looked up and saw a tall building with a pair of glass doors leading into a room lit with a golden light. Gaster paused here. “There are people in here,” he said.

“I would hope so,” Emmi replied.

“I’d rather not deal with introducing you to everyone at the moment, so keep your head down.”

“What’s the magic word?” Gaster slowly turned and looked at her. Emmi stared back. They might have stood there for a while if Emmi hadn’t decided to let him win this round. “Please. The word was please,” she said quietly as she opened the doors and kept her eyes on the floor. Gaster followed after a second.

She would have loved to look at all lights and colors, architecture and people around her, but she was a woman of her word, so down her head stayed. Most of the monsters that were in the building must have been busy with their own thing, though, since no one seemed to call out to her or the doctor.

Then they were out of the building, and Emmi took the opportunity to whirl around and gaze up at the MTT Resort front. Like the Core, it was just like it was in the game, but also… more. The shiny gold letters above the doors glittered, as if there were lights hidden in the surface that twinkled. A humid breeze (?) rustled the bushes adorning the sides of the doors. She could hear chittering laughter coming from one of the alleys beside the building; Catty and Bratty, most likely.

Gaster cleared his throat (? Again?) and Emmi quickly snapped to attention and followed him away from the Resort, deep into Hotland. True to its name, it was hot. She wiped sweat from her forehead multiple times, and the hot steam puzzles didn’t help matters (turns out such puzzles are a lot harder to do when you can’t see all the launch platforms from above). Gaster wasn’t of much help either, but he sighed with what Emmi hoped was a bit of relief and a smidgen of pride when she landed on the other side of the final puzzle.

After wandering along the craggy orange paths for what felt like another half hour, they reached the Lab. “Air conditioning!” Emmi breathed.

Gaster glanced at her. “Only for less than a minute.”

“It’s all I need.” The doors opened, and Emmi sped walked into the cool air, taking deep, sighing breaths and smiling up at the ceiling.

“Dramatic,” Gaster muttered, shaking his head. From the corner of her eye, it looked like Gaster had a slightly amused smile on his teeth. Probably the best interaction she had had with him yet.

The first thing Emmi noticed about the Lab was how… clean everything was. There were no trash bins full of ramen noodle cups or crumpled up papers, no tables covered in anime figurines and more papers, and the big computer that she recalled Alphys using to monitor the player was gone. It almost looked empty without it all. Emmi thought to ask about it, but figured questions were probably better saved for once they reached Snowdin.

Once back outside the Lab, Gaster led her down a flight of stairs to the river. The stone floor changed from orange-y red to a deep blue, and the cooling sound of rushing water eased Emmi’s nerves in a way she hadn’t noticed she needed.

And there, as if they had been waiting for the two of them, was the Riverman (or River woman? It didn’t matter). “Tra la la. More than one new chapter is about to begin. Would you like to ride on my boat?”

“Hmm. Haven’t heard that one before,” Gaster said, more to himself than to Emmi, but he stepped onto the boat and sat on the seat directly behind the Riverperson. Emmi carefully sat opposite him, slinging off the back pack Asgore had given her and putting it under her seat. “Snowdin,” Gaster requested.

“Please,” Emmi finished, rolling her shoulders and arching her back a bit. Her wings (yes, she reminded herself for the twentieth time, she had wings now) weren’t super sensitive, but the pressure of having a relatively heavy backpack press into them for an hour felt… weird. Out of curiosity she tried to flutter her wings a bit. Nothing happened. It was like trying to tell you hand to move, the way you tell yourself what to have for breakfast: it just doesn’t work that way.

“Please and thank you. Magic words, indeed,” The Riverperson said. Suddenly, the boat rose above the surface of the water. Emmibee gasped in surprise and clung to the seat with her hands.

Gaster raised a bone brow at her. “I had assumed you knew that this happened sometimes,” he said. There was that barest trace of what Emmi could only hope was amusement.

“Seeing it happen is different from actually being there,” she explained, easing her grip.

“Tra la la. Look, it likes you.”

“What?” Emmi and Gaster turned to the front of the boat. The head of the boat was shaped like a dog/cat hybrid, and it seemed to have turned its head to smile at her. Emmi found herself rising to her feet and reaching towards it; to give it a head pat or hug, she wasn’t sure. “Aww…” she cooed. She was so focused on the doggy-kitty, she barely heard the fluttering sound behind her, like brand new sheets of cellophane flapping in the wind at high speed. She also didn’t notice Gaster looking over her shoulder with something akin to wonder.

“We are off,” The Riverperson said.

…Huh?

The boat jerked forward and bounded across the surface of the water. Emmi probably would have fallen back onto her seat under other circumstances, but the flapping sound stopped with a snap, and she looked behind her just in time to see her wings spread out like a sail before the sudden burst of air flowing by sent her flying back off of the boat. “AAAAAAA—!”

PING!

Something blue flashed in her vision and she felt a pair of hands scoop under her arms and pull her back to the boat. One second later, her face was in a warm fabric surface and there was a wheezing sound in her ear.

It was easy enough to put two and two together: her wings, acting on their own accord, went kite-mode and sent her airborne. Gaster had summoned magical hands to grab her before she went too far, and now she was in his arms. She couldn’t pinpoint what the wheezing sound was, though.

She peeked up at the skeleton and saw him staring down at her, both eyes glowing a mix of yellow and pink. The wheezing sound was coming from between his clenched teeth. Apparently, if you startled a skeleton enough, they’d start wheezing. They stared at each other for all of five seconds. Emmi broke the silence with the first thing that came to mind:

“Ehhh… What’s up, Doc?” Then she smacked her face back into Gaster’s chest to suppress her hysteric laughter.

“Tro lo lo,” the Riverperson laughed. Gaster did not seem to see the humor of the situation.

“DON’T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!” He cried with what was so obviously worry and concern, Emmi was now wheezing herself, trying to stop laughing. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I’D DO IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU?!”

Emmi sobered quickly at that. She looked up at him again. “What would you do?” she asked.

“…” Gaster opened his jaw, then shut it again, desperately trying to come up with something clever and witty and aloof. “…I don’t know,” he finally said. “Just… don’t do that again.”

“Okay. I’m sorry, Dr. Gaster,” Emmi replied, even though she technically hadn’t meant to do any of this.

“A bee in the hand is worth two bushes,” the Riverperson quipped.

“What does that even mean?” Gaster groaned.

“We’ve arrived. Tra la la, both of you.” The boat dropped like a rock onto the surface and Emmi yelped, clinging tightly to Gaster. She hadn’t noticed it had gotten colder until she was no longer about to fall off the boat, but looking out to the side, she saw a pretty layer of white snow covering the ground next to the river.

Gaster quickly stood, grabbed a strap of Emmi’s back pack, and got off the boat, crunching the snow underfoot. The boat got back up on its legs, turned around, and ran back the way it came.

Gaster and Emmi stood there for a few seconds. Or rather, Gaster stood. He had yet to put Emmi down, and as much Emmi would have liked to stay near his warm, beating SOUL, she knew he’d never forgive her if she let him walk into the town with her like this. “You can put me down now, doctor,” she said.

Gaster blinked and scrambled to put her down without actually throwing her tiny body onto the snow, shoving the backpack into her arms when he had accomplished this. He straightened his lab coat and cleared his throat. “Ahem. Yes. Well, my house is less than a minute away. You should probably put on your coat.”

Emma made to reach into her bag, then paused and shook her head. “I can handle it.”

“…What?”

“I can handle it for a bit. Let’s go.”

“There is literal ice on the ground.”

“I kind of like the cold.”

“Your wings could freeze off.”

“Then we should move quickly, huh?”

“…Fine.” Emmi grinned up at him, pleased she had claimed her first verbal victory. Gaster adjusted his glasses, then blinked again and forced his hands to his sides. His eyes were still glowing, though they were much more pink than yellow now. “Let’s go. We have much to discuss—”

“Um, doctor?”

“What is it?”

“Your eyes,” she gestured to his face. “You might want to—”

Gaster put his hand to his good eye and seemed to notice the pink light reflecting on his bones. He blushed and blinked rapidly until the light went away. Yep, Emmi thought. This is the man I’m going to care for along with his children for the rest of my life. So fine.

“Let’s go,” Gaster repeated, pointing down the path. “And… thank you, for… that.”

“You’re welcome, Dr. Gaster.”

***

I can’t help but feel I have a tendency to start the story way ahead of the action, which fills the beginning with unrelated details, but maybe that’s part of the charm? I wouldn’t know, I don’t get a lot of feedback these days on my stories. But anyway, yeah.

I imagine suddenly having wings, even if they’re technically nonfunctional (at this point), could present some… unique situations. Emmi’s wings flutter when she’s excited (and Gaster thinks it’s cute), so I imagine they might react to other emotions, such as sticking out when startled, drooping when sad, etc. (What’s that? Emmi’s wings are technically under her new shirt she got from Asgore? And therefore this scenario couldn’t happen? And also her wings might not be strong enough to lift her whole body like this? … Shhh…)

I don’t know if all people notice these things when looking around, but I always love to look at as much of the lights, colors, and architecture in a new place as possible: big cities and rolling valleys of trees especially. People are kind of just there, unless I’m at an anime convention; then people are put into that first group, too.

*Bites a carrot* Ehhh… What’s up, Doc? I have no idea if Emmibee would be the type to quip in a situation as sudden as the one seen here (clearly, I have been watching too much Real Time Fandub Games), but minds do weird things sometimes; something I’m all too familiar with myself. Why Looney Tunes? I don’t know, I couldn’t think of a better quote that mentions a doctor (wait, here’s one: I’m a doctor, not an escalator!) Also I like comedy. Sue me. (Please do not.)

I had to use a lot of maps of the Underground for this chapter. I kind of forgot about the steam puzzles and where each elevator went until after I saw it and I was like “Oh. Welp.” I’m not actually sure how you would solve the steam puzzles if you weren’t able to visually map out your every move. Gaster has probably done this five hundred times and knows the right way by heart (or soul, I guess), but Emmi has never seen the puzzle from this perspective, and I’d be very surprised if she had taken the time to memorize each puzzle in the game before going into the world. Even then, perspective can change a lot.

Skeleton Eye Glowing! Pink and yellow, based on the correlating emotions on Zarla’s eye color chart. Yellow usually means fear or stress (and is also Gaster’s natural color), and pink means surprise or embarrassment. Gaster becomes more embarrassed once he realizes he’s been holding Emmi like a teddy bee to himself for half a boat ride, and it takes a second for him to return to his stoic, cool-guy persona. He really does appreciate Emmi looking out for his dignity, though.

I actually loved writing the Riverperson more than I thought I would? They’re just so cryptic while also being straightforward, but in a way that I? Like? Get? And understand? It’s like they’re speaking in poetry while also screwing with their patrons, and I’m just down for that. I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone, but the line “More than one chapter is about to begin” refers to the meta of the story’s literal next chapter beginning soon, as well as the chapter in the life of Emmi, the life of Gaster, the life of the boys, and the life of them all as a family. Also, “A bee in the hands is worth two bushes” is a play on “an apple in the hand is worth two bushes” (See Veggietales: Larry Boy and the Bad Apple [which I don’t own]), which is a play on the actual phrase “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. Technically, this phrase means “you should be content with what you have instead of losing it all to get more”, but I’ve always read it as “a small amount of something hard to get brings more joy than a lot of somethings you could see any day of the week.“ In this instance in the story, the Riverperson is referring to the latter, and is also just commenting on how rare it is for Gaster to be holding any person, and especially a special bee that got to him through special means.

Emmibee’s favorite part of the Underground is Snowdin, “no contest”. I would assume this is not only for aesthetic reasons (who can resist a snow-covered Gyftmas village?) but also for preference reasons. Emmibee was very immediate in her response to where in the Underground she wanted to live (Snowdin), which may have been so she’d be near Gaster, but I think it would make sense if she preferred snowier places anyway. Hence, she appreciates brisk, cooler temperatures to warmer ones, though a balance is always important. Freezing cold for a short amount of time could be exhilarating. Would her wings freeze off? Dragonflies survive the winter through some means, why can’t a bee monster? (Also, the whole monster thing; weather may not be as applicable to wing safety.)

Anyway, I think that’s all of the after thoughts I have. Thank you for reading all the way to the bottom! Maybe one day I’ll write another story for this AU. It’s a lot of fun! The AU, I mean. And also writing for the AU. Anyway, I’ll see you around. Until then!

~~~

okay #1: this is ADORABLE AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH

#2: it does make me feel better!!

#3: You’re correct in that “drafting a pattern” means making one! I’m using vintage drafting instructions for a vintage dress pattern, which is very exciting.

#4: I wouldn’t mind at all if you posted your stories, as long as you link them back to my and Zarla’s blogs! I would prefer if you posted on AO3, but since you’re already active on FF that’s just fine too. Send me the link when you post them and I’ll give you a promo!

#5: As far as names go, ah.... I’m no good at names either, honestly. It depends on what you want to emphasize in the story. What do you consider the crux of that particular chapter? Seeing Emma, her relationship with her father, Wings’ conversation with ZD or his mother? Maybe family relationships in general? That might be a good angle since that was the majority of the story. 

#6: This particular chapter is such an interesting take on the next leg of the story! You really captured Emmi’s excitement in being in the Underground for the first time, as well as her gentle teasing but caring attitude toward Gaster. “Yep, I’m gonna have this man’s babies.” OKAY NOT REALLY WHAT SHE SAID BUT THAT ENERGY THO

#7: I dont like to stomp on headcanons so I won’t address most of them, but I do want to comment on Emmi’s favorite place in the underground being Snowdin since that directly relates to me: My favorite place is Snowdin because it’s the only place in the Underground that truly feels like home. I actually hate the cold, haha. But the fact that the skelebros/Gaster live there, the music is lovely, and there’s Grillby’s and the librarby and gentle furry folk, it really speaks to my small-town-girl heart. Emmi’s main reason for requesting to go to Snowdin is definitely because of Gaster, but it’s a special place to me because it feels like home.

#8: The comedy is great, the fluff is great, I’m just. I love this and I love you and you do great work

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Bad Vegetarian | Feeding Habits #1

Hey People of Earth!

As you can see from the title, not only do we have a new series of writing updates, we have a new series of writing updates for a whole new novel that was! not! supposed! to! happen!

For any of my friends who miss Moth Work (aka myself), guess who started writing a sequel literally no one asked. :)

I’ve had ideas for spinoff stories for Moth Work (as if MW wasn’t enough of a spinoff) and was peer pressured into starting this novel by @sarahkelsiwrites​ and I’m really happy about it! I have yet to come up with a title, but the moment I do, shall inform you, but for now, we’re calling this MW2!

This book (if it even ends up being a book) starts with chapter one, Bad Vegetarian. Unlike MW, MW2 starts in Lonan’s POV (not sure I’ll switch but I’m sure it’ll be inevitable), and I’m here for it!

I’ve been wanting to explore Lonan and Eliza’s relationship in more detail since having them come together in MW by complete fluke, and oh! is the tea piping!

This chapter really illustrates how truly dysfunctional this relationship is on both sides. Here’s a break down by scene:

Scene A:

Lonan is paint shopping with Eliza who has just gone vegetarian (which is the def the most normal thing she’s spontaneously done lately). Eliza feels like celebrating by painting their entire kitchen red.

Lonan particularly is drawn to blues, but since this ain’t what Eliza wants, they go with a brilliant red.

Scene B:

Lonan lines the kitchen with painter’s tape as Eliza bothers their neighbours for paint rollers, while trying to convince himself this relationship is still somewhat okay.

While doing this, he gets his weekly call from Unknown Woman who he’s been in contact with for the last few weeks. What for? We don’t know! They talk in code, and he realizes Unknown Woman’s situation is getting worse, and impromptu, tries to do something about it.

Scene C:

Lonan and Eliza bump into each other as he’s exiting the apartment and she’s entering, and have a short, strained conversation about why he’s leaving (she’s not aware of top secret phone calls that make this book feel lowkey like the old dystopians!)

Scene D:

Lonan attempts to drive to Unknown Woman but only knows she lives in Arizona (not great for directions lol). While in the car, he realizes it’s essentially impossible to get there without knowing where he’s going, and eventually gives up and heads home.

Scene E:

TW: blood

Lonan re-enters the apartment only to find Eliza “bleeding” in the kitchen. She’s actually just being wild and this “blood” is wall paint.

Scene F:

If we haven’t already seen the dysfunction, oh does it get worse! As Lonan and Eliza try to have a *moment* Eliza has a conversation by herself and gets a lil gaslighty.

Halfway through this, Lonan gets a phone call from Unknown Woman who we finally find out is his ex-girlfriend Glenne. Sounds like tea but he’s genuinely only helping her out of her toxic situation (which will be clarified later) though Eliza’s skeptical.

This chapter was a lot of fun to write! I wrote a majority of it today, and am really happy to have a *chill* project. While I love my other books (the three I am apparently now working on at once), it’s nice to have a place to dump my ideas with characters I know very well in situations I’m comfortable in whenever I feel like writing but don’t have tons of time/ideas/energy.

Excerpts:

Here are the opening three paragraphs! The first sentence sets up the POV a little weirdly, but I think it works with a later sentence that sort of mimics this “reminder” kind of style:

There are no rules, just remember, Eliza is vegetarian. She’s into earth tones, neutral tones, leafy greens, root vegetables. It’s all new. The day she announced her diet change, she also announced a desire to repaint the kitchen, to fit the new aura, to fit the new ethics, but she wants to paint the kitchen blood red, and Lonan is still a meat-eater. He reminds himself: there are no rules, just remember, Eliza is vegetarian.

In the hardware store he thumbs paint chips. They’re set up in an array, almost like checkers, dissolving in a gradient from reds to purples. Eliza wants red, “Not necessarily earthy, but the root of organism, of life,” so Lonan looks at the blues. They’re all a variant of a seaside theme—Sea Breeze, a cloud-like blue, Beach Umbrella, a wispy aqua, Seafoam Serenade, muted like the soft side of a turquoise. Repainting the kitchen matters little to him, and so do the blues, but the red section, devilish, makes him shuffle his blue deck faster.

Radio from the store’s intercom tins through the speakers, dampened by the hustle of carts, the thud of bodies against the concrete flooring. He holds many cards up to the light, Secret Getaway and Parisian Summer almost the exact shade, but still he flicks through, until half the pile is indistinguishable, and the other half are blues he likes and not reds, like Eliza’s asked.

The next excerpt sort of highlights the last six months of Lonan’s life as he’s been on this whirlwind of keeping up with all the things Eliza has tried. I have added kudzu pudding and other kudzu food just for my pals @sarahkelsiwrites​ and @shaelinwrites​ (rlly want kudzu pudding):

Her sudden vegetarianism is not confusing to him. Eliza tries new things all the time, something he’s learned after living with her for half a year. One time, she brought home four different kinds of dried beans to make into tea, and together they drank it atop the balcony, the Vegas strip across them somehow tasting better. One time, they ate a variety of kudzu foods for a week because Eliza said invasive species had to be killed somehow, and so they spooned kudzu pudding into their mouths, kudzu root powder into their water, kudzu salads with salted almonds. One time, she put them on a warmth ban, and they ate only frozen peas, potatoes, raspberries, turned the thermostat down until every surface crackled. She liked the feeling of subtle frost on the countertops, how it jolted her when she touched it accidentally in the morning. He found her many mornings awake before him, transfixed to the table with both palms soldered to its surface, like she’d forgotten she wasn’t a part of it. One time, she paid to have the furniture in the house rearranged, not good enough for her spirit, and then reverted it two days later. “The couch doesn’t like being so close to the refrigerator,” and he could’ve asked “did you ask it?” but said, “Understandable. It shouldn’t be forced to catch a draft.” So her vegetarianism is normal. Already, she’s switched their meat supply to beetroots, chickpeas, tofu she rips apart bare-handed. For the last three mornings, they’ve both taken a shot of spinach and gingerroot, a liquid that burns to make you feel alive, as if you weren’t already.

The next excerpts kind of surprised me with their amount of humour! Not something I expect from Lonan, but I’m glad he has some sass back lol (CW: some upsetting animal imagery):

There is nothing wrong in this relationship. Everything is Eliza’s new favourite adjective—stunning. Everything is scrubbed with kitchen bleach, glittering like a plasticky pool float in the shallow end, stunning. Everything is planned, put in a calendar, a notebook, a flitter of receipts, but always planned, stunning. Everything is better, even better than better, a better that can only be described as stunning.

Lonan uses this word frequently now, rolling out a strip of blue painter’s tape and trying to find different ways it stuns. Sticks when he sticks, peels when he peels, keeps its edge when it needs to keep its edge, so it’s stunning. The bubble television is turned onto a channel about sheep, and as he lines the baseboards, outlets, catches glances of a sheer buzzing against skin, sometimes a hunting knife slicing until there’s blood. 

Eliza is asking a neighbour for paint rollers because they bought four cans of wall paint, two paint trays, a box of garbage bags, three rolls of painter’s tape, and a small paintbrush each for both of them but forgot the rollers. Stunning.

The following excerpt highlights that Lonan has a cellphone! Is Fostered just a bizarre alternate reality of a time period that doesn’t exist? Perhaps! (CW: some upsetting animal imagery):

Today, they’ll prime the cabinets, the walls, and tomorrow, scroll a coat of red onto both. The kitchen will look more like the inside of an anatomical heart, the sinks and drawers like ventricles, but this is Eliza’s vision—her tastes come alive.

The sheep are being herded by a collie. As Lonan rips another strip of tape with his teeth, he stares at the screen mounted in the corner, at the almost-naked sheep dashing across a field. How many will be slaughtered, he doesn’t know. The narrator must’ve said that, but there is no plan, really, for death. Even for sheep.

He kneels toward the kitchen vent, the tape roll linked around his wrist, and smooths a line of tape down. Eliza doesn’t want to paint the vent—it wouldn’t complete her vision—and so it will remain the original wall colour, a square of cream so worn, it’s almost grey.

Here we have some hints at Eliza’s weirdness:

He straightens and looks at her. She’s bundled in her fur coat even though she has always insisted she’s good at even Vegas’ warm winter. Since going vegetarian, she’s insisted it’s fake, even though he’s read the lining tag—100% mink. He doesn’t know why she’s needed her coat when she’s only walked up a few flights of stairs but doesn’t care to ask.

She approaches him with her thumb out, and when that thumb presses into his eye socket, he flinches.

“What happened here?” she smooths the dip of his under eyes, her fingertips cold. He smells her perfume, different today, always different, a smell like cloves and lavender. “Are you sleeping?” She presses onto her toes, examines the other side, and her frown deepens. “This doesn’t look like eight hours.”

“I’m sleeping,” he says, though they both know this is a lie. It’s taken her two weeks to notice.

“I can run to the pharmacy,” she says. “If you need a refill.”

“I’m sleeping.”

“I didn’t notice this morning—I would’ve given you another energy shot.”

Here’s a line I like because of a) skin and b) sun:

Lonan goes nowhere. This is not his plan. Asphalt whips under the skin of each tire, the setting sun wringing him blind. 

Fully sharing this for the verb zags (and also because I accidentally roast cities tho I love them I am one of these blink-less people):

He doesn’t know where he’s going. Arizona is the only thing he knows about her, doesn’t know if she lives in an apartment, a duplex, a house—fully detached, semi-detached. As he pulls into a residential neighbourhood somewhere along the vague line he’s drawn on the map from Las Vegas to Arizona, he watches for all these options. In the distance, a jogger zags across the street with her golden retriever, children play basketball on a driveway, still in their school uniforms, another woman clips the wilted stems off a magnolia bush. 

It’s when he gets closer to the apartments that the sameness is noticeable. High-rises with pearlescent windows that go pinkish in the sunset—all of them identical. Each building evenly spaced, more like a board game than a place to live. Even the space around each building is the same—the same rose hedges, the same iron fence, the same people bustling in and out, all wearing some variation of the same pantsuit, all holding some other hand—child, partner, lover. The same haircuts, smiles, eyes like marbles, as if there’s a store somewhere that sells copies, a catalogue for eyes that don’t blink. He’s been looking into the sun for too long, there must be a difference, but the longer he looks, the more indistinguishable they become.

To get out of explaining where he wants to go when he and Eliza bump into each other, Lonan says he’s visiting his sister (Reeve), and because she’s iconic and must make an appearance, here’s a line ft. our queen:

He could make the lie true. Reeve is somewhere in the country, he imagines, dancing in a faceless city, living in a motel room, tipping everyone well. 

(^^ all true)

Here we have Lonan identifying with the animals more than anything else for the second time in one chapter (TW for more blood imagery):

Lonan hooks the car keys onto the lanyard by the front door and slings his coat across the couch. The television is set to the same channel as before, though the program has switched from sheep slaughter to birdwatching. On screen, a heron perches by a riverbed, opalescent in the sunshine.

“Did you hurt yourself?” he asks, the heron now frisking up the white bark of a tree. He glances at the fluorescent red dripping between her fingers, pattering against the tile.

“I was opening the paint cans.”

“With a kitchen knife?”

He gestures to the blade on the counter, blood-free, newly sharpened.

“It’s all I had on hand.” She pulls her wrist closer to her, runs her index finger along the injured area.

“It’s clean.”

“I washed it, Lonan.”

This next one has some blood imagery so TW for that!

The heron has moved closer to the riverbed. It watches the water knowingly, its subtle simmer of movement, and after a moment of watching, strikes its beak down so it spears a trout. He misses the part where it eats. Eliza’s clicked off the TV from behind him.

She slams the remote onto the counter so hard, its back clatters off and onto the tile. “I cut my arm with a kitchen knife while opening paint cans. It happens.”

“I don’t see a cut.”

“Why would I make that up?”

“I don’t see a cut.”

She walks toward him. He expects her to shove her wrist in his face, but she doesn’t. She just holds it, some of the blood fluorescing pink, splashes onto her toes.

“You got to see your sister?” she asks.

“She cancelled.”

Eliza clucks her tongue, examining her wrist, and then she extends her arm, revealing the full patch of pale skin gone red.

Lonan takes it, and with his fingernail carves a line through the red to reveal the healthy patch of skin, painted, uncut.

And finally, here’s the last line of this excerpt that essentially explains where the title comes from ft. predator VS prey symbolism:

He’s reminded once more of the heron, how it plunged into the riverbed with ease, and the trout dangling in its beak, its commitment to life most fervent the moment before being consumed. 

So that’s going to be it for this update! I don’t know how frequently I’ll be writing this, but it’s been a lot of fun so far. I’m excited to explore more relationships I haven’t turned over in a while as a little side project while I do other things! Hope y’all enjoyed!

--Rachel

[dani-luminae]

Fun meta ask for writers thingy. You said you wanted to answer 18, so I'll ask for 18. Also 6 and 14, if you're open for other questions?

Sure, I’m always up for answering questions. This got long, so I’m putting it under a cut.

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

So I have a little story about this. I’ve written mostly Descendants fanfiction, and mostly VK OCs, so typically my characters always start out a little wild, mischievous, tricky to work with - my OCs span from the daughter of Loki (Marvel) to a daughter of Captain Jack Sparrow and an adopted daughter of Queen Narissa, and even a daughter of Hades that crosses over with Sky High. Naturally, as VKs, they start out with some tricky personalities, but as the story progresses through their stories they reform a bit and find their character development and get where they’re intended to be, almost inevitably on the side of good.

Well, I’ve also got a VK OC that doesn’t turn “good.” Bianca is the daughter of evil version of King Beast and Queen Belle from a place called Dark Haven, and being the daughter of the “Rulers of All Evil,” Bianca has no intention of turning good. Nevertheless, she plays with elements of being good (the whole ‘anti-hero’ idea from Return to the Isle of the Lost is actually important to her) and she settles solidly in this grey area between good and evil, though still on the more evil side of the gradient.

But there’s a story where Bianca doesn’t get to play with and consider the elements of good and evil. In The Crown and the Sea, a crossover between Bianca and Sophia (an OC belonging to my amazing girlfriend @megamultifandomtrashposts) Bianca falls in love with Sophia, daughter of Ursula from the Isle, and while the girls make an amazing duo and I love them and their ship to death, unfortunately I’ve found that Bianca’s love for Sophia has sorta blocked this version of Bianca’s character development in exploring just where on the spectrum of good and evil she falls, and the end result is that I don’t find this version of Bianca all that engaging. (There’s still considerably some time to work my way around this, and I’m sure I’ll find something new for her, but this is just where I am right now.)

The TL;DR of all of this is that, when it comes to VK characters at least, my favorite character and character arc to write for them is when they grow past what they have been told is their limitations and their life, either into good or just a few shades of grey lighter than where they’re at now.

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

It varies from story to story! In some cases I have a title right off the bat. In some cases I don’t get a title until I’m in the middle of planning. In some cases a lack of title is literally all that’s holding me back from publishing my first chapter. I’ve had some stories where I’ve literally changed the title in the middle of the story and wondered if anyone has noticed. There are some where I just assigned titles that probably make no sense at all.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

Oh, several. Rambling below:

A few chapters into Blue Fire I wondered if I had made a mistake, and I seriously though about changing Haley to Hayden, a son of Hades. Obviously Haley stayed as she is now, but the alternate version with Hayden is still stuck in my mind sometimes. (I imagine that if I had changed it to Hayden, his boyfriend probably would have become Warren Peace.)

Exactly twelve chapters into Rewrite the Stars, I discovered tidbits of information about the already-in-progress-when-it-was-cancelled sequel to Treasure Planet. One of these tidbits was the existence of Kate, Jim’s proposed love interest, who (judging from her concept art) seemed to be a cat-like female like Amelia. Obviously I didn’t change Ayesha and she stayed in the story, but since then I’ve always had this alternate concept of Lia in my mind with cat-like eyes, pointed ears, and claws as a daughter of Kate. (This version of Lia notably had blonde hair, which I imagine would drive Mal up the wall!)

Marvel AU Lia is also stuck in my head. I love the idea of her.

I have two AU idea for Heroes and Villains: one, where Eluned went “screw it” and didn’t give four-year-old Royal back to Maleficent when Maleficent came looking, so instead of an Enchantress for a godmother, this version of Royal grew up as the Enchantress’s adopted daughter; and a second one, where Royal was somehow kept in Auradon and raised by her father as a Princess of Auradon, though this version of Royal (named Marie) grew up to be a bit spoiled and selfish, so she’s not trusted to take the throne. The plot here would be a bit of a reversal from her OG plot: instead of learning the truth about her father, she would be learning the truth about her mother instead.

In the AU noted above, Nik would have grown up on the Isle with his mother.

Unfortunately I have thought about a ‘Bad Ending’ of Good to be Bad where Ben died before they could save him and the kingdom had to deal with his death... that was a lot of hurt and confusion.

That’s all I can think of for now. Thank you for the ask!

[athenagc94]

Gust and Piper - Beginnings Pt. 4

This one is a lot longer than the others, but I wasn’t sure how else to break it up based on the next part, so I just put it all in one.  I know the brooch comes from Walnut Grove, but let’s just pretend it came from Atara instead.

You can read the first the other parts here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

I’m also posting the story here on AO3!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gust wet his lips with his tongue as he peered closely between the canvas in front of him and the setting sun.  It was quiet.  The only sound around him was the lazy flow of the river beside him and the occasional grunt from QQ who snoozed at his feet. He brought his paintbrush to the canvas and added some purple where the sky met the water.  The purple bled into a gradient of pink and orange that mirrored the sky overhead.  He glanced back at the sunset. It was quickly disappearing on the horizon, so he didn’t have much time before it was dark. The pains of being a landscape artist.  Time was rarely on his side and with autumn quickly approaching, the days were getting shorter.

“So is this one of those important tasks you were telling me about?”

Gust tore his eyes away from the canvas.  Piper watched him curiously, hands placed firmly on her hips.  Her fishing rod was strapped to her back and he smelled the distinct odor of marine life that often followed his father after a day of fishing.  He wrinkled his nose at her and turned back to his canvas.  “It is.”

“Oh really?” Her voice was closer now, but he didn’t look up.  He was on a race against the clock.  He wouldn’t indulge her, not this time. “Because this looks a lot like a frivolous activity if you ask me.” “Well, I wasn’t asking you.”

She didn’t respond and he, for a brief moment, believed she had left.  “So you’re a painter too?”  Gust sighed heavily.  He should have known better.   Piper wasn’t perturbed by his temperament.  She never backed down, she always came back, and Gust let her.  It appears they both were gluttons for punishment.  The rank stench of fish was stronger now as Piper regarded the painting over his shoulder.  “This is beautiful,” she said, “but could you maybe save some talent for the rest of us?”

His lip curled.  “I’m good because I practice,” he said firmly, “years in front of a canvas have led me to where I am today.  I can’t rely on talent alone.”  He mixed a little more pink in with the purple to soften the transition from one color to the next.  “It’s not my fault if other’s fall short by comparison.”

“Light, you take everything so seriously.”  

“What can I say, I’m a straight shooter.”  He heard her shuffling around behind him, but he still didn’t look at her.  The sun was almost gone now.  He didn’t have time to argue with her, but after a few moments, the sound of snuffling and squeals filled the air.  Gust glanced down.  QQ had disappeared from around his feet, but he could hazard a guess of where he’d gone to.  A certain builder liked to slip him an aroma apple anytime she visited the office, so it wasn’t hard to put two and two together.

“Can you stop feeding QQ?  He’s getting fat.”

Piper chuckled.  “But he’s such a nice piggy. He deserves all the treats,” she cooed, “besides, I heard an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  Why shouldn’t that apply to pigs as well?” Gust rolled his eyes and turned away from his easel.  Piper sat in the grass as QQ inhaled the sliced apple she’d laid out in front of him.  She scratched him affectionately behind the ear.  “Such a good boy,” she continued, “You’re perfect, don’t listen to your grumpy owner.”  She shot Gust a cheeky smile.

“Well, this grumpy owner is the one who has to deal with that stupid pig at the end of the day,” Gust snapped back, “so I think I know what’s best for him.”

“No offense, but you don’t really strike me as someone who would know or care how to take care of a pig,” she shot back, “you strike me as more of a cat person.  They’re easy to look after, with a mild disinterest in everything and everyone, just like you.”  He glared at her and she stuck her tongue out at him.  “Just saying.”

“QQ was given to me by my Master when I was studying in Atara.  She said I was boring and thought caring for a pet might broaden my horizons.”  Piper scratched QQ under his chin and he nuzzled closer with a happy squeal.

“Well, you’re a lot of things Gust.”  She was cradling QQ in her lap now and the pig looked like he was living his best life.  “But I would never describe you as boring.”  He straightened in his seat, taken aback.  He wasn’t sure how to respond.  Obviously, he didn’t find himself boring.  He had intricate depth and creativity on his side, though those facets of his being were rarely ever acknowledged by others.

“But it must have been QQ this whole time.”  Piper winked and Gust visibly bristled.  “So, maybe there was a method to your Master’s madness.”

Gust snorted.  “I still think it was all an elaborate prank for her.”

Piper hummed.  “I mean, it is a little funny, too.  As I said, you’re an unlikely pair, but I think QQ likes you.  Isn’t that right, buddy.”  QQ gave her another happy snuffle.  “That’s what I thought.  You love your owner.”

“QQ doesn’t have the capacity to love.  He’s a pig.”  With a sniff, he turned back to his painting.  The sun was barely visible now and he sighed.  So much for finishing this piece before the light was gone.  “Still, I care for him because he was given to me by my Master.”

“You’re telling me that you keep QQ out of spite?” He could hear the smile in her voice. “I don’t believe that.”  She was back at his side now, QQ in her arms.  “Look at this face and tell me it doesn’t make your ice cold heart melt.”  Gust arched an eyebrow as she raised QQ at eye level.  He nuzzled up against his cheek.  Gust tried to keep a straight face, but he smiled despite himself.  “I knew it. You care about him.”

“One is bound to get attached to an animal when they’re in your care,” Gust deadpanned as he took QQ and placed him back on the ground.  The pig bounded across the grass to chase some fireflies that had just emerged.  He watched him go fondly.  “But I should pack up,” he continued as he began gathering his paints, “I lost the light, so I’ll have to try again tomorrow.”

Piper looked up with a frown.  “My bad,” she muttered.

“It’sー” He paused, considering his next words.  Piper had pulled him away from his work, as she was known to do.  But he’d allowed himself to be distracted, so it wasn’t only Piper’s fault.  And honestly, he’d take any excuse to get out of his home for another evening.  “It’s fine, I probably wouldn’t have finished the painting this evening anyway.”

“You sure?”  Gust only hummed in response as he packed up his easel.  “I could try to work with the ladies at the Research Center to see if we could make you a light.  In case you ever want to do painting in the evening?”

“I assure you, it’s fine.  I was painting a sunset and that sunset is now gone.”  He threw his bag over his shoulder and balanced his canvas in his hands, careful to not smudge the wet paint.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head home.”  He gave her a curt nod and brushed past her before she had a chance to respond.  She didn’t follow him .  He tried to ignore that little voice at the back of his mind that was wishing she had.

↢↢↢↣↣↣

The sound of pencil on paper always calmed Gust. It was therapeutic for him.  He could press as hard as he’d like on a pencil and if it broke, so be it.  He scrutinized the messy sketch in front of him.  His lines were heavy and dark today.  The preliminary design for the new relic museum was slowly taking shape.  It was tame compared to his other work.  A classic two storied building with a cross gabled roof, crafted from polished white stone.  He’d add his own flair to it, of course.  

He traced the curve of one of the large arched windows.  They would be the star of the show if he had his way.  Stained glass.  A wonderful mid morning sun would create a fantastical lighting display in the museum.  His own masterpiece to go down in history. “Stained glass, huh?”  Gust’s blood ran cold.  Piper’s breath tickled the back of his neck.  How long had she been there?  How did he not notice?  He swallowed the gasp that threatened to spill out.  “Who’s going to be the poor builder who has to make all that glass for you?”  There was teasing lilt to her voice.

“I’m just drafting some ideas,” he set his pencil aside and swiveled in his seat, “nothing’s set inー”  The words died on his lips as he balked at the sight in front of him.  Piper was a mess.  Her face was flushed, breathing hard, like she’d just finished running a marathon.  Her wheat colored hair was plastered to her skin, drenched in sweat.  “What in Light’s name happened to you,” his lip curled at her the mud and sand she’d trekked up the stairs, “you’re filthy.”

Piper rolled her eyes and pushed her bangs out of her eyes.  They were sticking up straight now.  She didn’t seem to notice.  His fingers twitched in his lap, but he resisted the urge to fix them.  Instead, he chose to stare at them helplessly.  “I just got back from the ruins in the Eufaula Desert,” she explained with a shrug, “I feel the heat out there a little more than I do here.  Trekking across sand isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.”  Gust couldn’t argue with that.  He’d only visited the Eufaula once since the bridge opened and he had no intention of returning.  “But,” she continued with an enthusiastic smile, “I came here for a reason.”

“Oh really?” He tried to hide the smile in his voice.  “You aren’t just here to irritate me?”

“You know that’s my favorite pastime, but no, not this time.”  She reached for the bag slung across her shoulder.  There was the distinct clink of rocks and metals as she shuffled through its contents.  “Here we go.” She tugged a book out of her bag and presented it to him.  “Tada!  Structural Dimension Theory by,” she paused and glanced at the cover, “Vincent Azula!”  

Gust’s eyes widened.  The cover was a little battered and it was covered in a thin layer of mineral dust, but he could read the title plain as day.  He’d been searching for a copy of this book for years.  He’d scoured the Free Cities.  He sent letters to fellow architects.  He even asked his Master to keep an eye out during her travels.  Nothing had come of it.  “How did you find this?”

“I found it while I was digging around in the mine,” she pushed it a little closer, “hence the dirt.”

He reached forward to touch it, but stopped himself.  Why was she giving it to him?  This book belonged in a museum, not his bookshelf.  She could sell it and make a fortune.  Instead, she was just giving it to him.  He didn’t do anything to deserve it.  His hand fell back into his lap.

“Do you know how valuable that is?”

“Do I care?” She tilted her head at him, “Albert told me you were itching to get your hands on a copy and I found one.  I want you to be the one to have it.”

“Well, I don’t want to take it.”

He winced.  That’s not what he meant.  He wanted to take it very much, but she was wasting it on him.  Piper’s expression fell, the disappointment clear on her face.  She was terrible at hiding her emotions.  The exact opposite of him.  He lacked the ability to appropriately convey his emotions.  It’s how he found himself in situations like these.  He couldn’t even describe what he was feeling right now.  Shame? Guilt? A deeply rooted sense of self loathing?  Probably a lovely mixture of all three.  Piper was giving it to him.  He shouldn’t turn away because he felt he didn’t deserve it.  That wasn’t his choice to make.  He turned away from her to hide the angry blush burning in his cheeks.  “You can set it over there.”  Piper didn’t respond.  A part of him was afraid she’d left.  He wouldn’t have blamed her.  

“But you just said…” Piper trailed off.

Gust breathed a sigh of relief.  She was still there.  “That’s not what I meant,” he managed softly, “it’s a rare find and you’re just giving it to me.  I was just surprised.  Set it over there.”  He gestured to table off to the side.  “You went through the trouble of bringing it here, I might as well read it.”  He grimaced.  For once in his life, he wanted to say what he meant.  Thank her, you coward. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome?”  She sounded confused.  That made two of them.  “I hope you enjoy it.”

Gust didn’t trust himself to speak, so he settled for a dismissive wave.  Not much better, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.  Her heavy footfalls retreated back down the stairs, then the jingle of the front door.  When he was certain she was out of sight, he let his head fall forward with a groan.  He tapped his forehead, once, twice, against his drafting table.  A disaster.  He was a disaster.

“And you say I’m bad with women?”

Gust glanced up. Albert leaned against the banister of the stairs a cheeky grin playing on his lips.  He hated when Albert gave him that look.  It meant he felt like gloating and he was not in the mood for Albert to get on his high horse.  He massaged his temples.  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Come on mate,” Albert threw his hands into the air, “You used to be so charming and talkative when we were in Atara.  You had men and women eating out the palm of your hand and now you can’t even thank someone properly for their incredibly thoughtful gift. What happened?”

Gust fiddled with his watch.  What hadn’t happened?  He’d abandoned his family and fled to the city with no intentions of returning.  Now that he was back, he had to face the consequences of his actions.  He doted on his sister.  He tried to make up for the time they’d lost, but it was clear that she’d grown up without him.  They spent time together, but he could feel the unspoken tension.  They never talked about the manner in which he’d left.  There was an elephant in the room and neither of them made any attempt to address it.  His father.  He bit the inside of his cheek.  Well, his father had Mint who was, by all intents and purposes, more deserving of his father’s affection and attention.  Mint could be the man and son Gust never could.  Portia had been his home, but now he was the stranger.  He had no right to feel bitter and alone.  He’d done this to himself.

“I have no interest in charming the people here.”  That much was true.  He couldn’t fix what he’d done, so he just didn’t bother anymore.  It didn’t matter what he did, whether he was kind or mean.  His future was set in stone as long as he lived in Portia.

Albert shook his head.  “You’re allowed to make friends.”

“I’m not here to make friends.  I’m here to do a job,” Gust replied with a pointed look in his direction, “As are you, we’re building our reputation.  When that happens, we can move onto bigger and better things.  This way, I won’t have any attachments holding me back when that happens.”

↢↢↢↣↣↣

Gust wandered the streets of Atara.  He knew these roads like the back of his hand.  He’d spent his free time as a student exploring every inch of the city.  It’s how he found his favorite cafe.  It sold the best coffee and it was where he and Albert had hatched their original plan for A&G Construction.  He almost smiled at the memory.  They had a lot of dreams back then.

Today, he’d decided to meander through the market district before he had to meet Albert for a long day of schmoozing.  People surrounded him on all sides, but he relished the bustling energy around him.  They were strangers.  They had their own lives and they didn’t bother themselves with knowing him or his business.  It was so unlike Portia.  

A gentle smile settled across his face as he followed the flow of traffic.  He was on a mission this morning.  Ginger’s birthday was in a few months and he wanted to find something to bring back home for her.  Perhaps there was a new book that he could get his hands on.  Anything to get her to stop raving about Journey to the East.  If he heard her gush about Albert’s thoughtful present one more time, he might just scream, especially when he knew where the book really came from.

He glanced at the shop stalls with mild disinterest.  Nothing really stood out to him.  Most of these shops sold boring knick-knacks.  Cheap and plentiful.  There was nothing of real value, and certainly nothing worth giving his sister.  Just as he was resigning himself to the fact that he wouldn’t find anything, he paused.  A small display of jewelry and brooches was set up on the side of the road, glistening softly in the mid morning sun.  He examined the pieces for a few moments, but one in particular kept drawing his eye.

It was a brooch, reminiscent of a pinecock feather.  A gradient of gemstones went from deep emerald to a pale blue and the golden frame was lined with pearls.  It was beautifully crafted.  It made him think of Piper.  He knew she  would appreciate the steady hand it took to make it.  It would also compliment her complexion.  He shook his head, mentally scolding himself.  No.  He was looking for a gift for his sister, not Piper.  He took a hesitant step away from the display, but couldn’t manage another.  His eyes stayed trained on that brooch.

He was conflicted.  On the one hand, getting Piper a gift wouldn’t be completely out of the question.  She had given him a birthday present and that architecture book, so getting her something in kind would be appropriate, wouldn’t it?  But on the other hand, he didn’t want the ramifications that came with giving her a gift.  If others found out, they’d read into it and then rumors would start to fly.  The last thing he wanted was for people to be prying into his personal affairs.

He willed his feet to move, to put these silly thoughts out of his head and continue down the street. He’d find something else for Ginger and he’d meet back up with Albert at the exhibition hall.  They’d charm investors and showcase the wonderful projects he’d spent months working on, then they’d come home.  He’d act like nothing had happened because it hadn’t.  Simple.  A moment passed, then another.  People pushed past him on the streets and for the first time he felt smothered by the city crowd.  Another moment passed and he swore under his breath. He reached for the gols in his pocket, and before he could stop himself, he was waving the shopkeeper over.

↢↢↢↣↣↣

The sun had just broken over the horizon when Gust slipped out into the quiet streets of Portia that morning.  He wanted to catch Piper before she made her rounds through town, away from prying eyes.  In order to do this, he knew he had to get to her workshop at the crack of dawn. He had no idea how Piper did this every day.  He often saw her milling about during his late night strolls with Ginger, so he knew she worked into the late hours of the night.  There were rumors of her passing out on more than one occasion.  Yet, without fail, she managed to roll out of bed each morning with a smile on her face.

He muffled a yawn in his hand as he watched the sun peek over the front gates. Sunrises were never really his thing.  He preferred the calm that came with a sunset and the promise of night.  The rich pinks and oranges of a sunset were richer than the pale hues that currently colored the sky overhead.

As he approached the town gates, he placed a hand protectively over his pocket.  The brooch shifted under his fingers as he walked.  He was only slightly embarrassed that he’d practiced what he was going to say this morning while he was getting ready.  He saw the brooch while traveling in Atara and thought it would suit her.  Simple, easy to remember, there was no way he could mess it up.

The soft, ceaseless, hum of her machines filled the air as he approached Pipes & Bricks.  Piper was currently bent over her skiver, unloading several bolts of fine leather.  Today, she’d traded her usual top knot for a simple braid.  Small wispy curls had already come loose and framed her face.  It was a surprisingly delicate look for her.  He willed his heart to stop racing as he cleared his throat.

“Good morning, Piper.”

She looked up from her machine and he noted the smudged grease across the bridge of her nose. “Gust?” The surprise on her face was quickly replaced by an amused smile.  “Do my eyes deceive me or is Mr. Clean Freak coming to my workshop of his own freewill?  Surely, the Dark Ages are back upon us.”

Gust teased his lower lip between his teeth.  This was out of character for him.  He realized that now, standing on the other side of her gate.  Her surprise was warranted.  He never went out of his way to visit anyone, yet, here he was at an ungodly hour just to give her a present.  Panic began to fester in the pit of his stomach.  He hadn’t even considered what this would look like to Piper.

If she had suspicions, she didn’t let it show as she continued, “What can I do for you?  Got a commission for me?  That’s normally why people stop by these days.”  She sighed wistfully.  “You know, I’d love it if someone stopped by just to say hello.”

“Albert and I went to Atara last week.” Gust wanted to kick himself.

Piper gave him an owlish look.  “Yeah, I know,” she said slowly, “you’ve been raving about your exhibition for months.  Did it go well?”

“It went surprisingly well,” he tried to play it cool but the excitement in his voice was undeniable, “We had a lot of interest from investors, so we’ll see what happens.”  Gust and Albert were pretty happy about this development.  Sure, Albert was still nursing the remnants of a hangover after all the schmoozing and Gust had locked himself away for a few days to recover himself.  People were draining in general, but those events always killed him.  Their hard work paid off though.  Albert had a meeting with an investor later this week.

“Well, that’s great to hear.  I told you everything would be fine.”

“I guess you were.”  He gave her a soft smile and she returned it.  “Oh right,” he tugged the brooch out of his pocket and offered it to her, “I got this.”

Piper set the bolts aside and crossed the yard to get a closer look.  Her eyes widened and there was the faintest hitch in her breath.  The panic in his chest was quickly replaced with a sense of pride.  She liked it.  He could tell by the sparkle in her eyes.  “It’s gorgeous,” she sounded breathless, “is it for Ginger?  Her birthday is coming up in a few months, isn’t it?”

Gust’s expression fell.  She thought it was for Ginger.  It was obviously for her.  The jewels matched the blue flecks in her eyes and the gold inlay complimented her sun kissed complexion.  It was practically made to be worn by her.  That’s why he bought it.

“W-What no, this isn’t herーwhy would Iー”  His brief bout of confidence was waning fast.  He hadn’t anticipated the confusion, but he could still save this.  He just needed to get the conversation back on track and stick to the facts.  “Actually, Albert gave it to me.”  The lie tumbled from his lips before he could stop it.  He sucked in his breath through gritted teeth.  Gust was a lot of things.  Crass, rude, more than a little evasive and standoffish, but he wasn’t a liar.  In fact, he considered himself truthful to a fault.  Still, he found himself lying.  The worst part, there was no need to lie in this situation, but his mouth refused to listen as he continued to spout bullshit. “I have no need for it.  So, you should take it.”  He offered it to her.  “Consider it payment for the book.”

Piper looked taken aback by his abruptness.  “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” she scratched sheepishly at the nape of her neck, “but you do realize the concept of a gift, right?”  Gust’s brain was short-circuiting, he tried to respond, but he could only stare at her.  This was a quickly sinking ship and he needed to get away, but his feet wouldn’t move.  He wanted to scream.  “The book I gave you was a gift,” she continued slowly, “you don’t have to pay me back.  I wanted you to have it.”

And he wanted her to have this brooch.  Wasn’t that much obvious?  He narrowed his eyes at her.  “I understand that,” he said tersely, “I’m just trying toー” He paused.  What was he trying to do?  At the moment, he was trying to end this conversation so he could go and sulk somewhere far away from her, but he couldn’t even manage that. His fingers closed around the brooch, its sharp edges digging into his palm.  “Nevermind, if you don’t want it, I’ll find someoneー”

“Woah there buddy,” Piper reached forward and wrapped her fingers around his wrist.  Her grip was surprisingly strong as she tugged him closer.  “I never said I wouldn’t take the brooch.  I just wanted to clarify that what I gave you was a gift.”  She offered him a small smile.  “I appreciate that you thought of me.  It’s beautiful, so I’d be happy to take it off your hands, as a gift.”

Gust stared at her.  She was able to say what he couldn’t.  He’d come to her workshop to give her a gift and he couldn’t even articulate his true intentions.  He’d lied to her.  Anger boiled in the pit of his stomach, but there was something else in the mix.  It was a feeling he felt in the quiet hours of the night or when one of his concepts was ripped apart by a client.  Shame.  He was ashamed of himself.  It had taken a brooch to make him see how socially stunted he’d become.  Now he really wanted to go home and sulk.

“Payment, gift, whatever.  Just take it.”

Piper plucked the brooch from his hand and fastened it to the front of her coveralls.  The jewels glistened faintly in the early morning sun. “What do you think?” her tone was bright as she placed a hand on her hip, “I think it brings out the grease stains on these things, but in a cute way, ya know?”

Gust swallowed the lump that was beginning to form in his throat.  He wanted to feel good.  He’d given her the brooch after all.  But this entire ordeal made him feel empty.  He forced a smile across his face, but he knew it came out more like a sneer.   “You’re hopeless.”  There was a brittle edge to his voice and he wasn’t entirely sure if he was calling Piper hopeless.  Or himself?  He needed to leave before he made things worse.  “I should go,” he spun on his heel and hurried back up the path, “try not to visit the office today.  You’re loud and distracting.”

“I make no promises.”

“Goodbye Piper.”

“Hey Gust.”  He paused and turned back over his shoulder.  She offered him a small wave.  “Thanks for stopping by to say hi.  Don’t be a stranger.”

[dawnsedits]

hi! i love your edits and i want to get into gif making. if you could give me some tips on how to start or what stuff you use it would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!!! I’ll give you some general tips and some links and if you want more details about anything, feel free to send in another ask!

Programs

You’re best off with Photoshop, bc that’s got a lot of tools for coloring and whatnot, and that’s what pretty much every tutorial on this website uses. There’s full Photoshop, which is a monthly subscription, or Photoshop Elements, which is a one-time fee but with fewer tools (and I pay for it, so idk where to download it for free or anything). If you don’t want/can’t get Photoshop, there are websites you can use for free (that’s where I started, don’t remember what it was called tho), but your tools will be limited (which is fine! As I said, it’s where I started, and it was still plenty of fun). The rest of this will generally assume you’re using Photoshop, though some of it applies universally

Getting Footage

This post will tell you a lot more about how and where to download stuff than I ever could. You can also screenrecord YouTube and, for shows, the channel’s website, though this will be limited in the content you can find. 1080p is best for both making high quality gifs and saving space on your computer, though if you’re recording YouTube I recommend finding 4K footage if possible, and 720p will work as well

Making the Gifs

Here’s a post compiling all sorts of resources! It’s got links to tutorials and resource blogs. If you want more, you can go to my main blog (@castieldawnchester, tho when that changes, just check this blog’s title for my current user) and search #resources or #tutorials

Sizing

First off, the most basic of basics: Sizing. A single gif needs to be 540px wide; two gifs in a row need to be 268px; and for three gifs, the outer two need to be 177px, with the middle gif being 178px. The height is pretty much up to you - my two go-to heights are 260px or 225px. (If you want examples: 225px, 260px, 360px, 540px [do not do this one unless you want Really Heckin Big gifs]). With this in mind, crop away!

For headers, however, you’ll want a 16:9 ratio - mine are 640x360.

Sharpening

Once it’s cropped (and only after it’s cropped, it’ll be useless if you try to sharpen it beforehand), you’ll want to sharpen it. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen, and these are my settings:

Then add a gaussian blur by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. I use a radius of 1px, then set the opacity to 20%. Feel free to adjust both the sharpen and the blur to your personal preferences!

Text

Basic captioning is usually done in Calibri or Arial or a similar font. Bold and italicize it. Add a stroke and a drop shadow (do this by clicking on the text layer, then going up to Layer > Layer Style). I make it size 17, stroke width set to 2, and my drop shadow settings are:

Feel free to adjust any of that to your personal preference!

And the fancy edit text is entirely up to you! Mess around with sizing, colors, opacity, all the different panels under layer style, and the layer blending modes to your heart’s desire. If you can’t find a font you like already installed in Photoshop, you can find more online

Basic Coloring

This tutorial is specifically about curves. A curves layer is only my first of several steps for coloring, but it’s probably the most vital imo

But a thing to remember about coloring tutorials is that everyone colors differently. Some people don’t use curves, for example, and I don’t really use photo filters bc I prefer color balance. It also depends if you want natural coloring, vibrant, pale, black and white, or whatever, and even then, everyone has different styles. My own style is a mishmash of different tutorials and my own preferences (I actually changed it a bit just a few weeks ago). So I recommend looking at a variety of different coloring tutorials, trying them out, and picking out the bits you think make your gifs look the best.

With all that in mind, these are my layers for coloring:

I work from the bottom up. (Ignore that curves copy, it’s a leftover from an action I need to get rid of.) For curves and levels, I just hit auto.

For exposure, I add some exposure to make the gif a little brighter, and some gamma correction to make the blacks pop a little more. For brightness/contrast, I add a little of both. (But be careful with both of these layers - making your gif too bright will ruin the gif’s quality.)

For vibrance, add a little saturation (don’t go too far or you’ll ruin the quality - I tend to stay below +10) and some vibrance. I do this before color balance specifically bc it makes it easier to see what colors need balancing. For that, it’s pretty self-explanatory - if your gif is too yellow, drag the slider over to the blue; if it’s too green, drag it to magenta; etc. The changes to this layer will also be small.

(Coloring is like that, usually, in my experience. Beyond the curves layer, and perhaps the levels layer depending on the scene, it’s basically less is more - the combo of the layers will give the look you want and make a drastic difference, but each individual layer will look like only a tiny change.)

Finally, selective coloring. Selective Color 2 is to adjust for skin tones, and I only use red and yellow. For both, lower the cyan a little bit, and increase red and yellow. Then Selective Color 1 is specifically for the blacks. Go to blacks and increase black by +30, then drop the layer opacity to 30% - this’ll make your gif look a little more HD. Feel free to fidget with this layer!

(If you want me to do a full tutorial with pictures and examples, just ask!)

Fancy Coloring

This can be whatever you want - vibrant, pale, changing the colors, etc. For that, I suggest finding tutorials, bc I won’t really be able to help.

But for effects like this gifset or this one, I use gradient maps and gradients. Mess with the colors, the blending options, and all the little settings to get whatever look you’re going for. (Again, if you want a full tutorial, I can absolutely do that!)

Exporting and Posting

The general speed for gifs is .05, tho I use .04.

The max size is 10mb (though I’ve noticed for headers that they seem to freeze if they’re above 5mb). Keeping it smaller will make it easier for Tumblr to load tho (cause we all know how functional this website is).

And tags!! Are!! Important!! Believe me. Unless you have a billion followers, your gifset will get a mere handful of notes and flop epically on your own. Find gifmakers who track tags, find source blogs, and tag them. There are fandom-specific blogs, character-specific blogs, actor-specific blogs, ship-specific blogs, and blogs for movies/shows/whatever in general - it might take some digging for smaller fandoms, but I guarantee you there’ll be someone you can tag. The first five tags are generally the most important, bc beyond that, there is zero guarantee Tumblr’s lOvElY search function will be able to find your post.

And lastly...

Don’t Get Discouraged

Giffing can be time-consuming, and given the current lack of reblogging on Tumblr, it can be hard to have a post do well. It depends on the fandom too - tiny fandoms, dead fandoms, the super massive fandoms, your post will likely go even more unnoticed than usual.

But if you’re having fun, don’t give up. It’s worth it! You made a thing you like! And you enjoyed doing it! That’s the point! Keep learning, keep growing, keep playing, keep giffing. Someone will always love your content, even if that someone is you.

I’m going to stop now, bc the SPN finale is nigh and I’m ready to die (hehe that rhymed), but as I said, if you want more, go search around on my main blog, or send in some more asks!

[yourdeepestfathoms]

uroboros, the eternal return (part two)

foster AU.

TW: Mentioned/implied child abuse, violence

——————

-Freezing the Viper’s Venom-

Joan used to draw a lot. She was good at drawing, she liked to think, as it was sometimes the only thing she was allowed to do when locked in her rooms.

But now her sketchbook was filled with drawings of Them. The family that almost gave her everything.

Even after she fucked it all up, the Greene’s, the seventh family, still remained her favorite fosters. Her time with them and the end she met taught her something very valuable:

Don’t get comfortable.

Joan brushes her fingertips over Mrs. Greene’s pencil-shaded face and thought back to how she actually looked in person. Chocolate brown hair with natural curls at the tips, warm honey eyes, pearly white teeth, broad shoulders. She kinda looked like a porcupine that worked in criminal justice.

Joan found herself giggling a little. She didn’t know why, but she had a habit of comparing others to animals. Not even her newest family could escape it- Jane looked like a white tiger and Katherine kinda looked like an otter.

But Mrs. Greene! She was so kind and so sweet. She treated Joan as if she were her biological daughter and not just a foster. Joan thought they were gonna adopt her.

In the end, though, she ruined it all.

But it wasn’t her fault! Not really, anyway... The baby was just crying so loud and Joan couldn’t handle the wailing anymore because the party had already been noisy enough. She hadn’t meant to lash out like she did, really!

Most of what happened was a blur, but she remembered all the screaming, the horrid, annoying shrieks of the baby, someone shoving her, the blood underneath her fingernails.

   “Mum should lock you up for what you did,” One of her brothers at the time had told her, staring at her as if she were a demon loosed from hell, “She is a lawyer. She can probably do that. You should be in an asylum.”

Those words never left Joan. They taunted her constantly.

Ever since then, she’s tried harder to reign things in. She stamps down her emotions, bottling them up and not worrying about a possible breaking point.

If she snapped again, it would be disastrous.

Joan blinked away the remnants of the past and shook her head. She tucked away the sketchbook and walked downstairs to get ready to leave for school. Jane smiled warmly from the kitchen when she saw her.

   “Good morning, love,” The woman chirped, “Breakfast’s almost ready. Oh, also, there’s a baby shower happening at my parent’s house this evening. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

Joan tensed for a moment, but she relaxed a little when she got an option. However, the thought of being alone in such an unfamiliar place (it’s only been seven days, she’s still getting used to the house) scared her and she felt like she would disappoint Jane even more if she didn’t go, so she nodded.

   “No, it’s okay,” She said quickly, “I-I can go.”

Jane looked a little surprised, but smiled nonetheless.

   “Wonderful!”

Joan was slightly startled when one of Jane’s hands rubbed against the top of head. She flinched, recoiling backwards a little.

   “Oh, I apologize!” Jane drew her hand back, “I should have known you wouldn’t like being touched.”

Joan blinked multiple times. It didn’t hurt. She didn’t get hurt when she was touched. Why? What made it not hurt? Usually adults only wanted to harm her. And why wasn’t she that scared? She’s always frightened when touched without warning, but...

She reached up to her head, tentatively touching the area of contact and expecting a welt, a bruise, a gash, at least blood but...nothing. She looked up at Jane, and tapped lightly, unable to get words out (which is honestly humiliating but nothing she can do about it). Jane furrowed her eyebrows.

   “But I thought-”

Joan tapped more, so Jane put her hand back on her head, rubbing gently, so gently.

Joan held perfectly still, pressing into the touch. She was trying to understand the sensation rolling over her. Happiness? Love? Comfort? Those were not things she was very familiar with.

Wasn’t touch bad? Touch usually left her hurt, bleeding, in pain. But Jane’s touch...Jane’s touch didn’t cause any of that at all. In fact, it made her feel less hurt.

   “Are you okay, sweetie?” Jane looked down at the girl, worry shining in her eyes. “You look a little out of it. Do you need to sit down?”

She was concerned, too. Like, actually concerned about her.

Joan shook her head and finally pulled back. The feeling whisked away like that and she couldn’t help but feel cold (not the usual cold she always felt because she’s always cold). This was a sense of longing.

   “Sorry,” She whispered, the embarrassment of the situation finally filtering in.

   “There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Jane assured her, “Now, how about breakfast?”

—————

     “You’re really good at piano, kiddo,” The student teacher in Joan’s piano class said after the bell rang, “Much better than most people here.” She titters lightly and it makes her pale green shimmer.

   “Thanks,” Joan said shyly, battling her useless gay feelings.

   “You know, you should sign up for Fall Fest coming up,” The student teacher suddenly suggested and her eyes glimmer again, “To, like, play! Wouldn’t that be fun? Playing creepy music and scaring the uptight rich little kids who come to get free candy from the school?”

It honestly really did sound fun. Joan never liked kids.

   “Yeah,” Joan nodded. “It does.”

   “I’ll give you a flyer!”

She padded over to a cabinet and pulled out a paper. That’s when Joan noticed a container filled with beautiful quills that she couldn’t take her eyes off of for some reason. The student teacher noticed Joan eyeing them and grinned at her.

   “Would you like one, kiddo?”

Joan nodded shyly without even thinking about saying now.

   “Here, let me get my-”

   “No no, put that away,” The student teacher said when she went to grab her wallet.

Joan stopped, tilting her head. She didn’t want payment?

   “Think of it as a gift! Trust me, kid, you don’t need to pay me back for a pen.”

Joan gave a little nod.

   “Alright, give me a second,” The student teacher pokes through the container before holding a few pens out.

A brilliant, fuzzy emerald feather with swirls and sparks of aquamarine and sapphire, an iridescent thin wing, a large leaf-shade design with silvery indents, a fire-gradient quill, and one with an intricate interlacing metal design.

   “The art class made these and had a lot of spares. At first I thought they went a little overboard, but they’re actually really nice. You can pick the one that catches your fancy.” The student teacher said.

Joan stared down at the various options, glancing back up at the older girl a few times. Which one did she want her to take? What if it was a test? Would something happen to her if she chose the wrong one?”

   “You don’t like any of them?”

No, she liked the one with the greens and blues. It reminded her of dragon scales.

   “Choose whatever you like!”

She really got to choose?

   “Go ahead, don’t be shy!” The student teacher encouraged patiently. “Pick any one that you want.”

What she wants? She really gets to choose?

Joan tentatively reached out and took the green-blue pen, glancing up at the student teacher to make sure it was absolutely okay.

   “Good choice!” The older girl beamed, “I hope the pen works to your liking. Tell me if it doesn’t work.”

Joan stared at the item, slowly taking out her wallet back out. Surely, she wanted some kind of payment. She couldn’t give out something this beautiful for free.

   “No no, I said put that away!” The student teacher huffed, “This is a gift. You don’t have to give me anything, I promise.”

Oh.

Joan nodded and the student teacher was grinning again.

   “Maybe you can use it to write your own sheet music.”

   “Maybe,” Joan hummed, “Thank you so much.”

   “No problem!”

—

     At lunch Joan actually finds herself beaming as she presents the quill to Maria. They take turns poking each other and brushing over each other’s skin with the soft feather. Joan feels happy.

—————

     On the ride to Jane’s parent’s house Joan plays with the quill to distract herself and calm her nerves. She ruffled and glided her fingers through the colorful fringes, watching them bend into new positions at her touch. It was pleasing.

However, she wasn’t quite sure if a feather would be enough to stabilize her once they got to the house.

Upon entering, Joan was instantly spoken to by an older woman with greying blonde hair. She hugs her, which Joan dislikes a lot, but Jane separates them quickly.

   “Be gentle, mum,” Jane said, “She’s shy.”

   “Right, of course!” The older woman nodded, “Hello, love. I’m Margery, your new grandma.”

Joan wrinkled her nose. She didn’t like when people gave themselves those titles- not this soon, at least.

   “Hi,” She said softly. “I’m Joan.”

   “Jane’s told me a lot about you,” Margery continued, “Everyone’s been dying to meet you! I’ll introduce you to them!”

Joan wanted to resist so badly, but she really didn’t have a choice, so she let the old woman drag her all around the house.

During dinner, the conversations pressed onto Joan became more abundant, as people wanted to talk to her right as she put something in her mouth. She looked up at the relatives sitting at her table with a confused expression, swallowing quickly so she could answer whatever they asked.

She was being smothered and she hated it. She kept glancing around for Jane or Katherine, but there were a lot of people at this stupid baby shower, and it seemed like everyone was paying more attention to her than the expecting mother.

The moment Joan thought she got a second to breathe, someone approached her. It was a boy, slightly younger but had a bad aura around him. He looked like a mangy coyote.

   “Oh, so you’re Jane’s new plus one.” He said, eyeing Joan up and down.

   “I guess,” Joan said, “Who are you?”

   “Francis,” Francis told her as if she should have known that, “Don’t bother telling me your name. You won’t be staying long anyway.”

Joan furrowed her eyebrows and snapped to full attention.

   “What?”

   “Hm? You actually think Jane wants to keep you?” Francis laughed loudly, “Have you seen yourself? I’ve just met you and I already hate being around you.”

His words are venom in Joan’s ears. Her already impossibly low self-esteem is getting drilled further into the ground the longer he speaks.

   “Besides, fosters usually aren’t kept around. Katherine just got lucky. That only happens sometimes.”

Joan’s breathing started to quicken. If Francis noticed, he didn’t seem to care.

   “I’m just stating what we’re all thinking. You don’t belong here. This is not your home.”

Joan shoves him. The anxiety and fear has turned to anger. It burns and bubbles in her veins and she needed to release it.

   “You stupid fuck.” Francis hissed, only to have his threat be hollow when Joan punches him square in the nose. The sickening crunch and cracking sounds are almost as loud as his howls of pain.

   “You bitch! You little bitch!” He shrieked.

Joan felt like she could finally ease up, as that made her feel way better, but Francis didn’t seem to be ready to drop this all. Apparently a broken nose only fuels his unknown hatred towards her.

His bloodied hands go for her throat and she panics, slashing her nails across his face. His grip hooks in her hair and her forehead smashes with his knee. Stars burst around Joan and she topples backwards as people in the house start to yell. In front of her, Francis is pawing at his eyes and cheeks, yowling like a dying animal, and Joan takes this as a chance to practically leap onto him like an angry leopard.

After around three hits, someone grabs Joan and yanks her off of Francis. She tensed up at the sudden touch and then jerked away, bolting out the door.

Tears blurred Joan’s already hazy vision as she ran out the backyard and into the woods behind the property. Her breath comes out in heavy gasps and her lungs start to burn, but she pushes on, wanting nothing more than to get away from the humiliation she just put herself in.

She should have known. Francis was right- Jane’s sweet demeanor and kind words were nothing but lies. She was just like the rest of them.

Joan didn’t know where she was going, she just wanted to get away. She stumbled blindly through a stew of mud and slush beneath her feet, her vision so hazy that she didn’t even notice the hillside she was hobbling towards until she stepped off the edge.

Joan violently tumbled down the slippery slope, feeling like every bone in her body was breaking upon impact with the ground. She landed roughly in a heap, twitching and groaning. She’s covered in mud and her clothing has ripped, freeing any bare skin to the elements. Her knees are skinned raw, practically glowing neon pink and bright red.

She staggers up, wincing as sharp pains crawl up her right leg. She lifts her foot off the ground like a dog with a thorn in its paw as it feels like every tendon in her ankle has just been slashed. She had to hobble and limp forward, nearly crying out in pain every time her toes merely brush something.

She only gets a few steps forward before she falls again.

This time, she does not get up.

Shivering quickly consumed Joan from head to toe, setting her teeth clattering so hard she was sure her brain would rattle out of her ears. She drew heavy breaths in through her nose, every intake of air feeling like daggers carving out her lungs.

She’s sobbing, but the tears don’t feel like acid like they usually do. They run scalding hot for only a few seconds before the unforgiving cold chills them on her cheeks.

She smothered her face against the dirt and mud and scrunched her eyes shut tight, focusing on her breathing. If she could steady her shuddering breaths, maybe she could get her extremities to follow… In through the nose, because if she opened her mouth again she worried her tongue might freeze (probably not but the fear still nags her brain). She just had to block out everything else– the wind, the cold, the unrelenting voices in her head. She tucked her chin further down, burying her exposed face in her skinned knees. Just breathe. Focus…and breathe…

The shock of cold snow fluttering down onto the left side of her face had her gasping for breath, the pain of it leaving every exposed inch of skin in agony of a thousand pins and needles. The ache in her ankle and knees and palms and head made it all worse and she moaned weakly into the mud.

Is this how she died? Alone, freezing cold, and in the dark? Well, it was probably better than being surrounded by people who only acted like they wanted her around...

Joan’s sobbing is reduced to feeble whimpers and hiccups. Her breathing shallows out and she closed her heavy eyelids.

The world cracked. Cold clenched her lungs so tightly that each breath was a silver razor in her chest. Her mind tripped in sluggish circles, white-blind and hum-deaf, until color and sound turn into overlapping floods as her body bursts into fiery pins.

Finally, nothing.

For some reason, the last image her muddled mind created was Jane holding her...

————

      Jane never liked the woods behind her parent’s house, but she hated them even more when the beam of her flashlight landed on a clothed heap just barely in view at the bottom of a hill. Jane’s heart leapt into her throat and cried out the girl’s name, hurrying down the slope without care for her own safety. She fell to her knees beside her foster daughter.

   “Joan?”

Joan’s skin is icy to the touch and her eyes, just barely opened, are rolled to the back of her head. The unnatural blue that tinted her lips sent spikes of fear jamming into Jane’s gut.

Jane wraps her jacket around Joan’s shoulders and then holds her close to her chest. She squeezes her tightly, keeping her cold face pressed to the warmer flesh on Jane’s neck, hoping the slight skin-to-skin contact would generate some warmth in the girl.

   “Joan? Joan, honey, can you hear me?”

Nothing. Joan’s breath is faint against Jane’s collarbone.

   “Come on, Joan. Please.”

Nothing.

But only for a moment.

Jane feels Joan’s chest contract a little and then sees her eyelids flutter open slightly. Her mouth was opening and shutting, but there was no sound at first. Then, a tiny, squeaking noise. Her eyes were wide open, now, and it took a moment for Jane to understand that she was trying to scream.

   “It’s okay, my love, I’m not going to hurt you.” Jane tried to assure her.

Joan’s expression did not change. The squeaking sound gradually made a crescendo into a full shriek, and she started moving her head from side to side wildly. She blows her voice out within seconds and can only pant and breathe heavily.

   “Breathe, Joan,” Jane encouraged, “That’s it. Good girl.”

   “W-who are y-you?” Joan whispered with great effort. Jane actually found herself gasping upon hearing this. She hadn’t realized how bad her foster daughter’s condition was.

   “It’s Jane, love. Your foster mother.” Jane told her.

   “M-mother?”

No. No, that wasn’t right. She didn’t have a mother, she only had-

   “No,” Joan shook her head sluggishly again, “No. Let me go- let me go!!”

Jane winced at the pitches and cracks in Joan’s voice, but she doesn’t listen. Usually, she would always respect the girl not wanting to be touched, but she knew Joan would hightail it the moment she let go.

   “Joan, I’m not going to let you run away again. It’s too cold for you to be out here. We need to go back. We can go home.”

Joan didn’t have a home. Nowhere was home.

   “No, no,” Joan whimpered, “Don’t wanna go back. Please don’t make me. Please. I wanna stay out here. Please just leave me out here...”

   “No.” Jane said firmly and just held Joan even closer. Cold, scraped hands slam against her shoulders.

   “You’re just going to give me away, so why are you trying so hard?! I’m doing you a favor!”

   “...What?”

Jane’s grip slackens and Joan almost gets away.

   “Why would I do that?”

   “B-because of what I did,” Joan stuttered.

   “Oh, sweetheart,” Jane muttered in realization, “No, no, I’m not going to give you away. You dealt with Francis until you couldn’t anymore. I understand that, but we can discuss this later once you’re safe and warm.”

God, the amount of understanding in this woman was incredible. Her words really did sound genuine, but...

   “I don’t believe you.”

   “I-...”

Jane opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say. Of course Joan didn’t believe her- why would she? She’s been betrayed by too many people who were meant to be her parental figures, who were supposed to protect and love her.

   “Please, please let me go,” Joan begged weakly and Jane’s heart breaks when she sees the tears running down her cheeks. “I just- I want- I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Did she mean...?

Anger simmered in Jane’s veins and she wished she knew all the families Joan had before coming into her care so she could beat them into a bloody pulp. They all broke this poor girl, this child, into shards so badly that she couldn’t trust anyone anymore and didn’t think she was even worth living.

Whatever Joan was feeling right now was far beyond pain.

   “I know you’re scared,” Jane spoke carefully, “And I know you’ve been hurt several times, but it’s going to be okay. Darkness has chosen to find you, but there will be light again. I can help you. I can protect you, I just need you to trust me. I need you to try.”

Joan says nothing, just cries softly.

   “I’m going to protect you.”

   “That’s what they all said.” Joan finally said and her voice is so low it sends chills down Jane’s spine, “They all said that and they lied. They always lie!”

   “Joan-”

   “No! You’re just like them! You’re a liar!”

Joan is struggling again, punching and kicking and scratching and using up every bit of energy she had left, but Jane does not let go. No matter how loud she shouts, no matter how hard she hits, she is not released.

   “Let go! Let go, you’re hurting me! Let go!!”

Joan digs her fingernails into Jane’s forearms and tears down, hoping that’ll be enough, but Jane just closes her eyes and endures the pain. This frustrates Joan even more.

Then, an idea came to her.

With her numb fingers and whatever is left of her dwindling strength, she fumbles in her pocket and pulls out the quill the student teacher in her piano class had given her. She raised it and-

For a long moment Jane wondered who she was even cradling anymore. Was that her Joan? Or was it some other person, some other thing that slipped into her foster daughter’s skin? Had she lost herself to the trauma within? It seemed that way, as she looked about ready to gouge her eyes out with a pen.

And yet? Jane held tight. She held back a flinch as blood from one of Joan’s cuts dripped onto her skin, held to the cloth of the girl’s shirt. She held her close, held her own breath, and held tight to all the courage she could muster.

The quill drops to the dirt.

Joan, and Jane is now sure it’s Joan, hunches down so she can press her face into her chest.

   “Why do you care so much?”

Jane doesn’t know how to answer, because she genuinely doesn’t know. She’s only known Joan for seven days, and yet she loves the girl to death. It was the same with Katherine. She didn’t want to let her go, just like how she didn’t want to let Joan go, too.

   “You deserve better than me.”

Jane is shocked into silence.

   “You shouldn’t be out here. You shouldn’t be holding me or loving me. I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve you. And you’d deserve better.”

Words of Jane’s own bubble forth.

   “No. No. You listen to me,” Jane whispered, practically hissed as she leaned forward and she couldn’t even realize she was crying as well but that was the least of her concerns right now. “I. Don’t. Care. Being out here, holding you- I don’t care. I’m here for a reason. I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again: I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you, because I’ll calm you down a hundred times if it meant-”

   “Ja-”

   “No,” Jane shook her head and she dared to continue, “No, just listen for another moment first, please, because I need to say that I don’t care about any of it, because I love you.”

Joan’s shoulders shook and she failed to bite back a hiccup and sob. Certainly she hadn’t heard that right. There was no way...

   “I love you,” Jane repeated softly, “and I don’t care about anything else- not a damn other thing in the world, because I love you, and you say I deserve better? Better than you?” She laughed, wiping a palm heavily underneath an eye that threatened to spill over. “Good luck, darling, because there is nothing better than you. Not for me. You’re the best there is.”

Joan could feel the yet another wave of tears thick in the back of her throat, a different dull tightness from the choking fear she had felt. A weak little noise forced its way up from inside her chest, from deep down in the pit of guilt and fear that lived at her core and broke all of the tension in her body.

Teetering forward against her, Joan started to cry quietly into Jane’s collarbone, trying to stifle most of the sounds she was making. Her hands tightened in cotton fabric as the woman’s arms wrapped solidly around her back, pulling her closer. She could feel Jane press her face into her messy mane of hair and hear her quiet, sniffling breaths.

   “Shh, I know, Joan. I know, sweetheart, but it’s over now,” Jane whispered, rubbing slow, deliberate circles into her back. “It’s over and I’m never going to let you go back to any of those nasty people or anyone else ever again. You’re mine and mine alone. And I’m going to protect you and love you and hold you until my very last breath.”

Joan cries harder because she’s never had anyone speak to her this way before, not even Mrs. Greene. Nobody has ever been this fierce and passionate about wanting to care about her, about wanting her, and she just- she couldn’t- she wanted to-

Another sob shook Joan’s whole body and pain vibrates all throughout her. She holds tighter to Jane’s shirt, hyperventilating into her chest.

For a long time, the two of them just sit in the cold of the night. Jane never loosens her grip on Joan, but Joan eventually cries herself out and passes out right in Jane’s arms. Finally, with Joan carefully bundled in her arms, Jane stands up and makes the trek back to the house.

Katherine is a teary, worried mess for her mother and younger sister. When she spots Jane, she hurtles herself at her, not even noticing Joan until she’s clinging to the woman.

   “Mama,” The teenager wept against her mother’s shoulder, “You were gone for so long, mama, I-I thought-”

   “Shh, shh,” Jane soothed her, leaning down to kiss her forehead, “I’m okay,  my darling. I’m right here. I just had some trouble with Joan.”

Katherine’s eyes immediately moved to her sister, who was shivering again.

   “Is she okay?” She asked.

   “She will be,” Jane answered, “Can you open the car door for me? We’re going home.”

Katherine nodded and did as she was told. Jane didn’t bother saying goodbye to her parents or the rest of the family, she just pulled out of the driveway and started for her house.

   “Katherine?”

   “Yes, mum?”

   “You know I love you and your sister with all my heart, yes?”

   “Of course, mum!”

Jane grips tighter to the steering wheel. She glances in the rear view window to see Katherine stroking Joan’s hair in the backseat. Despite the stray tears that slip free from her eyes, she smiled.

   “Good.”

[lushloki-blog]

Unethical-Mycroft x Reader

A/N: This was a request by the lovely @livy1391 also sorry if this isn’t good enough, if you don’t like it i’ll be happy to rewrite it, don’t feel bad (:

“Could I request a Mycroft x Reader where the reader is his therapist that he was forced to go to by his brother after Sherrinford?”

Title: Unethical

Pairing: Mycroft x Reader

Warning: idk maybe pg-15/16 nothing too inappropriate i promise :)

Wordcount: 1462

Mycroft was too proud to admit that he needed to talk to someone, and Sherlock knew that. Sherlock also knew that if he was annoying enough and bothered his brother he would give in. It was obvious that the events in Sherrinford had clearly done something to him mentally. Sherlock would often catch him staring off into space, and had stopped asking Sherlock for help on cases, deciding to do them himself.

Mycroft drowned himself in work until he turned purple. It was first brought to Sherlock’s attention when John mentioned it to him. Sherlock had to see for himself, he had never seen his brother lose himself or his composure. “Mycroft you are out of control.” Sherlock was watching his brother run around the room with papers in his hands. “I don’t have time for small talk I’m so close-” He was mumbling know reading over papers he had already read 400 other times. “Enough of this!” Sherlock snatched the papers and took a deep breath. “You’re seeing a therapist and that’s final.” Mycroft raised a brow and crossed his arms. “Since when did you ever believe in therapy?” Sherlock rolled his eyes and sat down again. Having Mycroft’s attention. “I don’t necessarily. But John thinks that it could help you. You know, because he went before he met me.” Mycroft nodded and sat at the edge of his desk. “Right.” He started to nod. “And if I go, you’ll stop bothering me about this?” The look on Mycroft’s face made Sherlock think he finally got through to his brother. “Yes. I don’t ask for much brother, but just go once. See how it is.” And from that moment on Mycroft”s life took a turn for the better.

“Ms. Y/L/N you’re 2 o’clock is here.” Your assistant said through the phone. “Perfect, let him in please.” Moving from your desk you grabbed your pen and notepad as a new client walked in. Greeting him with a gradient smile you shook his hand. “So glad you could make it Mr. Holmes.” He only saw your lips, not processing what you were saying. If all therapists looked like you, he would have gone sooner. He shook his head at his crude thoughts and gave you a tight smile. “Pleasure.” Was all he said to you. You could feel his eyes scan you head to toe has you both sat down.

Crossing your legs and jotting something down, he looked at you curiously. He was making notes too, but in his head. He could tell you enjoyed talking to people and your job. He could also tell that your dog was your only close companion and you were single. “Let’s get started shall we? You mentioned that there was something specifically you wanted to discuss?” Trying to make people comfortable was something you tried to do as a therapist. These people were strangers who were willing to discuss their darkest secrets with you. You took your job very seriously and tried to get the unethical thoughts out of your head about Mycroft. You knew it was wrong so you had to focus on his words and not the way his lips were moving as he talked.

As the session went on, and interacting with Mycroft, you had a good idea of the type of person that he was. Half way into the session and you had Mycroft’s trust. “You do understand Mycroft, that you had no choice but to survive. You witnessed what most people would consider their worst nightmare. You survived, that’s important right?” Trying to maintain eye contact with him was hard, he couldn’t look at you, he only fumbled with his fingers. “Yes I suppose but there are those who didn’t.” Your lips formed a straight line. “Mycroft.. Can you look at me?” He sighed and finally made eye contact. “Sherrinford is not your fault. Things happen. It’s tough to live with yes, but we don’t let it bring us down. Why don’t we try to do something special hm? For the people that didn’t make it?” Mycroft thought about for a second and remembered about the three men that his sister dangled over the water. To the governor and his wife. Even about Sherlock’s best friend when he was younger.

“It amazes me that you still try to find some positivity through all the madness that happened, Y/N.” He mumbled more to himself than to you. You smiled softly at his words. Mycroft felt as if he was losing himself in your smile and eyes. He noticed how your beautifully curled lashes would lightly brush against your glasses if you pushed them up too much. How your nose seemed to scrunch up to push your glasses up when you thought he wasn’t looking. He loved how your cheeks would move when your smile was genuine. He especially loved how your lips would part to show your perfect teeth when you smiled at him. Mycroft had a love/hate relationship with how he could notice the minimal details right now. He had stopped focusing on what you were saying and more on how your body had been moving throughout the conversation. There was something about you that was so captivating to him. He came in to today’s session determined to not say much and just tell his brother that the therapist was a complete imbecile. But you came at him with all sorts of new perspectives. You were the positive energy that he needed right now. The way you seemed so genuine with what he had to say and his feelings was so foreign to him he almost didn’t notice these emotions. Those thoughts were pushed back when you dropped your pen and leaned forward to pick it up. When you got ahold of your pen your head looked up at him, giving him a full view of your chest. Mycroft shifted in his seat. You didn’t mean to give him a show, but he had stopped nodding along to what you were saying, making you think he wasn’t paying attention anymore.

He came back to when you waved a hand in front of his face. “Are you okay Mycroft?” The concerned look on you face warmed his heart. “My apologies, I got lost in my thoughts.” You nodded and wrote something down. Making eye contact with him again you crossed your legs as he licked his bottom lip causing you to smirk. “Care to share?” You were leaning back in your seat, but Mycroft was leaning forward, needing to be closer to you. He took a quick look at his watch and wanted to have fun with the last 15 minutes he had with you.

Without even trying you brought out a side of him he didn’t even know he had. He usually was conservative with how he acted around strangers, but here he was having sinful thoughts about the woman in front of him. “I just need advice on a rather… different matter.” You nodded along with him, “Does the topic make you uncomfortable?” You thought so because it caused to lose focus so easily. “No not at all. I just haven’t done this in a while.” He cleared his throat and leaned back, getting nervous, “What do I do when I feel an attraction to someone I know I’m not supposed to? It just seems so unethical.” Your lips formed a tight line, only slightly jealous. “Well if this person feels the same attraction, some communication would be needed. Ask them how they feel on the matter. Would they not mind being in a relationship with you? I’m sure it can’t be so bad if it’s someone you work with.” The shrug you gave him at the end, and how you moved your legs away from him as you changed your seating position made him know that you were slightly jealous. “Well how do you feel about me Y/N? Would you mind going out to diner?” Taking your advice and resting his arms on his legs, leaning forward again. Mycroft had caught you by surprise, he chuckled in his head as your mouth opened and closed. Finally composing yourself and sitting up straight with a shy smile. “I think diner would be marvelous.” You don’t know what came over you. Patients have asked you out before and you had always politely declined because it would gave your name a bad reputation. All that went right over your head, you couldn’t help it. Mycroft just did something to you that didn’t know what it was. You and Mycroft didn’t realize what you held over each other. But what you both did know, was that this would finally be the start to much deserved happiness.

REQUESTS ARE OPEN LUVS :)

[tylermagnusenvest]

26th September 2015

“I take it back,” Alastair sighed, running a hand back through his hair. “I’m not sure I like you two getting along, not in the slightest.

Tyler had been with Alastair and Ann- as she insisted he call her- for around four days now, it had been an odd sort of four days. Waking up in Alastair’s home was wonderful, the house was big but it didn’t hold the same quiet as somewhere like his grandmother’s, before he was even dressed he could hear chatter in the hall. Alastair and Ann, he found out fairly quickly, had separate rooms, which suited them both fine. He hadn’t been in Alastair’s. Ann’s though, she pulled him into after breakfast that very first morning, her room was beautifully decorated, with art on the walls and bright vases of flowers on various surfaces of the room. She had her own dressing room and a private study, which is where she took him, to show off her collection of books and assure him he could borrow any he liked from now on. He did borrow some too, titles he’d never heard of, all beautifully leather bound. They had a conservatory and Tyler spent much of his morning there, it was filled with flowers, like a floral jungle where he could nestle down on a bench and read for hours without being disturbed. He liked hearing Alastair and Ann talk to each other, he went back to work on that first day but even though he got back to their house late they waited to eat dinner with him, he’d never had dinners like it. They spoke about their days, teased each other, no one mentioned if he was eating slowly or quickly, in fact none of his behaviour was picked up on. Ann would ask him questions about his work, she’d smile when he spoke and really listen, occasionally he’d find Alastair watching him too and his face would grow warm simply from having so much attention on him. They spent the hours before bed in the front room, by the fire. They’d drink tea or wine and Ann told him all kinds of stories about Alastair from when they were growing up. He laughed so much one night he cried. Then there were wonderful, tender moments when Ann would take his hand and simply hold it for a little while, they’d talk about silly things and she’d playfully complain about Alice getting fur all over the place- a fair point because she was allergic. Being here, with the two of them, was like nothing Tyler had ever known.

“Don’t be so cynical,” Ann scolded from where she sat on the blanket.

This was his favourite day by far. He had no work until late today, and that morning Ann had announced they were to have a picnic for lunch. The weather, unfortunately, had not agreed with her. Tyler had learnt, however, that Ann couldn’t be stopped so easily. Instead of in the gardens, she set everything up in the conservatory instead. The three of them sat around a blanket, with tea, cakes and little sandwiches centred between them. They ate and talked and laughed, read poetry and snippets of books to each other, leant back and watched rain patter on the glass above their heads. When Ann found a young photo of Alastair tucked into a battered old book, it had set them both off laughing, he liked how this whole other life Alastair had lead was no longer such a mystery to him now, he liked that his time with Alastair wasn’t something he had to keep to himself.

“Neither of you tease me this much by yourselves, together you’re unbearable.”

“I think you mean unstoppable,” Ann offered him a grin and then checked her watch with a sigh, getting to her feet. “Though unfortunately I actually have some errands to run before tonight, I’ll count on you boys to tidy up without just asking the elves to do it, they’re having a night off and have more important things to organise before they leave.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Alastair gave her a salute and she rolled her eyes as she left.

It hadn’t been the two of them alone for a while. Alastair worked every weekday, he worked in the evenings, other than the time they spent together at dinner this had been there first time truly alone. Tyler wouldn’t say he’d been avoiding it, though even if they’d had opportunities before he might not have eagerly awaited a moment like this. He had a lot to say to him, honestly, he just wasn’t entirely sure how to say it. He opened his mouth to speak, not entirely sure what he was going to say yet but something was better than nothing, when Alastair suddenly sighed, twisted around where he sat and then flopped onto his back, with his head settling to rest in Tyler’s lap. His face flushed and any attempt to speak vanished.

“You seem much better, I wasn’t so sure for a day or two, but today you definitely seem more yourself.” Alastair reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind his ear. “I’m glad the two of you get along, I always suspected you would but... but I was scared to let you into this part of my life, Ann is much braver than me.”

“She’s wonderful.”

“She is.”

“And your home is beautiful.”

“Yes, I’m very lucky.”

“Are you happy?”

A moment passed between them, where he could feel Alastair’s searching his face but he couldn’t bring himself to meet his eyes.

“Yes, my life is good here, for what it is,” he paused and when he spoke again his voice was different, quieter and vulnerable in a way Tyler wasn’t used to. “I would give it all up for you still, if that’s what you’re too afraid to ask, I’d give it up in a heartbeat. I’d take you anywhere, we could start over, I’d feel guilty at first but you’re what I want and, strangely enough, I think Ann would be the first to support us. Though maybe she could come too. I’ve thought about it a lot this week, with the three of us here, we could stay together. I’d be married to Ann, to keep her safe from her family’s interference, until she found someone she truly wanted to marry, but other than for the sake of appearances I could be with you. We could travel for a while, go to places neither of us have been before, Alice would probably like it too. I would look after you, I know I could make you happy, you’d never want for anything and you’d never have to worry about your family again.” Then he sighed. “But you’ve been here a few days now, and I see you checking your phone every night, there are moment when you’re with us one moment and then I can see you’re a million miles away. Or maybe not that far- Jeremy lives in London, right?”

Saw right through him, as always.

“Have you spoke to him yet?”

Tyler shook his head.

“You should. I can see you miss him, and it brings me no pleasure to admit that.”

“I can’t... the way we left things, it’s a complicated situation.”

“One you can talk to me about.”

“You wouldn’t want to hear it.”

“Try me.”

Tyler tilted his head, looking down at Alastair and waiting for him to cave, but he didn’t so Tyler sighed and mumbled, “Well, we hadn’t seen each other in a while, and he just showed up out of nowhere. We were talking and then... then we weren’t talking, because Jeremy is ridiculously sweet but also ridiculous inept at keeping his hands to himself... and we’re kissing and his hands are wandering and-”

“Alright, alright.” Alastair’s hand came up to cover his mouth, he huffed in a way that was completely childish but made Tyler smile. “Perhaps I don’t need all the details.”

Tyler took his hand, linked their fingers together and smiled weakly.

“I don’t fully understand but I know you love him, and you assured me that he loved you. Ann and are attending the remembrance gala tonight- I’m sure she mentioned it- so perhaps you could go and see him?”

“I can’t... not tonight, I have a work thing.”

“Alright. Soon then.”

Tyler sighed, “Alright.”

~~~

Tyler didn’t quite know what to expect when he walked into Spectrum, an hour before his first shift was officially meant to start, he’d been told to come early so he could meet the team and get more details on his shift. It was fairly quite when he arrived, though it was only 7pm and Under Street was known for having clientele who preferred the much later hours, but the club was already being prepared for the night ahead. It was beautiful, honestly, with lights strung across the ceiling spreading all colours of the spectrum across the floor. Music was already playing, the beat pulsing into the floor and making it vibrate, there were even a few people at the bar already too with fizzing, foaming, colourful drinks before them. Tyler had been to clubs before, muggle ones mainly, as he was less likely to bump into anyone he knew there, but this was something else. Two men stood behind the bar. One was young, with a handsome face, he had glowing rainbow bands on both of his wrists. His blonde hair shone with rainbow glitter, his cheeks were brushed with a dusting of it too, though they were also highlighted with a glowing blue tinge that curved over his cheekbones and flicked upwards towards his temples. The other man, who was slight older but no less attractive, had dark hair and dark eyes. He wore a single glowing band on each wrist but the colour on his cheeks was fiery, a gradient of colour from a deep red to electric orange, with silver gems studded throughout.

“You alright there, lovely?” The blonde had looked up from the bar and was now looking to where Tyler was unintentionally hovering, adding the finishing flourished to a drink with a smile on his face. “Don’t be shy, gorgeous, take a seat and I’ll whip you something up- what’s you poison? I could take a guess at it, something sweet or maybe something more fiery?”

“Ignore him,” The other bartender rolled his eyes, leaning on the bar with both hands pressed to the surface. “He doesn’t mean to scare customers away.”

“Oh, no, I’m...” Tyler stepped forward then, reminding himself to remain confident and calm, though unable to help being a tad shy when he continued, “I’m Tyler, I’m here for-”

“Tyler Envest, you’re right on time!”

From behind the bar a door sung open and a woman stepped through it with her hands on her hips. She had a warm, playful smile, with her hair styled into seven different puffs atop her head, each shimmering with a different colour. Her eyeliner was a bright turquoise, curling out from the corner of her eyes into blooming yellow roses at her temples. She strode along the bar and around the end, taking confident steps towards him, and then offered a hand which he took with a small smile.

“Don’t let the boys scare you off, Alfie flirts with everyone and everyone, and the two of them will bicker from now until kingdom come if you let them. Other than that, they’re a good pair. I’m Delara, weekend manager here at Spectrum, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other so if there’s anything at all you need you just let me know, alright?” Tyler could barely keep up but he gave a nod and Delara stepped aside, dropping his hand and gesturing to him instead. “This here is Tyler, our new weekend hire, his CV is impeccable so if you two scare him off on his first day there’ll be hell to play.” She turned to him again and her smile only widened. “Now come on to the back, you must let me paint you.”

He had no idea what that meant but when Delara walked back behind the bar he followed close behind, she took him through to the back of the club, where it was immediately quieter and up close he could see there was a ‘staff only’ sign on the door. There were hangers along the hall with bags, glowing bands and jackets hanging from them, she lead him right through to the back where the space opened up into a room with desks and mirrors all along one side, and sofas and seats all along the other. The seats and sofas were full of pillows, sequins and sparkles, in all different colours. Canvases were hung up on the wall with slogans on them such as ‘we’re here, queer, and serving beer’ and ‘baby, we were born this way’. At the back of the room was a small kitchen set up, basic with a kettle and a microwave, a mini-fridge and little else. A door to the back had the toilet symbols on the front. It was basic but nice, comfortable, he’d never been to a place like it. He was still trying to take it all in when he was ushered into a seat at one of the many mismatched dressing tables along the side of the room, blinking rapidly when Delara pressed a button and lights strung up around the mirror came to life.

“Well, now I get to see you in better light I have to give Alfie credit, you’re a pretty boy with a very pretty face. I’m going to have fun working on you.”

Tyler could feel his face go red but before he could reply the blonde- Alfie- from behind the bar came strolling in and dropped into the next seat along.

“See, it’s not all about the tips, I have a good eye for a good face.” He offered a hand across the space and Tyler took it, they shared a firm handshake before the boy continued, “Alfie Devin, I’m here most of the week, guess we’ll be working together from now on.”

“Tyler,” He replied, doing his best to offer a smile but it was hard to concentrate when Delara adjusted his face forward and tilted his chin back slightly. “Nice to meet you.”

“Alfie here is a hard worker, you’ll be shadowing him tonight as it’s your first shift, he’ll show you the ropes.” Delara explained, talking as she opened several pallets of eye shadow and blush onto the table. “But fair warning, he’ll flirt with everything and anything that walks through those front doors.”

Alfie sighed dramatically. “We work for tips, y’know? Sure, everyone complains about my flirting but when we’re splitting tips at the end of the night no one’s got anything to say about it, I like to contribute to the team and all that...” He waved a dismissive hand. “Trust me, Tyler, it’s not necessary to flirt with the customers but you’ll definitely walk away with more at the end of the night if you do. I’ll point out the big tippers for you, some you’ll flirt with because they’ll get you extra cash, some you’ll flirt with because you’ll want to.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t you listen to everything he tells you. First things first, if you work here you’re part of the family, and you do what makes you comfortable.”

“Thank you-”

“Tilt your head this way a little,” Delara instructed, tipping his chin up again.

“I’ve never done anything like this before.”

By anything he meant all of it. Bartending, that was new but he could learn skills, the way he saw it mixing drinks could only be as complicated as brewing potions- hopefully a lot less complicated, really- and he was very good at that. This though, what was happening right now, was very new. Tyler had never worn make up or glitter or anything like it. His family would never have allowed it and, perhaps, he’d always been a tad shy about it. Even when he wasn’t under his family’s thumb he was usually trying to avoid them, he didn’t want to draw more attention to himself than necessary, decorating himself in any way was asking for trouble... but no one in his family would come here, and anyone related to them who might find him here could never admit it without admitting they were there too, it was relatively safe. Still, this was all very new to him.

“I hope you don’t mind me experimenting a little, it’s your first day, when we get fresh blood with faces like yours I like to see what inspiration strikes. As part of your job here you’ll be expected to decorate your face every shift, you can do your own if that suits you better, or I’m happy to do it- as you get used to it you can give me preferences for colours, patterns and things like that. Sound good?”

Tyler nodded.

It was nice just to hear them talk, there was a natural banter to their conversation, while Tyler mostly stayed quiet as Delara analysed his face and occasionally brought brushes across his cheeks. A few times she wiped it off again, tutting and shaking her head, rolling her eyes when Alfie pulled a face and made the odd suggestion. They told him other things about working there, occasionally asked him questions about his school and what it was like, he answered when he could but otherwise was a little scared of moving too much in case he accidentally messed something up. After some time the conversation died, Alfie wandered off to make coffee and Delara lost herself in the situation at hand. It was strange, she spent a lot of time looking at his face, studying him closely, but it was as though she barely saw him. He wasn’t under scrutiny, she wasn’t looking to gain anything from him, she was just looking because it was necessary. It was a nice thing. Everything was very soft, he liked the way the brushes felt on his skin, the best was the big one she dabbed in powder, it was gentle on his face and occasionally ticklish. When he had to shut his eyes he was nervous, honestly, but he barely felt the touch on his eyelids for the short time it was there. She blew gently over them and it tickled, but he resisted the urge to laugh. After some time Delara stood back, her hands came to rest on her hips and she grinned.

“I’ve got to say, I’m marvellous at this. Come take a look, Alfie!”

He appeared by her side a few seconds later, he was looking at his phone intently but when he spared a glance up in Tyler’s direction he paused, and shortly after broke out in a smile. His phone was otherwise forgotten as he too placed his hands on his hips, he searched Tyler’s face a moment and then gave a nod of approval.

“It suits you, I wouldn’t worry much about making tips.”

“Take a look, see?”

Delara turned his chair around so he was back to properly facing the mirror and Tyler was able to see her progress for the first time. His cheeks were a spectrum of colour, quite literally, a streak of matte colour curved across his cheekbones, starting in a deep red but gradually passing through every colour in the rainbow, finishing up in a bright purple. His eyes were enhanced with a run of red eyeliner, flicking out at the corners of his eyes. Studded against his temples were tiny gold gems, some were the shapes of tiny stars, the glinted in the light when he tipped his head from side to side. The bottom half of his face was left completely alone, all except a tiny red heart that had been painted above the right side of his lips. He’d never seen himself like this. He looked pretty and flamboyant and shamelessly proud.

It made him unbelievably shy.

“You don’t like it?”

“No, I-” Oh Merlin, please don’t get emotional. Tyler inhaled a breath, and tucked his hair behind his ears, sitting forward in the seat to get a closer look before he confirmed, “It’s beautiful, thank you.”

“You’re very welcome, hon, it’s all part of the job.”

“Come on,” Alfie encouraged, clasping a hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “You can pick out which bands you want before we get out there, things tend to pick up pace between eight and nine, it’s when a lot of people around here get off work and stop by, we’ll head out a little early so I can show you around the bar.”

“Ok.”

Tyler stood, trying not to seem as self conscious as he felt.

“Don’t be nervous,” Alfie encouraged, giving him a nudge with his shoulder as he headed back down towards the bar, Tyler in tow. “We look after each other here, you’re in good hands, for tonight you just have to observe and look good- you’ve already got half of that covered so it’ll be a breeze.”

Tyler gave a nod and smiled a little easier, “Alright.”