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onthevirgeofdestruction · 4 years ago

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Plea for My New Self

Sanders sides Vampire College AU - it’s gay - it’s full of fun fluffy tropes - a bit o’ hurt/comfort - mostly fluff

Words: 5,141 Warnings: Arguing, Violent thoughts Characters: Virgil, Roman, Thomas, Elliot, Kai Mitchell, Seth Ships: Prinxiety, Eventual clam’d Universe: Plea for my New Self Rating: T Genre: Vampire Nonsense

Chapter 30: We Only Come Out at Night

Chapter 1 for New Readers - ffn mirror

Roman was on stage running through his lines with the rest of the cast. They were told not to put too much emphasis on delivery and focus on learning the script today, but Virgil knew that Roman already knew how he wanted to deliver it. Like Septimus was a scoundrel and he would run in through. Which wasn’t unreasonable for the play, honestly. The action does get threatened, and all.

Virgil and Elliot were putting together a list of things they needed to go out and retrieve. Virgil thought a period-reasonable wallpaper would be nice, but finding one at a modern hardware store would be unreasonable at best. The plan was to check, but they weren’t to get their hopes up and focus on grabbing the other supplies.

“I don’t know if my car would fit this stuff,” Elliot muttered, looking over the list.

“Mine wouldn’t either. How about we catch a ride over and rent one of those trucks to bring it all back?” Virgil said, leaning back on the floor next to Elliot. He looked over to the storage pile and fought the urge to go organize it again. If he didn’t look at it he could pretend it wasn’t a nightmare he longed to fix.

“Oh, can I use the truck afterword?” Mitchell perked up after a moment. Ugh, well, at least Virgil had something to hate more than the disorder in here.

“No, my insurance doesn’t cover other drivers,” Virgil glared. The only favor Virgil was doing Mitchell was not draining him and throwing the husk in a river.

“Ugh,” Mitchell flopped back on the chair, returning to clicking around on the laptop in his lap.

“So do we want to make frames or just buy some?” Virgil asked curiously, getting back on the subject.

“It depends on if you can find some frames that are lightweight enough,” Kai shrugged noncommittally. Virgil hummed in annoyance.

“Well, we shouldn’t go into the store without a blueprint for the windows we want to use, in case there are no pre-fab frames that work,” Elliot said a little meekly. Virgil raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’m looking it up, don’t get your panties in a wad,” Mitchell clicked with his tongue and shot what only could be described as a smug glower over the top of his laptop screen.

“Oh, I thought you were just being a lazy asshole,” Kai chuckled and picked up a packet of papers off the table, flipping his hair out of the way. Kai had dyed half his hair magenta to go with the teal since Virgil last saw him, and it was cool. Virgil wouldn’t have thought those colors went together until Kai pulled it off. But Virgil’s probably just pro dark colors and maybe other people liked them together, too.

“Any luck finding that last chair, yet?” Mitchell called out to the storage room. Three ‘no’s piped up from various areas of the room. If they would let Virgil organize the room after hours they wouldn’t have this problem. Virgil chewed on his nail and glanced at the disorder again, bouncing his foot restlessly. “All right, I’ve got two options here of period stage window blueprints,” Mitchell said, flipping around his laptop to show the others. There were some large square windows and high arched ones.

“I love the look of the arched ones, but they’re probably too hard to make,” Kai said, sounding a little disappointed.

“I think it’s doable,” Virgil shrugged. “We can get the arch pre-fabbed at a big hardware store. We just have to put it all together evenly. We don’t have to make them perfect enough to actually fit window panes, just lined up properly,”

“Sawing an even arch in the plywood is the problem. We have to slot them into the backdrop,” Elliot pointed out.

“I have a pretty steady hand. I just need a practice piece of plywood first. I haven’t used a reciprocating saw in a little while,” Virgil offered to try it.

“We don’t have a reciprocating saw,” Mitchell rolled his eyes. Virgil just raised his eyebrow at him.

“You have the sawhorses, right?” Virgil asked, glancing around the storage again. Ugh, it made him nuts in here when he wasn’t doing anything about it. Even if he helped him look for the chair he’d be much happier. Virgil drummed his fingers on his thigh, miming playing a piano song he liked to pull his focus back.

“Yeah, We’ve got 3 or 4. They’re in the outer storage, we’re not allowed to get sawdust in here. Something about the ventilation,” Elliot replied, motioning to the room with the back of their pen. Virgil reached into his hoodie pocket and squeezed Vladimir.

“So, the wood glue is dried up and we’ll need some more. We also need more sandpaper and masks. And that practice piece of plywood for Virgil. We’ve got nails and staples for the staple gun already. We might need more eggshell for the windows, but probably just a pint or two,” Kai said, and Elliot double-checked the list in their hands.

“You’re seriously going to let him do the cutting? You’ve never seen him work!” Mitchell groaned, flipping his hand dismissively in Virgil’s direction.

“He has extremely out there hobbies, dude. It’s not that unbelievable he’s used power tools before,” Elliot muttered, shooting a nervous glance at Mitchell but mostly pretending to focus on the papers in front of them. “He could tune and fix the organ out there, at least, that’s a trade skill,” They added quietly and his eyes returned to actually scanning the paper.

“It’s a surprisingly old organ, it’s a shame nobody was doing maintenance on it,” Virgil casually commented, lolling his head to the side.

“I think it was donated by a grandparent of an alumnus,” Kai offhandedly offered in explanation. “Listen, if he fucks up too much on his practice piece, we have someone else do it. It’s not that hard to actually confirm if he can without damaging the sets. Hell, he can pick up two practice pieces for other people to try,” Kai rolled his eyes. “It’s not like anybody here is a master carpenter,” He added after a pause, flipping through the pages again and chewing on his lip in annoyance.

“Let’s get the sundries stuff with the budget and just let Virgil cover all the wood and saw. Then we’ll have plenty of money leftover for altering the costumes and making a new gown for Thomasina,” Elliot suggested. Virgil shrugged, he didn’t actually care if he paid for the whole thing or not, but he wasn’t pushing it.

“Have somebody take my laptop and get these blueprints and the list of woodcuts to go get printed out in the printer lab,” Mitchell said, closing his laptop lid.

“It’s your laptop, don’t you want to do it yourself?” Kai huffed, writing on the paper.

“I don’t have the money for copies. Send Virgil,” Mitchell shrugged with a little self-important smirk.

“I’ll give somebody else the money,” Virgil shook his head shrinking back.

“What, you can move a solid oak table alone but you can’t walk to the library?” Mitchell rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue again.

“I’m not going in the printer room,” Virgil objected, remembering how claustrophobic it was in that tiny room with the printers. It was also particularly bright today and he’d rather not go out until he had to go to the store.

“Afraid of printers or rabid seniors?” Mitchell asked derisively, grinning darkly.

“Don’t be an asshole, Mitchell,” Kai tried to shut Mitchell down, but he didn’t seem fazed.

“But it’s my most charming attribute,” Mitchell crossed his arms. Drinking from Roman did not stop Virgil’s desire to break Mitchell’s spine and throw him off a roof. He’s had that one a lot lately. Maybe he should be drinking from Roman more. Not that vampires weren’t naturally violent assholes in the first place. Virgil tried to shake it out of his head. “Of course it is,” Mitchell hissed haughtily. Mitchell must have misunderstood the head-shaking motion.

“That was unrelated. I don’t think you have any charming attributes. I’ll seriously give somebody $20 to go print it,” Virgil called out to the room. One of the new techs, Seth popped out from behind a backdrop excitedly. Virgil liked his audition for Gus, but he seemed just as happy back here, unlike the other two. They would probably get over it, though.

“Is that including the printing cost or a separate $20?” Seth asked, quickly jogging up.

“Damn, Seth, I’ll give you $40 if you’re that desperate, take his laptop and print out the pages he’s got open,” Virgil pointed to Mitchell’s laptop.

“Thanks, V!” He smiled and held out his hands for the laptop.

“I’ll take it for forty bucks,” Mitchell held his laptop close, not giving it up.

“The $40 offer is for Seth only, you’d get 5 bucks and a lollipop,” Virgil smirked maliciously at Mitchell, resisting the urge to flash his fangs.

“You’re a fucking prick, V,” Mitchell glowered down at him, flipping Virgil off quickly.

“And I’m fine with that,” Virgil reached into his wallet and pulled out $40 for Seth, who beamed like Virgil was his savior.

“Shit, how much do you have in there?” Elliot hissed in surprise when they caught sight of his wallet.

“Enough for the supplies,” Virgil said dismissively. He grabbed some extra cash in case supplies got expensive.

“I think you can also order pizza for the whole theatre,” Kai whistled, glancing at Virgil’s wallet before Virgil slid it back into his pocket.

“Probably not that much,” Virgil shrugged. That was a lot of college kids.

“V’s ordering pizza!” Mitchell called to the room and got some cheers as he handed off his laptop to Seth. He shot Virgil a shit-eating grin. Virgil just shrugged and pulled out his phone.

“What’s the address here? Is this building E or F?” Virgil asked nonchalantly. He could pay for this digitally. He wasn’t taking Mitchell’s bait to try to make Virgil look like a prick to everybody else by backing down. He knew this bullshit well enough. He’d order it for everybody, too, not just crew. Virgil would not give Mitchell fucking room to try to make him out to be a bigger asshole than he actually was. Virgil was perfectly aware he was an asshole, but he wasn’t allowing even an iota of it to be unearned. Deceit supports spite purchases even if Virgil didn’t have the money.

“It’s G, actually,” Elliot provided. “Are you serious?” They glanced curiously between Virgil’s face and his phone.

“Yeah, sure. Building D is next door. This campus is laid out so screwy,” Virgil grumbled, punching in the address. “How many vegan pizzas should I get?”

“I think one vegan and one gluten-free,” Kai suggested. “I think I remembered somebody having an intolerance,” He added, tapping his chin and looking up.

“So three pepperoni, three cheese, one vegan, and one gluten-free?” Virgil confirmed.

“I think we’re unintentionally throwing a party at this point,” Kai laughed. “Get one specialty one, too. And some soda,” Kai grinned.

‘Hey, I’ve just been heckled by an asshole to buy pizza for the whole theatre and I’m not backing down. Does the cast want anything?’ Virgil asked Roman mentally.

‘Mitchell, again? What’s his deal with you? God, throw him off a roof,’ Roman thought back bitterly. Aw, same murder thought. How sweet.

‘Yes, sir,’ Virgil snickered quietly while he added things to the cart.

‘I’m kidding. No murdering anybody in theatre. Shit, okay hold on, they’re hounding me,’ Roman thought, sounding a little panicked. Virgil could vaguely make out a cacophony from on stage through his headphones and felt bad for Roman.

“Don’t be so smug about it, fucker,” Mitchell whispered.

“I won’t fall for those tricks and that is a threat,” Virgil whispered back, glowering at him. Mitchell looked surprised, maybe that Virgil could hear him, or maybe he wasn’t used to being challenged. Virgil wasn’t sure of anything other than the fact Mitchell’s blood was just as red as the rest of Virgil’s prey.

“Guys, cut it out,” Kai rolled his eyes. It looked like he was going through the paper inventory again. Virgil exhaled in annoyance and tried to let it go.

‘Okay, like 5 orders of breadsticks, lots of pepperoni, a supreme, some apps, and basically every kind of soda they have,’ Roman thought back. ‘Also I think they might have undying gratitude to you, someone out here looks like they’re about to cry from relief. I heard someone offer their firstborn for cheese bread,’ Roman seemed amused.

‘College be like that sometimes. I’ll let you know when they get here, do you have the cash to tip the delivery guy if I’m still at the store?’ Virgil asked Roman in his head.

‘Yeah, no problem Virgil. Aggressive altruism is your kink, I got it,’ Roman’s grin was almost audible in his thoughts.

‘Speaking of, have I had any luck with Pat yet? They’re still being kind of distant,’ Virgil asked curiously.

‘I think so. Mostly because Pat’s so tired after work they’re starting to get sick,’ Roman thought.

‘Shit, really? I feel so bad for them. Nobody tells me these things,’ Virgil grumbled slightly.

‘Because you’re aggressively altruistic and it scares people,’ Roman thought back. That was probably fair. ‘Maybe some venom would help them out,’ Roman added teasingly.

‘Enough shoulder-deviling out of you, that’s Pat’s choice alone, and we haven’t talked about that yet,’ Virgil huffed.

‘I’m just saying,’ Roman thought in a sing-song tone.

‘You’re talking to D too much,’ Virgil sighed and started adding random appetizers. Somebody would probably eat chicken wings. They’re college kids, somebody would take home leftovers of anything. He once saw a guy eat cold meat and bean chili on those fake nacho cheese chips for breakfast in the dorms. Virgil didn’t get human food, but that couldn’t have been all right. It smelled like death. Virgil had smelled some shit in his lifetime, but the ‘food’ in that styrofoam bowl still haunted his smell memory. And that fucker chased it with a fruit strip. Nightmare material.

‘You’re right, I am. You should order a Hawaiian and see if anybody throws down,’ Roman thought back teasingly.

‘I should have known to never put you two in the same room together,’ Virgil rolled his eyes. He was interested, though. ‘I’m going to do it,’ Virgil added a large Hawaiian pizza to the cart. ‘Don’t tell anybody, I want to see how this plays out,’ Virgil smirked inwardly at the idea.

‘You shouldn’t be allowed in the same room with him, either. If they do fight, we’ve got to record it, D would cry with laughter,’ Roman laughed mentally. D actually might. ‘Shut up now, we’re getting back to running lines after you derailed rehearsal,’ Roman thought, dismissing Virgil.

Virgil finished his order. It was pretty large and had way over two hours till it was even ready for delivery, which meant it would probably arrive after they finished running lines, and hopefully just in time for Virgil to get back.

“Back!” Seth called, jogging back up with a handful of pages and holding Mitchell’s laptop tight. “Here’s your laptop back,” Seth passed it over and Mitchell took it sourly. Kai took the pages, separating the supplies and blueprints and handing off the page with the listed cuts to Virgil. Virgil scanned the paged and passed them to Elliot to slide on his gloves.

“It’s not that cold out, you weirdo, why are you putting on gloves?” Mitchell pulled a disgusted face.

“They’re my bitch slapping gloves. Did you want to volunteer to be the bitch?” Virgil hissed and glared intensely at Mitchell. God, he just wanted any excuse to rip that kid’s throat out. It felt like Mitchell had been harassing him nonstop since auditions.

“All right, V’s reached his Mitchell tolerance for the day, you guys are barred from each other when Virgil and Elliot get back from the hardware store,” Kai rolled his eyes, holding out the papers he was holding between their glaring eye line.

“Fine by me,” Mitchell shot. Kai pulled his papers back.

“I hope that means he can’t have any pizza,” Virgil smiled impishly and Mitchell scowled at him. Oh, that’s the face of a man who would eat too much pizza out of spite. Virgil considered that a victory.

“Go buy wood you catty motherfucker,” Kai groaned. Virgil shrugged and tilted his head to express he was letting it go and summoned a rideshare to head to the store.

“You ready to go, El?” Virgil stood up off the floor and held out a hand for Elliot. Elliot took it to get up with a small smile.

“Oh, I like the magenta, Kai. I don’t think I mentioned it earlier when we got here,” Virgil added, checking to see when the car would get near.

“Thanks. I like your ridiculously long wig. That thing must be heavy as fuck,” Kai commented and pointed to Virgil’s hair.

“I can head-bang with the best of them, now,” Virgil chuckled. “The car’s almost here, already. Let’s get going,” Virgil smiled and waved to Kai and scowled quickly at Mitchell before heading out of the storage room to go meet the car. Mitchel grimaced in return and flipped him off.

—

“I think I ate too much pizza,” Roman whined, holding his stomach as they walked out of the theatre with Thomas.

“It did smell good. I lived vicariously through you tonight,” Thomas chuckled a little bitterly. “Things got off track when the pizza got there, I never found out the set plans. What did you find?”

“We’re making a new set backdrop with windows from a blueprint. There was no frames lightweight enough. Everything the store had was modern, anyway, and El and I didn’t like that,” Virgil lazily slid his hands into his pocket and glanced around in the dark. Other than other people exiting the theatre hall they were mostly alone.

“It’s good you only have to make one backdrop, then, that will probably take a while,” Thomas folded his arms and nodded.

“Yeah. Humans do stuff so slow,” Virgil chuckled.

“It’s a part-time club, Virgil,” Roman rolled his eyes and lazily punched Virgil in the arm. “We can’t all have vampire insomnia,” Roman huffed angrily and threw up his arms in Virgil’s direction.

“All right, that was unfair of me,” Virgil apologized and planted a kiss on Roman’s check. He paused because something felt off when he felt Roman’s skin.

“What?” Roman asked, stopping. Thomas also stopped and turned around. Virgil reached up and felt Roman’s cheek with the back of his palm.

“Hey, Thomas, does Ro feel hot to you?” Virgil asked, reaching out for Thomas’s hand and putting it on Roman’s forehead.

“Yeah, kind of. We’re probably not the best judges, though,” Thomas chuckled. Roman felt his face after Thomas dropped his hand.

“I feel normal. I also don’t feel sick other than maybe one too many breadsticks,” Roman said and rubbed his stomach lightly. “It’s probably nothing,” Virgil shrugged and wrapped his arm around Roman’s shoulders and they returned to walking together, Thomas also resuming his walk with them.

“So what are you doing tonight?” Virgil asked, lazily petting Roman’s shoulder.

“Oh, hanging out with Joan and Talyn. Maybe Remy and Emile if they decide to show up. Sometimes they do or don’t. We’re watching horror movies. Do you want to come? My couch is pretty huge,” Thomas offered, slipping his thumbs in his belt loops as they walked ahead.

“That’s a lot of people in one apartment,” Virgil muttered. Roman slid his hand in Virgil’s back pocked and leaned into his arm.

“Oh, yeah, claustrophobia. Sorry,” Thomas said, sounding contrite.

“It’s a shame you can’t just rent out a theatre or something. That’d be cool,” Roman mused, smiling at Virgil.

“I think Daddy Warbucks only pulled it off because it was the great depression and the theatre would have gone under, otherwise,” Virgil laughed under his breath. “Nah, this last-minute the best I could do is a hotel suite or something,” Virgil shrugged.

“Oh, that would be fun!” Roman grinned deliberately at Virgil, raising his eyebrows impishly.

“I’m not getting you drunk again, Roman, your inner evil siren comes out too much,” Virgil groaned sourly, rolling his head.

“What did he do?” Thomas asked, sounding intrigued and raising his eyebrow.

“We got a video of Virgil and D doing a fancy Spanish bullfighting dance,” Roman said proudly, shooting Virgil a mischievous grin.

“Among other things,” Virgil grumbled under his breath.

“Oh, I want to see that!” Thomas said, and Virgil wasn’t excited about how hopeful he sounded.

“Well, we haven’t shown Pat or Specs, either. Maybe we should get a hotel suite and we can show the video before watching some movies! It’s Friday night, it’s the best time for chilling,” Roman suggested, still smiling like a kid who snuck a ton of cookies from the cookie jar.

“Hecate, please strike me down,” Virgil moaned, running his hand through his hair.

“You loved dancing with him, you dork,” Roman smacked Virgil playfully and rolled his eyes.

“I did, but you guys watching is embarrassing. I didn’t know any of those people at the parties and I cannot stress how drunk I was,” Virgil grumbled, feeling incredibly self-conscious. “Going to parties where people were drunk was the best way to feed at the time,” He added under his breath.

“It’s fine, you love us. You’ll deal,” Roman dismissed him, fluttering his eyebrows flirtatiously. Virgil sighed dramatically.

“He does have an inner evil siren, huh?” Thomas laughed. “I’d be fine with switching to a giant TV at a hotel, just let me know if you actually want to and I’ll ask Joan and Talyn if they’re cool with that,”

“Hm, yeah, I do want to meet Joan and Talyn. May as well get it over with. At least I get to see some guts get ripped out to distract me from wanting to die in a fire out of mortification,” Virgil sighed in resignation.

“Ugh,” Roman huffed. “Your interest in the material is almost more disturbing than the content,” Virgil took his hand off of Roman’s shoulder and Roman separated so Virgil could open his phone to hunt down a large hotel suite.

“All that murder instinct has to go somewhere,” Virgil chuckled as he started looking for roomy suites and large TVs.

“Being scared is half the fun, Roman. It’s not real. I’m sure Virgil is happy to hold you if you get scared,” Thomas said with a lilting laugh. Virgil smirked at Roman who rolled his eyes.

“Ro, invite Pat and Lo while I find someplace big enough for this,” Virgil requested. Roman nodded.

“Cool, I’ll see if Joan and Talyn are willing to move locations,” Thomas said, sliding his hands into his pockets. Virgil watched him not get his phone out in confusion.

“Are you in a clan with them or something?” Virgil asked curiously.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Didn’t I tell you? Joan’s my sire,” Thomas shrugged.

“Isn’t Joan one of Remy’s betas? I mean, I’m still cracking the Emoji code, but I think he is,” Virgil was pretty positive at least.

“Yeah, Remy’s our alpha. Why do you think he hangs out with me sometimes?” Thomas laughed airily. “I don’t think he’d give me the time of day otherwise, he’s got lots of things going on,” Thomas tilted his head considerately.

“He’s a complete mystery to me. I couldn’t assume his motivations for anything,” Virgil said, almost in awe of the situation. “Wait, you’re an omega?” He realized, looking up from his phone to Thomas in surprise.

“Yeah,” Thomas said dismissively, sounding distracted. Probably still talking to his clan.

“Oh, that’s why you seem to handle the sun so well,” Virgil mused. “I was wondering about that. Omegas didn’t normally survive that long back in the day, I don’t see lots of them. It’s mostly Betas out there,” Virgil explained his confusion with the situation.

“Oh, thanks for that vote of confidence,” Thomas said sarcastically and shot a grimace to Virgil. Virgil thought Thomas had a surprisingly similar face to Virgil’s when he was grimacing.

“Things aren’t as gut-throat as they used to be before bags got big,” Virgil offered in consolation. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. Remy seems like he’d throw down at the drop of a hat, he’d probably protect you,” He added confidently.

“Don’t you mean cut-throat?” Roman asked, looking kind of disgusted.

“No,” Virgil and Thomas said in unison and Roman shivered.

“He would, Remy’s super protective. It’s just a little too real,” Thomas said, sounding a little dour.

“Sorry, Thomas,” Virgil pulled Thomas in for a side hug.

“Eh, I know you didn’t mean I wouldn’t survive long. Thanks, though,” Thomas shrugged, looking a little less upset.

“Why are omegas more at risk than betas?” Roman asked curiously. “Pat’s down, they’re trying to convince Logan to come out, by the way,” Roman added, sounding eager.

“They’re the closest to still being human. Fewer vampire weaknesses, but not as much of the strength either. A beta is kind of like three-quarters of a vampire and an omega is half. Metaphorically, anyway, it’s a little more complex than that, physically. Lots of little trade-offs and things,” Virgil tried to explain.

“So you can be in the sun and stuff?” Roman asked curiously.

“Yeah, I can get a little sun and be okay. I get less sick if I eat human food, but it still happens. Silver is more like a severe allergy. Still can sleep and stuff. I can’t flit, just run fast. I’m significantly stronger and faster than a human, though, and I stopped aging. I do also need to breathe. Remy creeps me out when he stops,” Thomas stuck out his tongue in distaste.

“Woah, Virge, you don’t have to breathe?” Roman shot, looking and Virgil with wide eyes.

“I can go a few hours without oxygen, yeah. I don’t stop unless I’m underwater, though. Remy’s just weird, I think. There’s no reason not to unless there’s an awful smell,” Virgil said, furrowing his eyebrows. Maybe he just enjoyed freaking people out?

“That’s wild,” Roman whistled. “That explains how you jammed with a mermaid,” Roman muttered. “Thomas is safe, though, right?” Roman asked, looking concerned.

“It wasn’t that long ago when territory stuff was a bigger deal. Technology made it easier to coexist and it’s easier for omegas. Like I said, we’re territorial bastards. Vampires don’t normally get along in the same room, or square miles, after a while. Instincts start kicking in,” Virgil shrugged dismissively.

“Wait, then why are we putting two clans together in a hotel room?” Roman stopped, looking extremely concerned.

“We’ll probably just involuntarily hiss at each other at worst, Roman, don’t worry about it. Remy and I can leave and duke it out until our instincts settle down. If the alpha’s instincts settle down, the turned will, too,” Virgil explained. It really wasn’t a big deal as long as everyone agreed to be civil, and Remy seemed to like Virgil for some reason, so he wasn’t worried about it. If anything, he looked forward to punching Remy square in the jaw.

“That’s still terrifying as a human in the room,” Roman shuddered. “Logan just agreed to it, though, so it’s too late to back out,” Virgil pulled in Roman’s head to kiss it to help him calm down.

“Joan and Talyn are down. Remy said he’d probably show up, too,” Thomas added cheerily.

“How about Emile?” Roman perked up.

“Emile says he wants to meet Virgil, so probably. He didn’t respond, he’s probably out of range. I’m just barely in range of Remy myself to use the link,” Thomas shrugged.

“Pat would love Emile,” Roman smiled.

“As long as he keeps his psychoanalysis to himself,” Virgil grunted in distaste.

“He’s an amazing guy, V, don’t be like that,” Thomas huffed, flipping his hand.

“I’m sure he is, but I am a sleeping bear that doesn’t like to be poked,” Virgil grumbled. Roman patted Virgil’s back, and Virgil wasn’t sure if it was affectionately or patronizingly.

“He might be too busy screaming into somebody’s chest to poke the bear,” Thomas laughed. “Emile always eventually ends up shrieking cartoonishly and sometimes tries to hide in Remy’s clothes,”

“Well, that’s pretty damn cute actually,” Virgil snickered a little. “D loves slasher films, and he probably wants to be there for accolades for the dancing video. Let me pester him, too,” Virgil shot D a quick text and went back to his hotel hunt. He’d found 3 suitable options from the photos, but finding literal square footage for rooms is hard. They list the TV, sizes but not how big the room is. It’s fucking dumb. He should just pick the one with the biggest TV and a surround system. It also had a hot tub that almost looked like a little pool, so the room was probably big to house that. Virgil placed the reservation and sent Thomas the address.

“Pat’s mad we had pizza without them,” Roman stated and smirked.

“We can pick up a pizza and salad for Logan on the way over. I just found one. We can head over there as soon as we pack some stuff from our dorm, and Pat and Logan are ready to go,” Virgil said. “We can get pick up or just go to a grocery store. This room has a full kitchen,” Virgil pointed out.

“Text me when you’re checked in so we can come over,” Thomas waved.

“Pick out something horrible for me,” Virgil saluted him as he pivoted away.

“Are you going to flit us over?” Roman asked brightly.

“Three people? Are you nuts? I have only have two arms, Ro,” Virgil groaned. “We took my car back from D’s apartment, remember? I can just drive us there,” Virgil said, flicking his thumb across Roman’s cheek.

“No, I was half asleep and still kind of drunk,” Roman chuckled. “I don’t even remember getting back to the dorm,” Roman added thoughtfully.

“That’s because I carried your ass upstairs while you slept. Speaking of that night, try to keep your evil temptations at a minimum tonight,” Virgil warned Roman. Roman just pulled an innocent face at Virgil, clearly pretending to have no idea what Virgil was talking about. Virgil sighed and wrapped his arm back around Roman as they walked. Roman laughed and put his arm around Virgil’s waist and squeezed slightly as they headed back to the dorms.

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dawnsedits · 4 years ago

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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!

#someone asking me for giffing tips really made my night THANK YOU #tutorial #tips #anon #dawn answers stuf

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moonlit-seren · 5 years ago

Text

Reasons To Stay || Jung Yunho x Gender Neutral Reader

Summary: Y/n’s been working for one of the biggest news companies in Seoul for five years now, and like many others she/he wants a change in scenery. However, there are a handful of things keeping her/him from leaving, and one of them came in the form of an accidental blind date.

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: SOFTNESS OVERDOSE- None

Word Count: 7.7k

A/N: I’m posting my very first Ateez imagine on my two week anniversary as a new Atiny. I’m so psyched to be a part of this growing family and I’d like to thank @every1studio for welcoming me into it UwU. The main character’s best friend was inspired by this ray of sunshine right here @rubyyong, I wanted to show her a little appreciation for being one of the many writers who influence me to become better and let her know that I’m here supporting her from afar. So yeah, happy reading. <3

꧁Masterlist꧂

I sighed, glancing through one of the floor length windows adjacent to my desk. It was a particularly nice day outside, the fluffy clouds casting dark shadows on the world while the sun lit it up with a brilliant glow. The contrast was nearly eerie, like yin and yang, both the sun and the clouds out of our reach yet seemingly tangible if you lay on your back and reach your hands for the sky.

The streets below seemed busier than usual, the already terrible traffic appeared far more congested than normal. Due to the lack of movement in the streets, the multitude of car horns blared in a messy diarray with one another, the loud sounds varying in pitch but all sharing one thing in common. They wouldn’t stop.

Looking down at the vehicles made me glad that the office’s walls were soundproof, otherwise everyone in the building would have gone deaf by now. However, there were a few unlucky people on the street who had to endure cacophony of car horns as their speed quickened while walking to whatever destination they had in mind.

“It’s terrible isn’t it?” asked one of my coworkers, the newly promoted intern seeming to appear out of the blue. Her name was Chloe and she was one of the few reasons why I hadn’t quit my job yet in this suffocating office building. We worked for one of Seoul’s biggest news companies, her in the creative department and me in the editorial department.

Our departments were located on different floors, so it surprised me to see her standing here, one hand fiddling with her ID badge and the other resting on her hip. Her eyes were trained on the streets below like mine were, before fluttering up to meet mine while waiting for my response.

I simply nodded as my eyebrows furrowed, hoping that the traffic wouldn’t be this bad when I had to drive back to my apartment in the evening. It already took a solid half an hour to drive back home without any traffic jams, and just imagining trying to get back while moving at a snail’s pace… Well, I honestly didn’t even want to imagine that.

“I heard someone in the elevator say that the city closed a few roads to repair them, so that must be the reason why there’s so much traffic,” I stated, eyebrows arched and lips pursed in an expression that read ‘I don’t really know’ while I shrugged to emphasize my lack of knowledge over the situation.

Chloe nodded as if to show that she’d agreed with my thoughts, her sleek high ponytail bouncing with the movement. She was wearing a knee length, peach colored sundress today, with soft magenta roses littering the garment like powdered sugar on freshly baked cupcakes. Her excellent sense of fashion always brought a bright burst of liveliness into the office, regardless of whether she was in a black, leather jacket or a pastel blue sweater top.

The comparison I always made, much to her distaste, was a small, yet thriving plant amidst a world of manmade objects and other inanimate items. I thought it was fitting. She just found it cliché.

It was a little off how we ended up as friends. Originally I thought that it’d be best to keep my distance, as bubbly people tend to get annoying after a while. Although, when I was asked to show her around the building, I realized that her perkiness was a breath of fresh air compared to the droopy gazes of the sleepy workers mulling about on my floor.

She was a ray of sunshine that lit my dim world and inspired me to let loose and remember what it’s like seeing things from an optimistic point of view. To put it simply, she helped me learn to live again, something I had forgotten when I reached adulthood.

Suddenly seeming to remember why she was up here, Chloe let out a small “Oh, right” while snapping her fingers before turning her body away from the window to face me instead. “I just wanted to inform you that it was lunch break, since you tend to forget while you’re immersed in the fancy world of grammar and punctuation.”

Her wild hand gestures accompanying the last three words of her sentence had me rolling my eyes. It was a known fact that no one on my floor, except for me, actually enjoyed correcting the numerous grammatical errors of others.

I couldn’t blame them though, since most of us were just here to make a living. Which brings me to my second reason for tolerating my job. I used to love the idea of doing something in this field for a living, words always had a way to entrance me in them which explains why I practically lived in libraries growing up.

I practically jumped at the opportunity when I was offered this job, but after five years of being stuck here, the magic of it all faded away into oblivion. Originally I was only working part time, since I was in my second year of college, but when I graduated I was given a full time job.

Of course, when I entered the company, I started at the very bottom of the corporate ladder. My main job was to be an errand girl like Chloe was before her promotion. I won’t even lie, it was absolutely horrible, and I know the girl in front of me would agree.

I can’t even recall how many cups of coffee just a single worker needed, as they would all fall asleep otherwise. In the first few hours of the morning, the demand for coffee was so great that I had petitioned for there to be five coffee machines rather than the two that we had.

Needless to say, I went home everyday with at least one new burn from the boiling hot liquid I had to carry around, and my hands really weren’t a pretty sight due to them. Thankfully I learned my lesson after the first week, opting to buy gloves that would help protect my hands and a bright red stop sign I attached to my tray so that people would stop running into me.

It was quite the sight, and really just a mortifying memory I have ingrained in the back of my head. Though Chloe didn’t have it as bad, shortly after I was promoted the company bought three more coffee machines as requested and hired more people so that there were more sets of hands dealing everyone their daily doses of caffeine.

Which brings me back to present day, as a 22 year old who seemed to age mentally far beyond my actual years living on this earth.

“Yeah, I didn’t notice the time. Do you want to go get a drink with me? I heard a new cafe opened up a few blocks down and so far there have only been positive reviews from the people I’ve asked about it,” I asked, kind of hoping that Chloe would agree to go, because who wouldn’t want some company?

However, I could see her response before she verbalized it in the way that she furrowed her eyebrows with a slight pout. “I can’t, there’s a new batch of interns that came in just yesterday, and for some reason none of them know how to work a coffee machine.”

I laughed at her predicament, imagining Chloe surrounded by a small group of college students too used to buying an overpriced coffee at a local cafe than to make their own brews with a machine.

“Okay, have fun,” I teased, standing up to stretch my back and roll a few cricks out of my neck. Chloe cringed at the little pops and cracks, reaching behind me to help pick up my bag that strewn across the back of my chair. It was pretty warm outside still, being in the early months of fall, which is why I didn’t have a coat with me.

I thanked her as I slipped the bag over my shoulder, before walking away with a slight wave. Since Chloe wouldn’t be going with me today, I decided to get her something at the cafe since I knew her taste in pastries and drinks quite well.

The elevator ride was pretty quick, albeit rather crowded as large groups of people were also on their way out to enjoy their break somewhere else.

The company was rather generous with its workers, allowing them a full hour long break before returning back to their 9-5 schedule. Maybe that was my third reason for staying at the company despite being sick of the mountain of words I had to go through daily.

The elevator reached the lobby floor with a small ding, the door nearly closing on me as everyone shuffled out of the metal box. I had allowed myself to get trapped near the back of the elevator as people piled in, which was why I had been the last to leave.

The front lobby was rather big, with a fancy granite front desk with gold accenting, and several marble columns spread around the floor to support the high ceiling.

To the right of the front desk was a small sitting area marked by a sprawling beige rug, dark leather couches, and a bamboo table resting in the middle. To the left of the front desk was a small water fountain with a family of koi fish lazily swimming about the bed of pennies and nickels thrown in.

I never really understood the point of throwing coins into fountains. People were basically wasting change, poisoning the fish, and drowning their elusive dreams in a supposed wishing well.

Still, I never voiced my thoughts out loud. After all, I didn’t want to crush the pure wishes of the children begging for coins from their parents in order to perform the simple act of hoping.

Not to mention that I had also fit into that crowd as a young girl, making desperate wishes to get the boy I liked to like me back. Of course, they were all left unheard, or maybe even ignored, which only served to fuel my distaste for making wishes on copper coins.

I’d much rather save my change to tip baristas, as I finally understood their struggle after having made hundreds of cups of coffee myself. It was a grueling task and I couldn’t help but sympathize with anyone who had to do what I did as an intern for a living.

Speaking of which, I made my way out of the front door of the office building, immediately cringing at the racket of noise that met my ears. Much to my bittersweet relief, the cars seemed to be moving a tad bit faster than earlier.

Albeit, the new set of cars didn’t sound any different from the last set, with their loud beeping at the mini traffic jams that hadn’t quite thinned out yet.

I reached into my purse and pulled out my earbuds, skilled fingers working quickly to untangle the messy knots the cord had fallen into. There had never been a day where I found them neatly folded like I had left them, so untangling them had become a regular part of my daily routine.

It didn’t take very long, and soon enough I had them plugged into my phone and placed in my ears. Going to my usual playlist, a slow smile spread across my face at the song that had arisen first by chance.

The noise of the car horns completely drowned out with the melody playing in my ears, and I happily mouthed along to the lyrics when the sidewalk before me cleared of any prying eyes as I walked down it.

The only people who could see me making a slight fool out of myself was the people in the cars adjacent to me, nevertheless, they all seemed far too preoccupied with their own lives to notice. Some were on their madly typing away at their phones, others messing with toys they had received with their fast food, and in the driver’s case: vigorously slamming their fists on their horns as if it would help resolve the situation.

“Snapping, snapping,” I whispered softly, eyes taking on a playful lilt as I fell into step with the beat of the song. Despite wanting to burst out dancing, I restrained myself as my mouth snapped closed with an audible click when a figure appeared several feet in front of me.

I wasn’t quite ready to let go of my dignity to the extent of having a little dance break in the middle of the sidewalk of a bustling city. I could practically see steam coming out of the nose of the young woman in front of me, so I popped out an earbud wondering what she could be fuming about.

“Stupid date left me waiting there… Screw men… If I ever get my hands on him… He’ll be dead meat…”

The rest of her words faded with the growing distance between us, having already passed by her as she was walking off in the opposite direction.

“She must’ve been stood up,” I thought, almost pitying her if not for her horrid attitude and snobby scowl. Her date might of had a reason for not showing up, who knows?

Realizing that I had reached my destination, I looked up to check the name of the cafe to be sure. The sign was done in a beautiful gradient with a faint blush pink fading into a vibrant fuchsia. Looking out front, there were bright posters taped to the windows advertising popular drinks and desserts.

Just from the prices on the posters, I could this was a higher class joint, as there was even a small seating area outside with large, turquoise blue umbrellas shielding the tables from the sun. Not to mention that the place also offered breakfast and lunch despite just being a cafe.

In spite of the high prices, I stepped through the door, taking notice of the white daisies growing in the pastel green window boxes. The golden bells above the door chimed, notifying my entrance.

Like always, I was instantly hit with the heavenly scent of freshly ground cinnamon and coffee beans that most cafes seemed to boost.

After becoming employed, I never really had to worry about spending a little extra on a higher quality drink everyday. The high paycheck was the fourth reason why I found the idea of leaving my job so difficult. Besides, It never hurt to have a little extra cash in my bank account in case of a financial emergency.

Slowly making my way to a booth, I took in the interior of the cafe. The walls of the joint were painted the same color as the window boxes, with accenting lining the corners of the spacy room matched the color of the umbrellas outside. The round tables had a translucent glass top with black metal legs, and the chairs sitting around them were made of the same black metal twisted into an intricate design.

I highly doubted the large jewels in the back of the chairs were made of real glass, though they shone the same way a real gem would in the soft lighting coming from the beautiful light fixtures dangling from the ceiling.

There was a marble front desk where the cashier was incase someone just wanted to grab a takeout coffee and/or pastry. Speaking of which, there were numerous display cases lining the marble counters filled with various treats ranging from rainbow colored macarons to cream filled mochi.

Although, there were waiters and waitresses that came to you if you get their attention, in case you have the time to sit about, which is what I choose to do. Standing in line in front of the cashier just seemed like far too much work today, so I decided to just skip the wait.

I sat down in one of the empty booths lining the wall of the cafe. They also had glass table tops, however they were rectangular and the seats were made of artificial black leather the same shade as the chairs in the center of the room.

Suddenly a tall figure burst through the front door, the bells in front of the door crashing together rather harshly unlike the gentle tingle they let out when I walked through.

The male seemed to be around my age, though it was rather hard to tell if he was older or younger considering how his youthful face was paired with a ridiculously tall stature.

The straps of his beige jacket fluttered behind him in the small gust of his abrupt entrance, nearly getting caught in the closing door. His almost puppy like features were framed was light blue hair that looked softer than the clouds I had been admiring in the morning.

I was suddenly struck with the creeping urge to run my hands through the strands, causing an immediate flush to race up my neck as I averted my gaze.

“What am I thinking?” I thought, embarrassment and guilt coursing through my veins. This was precisely why I avoided attractive men like my life depended on it, because I knew as a matter of fact that my dignity did.

The moment my eyes settled on someone who was remotely handsome, my heart raced so quickly that I felt a love struck school girl all over again. Nonetheless, I could never keep my eyes off beautiful specimen for long, hence why my gaze subconsciously traveled back to the male standing at the doorway.

His eyes had been roaming the room, his shoulders sinking dejectedly as he didn’t seem to see who or what he was looking for. However, when he continued to look around his eyes met mine, much to my horror.

His eyes lit up, his mouth forming a little ‘o’ shape, as my eyes snapped back to my lap. A string of curses flew across the forefront of my mind at getting caught staring, as I desperately hoped with all of my being that he wouldn’t walk over.

Of course the heavens ignored my plead.

The cute male slid into the seat across from mine with an apologetic smile. Which struck me as odd as I should have been the apologetic one. Yet the words that slipped out of his lips were far odder, in my opinion.

“I’m so sorry for being late, the traffic today truly was horrible and I ended up stuck in this one traffic jam for…” he started, trailing off as he lifted his wrist to check his watch for the time. “An hour.”

“Huh?” I asked, completely confused. An extremely attractive stranger suddenly appeared out of nowhere, approached me out of all the pretty girls sitting alone in this cafe, and started apologizing when we had never met each other before?

I was about as lost as the person across from me was hot. Like dang, his visuals really attracted the curious gaze of all the aforementioned ladies sitting around the room.

Suddenly something nagged at the back of my mind, the vivid image of the woman from early resurfacing from my memories.

Oh.

He must have thought that I was his blind date.

I opened my mouth to explain the situation, but before I had the chance to collect my thoughts, the guy started talking once again. He had been taking off his coat so he didn’t see the way I had been gaping while pondering how to tell him he had mistaken me for someone else.

He looked up at me, eyes widening when he realized that he never introduced himself. A spellbinding smile spreading across his soft features as he held his hand across the table for a handshake. “Right, my name is Yunho, it’s nice to meet you.”

I hesitantly took his hand, introducing myself with a shaky smile. One look into his warm eyes and I knew that I couldn’t break it to him that his real date had left like a fiery hurricane while spitting out curses like a tasteless rapper.

Yunho repeated my name slowly, as if the savor each and every syllable with a thoughtful smile. It was clear that he was about to drop a cliché pickup line from the way his eyes sparkled mischievously, however, that didn’t soften the impact as my cheeks flushed red. “What a beautiful name.”

What he did next completely caught me off guard as he started mumbling to himself with a sly smile. “I wonder what our ship name would be…”

Deciding that my heart wouldn’t be able to take anymore of his cheesiness, I waved one of the waiters over.

“Ready to order?” Asked the waiter, his ears tinting red when I directed my gaze at him. His grip tightened a little on his mini clipboard and pen, eyes averting to Yunho instead.

“How cute,” I thought, slightly flattered over his actions. Although I never really dated before, I could recognize that smitten expression anywhere. It was then that I recalled that I never actually looked at the small menu, however, that didn’t turn out to be a problem as Yunho ordered for the both of us.

“Have you been here before?” I asked, surprised because I never saw him look at the menu either before the waiter walked away. The cafe opened a few days ago, so it wasn’t entirely unbelievable that he had gone before, though I didn’t think that was the case.

“No, I just ordered the special today if that’s okay with you,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. His shy smile was a stark contrast to the confident front he had thrown up while flirting with me.

I smiled, nodding to assure that I didn’t mind as I would’ve done the same thing. From his timid gaze, I could tell that he never really went out on dates, which greatly relieved me as I hadn’t either.

The waiter came back around again in a few minutes with two plates of omelets with hot cheese oozing out of the seams and juicy, cubed tomatoes peeking through pale yellow egg. On the side of both plates were small bowls of freshly cut fruit topped with little mint sprigs.

It gave off a very insta worthy aesthetic, so I fished out my phone before taking a bite, raising the camera. A smile unknowingly spread across my face at how at peace Yunho looked with the warm afternoon sun perfectly catching the soft curves of his full cheeks while simultaneously dusting golden flakes into his umber eyes.

I lifted my camera a little further, so that it still captured the plate before me but also included Yunho’s adorably focused face. His eyes snapped up at the sound of the camera clicking, fork dangling an inch away from his mouth as I had caught him midbite.

I put my phone away, bashfully mumbling that he looked like an angel glowing in the sunlight like that and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture the moment. He blinked a few times in surprise, before laughing softly.

“You should’ve told me beforehand, I could’ve posed,” he teased, cheekily wiggling two peace signs in front of his eyes before drawing up two finger hearts.

I blushed, internally cooing at how cute he looked with such an innocent sparkle in his eye that I thought only existed in children. He was everything he looked like at that moment. A complete and utter angel who radiated purity under the glimmering sun.

Deciding to get something to drink, we called the waiter over once more, who whipped out his mini notepad habitually. And like earlier, he refused to meet my gaze for long, something both Yunho and I noticed.

Yunho flashed me a wink, nudging his head subtly at the waiter as if we weren’t on a date ourselves. I hid a giggle behind my hand at his goofy antics, quickly returning my arm back to the table when the waiter glanced up at me for a second.

“I’ll take two bubble teas with normal tapioca,” I requested, biting back a smile at the bewildered look Yunho shot me. He asked for an iced latte, eyes never leaving mine as the waiter walked away.

“Do you really like bubble tea that much?” He asked, a little awestruck. It wouldn’t have been all that surprising if I did, since everyone on Earth had one big craving they could never get enough of. So, I nodded firmly, looking him dead in the eye with a stoic “yes”.

He looked scared for a moment as if worried he said something wrong and at that I couldn’t hide my snicker.

“I do, but the second cup isn’t for me. I promised a friend that I’d bring her back something since she couldn’t go out for her break,” I explained, smiling cordially as his expression melted back into its usual peaceful bliss.

“How thoughtful,” he whispered, but I heard his sweet words as my disappearing blush suddenly bloomed all over again. I chose to ignore his comment, eyes flashing up to the waiter who reappeared once more with our drinks and a plate of bite size sugar cookies.

He placed all three cups down before putting down the plate with a quiet clinking sound. “Here’s a complimentary plate of sugar cookies for all customers who come during our opening week. Enjoy.”

And with that, he was gone again, almost tripping over himself in his haste to get away.

“Does he think I have the bubonic plague?” I wondered aloud, despite knowing why he was in such a rush. It was written all over the back of his neck and the tips of his ears in various hues of red.

“Maybe you should ask for his number,” mused Yunho, still very clearly amused over the waiter’s crush on me. I narorred my eyes at him, normally if a date encouraged you to pick up someone else then that’s a telltale sign that they’re obviously not interested in a relationship with you.

However, I could tell that Yunho meant everything that he was saying lightheartedly, so I decided to tease him back. “No thanks, I’d rather have yours.”

I could tell the unexpected flirt stunned Yunho, as his jaw dropped. I winked at him the same way he winked at me when the waiter came over, enjoying his flustered reaction. Despite the fact that Yunho would tower over me if we both stood up, he looked no bigger than a child at the moment shrinking into himself with a fiery blush. “Oh.”

I loved how table had turned, with how many times he caused my cheeks to tint pink. It was a small stroke of success, but I didn’t have the heart to continue. Taking the initiative, I asked him about himself, wanting to spend the time we had together developing a close friendship since he seemed to be a fun person to have around.

It wasn’t long before we fell into a deep conversation about ourselves. I learned that he was indeed younger than me by two years, and managed to convince him to call me noona but drop all other honorifics.

Honestly if anyone had told me that I’d end up on a date with someone younger than me, I wouldn’t have believed them. It was always a condition on my ideal type list that the male had to be older. Yet the ridiculous list completely faded away into nothingness in the back of my mind the longer I talked to Yunho.

Instead a new list wrote itself with only two conditions on it: His eyes had to sparkle like a galaxy of stars being reflected on a still lake and his smile had to hold the same warmth as a steaming cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter night.

In other words it was describing the person sitting right in front of me, as he threw his head back, laughing at one of the many comical stories I told him about my fanatical college days.

He was currently in college right now, majoring in the same subject that I majored in. It was nice having someone relate so hard to my past struggles, as he was going through the same things I had gone through with crazy strict teachers and boisterous students marching down the halls like they owned the school.

In return I told him about how I worked as an editor, along with a few facts about me that few people knew or cared to ask about, such as my lowkey love for the artist Chungha.

Yunho said that he had heard a few of her songs before too, leading us down another conversation about our tastes in music and other pop culture.

Sometime during the conversation, Yunho’s phone started to ring as he excused himself from the table. I called the waiter over again during that time, asking for a small takeout bag.

I stuffed the rest of the cookies into it, deciding to take them back to Chloe along with the drink. Pausing for a bit, I pulled out one cookie and placed it back onto the plate incase Yunho wanted one more.

It wasn’t long before he came back, brushing off the topic when I asked him if the call was important. I didn’t want to invade his privacy, hence why I didn’t push the topic. In fact, I only asked because I didn’t want to keep him if there was some sort of emergency.

We picked up on the tail of our last conversation, reengaging in a passionate debate over which Harry Potter book was the best and other things of the sort.

Before I knew it, half an hour past and my break was about to end in twenty minutes. As much as I enjoyed learning about Yunho’s love for sports, fascination over the Harry Potter, and sweet but wild group of friends, I didn’t even want to think about how my manager would breath down my back if I came back late.

Looking down to see my empty cup, I realized with a start that my hand had somehow ended up in Yunho’s. During our conversation his hand had gotten closer and closer to mine, as I had left it lying on the table. I didn’t remember when that had changed, from the tips of his fingers brushing mine to slipping his hand on top of my own.

I wasn’t sure if he noticed this, but when I tried to remove my hand back from his grip, his hold only tightened as his thumb brushed the back of my hand. It became clear that it had been quite intentional.

“Hey, Yunho?” I asked, eyes lifting from our hands up to his face.

“Yeah?” He asked, sweet smile never leaving his lips before the corner of his lips quirked up into a small smirk. It was clear that he was only teasing me by not letting go, as I uncomfortably shifted in my chair.

Deciding not to mention it to save a little bit of my pride, I glanced over at the antique clock on the opposite wall. “My lunch break is nearly over, I have to go.”

He nodded in acknowledgement of my statement, reaching over with his free hand to sling his coat over his arm. “Is it close to here?”

“Yeah, just a ten minute walk away.”

He got up, pulling me up with my hand in his. Before I could comprehend what he was doing, he intertwined our fingers, taking the last sugar cookie off the plate and stuffing it in my mouth to muffle my protests.

My ears were burning scarlet as he led me out of the cafe, pouting slightly as I chewed. This guy seriously… A question floated up, bubbling through my mouth as I looked up at Yunho with furrowed eyebrows. “Did we just dine and dash?”

Yunho shook his head with a little laugh, eyes shifting down to meet mine before looking forward again. “No, I covered the bill earlier.”

That had me pause in my step, causing Yunho to come to a stop too since our hands were intertwined. I don’t recall ever receiving the bill at our table, nor did I hear Yunho say that he was going up front to pay, otherwise I would’ve forced him to split the bill. Although, there was that one time he left to take a call…

That was when the realization of what had happened dawned on me and from Yunho’s knowing smile he could tell that I had figured it out. “You didn’t.”

“But, I did.” he chuckled once more, pulling me forward as he began to walk again. It was clear that he didn’t actually know where we were going, so I widened my stride a little so that we would be walking side by side. It was rather sweet how he intended to walk me back to my office, the same way a guy would take a date home.

Before we got far, my phone went off, the familiar tune of Chungha’s debut song filling the silence between us. My cheeks flushed pink at Yunho’s teasing gaze, deepening as he teased, “Didn’t you say you were just a minor fan?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I brushed him off, excusing myself to take the call. The caller ID read ‘Chlo~’ with a couple of red hearts after it.

“Where are you? You’re usually back by now!” Exclaimed Chloe from the other side of the line, the faint bubbling in the background signifying that she was currently in the lobby near the fountain.

“Sorry, I lost track of time,” I apologized, smiling sheepishly despite the fact that she couldn’t see me. I heard Chloe sigh, telling me to hurry up and get back because ‘she missed me’ before hanging up.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket, before swiftly making my way back to Yunho. “Sorry about that, my coworker was fretting over the fact that I wasn’t back yet.”

Yunho shook his head to dismiss my apology, saying not to worry about it since he was the one taking up my time.

Suddenly, a familiar voice could be heard from the distance coming closer and closer. “Stupid day… No, stupid date… Ditched by a guy now ditched by my clutch… I must have left if in that stupid cafe.”

The girl from earlier appeared in front of us as she rounded the corner, with her head down as she appeared to be typing away angrily on her phone. Pure and sheer panic coursed through my veins at the sight of her. If she was indeed who I thought she was, then the moment she opened her mouth, I’d be exposed.

However, before I could do anything, she slammed in Yunho’s chest due to not watching where she was going. Yunho’s hands flew to her shoulders to steady her, wincing at how he hadn’t seen her coming either since he had been looking at me.

“Watch where you’re- Oh,” she trailed off, eyes widening when she lifted her head up and saw Yunho’s face for the first time. It was almost comical how Yunho could attract the interest of everyone around him without even trying, me being included.

Her hands slowly slipped up to his arms, squeezing lightly while a flirtatious smile replaced her scowl. Since she was so close to Yunho, her back was to me and couldn’t see what I was doing.

Despite being wary of the situation, I couldn’t help but let out an over exaggerated, but silent, gagging noise. I muffled my own laughter at the act with the palm of my hand, however, Yunho didn’t have the liberty to, which was why he couldn’t hide his chuckle.

The girl clinging onto him was confused, but somehow took that as a positive sign as she started to bat her freakishly long eyelashes at him. “Hey, aren’t you Yunho? My name is Hayoung, I’m pretty sure a guy from my class set us up on a date. What was his name again… Junhao?”

I felt like my heart had stopped at her words, hands becoming cold and clammy as I looked at Yunho. Would he get mad at me? Maybe even leave and go on the date that he missed with Hayoung? In my defense I had tried to tell him that I wasn’t his date, though to be fair I really could have tried harder.

Still, Yunho didn’t notice my terrified gaze, instead looking at Hayoung’s hands which were shamelessly feeling up his biceps. He reached up to pry her hands off of him, stepping back to put some distance between the two of them.

“Yeah, that’s me, though I don’t think it’s appropriate to hang off a guy in front of his date,” he commented, shocking me to my core. Yunho finally looked at me with a soft smile, taking one of my hands in his once more.

Hayoung’s wide eyes weren’t nearly as large as mine as we were both baffled over what had just happened. My eyes kept scanning over Yunho’s face to see if I could get a read over his thoughts, yet all I could see in his eyes was the same warmth they always held.

He squeezed my hand in response, assuring me that he didn’t regret his actions as he turned back to look at a gaping Hayoung.

“Now if you’ll excuse us, we really need to go,” Yunho stated, quickly leading us away from the fuming girl.

Once we reached my office building, I stopped in front of it, saying that this was me. I gently pulled my hand out of his, shyly brushing a stray strand of hair out of my eyes.

Yunho, tucked both of his hands into his pockets as he stood in front of me, not quite wanting to leave, yet not having a valid reason to stay.

I took that as my que to ask the question burning in the back of my mind. “You didn’t seem very surprised at Hayoung’s appearance, did you know I wasn’t your date?”

Yunho nodded with a guilty smile, reaching up to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Yeah, the call I took earlier was from my friend Jongho, saying that Hayoung called chewing his ear off. I also may or may not have known what she looked like beforehand…”

My jaw dropped at his confession, and to think that I had worried over nothing. “You knew and yet you approached me out of the blue? Why in the world would you do something like that? Not saying that I didn’t enjoy your company, but that’s kinda creepy you know…”

“Sorry, you were just the most attractive person I’ve ever seen in my life. Not to mention the fact that you seemed to be alone in the cafe,” Yunho apologized, eyes dropping to the floor as he was unable to meet my gaze in fear of being scolded. I was stunned into silence. That was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me, especially from someone so good looking.

Shoving down the reprimand I had in mind, I jokingly nudged Yunho in the ribs to get him to look at me again. “Well she didn’t really seem to be your type anyways.”

Yunho laughed at this, wholeheartedly agreeing with me. “It seems you know my type better than my own friends. Though to be honest, I’m pretty sure Jongho knew that I would never approach a girl like Hayoung and was only trying to get me back for finishing the last bottle of Sprite from his secret collection. We’re housemates.”

I laughed at his in depth explanation, relating to his struggles. Chloe moved in with me in the summer, a few months after we met. The air conditioning unit in her run down apartment kept breaking down and was twice the distance from the company than mine.

It was far more convenient with her as a housemate as we had more spare change to spend on the money we saved on rent with a split bill. However, with every housemate comes the temptation of stealing their things.

Just recalling that one time I finished the last slice of the cake Chloe bought… She deemed it fair play to sprinkle a few pinches of flour in our shared hairdryer while I was in the shower. Though I couldn’t get mad at her for it though, because she apologized immediately after, while laughing her head off. It was extremely fortunate for her that I loved her, otherwise she would have been in for it.

“Hey, you said you were an editor, but you never mentioned the fact that you worked for this particular company,” mused Yunho, drawing me back from the mini memory lane my mind had skipped down.

“Oh I must’ve forgotten to mention it,” I said, arching an eyebrow at Yunho who’s smile spread impossibly wider. I was curious as to why me working at this company sparked his interest so much.

“You know, I just passed my interview here a few months ago?” asked Yunho casually, eyes gleaming playfully at the way my eyes widened at his words.

“Holy spades, though why weren’t you with the other interns today?” I asked, recalling the reason why Chloe couldn’t join me today.

“Well we were toured around the company earlier this morning but when my group was handed off to this other woman I turned out to be the only person who knew how to work the coffee machine. I used to work part time as a barista,” he explained with a mirthful tone of voice.

“That’s explains it,” I thought, nodding at his words. As much as I loved talking to Yunho today, I knew my break was drawing to a close and that I needed to leave soon.

“Well, I guess we’ll be seeing each other more often then,” I smiled at him bashfully, already visualizing what it would be like seeing him around at the office in the future.

“Yeah,” he agreed, hesitating a little with his next actions before stepping forward and placing a chaste kiss on my cheek.

He pulled away with a burning red blush crawling up his neck as he waved goodbye and walked off, back in the direction of the cafe and what I assumed was his car.

I shoved down my own blush, trying to recollect myself as I stepped back into the front lobby of my apartment building.

Chloe was sitting on the rim of the fountain, seemingly preoccupied with her phone. It was clear that she hadn’t seen what went down outside, otherwise she would’ve pounced on me right then and there with a mountain of questions.

Sneaking up beside her, I dangled the paper bag of sugar cookies in front of her face with a small “tada”. Chloe looked up from her phone, smiling at the bag. “Ah, you’re back. Thanks.”

I also handed her the sealed takeout cup of bubble tea and a plastic straw that I had kept hidden inside of my bag. Miraculously there was still a few ice cubes left, as the cafe had its air conditioner turned pretty high to combat the early fall heat. Or maybe it was just that my bag had some sort of secret insulation tech embedded into the interior pouch. Who knows?

She accepted it with yet another “thanks” and popped the straw through the plastic covering. Taking a small sip, she hummed in content with the sweet drink. I grinned at her as she looked down at the sweet drink as if she was trying to see a visible difference between this mixture and every other milk tea she’s tried.

The cafe really did the name of bubble tea justice, with chewy tapioca pearls of a perfect consistency and a tea base with just the right amount of sugar and flavouring. It was a little pricier as expected, however the extra dollar was definitely worth it.

“It’s good isn’t it?” I asked, as she nodded without an ounce of hesitation much like I did at Yunho when he inquired about my love for bubble tea.

We made our way to the elevator arm in arm, with Chloe asking me why I had been gone for so long.

“Were you with a guy?” Chloe asked teasingly, expecting my usual mundane response of “no”. After all, dates were never my thing and she knew that quite well. I glanced at the bright red numbers flashing in the elevator’s screen, noticing that it had reached my floor.

“Actually, yes I was,” I stated mischievously, stepping out of the elevator when the door opened. I spun around, watching as Chloe’s eyes widened.

“What?!” she exclaimed, watching in horror as the door started closing before she could ask anymore questions. I knew that she wouldn’t risk angering her manager by going back late as she certainly would if she ran out of the elevator after me.

I waved at her as the door shut, laughing a little. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get away from her later when we got home, however, I was too giddy to really think about how I’d suffer her wrath for dropping a bomb like that and just leaving.

Making my way back to my own desk, I plopped down in the spinning chair with a soft smile at everything that had occurred today. Sure, the traffic I’d have to deal with later might put a damper on my mood, and sure, I’d have to deal with Chloe’s inevitable interrogation but the carefree giddiness I felt at that moment felt like it would last forever.

When tomorrow comes, the internships will officially start and with them will come the one blue haired male that captured my attention today and heck, maybe he’ll be my fifth and final reason to stay.

#ateez #yunho #fanfiction #imagine #oneshot #romance #fluff #ateez yunho imagine #ateez yunho oneshot #ateez yunho fanfic

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13thsongbird · 5 years ago

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Sometimes, you just start sewing and something amazing comes out. I literally don’t have any other explanation for this dress – it was not something I planned or sketched out, or even thought about very hard. I’d been planning to hack Mimi G’s Jessica Dress pattern to make my own version of an Old Navy sundress I love (mine is a denser, bluer blue-and-white pinstripe, but it’s the shape and the shirred back I was after), but I’d only gotten as far as putting together the pdf and thinking abstractly about fabric choices. Then, less than a week before my ten-year high school reunion, I realized that the dress I was planning to make and wear was going to require waaaaay more pattern adjustments than I had expected or had time for (McCall’s M7745 – woven wrap dresses and my upper body don’t play nice, I’ve found), and I started frantically surveying my options. My eyes fell on the Jessica pdf, and a stack of colorful cotton triangles left over from the bunting I made for my roommate’s birthday.

And for some reason, that clicked. PATCHWORK! That was the answer to my time-crunch sewing dilemma!

(Spoiler alert: it was not.)

After a few days of frantically sewing in every spare moment, I had to throw in the towel and admit I wasn’t going to finish the dress before flying home to Ohio. Also, the crayon-like intensity of the colors and the potential poufiness of the three-tiered skirt I was planning started to make me doubt whether the finished product was something I’d want my high school classmates to see me in after all these years. Chastened, I bought a very pretty dress from TJ Maxx and left town for a week, although in the back of my mind I kept going back to my patchwork strips. It wasn’t even that they’d taken a long time to sew (which they did), it was the play of the colors and the clean intricacy of the triangles and the seams. I had dialed back my initial instinct to make the top out of different colors as well, sticking with the orange-ish ochre color that felt like the midpoint between the brights and darks, so the skirt was going to be the star, and something about it was calling to me.

Once I was back from my trip, I wasted very little time before diving back in, adding more repeats of my color pattern into each layer to up the swish factor and gathering like a madwoman. I also added more shirring rows to the back panel – this was my first time shirring, and initially I’d spaced my rows way too far apart to adequately gather and hold my fabric. This time I got it right! And the lining of the shirred panel is bright red, so it peeps over the gathered top of the panel for a really fun pop of color. Once I had the shirring sorted and all three tiers gathered, I raced to try it on and I fell. in. love.

It isn’t even hemmed yet here! The lining hasn’t been attached at the waist! The ribbon straps are held on at the back with basting stitches, and the bust point is clearly set too high for my boobs. And yet… it’s absolutely perfect, just as it is in this picture. Once I fixed and finished those little things, it was resplendent. And I managed to finish it just in time for New York City Pride! I can’t tell you how it felt, walking through such a sea of joy and glitter in this dress that I made, but some of these pictures might give you something of an idea:

I’ve lived in New York for nearly four years now, and this was the first time I was able to get out onto the streets on the day of the Pride parade, and let me tell you: it is EVERYTHING! My friends and I couldn’t even get close to the parade itself because of the crowds, but you almost didn’t need to – the entire city was infused with this amazing energy, and there were crowds of people everywhere you went decked out in rainbows and identity flags and their best and brightest expressions of themselves. Being able to be a part of that crowd, and celebrate how beautiful people are because of their sexuality and gender identity and many, many differences – it was electric and utterly indescribable.

Details: Bodice pattern modified from Mimi G’s Jessica dress, size XL (added 3/4″ to the length of all pieces, removed front button closure in favor of a center seam, added 4″ of width to the center back panel and shirred it with elastic thread in the bobbin), skirt made up out of the ether and my crazy brain; fabric all quilting cotton and cotton-poly blends from my local Astoria fabric shop; I personally am 5’11” with a 43″ bust and a 35″ waist.

TUTORIAL TIME!

And for those of you that are as crazy as I am and want a patchwork skirted dress of dreams to call your very own, here’s how I did it! As stated above, I used the Jessica dress bodice, largely because it was already the shape I was looking for, but really you could use any paneled bodice that suits your fancy.

(Sorry to my visual learners – I might try to add pictures to this tutorial at some point, but for now it will just be textual.)

First, color selection – I went with six because I already had them picked out for the bunting, but really you can do any number and gradation you want. The important thing to remember is that if you use an odd number, then each color will alternate which edge it shows up on, whereas using an even number means the same colors will always be on the same edge. A larger number of colors will mean more options for a gradual shift between colors, as well, while sticking to just two or three will keep things visually simpler. For my second dress (yes I’m already making another), I’ve chosen jewel tones that remind me of a geode and gemstones in shades of purple, magenta, and teal.

Second, determine the finished length you want from your skirt, relative to where the waistline of your bodice hits. In my case, I was actually working with fabric I’d pre-cut into triangles for a different project, but by happy accident when I assembled them into tiers and hemmed them, they gave me a perfect just-above-the-knee length of 23″. Add an inch for hemming, then divide your finished length by three. Take that length and add in an inch for seam allowance – since I was using the Jessica pattern, I stuck with Mimi G’s 3/8″ SA, but allowing a full 5/8″ for where the points of the triangles come together and overlap on the angle. The resulting measurement will be the height of your triangles. My triangles were 9″ tall.

Third, based off of the height of the triangles, you can determine the width – I went with a 2:3 ratio, so for 9″ tall triangles, my width was 6″. Going forward, I’m going to be referring to these measurements, but know that if your ideal skirt requires different measurements, you can just plug them into anywhere I use 9″ or 6″.

Fourth, it’s time to mark and cut your triangles. Either draw parallel lines running the width of your fabric 9″ apart, or tear your fabric into 9″ strips – I went with the latter because that way I knew my triangles would for the most part be on grain. At the bottom of the strip, starting on whichever side you like, place a mark every 6″ all the way across. At the top of the strip, place a mark 3″ in from the side you started marking from, then measuring from that mark place a mark every 6″ all the way across. At this point, you can either mark diagonal lines with a ruler and chalk and cut your triangles out with scissors, or do as I did and line up your clear plastic ruler diagonally between marks and use a rotary cutter. I’d recommend the latter because it is both faster and more accurate!

As far as how many triangles to cut, it’s going to largely be determined by your proportions and how full you would like your skirt to be. For myself, my tiers were built in multiples of my six-color repeat – the top tier was 5, the middle tier was 7, and the bottom tier was 9, resulting in a total of 21 triangles of each color and 126 triangles overall. If you’re much smaller than I am (see my measurements above), you’ll likely want to reduce the number of repeats in your tiers (unless you want a super gathered waist) while maintaining roughly those proportions, and if you’re much larger, you might want to increase your repeats in the same way.

(This is also where, if you’re more organized and/or neater than I am, you could serge or zig-zag the edges of every triangle to finish them neatly; however, the long sides of the triangles are on the bias and thus won’t fray significantly once sewn, and if I ever feel the short ends are making the inside of my skirt look untidy, I can always serge the seam allowances between the tiers in three fell swoops rather than spending a lot of extra time serging 126 triangles. But you do you!)

Fifth, stack your triangles in order of the color gradient you’ve decided on – you can decide whether you prefer to stack each color separately and just arrange those stacks in order, or stack each individual triangle in order in one big stack, but either way I highly recommend not skipping this step because it makes the assembly process much smoother.

Sixth, now that you’ve got your triangles sorted, it’s time to cut out your bodice and lining! I used all one color for the outer shell of my bodice, so I needed a little bit more of that fabric than the others, but the lining I cut from whatever I had left from any of the colors. You could also do a contrast lining of your choice, especially on the back panel, since the shirring means you’ll see a little bit of the lining at the top.

For the center back panel, you’ll need to add width to accommodate the gathering you’ll be doing with your elastic shirring. Do a test run and see how much your fabric contracts once shirred, and use that to determine how much to add in order to get the same finished width after shirring. I added in about 4″.

Seventh, sew your center back panel and center back lining panel together along the top edge, and press with wrong sides together. Using a ruler and the marking tool of your choice, draw parallel horizontal lines 1/2″ apart all the way down, starting from the top edge and ending at least 3/8″ from the bottom edge to avoid running shirring into your waistline seam allowance.

Eighth, using elastic thread in the bobbin and increasing your stitch length, carefully sew along each of the lines you’ve just drawn, backstitching at the beginning and end of each seam. I followed this Seamwork tutorial on shirring and found it super clear and helpful!

Ninth, assemble your bodice according to the pattern instructions, treating your shirred panel as the center back piece for the outer shell. You’ll need to attach the lining to the shirred panel at the side back seams; use your preferred finish here.

Tenth, back to your skirt! Now you assemble your triangles into rows. I went with a roughly 1/4″ seam allowance to reduce bulk and minimize fabric waste, and pinned each seam before sewing just as a precaution to avoid differing bias stretch between two pieces. Alternate which side the base of the triangle is on, and line up seam lines rather than fabric edge – this means you will have little bits of each triangle hanging over at each end, but your seam line should meet the cut edge of the fabric.

Pressing as you go will make things neater and help everything line up properly, but depending on your iron setup I know that can be incredibly annoying. I compromised by finger-pressing all my seams as I went, and then doing a pass with the iron after I’d finished each row. I pressed the seam allowances together and alternated which direction I pressed them in, but honestly as long as they’re pressed it doesn’t much matter how you do it. Personal preference!

Eleventh, join your rows into tiers – once you’ve completed as many repeats of your color pattern as you need, make sure your fabric isn’t twisted and bring your two end triangles together. Sew the seam as you have the others, and press. Now you have one big loop of fabric! It’s your first tier! Do the others, and marvel at how much patchwork you’ve just completed. Pet it a little. You did good.

Twelfth, mark each tier in quarters, then sew two rows of basting stitches around the top of the tier at 1/4″ and 1/2″, cutting your thread and beginning again at each pin. With the incredible length of the tiers, especially once you get to the final layer, gathering them in sections will make your life soooooo much easier. You can make the sections even smaller if you’d like!

Thirteenth, mark the center front, center back, and the side seams of your bodice at the waistline, and pin your first tier, matching up your quarters with those points on the bodice. Personally, I then found the midpoint between each of those and pinned those as well, giving me eight points of contact between skirt and bodice before I even started gathering – I find this makes things easier and ensures more even gathers.

Fourteenth, pull on the ends of your basting stitches to gather the skirt, wrapping the basting thread in a figure eight around the nearest pin when you’ve achieved the right length. Distribute the gathers as evenly as possible, and then pin the ever-living crap out of it. Do this all the way around the waistline, and then sew at 3/8″ SA.

(Make sure that you stretch out the shirred panel when you are gathering and sewing the waistline – you will have way fewer gathers in the skirt there, but the contraction of the elastic will do that gathering on its own when it springs back, and if you attempt to gather the skirt normally to the already-gathered shirring, you’ll lost all the stretch you put into the waistline and won’t be able to get it over your head.)

Fifteenth and Sixteenth, follow those same steps to join the second and third tiers to the bottom of the skirt.

Seventeenth, turn up the bottom edge of the skirt a scant 1/2″, then another more generous 1/2″, and press. If you’re in a hurry like I was (I hemmed this skirt literally right before leaving the house to go to the Pride parade), you can topstitch the hem at 3/8″ in a color that roughly coordinates with the majority of the colors you’ve chosen. If you’re willing to spend a little more time on a cleaner finish, you can hand-stitch the hem using the invisible-from-the-outside stitch of your choice.

And that’s it! Now go put on your party dress and do a twirl, because this skirt is MADE for twirling!

My Pride Dress + Tutorial! Sometimes, you just start sewing and something amazing comes out. I literally don't have any other explanation for this dress - it was not something I planned or sketched out, or even thought about very hard.

#Jessica Dress #Mimi G #NYC Pride #patchwork #Pride parade #rainbow dress #Sew Sew Def #sundress #Tutorial

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anissagraces · 7 years ago

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Big ass gif tutorial

It’s been a while since I made a coloring tutorial, and I thought it would be useful if I made a full tutorial on how I make my gifs. I will go over:

how to screencap

making your gif in ps

sharpening

coloring that gif

putting subtitles on a gif

saving that gif

you will need

a hd copy of the episode/movie you want to gif

potplayer (or kmplayer)

a version of photoshop (I use CC)

a sharpening action

A psd or patience to color your own gif

end result:

Everything will be under the cut. Warning: this will be picture heavy and text heavy. English is my third language so there will probably be some mistakes in here.

If this is the first time using photoshop, your startpage will look pretty blank. I’ll show you what you need to make visible to gif.

Click on “window”. The screencap I made of the settings is pretty big so click here if you need to see it.

Not seen in the picture but useful: actions, properties, character, paragraph

STEP 1: THE FILE

Okay first of all, you’ll need your file. I recommend downloading µtorrent, then going to a torrent site (like rarbg.to) and searching for your episode or movie. ALWAYS choose 1080p and web dl if possible (web dl means logoless) Example: wynonna earp s01e01, then in your search results, look for one that has both 1080p and web dl in the title. 720p is also good.

You can also find twitters that post logoless episodes and movies, this is better if you don’t like using torrents or if you live in a country that gives you fines for torrenting (I’m lucky, Belgium doesn’t care). If you want a list of a bunch of twitters that share logoless episodes and movies, message me off anon so I can link you privately.

STEP 2: CAPPING

When you have your file, download potplayer (or kmplayer). Open the program and open the file you want to cap.

Search for the moment you want to gif. Tip: hover over the playline thing to see what scene is at what time. Normally it looks somthing like this:

Press ctrl + g when you have the moment you want This window opens:

Change your settings to mine ^^. I made a new folder in my Pictures folder where all my caps go bc it’s easier to go to. It’s up to you where you save all of them, but I suggest you pick one you can easily access. Click start.

Click escape and start your video. Pause again when you have what you wanted (this can be a whole scene or a moment, depends on what kind of gifset your making). Press ctrl+g again and click “stop”, then close.

Now go to the folder where you saved your caps. I always make another new folder inside that one, put all the captures in there (unless I’m doing a scene, then I’ll make 6-8 new folders and distribute all the captures in those folders. Note that with the 3mb limit you’ll be able to use about 60-120 captures per gif, sometimes more. You can always delete layers of your gif in case it goes over 3mb)

Tip: make all your screencaps before opening photoshop. If you’re making a general character/ship gifset, that can take a while, but it’ll save you time if you seperate the two actions.

After you have taken all your caps, open photoshop. You can download it on any photoshop tumblr like yeahps or itsphotoshop. I cannot give you the link to mine because it doesn’t exist anymore, but I got it from kickass (rip).

STEP 3: OPENING AND MAKING THE GIF IN PS

We have our caps and our ps open, but now we have to open those captures in photoshop. Do not use ‘open’, but Files > Scripts > Load multiple DICOM files

I know a lot of people choose ‘Load Files into Stack’ but Load Multiple DICOM files is SO much faster.

This window will open

Now you go to the folder where you saved all your caps, choose the file with the screencaps for 1 gif and open it.

It might take a little bit for everything to load, especially if there’s a lot of screencaps, so just wait.

When you have everything, click on “Create video timeline”. It might be called something different if you have another version of PS, but whatever it says here:

(I know I know, I make pretty arrows lmao)

Then click those 3 boxes on the left side

Next step is ‘make frames from layers’, after that click “flatten frames into layers”

STEP 4: CROPPING

Obviously our gif doesn’t have to be as big as it is in ps right now, so we’ll crop to make it smaller. For this, you need to know the dimensions Tumblr uses:

540px for 1 gif in a row

268px for 2 gifs next to each other

177px - 178px - 177px for 3 gifs in a row (this is something annoying à la tumblr, and because it’s hard to predict which gifs you’ll put in the middle when cropping, I make them all 178px in width and then crop the ones I won’t use in the middle to be 177px after)

You can choose to use the old dimensions which are 500px, 245px and 160px.

These are the widths, you can choose the heights yourself. For this gif I’ll be cropping 268 x 150

This is the cropping tool

click it and you’ll see this on the topbar of your screen. Type in your dimensions

Then crop as you wish. This is my result.

STEP 5: CHANGING YOUR IMAGE SIZE + SHARPENING

The gif is way too big at this moment, so go to image > image size, this window opens:

Click “okay” and your gif will be a lot smaller. Use ctrl + “+” to make it bigger

This is what our photoshop looks like right now

These steps look like A LOT of work but as soon as you’re used to the steps, it’ll take you about a minute to do all of this.

Next is sharpening. I use a sharpening action made by ilanawexler but it’s pretty complicated, so I do not recommend it if you’re a beginner. I will however explain it fully here. Note: I had to do something different than the directions the blogger gave, so what I get might not work for others and you might have a different outcome

Select all your frames (from 1 -)

then click “convert to videotimeline” (it’s possible it’s called differently in your ps)

when you did that, add two layers on top of your other layers

Select all your frames (frame 1 to layer 2), right click and click “convert to smart object”

Then, go to your actions. If you just downloaded your action, you have to add it.

When that’s done, open the bobbiesdraper sharpen and click “action 2″. Thn click the play icon

It’ll a LOT of stuff, but just let it be.

Warning: if you changed anything to the frames in the timeline section, this won’t work. I noticed that if I delete frames or change the delay, ... before sharpening, it won’t work.

If it worked, you now have this

I’m not sure if it’s normal, but I now have twice the frames I had before, but only the SECOND amount is sharpened. So I delete frame 1-35 now in the timeline section.

This is my gif after sharpening (you can use this to practice coloring or to follow along with my coloring tutorial below)

this psd automatically sets the delay for your gif to 0,05, I always change it to 0,06 (sometimes 0,07). Just select all your frames, then click on the 0,05, ‘other’ and choose whatever you like. The max I would go is 0,08 (0,07-0,08 is the speed the episodes go btw when you watch them)

STEP 6: COLORING

Now the fun part!! You can either choose to use a psd (here are my psds) or you can color it yourself.

For this tutorial, I’ll be doing a basic coloring. (that means: steps I always use to start my colorings).

We start with curves. For this gif, these are the settings: (this is a pretty bright gif so for darker scenes you’ll have to use more, but don’t start with too much, build it up)

then some levels to give the gif more depth

I usually enter 10 for the black (unless it’s a very dark gif) and I’ll move the arrow of the white to where the little line starts.

Some brightness

Some black selective color (I always enter 10, unless it’s a dark gif)

Color balance (also usually start with this, unless it’s a blue gif, then I’ll move the arrows to red, magenta and yellow). If the gif is VERY yellow, I’ll add more in cyan and blue.

Then I’ll add a vibrance layer, +100 vibrance.

This is what I have now (with a pretty watermark). These are the layers I will always start with.

You can stop here, but I like to add some more to my gif so I’m continueing

I like adding more blues so I’ll add a selective color layer: (you can also decrease magentas is the “blue” ones to make the blues more cyan)

For blondes, I like making their hair stand out more so I’ll add a selective color layer for the yellows:

Of course, there’s a lot of yellow in the skintone so chances are the skin will look very yellow now, I add a color balance layer and change the highlights. (In darker gifs you might need to change the midtones instead)

Some magentas to make the lips stand out

and some contrast

That’s all for coloring. This is what my gif looks like right now:

STEP 7: SUBTITLES

If you want to add text, click this icon

these are the settings for my text

Then we’ll add some other adjustments to make the text more visible:

click on the fx icon

then click ‘stroke’

click okay, and click on the FX icon again, then click “drop shadow”

when you added all your adjustments, duplicate the textlayer and delete the first one (if not, your adjustments will only show on 1 layer instead of the whole gif)

If your text isn’t in the middle of your gif. Click your text layer, then click this icon

then in your topbar, adjust with these tools

this is what the text looks like now:

here is the psd for the text

STEP 8: SAVING

Of course, you have to save your gifs. Go to File > Save for web and this window will open

Make sure your settings look like these:

Make sure this number isn’t above 3 mb

That’s all!!! If you have any questions, you can always come ask me. I’m sorry if this wasn’t clear, but I hope it made atleast a bit sense.

#itsphotoshop #completeresource #yeahps #gif tutorial #my tutorials #my tutorial

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dranthonystark · 7 years ago

Photo

Giffing rambling

So lately I’ve been experimenting with layer effects on colours. Somewhat by accident, while making this Thin Ice gifset, I sent the layer blending mode to 'overlay’ instead of ‘normal’. It’s something that I used to do a lot way back in the day when I toyed around with making graphics from scratch, but some reason I’ve never thought of using it for gifs. Especially not for colouring a gif.

You can see the instantaneous difference - the top two gifs are basically the base scene (with lighting turned up), and the second with a selective color layer added and absolutely nothing done except to set the layer to overlay. I was instantly blown away - one tiny little step instantly made the entire scene’s colours richer and warmer, and deepened the shadows (which I normally do manually and possibly a bit excessively to give the image more depth). I didn’t even have to mess around with brightness, contrast or vibrance!

I had way too much fun with overlay layers for that blue and red gifset, and was inspired to go try making gifsets of some really dark and dingy scenes with crappy lighting. Because apparently I like pain.

Fast forward to this Journey’s End gifset. As much I like this scene, it tends to come out brown, brown and brown, with a dash of additional brown on top. 10′s TARDIS and its grunge look is hard enough to colour even on a good day with the lights on. Dark lighting scenes are hard to colour because of the loss of detail. And now you’ve got this hellish mix of both - the TARDIS with its lights out, the Doctor in his brown suit is practically blending into the background.

By necessity, this gif has a whole truck load of lighting and colouring layers on it. (I usually have about 3 - 4 layers on a gif, 5 if I’m feeling particularly adventurous, of which 1 is lighting (mostly because I’m lazy). This gif has 3 lighting layers, one vibrance, two color balance and two selective color. (Admittedly a lot of the extra colour layers is because I was being extremely picky about the colour of the wall. Go figure.)

But I’m here to ramble about the whole picking how your layer blends into other layers thing. The first thing I found was that overlay was way too harsh for this scene. Overlay is always pretty harsh, increasing contrast quite dramatically. For a dark-on-dark scene like this one, I had to, as a starting point, ramp the lighting way up, so it was practically a light-on-light scene. Overlay indiscriminately darkened practically everything except for Ten’s face - nice horror movie effect(!), but not what I was looking for. So I switched over to an old favourite of mine, ‘Soft light’, and dropped the opacity of the layer down to 50%, which basically got me where I wanted - balanced the colours and the contrast quite nicely. I also used the effect on my color balancing layer, which gave the additional advantage of being able to be more aggressive on the color balancing (normally, a little adjustment goes a long way, but with opacity down, you can drag the slider right to the end and just end up with a mild blue/magenta/whatever tinge).

You can also see from the Journey’s End gifset how nicely the soft light layer worked for Donna’s hair.

All in, after a run of fairly bleh gifsets, I’m really happy with how this one turned out.

#random rambles #my edits #my notes

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readbookywooks · 8 years ago

Text

4. We slog back to the train in silence. In the hallway outside my door, Haymitch gives my shoulder a pat and says, "You could do a lot worse, you know." He heads off to his compartment, taking the smell of wine with him. In my room, I remove my sodden slippers, my wet robe and pajamas. There are more in the drawers but I just crawl between the covers of my bed in my underclothes. I stare into the darkness, thinking about my conversation with Haymitch. Everything he said was true about the Capitol's expectations, my future with Peeta, even his last comment. Of course, I could do a lot worse than Peeta. That isn't really the point, though, is it? One of the few freedoms we have in District 12 is the right to marry who we want or not marry at all. And now even that has been taken away from me. I wonder if President Snow will insist we have children. If we do, they'll have to face the reaping each year. And wouldn't it be something to see the child of not one but two victors chosen for the arena? Victors' children have been in the ring before. It always causes a lot of excitement and generates talk about how the odds are not in that family's favor. But it happens too frequently to just be about odds. Gale's convinced the Capitol does it on purpose, rigs the drawings to add extra drama. Given all the trouble I've caused, I've probably guaranteed any child of mine a spot in the Games. I think of Haymitch, unmarried, no family, blotting out the world with drink. He could have had his choice of any woman in the district. And he chose solitude. Not solitude - that sounds too peaceful. More like solitary confinement. Was it because, having been in the arena, he knew it was better than risking the alternative? I had a taste of that alternative when they called Prim's name on reaping day and I watched her walk to the stage to her death. But as her sister I could take her place, an option forbidden to our mother. My mind searches frantically for a way out. I can't let President Snow condemn me to this. Even if it means taking my own life. Before that, though, I'd try to run away. What would they do if I simply vanished? Disappeared into the woods and never came out? Could I even manage to take everyone I love with me, start a new life deep in the wild? Highly unlikely but not impossible. I shake my head to clear it. This is not the time to be making wild escape plans. I must focus on the Victory Tour. Too many people's fates depend on my giving a good show. Dawn comes before sleep does, and there's Effie rapping on my door. I pull on whatever clothes are at the top of the drawer and drag myself down to the dining car. I don't see what difference it makes when I get up, since this is a travel day, but then it turns out that yesterday's makeover was just to get me to the train station. Today I'll get the works from my prep team. "Why? It's too cold for anything to show," I grumble. "Not in District Eleven," says Effie. District 11. Our first stop. I'd rather start in any other district, since this was Rue's home. But that's not how the Victory Tour works. Usually it kicks off in 12 and then goes in descending district order to 1, followed by the Capitol. The victor's district is skipped and saved for very last. Since 12 puts on the least fabulous celebration - usually just a dinner for the tributes and a victory rally in the square, where nobody looks like they're having any fun - it's probably best to get us out of the way as soon as possible. This year, for the first time since Haymitch won, the final stop on the tour will be 12, and the Capitol will spring for the festivities. I try to enjoy the food like Hazelle said. The kitchen staff clearly wants to please me. They've prepared my favorite, lamb stew with dried plums, among other delicacies. Orange juice and a pot of steaming hot chocolate wait at my place at the table. So I eat a lot, and the meal is beyond reproach, but I can't say I'm enjoying it. I'm also annoyed that no one but Effie and I has shown up. "Where's everybody else?" I ask. "Oh, who knows where Haymitch is," says Effie. I didn't really expect Haymitch, because he's probably just getting to bed. "Cinna was up late working on organizing your garment car. He must have over a hundred outfits for you. Your evening clothes are exquisite. And Peeta's team is probably still asleep." "Doesn't he need prepping?" I ask. "Not the way you do," Effie replies. What does this mean? It means I get to spend the morning having the hair ripped off my body while Peeta sleeps in. I hadn't thought about it much, but in the arena at least some of the boys got to keep their body hair whereas none of the girls did. I can remember Peeta's now, as I bathed him by the stream. Very blond in the sunlight, once the mud and blood had been washed away. Only his face remained completely smooth. Not one of the boys grew a beard, and many were old enough to. I wonder what they did to them. If I feel ragged, my prep team seems in worse condition, knocking back coffee and sharing brightly colored little pills. As far as I can tell, they never get up before noon unless there's some sort of national emergency, like my leg hair. I was so happy when it grew back in, too. As if it were a sign that things might be returning to normal. I run my fingers along the soft, curly down on my legs and give myself over to the team. None of them are up to their usual chatter, so I can hear every strand being yanked from its follicle. I have to soak in a tub full of a thick, unpleasant-smelling solution, while my face and hair are plastered with creams. Two more baths follow in other, less offensive, concoctions. I'm plucked and scoured and massaged and anointed until I'm raw. Flavius tilts up my chin and sighs. "It's a shame Cinna said no alterations on you." "Yes, we could really make you something special," says Octavia. "When she's older," says Venia almost grimly. "Then he'll have to let us." Do what? Blow my lips up like President Snow's? Tattoo my breasts? Dye my skin magenta and implant gems in it? Cut decorative patterns in my face? Give me curved talons? Or cat's whiskers? I saw all these things and more on the people in the Capitol. Do they really have no idea how freakish they look to the rest of us? The thought of being left to my prep team's fashion whims only adds to the miseries competing for my attention - my abused body, my lack of sleep, my mandatory marriage, and the terror of being unable to satisfy President Snow's demands. By the time I reach lunch, where Effie, Cinna, Portia, Haymitch, and Peeta have started without me, I'm too weighed down to talk. They're raving about the food and how well they sleep on trains. Everyone's all full of excitement about the tour. Well, everyone but Haymitch. He's nursing a hangover and picking at a muffin. I'm not really hungry, either, maybe because I loaded up on too much rich stuff this morning or maybe because I'm so unhappy. I play around with a bowl of broth, eating only a spoonful or two. I can't even look at Peeta - my designated future husband - although I know none of this is his fault. People notice, try to bring me into the conversation, but I just brush them off. At some point, the train stops. Our server reports it will not just be for a fuel stop - some part has malfunctioned and must be replaced. It will require at least an hour. This sends Effie into a state. She pulls out her schedule and begins to work out how the delay will impact every event for the rest of our lives. Finally I just can't stand to listen to her anymore. "No one cares, Effie!" I snap. Everyone at the table stares at me, even Haymitch, who you'd think would be on my side in this matter since Effie drives him nuts. I'm immediately put on the defensive. "Well, no one does!" I say, and get up and leave the dining car. The train suddenly seems stifling and I'm definitely queasy now. I find the exit door, force it open - triggering some sort of alarm, which I ignore - and jump to the ground, expecting to land in snow. But the air's warm and balmy against my skin. The trees still wear green leaves. How far south have we come in a day? I walk along the track, squinting against the bright sunlight, already regretting my words to Effie. She's hardly to blame for my current predicament. I should go back and apologize. My outburst was the height of bad manners, and manners matter deeply to her. But my feet continue on along the track, past the end of the train, leaving it behind. An hour's delay. I can walk at least twenty minutes in one direction and make it back with plenty of time to spare. Instead, after a couple hundred yards, I sink to the ground and sit there, looking into the distance. If I had a bow and arrows, would I just keep going? After a while I hear footsteps behind me. It'll be Haymitch, coming to chew me out. It's not like I don't deserve it, but I still don't want to hear it. "I'm not in the mood for a lecture," I warn the clump of weeds by my shoes. "I'll try to keep it brief." Peeta takes a seat beside me. "I thought you were Haymitch," I say. "No, he's still working on that muffin." I watch as Peeta positions his artificial leg. "Bad day, huh?" "It's nothing," I say. He takes a deep breath. "Look, Katniss, I've been wanting to talk to you about the way I acted on the train. I mean, the last train. The one that brought us home. I knew you had something with Gale. I was jealous of him before I even officially met you. And it wasn't fair to hold you to anything that happened in the Games. I'm sorry." His apology takes me by surprise. It's true that Peeta froze me out after I confessed that my love for him during the Games was something of an act. But I don't hold that against him. In the arena, I'd played that romance angle for all it was worth. There had been times when I didn't honestly know how I felt about him. I still don't, really. "I'm sorry, too," I say. I'm not sure for what exactly. Maybe because there's a real chance I'm about to destroy him. "There's nothing for you to be sorry about. You were just keeping us alive. But I don't want us to go on like this, ignoring each other in real life and falling into the snow every time there's a camera around. So I thought if I stopped being so, you know, wounded, we could take a shot at just being friends," he says. All my friends are probably going to end up dead, but refusing Peeta wouldn't keep him safe. "Okay," I say. His offer does make me feel better. Less duplicitous somehow. It would be nice if he'd come to me with this earlier, before I knew that President Snow had other plans and just being friends was not an option for us anymore. But either way, I'm glad we're speaking again. "So what's wrong?" he asks. I can't tell him. I pick at the clump of weeds. "Let's start with something more basic. Isn't it strange that I know you'd risk your life to save mine ... but I don't know what your favorite color is?" he says. A smile creeps onto my lips. "Green. What's yours?" "Orange," he says. "Orange? Like Effie's hair?" I say. "A bit more muted," he says. "More like ... sunset." Sunset. I can see it immediately, the rim of the descending sun, the sky streaked with soft shades of orange. Beautiful. I remember the tiger lily cookie and, now that Peeta is talking to me again, it's all I can do not to recount the whole story about President Snow. But I know Haymitch wouldn't want me to. I'd better stick to small talk. "You know, everyone's always raving about your paintings. I feel bad I haven't seen them," I say. "Well, I've got a whole train car full." He rises and offers me his hand. "Come on." It's good to feel his fingers entwined with mine again, not for show but in actual friendship. We walk back to the train hand in hand. At the door, I remember. "I've got to apologize to Effie first." "Don't be afraid to lay it on thick," Peeta tells me. So when we go back to the dining car, where the others are still at lunch, I give Effie an apology that I think is overkill but in her mind probably just manages to compensate for my breach of etiquette. To her credit, Effie accepts graciously. She says it's clear I'm under a lot of pressure. And her comments about the necessity of someone attending to the schedule only last about five minutes. Really, I've gotten off easily. When Effie finishes, Peeta leads me down a few cars to see his paintings. I don't know what I expected. Larger versions of the flower cookies maybe. But this is something entirely different. Peeta has painted the Games. Some you wouldn't get right away, if you hadn't been with him in the arena yourself. Water dripping through the cracks in our cave. The dry pond bed. A pair of hands, his own, digging for roots. Others any viewer would recognize. The golden horn called the Cornucopia. Clove arranging the knives inside her jacket. One of the mutts, unmistakably the blond, green-eyed one meant to be Glimmer, snarling as it makes its way toward us. And me. I am everywhere. High up in a tree. Beating a shirt against the stones in the stream. Lying unconscious in a pool of blood. And one I can't place - perhaps this is how I looked when his fever was high - emerging from a silver gray mist that matches my eyes exactly. "What do you think?" he asks. "I hate them," I say. I can almost smell the blood, the dirt, the unnatural breath of the mutt. "All I do is go around trying to forget the arena and you've brought it, back to life. How do you remember these things so exactly?" "I see them every night," he says. I know what he means. Nightmares - which I was no stranger to before the Games - now plague me whenever I sleep. But the old standby, the one of my father being blown to bits in the mines, is rare. Instead I relive versions of what happened in the arena. My worthless attempt to save Rue. Peeta bleeding to death. Glimmer's bloated body disintegrating in my hands. Cato's horrific end with the muttations. These are the most frequent visitors. "Me, too. Does it help? To paint them out?" "I don't know. I think I'm a little less afraid of going to sleep at night, or I tell myself I am," he says. "But they haven't gone anywhere." "Maybe they won't. Haymitch's haven't." Haymitch doesn't say so, but I'm sure this is why he doesn't like to sleep in the dark. "No. But for me, it's better to wake up with a paintbrush than a knife in my hand," he says. "So you really hate them?" "Yes. But they're extraordinary. Really," I say. And they are. But I don't want to look at them anymore. "Want to see my talent? Cinna did a great job on it." Peeta laughs. "Later." The train lurches forward, and I can see the land moving past us through the window. "Come on, we're almost to District Eleven. Let's go take a look at it." We go down to the last car on the train. There are chairs and couches to sit on, but what's wonderful is that the back windows retract into the ceiling so you're riding outside, in the fresh air, and you can see a wide sweep of the landscape. Huge open fields with herds of dairy cattle grazing in them. So unlike our own heavily wooded home. We slow slightly and I think we might be coming in for another stop, when a fence rises up before us. Towering at least thirty-five feet in the air and topped with wicked coils of barbed wire, it makes ours back in District 12 look childish. My eyes quickly inspect the base, which is lined with enormous metal plates. There would be no burrowing under those, no escaping to hunt. Then I see the watchtowers, placed evenly apart, manned with armed guards, so out of place among the fields of wildflowers around them. "That's something different," says Peeta. Rue did give me the impression that the rules in District 11 were more harshly enforced. But I never imagined something like this. Now the crops begin, stretched out as far as the eye can see. Men, women, and children wearing straw hats to keep off the sun straighten up, turn our way, take a moment to stretch their backs as they watch our train go by. I can see orchards in the distance, and I wonder if that's where Rue would have worked, collecting the fruit from the slimmest branches at the tops of the trees. Small communities of shacks - by comparison the houses in the Seam are upscale - spring up here and there, but they're all deserted. Every hand must be needed for the harvest. On and on it goes. I can't believe the size of District 11. "How many people do you think live here?" Peeta asks. I shake my head. In school they refer to it as a large district, that's all. No actual figures on the population. But those kids we see on camera waiting for the reaping each year, they can't be but a sampling of the ones who actually live here. What do they do? Have preliminary drawings? Pick the winners ahead of time and make sure they're in the crowd? How exactly did Rue end up on that stage with nothing but the wind offering to take her place? I begin to weary of the vastness, the endlessness of this place. When Effie comes to tell us to dress, I don't object. I go to my compartment and let the prep team do my hair and makeup. Cinna comes in with a pretty orange frock patterned with autumn leaves. I think how much Peeta will like the color. Effie gets Peeta and me together and goes through the day's program one last time. In some districts the victors ride through the city while the residents cheer. But in 11 - maybe because there's not much of a city to begin with, things being so spread out, or maybe because they don't want to waste so many people while the harvest is on - the public appearance is confined to the square. It takes place before their Justice Building, a huge marble structure. Once, it must have been a thing of beauty, but time has taken its toll. Even on television you can see ivy overtaking the crumbling facade, the sag of the roof. The square itself is ringed with run-down storefronts, most of which are abandoned. Wherever the well-to-do live in District 11, it's not here. Our entire public performance will be staged outside on what Effie refers to as the verandah, the tiled expanse between the front doors and the stairs that's shaded by a roof supported by columns. Peeta and I will be introduced, the mayor of 11 will read a speech in our honor, and we'll respond with a scripted thank-you provided by the Capitol. If a victor had any special allies among the dead tributes, it is considered good form to add a few personal comments as well. I should say something about Rue, and Thresh, too, really, but every time I tried to write it at home, I ended up with a blank paper staring me in the face: It's hard for me to talk about them without getting emotional. Fortunately, Peeta has a little something worked up, and with some slight alterations, it can count for both of us. At the end of the ceremony, we'll be presented with some sort of plaque, and then we can withdraw to the Justice Building, where a special dinner will be served. As the train is pulling into the District 11 station, Cinna puts the finishing touches on my outfit, switching my orange hairband for one of metallic gold and securing the mockingjay pin I wore in the arena to my dress. There's no welcoming, committee on the platform, just a squad of eight Peacekeepers who direct us into the back of an armored truck. Effie sniffs as the door clanks closed behind us. "Really, you'd think we were all criminals," she says. Not all of us, Effie. Just me, I think. The truck lets us out at the back of the Justice Building. We're hurried inside. I can smell an excellent meal being prepared, but it doesn't block out the odors of mildew and rot. They've left us no time to look around. As. we make a beeline for the front entrance, I can hear the anthem beginning outside in the square. Someone clips a microphone on me. Peeta takes my left hand. The mayor's introducing us as the massive doors open with a groan. "Big smiles!" Effie says, and gives us a nudge. Our feet start moving forward. This is it. This is where I have to convince everybody how in love I am with Peeta, I think. The solemn ceremony is pretty tightly mapped out, so I'm not sure how to do it. It's not a time for kissing, but maybe I can work one in. There's loud applause, but none of the other responses we got in the Capitol, the cheers and whoops and whistles. We walk across the shaded verandah until the roof runs out and we're standing at the top of a big flight of marble stairs in the glaring sun. As my eyes adjust, I see the buildings on the square have been hung with banners that help cover up their neglected state. It's packed with people, but again, just a fraction of the number who live here. As usual, a special platform has been constructed at the bottom of the stage for the families of the dead tributes. On Thresh's side, there's only an old woman with a hunched back and a tall, muscular girl I'm guessing is his sister. On Rue's ... I'm not prepared for Rue's family. Her parents, whose faces are still fresh with sorrow. Her five younger siblings, who resemble her so closely. The slight builds, the luminous brown eyes. They form a flock of small dark birds. The applause dies out and the mayor gives the speech in our honor. Two little girls come up with tremendous bouquets of flowers. Peeta does his part of the scripted reply and then I find my lips moving to conclude it. Fortunately my mother and Prim have drilled me so I can do it in my sleep. Peeta had his personal comments written on a card, but he doesn't pull it out. Instead he speaks in his simple, winning style about Thresh and Rue making it to the final eight, about how they both kept me alive - thereby keeping him alive - and about how this is a debt we can never repay. And then he hesitates before adding something that wasn't written on the card. Maybe because he thought Effie might make him remove it. "It can in no way replace your losses, but as a token of our thanks we'd like for each of the tributes' families from District Eleven to receive one month of our winnings every year for the duration of our lives." The crowd can't help but respond with gasps and murmurs. There is no precedent for what Peeta has done. I don't even know if it's legal. He probably doesn't know, either, so he didn't ask in case it isn't. As for the families, they just stare at us in shock. Their lives were changed forever when Thresh and Rue were lost, but this gift will change them again. A month of tribute winnings can easily provide for a family for a year. As long as we live, they will not hunger. I look at Peeta and he gives me a sad smile. I hear Haymitch's voice. "You could do a lot worse." At this moment, it's impossible to imagine how I could do any better. The gift ... it is perfect. So when I rise up on tiptoe to kiss him, it doesn't seem forced at all. The mayor steps forward and presents us each with a plaque that's so large I have to put down my bouquet to hold it. The ceremony's about to end when I notice one of Rue's sisters staring at me. She must be about nine and is almost an exact replica of Rue, down to the way she stands with her arms slightly extended. Despite the good news about the winnings, she's not happy. In fact, her look is reproachful. Is it because I didn't save Rue? No. It's because I still haven't thanked her, I think. A wave of shame rushes through me. The girl is right. How can I stand here, passive and mute, leaving all the words to Peeta? If she had won, Rue would never have let my death go unsung. I remember how I took care in the arena to cover her with flowers, to make sure her loss did not go unnoticed. But that gesture will mean nothing if I don't support it now. "Wait!" I stumble forward, pressing the plaque to my chest. My allotted time for speaking has come and gone, but I must say something. I owe too much. And even if I had pledged all my winnings to the families, it would not excuse my silence today. "Wait, please." I don't know how to start, but once I do, the words rush from my lips as if they've been forming in the back of my mind for a long time. "I want to give my thanks to the tributes of District Eleven," I say. I look at the pair of women on Thresh's side. "I only ever spoke to Thresh one time. Just long enough for him to spare my life. I didn't know him, but I always respected him. For his power. For his refusal to play the Games on anyone's terms but his own. The Careers wanted him to team up with them from the beginning, but he wouldn't do it. I respected him for that." For the first time the old hunched woman - is she Thresh's grandmother? - raises her head and the trace of a smile plays on her lips. The crowd has fallen silent now, so silent that I wonder how they manage it. They must all be holding their breath. I turn to Rue's family. "But I feel as if I did know Rue, and she'll always be with me. Everything beautiful brings her to mind. I see her in the yellow flowers that grow in the Meadow by my house. I see her in the mockingjays that sing in the trees. But most of all, I see her in my sister, Prim." My voice is undependable, but I am almost finished. "Thank you for your children." I raise my chin to address the crowd. "And thank you all for the bread." I stand there, feeling broken and small, thousands of eyes trained on me. There's a long pause. Then, from somewhere in the crowd, someone whistles Rue's four-note mocking-jay tune. The one that signaled the end of the workday in the orchards. The one that meant safety in the arena. By the end of the tune, I have found the whistler, a wizened old man in a faded red shirt and overalls. His eyes meet mine. What happens next is not an accident. It is too well executed to be spontaneous, because it happens in complete unison. Every person in the crowd presses the three middle fingers of their left hand against their lips and extends them to me. It's our sign from District 12, the last good-bye I gave Rue in the arena. If I hadn't spoken to President Snow, this gesture might move me to tears. But with his recent orders to calm the districts fresh in my ears, it fills me with dread. What will he think of this very public salute to the girl who defied the Capitol? The full impact of what I've done hits me. It was not intentional - I only meant to express my thanks - but I have elicited something dangerous. An act of dissent from the people of District 11. This is exactly the kind of thing I am supposed to be defusing! I try to think of something to say to undermine what has just happened, to negate it, but I can hear the slight burst of static indicating my microphone has been cut off and the mayor has taken over. Peeta and I acknowledge a final round of applause. He leads me back toward the doors, unaware that anything has gone wrong. I feel funny and have to stop for a moment. Little bits of bright sunshine dance before my eyes. "Are you all right?" Peeta asks. "Just dizzy. The sun was so bright," I say. I see his bouquet. "I forgot my flowers," I mumble. "I'll get them," he says. "I can," I answer. We would be safe inside the Justice Building by now, if I hadn't stopped, if I hadn't left my flowers. Instead, from the deep shade of the verandah, we see the whole thing. A pair of Peacekeepers dragging the old man who whistled to the top of the steps. Forcing him to his knees before the crowd. And putting a bullet through his head.

#CatchingFire

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