#also the ladys in the interview said they really liked my portfolio

[alexwithscissors]

I finally finished my BFA this past December, been learning how to sell my pottery since February, got my diploma in the mail a month ago, received my cap and gown + my custom stole, got a job offer for teaching art yesterday, and I'll be walking across the stage at graduation in less than a month! What a long 7-8 years 🥹 this chapter is closing and I'm opening a new one!!

[stargazer-sims]

Dance Practice

Eden: Charlie, you are literally the best brother ever! I can't believe you managed this. I mean, I'm actually standing in Sugar Valentine's actual dance studio. I'm kinda freaking out a little.

Charlie: Only a little?

Eden: Okay, a lot! I'm gonna get to watch their dance practice. How many people can say they did that?

Charlie: Not just watch, remember.

Eden: Oh my Watcher... I know! I'm just trying not to actively think about it so I don’t completely lose my mind. How did you even convince them to let me dance with them?

Charlie: I can't take any credit for that. It was all Haru.

Eden: Really? No way. You're totally making that up.

Charlie: I swear I'm not. Apparently, he hasn't been able to shut up about you since he saw your pictures in my portfolio, that day I was here for my in-person interview. From what I heard, he wouldn't stop pestering Ms. Fujikawa and their security people and even Sheridan, until they all agreed you could come.

Eden: Haru... wanted to meet me that bad?

Charlie: Evidently.

Eden: I'm gonna wake up any minute now, aren't I?

Charlie: You're already awake, bro.

Eden: *incoherent fanboy squealing*

Charlie: Word of caution, though. He probably just wants to meet you so he can get into your jeans. He's got a pretty wild reputation, and according to Senjirō, it's all true.

Eden: You gossiped with Senjirō? You've worked with these guys for like, only a week, and the tea is already flowing? And you're so calm about it.

Charlie: They're just guys like us, you know. Anyway, be careful with Haru, okay?

Eden: You think I'm worried about him wanting to get into my jeans, as you put it? I've literally lost count of the people I've slept with at this point.

Charlie: Uh…

Eden: But like, if that's what he wants, I'm not gonna make him work for it. I might die of a heart attack if that really is what he wants, though.

Charlie: All right, fine. But, if you do end up, uh… doing it, don't tell anyone. And for the love of the Watcher, don't post about it on Simstagram.

Eden: Would I do that?

Charlie: Just... don't.

Eden: I won't, I promise.

Charlie: Okay. I'll stay here till everone comes downstairs, and then I'm heading over to Peak Entertainment to meet with Ms. Fujikawa. The security lady said she'd drive you to the rink after dance practice, but text me when you get there anyway.

Eden: I will.

Charlie: Her name is Ji-Soo. She’s South Korean, so you don’t need to speak Japanese. She also looks like she could lift a truck, so don’t be stupid around her.

Eden: Okay.

Charlie: Nikolai's gonna bring your skates to the rink for you, right?

Eden: Yeah, and my sweater and my favourite rink hat. That's what he said before we left. I could've brought them with me, but they don't fit in my dance bag, and I didn't want to carry too much stuff.

Charlie: Makes sense.

Eden: Ugh… afternoon practice. This would’ve been so much easier If I could’ve driven myself to the rink. Then, you could’ve picked me up there, and I could’ve just left my skates and stuff in my car.

Charlie: Yeah, and Nikolai still could’ve used your car while you were here. So, still no morning ice time, I guess?

Eden: No. probably not. Nikolai's signing up for Japanese classes today, and I think they're gonna be in the morning, so even if we could've gotten the ice time, it wouldn't have worked out anyway.

Charlie: That sucks, but at least you've got ice time.

Eden: And the best coach ever.

Charlie: Right. Well, don't wear yourself out at dance practice before you even get to the rink, or the best coach in the world may not be impressed.

Eden: *laughing* Nobody wants to see Nikolai in a bad mood, least of all me, but don't worry. I'll be fine to skate. I'm pretty sure the adrenaline rush from this morning will keep me going all day.

[pocketramblr]

im going to be so fucking predictable right now but, for a prompt... how about some momnight

 I'm going to do my Very Best at this though I am very unpracticed with writing her so here we go!

---

"Alright, class. Today we're supposed to do a lesson that follows up on the interviews you did yesterday with Midnight and Mt. Lady. Which means I'm not teaching."

With that, Aizawa-sensei flopped to the ground. The thud was only slightly cushioned by the sleeping bag around him. A few students winced.

"Exactly!" Midnight said, shoving open the door. "This time, we'll be practicing a little more with cameras and a little less with talking."

Oh? The students all leaned in, curious and excited.

"We'll be practicing photo shoots! Come to studio 1-4, come on." She stepped to the side as the class got excited, and just waved Aoyama out the door when he jumped to go ask her a million questions, sparkling.

Toru was excited too, though she took more time to stand than the others. By the time she had, Yaomomo had already dragged the reluctant Jiro out of the room, and all that remained were Bakugo and Koda.

"Not going to be the last one there, I hope, Bakugo?" Midnight asked, tone of voice edging into a tease.

Bakugo grumbled about it being stupid, but he did hurry more out the door.

"And you, Koda? Nothing to be scared about, the camera doesn't bite." But their teachers sure might, if they dawdled- or interrupted anymore of Aizawa's extended naptime.

"Right!" Toru agreed, skipping to the back of the room to reach for the boy's arm. "Come on, it'll be a fun lesson! Better than a pop quiz, and maybe you'll even get to do a cute picture, like holding a bunny!"

Koda stared at her sleeve for a long moment, then finally nodded.

When they passed Midnight at the door, Toru looked up and realized the woman's smile had slipped a little; she looked thoughtful, brow furrowed behind her glasses.

The smile came back quickly though, as she tugged the door closed behind them and hurried them to the studio where the class was waiting for them.

Haya-senpai was also waiting for them, apparently. The cool girl stood in front of a group of third years by the side wall of the room, where several desks and mirrors and lights had been shoved in a row. The rest of the room was cleared out, backdrops and green screens angled around with a few stools and props.

"Alright, class 1a, before we get ready for your first shoot, there are some things to know." Midnight closed the door behind her. "You can take notes on your phone, if you want. There are several different kinds of photoshoots. What ones can you think of?"

"Ooh!" Mina waved her hand and was called on. "There's magazine photoshoots, and if you're lucky you'll be on the front page!"

"Certainly, magazine shoots. What else- Yaoyorozu?"

"Advertisements, with products?"

"Very good, you've done some of that already, haven't you? Alright, what other kinds?"

Toru waved her arm, humming so she'd be more noticed. Midnight crooked her finger at her. "Makeup? Well I guess that could be a product too, but there's also fashion shoots."

"Right on, Hagakure."

The class was quiet for a few moments, and Midnight nodded. "There's other kinds too- a headshot shoot, some hero agencies will require them for an application or their site. Portraits, lifestyle, sports, glamor, portfolio- the point is, there’s different types, and different points to each of them.”

Tsuyu raised a hand, and got a nod. “Midnight, all the different types, but don’t they boil down to either work use- like the headshots- or publicity for everything else?”

“That’s not a bad way of looking at it, Asui,” The teacher tapper her cheek as she paused, “But there’s more than that. You could also be doing it for benefit of others, either like a charity calendar photos, or perhaps even as a favor for a friend if one of them asks for a photo op.”

“And if,” Bakugo spoke up, apparently at the end of his patience for waiting for an explanation, “we don’t care about that crap? Publicity? If we haven’t got any friends who just want to take pictures of us?”

Midnight’s smile stretched, just a little, like a smirk. “Not a bad question. Anyone else think they have an answer?”

No one spoke, looking at each other, then Iida raised his hand.

“Midnight-sensei! Regardless of wanting to do publicity or charity or not, an agency may require to and all parts of a hero career should be done as exactly as one can, whether or not you want to-”

Midnight coughed. “Not bad, Iida, but not what I was thinking of. Bakugo, everyone, consider it like this. Once you become a hero- before that, even- you are going to have publicity. You are going to have paparazzi. Your photos are going to end up in ragmags no matter what you do.” She emphasized those words with a tap from her whip to her palm. “But, you can decide how you present yourself in other media. Sure, you can go way underground like Eraser. Or, you can take control of your representation. Choose your own photographers, magazines, products, vlogs, anything. That’s why you have to learn how to do these photoshoots and other media courses.” She clapped her hands, and the third years jumped. “So, we start with makeup.”

The older students waved some of her classmates forward, and Toru pushed Koda forward so he’d sit.

She found herself watching them get makeup put on, holding Iida’s glasses for him while Haya mused with his hair. Next to him, a senior was marking lines under Uraraka’s eyes to make the lashes pop.

“That looks really cute!”

“Thanks!”

“Do you mind me using a bit more foundation here?” Another senior said, poking at Midoriya. “It’s not quite even, but some of your freckles are showing through still.”

“Uhh,” Midori said, eloquently. 

The older student raised his eyebrow. 

“Um, actually, its,”

“It’s what, Midoriya?” Midnight asked, stepping from out of nowhere to peer over his shoulder at his mirror.

“It’s fine!” The makeup didn’t completely hide how red his face went.

Their teacher met his gaze in the reflection, clicking her tongue. “Come on, what did I say the point of the lesson was?”

“Um, control?” Midoriya asked, then went “Oh.”

Midnight smiled, straightening back up.

“I’d like my freckles to be- to not be covered up. Please.” Midoriya was still red, but the senior just shrugged.

“Alright. I’ll darken them with this then instead, so they actually show well under the lights and all that.”

He nodded, relaxing back in his seat, and Midnight squeezed his shoulder before moving on, nodding at Iida before looking at her.

“Hagakure, you haven’t gotten someone to start makeup yet?”

Toru shook her head- and shoulders. “No, Sensei. It’s not like I’ll show up on camera anyway, so.” She kept her voice cheerful, but her smile faltered halfway through.

It was fun to watch everyone else get dolled up and decorated... but would probably be fun if she could join them too.

Midnight stared at her, and she couldn’t read the expression before the teacher shook her head. “No, no. You’ll still have to participate and I have an idea!” She took Toru’s hand, then led her to the seat next to Uraraka.

Toru couldn’t keep the startled giggle from bubbling up as she sat.

“Midoriya,” Midnight said, riffling through the makeup on the desk, “You heard Hagakure. What do you think she could do in a photoshoot like this?”

“Hm.” Midoriya considered it, but when he answered he sounded much more confident than he had earlier. “Well, she’s invisible, but anything on her wouldn’t be. You could play with elements like dust or sparkles to suggest shape in an interesting way- oh, if you don’t mind being in your hero suit, that is.”

Midnight hummed an affirmation. “There’s a lot you and your team could do with that, and body paint is a fun medium to work with.” She paused, then leveled an eyeshadow brush at Toru like it was her whip. “Only when you’re eighteen, though. What do you think, Uraraka?”

“You could use your quirk, you know, to shine?” The brunette waved a hand. “Lighting up in different places to outline you, maybe, it’d look really cool if you had a space-y dress or something with it.”

“Oooh,” Toru had to admit that would be fun. It’d need a dark background and probably a camera without a flash or something, but it would be a picture of her, using her own quirk.

“Or like, even a space suit or something alien!”

“As long as I don’t upstage Mina!”

Midnight decided on something, then turned back with a nod, eyes sparkling. “Those are good ideas. Now, I’m going to try something with eyeshadow on you. Tell me when your eyes are closed.”

Toru closed her eyes as asked. “They are now, Midnight.”

If the point of this lesson was control, she wasn’t quite sure that this counted since she was just letting someone else do it, but Toru didn’t mind. She had a couple new ideas bouncing around for real photoshoots, in the future, and she really wanted to see what her teacher came up with.

She’d been right, this was fun.

It tickled a little, when Midnight traced eyeliner all on the sides of her face, but Toru managed to keep her face still enough. Then came brushes and colors she couldn’t see, shapes she could feel but not recognize.

Finally, the touches to her face stopped and she heard the brush clatter on the table.

“You can open your eyes now.” Midnight said, moving out of the way between the chair and the mirror. 

Toru gasped, then stood so she could lean closer to her reflection.

Her teacher had painted elaborate designs over both her eyes, branching out like butterfly wings. They shimmered with many neutral tones, light and brown and pink between the black lines. A few sparkles were touched heavier on the ends, and overall they looked beautiful.

“Oh! Guys, look!” Toru turned, and Uraraka gasped too, clapping.

“Those look so pretty!”

“Right? Thank you so much, Midnight-sensei!”

The hero laughed, waving a hand. “You’re very welcome. You’ll have to work with the photographer to decide how to model it on your own though. Speaking of...” She checked the clock on the wall. “Fifteen minutes left! Get to pictures then washing off.”

She walked off down the row again, checking on the other students, though not before she squeezed Toru’s shoulder for a second when she passed.

Toru was beaming as she asked for a senior with a camera to work with her, and she ended up with a picture of herself winking- one eye open to show the full butterfly, the other closed to show the colors swirled on the eyelid too. 

It looked pretty, and it looked fun. It felt like a perfect picture.

[ahsnewsupdates]

Exclusive Interview with Xander Smith: ‘AHS’ Concept Artist!

Xander Smith, the über skilled and talented concept artist who worked on four seasons of American Horror Story (Hotel, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse), was generous enough to answer some of our burning questions about the designs that he created for the show!

Throughout this interview, we will attach images of Xander’s work that pertain to the questions asked. You can check out his full, expansive portfolio by clicking here. 

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! How did your involvement with American Horror Story begin? Were you a fan of the show beforehand?

Thanks, it's one of my favorite projects to have been a part of, so happy to talk about AHS!

I've loved the genre of horror my whole life, to me it's the one genre that you can push all emotions to their limits, and explore the human experience on a much deeper level than other genres. I think this accounts for some of the greatest stories being so horrific in nature: because it's innately human. This also accounts for the genre having the most lame movies too, haha, because it prompts storytellers to try to push boundaries, and oftentimes there's no reason to push a boundary if there's nothing substantive behind it. I think with American Horror Story though, that's not the case. It's deep, it's intricate, and it's very culturally significant.

I had seen the first season on television, and I remember thinking beforehand, 'this is going to be lame, you can't go as deep with TV as you can with an R rated film...' man was I wrong. It pushed boundaries and asked dark, human questions, all while staying relevant and mysterious. I never once thought that they were holding back due to it being on television.

As for the beginnings of my involvement with the franchise, that actually starts with my parent's love of genre films. When I was a kid they would take me to conventions, like Comic-Con, to learn more about film making and meet the cast and crews of various films. That's where my love of design came from. When I was in college, my Dad met Heather Langenkamp at a horror convention, and told her about my pursuit of concept art when I was going to school in Los Angeles. Heather was really kind, and said that when I graduate, I should send her my portfolio; her and her husband, David Anderson, own the legendary special FX studio, AFX. When I graduated in 2014 I did exactly that, they loved my work, and they hired me to work on American Horror Story: Hotel which would come out later that year. Since then, they've hired me to work on the next 3 seasons, I've also been hired by 20th Century Fox on 2 seasons, and by legendary Costume Designer Lou Eyrich for 2 seasons. I'm very fortunate and always have a blast working with the diverse teams that bring AHS to life.

Starting with American Horror Story: Hotel, you were part of the design process for the Addiction Demon [see above]. Can you talk about that? It was such an obscene being, but at the same time so true to form for the show.

Ah yes, the lovely Addiction Demon. That's one hell of a design to have worked on, ha.

I read that part of the script with David Anderson at AFX Studio, as they would be building the prosthetics, and the infamous 'drilldo'. He looked at me and just, 'alright, do your thing, make it horrific.' And that's what I did. I've seen people in the throes of addiction, and actually lost a good friend in my teen years to drug addiction, so when designing the Demon, I wanted it to be really visceral, painful to even look at. In the script, the Demon rapes a character, and as horrific of a concept as that is, I knew that it's one of those concepts that fits with AHS; pushing the limits, but for a good reason. That's exactly what addiction is: you think it's going to be like great consensual sex when it starts, but quickly the Addiction Demon materializes and it has its way with you whether you like it or not. Truly disgusting, but that's what I thought the design should encompass. So I sketched about 20 different versions, and 1 of those versions stuck, and we decided to take that one further. I sculpted the final design in Zbrush, and that's the concept that Ryan Murphy picked. The brilliant team at AFX brought it to life, and that's the demon you see in the show.

You also produced fantastic concept artwork for Lady Gaga’s character’s chain mail glove [see above], alongside costume designer Lou Eyrich and designer Michael Schmidt. How did that design develop? Was it fun designing for Gaga?

Thanks! Yes that might actually be my favorite piece I worked on. Lou Eyrich and Michael Schmidt were awesome, I think we came up with an iconic piece that's uniquely elegant and fit for a horror queen. It was very motivating knowing that it would be worn by Gaga, so as I was translating Michael's sketch, I wanted to maintain a balance of stylishness and darkness, something that both Lady Gaga and American Horror Story is known for. It was incredible to see it in the posters. Definitely a highlight for me.

Moving on to American Horror Story: Roanoke, you produced terrifyingly good concept art for another one of the show’s iconic villains, the Piggyman entity [see above]. Since that same figure was also featured in the first season, did you look back for inspiration?

Great question, because for Piggyman I was back at AFX Studio, working on the design with David Anderson, and we certainly had a lot of the same inspiration and ideas on how to do the design justice for such a horrific piece. There was a lot of shocking content surrounding him, like pig fetuses and butchery, and we just went all out on letting the character bathe in so much debauchery. It was also really fascinating to be designing while their FX team was sculpting the prosthetics (the production schedule was very intense), and I got to see sculptor Glen Eisner working on the pig head and stomach pieces in clay, only a few days after I had worked on the concept art. Incredible process.

On the same season you collaborated quite closely with the makeup department to design concept art for some of the season’s makeup looks, including illustrations for Kathy Bates’ and Finn Wittrock’s characters [see above]. Wittrock played incestuous hillbilly Jether Polk and the final product was quite frightening. How did that process go?

Also a really fun process, I got to meet some of the actors as they came in for face castings, while I was deforming their faces in the concept art- I almost felt guilty! We pulled a lot of inspiration from medical journals relating to birth defects, and we stayed pretty close to reality, as we saw fit for the Roanoke season. I was also busy terrorizing Kathy Bates image while designing what the character's demise would look like. Since there are a lot of complicated practical effects involved in the gory scenes, we spent time illustrating what the wounds would look like ahead of time. By the end of it, I had like 2 full pages of various gory ways Kathy Bates could meet her end that we presented to production, and they chose one of the most horrific ways that fit with the script (of course). Hopefully Kathy is used to it after so many years as a horror icon!

Arguably your most prolific designs for the show were for season seven, Cult. You produced some stunning concept art for the clown masks and general appearance [see above], some of which weren’t seen in the show but absolutely should’ve been. They look slightly ‘mechanical’. What was Ryan Murphy’s pitch there?

Completely agree, I really love the final designs. Unfortunately, for as much art as I did for this season, none of my designs fit the script well enough, I just couldn't hit the mark, and so my work did not make it to production. It happens, and that's why there are many artists on a project! I appreciate you saying they should have been in the show though! I think I focussed too much on the clown/mask angle, and less on the political/cultish angle, which is where the magic of that script was. In true American Horror Story form, it is a cultural commentary on the times, and I feel I was not paying as much attention as I could have. That being said though, I had a blast working with the crew at AFX Studio again, and we worked on a lot of pieces that at least helped move production forward. Sometimes it's useful to see a design that's not quite right, just to move the production in the right direction.

The last season you worked on was of course the crossover season, Apocalypse, for which you designed the Outpost Three hazmat suits [see above]. The plague doctor influences in those designs was a stroke of genius. How was it blending dystopia with 17th century Europe? Also, were you aware that Apocalypse was the crossover season when you started work on it?

I think I got my mojo back on this season, since not only were my illustrations on those hazmat suits finalized for the script, but I was also able to do some of the 3D modeling for the Plague Doctor masks that were 3D printed and worn by the cast as props in the show. That was a really rewarding experience, and I was working under Lou Eyrich again who is the genius behind the blend of dystopia and 17th Century Europe that characterizes Apocalypse. We did probably about 50 different sketches of those suits, and explored such a wide variety of directions and blends of dated technologies, medieval influences, hazmat suits, and gas masks. When we had a solid direction, I did a tighter illustration of a generic suit that could be worn by any one of those characters (one of the keys to the design was that they could be worn by several different body types, as per the script), and then did a final piece that showed Kathy Bates wearing the mask. I'm really pleased to have come up with the idea of the 'plastic plague doctor' design, and thrilled to see it on screen.

I wasn't aware that it was the crossover season either, I wasn't given that part of the script, but that let me watch the revelation in real time with the rest of the world!

Lastly, would you like to design for American Horror Story again in the future? What is your “dream theme” that you’d like the show to explore?

Absolutely I would love to return some day and help flesh out some new designs. Some of the later seasons have been less concept-heavy, but I've also had to pass on the work as I've been involved in other projects, and of course have been busy helping found my current company, Aliza Technologies.

But you never know what the future holds!

As for a 'dream theme', that's such a good question because I feel there are so many interesting directions the show could take. They've built such a rich world where stories can take place across a range of time periods and genres, and that's a real gift to horror fans. One of the elements I really love about AHS is that when it delves into the supernatural, it does it in a really measured way. I've always found ghost stories to be a little bland and heavy-handed, but since AHS is so nuanced in its supernatural material, especially in season 1, I think it would be really interesting to see them go the heavy handed way, lead the audience down a super super-natural route for half a season, and then absolutely pull the rig from underneath them halfway through, and have a natural explanation for all the 'supernatural' elements. It would be a complete mind-f**k, like 'wait, there were no ghosts at all??' and have that realization be even more horrifying. I'm no writer, but I think a concept like that could be really interesting... Also set the mystery across several different generations so that the supernatural explanation is more appropriate for an older generation, and is busted open by the modern take. Image what the flashback reveals could look like, and imagine the types of 'ghosts' I could illustrate...

Thanks for the questions, now I'm off to do some script-writing myself...

(Also, special mention to Eryn Krueger Mekash and Mike Mekash who designed the makeup looks!)

Xander’s links:

Official Website: https://www.xandersmithdesign.com/

ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/xandersmith

Behance: https://www.behance.net/XanderSmithDesign

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xandersmith_design/

[rungalwaysheretolisten]

I got big news

You know that job I was applying for...

I got the job!!

Like story time also: I when in today for my interview, and I dress up really nice, even put my good shoes that I need for the job so that I am safe, and had my resume, my portfolio that I need for the job. So I walk in, and they take me to a nice office room, I talk with three people who were very sweet and I was just very honest about everything, ask them the question, which they said was really good question, then after the interview as I am walking out the one of the three who was interview me said I turn head in the interview which was so shocking because this is my first time interviewing. 

They tell me it going to take a few days to look over things, and they even said I might not hear anything till Monday, which I understand, there was a lot and I mean a lot of people who applied for this job, they need time to think about it and then boom! I get a call from the same lady I was in with the interview and I got the job!! They like everything I said and I got my first big time job! So not only did I nail the interview good I got the job today! It was like wow. I’m so shock but also happy!

So yeah, I thought I tell you all that. 

[lokischocolatefountain]

Knight in Tulle Armour

Pairing: Loki x OFC

Rating: General 

Word count: 2.2K

Summary: Loki’s fiancé doesn't need to be rescued from bullying palace staff by a Knight in Shining Armour.

Astrid gasped and clutched her stomach as the seamstress yanked her back by the ribbons on her dress. “Can’t breathe,” she managed to choke out as the corset grew tighter and tighter. The woman finally let go and she fell forward but then clutched the mirror to steady herself. 

“Was that really necessary, Synnøve?” 

“My apologies, Lady Astrid. I often forget how fragile mortals could be.” 

There it was. It had been two hours since she was dragged into this room to try on wedding gowns and she was surprised that nothing had happened yet. She had been putting up with remarks like this for a whole month on Asgard. Loki knew nothing. When the two were seen together, the Æsir kept their remarks subtle. Loki wasn’t one to stir up conflict that would jeopardise political allies, so he dealt with them with similar subtle remarks and it had been fun to watch him tactfully bring down people’s sense of self-worth in a quintessentially Loki style. 

Attacks toward her when she was alone was a different case entirely. People talked shit blatantly, criticised her appearance, flaunted past trysts with her fiancé to her face, humiliated her, the lest went on and on. Apparently yanking her around by the ribbons of her corseted bodice was the hot new thing on the list. 

She was still in the initial stages of picking a dress, checking which silhouette she preferred. It was supposed to be an easy process until she discovered it wasn’t. There were load and load of options and different types of cuts and sleeves and silhouettes and colours. It wasn’t often that she wore any dress, let alone bridal ones. Her career didn’t allow her the freedom to wear anything other than ill-fitted scrubs and on occasion, well-fitted suits. Her motorcycle was her primary mode of transport and long flowy dresses were a safety hazard while short ones were a wardrobe malfunction waiting to happen. So, she had many things to blame for her lack of dress knowledge. But, that made the Asgardians here look down on her like she was some kind of peasant who had never seen a dress before. 

“Lady Astrid, Prince Loki requested your presence when you are finished here.” 

“Im finished,” she said hurriedly as she lifted up the layers and layers of tulle of her dress, jumped off her platform in her kitten heels and leaped out the door with the woman who called for her. Her facial expression contorted to suggest she was looking at an adorable puppy rather than a grown ass woman. 

“I remember being your age, newly in love and waiting for an opportunity to run off to meet my beloved.” 

Astrid just smiled and nodded, not having the heart to tell her that she was only rushing to be away from her banshee of a seamstress rather than to the arms of her lover. She was also surrounded by plenty of strangers the whole day and would kill to see a familiar face. She was escorted to Loki’s wing of the palace and left at the doorsteps. She quickly thanked her and stepped in. Loki was seated comfortable on his sofa, flipping through the pages of a humongous tome when you entered. He looked up from his book, surprised. 

“Get me out of this!” 

“Woah, woah! Breathe, darling,” he said in his silky smooth voice as straightened himself on the sofa. 

“I can’t breathe if you don’t get me out of this!” 

With just a flick of his finger, from a distance, the ribbons loosened and air finally entered her lungs. She plopped down ungraciously next to him and her dress took up most of the space on a sofa that would comfortably seat four Asgardians. She laid down with her feet on one side of the sofa and her head on Loki’s lap and kicked off her heels to the ground. 

“Nice dress,” he said, looking serious for only a fraction of a second before breaking into laughter. 

“Shut up, dick!” 

“No, I do not jest. You will make a wonderful cake at the ceremony.” 

She threw a cushion at his face, but the man continued laughing at your expense. Each time he simmered down and she thought he was going to stop, he began laughing louder.

“I’ve had a horrible day and I would appreciate if you stopped laughing at me and the ugly dress. If not, I will kill you in your sleep.”

“I presume it was unsuccessful…” 

“Could you remove this synthetic cloud smothering me to death?” she asked, lifting up some of the layers and letting it cascade back down. It took him very little time to vanish what she was wearing and replace it with cotton shorts and a t-shirt from her side of the wardrobe. 

“Thanks,” she sighed, relaxing for the first time that day. 

“Do you have anything to do, today?” 

“Yes, loads. Prince, remember?” 

“Ah, yes. People constantly remind me of that,” she said, dejected that she may not be able to spend too much time with him.

Her traced his index finger along her jawline as he looked at her in a way that drove her insane even after years of being together. “I always have time for you, my dear. Give me your word and I will cancel all my plans for you.” 

“No, you shouldn’t. You have Princely responsibilities and I don’t want to impede that.” If people knew that their Prince skived off responsibilities to play hooky with his ‘mortal pet’ as some called her, she would only face more shit on a day to day basis. 

“What is it? Tell me.” All the playfulness had vanished and he looked quite serious, so she decided to be out with it instead of mincing her words. 

“Could you possibly drop me off on Earth?” 

“Is everything alright?” 

“Yeah, I just- I think I like Earth dresses better…” 

“Is the fine hand-spun silk of Asgard not good for my lady?” 

“I think I will be more comfortable in Earth dresses.”

“I would take you to Midgard right now, but there are better solutions than traveling lightyears away to buy a dress. You could give all your requirements to to the seamstresses and they will make you a dress.”

“We don’t really work well together.” 

“That should not be a problem since you do not work together, she is supposed to work for you. Something unpleasant must have happened for you to react this way.” Shit. There was no way she could keep it from him now. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I shall find out on my own,” he said as he gently moved her head off his lap and set in on a cushion. Before he could leave, she caught him by his wrist. She was in no way strong enough to stop a God, but he respected her enough to stay.  

“No! Please don’t, Loki. They already infantilize me enough. If you go there, inquiring about who pushed me in the playground, they will only continue treating me like a child. So, don’t intervene.” 

He turned to her sharply and pried her hand off his wrist. His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes showed hints of confusion and anger. “They have been infantilising you? Today was only your first appointment with the seamstresses… So, it is not just them, is it?” 

She stood up to be on level with Loki.  “Everyone, Loki. Someone called me your Midgardian pet. My first night here, an old lady mocked my tiny portion size at dinner. Just yesterday, the woman who dressed tried to give me advice and how you liked it- in bed- and she tried to get me to use some hair product she claimed drove you mad. The seamstress today- Synnøve, yanked me by the dress and basically went ‘Oopsie, I keep forgetting you’re so fragile and breakable’- I need a break from being an alien. Just, please take me home for a while.” 

“Astrid, why is this the first time I am hearing of this?” She had not expected the conversation to take such a serious turn. But, she didn't know what she expected in the first place. 

“I didn’t want to complain to you like a child!” 

He gripped her arms in her effort to bring her closer to him. She let him and even allowed herself to settle into his comforting embrace as he spoke to her, his harsh tone being replaced by a gentle one. “You may have different expectations from your subordinates back on Midgard, but here on Asgard, you are a Prince’s Consort and will be treated as such. If you do not set them straight now and demand the respect you are entitled to with your title, you will forever be humiliated in your own home. Is that what you want?” 

She separated herself from the comfort of listening to his heart beat and looked up at him. “I understand all that. I just don’t want to stir up anything. I don’t want to get a bad reputation so early on- that I’m rude or difficult or bossy.” 

“You mentioned that on Earth, there is a double standard in the judgement of women’s behaviour when compared to men. You are at a similar disadvantage here. They will speak horribly of you no matter what. You will be criticised for every breath you take, every move you make. You learn have to ignore them and when necessary, exert your authority over them.” 

She shook her head in disagreement. “I’m not married to you yet, I have no authority.” 

“Do you believe everything will fall apart before the ceremony and we may not be married?” 

She didn't have to answer him. 

“I will ask my Chief of Staff to bring you a list of the best designers in all of the nine realms. You could interview them tomorrow and choose a team of your favourite ones.” 

“That’s…” 

“Wonderful.” 

“-too much.” 

“I disagree. I think it is the appropriate thing to do.” 

“Thank you,” she said as she let go of him. 

“Now, I will ask for the portfolios to be brought for you to pick the best of the best.” 

“You do that, I have something to do.” 

Loki magicked the ugly dress back onto her as it was hardly appropriate for her to walk out in booty shorts and she left determinedly to face the woman she had run away from. 

The woman looked at her mockingly as she entered the fitting room, carrying her high heels rather than walking in them. She eyed the crumpled state of her dress and Astrid was sure that she believed she had just had sex in it. She climbed up the platform and stood in front of the mirror. 

“The Prince does like to have his pets at his beck and call,” she said in a saccharine, sing-song voice as she stood approached the dais to continue working. Her long spindly fingers began loosening the ribbons of the corseted dress.

“Does he, Synnøve? Thank you very much for informing me. You see, I am new here and not acquainted with the norms of the palace or the people here. However, I am certain that insinuating crudely about the Prince and his Consort is punishable.” 

Astrid could tell that she was taken aback by her as she noticed that a flash of panic crossed her eyes right before her hands stopped abruptly. As though unaffected by it, she continued unlacing the dress. They spent what felt like hours in an awkward silence as she freed Astrid from her tulle prison. She was glad that Loki magic these dresses off of her in seconds or she would spend years unlacing them manually. Even if he couldn’t use magic for the purpose, she was sure that the man would rip them off to get to her quickly. 

“Which dress would you like to try on next, Lady Astrid?” All hints of superiority and mockery had fled the woman. She looked constipated like the act of being civil to a Midgardian was physically painful. 

“That wouldn’t be necessary. I would like my dress back.” 

“So, this is the silhouette you would like,” she asked, confused by the lack of clarity in her words. 

“No, it’s quite hideous. I’d just like my dress back so that I can leave.” 

“Shall we continue tomorrow?” 

“No, the Prince believed it was only appropriate for me to choose a worthy designer rather than be assigned to a random seamstress.” 

“Oh.” All light had left her eyes now and Astrid swore that she saw the woman gulp. There were no protests from her and she was just relieved to be rid of the seamstress. 

As she stood in front of the mirror, being laced into the dress she wore to the fitting at the beginning of the day, she felt a little more confident in her ability to deal with people here. She may never fit in, never be seen as a fit bride for their Prince, but she wasn’t going to allow them to bully her into submission. 

[mickmarstookmyheart]

Life’s a Sick Joke pt 1

Pairing: Mick Mars x Reader

Sidenote: As this story is under construction, I would like to warn you that those chapters which don’t have a proper title are written in the main caharcter’s POV!! Be aware!!! Be awaaare! I hope you will enjoy this storyas I did writing it, have a nice day and feel free to leave marks!

1. Are you okay there?

∆January 1983∆

"You have to apply for this job! I'm not kidding! This can be the chance of your life or...just for a new beginning." Your sister, Isabelle is trying to convince you to accept a job as a concert photographer, which you would kill for, but letting her go to college...is way hard.

"Are you sure? I don't...I don't want you to feel neglected or anything like that." You and your sister had a pretty strong connection and you hardly sent a day without her, so not seeing her for months was a big deal.

"THIS IS WHAT I WANT! I would like to go to college and finally leave you guys alone. No hard feelings." She put her hands up as a defense while looking at the two of you. "I love both of you, but you deserve to have a life as am I, and not looking after me all the time. You can also finally finish university and you can find a proper job for yourself, Dylan.

"She is right, sis." Sighed Dylan, your brother. You looked at him and then glanced at your little sister who was not so little anymore. You recalled the night when she came to your house, you shared with Dylan, soaking wet from the rain in the middle of the night with a bruise under her eyes. That was the moment when you and your brother took her under your wings and stay the hell away from your abusive parents.

"Alright then. But remember that you can come home anytime you feel like." You were smiling at her with a pretty sad smile, not liking she will go to uni. Of course, you encouraged her to continue her studies, but in a much closer school.

"And don't hook up with boys at your first party, please!" Dylan pointed out who was always the clown of the three of you. He was the first one who left the family house at the age of sixteen, then you followed him a couple of years later. In the beginning, you lived in your uncle's home and after his death, Dylan found a job and you moved to the city.

"Guys, let's just stop you here! You know how I behave and that I am quite mature, right? I am not gonna be a mom in a month, don't worry. I will attend parties yeah, drink, and flirting with boys but that's what college is about. At least partly. And don't tell me that you won't talk to boys and be drunk at the parties after the concerts. For the fuck's sake, it's Mötley Crüe we are talking about!" She said pointing at you.

"I didn't say that I won't." You said laughing. You stood up from your chair and sat down next to her and hugged her tightly. A few minutes later, you felt a warm hand on your shoulder. Dylan joined and that was your family moment for a while. The only family you have ever had and you would do anything for them.

Two weeks later

It felt like a minute. Two weeks passed and you spent the whole time together. Went to the cinema and had dinner in your favorite restaurant every day. When you arrived home after dropping her at the uni you sat down at the couch and sighed. Then you glanced at the clock and immediately stood up calling for your brother to escort you to the office.

"You look badass. Don't worry about it. They will love your photos and your passion for photography." He stopped and glanced at you thinking. "Maybe your personality, too." You hit Dylan right in the shoulder for that last statement. You two were walking down the crowded avenue to the office.

"You are not funny. I'm freaking out!" You pulled tighter your coat on yourself shaking like a leaf from the stress and the weather.

"I know you, idiot! Just trying to cheer you up. And keeping you safe" You were so stressed you didn't even notice the red light. A black car was honking at you, making you drop all your stuff on the ground. Dylan pulled you back from the road just in time. He helped you pick your things up and kept your way to the job interview.

"See? I'm this lucky today." You murmured more like to yourself.

"Also I'm sorry for shouting at you, but you know, it's a big chance and a serious job. And I am sure there will be plenty of stunning "photographer" girls whom they will choose over me."

"Don't say that! You DO look stunning! And I'm an honest person, you know that. And even if you won't get this job, there are plenty of other possibilities." He smiled down at you and pulled you in a sideways hug. "Anyway, I wanted to ask something."

"You know that you can ask anytime, but I may not answer that." You sighed fearing the question.

"I see you still have your sense of humor." He chuckled. "So how will you manage to go to university and do this job? I mean if you will be a concert photographer you have to travel. A lot, along with the band."

"Don't worry about that. I have already talked to the school. We agreed that I will just have to make an appearance at the exams. And I will have plenty of spare time on the tours to study."

"Are you sure?" Dylan snickered in disbelief.

"At least, I hope so." You didn't really believe it yourself either. "But please don't talk about this. I am already stressed out, don't make it worse!"

Finally, you arrived at the entrance of the building. It was a quite spectacular building, with huge windows and an enormous door.

"How the fuck will I find that office? It's a freaking big place!!" If it was possible you became tenser than before. You looked begging at your brother who just smirked as an answer and patted your back.

"I'm sure you will get this job." He kissed your cheek and left you there. All alone. You hoped that at least he will escort you to the office, but no. He let you down. You promised yourself you will avenge this sometime. You took a deep breath and entered the building. The door was easier to open than you thought. You went to the reception, where you asked where is Doc McGhee's office. The lady wasn't really helpful, she only gave you a look and muttered something under her nose. Bitch.

After 15 minutes, you finally found that freaking place, you sat down on one of the chairs beside the door. There was approximately 10 other person with big, professional cameras. Fortunately, you brought your portfolio and CV with you, too, just in case. They wrote in the advertisement that you wouldn't need to bring anything, just yourselves. Well, you were on many interviews in your life and you've always had to be prepared. It's a kinda obligation to bring your CV and proof of what you have achieved.

You have been sitting there for like two hours now. You were super bored so you started to walk from wall-to-wall, reading all the posters and the layers. You just finished reading the latest Rolling Stone magazine when you realized that you were the only one in the corridor. You freaked out a bit so you stood up from the sofa and hugged your portfolio, it gave you a bit of comfort.

"Are you okay, there?" A deep voice echoed and you turned around. The man was wearing all black and sunglasses. He took the item in question on the table and sat down. You also set yourself beside him. "The interview is still on?"

"Yeah, I guess..." The door opened and you jumped. Fortunately or unfortunately, you couldn't really decide it, it was another door. You let out a long breath and leaned back on the couch.

"Really? Cause you don't really look like that." You glared at him. "Oh okay, I won't tease you. First time being...?"

"No, I have been nervous before, you know." He burst out laughing and you hoped he was intelligent enough to understand sarcasm. "Okay, you won." He held his hands up in defense. "Anyway, I'm Mick Mars." He introduced himself. He glanced at you gelding his hand towards you. "But I'm sure you knew it." He chuckled.

Holy shit. Mick Mars. It's Mick fucking Mars! C'mon (Y/N). Calm down, there is nothing to worry about. Just say something witty not to seem like you just came from a cave.

"Are you in the band?" You were desperate both from the stress and the shock he gave you. Dear Satan, how the hell could you say that??! Now you looked like a groupie. Nice.

"What band?" He looked really serious. He glanced at you. Those blue eyes kept you speechless. Another door cracking broke the silence. You turned around and a chubby man invited you in.

"Well, good luck with that." He smirked.

"Th..thanks." You looked down in embarrassment. Your face was burning, but hey who cares?! It's just a job interview!

                 ∆

"So? How did it go?" Dylan asked after arriving home. He was sitting on the sofa watching the Tv when you burst into the flat.

Revenge time.

"Well, not the best, I assume..." Trying your best not to laugh. "They were pretty jerks. Just the usual. They didn't really care about my photos, just my body..." You pouted covering your face so Dylan couldn't see your smile.

"Where are they? Do you have their address? I'm gonna kill them..." You managed to grab his wrist before he could exit the room. You looked at his face and couldn't hold it back anymore, you burst into a laugh. He was staring at you still confused. "Wait...you are just teasing me, right?" He asked back rubbing the back of his head.

"And you know why!! You left me there, you son of..." You pointed at his face.

"Language, you..." Before he could finish his sentence you jumped on him and hugged him tightly. You were grinning like a mad man from happiness.

"I got the job!!! Can you hear me? I did it!!!" You were giggling and jumping like a ball.

"I'm so proud of you. And I told ya." He winked and lift you spinning in the air. "Tell me everything! From the beginning." You sat down on the couch and told the whole thing starting with that bitch clerk and then the conversation with Mick

"You did ask him if he was in the band?" He burst out laughing at you. When he could breathe again he was still smiling but his lip down no to laugh again, seeing the death glares you were sending him.

"It's not funny. He is the most normal person in the whole group, as I know at least, and I managed to screw it up." You covered your face with your hands in embarrassment.

"And what did he say?" He asked putting your hands away from your face to look at him.

"He asked back what band." You murmured sniffing.

"Oh (Y/N). You didn't...it's okay. I think he just saw how stressed you were and he was just joking. And I'm sure he doesn't think you are stupid."

"Are you sure?" You glanced at him.

"I'm pretty sure. I'm a guy, too. I would do the exact same thing. And what about the interview?" You were now in a much better mood. You really thought you fucked it up.

"Well, glad you asked. They were curious about my photos and believe it or not, my qualifications. They told me that they were looking for smart people and not just some pretty slut. So, it was worth taking it." You had a big proud smile on your face.

"And what's next?"

"There will be a meeting next week. About the dates, the stadiums and everything about the tour. Maybe the boys will be there, too. However, they don't seem like they care about it. They just go with the flow, you know."

"And what if Mick will be there?"

"I will try my best to become invisible."

Next chapter

[raywritesthings]

Mamihlapinatapei\Lauriver

Thanks for the prompt, and I hope you enjoy this!

Should Have Been Her

Summary: In light of an early breakup between Oliver and Felicity, Alex can’t help reflecting on his boss’ choices in regards to relationships... especially when he can see the obvious.*Can also be read on my AO3 or FFN, links are in bio*

This job was going to be the death of him, Alex thought tohimself. “What do you mean Felicity won’t do it?”

“We had a fight about, uh, an old boyfriend of hers… andalso about her mom, I guess, last week,” Oliver said, looking undeniably wornout. He had to wonder how many nights the man had been sleeping on the couch.

“It’s not going to look great if you show up to a lunch withprospective endorsers without your own plus one.”

“I’ll just take Thea with me.”

“Thea’s booked for an interview with Williams in the samehour block, can’t do it,” Alex reminded him. He held his hand out for his boss’phone. “Look, I’ll call Felicity if you want.”

“She’s really not going to want that.”

Oh, so this was a serious possible break-up type situation.Just great. He hadn’t exactly been impressed with the candidate’s girlfriend;her inability to show up for meetings and the casualness with which she seemedto throw the campaign money had always struck him as flighty and poorlymanaged. But people liked a pretty, smiling face, and not having one on his armmight make people sour on Oliver. At least they weren’t engaged; that wouldmake things easier to spin.

Alex’s thoughts were so preoccupied with the work he wasgoing to have to do that he nearly missed Oliver’s next suggestion.

“Laurel might be free.”

“Laurel?” Alex wasn’t quite able to keep the strain out ofhis voice.

Oliver fixed him with a look. “She’s a part of the team, andshe honestly knows the ins and outs of this kind of stuff better than I do.I’ll give her a call.”

Despite Alex hoping and praying that the DA’s office beincredibly swamped with work that afternoon, Laurel was able to give them herlunch hour. So she was coming to meet with the union bosses.

Although, if he’d given more than a thought to her familybackground, he might have realized that could prove a boon.

“Laurel, how are you?” Boomed Larry Carmine, the Presidentof Star City’s Police Guild. He went in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek,which Laurel accepted with a smile. “Quentin says things are running prettynicely between the offices.”

“We try to keep communication channels open. Best way tokeep the system running. How’s Abby?”

“She’s just fine. Finished pre-med last semester.” Carmineturned to Oliver and shook his hand next. “Oliver Queen. Full of surprises,aren’t you?”

“I suppose I am.” The group all sat down, Oliver pulling outLaurel’s chair for her. She smiled up at him, and he returned it before takinghis own seat.

Alex motioned to the waiter hovering at the edge of theirprivate room to bring out the pre-ordered food. These were busy people afterall, so they hadn’t wanted to keep them waiting.

“I have to say, I should have expected you two to getinvolved in politics,” President Raynes of the Local 27 said after they’d allmade significant progress on their meals. The former fire chief had onlyretired from active duty last spring and made the transition to union work.“You made a pretty good team figuring all that out with Garfield. Still a shamewhat happened to him, but I wouldn’t be here without you. Makes me prettyinclined to listen, Mr. Queen.”

Oliver nodded all the while Alex made a mental note to askjust when in the hell his boss had been planning to tell him he’d saved thefirefighter union chief’s life. “I’m hoping you like what you hear. My campaignis committed to supporting those who need it most, and that includes our firstresponders, our firefighters, all those out on the front lines. Alex here hassome of the numbers we’ve been talking about.”

“These are preliminary plans we’re hoping to have your inputon,” Alex said, taking his cue to pass out the portfolios he had compiled.Laurel looked off of the one Oliver had laid out in front of them, their headsbent closer together than Alex really thought they needed to be.

Raynes was nodding along as he read, but Alex was moreinterested in Carmine, who leaned to his right to ask Laurel, “So you reallybelieve in this one, huh?”

“I do.”

“But I still remember your old man cursing his name!”Carmine and his Vice President burst into laughter.

Alex winced and held his breath, but Laurel only laughedlightly herself and said, “And he would be the first to tell you just what achanged man Oliver is. Believe me, I used to think we’d never see the dayeither.”

“Laurel and her family have been good enough to give me asecond chance,” Oliver added right off her statement. It was almost startling.In these previous sessions with endorsers they’d been attempting to woo, Oliverhad seemed content to allow Felicity to ramble on about this or that and waitfor her signal to speak. But now he seemed to know instinctively when to comein.

“I’m hoping that the citizens of Star can be willing to takea second chance as well. Not just on me, but on our home,” Oliver continued.The others had all gone quiet as they listened, none more closely than Laurel,who seemed to be hanging on his every word. “I know that we’ve struggled a lotthe last few years and that a lot of people are giving up or asking why webother? But I think with patience and with determination in equal measure, wecan help turn this city into the best it can be. The same way Laurel’s alwaysseen the best I can be and stood by me.”

“Well, thank you for proving me a good judge of characterafter all,” Laurel said, and they shared a smirk that was so fond it wasinfuriating. Alex coughed, and they both blinked and looked away from theother.

“I consider myself a good judge, too,” Carmine said, “and Ican tell you right now, Mr. Queen, so long as you have this lovely lady’ssupport that goes a long way in my book.”

Oliver looked at Laurel rather than Carmine as he answered,“I’ll keep it under advisement.”

Laurel headed back to City Hall on her own while Alex andOliver rode to the campaign office. Once alone with him, his boss seemed toretreat back into his thoughts, frowning out the window. Alex wondered what wason his mind.

“This may be the one time you hear this, but I might havebeen wrong,” Alex finally admitted, if only to try and draw the other man backinto the present. “About Laurel.”

Oliver’s eyes drifted in his direction, a half-smilecrossing his face. “Only might?”

Alex grimaced. He wasn’t really good at the whole admitting faultthing. “She’s good with those guys from the Locals. Probably grew up surroundedby them, didn’t she?” Oliver nodded in confirmation, and he supposed it madesense that the other man would know. “And I have to say even I was surprised athow well she made you look when they asked about your history. I actuallybelieved her.”

“That’s because she believes it, too.”

“Yeah. Makes you wonder…”

“What?” Oliver shifted in his seat, sitting up straighter.

Alex paused. It wasn’t really his place, nor was he reallyhoping to get that deeply involved in the candidate’s personal life. So heshrugged. “Nothing. Chief Raynes was right, though, you two make a good team.”

“Yeah,” Oliver agreed after a moment. He went back tostaring out the window, though this time his expression was far more wistful.

The more Alex thought about it, the more maddening itbecame. They were too good, made only more obvious when Laurel stopped by thecampaign office to pick up Thea for dinner.

“You could join us,” Thea told her brother.

“Only if you’re not needed here,” Laurel added quickly witha slightly guilty glance in Alex’s direction. She refocused on Oliver whiletucking her hair back behind one ear.

Oliver held her gaze for a moment before dropping it to thedesk. “I should probably put in another hour. You two go ahead.”

“We’ll see you later,” Laurel promised, and Alex watchedOliver watch them leave with a smile. Like he was watching his family. Which hebasically was.

Except that wasn’t his girlfriend. At least, not the mostrecent one. Not the one Alex had spent the last few weeks building the campaignaround; their little office romance or whatever it had been. It all sounded soshallow in his head in retrospect.

Whatever it was Oliver and Laurel had was strong, strongenough to survive time and scandal and the metaphorical equivalent of agasoline fire. They were still working together and for a common good. It was apolitical power couple the likes of which someone like him could only hope towitness.

And yet, they couldn’t really be together. Not without itcausing a stir in the campaign. And they both seemed to know it.

He knew it was deeply ironic to be disappointednow when before he’d been begging Oliver to put some distance between himselfand Laurel. But that had been before he’d realized: it should have been her.

[letterstoseven]

Impossibilities to Possibilities

⇢ genre: angst, fluff, suggestive, sugardaddy!au

⇢ summary: some say that first love never dies but it hunts you.

----------------//-----------------

You were running late for your interview. The interview was supposed to be at 9:00AM but it’s already 9:30AM and you’re still at the bus only two blocks away from the company building. When the results came in, you were actually surprised that this company scheduled you for an interview. This company is known in the entertainment industry and they’ve been looking for young individuals who have passion, talent, and brains. It was your friend, Jaebeom, who saw their job posting on their social media accounts.

“I think you should try applying for this job. I mean, you’re really good at styling people. I mean, weren’t you always the best dressed at every party? And even the girls at uni gets jealous at you because you totally rock every style. I remember this one time you were wearing a unique top but everyone loved that and the following week, they have those tops already!” Jaebeom persuaded you. It was a little over-dramatic but you started thinking what if this is your break? I mean, it’s summer break at your uni and you’re looking for a summer job.

“But Jae, this company is super picky! They’re just hiring the best of the best. Although the majority of the people who work in this company are young ones who are really really great people.” You said that to him while looking at the website and portfolios of those who work in this company. “There’s no harm in trying, y/n.” He winked at you and proceeded to scroll his feed again. While your eyes were glued at the website, you wonder who’s the person behind this company. You wonder if he has the mind-reading skills or whatsoever magic trick that he’s had the great people under his belt.

And here you are, 9:45AM at the reception of the company. You got off the bus and ran to the company as fast as possible. Fortunately, the lady at the reception was nice and told you to wait for a while. You thanked the gods for letting you off the hook this time. While you were reviewing your portfolio, the receptionist called you, “Miss y/n? Mr. Park is waiting for you in his office. Please go to the 11th floor and turn left, you’ll see his secretary. She’ll let you know more about your interview.” She smiled at you and you smiled back.

While you were walking towards the elevator, you see the interior of the building. It was minimal yet elegant. Something you really want. It made you want to work here. The employees you’ve come across to were nice and made you feel to work here more. By the time the elevator arrived on the designated floor, you were surprised that you were the only one who was called by Mr. Park. You asked the secretary, “Hi, is this Mr. Park’s office? I’m y/n. The receptionist told me to go here.” You hand your curriculum vitae to the secretary, “Is the person who’s going to interview me is the boss?” You whispered to her. She chuckled, “Yes, Miss y/n. It was rare for him to interview the applicants himself. He must be impressed by your application. You may now come in.”

You being nervous is an understatement –– his secretary told you that it was rare for him to conduct an interview himself. When the secretary opened the door, you were shocked at how beautiful and sophisticated his office is. The design, the displays, and the name –– you stopped your tracks by looking at his name.

No way. You uttered, “Mr. Park Jinyoung?”

He turned his back and looked at you, “Hello, y/n. It was nice to see you again.”

“You?!” You dropped your portfolio and picked it up but boy, he was fast. He’s now in front of you, “Yes, it’s me. I had a hard time looking for you, love.” He smirked at you. “Why were you looking for me? We were done. We broke one of the clauses.”

“But you didn’t have to run off like that...” He stared at you and continued, “I got scared of what happened to you. After 6 months of looking for you, I stopped. Then the next week, I was looking at the portfolios sent by the applicants and I saw my photo but side-view. I knew it was me because you let me saw that photo, you were so proud of the result of your styling to me.” He looked at you while reminiscing the past, “Then I saw your resume, you’ve changed your phone number, you moved out of your apartment and you changed the color of your hair.”

This time, it was your turn to stare at him, “Jinyoung... it was what we’re supposed to be. You gave me what I need, the money, the luxury, my tuition, and in return, I give you my company.” His eyes were betraying him. You continued, “But then, I have to admit, I was falling for you day by day. You are a gentleman and a handsome young man. I’m scared that if we go on, we might not just break the clauses in the contract but also our hearts.” You hugged your portfolio.

He turned around and faced you again, hands on his waist, you can see he is frustrated, “You only have the say in this? You’re the only one who decided to leave me and break off! God damn, y/n! I confessed to you after we kissed that night!” It is now your turn to cry, “Jinyoung, I am not that girl for you. You’re handsome, bright, gentleman and more! I’m just a normal girl who drunkenly said yes to a dare to look for a sugar daddy who’s at my age in the club! We didn’t know it’d go far like this, you know that. And please, I’m here for the job and not for you.” Jinyoung, being frustrated, ruffled his hands on his hair and said, “Okay.” And you said, “Okay.”

There was a moment of silence and then, Jinyoung started looking at your resume, “I see that you’ve become a dean’s lister during last year’s semester, but the following semester, you were off the list. Why’s that?” You know that he knows why. He just wanted to come out of your mouth. You answered, “I had personal problems during that time.” Jinyoung looked at you, “If that’s the case, why are we going to hire someone who doesn’t know when to separate personal and work matters?” For the first time since meeting him today, you were surprised at how he can immediately shift his mood, “You know what happened and—” you got cut-off by him, “I’m talking to you as the CEO of the company not as your sugar daddy, y/n.” You got quiet and simply answered, “I’ve grown and learned from my mistakes. I learned not to let my emotions rule over me. At this point of my life, I’ve had many decisions that I did not like. In reference to my class standing, I’ve had to make sacrifices for the betterment of myself. Isn’t that what the company needs? Someone who’s up for commitment, even though there’s a lot to sacrifice.” He was internally shocked at your answer, he knew you could do well. “Ever since I’ve known you, I always know you could do well at everything you do.” You blushed at his comment. “Thank you, Mr. Park.” It wasn’t long until he told you that his secretary will just contact you if you’re hired or not.

When you got back on your apartment, you messaged Jaebeom.

y/n: you won’t believe what I’ll say!

jaebeom: what?

y/n: Jinyoung was the CEO of the company I’ve applied to!!!

jaebeom: Jinyoung? As in the guy whom you had a relationship as sugar daddy?

y/n: YES

jaebeom: it seems like you’re in for a ride ;)

You groaned at his response. You can’t say that you weren't that glad to see him but you’re ashamed of yourself. Your phone dinged and a message from an unknown number.

unknown: hey, y/n. it’s me, Jinyoung. would you like to have dinner or anything, or in a coffee shop?

y/n: wow, using your power as a CEO to get my number, I see.

jinyoung: please? i really missed you...

y/n: okay, you know where. same place, 7pm.

jinyoung: sounds like a plan, i’ll see you then.

As the night’s about to approach, you inhaled deeply and asked yourself, are you ready to see him again? I mean, if you’ll get accepted, there’s a hundred percent chance you’ll see him everyday. The next thing you knew is that you’re in front of your go-to restaurant. Jinyoung knew about this because whenever he asks you where you are, you’re here.m

You were looking for Jinyoung, and when you see him, you can see that he’s on his phone. He sees you too, “I’ll call you back tomorrow. Bring the files to me first thing in the morning. Okay, thanks.” He hung up the call and said to you, “Hi, you came.” Your lips curved into smile and seated in front of him, “Yes? What’s this dinner for?” Jinyoung chuckled, “Typical, y/n. Asking the necessary first before indulging.”

Both of you were tip-toeing in the conversation. Both of you were just saying only the tip of the iceberg and both of you knows it. When the bill came, you were about to pay but Jinyoung interrupted you, “No, y/n. I’ll pay. I was the one who called you anyways.”

When both of you got out of the restaurant, you said your thanks to him, “It was nice seeing you. I’m sorry about the attitude at your office awhile ago. I got shocked and all.” He smiled wryly, “It’s understandable. I mean, I won’t invalidate your feelings. Or if there’s any left.” he continued, “How are you gonna go home? Do you still have the car I gave you?” You choked, “Very nice of you but I returned it to your driver. You might have not seen it yet since you have what, hundreds of cars?” He’s more shocked that you contacted his driver instead of him, “Oh, so you do have my driver’s number? How? Anyway, don’t answer that. Come on, I’ll take you home. It’s dangerous at night, and you know that.”

The heavens must have been in favor of Jinyoung. When you got inside the car, it started to rain hard. “Oh my god. My place is kind of far away from here. It’s a 2-hour drive. I am so so sorry for this, Jinyoung. You could drop me off at the nearest bus stop.” He looked at you and said, “My place is near here. You could stay there until the rain stops.” You can see him ruffling his hair, “That’s very nice of you but I don’t want to impose.” Jinyoung chuckled at your reply, “I insist. Plus we could talk more.” You know what’ll happen if you go in his house, “If that’s okay, then okay.”

While he was driving, you glanced up to him. You missed him, but you feel like it’s inappropriate. You looked outside, he still lives at this secured place where majority of the rich people in town or in the country lives. As you passed the gates, you can see the familiar surroundings. It was still raining hard when Jinyoung parked his car, “Wait here, I’ll get an umbrella.” You stopped him, “No! I can run from here to your front door.” You did not realize how far his parking lot was until you reached the front door. You were soaking and literally wet from the adventure you had done. Jin young ran too, “We should’ve gotten the umbrella. Come, you can wear my clothes as we dry yours.”

When he opened the door, you smiled at the place. You and Jinyoung spent lots of time at his house. He once told you that he’s a homebuddy, that he rarely leaves the house. So, when you were here, you redecorated the place. It was nice of him not to change everything after that. “I’ll just wait here.”

When he came out, he’s already changed his clothes. You stopped yourself from drooling, how did you manage to get away from this handsome man? He was wearing his shorts and a shirt. “Here, wear this. The shirt’s mine but the bottoms were yours. You still have some of your belongings here, you know.” You blushed at him, “Okay, I’ll just change my clothes.”

You left your clothes to dry and went out of the bathroom. You still see Jinyoung sitting there and waiting for you. “You don’t have to wait for me though. You should take some rest too. I’ll just wait until the rain stops and I’ll leave.” You smiled at him.

“I know we’ve been avoiding this but I really wanted to talk about us.” He shifted and seated near you, “I don’t regret giving you all those things. It was voluntary. I wanted to give everything to you, even myself.” You replied, “We don’t have to talk about this now, Jinyoung. I insist. Let’s just talk about other things instead.” You don’t want to open the wounds that were just starting to heal or so you thought. “Okay. Is it okay if we move at the bar counter? We could talk there while I make some drinks. Coffee, Tea, Beer, Wine or water?” He stood up waiting for you, “Wine will do.”

Jinyoung asked, “you sure?” Both of you knows that you’re a lightweight kind of person. Two glasses of wines and you’re dead. You’ve catched up a little bit. Jinyoung never thought that he’d see you in his company. You asked him, “Am I accepted already?” Both of you lightly laughed, he said, “If you want the job, then you have it. I won’t deprive my company to have someone as great as you. Do you want it?” You shrugged, “Well, yes! You know me, if I want to achieve something, I’ll make sure to have it!”

You’re getting red already, you asked for the third glass and you feel dizzy already. “You know, you gotta thank Jaebeom. If it wasn’t for him, I won’t have the courage to apply there.” Jinyoung raised his eyebrows at you, “Ah, I remember him. Great guy. Forgive me if I ask, are you & him dating?” He was red, thank god you both were drinking or else you’ll notice the redness on his face. “No, were not dating! He’s like a brother to me. I haven’t dated ever since we met until now.” You smiled at him. “And you? Of course, as a CEO, you got to meet lovely ladies. Tell me more!” His eyes were dark and said, “I don’t just date around, y/n. I’m still waiting for you.”

A moment of silence passes and you asked him, “Why me? I mean, you were my sugar daddy! That’s—” He cut you off, “Correction, my love. I’m still your ‘sugar daddy’. We haven’t signed the closure agreement.” He smirked at you. You looked at him in surprise and thought to yourself, two can play at the same time. “Oh, really? So? What do you want?” You have to blame it on the alcohol. You’re now drunk as hell. And it was hot in the room. You pushed your shorts and now you’re just wearing your underwear and shirt because you left your bra to dry.

“You.” Jinyoung held your face. “Tell me if you want me to stop. Tell me.” He’s closer, and just like that he kissed you. And you kissed back. His hands roaming at your back and your hands on his hair. He’s murmuring, I miss you so much, in between kisses. When he pulled out, you whined, “Why did you stop?” He pulled you onto his lap and said, “Not now baby. You’re drunk. What we’ll do is we sleep. Let’s go now.” You insisted, “But—” He hushed you, “No buts!” He carried you into his room and got your shorts as well. The moment he placed you in his bed, you were already sleeping like a child. He said to himself, what do I do with your stubborn ass?

You wake up the next morning, your head aches so much. “Ugh, hang-over sucks.” You said as you turn to see Jinyoung still sleeping. You were staring at his beautiful face, your fingers running through his hair and then you stopped. When you were about to leave the bed, his hands snaked through your waist, “Don’t leave yet, please.” He whispered in your ears. You turned around to face him once again, now he’s awake, “Jinyoung, I want to end what we have.” You sighed, he replied, “W-what?” You stood up and seated beside him, “We have to end the sugar daddy thingy! I mean how are we supposed to move on from that?” Jinyoung sighed in relief, “Okay but please let me spoil you. You deserve it.” You’re now on top of him and you giggled, “No, love. We’ll be equals now. I can’t just let you spend things for me.” Jinyoung hugged you tightly and said, “Hmm.. Okay. Agreed! I gotta thank Jaebeom for encouraging you. You’re worth the wait, baby. I love you.” Both of you stayed there for a while. Jinyoung feels nothing but contentment and happiness.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | INTERVIEW WITH JUSTINE JONES

Baltimore based artist and illustrator Justine Jones creates her vein of psychedelic fantasy horror drawings–filled with tiny black lines and an occasional pop of bright colors–which have been featured on the covers of Kobold Press and Warlock magazine. Using the hashtag #VisibleWomen to amplify the voices and portfolios of women comic artists, Justine has be able to do more illustrative work and character design. We’re excited to find out more about Justine’s artistic journey, her love of role-playing games, comics, art, her influences and much more. . .  Take the leap! 

Photography courtesy of the artist. 

Introduce yourself?    Hi, I’m Justine!  I’ve lived in Baltimore Maryland for the past decade and currently live in a small apartment downtown with my partner and my shiba inu Mo, who is a cool and grumpy guy.

How would you describe your work to someone who is just coming across it? I used to call it storybook surrealism, but now I guess it’s more like psychedelic fantasy horror?  Monsters and Wizards.  Lots of tiny black lines, sometimes with lots of bright intense colors.

How did you start from doodling and drawing to what you do now? I feel like it sort of happened organically.  When I was younger, I would do just pencil drawings, and then in my late teens, I got more into using micron pens.  I didn’t really discover color until a few years ago, so I’m a huge color noob.  I think a lot of it also came from working in comic shops for years and going to conventions.  Seeing all of these amazing artists grow, and thinking hey, I could maybe also do that! I first started with t-shirt designs because it just seemed really fun, and I used to have a really hard time selling prints.  People don’t need more prints, but they can always use clothes!  Now i’m getting more into illustrative work and character design, and I’m loving it!

Who and what were some of your early artistic influences? When I was a baby, my dad hung an Aubrey Beardsley print over my crib.  My mom thought it would make me deranged, and maybe it did, but it also made me love ink work and Art Nouveau style haha.  I was obsessed with sword and sorcery stuff and loooved cartoons like He-Man and She-ra, and later, Pirates of Darkwater. I also spent a lot of time in elementary school copying sexy comic book ladies from 90s comics, and I know that is pretty far from what I do now, but it’s honestly how I learned to draw.  I also copied a lot from children’s storybooks when I was little.  

What are some things that inspire the drawings you make? What are some of your favorite creatures and beings you like to explore in your art? Video games are a huge inspiration to me, from SNES JRPGs, to games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne.  Also folklore and mythology from around the world, and fantasy artwork from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.  Basically anything fantasy.  My favorite things to draw are wizards and monsters.  I love body horror, anything disgusting and beautiful at the same time.  I take a lot of inspiration from Manga, like Berserk, or anything Junji Ito.  I’ve done a lot of Illustrations for Clark Ashton Smith stories, which I find endlessly inspiring, visually.  Just like, fantasy/ sci fi/ dying earth type stuff.

When did you start collaborating with Kobold Press on creating some awesome fantasy art covers for their publications?  I remember getting the email from them when I was on the way to Necronomicon Providence in 2017.  I thiiiink they found my stuff through the visible women hashtag on twitter?  I was very excited because I owned some of their adventures from back in the day when I played Pathfinder!!  Plus, I have always always wanted to draw things for table top RPGs, so it’s been really cool to actually do it! The Warlock mag that I’ve been doing covers for is awesome because it’s going for an old school DND vibe, but it’s all things that are made for 5th edition.  You can get it on their patreon, and I hiiiighly recommend it to anyone who plays 5e dnd!!  

Take us through your artistic process? What’s a typical day in the studio like? Haha extremely chaotic!  I don’t even have a real set workspace, which I really need to change, I just draw where ever. Just chill out, listen to music or a podcast, and draw.  If I’m further along in a drawing and don’t need to focus so much, I’ll watch movies or video gameπ– let’s plays while I’m drawing.  I also love to listen to/ watch things that are in theme with what I’m drawing, to give me some inspiration.  I try to go to coffee shops to change things up sometimes!  Basically I just do a bunch of sketches until something materializes, and then I will just slowly refine the sketch.  I guess it’s not that exciting, but it’s cool to see the first sketch and the finished product because in my head, the sketch always looked like the finished product, but when you go back to look at it, it’s usually just indecipherable scribbles.

What are your essential art tools and materials? 90% of my art is just done using a .05 mechanical pencil and micron pens.  I also draw everything on smooth bristol.  If I have time and want to make my lines super crisp before I scan them in, i will use a light box.   Then for color, I generally use Kyle T Webster brushes in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet.   If I’m on the go, I like to draw things in Procreate on my iPad Pro, but I’m definitely not as good at doing detailed lines digitally.  

What do you do when you’re not drawing or working on projects? How do you unplug? Haha, I wish I ever truly unplugged, I think my brain is now melded into the internet!  But mostly I love to play video games.  JRPGs and anything From Software/ Soulsborne (currently obsessed with Sekiro!)  I also love comics and manga.  I’ve been reading The Girl From the Other Side, which is a beautiful dark fairytale Manga by Nagabe.  I also just got one called Witch Hat Atelier, which has the most amazing art! My partner also owns an insane amount of board games, so we play a lot of those.  I’m obsessed with coffee, and work part time at a coffee shop, and my favorite thing in the world to do is eat good food.    

What has been the most challenging project you’ve worked on? How did you overcome those obstacles and what did you take away from it? I made a kind of cosmic horror short story in mini comic form last year for SPX, I had very little time,  and it was my first time actually writing a story/ dialogue to go with my pictures.  It was insanely challenging.  I ended up with a finished product that I’m really proud of and that I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on.  I think it really drove home the fact that I just need to stick with things and finish them, even if I don’t feel like they’re perfect.  I’m never going to have the time that I want, and I’m never going to feel like anything is perfect.  I can still make a great thing!  

What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps and pursue art? Don’t spend 4 years doing nothing, but playing World of Warcraft (Or doooo?).  Uhhh, believe in yourself.  Be nice to other artists.  Draw all the time! Immerse yourself in things that inspire you!  Also, like I said before, things don’t need to be perfect.  Let go of perfect, because sometimes it���s an unattainable ideal.  Just do as good as you can, and don’t beat yourself up so much!  I’m horrible at advice!!!

What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks?   Haha, I moved to Baltimore to go to MICA like, 14 years ago, and then realized I was poor, and would never be able to go to MICA… sooo… I never went to real art school.  I wanted to go so bad, and I still wish I’d had that experience, but I want other people who can’t afford it to know that you don’t NEED it.  Things are a bit harder, but you can find so much free info online if you have the drive, you can teach yourself so many things.  Don’t get discouraged just because art school isn’t gonna happen for you.

What are your favorite style of VANS? I love my lavender/ sea fog Authentic Vans, because they basically go with anything, but I am always eyeing those Sk8-His.

Anything you can share that is coming up?   Ahhhh, I have some realllly cool things that I can’t share yet, but just everyone keep an eye out (It will be very exciting, i swear)!!  As for things I can share, I’m working on some new t-shirt designs, and another comic, and also plan on drawing some more cool wizards in my spare time.   So if you wanna see some cool wizards, uhhh, come to my Instagram–you guys!  Let’s hang out and look at wizards.  And talk about wizards.  And if you don’t like wizards well, don’t come I guess.

FOLLOW JUSTINE: INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE | TWITTER | STORE 

[paging-dr-bowen]

Tips for Interview Season

Congratulations on your invitation to interview at the residency programs of your dreams! The time period between submitting your ERAS and awaiting your first invitation to interview is nerve wrecking.  You might get bombarded with a couple rejection letters in the first few days (some programs even make errors by sending their rejection letters 3-4 times…like okay okay I get it it’s not you…it’s me…haha but don’t get discouraged your perfect match is still out there).  But what do you do before this time period? Here are some tips below:

1. ERAS photo – This is most likely your first business headshot ever. Or at least it was for me. Go to a photo studio like J.C. Penny (they have affordable Group On deals for $20 and under for a couple headshots) or grab a friend with a decent camera and some good lighting. Photo should show a welcoming smile (this is not a mugshot or a passport photo).  Attire should be simple, no distracting patterns or jewelry.  Think grays, blues, blacks, and calm pastels.  For men I’ve noticed a tie is a must. For women a blouse or a button up is fine, no cleavage.  Wear your hair how you will wear it during interviews because they will use the photo to reference you. Hair up or down is fine just keep it neat. I wore my hair in braids/twists and wore it loose and to the side.  Background of the photo should be a neutral color, try to avoid white. 2. Interview attire – Focusing on the ladies for this one, fellas interview attire is pretty standard across the board (business suit and business shoes). Aim to get about 3 outfits to cycle between especially for those weeks you have multiple interviews.  Pants suits and skirt suits or a dress and a blazer are the go-to outfits.  If opting for a dress or skirt length should at least be to the knees when sitting and wear nude/black stockings. Colors you should aim for a navy blue, gray, black and I even saw a candidate in a really nice forest green pant suit.  The idea is to get neutral colors and offset it with a nice pop of color that isn’t too distracting.  Limit the jewelry to simple pieces (stud earring and a simple necklace is fine, avoid bangles and bracelets that make noise).  Comfortable shoes are a must, I bought a 1.5inch closed toed-pumps and half way through interview season I resorted to just wearing my business everyday flats I wear on my clinical rotations from Clarks (got a lot of compliments too…I’m just like this old thang?). Just like your ERAS photo, wear your hair up or down is fine, just keep it neat.  Nice companies to buy clothing from are Ann Taylor Loft, Express, Banana Republic, Macy’s, Gap etc. You can bring a leather portfolio or a simple black leather tote (small to medium) to store a note pad, pen and a bottle of water and any other essentials like your wallet. For outerwear, a nice pea coat or trench coat pairs well with business attire.  Don’t over think it, most of the program directors I encountered have said they don’t really care about your attire so don’t break the bank on your medical school income (non-existent) but just put yourself together nicely.

3. Work on your elevator pitch. School?  Hometown? What is your passion within medicine? Why do you want the field you’re applying to? What are you looking for in a residency program (all the curriculums look generally the same due to AAMC requirements but what additional factors are important to you – is it location? Close to home? On-call hours? Specific elective opportunities? Why would they want you? Having a concise statement to answer all of these questions in a minute or less in a way that doesn’t sound scripted will prepare you for interviews as well as networking opportunities outside of your interviews. 4. Homework to do before your interview: Know the resident profiles of the residency – read about their values, experiences and interests to see how you’d fit in.  Re-read your personal statement if it might have been a while since you read it.  Re-read your CV you submitted on ERAS to make sure you remember every activity or research you inclluded in case it is a conversation piece. Do some research on the faculty and the program director that will be interviewing you (think of it as the equivalence to some light facebook stalking…you wouldn’t reiterate all their accolades but it’s nice to know to causally drop in a conversation when you have nothing to talk about so you can get them talking about theirselves) 5. What do they ask you on interviews? Anything …really. The most common questions I was asked in every interview were: Tell me about yourself. Why do you want to be a ____doctor? Why our program? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your career plans for after residency?  Beyond these questions it was really casual conversation.  The number one question you are guaranteed to be asked a million times are: Do YoU hAvE aNy QuEsTiOnS fOr Me? …you might want to say no but please don’t.  Before your interview you should review the program’s website and make note of things you’d like to ask questions about.  If you think you know there is everything to know about this program you can restate facts about the program you love and ask them to elaborate further or just simply try your best to form a question…it shows interest (they say it’s okay if you don’t have any but please try to have 1 or 2).  You are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. 6. How will your interview day be structured? Most programs send you an itinerary the week or a few days before the interview telling you how long each portion is and with whom.  If they don’t, you can request it politely but you still might not get it until the day of the interview (which sucks because you can’t do your research on your interviewers but it’s okay). On average interviews can range from 15minutes-30 minutes per interview and you can get anywhere from 3-5 or more of those per day.  Interview day is long but you will get used to it. At some point there will be a tour of the hospital given by a resident (this is where comfy shoes come in handy).  After a while you’ll be over seeing another hospital because let’s be honest every ICU looks the same for the most part but your job is to stay tuned in and again…ask questions because the hospital tour is an interview just like everything else during the day.  Be friendly and get to know the other candidates, you might make friendships that last beyond interview day and who knows you might end up at the same program.  The programs are also taking note of how you interact with people and whether or not you’re a good fit for their program. 7. So its October/November and I still haven’t heard from the program of my dreams rejecting me or inviting me to an interview. Or maybe I haven’t heard from any programs at all? Here’s where a polite letter of intent comes in handy. Some programs use filters to help them sift through the thousands of applications they get. You might have been lost by the filter. Send a letter of intent and make it as personalized as possible to the programs you haven’t heard from stating why you think you’d be a great fit for their program and what you love about their program and if they would review your application for an interview.  Late November, I haven’t heard back from one of the programs I desired and I sent them an email and was offered an interview a few days later. So I can say it definitely is worth doing. 8. Expenses.  Interview season is expensive. You may need to take out extra in your student loans than you do usually. Things that will cost you extra money are the ERAS application fee which increases the more programs you apply to, gas for your car for interviews you drive to,  Uber/Lyft or other rideshare, air fare for interviews you may have to fly to, hotels for overnight stays that aren’t covered by the residency program (I lucked out because Family Medicine programs on average love to wine and dine us and reserved nice hotels for me to stay in free of charge ).  My entire interview season costed me about $6,000.  The AAMC estimates that for students the range is anywhere from $3,000-$7,000.  It varies depending on how many interviews are local or how many programs you applied to.  Sooo much money I know…but if it makes you feel better you get free lunch on interview day and even a three course dinner if you opt to go to the “optional” pre-interview social the night before (Take advantage). You might also be visiting a new town or city, if you can explore the area a bit before going home it’s a nice mini trip and way to see if you could imagine yourself living there for the next 3+ years. 9. Pre-interview dinner – is it optional? It is but if you can go, I’d say go.  It’s a nice chance to get to know some of the residents outside of work without the faculty around. You also get to eat like a king on someone else’s dime. They won’t scrutinize you for not going but it does look nice if you went. If you do go, don’t just sit there and eat, please be social because although the residents say its casual…your impressions do matter. 10. Cancelling interviews. If you have been blessed with a decent amount of interviews and you can confidently say you are at a comfortable amount with all the programs you desire going to scheduled then by all means cancel.  Cancel as early as you can so it leaves room for other applicants who may have wanted to interview there to accept the offer.  Generally, 1 week to a month in advance is preferred.  Be polite when doing so because it does reflect on your school. 10 interviews scheduled is the average comfort zone (so they say).  I was paranoid and went on way more interviews beyond that because I wanted to be sure of my choice in the end.  I’m happy I did that because if I were to cancel interviews without going to see the program in person I’m sure I’d miss out.  On that same note, don’t be afraid to reject interview offers from places you know you absolutely would not want to end up (this may happen if you applied broadly just to have some options) – only do this if you have a decent amount of interviews scheduled. 11. What do I do after interview day? Most programs will say do not reach out with a thank you note. If they don’t say this you are free to send a thank you note if you wish. I did not send any thank you notes and I don’t believe it negatively affected me.  Interview season is very busy for the program coordinators scheduling interviews…they don’t need to read my generic thank you note/email that I will be sending to every program.  However, if I did have a question that wasn’t answered on interview day I would go ahead and reach out. 12. How do I make my Rank Order List? Only rank programs you interviewed at because only those programs have a chance at ranking you.  Only rank programs you would like to end up at. Rank them in the order of YOUR preference not how you think they might like you.  Go with your gut. I advise you send  a letter of intent as you make your Rank List to the program directors of perhaps your top 5 programs.  I sent a letter to my number one program telling them I will be ranking them number 1.  To programs #2-5 I told them I was ranking them highly.  You might not get any response (that’s okay), Match rules say programs can’t tell you they’re ranking you and they can’t ask you if you’re ranking them but there aren’t any rules against you volunteering the information.  Be careful of wording, I would NOT tell my number 2 program that I am ranking them number 2 (no one wants to hear that).  Make sure to tell them what you love about their program as well and why you’d be a great fit. 13. How will I know if I will match? You don’t. You may have feelings. Programs might tell you they think you’d be a great fit. You might get a post card or a letter from programs or a phone call follow up. They might hint and nudge and wink at you. With all this being said…you still don’t know for sure what the outcome of Match Day will be.  All you can do is hope, pray and have faith that the feelings you got from those interactions are genuine.

[tinabritton-photography]

Still Life and Product Photography

New brief called “Cheap”, but there is nothing cheap about the objects I acquired during the object finding exercise at 3 different pound shops. First shop was PoundBasket in Port Glasgow, 2nd was a pound stretch shop next to Tesco in Irvine, and 3rd was a pound shop at Irvine Mall. Ok, so what have I learned thus far? Well, I’ve learned that I am bipolar all over again. Bipolar people have difficulties with their moods, and their mood swings from different poles, but they also have problems mangaging money and making decisions.

Those last 2, yeah, that is me through and through the last few weeks. I bought enough stuff, and I am broke, to cover the entire class. That being said, much of it is fun, and you too could find this in your xmas stocking this year once this brief is finished ;). Yeah, I mean you.

This all being said, and, I digress, were some of the items a bit more than a pound? Yep, I won’t lie, but it astounds me what kinda-cool stuff you can get for £1 pound here in the UK, because in America your hard earned $1 gets you diddly.

Soon I will share an image of all the stuff I bought. LOL, yep, the horror :D.

This little guy below is so cool. You open it up and pour him into your hand and let the fun commence!

I told you! I cannot get everything I bought on this A1 sheet of white paper! The yellow bottle is the coolest, except, someone had stolen one of the batteries. There is a tiny wire inside with very small inline fairy lights. I had to order new batteries. They will be to here tomorrow. I have no idea whether it works or not yet. I walked up to the counter and asked the lady, ‘Is this really £1?”. She said, “Uh, yeah?” Ok, Sold! The Daisys on a stick, well, those are so cute, and the green bottle, it is shiny and has a skull hanging from it. Decisions, Decisions!

The first photographer and image I want to speak about is Laura Letinsky, a still-life photographer and her image “Untitled #54 from Hardly More Than Ever series 2002″.

When I first saw this image I felt like I walked into a room where there had been an indoor picnic happening, that must have ended because the ‘2′ people went outside to enjoy the sun after the rain had stopped. I say 2 people because there are 2 plates, however, could this be only a small section of a larger table? There is a sensuality about the scene. Peaches have long since represented the feminine. So what does the lollipop represent?

Being a dark person, I was pleasently surprised at how much I loved the colours in this image. In the background, the white looks muted green which is beautiful against the delicate oranges and reds in the image. Even the shadows appear a bit green. I even love the wrinkles in the make-shift table cloth and used napkin beneath the melon. I am actually waiting for someone to walk back in and grab one of those peaches or that lollipop before anyone else can.

What also catches my eye is the wonky line of the sloping table and the asymetric hanging of the back of the table cloth and leaving a bit of floor to give us a feeling of stability even though it appears there is none. There is a haphazardness to the whole seen giving the implication that the festivities are still going on elsewhere, otherwise, this would have already been cleared away.

Laura Letinsky,  Untitled #54 from Hardly More Than Ever series 2002. Courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York. (//www.umanitoba.ca, 2019)

Laura Letinsky was bornin 1962 in Winnipeg, Canada. She attended the University of Manitoba in 1986, and Yale School of Art in 1991.

Another of her works I really like is below . . .

It this too considered a still-life? I think so, yes, even though these are images of objects arranged. What brings these pieces together are the colours set against the vast violet white of the background. 

Untitled #40, from the series Ill Form & Void Full, 2014. Archival pigment print. 49.5 x 58.12 inches, edition of 9.  (Yanceyrichardson.com, 2019)   

I am trying to stretch my mind and my acceptance around the fact that this is truly still-life. As an artist, I rail, however, I cannot deny that this is a spectacular still-life . . .

The colours, the placement. You can almost taste colours of the fruit. There is a depth to this piece, yet it is composed entirely of images cut and arranged on a surface.

(The Photographers' Gallery, 2019)             

The second photographer I would like to take a look at is Peter Lippman.

The first image below is so apt; ash covering the old mechanical camera. A death of the analogue. But for me, not quite yet. The image is almost in total -grey with a very hint of blue? Subtle soft light causes a gradation across the still life and picking out highlights here and there. It could be natural light, or a soft box on low power. Even though the camera lies amongst the greys, there is good contrast, and the image gets its meaning across.

(Harvey et al., 2019)

The title of the image below is Banane. Apparently, it is a plantain fruit/pod from the banana family. This image is the plant on black background.The deep contrast and muted reds and purples coupled with the green of the stem really makes this image come alive. It reminds me of the human heart. The subtle smooth texture of the leaves juxtaposed with the texture at the crown of the plant is a visual treat.

(Harvey et al., 2019)

First of all, I actually love the colour of the background in this next image by Lippman. Is it the true colour of the scene, or is it burned in, a gradient as it gets darker toward the bottom? The broken glass provides visual texture and interest. Since these are fragrances for men, I think it adds a sense of danger to make men want the products. Heavy shadows weight the objects to the background. As for lighting, it could be continuous, but probably flash. I am not yet proficient enough to make that decision yet. 

The 3rd photographer I’ve decided to write about here is Guido Mocafico. Mocafico is an Italian photographer. Though he now is getting more into the fine art of photography, he has been working as a commercial photographer with such names as Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Ralph Lauren and Chanel, just to name drop a few.

The image below is stunning. As soon as I saw it, I was intrigued, not only about the watch, but about that gorgeous shiny material it is sinking into. The highlights in the ‘goo’ mimic the hightlights of the watch and the white of the Roman numerals on the watch face. This makes the product really pop in my opinion. I can’t find a thing to criticize in this product image. The blacks and whites are perfectly balanced.

Heure noire. Numéro 122. Avril 2011. (Mocafico.com, 2019)

The image below feeds the need for black in me. The contrast, the middle tones, the grays, the highlights. I really am pulled in my all the textures and shapes. The smooth of the watch-face, the different directions of the toothed gears and motorcycle chain or timing belt, whichever it is. The glossy motor oil spills across the gears causing them to become something more beautiful than grimy metal. The solid blacks in between all the shapes makes each piece stand out to be counted.

Les temps modernes. Numéro 129. Décembre 2011 - janvier 2012. (Mocafico.com, 2019)

References

//www.umanitoba.ca, U. (2019). Laura Letinsky: Still Life Photographs, 1997-2012. [online] News.umanitoba.ca. Available at: https://news.umanitoba.ca/laura-letinsky-still-life-photographs-1997-2012/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (//www.umanitoba.ca, 2019)

Yanceyrichardson.com. (2019). Laura Letinsky - Artists - Yancey Richardson. [online] Available at: http://www.yanceyrichardson.com/artists/laura-letinsky [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (Yanceyrichardson.com, 2019)

The Photographers' Gallery (2019). An interview with Laura Letinsky. [image] Available at: https://vimeo.com/57683797 [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (The Photographers' Gallery, 2019)

MCA. (2019). BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: Laura Letinsky. [online] Available at: https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2012/Laura-Letinsky [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (MCA, 2019)

Peterlippmann.com. (2019). PETER LIPPMANN. [online] Available at: https://peterlippmann.com/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (Peterlippmann.com, 2019)

Harvey, O., Naroop, A., Matthews, D., Dumontet, E., Almas, E., Walker, M., Riches, N., Lippmann, P., Douglas, W., Lippmann, P. and Lippmann, P. (2019).

Still Life/Food/People Photographer - Peter Lippmann - Trayler

. [online] Trayler & Trayler. Available at: http://traylerandtrayler.com/artists/peter-lippmann-2/ [Accessed 29 Oct. 2019]. (Harvey et al., 2019)

Maree, S. (2019). Peter Lippmann – Sophie Maree. [online] Sophie-maree.com. Available at: https://sophie-maree.com/portfolio-item/peter-lippmann/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (Maree, 2019)

Milkbooks.com. (2019). Guido Mocafico. [online] Available at: https://www.milkbooks.com/blog/photo-wisdom/guido-mocafico/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (Milkbooks.com, 2019)

Mocafico.com. (2019). Heure noire – Guido Mocafico. [online] Available at: http://www.mocafico.com/projets/photography/still-life/numero/heure-noire/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (Mocafico.com, 2019)

Mocafico.com. (2019). Les temps modernes – Guido Mocafico. [online] Available at: http://www.mocafico.com/projets/photography/still-life/numero/les-temps-modernes/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2019]. (Mocafico.com, 2019)

[tomo-tron]

My experience growing up as an Artist (and trying to get a job)

Buckle up, it’s a long one.

I’ve never really thought about doing an actual written blog entry on here before as I’ve normally not really had much to say and prefer to talk about my work. But I thought it could be helpful to share my personal experiences of trying to get work post-university from the perspective of an illustrator/artist. This could be helpful to you if you’ve just graduated, are thinking of doing a course at uni or are currently freelance and are wondering how to get your first break in a full-time art job. Emphasis on could. 

So for those of you who’ve never met me (which is pretty much 99%+ of my followers), I’ve always drawn characters from games and comics etc. If I saw a character that blew my mind as a kid, I drew them. I had a big, lined, A4 notebook and drew in with biro pen. I drew in class when I wasn’t supposed to. I drew in my weekly planner for lessons (where you were supposed to write homework and deadlines etc) and then got into detentions because of them where I was even made to go through and cover them all up using paper and glue...Art at secondary school DID NOT help me. At all. A lot of schools don’t understand/recognise the games/comic/entertainment industry (or at least seemingly prestigious ones from the north where people make money by farming and/or settling into a mundane plane of conformative existence revolving around having kids way too early and peaking before you’re 25 before forever there after living in a bubble safely tucked away from the rest of the world and society). To be fair, schools have to cover a potentially very broad spectrum and kids don’t always know what’s best for them and where they want to end up. But sometimes kids DO know where they want to end up. To also be fair, my art teachers could see that fine art wasn’t my thing and that I was technically a good artist when it came to drawing, so they sort of gave me a lot of leeway when it came to work guidelines (one of my main teachers also looked and acted like Dean McCoppin from Iron Giant which was pretty much the best thing that could have happened there). 

Anyway, moving onto University. In the UK, 2011 was the year the university fees basically tripled...The work I did at that school didn’t really help me much when applying for places. No one I knew wanted to do anything similar. And there were no adults who had any idea what I needed to do to get to the places I wanted either. So I was on my own. Suffice to say I failed at getting onto a 3 year course (which I’ve always imagined was potentially due to increased demand just before the fees went up). The lecturer doing a portfolio review with me said I had “too many werewolves” and the less said about all of that the better. I think maybe there was two werewolves, done in the same style the point of which being that one was male and one was female and I’d tried to make that visually evident. However, I was offered a place on a 1 year Art and Design course (yay...). Ironically, the foundation course turned out to pretty much help me un-learn EVERYTHING that I had spent the last 7 years being told to do. Crazy right? It annoyed me that I had to spend an extra year there (though not from the social point of view and uni life) and straight after the course, I finally began a 3 year Illustration and Animation course. 

At 20 y/o (a year later than most) I started my 3 year course. I won’t say too much about the course itself as there’s a slight conflict of interest in regards to me potentially going back to lecture there soon. But in those 3 years, I gradually felt more and more comfortable to focus on producing work that I always felt I was supposed to be doing. Nothing great came out of my first year, the second year was arguably better/more professional and then finally in my third year I created a 26 page comic about monsters (which I drafted a good friend in to write the script for, bearing in mind he was on a course at the time too) which I called “Stubble” and it was the pinnacle of my artist achievements. It was a comic, but I had really developed these two characters from fairly in-cohesive and random creatures with rubber tire armour and boring shapes/silhouettes to these very much simplified, strange, stubble-y polar opposites of one another. So I figured that the ability to create characters and demonstrate that, would help get me into the games industry regardless, if I wanted to go that route. 

Then we had the end of year exhibition where we could showcase our final major projects. This got me noticed by a nearby toy design company in the area. It was exactly what I’d always hoped would happen, a job offer fresh out of university. They loved my work and I did a small-ish art test for them before being invited to a job interview that went really well. Their only major concern was my art style and whether I could adapt it appropriately for the sort of work they did. I was 23 y/o at the time, I was still no expert and hadn’t spent a whole lot of time doing product design on my non-product design based course (surprise surprise). I didn’t hear back from them for a while and because I’d never applied to salaried jobs before, I just thought it was the norm. I moved to London with my then gf and pretty much lost all motivation artistically when faced with the real world and trying to make ends meet in the most expensive part of the UK as a poor ass ex-student. Six months later, they got back to me. It was a no. They wanted to stress I was very much in the running along with 2 other applicants and choosing between the 3 of us had been the subject of much debate. So that sucked. And then not long after my long-term relationship fell apart which was a nice addition so I was back to square one at home with mummy and daddy and a seemingly useless degree. 

Thankfully, I had made some good friends who were still studying at my university and staying to live in the area afterwards to get work (they were all car designers). So at 24 y/o I pretty much begged them to let me move in with them so I could regain some independence and start again. I should probably mention that freelance work had been coming in post-uni in dribs and drabs. I was doing the work when I found it, but it was few and far between and not really helping me to create a uniform portfolio. I was applying to concept art and character art jobs where ever I could find them the whole time, despite really not having the portfolio to back them up because it was filled with irrelevant work such as cartoon cats I was doing for a legitimately crazy cat lady who was supposedly running a charity (but years later came to the conclusion she was more of an opportunist perpetually trying to reclaim her lost wealth and the life it had afforded her). I managed to end up working for Marvel and Lego which was weird. Though technically it wasn’t directly with either as the Marvel work was for a company who owned the rights to create licensed trading cards on Marvel’s behalf and the Lego job was outsourced to me through an agency that did media production and stuff for other companies. People always say to me “but the fact is you worked for Marvel and Lego”, and maybe it’s impostor syndrome speaking, but I don’t think they fully understand the way that kind of work...works (which is fine, but also perhaps trust the guy who’s been doing this for a living). I’d say I worked for Lego more legitimately than I did for Marvel.  

24/25 y/o and my confidence was taking a beating. I kept thinking how it was never meant to be this hard (getting a job). I’d been told by pretty much everyone I’d ever met, professional and otherwise, that I was talented and yet I wasn’t getting anywhere. Add to that the fact I was having to watch all my friends find work in their chosen fields easily and I’m honestly surprised I didn’t have/haven’t had a mental break down of some sort (especially after seeing how some people my age reacted to small periods of uncertainty). I DIGRESS, I started getting bolder with my applications and began sending them to places I thought were too good for me anyway and that would need me to be some sort of artistic veteran to even stand a chance at being considered. I’d mostly stuck to companies within the UK at this point, but I was having to move further afield because I’d exhausted what seemed to be every single games company the UK had to offer and felt like my work was more appropriate for what I deemed to be as bolder and more imaginative US companies. At the time, I was obsessed with League of Legends and had begun to learn about the company behind them, Riot Games. So I thought “fuck it” and I sent an application to their studio in Hong Kong despite being terrified by the prospect of moving there. And guess what?

They got back to me. 

Again, I don’t want to go into too much detail. But let’s just say I did another art test for this one. And then another. And then another. And then also another. I didn’t have a job, I was relying on my incredibly unreliable freelance work but pretty much prioritising the application process over everything else going on in my life. I was doing good work in my mind, quantity AND quality, the best of both worlds. I was pushing myself to get into a design frame of mind and applying my extensive knowledge of League of Legends to solve problems that I knew needed addressing in the best way I could. 

You can see where this is going. 

I didn’t get the job. I found out midday as I recall, which meant I had the whole day to wallow in self pity. But hey, I had a heap of new work for my portfolio. I was proud of it all for a few months at least and now I just feel like I have to include it in my portfolio because of how extensive it was and how much I threw myself at it. I realise now that quantity isn’t always the best thing. And I will never ever ever again draw that many iterations of a character in pencil with nice line work. It was a dumb way to work and it was slow as hell. You don’t focus on line work when you’re trying to develop ideas at an early stage, even if you’re trying to impress a big company. Part of the job is narrowing down ideas. But at the time I didn’t feel that it was my place to say what was and wasn’t good as I was trying to get in to a entry-level role and was expecting someone to make those decisions for me. I was the grunt, they were the overlord. Several months is a lot of time to exchange for a fairly simple lesson. Especially when you feel like you’re trying to play catch up in life and are now 2 years behind everyone else your age. But I’ve got to stress that I wasn’t an expert, I was still young and unlike most other people I knew, I literally had no one to advise me/ look to for tips. Which I think is something pretty much most artists go through at some point in their life seeing as we all end up pretty secluded. 

The thing is, I felt obligated to share the work I did from that application because it’s unfair to ask someone to invest so much (UNPAID) time and effort into something without letting them then use that to further their job hunt if you’re to turn them down. Art tests in general are unfair. Apply the idea of an unpaid test to most other areas of employment - marketing, banking (even bar tender jobs will pay you half the standard rate if they’re trailing you for the day) and people generally respond with something like “yeah I wouldn’t do something like that unless I was paid”. Because it comes across like you don’t respect yourself. And yet that is unfortunately the world we live in as artists. 

Moving on. Still 25 y/o going on 26, after posting pretty much all of that work on this very blog and whilst on holiday, I got an email from a guy called Ben saying he was from Riot Games and wondered if I wanted to collaborate on a comic together. I’d become accustomed to the word “collaborate” being synonymous with “free” so I was initially sceptical and didn’t think much of it. Instead turning my attention to the shrimps I was bbqing and jokingly telling my friends that some schmuck wanted to get free work out of me again. However, it began to become more real and eventually I understood that it was going to be a real job. Still freelance, but real. And for one of my favourite companies as well. I became one of 4 artists making web comics for Riot at the time and became pretty good friends with Ben. We made “Olaf Vs Everything” whilst the other horsemen of Ben’s apocalypse made “Crystal Quest”, “Academy Adventures” and “Punches and Plants” with him. It wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we had fun and did what we could with the limitations of the gig. Season 1 of the comic turned into season 2 and things seemed to be picking up. I was networking and making friends with like-minded artists across the world and suddenly didn’t feel so alone anymore.

I was super lucky to get invited to Riot’s HQ in L.A. along with a bunch of these other artists as part of Riot’s first Art Lab. It was a really crazy time in my life and didn’t quite feel real (sort of still doesn’t). I suddenly felt like I had something to back up my abilities to the friends and family around me and for once wasn’t a huge failure in my chosen field. It was a nice feeling and impostor syndrome definitely went away that week. 

That was over a year ago now, which is nuts. But I still know all these guys (and more). They’re a very talented bunch and for the most part, it seems like we’re all watching each other grow and actively try to get our dream jobs. Unlike the majority of artists I met at university, who seemed to only be in it for the qualification and have long since given up pursuing a career as artists. But don’t get me wrong, there were definitely some talented folks who made it work and some who really deserved to but I don’t think have done. Skip forward a bit and I actually started work as a part-time lecturer at my university in 2018, teaching the students taking the same course I did all those years ago. Working with the lecturer who 6/7 years prior had said my portfolio had too many werewolves in it (it’s some sort of running joke). It’s nice to see that they seem to be slightly more thirsty for knowledge than my year group was. The quality of their work is also a better I’d say. More diverse. And every single one of them has a drawing tablet in their first year (most of my year group didn’t get them until 2nd year, some never did). 

And now...

I spent the last few months actively sending out applications for concept art jobs again with my portfolio now containing my Artstation King Arthur competition entry in it (which has been helping me out more than I thought it would and you can see here: www.artstation.com/artwork/nQLePX). Side note - do an Artstation challenge if you can, they can be fun, push you and look great in your portfolio/cover letter. I found a job I really really really wanted that was nearby. It ticked all the boxes and almost seemed too good to be true. I did the procedural art test (unpaid of course) and had an interview. Everything felt good. Didn’t get the job. This time seemingly because of not being able to start immediately, despite the fact that all commitments I had had lined up for the next 2 months were completely cancellable. You can’t make this stuff up. So from now on, I will habitually write in capital letters on my cover letters “I CAN START IMMEDIATELY, I DON’T EVEN CARE IF I HAVE TO SLEEP ON THE STREETS IN BETWEEN WORK DAYS UNTIL I CAN FIND ACCOMMODATION, I’LL MAKE SURE I CLEAN MY TEETH BEFORE I COME IN AT THE VERY LEAST” as well as potentially screaming the word “IMMEEEEEDIATELYYYY” at any future interviewers upon hearing a “when can you start” related question. I would advise you to do the same. Well maybe not exactly the same, but y’know, just make sure they know you can start immediately. Bums in seats. Being able to start sooner = more important than being a good fit (sometimes anyway, so take that into consideration). 

I’ve mostly spent this past year realising that if I ever want to have a moderately “normal” life (aka having disposable income) then I had to give up doing comics in favour of concept art. I’d already felt that way for a long time, but this year I’ve actively avoided committing to big comic projects because they simply aren’t worth the time and effort in most cases. And to note, I did have a completely separate portfolio of comic page samples I sent out to publishers in an effort to up my game and I got absolutely no where. I’m not trying to dissuade any one else from succeeding where I’ve failed by any means. But you have to be prepared to fail a lot and if you can deal with that then by all means you should try. But for me, I really don’t like the prospect of taking a huge backwards step at this point in life, and by that I mean moving back home where it’s rent-free. Perseverance is an admirable trait. Persevering despite overwhelming odds. And though there is a very big difference between quitting and knowing when to quit, I think artists more so than any other profession don’t really know how to quit. Which is a pretty brave thing in most cases. Meanwhile, with each year that passes I feel like I can relate more and more to episodes of the Simpsons where Bart and Lisa were all grown up and the major difference between the two career-wise. I love (ew grosss) my younger sister, don’t get me wrong (and don’t tell her) but she’s starting to make me look bad ahah. 

Next month I’m going to be doing a crash course at Escape Studios in London learning how to model/sculpt and animate a character of my own design in roughly 4 weeks. I’m hoping that broadening my skill set to 3D will increase my employability. It will at the very least mean I can eventually apply to character art jobs and stand a chance. However, after that course I am potentially going to look for part-time/full-time work in an unrelated field of work because I don’t really have a choice. 

I will keep looking for the concept art/ character art job out there that I know I’ll be good at. Because I’m in this for the long haul. And if you are as well, then I wish you the very best of luck and hope that something I’ve written here may help you out. 

Your hairy neighbourhood friend,

- Tom

[heartslogos]

newfragile yellows [567]

The video call opens and Malika sees the Iron Bull’s broad chest and jaw as he turns his steering wheel, the sound of his turn signal clicking persistently in the background.

“Sorry,” he says, “Running late. Almost home. Ellana’s already there. I don’t know how but she beat me in this traffic. I was literally only twenty minutes away from home and she was driving in from the fucking airport and she somehow beat me. On a Friday afternoon. This is why we have to move to the Marches. Forget that the major studios are here. I wouldn’t be dealing with this kind of traffic in the Marches. You went to college in Markham? Starkhaven?”

“Starkhaven,” Malika answers, nervously checking the window where she has all her notes.

She’s been fans of the Iron Bull and Ellana Lavellan since she was a kid. She’s pretty sure she knows pretty much everything on their wiki pages, but she’d rather not forget and ask a dumb question because’s she’s nervous. She shouldn’t be.

The Iron Bull is a friend of her uncles and she’s known him since she was a kid. Well. Been kind of tangentially around him. He’s not as intimidating as he would be if she didn’t know him at all. Still. He’s the Iron Bull, it’s hard not to geek out over him.

And it’s Ellana Lavellan, it’s impossible not to want to burst out into wild screams of excitement. Malika swears she has no idea how she’s keeping herself composed right now. She’s met the woman in person a few times before — briefly — and she’s fairly certain the only thing that kept her from doing something wildly inappropriate was the overwhelming joy that made her pretty short-circuited her everything.

There’s a part of her mind that’s chanting this is for work, this is for work, this is for work and another part of her mind that’s just yelling.

“Thanks again for agreeing to do the interview with me,” Malika says. “Not a lot of people really care to do interviews for Humfeed.”

It’s not exactly the best media outlet. It’s mostly youtube and clickbait articles on this side of it, actually. But if Malika gets a solid portfolio of work going she can probably get transferred to the serious side of the business, covering stuff like elections and laws and international situations and stuff. She might even get to go freelance someday.

“No problem," Bull says, “You’re a good kid. Edric doesn’t shut up about you. In a good way.”

He gives the camera a distracted smile and she stays quiet as he parks, picking up his phone.

Malika takes a few moments to just breath and collect herself and push down on all her urges to squeal.

Bull sits down in his living room, setting up the phone somewhere on a table nearby, yelling out into the house, “Ellana, I’ve got Malika on my phone.”

“I’ll be right there!” Malika hears from somewhere off screen and then Ellana Lavellan, legend and favorite of the world itself, comes into view, sitting next to Bull on their lovely sofa, beaming.

“Hi, Malika,” Ellana says, “Is this good?”

“Yeah, it’s not a video, it’ll be an article so I’m mostly going to use transcripts,” Malika answers. “Thank you for agreeing to this.”

“Anything for the fans,” Ellana deadpans, “Also for the youth pursuing the ever noble passion of journalism. I’ve read some of your pieces and you’re going to be amazing.”

Ellana Lavellan has read some of her articles, Malika thinks to herself. She’s going to die. Malika is going to straight up die.

Her voice cracks when she talks, but hopefully that can be attributed to a poor connection or something.

“Alright, so. Let’s get started. Um. First off, congratulations on the engagement.”

“Thank you,” Ellana and the Iron Bull say, giving each other brief, but fond, glances before returning their focus to the camera.

“This question is for the both of you. How do the two of you manage your busy schedules, considering how high in demand both of you are? Everyone knows that the two of you have been dating for almost four years now, so obviously you guys have figured out some kind of time management system. But how do you guys determine how you balance out your projects and coordinate with each other?”

“High demand?” Bull and Ellana both ask at the same time.

“Yes,” Malika nods, hand ready to jot down notes on the separate notepad she has. “For example — Ellana, you were just announced to take part in the highly anticipated follow up movie to Hard in Hightown, and you’ve just come off of working Mountain’s Nine. Both of these take place in extremely different filming locations, I imagine, and both sound like they’re huge time sucks. And you, the Iron Bull, are currently scheduled to be in two upcoming video games as well as commentating on the Ferelden Men’s championship.”

“The what?” Ellana says, turning to the Iron Bull at the same time the Iron Bull is staring at Ellana like he’s never seen her before. “You’re going to be in what and commentating on what?”

She turns to Malika, looking a little helpless.

Malika stares between the two.

“Do you guys…not talk about your projects?”

“Projects,” Bull repeats, slowly. “You have projects?”

Ellana turns to stare at Bull. “You have projects?”

Malika just stares at the both of them. “You…you two have been dating for four years and recently got engaged. Do you…did either of you ever google each other?”

“You’re famous?” Ellana whispers.

“You’ve been in movies?” The Iron Bull replies, sounding dazed.

Ellana quickly pulls out her phone, even as Malika starts to carefully attempt to jog Ellana’s memory.

“He’s a world champion weight lifter,” Malika says, “He’s got world records that still haven’t been broken to this day. He’s won gold more times than should be possible and he didn’t even retire because of an injury or anything. He just retired because he wanted to. Then immediately after that, he entered competitive chess. He’s also got a world record for chess, and he’s a recognized chess master. He was the champion of chess for five years running. He’s…he’s literally a champion of so many things and he’s always asked to commentate and teach and — you didn’t know?”

“Oh my god,” Ellana sounds like she’s dying as she looks at something on her phone. She reaches out, not looking up and starts hitting Bull’s leg. “You — you’re a tetris champion? You — oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. This is you! You’re in a fucking leotard. Oh my god, you had hair. What is this, how come I’ve — “

“You didn’t know?” Bull asks, incredulous. “You said you recognized me when we first met.”

“From the underwear ad!” Ellana blurts out, eyes widening as she scrolls through something on her phone. “I though you were an underwear model!”

“Ellana, that shoot was to promote my cologne.”

“It was your cologne?!?”

“Yes,” Bull says, “Of course it’s mine. Why else would I have done a photo shoot for it?”

“Because you’re a model!”

“No, I only started modeling after I retired from weight lifting,” Bull says. “Babe, the only reason I became a popular model was because I was a popular athlete first.”

“Why would I know this? You know I don’t…sports!”

“They literally stop playing all news and television every time the Olympics comes around and somehow you’ve never seen me? Wait — hold on. You. You’re famous. You’re in movies.”

Ellana starts crying. Well. Laughing and crying hysterically, clutching onto the back of their couch as she leans back, stomping her leg on the ground, phone clutched to her chest as she shrieks with laughter.

“Oh my god,” She cries. “Holy shit. You’re famous. You’re famous!”

“So are you?” the Iron Bull, and it sounds like a question.

“She’s…an award winning actress,” Malika says weakly. This is not how she thought this interview was going to go. “She’s won actress of the year six times. She’s been in internationally acclaimed movies. Just name dropping her can shoot a movie’s popularity up with the critics.”

The Iron Bull stares at Malika.

“She’s been in a million movies,” Malika continues. “You’ve seen them.”

“I have?”

“The Lady of the Lake? Emperor of the Rings? Jude Bravo and the Void Thief? Empire Raider? Derelict Wars? The Lovelace series? The Good-Mother? Thieves of the Lost Arc? The Shape of You? Dreams?”

The Iron Bull looks more lost with each movie she names and Malika could go on for another half hour or more just listing Ellana’s greatest hits.

He slowly turns back to the woman who’s slowly started to slide off the couch as she shrieks with laughter.

“You don’t own any movies,” he says dumbly. “We had to fucking rent The Lady of the Lake. You were in it and you didn’t even say anything. Who the fuck were you?”

“To be fair, I play a lot of characters with heavy prosthetics,” Ellana says as she attempts to compose herself, face red as she hiccups. “Besides, you don’t like the kind of stuff I’m in. You like TV shows more than movies.”

“You’re in TV shows,” Malika feels the needs to point out.

Bull gestures at Malika helplessly. “And I’ve never seen you once?”

“You don’t like the kind of shows I’m in,” Ellana says. “You only watch cop procedural shows and true crime stuff.”

“You were the star in the hit series remake of Carmine as the notorious cannibal Dr. Carmine Flescher,” Malika says.

Ellana, by this point, has fallen off the couch. Malika sees her stumbling up and walk off frame, bursting into laughter as she goes again.  The Iron Bull puts his head in his hands.

“Is the interview still going?” Bull asks, voice slightly muffled.

“No,” Malika says, because this is definitely not something she’s going to write about. Yeah, it would get a lot of attention, but it’s not the kind of attention Malika thinks any of the three of them present want. “Are you okay?”

“My fiancé is an actress with an IMDB page longer than my entire arm,” Bull says. “Not really.”

Ellana suddenly reappears in frame, holding her hand out. “I want my ring back.”

Malika swears she’s lost sensation in most of her body parts and her heart is beating faster than healthy.

Bull stares up at Ellana. “What?”

“I proposed to you when I thought you were some cute model. You’re actually a literal genius with world records,” Ellana says, wiggling her hand. “I’ve got to do this over again. Give me that ring so I can propose to you with all the flair that you deserve.”

Bull’s expression turns from stunned to fond.

“You’re an actress with more gold than I ever won,” he says, “I should be the one getting down to propose to you this time.”

“With your bad knee? Forget it,” Ellana says, reaching down and taking his hand and pulling the ring off herself. She sticks it in her pocket. “Okay. Give me like. A few days and I’ll think up of a better proposal. Fit for a world fucking champion, holy shit. I can’t believe I married up — hold on. Wait a minute. All those times you said you were busy — were you doing world champion stuff?””

[g-r-e-y-eyes]

Day 5: Fifty Shades of Grey AU | Arthur Conan Doyle

★ Ikemen Vampire Fanfic ★ Arthur Conan Doyle X OC Note: SFW  | AU Prompt List 

I drummed my fingers on the glass table. I looked at my Audemars Pigeut watch impatiently. The time was currently 7.20AM and I was expecting an undergraduate from Oxford’s English and Literature at 7.30AM. 

From my watch, my gaze shifted to my MacBook. I scrolled through her portfolio and found myself impressed. I wish they had included a photo though. I wanted to see if she had it all- the brains and the looks. It wouldn’t hurt if she was hot- the interview wouldn’t be so painfully boring then.

I smirked to myself as my thoughts went that way again. Just as the hand of my watch passed 7.27AM, I heard a knock.

“Come in,” I say. 

My secretary poked her head in and smiled. 

“Mr Doyle, Miss Vicki is here for you,” She says and steps aside to reveal the student.

I raised my eyebrow slightly. She was dressed in a loose, oversized black babydoll dress that hid her figure and she had a black backpack on her. Her thick black short hair framed her face and doe eyes stared back at me, shyly.

I gestured for her to take the seat opposite me and my secretary closed the doors to my office. 

“So,” I smiled. That smile. My smile.

I saw her blush deepen and I smirked internally. She’s pretty and not exactly my type but she’ll do for the night. 

“Erm, I’m Vicki, a third year student at Oxford. I’m here on behalf of the students from my faculty. We really appreciate that you’ve taken the time off your busy schedule to allow us such an interview.”

I cocked my head. 

“What would you like to know?” I ask. I stared into her eyes, my gaze piercing. I watched as her eyes dropped to her lap, flustered. She raised her head slightly, peeking at me through her long, thick eyelashes. I felt my heart skip a beat for a second and I had to mask my surprise. 

“Please go on,” I say. 

She nodded and looked down at her notes. She clicked the the red button on her iPhone and began the questions.

Her questions were predictable; not anything I’ve never answered before. However, I did not show it. I wasn’t going to ruin my chance for some action tonight. 

When I finally answered her last question, she closed her notebook and packed her bag.

She stood up, smiling at me.

“Thank you, Mr Doyle. I look forward to your next novel.”

Wait. Wait!

I stood up too, much quicker than I would have liked.

“I... You’re leaving?”

She looked at me, confused.

“Yes? We’re done with the interview.”

I opened my mouth, trying to find the words. She was supposed to ask for my number. She was supposed to ask if she could see me again. She was supposed to run into my arms- exactly like all the other girls.

She continued to stare at my bewildered face. 

I took a peek at the mirror hanging at on my wall. My blueish grey hair was tousled slightly and my white dress shirt was buttoned down, exposing a bit of my well-toned chest. I looked every bit the sex god that I am. Heck, I was even wearing my tortoise shell spectacles! 

“Mr Doyle?”

Huh? My attention shifted to her once more. Undaunted, I gave her my best smile.

“Sorry, I was...distracted for a second. You’re sure you don’t have any more questions for me?”

She shook her head. Hmm...

“Right. What are your plans after graduation?”

She stuck her bottom lip out. God, that’s cute. 

“I want to work in a publishing house,” She said simply.

“We’re always looking for interns here. I can save you a spot now. I’ve seen your portfolio; it’s really good. I could do someone like you,” I say. 

“Really?”

“Yes.” Especially that last part. 

“I’ll consider it. Thank you, Mr Doyle.” She turned to leave.

Shit. Fuck, no. Don’t go.

“Hold on, Ms Vicki. Would you need photographs to go with your piece?”

She stopped in her tracks, a smile lighting up her face.

“That would be great actually!”

I was stunned for words for a moment. Her smile was... dazzling. It illuminated my dark office and I felt myself gulp. What is she doing to me? I’ve never felt this way about any girl, ever. 

I walked over to her, handing her the name card I had taken from my desk. 

“Here’s my card. Give me a call when you want those pictures.”

She took the name card gingerly and our fingers brushed. She flinched slightly and I knew she felt that wave of electricity too. I was suddenly aware of how close we were standing together. I reached out to touch her cheek but stopped myself when I saw her eyes widened. 

“I’ll take my leave now,” She says quickly. 

When her hand clutched the handle, she turned to looked at me once more.

“Call me,” I say. “Vicki.” 

She nodded and disappeared through the door. 

I sat down on my chair with a thump and ran my hand through my hair, groaning.

What is up with me? I would have never in my life imagined that it would be me, me asking a lady to call me. I was used to being fawn over and I had never failed to get a lady successfully in bed, till today. How was she able to resist me? I knew she had to have had some sort of attraction to me or she wouldn’t have blushed at my smile. I found myself extremely intrigued and... aroused. 

I was in a meeting with a few of my editors. They were rambling about my current book and I was daydreaming. I had thought of her many times during the past few days. All naughty thoughts of course. I wouldn’t expect any less from myself. But then, I had also thought of things I never thought I would have wanted to share. I saw her laughing as I fed her crab meat from my winter house in Hokkaido. I saw her lying next to me as we sipped wine in a field near my villa in Italy. 

“Arthur?”

I was jolted back to reality when I heard one of my editors call my name.

“Your phone is ringing,” He says.

Oh.

I picked up the iPhone. Unknown number. Hope swelled in my chest. Could it be?

“Doyle,” I answered. 

I heard rustling and someone taking a deep breath.

“Hi, Mr Doyle. It’s me, uh, Vicki.”

I couldn’t help the grin that was now plastered on my face. I’m sure I looked positively goofy at the moment but I didn’t care. I ignored the odd looks on my team’s faces.”

“Vicki,” I breathed. Saying her name sent a jolt throughout my whole body. 

“We would love to have a few shots for the piece. Would you be free tomorrow?”

“Yes,” I answered, a little too eagerly. “Will you be there?”

There was a pause.

“Yes I will be, to facilitate.”

“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“See you tomorrow, Mr Doyle.” She said, hanging up. 

I placed my phone back on the table and looked up to see everyone staring at me. They were smirking. 

“What?” I asked, irritated. 

They ignored me and proceeded to drill me on my novel. 

My lips trembled as I tried to suppress my smile. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow. 

Tomorrow, I win Vicki. 

[jeffybruce]

Allow me to introduce you to Jonzu Jones

I know I have said this a bazillion times but I can never stop praising the internet for allowing me to expand my web, pun intended, of “friends” to include some of the most prestigious, gracious, intelligent, talented, beautiful and creative people in the world.

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My latest addition, complements of Instagram, is Jonzu Jones! You might say ... who? You might say what is a Jonzu? But, all of your questions will be answered by reading this very articulately written interview.

I am one of those weird people who use Instagram not only for visual stimulation but also as a search engine since I have this peculiar habit of actually reading the hashtags, following them and it is that little idiosyncrasy which leads me to people like Jonzu. Needless to say, the first thing that caught my eye was his incredible physicality and then via countless conversations…. I have to come to learn there is way more to this young man that just his outward appearance. He is a hive of talents and aspirations.

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That old adage about not judging a book by its cover is particularly apt here as this man is so much more than just skin-deep beauty and yes, I am occasionally taken in by that beauty but this time I feel confident that I have made a friend who deserves attention both as model and stylist as you will see in his images.

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So, now that I have gushed about him, he is going to tell you about his life, some of which is hard to believe, and then … well you’ll have to read all of it to find out more… and believe it or not ... this know it all namely, ME, … actually learned something from what he had to say ….

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Jeffrey Felner: Let’s talk about your career path... was this the plan? How did you arrive at your present working situation?

Jonzu Jones: I feel like my career is always taking twists and turns. I had a vague idea from young of what I wanted to do and it has always been in the realm of art and fashion. I am still learning and growing, figuring things out along the way and to be honest just winging it. I will say I had a distinct vision of the man I wanted to be and more and more I became this idealized version of myself that the 12-year-old drew up. Currently I am a freelance fashion stylist, which I’ve been doing for around 7 years and I’ve been lucky to work with some truly incredible artists during that time. Styling came about as a kind of extension of me wanting to be a designer. I studied fashion design in high school and college and for so long I truly believed that was my true innate calling. I may revisit design in the future but styling has really been my big passion. While studying design, I was assisting fashion editors and stylists for school credit and to mold my approach to design. After doing that for a bit and loving it, I branched off as a freelance stylist and the rest is history.

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My second career which is fairly new is being a model. I by no stretch of the imagination believed this could be me as an angsty teen. I was the weird kid most of my life and still in a lot of ways am that same kid. I grew up hating my body, uncomfortable in my skin, shy and awkward as fuck. I was content aiming to be unseen and more behind the scenes but still having a name. Being on set more and more as a stylist and dressing in my outlandish garb, I would on occasion get snapped by the photographer. These unexpected instances unlocked something in me and I guess deep within me was a craving to be in front of the camera more. This was short lived and after a 2 ½ year stint playing house wife, gaining 80 pounds, and losing a lot of confidence, I needed a reboot. After leaving my marriage at 24, I did a full visual reset, getting tatted, ripped from home using Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) app Center, and jumping full on into modeling. Side note… at this point I binge watched Top Model and was also religiously studying the model greats of the 80s to present times. While on set as a stylist I found myself studying models more than usual as well as photographers’ notes on poses. I am still figuring shit out as a model for sure but I’ve definitely learned a few tricks of the trade that have come in handy. The path continues and not sure where exactly it’s going to lead but I’m sure as hell having fun on this journey.

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JF: Do you or did you have any style or any type of mentors or those who continue to inspire or inspired you as you have matured and why them?

JJ: One of my biggest stylist inspirations is Patti Wilson**. She truly knows how to do avant-garde but also make it sexy, dark, and accessible.

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JF: If you could invite any 5 people to dinner, who would they be and why?

JJ: Lady Gaga for sure. She’s a fellow Aires and I think we’d connect on weird and obscure references.Daphne Guinness because she is a major style icon for me and I need any excuse to roam her probably never-ending closet.Cody Fern because he’s a cutie and his personal style is pretty damn amazing.

If she were still alive, Edie Sedgwick because she really inspired me as a kid as being my glamour girl. It wasn’t Marilyn or Judy; it was Edie with the sickening Smokey eye. Someone not here anymore but David Bowie. Still a huge inspiration to me, visually and aesthetically.

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JF: If you could choose any collaboration or situation, what would it be and why? would it be as model or stylist and why?

JJ: I would say to work with Steven Klein. His work is a huge inspiration to me and I pretty much reference at least 1 of his images in every shoot I do. In an ideal world I’d model for him with Patti Wilson styling me. She’s the one stylist whose decisions I’d never question.

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JF: Can you tell what was your most amazing experience doing what you do and what was the worst experience you encountered and why?

JJ: I think my most amazing experience so far was shooting with Robin Lord Taylor a few years ago. I’ve worked with quite a few celebs and high-profile people but I’m pretty much a comic geek and mega fan of Gotham. Robin’s character Penguin was one of my top 3 favorite characters on the show and having the opportunity randomly to work with him was so amazing. He also really rocked it on set!

Worst experience was working with a specific photographer whose name I shall not mention out of respect but that whole day ended up being a nightmare. His first words to the team was “I usually have a better team I work with normally” so that kind of set the bar for the shit show of that shoot. There’s was a moment where he chucked a pair of shoes because they were not Prada or luxury enough. Besides the fuckery of that day and being that it was a non-paying TFP shoot for a known NY magazine, he actually tried to sue me and a couple other team members from that day for copyright since we posted the final images in our portfolio. Twas messy indeed and in retrospect, I should have probably handled things differently at the time like packing up and getting the heck outta there. New, evolved, and candid me probably would have ripped him to shreds but I was younger and a lot nicer…. still nice but don’t take as much shit as I used to.

https://www.instagram.com/jonzu/ click image to enlarge

**Patti Wilson has worked with Steven Klein, Steven Miesel,mmmm