#also the scribbles in the corner are her actual design

[aquatic-batt]

I LOVE CHARACTER DESIGN ‼️

[mayordea]

Happy birthday to the number one princess in the world!! 💖

~from her biggest fans :)

ramble of my scattered thoughts on the piece under cut as usual cuz i love talking 😋

This has been an idea I've been cookin for a while, and it was so cluttered and unlike any other ensemble piece I've made... and I decided I oughta do it anyway. I love Miku, I love Vocaloid, and I wanted to do something really ambitious and crazy for her anniversary. Crazy that she's turning her "canon" age this year TwT

I had the idea floating around since like, May...? And then finally started acting on it around June 18. I'm terrible with deadlines, obvious with how I can never make a silly birthday post in time, so I started wayyyy ahead to make sure I have some room to be lazy lol, especially with an idea as ambitious as this.

This was finished on July 12! So I had to sit on this for an annoying amount of time. Very difficult for someone like me who just wants to talk about everything I'm working on to the masses. But at the very least, that gave me the time to work on the draft for this post.

~~~

Here's some ~behind the scenes~ scribbles leading up to the finished piece!

Left is the chicken scratch plan i made in my handy dandy notebook (whenever things are getting real and ambitious, i always made a rough ROUGH plan in there. Usually I'd do a rough pass of the full thing, but this was too complicated for me to do traditionally. I majorly benefited from digital tools to make this possible). CyberDiva and CyberSongman were considered, but I ended up cutting them cuz I just didn't feel like drawing them sorry-- (just pretend they're off to the side. They gave Ruby and Clara the pizza lol). Right is the "final" completed sketch (before I decided to include Chika mid-way through coloring and VY1 and VY2 near the finish line). I started by drawing the main "groups" separated on a different canvas so I can plop them into the main canvas for easy rearranging and transforming. However I got lazy and ended up drawing everyone in the bottom right corner directly on the canvas since I liked seeing the big picture of everyone's positions. Y'know.

Almost excluded Chika! But I like her design so much that I just felt like including her last-minute. You win this time, Chika fans. VY1 and VY2 were very close to being cut! I added them when I began doing the banner and thought "eh why not". I figured their non-human designs would be pretty easy to include pushed back in the bg. Ik VY1 is more commonly associated with the fan design, but I referenced the hairpin cuz it was simpler and the fan looked very annoying to draw 😭

Sorry to the fans of many Vocaloids I had to cut because this composition was insane enough as is. I promise I wanted to include fellas like CUL, LUMi and Sachiko 😭 I will admit I was a little biased on who I wanted to include over others. Like, I don't normally care for Bruno and Clara, but I wanted to get some more international 'loids in the mix. Also wanted to stick in the realm of official designs and not fan-designs since, as much as I can appreciate those, are just a whole "wait who is that guy supposed to be" situation I didn't wanna deal with. I also did wanna include even more character references through the balloons, but they ended up being kind of ugly and overcomplicated the BG :,) (Oh, and while this was originally planned to be a Vocaloid-only piece, I did end up including Teto, Neru, and Haku 'cuz those are Miku's besties dude!!! They may not be Officially in the club but they're her girls and it would be criminal to not invite them to her birthday).

Anyway, this project marks the first time I've drawn a lot of Vocaloids. Lily, Piko, Rana, Yuki, Yukari, Miki, Maika, and many more lol. All of 'em I've heard or seen in passing, but now I actually drew them, and some have really cool and fun designs!! I got into a habit of drawing Merli after this since I just love her design for example. And I'll probably be drawing more lol!!

Oh and the last thing I'll add for now!! The cake is indeed made up of various song references!! I wanted to reference the "big four" producers, just absolute icons in Vocaloid history. The pink/black checkerboard is "World is Mine" (Ryo), the crescents on the side is "Rolling Girl" (Wowaka), the smiley faces is "Matryoshka" (Hachi), and the three hearts on the side is "The Vampire" (DECO*27, which is sort of a symbol of his whole Mannequin album tbh). I know "The Vampire" is a bit modern but I couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head. I'm a fake DECO fan I know 😔 "Matryoshka" was originally going to be referenced in the colors of the candles but believe me it looked like shit so I just went for something else last minute 😭

That's all I have to say!!! Hope you didn't mind the text wall if you made it here. I hope you like it as much as I do!!!! Happy freakin' birthday Miku!!!!

I have to deal with tagging all these characters now for my page,,, in the drafts my tags got cut off after a certain point so I think I'm massively breaching the tag limit 😭 um... I'll figure that out later...

not losing sleep that i can't tag everyone, even for page organization purposes because some characters have pretty generic names and some are a little hard to see in full yknow. If you're one of those people who tag every character in the art piece you reblog... I am very sorry.

[jjunieworld]

07. wtf is your issue? ⸝ ˚⋆

↳ half written, half texts. word count: 2.6k

the walk wasn’t that far from your dorm room to sakura’s house. you and your friends all decided to walk so you could all drink, but thinking about it, you realize this may have been a bad idea. five super drunk people walking home in the middle of the night on the roads? yeah… the idea wasn’t your brightest.

it doesn’t help that you also dropped your fries earlier in the walk trying to do a cartwheel, so you were still kinda hungry.

the five of you reached the driveway of sakura’s house, which was gated with a small crowd of people and three security guards. you look between each other.

“all this for a college party seems excessive,” jake says aloud. he was right. you would’ve thought this was some high luxury celebrity after party or something.

“for all we know, beyoncé might be here,” yunjin adds.

you wait your turn as the guards scribble things on clipboards, sometimes sending people away with annoyed looks or straight up crying. i guess you knew sakura and her friends were well off, but you didn’t know it was this well off.

finally it was you and your friends’ turn. the guard barely looked at you as he said, “name?” you got a peek at the clipboard to see lists of names along with a small picture printed next to them.

“y/n…” you trail off. “y/n y/l/n? these are my friends… sakura said i could bring them.” you motion to your friends behind you. he flips a couple pages, pen trailing down the page, and lands on your name. it had one of your highschool school pictures along with “FRIENDS ALLOWED” typed next to it.

you cringed a little at the picture, of all the ones she could’ve chosen, she chose that one? you’ll admit, it wasn’t your best photo, and you wished it wouldn’t see the light of day.

the guard stepped to the side and pressed a button that opened the gate. it gave a slight screech before beginning to move and the guard motioned you in without another word. you looked to your friends and they looked just as bewildered as you. stepping through, the gate quickly closed behind you and you heard the guard ring out a “next!”

“if i knew it was gonna be this high security and luxurious i would’ve put on a different outfit,” yeonjun says as you all walk to the door. it’s a big white door with a decorated semi-transparent glass accent.

the rest of the group murmur their agreements. you spent a lot of time on your outfit, not wanting a plain outfit since it was a party and not wanting an outfit that was so over the top you would’ve been overdressed and uncomfortable. you settled on a skirt that was designated as your going out skirt, it was a little shorter than you would’ve liked, and a nice long sleeved cardigan top so you wouldn’t get cold on the walk back to your dorm. you kinda wished you would’ve just went with the over the top option.

you could hear the music from outside and it only got louder as you went in. people were shouting over the music just to hear each other. bodies were dancing everywhere, red solo cups were strewn about, and some people were even in corners already passed out.

“let’s get some drinks!” hueningkai shouted, and you all nodded. there was a whole huge bar set up with staff working. and from the looks of it, the drinks looked unlimited based on the wall of alcohol behind them.

walking up to the bar, the group mainly got either whiskey or tequila. you weren't a big drinker, but tonight was a special case.

“dance with me!” yunjin said, pulling you with her. in turn you grabbed the nearest hand of your friends, which happened to be hueningkai’s, and pulled them with you.

the crowd was so large, you wondered how many people were actually at this party as yunjin led the two of you towards the center. it had to be at least three hundred people, maybe even more with how big the house is. you were only on the first floor.

you all downed your drink and let the music playing through the speakers flow through you. circus by britney spears started playing and you could feel your nerves melt away by the second.

i feel the adrenaline moving through my veins. spotlight on me and i’m ready to break.

“oh my god!” yunjin squealed and jumped a little. “i love this song!” she took you and kai’s hands as she began to dance. you both laughed as you joined her.

i’m like a performer, the dance floor is my stage. better be ready, hope that you feel the same.

in the back of your mind, you imagined the just dance dance to this song and it made you laugh a little. you’re surprised hueningkai didn’t start doing it the amount of times you danced it together. you glanced at him and could tell he was holding it in.

all eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus.

you closed your eyes and threw your hands in the air as you danced to the beat. you felt someone spin you and opened your eyes as yunjin sang the lyrics.

you felt alive dancing in this small circle with some of your closest friends.

at some point between the end of the song and the middle of the next, you three decided to get more drinks, ready to speed this night up. you don’t even know how many cups you downed… two? three, maybe? all you knew is that you were feeling it now. the world around you was grainy and your head was blissfully clouded.

“what do you think are on the other floors?” jake asked the group, which had migrated to one of the couches a little away from where everyone was dancing. yeonjun shrugged, “let’s go look!”

so you all got up and made your way up the grand staircase towards the door.

on the second floor there were more people dancing, the music continuing through the speakers. surprisingly, there was another fully staffed bar. on the third, there were still a lot of people dancing, but a lot more people seemed to be either playing drinking games, or lounging around. another staffed bar.

“this floor looks more fun,” hueningkai commented and you agreed. the floor was humongous and there were doors to other rooms that you couldn’t see inside.

you pointed to the mostly empty ping pong table that had a couple people playing beer pong, “do you think they’ll let us join?”

when you all walked up to ask they immediately let you join. they were clearly very drunk and spilled the bottle of tequila on the table as they poured it into the ten small cups.

one of the guy’s handed you the ping pong ball, claiming you’re first, and you gladly took it. you were teammates with jake and the guy was teammates with a girl you were assuming was his girlfriend.

your goal was the top of the triangle as it was the closest, but who knows with the alcohol buzzing through you. you hoped the other team were more drunk than you were.

steadying yourself, you locked your eyes on the cup, trying hard to anticipate the amount of force you’d have to put behind the throw. you threw it and held your breath. you released it as you realized you overshot it and it landed in a cup in the back row.

“yes!” jake shouted as he jumped up and down holding you, causing you to laugh. the guy smiled and shook his head as he picked up the cup and drank from it. he removed it from the table and handed another ball to jake.

jake exhaled and bent down a little, completely zoned in. or as zoned in as he could be. he threw it and it landed in the center cup. “bitch cup!” the guy and his friends shouted, cupping their mouths. you raised your eyebrows, “bitch cup?” you laughed and he nodded.

“he has to shoot from his knees until he makes another cup,” the guy replied. jake turned a circle in disappointment, “fuck!” you heard laughter from your friends and joined them. the guy’s girlfriend took the cup and drank it, then discarded it.

she then took a ping pong ball and immediately tossed it. it bounced off the table next to the cups and bounced to the floor.

“yes!” you and jake shouted, high-fiving each other. you grabbed the ball and handed it to the guy. he took it, inhaled, tossed it, and then exhaled. it landed in the top cup.

“damn it,” you said. you picked the cup up and drank, immediately scrunching your face up when your tastebuds came in contact with the contents.

the round went on for a while until jake threw the ball and landed it in the final cup you needed. suddenly you were crowded by all your friends, jumping and yelling in excitement.

the game continued for about another hour, you and jake in the lead with four to zero. that was, until yeonjun got the final cup and eliminated you two. you picked the cup up, giving him a playful side eye, and turned to walk to the couch as you drank. you were absolutely gone by this point and you swayed from side to side, barely standing, trying to drink and walk at the same time. “woah there!” one of the guy’s friends said and helped you to the couch.

as you finally managed to connect your lips to the cup, you eyes wandered to the opening door, immediately connecting with soobin’s. the stare lingered for a second before you looked away, downing the cup. once you sat on the couch and were steady, the guy went back to his seat.

you could feel his stare weighing down on you as you saw him move through the floor with his friends out the corner of your eyes. he disappeared and you sighed. you decided to scroll on your phone as you waited for the beer pong game to end.

— SOOBIN’S POV —

anger rushed through him, absolutely flooded him. he wished that he didn’t drink what he did. maybe then he could push these feelings down like he’s been doing all day.

he needed to find sakura. demand to know what the fuck she was doing here.

soobin turned to his two friends, beomgyu and sunghoon, who were drinking out of red solo cups next to him. “where’s sakura?” he almost seethed. he had to hold it together.

“fuck if i know,” sunghoon replied, taking a drink from his cup. “i’m surprised you weren’t following her around like a lost puppy,” taehyun said, sitting next to him. sunghoon shoved him, causing some alcohol to spill on taehyun’s pants. taehyun laughed.

“she’s probably upstairs or something,” beomgyu added. soobin downed his drink and slammed the cup on the table, standing up. “woah… what’s wrong with you?” taehyun asked, shocked by the outburst. soobin gave a wry laugh, “nothing.”

making his way through the floor towards the stairs, his eyes landed once again on y/n. she was laughing at the fact that one of her friends completely missed the cup by a mile. her eyes wandered to his and she immediately turned and looked away, talking to some guy soobin didn’t know.

what the fuck? who the hell even is that? was she doing this on purpose? to make him jealous?

he had to stop himself from going over there. clenching his fists at his side, he continued to the stairs.

once soobin got to the fourth floor he did a quick scan around. like the previous floor, this one was also packed. a guard stood at the entrance. soobin paid him no mind as the guard stepped to the side and let him through.

towards the back, sakura sat on a couch surrounded by a group of girls, two of them the girls from yesterday. her head turned to him as he approached.

“well if it isn’t the man of the hour!” she smiled and took a sip from her margarita. the ice clinked together as she did.

“we need to talk,” soobin said, and turn on his heels, not bothering for her response.

he walked towards the center of the floor close to one of the walls where it wasn’t as crowded. he heard the click-clack of sakura’s heels as she followed, shouting his name.

sakura grabbed soobin’s shoulder and pulled him towards her so he would turn around. as soon as his eyes locked on her, he angrily asked, “what the hell is wrong with you?” she gave him a dumb look, which annoyed soobin more.

“what are you talking about?” she asked, crossing her arms.

“y/n,” he replied, “why is she here?” sakura dropped her arms. “i invited her for you! i even let her bring her friends.” she rolled her eyes at the last sentence.

soobin took a deep breath. “i didn’t ask you to do that.”

“i’m not seeing the problem.”

when soobin just stared at her, she she sharply exhaled and continued. “i invited her to help you out. i threw this party for you! so she can stop being up her own ass and you can win this bet! can’t you see that i was trying to fucking help you?”

soobin couldn’t keep in his anger anymore. if he wasn’t so buzzed, he’d be seeing red right now.

“i don’t need your fucking help!” he yelled, scaring sakura and causing to take a step back. he raked his hands through his hair and turned, making his way towards the bar that was on the floor. “what the fuck is your issue?” sakura yelled after him. he didn’t know. he really didn’t.

he waved one of the staff over and asked for something strong. from his pocket he felt his phone buzz.

fuck. fuck! soobin wanted to throw his phone.

why did he just do that? why didn’t he just leave the texts alone?

he knew why. all he was thinking about when replying was sakura’s stupid ass choices. that guy who y/n was talking to. wasn’t she clinging to him when he first saw her?

soobin downs his drink and asks for another, downing that too. fuck, he has to fix this.

like he’s on fire, he jumps from his seat and sprints down the stairs to the third floor. he looks towards the ping pong table where he last saw y/n, but she isn’t there. neither are her friends. he jogs up to the people he saw with them earlier.

“that group that was with you,” he says, “where’d they go?” a girl tells him they left the floor about five minutes ago. shit, soobin thinks, i need to catch her before she leaves the house.

he turns on his tracks and runs down the stairs. second floor, nothing. he makes it down to the ground floor and frantically searches around.

spotting yeonjun with a cup in his hand heading towards the door, he runs up to him and grabs him by the arm. yeonjun turns to him, eyebrows furrowed. he opens his mouth to speak but soobin beats him to it.

“y/n… where is she?” soobin breathes.

yeonjun looks him up and down. harshly removing his arm from soobin’s grasp, he spits, “it’ll be better if you just leave her alone. nothing good ever comes from being involved with you and the people you call your friends.” with that, he turns his back on soobin and walks out the door.

masterlist.

summary: choi soobin has always been the popular kid surrounded by his popular friends. y/n… not so much. one night, soobin and his friends make bet that soobin can’t get y/n to date him in a month. unfortunately for y/n, they’re a hopeless romantic.

A/N: the ball dropped😨 quite literally… enjoy! i don’t think i’ve mentioned this before but please ignore the timestamps for this smau lmao

taglist: @imagineyour-kpopboy @gothgyuu @carengene (if your name is bold it wouldn’t let me tag you!)

— kipo <3

[thefreakandthehair]

@eddiemonth prompt, oct 12th: Soulmates | Eight - Sleeping at Last | Perceptive a/n: steddie, soulmates au (phillia + eros). eddie & jeff as platonic soulmates, stobin soulmates mentioned always. un-betaed because I’m challenging myself to write these in under an hour. read on ao3 | link to masterpost on ao3

Soulmates, Eddie scoffs to himself as he doodles in his notebook at the back of the coffee shop. Bullshit. 

He knows it’s actually not, that people walk around every day hand-in-hand with beautiful, swirling tattoos that grow in intricacy and detail the more time they spend with their soulmate. Most days, Eddie doesn’t mind that the simple snake design on the inside of his wrist never so much as slithers, but today? Today, he minds. 

Dating in the world of soulmates is challenging. He tries to just focus on how feels, on if the person sitting across from him is compatible with his lifestyle, on if there’s any kind of spark, but it’s inevitable that at some point, both he and his date look down at their wrists to find nothing. 

His coffee date had gone well enough but, like always, was a dead-end. How many paths can one person try before the destination seems moot? 

So he sits and scribbles in his notebook, hoping that perhaps staying in the coffee shop rather than returning home to the apartment he shares with Jeff will provide some inspiration. That tattoo, the one that’d started as a small star on his ankle, has grown into a whirling galaxy since moving in with Jeff– a philia connection if he’s ever seen one. But if his eros tattoo won’t build upon itself naturally, he’ll do it manually with a tattoo gun. 

It also helps that the barista is perhaps the most beautiful man Eddie’s ever laid eyes on, enough so that it’s… actually a little intimidating, if he’s being honest with himself. Intimidating to the point that Eddie’s yet to approach him for a refill since the girl who’d given him his first sugary abomination finished her shift. Besides, the mystery barista must’ve already found his soulmate. His entire left arm, from fingertip to at least his elbow, is covered in delicate, colorful designs that twist and wind about his skin, curling around each finger and looping gracefully up his arm.

I can still enjoy the view, he justifies to himself, taking a sip from his cup and remembering for the third time that it’s empty. 

He sighs and sets it back down, clearing his throat. It’s as good a time as any, he supposes, as he stands from his little corner table by the window and strolls across the room to the counter. 

“Hi, what can I get started for ya?” The barista asks, his name tag now visible and proclaiming Steve. 

“Uh,” he starts. “Salted caramel mocha, please?” 

Steve’s smile is bright and he leans on the counter, leveling it straight in Eddie’s direction. All Eddie wanted was a refill on his sweet treat disguised as coffee and instead, it feels as though he’s smacked in the head.

“Comin’ right up,” Steve replies, turning around to get his order going. “You’ve been sitting over there for a while, how’d that date go?” He asks with the confidence and familiarity of someone Eddie’s known his entire life. 

“Watching me, were you?” 

Steve grins over his shoulder, shrugging. “A little.” 

“I’m flattered. Well, I’m still here and they’re not so that oughta tell you everything.” 

Steve hums and turns back to the machine, finishing up his order. Eddie’s heart beats rhythmically, somehow slowing and quickening all at once and his lungs feel buoyed by something more powerful than his breath. When Steve faces him again and hands him his cup, exchanging it for the empty one in Eddie’s hand, they both freeze. 

Eddie’s snake begins to move. 

A clear, serpentine movement at the center as small, geometric lines begin to appear in the background. 

“Holy shit,” Eddie whispers, setting his full cup down so he doesn’t spill it. 

“Yeah, holy shit.” Steve places his other arm on the counter, the blank one, and Eddie sees that it’s not blank. There’s a small, barebones tree on his forearm whose leaves begin to blossom and shake, different shades of greens and oranges appearing before his eyes. 

“But– your other arm?” Eddie chokes out, eyes flickering between his own wrist, Steve’s forearm, and Steve’s other, fuller arm. 

“Philia. That’s Robin. But this one, this is eros.” Steve smiles again, matching the one Eddie can feel spreading across his own face as he looks up from his forearm. “I’m Steve.”

Steve smiles again, matching the one Eddie can feel spreading across his own face as he looks up from his forearm. Eddie looks in wonderment, searching for any sign of lie or trickery in Steve’s eyes and finds nothing but warmth and familiarity. 

“I’m Eddie.”

[fleouriarts]

sketchbook duuuuump :3 nothing to do in this town AND my stylus isn't working its a perfect storm for filling this thang up

descriptions and such below

feel like the fursona ones are self explanatory. the rileys are basically all inspired by this person's compilations... if you havent seen the clip that the bottom corner drawing is from please do yourself a favor

this was all development shit for the zakharovs who i posted last week. sergei is igor's former childhood friend who i have not come up with much about yet... all i know is he is also a fashion designer (who makes winter clothes specifically) and he has an illegitimate son named nikolai who is an arctic fox (and who i have not drawn yet)

omg okay so if anyone remembers my last sketchbook dump i introduced this character andre in there (and her name was andres but i changed it to andre bc i like it more for whatever reason). anyway ive been drawing him OBSESSIVELYYYYY and have decided that him and null get together at some point after argyle and jamie make up (i desperately need to make a jamie and co timeline post)... but it lasts like one semester and thats it. andre is too vain and too know-it-all for null's tastes even though shes like super hot and nice otherwise. anyway this is just a bunch of drawings of him. i really like how the one of him in my INSANE hat turned out

santiago and null's joint slay... both of them LOVE to gossip with each other and its instrumental to how jamie and argyle make up (will go into detail when i finally figure out all the actual events of that). also andre and null on a hike bc andre is a biology major. i actually drew that while i was on a hike in red rock canyon heres proof

5. mostly just scribbling trying to get better at drawing santiago including more of him and null and his prime Jamie Comforting Tactic of just letting him chill between his wool and sweater. also two drawings of jamie just 4 fun i draw him and his stupid big eyes whenever im out of ideas

6. idk this is just silly stuff. i draw johnny manhandling jamie a lot and i promise you jamie LOVES being treated like a stuffed animal he thinks its SO FUN to be spun around and wiggled and shit. ferret adjacent. him and johnny have been friends since they were in like elementary school because of this. btw santiago does not usually look like that (only having wool on his head) he just has to shear his wool in the summer because having full wool in the flurrida heat is AWFUL

7. comic i drew at the laundromat LOL. takes place either shortly before OR shortly after andre and null get together. johnny mostly hates andre for being with null (shes jealous) (she wants null all to herself even though shes super noncommittal) (johnny get your shit together) BUT ALSO andre being kinda pretentious makes her want to chokeslam him. andre is talking about bird farming specifically because johnny's family are chicken farmers... ive had a lore post about everyone's families in my drafts for months but i cant finish it til my stylus is fixed TT

8. more nonsense. top left corner is a continuation of johnny being a hater. bottom drawings are just mindless jamie doodles. top right is argyle and jamie during their relationship, i cant decide if jamie had REALLY short hair during it or hair like this that's basically just his current hair without the yellow dye and tiny ponytail. whatever

[y0imiy9]

my modern!mizu take is that she would be a baker. she'd still be around sharp things and have plenty of dough to work with to get her hands moving. she'd make very intricate designs on sourdough and use multiple razors to achieve each design to make sure every cut is clean.

(forgive my basic ass writing this is purely for my self indulgent hyper specific job au ideas that cannot be contained. also compulsory english is my second language note 👍 any improvement/criticism on my terrible writing is greatly appreciated 💪)

she'd have a small at home bakery and ringo would be the one doing deliveries!! taigen lives next door and would complain that "all the heat is being drained from my house to power your stupid ovens" but would have his windows wide open every morning to smell the fresh bread. mizu knows taigen doesn't like her much, so whenever there's an extra loaf of bread that doesn't sell, she'd leave out the loaf hanging on his doorknob and knock twice before scurrying back to her door. taigen secretly likes mizu's sourdough bread and often waits for the familiar sound of firm knocks on his door.

akemi is her number 1 client bc her family owns a restaurant that serves dinner rolls with meals. mizu doesn't even specialise in dinner rolls. she makes them just for akemi.

akemi's family come from a long line of restaurant owners that built their way up to a humble semi-casual fine dining establishment. akemi doesn't really like working at the restaurant. the hours are too long, the customers are too snobby, the uniform is too tight, and so on. but she stays bc she knows how important it is to her dad to be in the family business. her compromise? never directly serve customers. ever. so that's how she ended up manning the hostess stand and doing the occasional salt and pepper refills.

one day, mizu decides to personally deliver the rolls instead of ringo. she hasn't actually been to the restaurant after many months of working with akemi's family, so she was curious as to why this restaurant doesn't house make their own. mizu sees akemi working at the hostess stand, not sure if coming in from the front door was the right idea. she should've asked ringo where the back entrance was but forgot bc she was running a little late. akemi was lowkey pissed the delivery was late, but quickly softened her expression once she realises it wasn't ringo.

akemi shows mizu where the back entrance is for the next time she decides to deliver the bread. mizu takes in the decor of the restaurant, surprised to see how sophisticated it is considering dinner rolls aren't exactly the fanciest type of bread. she was expecting more of a family diner style kind of gig, not a live jazz band in the corner kind of establishment.

mizu comments on the fanciness of the place and asks akemi if there needs to be any improvement on the shape or flavour of the rolls to better reflect the quality of the restaurant. akemi chuckles at mizu and waves her off, telling her that her dinner rolls are the reason customers come back, so there's nothing she has to change or improve— they're already perfect.

mizu, somewhat relieved, still feels like something is missing and asks akemi to schedule a meeting with her dad about possibly offering more flavour combinations of dinner rolls. akemi just rolls her eyes and smiles at mizu. she quickly scribbles on her notepad and hands a note over to mizu to come by Friday night before closing since that's when her dad will be working. mizu gives akemi a firm thank you and heads back to her home, ready to start another batch of sourdough. 🥖

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Ezana Concept Art

Concept art and translations for Ezana! Translation notes and image id under the cut.

Translation notes:

On the first page when Ikushima is talking about how he feels pressure to make his drawings beautiful, he's actually saying something more like "Usually with sexy woman I go 'I'm obligated to/I must make them beautiful!'... " but no matter how I phrased it the wording felt awkward in English, so I changed the sentence to go without the quotes.

There's a note on the second page above the monochrome sketch that was pretty hard to read (the middle character in particular might have been scribbled out?), so I kind of guessed at the rough meaning from the surrounding characters. The first kanji seems to be 玄, which has the general meaning of "mysterious, occultness, black, deep, profound," and the third kanji seems to be 器, which has the general meaning of "utensil, vessel, receptacle, implement, instrument, ability, container, tool, set". I went with "mysterious staff" as the meaning of the kanji together, also working off of the fact that it's. um. pointing at a staff that seems vaguely mysterious.

"Call forth the rain" was more literally just "rain," but it uses a particle at the end that has a vaguely commanding/requesting vibe to it, so I added extra words to convey that.

There's a part on the second page where I write "SHAMAN" in all caps. On that particular line, "Shaman" was written out using English phonetics, whereas on the rest of the page when I use the word it's the Japanese word for an equivalent concept.

"Lines like a weather map" is literally "isobar pattern". I'm assuming that most people aren't familiar with the word "isobar" (including myself) but from a brief google search, isobars are the lines that show up on a map when weather forecasts are trying to show the range of a storm and the barometric pressure specifically. Since it's (probably) not a commonly-known word, I just wrote out the "weather map" stuff instead.

"Sexy as it sounds" is a weird one. I think it's a portion of this phrase, which is defined as, "not existing despite seeming like it should", but just uses some different particles at the end which I'm assuming make it non-negative (e.g., "as sexy as it should be"). But I couldn't find a ton of examples of how the phrase is used though or what the differences in particles would be, so I just kind of went with the auto-translation I got from Deepl.

Image id:

[id: Multiple images from the Triangle Strategy artbook surrounding Ezana Qlinka. There is a page with a large colored portrait of her, along with a smaller line drawing in the corner. There are two illustrator's notes at the bottom: the first is, "Ezana has a really lovely ethnic design. Actually, after the character's portrait was completed, Mr. Ikushima redid all the linework, which added a lot to the character's beauty! (Yoshiura Rina)" and the second is, "Ezana is primitive, spiritual, and also a mysterious kind of character. With sexy women I usually feel pressure to make them beautiful, but strangely she was very easy to draw. I like how the natural colors are interspersed with the lapis lazuli. (Ikushima Naoki)". On the second page, the top half has several drawings of Ezana in a design close to her canon one. It is titled, "Weather Manipulator (Shaman)". There is one drawing where Ezana is without her headdress, captioned, "If there are different ranks of shaman, I think it'd be fine to start out without the headdress." There is a note pointing to her headress labeled, "Sheep's skull with some parts cut off," and another that reads, "Horns. Red and blue cord is coiled." Another note points to a full sheep skull and reads, "Origin. It's been shaved away starting at about this area." It points to roughly the middle of it. Another note points to a feather ruff she wears, labeled, "Crow feathers". Her staff is labeled, "A staff with elements similar to a dreamcatcher". There is a portrait of her from the back, with a note reading, "Back of the dress is open." The second half of the page is titled, "Weather Manipulator (Shaman) Large Brainstorming WIP". There are 5 drawings, each of a different potential design. The first is similar to her canon design, but with darker skin and a black dress. The second is very colorful, and has the notes, "Hear the song from the wind and go into a trance" as well as "Lines like a weather map" and "I think it would look better if the saturation was lowered a little or the colors were narrowed down a bit." The third drawing has a purple cloak with eyes on it, and seems to be throwing seeds into the air, captioned, "Sowing seeds toward the sky." The fourth design uses more pastels/bright colors, and has a drum at her hip. She seems to be saying, "Thunder!" and there is a note that reads, "Beat the cover and let it resonate through the air." The fifth drawing is of a woman wearing a full mask and a heavy cloak made of grass fibers. It has several bullet points including, "Weather Manipulator (Shaman)," "Female SHAMAN", "Indigenous - Separate wind and lightning magic", and "As sexy as it sounds." She holds a staff which is labeled, "Mysterious Staff" and also has a note reading, "Indigenous". She seems to be saying, "Bring forth the rain..." There are two illustrator's notes on the bottom. The first reads, "Mr. Asano requested that I add in leopard print, and I thought about how I could make it unique. (Naoki Ikushima)" and the second reads, "Looking at it again, it's a really sexy outfit. And it's great in battle! (Tomoya Asano)" /end id]

[ember-owlet]

Could I maybe get like cg Jinx, or even just sitter Jinx with a gender neutral little painting her nails?

-M💚

a/c: absolutely! thank you for waiting firelight, one cg! jinx fic coming right up ʚ♡ɞ 

slight tw for mentions of injury! nothing graphic but i wanted to mention there is a  description of a slight nick on jinx’s finger and mention of blood, something to note if that makes you uncomfortable!

dynamic: gn!regressor!reader x cg!jinx  

You found yourself sprawled onto the floor in a bundle of paint sets and crayons, doodling away on large canvases to your heart's content. It was a rather busy week for the both of you. Jinx was trying to make the final adjustments to the latest project in the menagerie of bolts and tools around her desk, her head bobbing back and forth to the music blasting on the old gramophone. You, on the other hand, were tasked with the most important job of them all: decorating duty. "How's that doodle comin' along doodle?" she called out, her attention still attuned to screwing in the last cog to the contraption. It had taken a while before you answered, a small hum ringing in your throat before nodding and striking a quick “thumbs up”. Like your caregiver you were also extremely focused on the task at hand, it was something that you two could always do: get lost in your work. It was something that she loved about you, and you weren’t gonna let her down, that was for sure. 

A small yelp had alerted your attention, watching Jinx’s hands draw quickly back from the moving bolts. You rushed to her side to take her hand in yours, tears beginning to form at the corners of your eyes upon seeing the swelling and blood at the tip of her pointer finger. She chuckles, wiping the tears from your eyes with the non injured hand. It was absolutely adorable how much you cared for her, and touched her to see how much her baby reciprocated her love. “Hey hey, it’s alright. It’s just a scrape, nothin’ a little bandage can’t fix.” Jumping up to her tippy toes she brought down a tin case shaped like a giant eraser lovingly scribbled on top “For Big Mistakes”. Jinx then placed it in front of you to choose the bandaid design, giggling when you grab nearly all of them to give back to her. After a bit of time you had managed to help her dress the scrape. You couldn’t remember where the original cut was actually located, the entirety of her finger covered in brightly colored elastic webbing. 

Holding Jinx’s hands in your own you noticed how slim and dainty they appeared, though there seemed to be something else in serious need of attention: her fingernails. The tip of the injured finger had a chip on the top, seemingly as it was cut on the culprit cog. And on the rest of her hand each nail’s polish had been worn and chipped at the edge. She quickly picked up on the glint in your eye as you looked back at her, pleading a silent request all on your own. “Well, it has been a while since someone else has done my nails. Sure you’re up to the task my little doodle?” she grins, leaning down to hand you the blue and pink nail polish. You practiced with precision, dragging the tiny brush delicately across each nail to layer on the paint. All the while Jinx would bob her head up and down once again to the rhythm of the music, waiting as you finish the last pinky nail to shake them dry. She placed a hand over your head, rustling your hair between her palms. “You did great doodles, I’ll be sure to keep you on paintin’ duty from now on!” 

[flynndesdelca]

For Day 18 (Doug Rattmann) of @chelltastic’s Portal Drawtober 2023 Challenge. As I’m not really an artist, I chose to write short pieces for the prompts.

Another mural to mark the occasion.

Being trapped in the facility and under the mercy of the (then) unknown computer had left Chell frustrated and angry.  Certainly, she completed the tests, but it was never out of a sense of desire.  It was only necessity that spurred her onward.  The notion that something, anything could happen once she completed the tests.  The idea of 'cake', a carrot dangled on a string over her head, had never been as much of a draw as whoever designed that system - the core-addled GLaDOS, perhaps? - had intended.  Chell only had one goal in mind with the completion of the tests: finding a way to escape.  Perhaps finding the people who were administering these tests and negotiating with them over her cooperation, or perhaps simply just punching them, stealing their keys, and running.  She was fine, either way.

In her displeasure she often deliberately attempted to do tests in foolish ways, just to see if she could get a reaction.  She wasn't happy about her situation and she wanted to show it.  Normally there was no reaction, but on the odd occasion that her actions did actually cause trouble, the calm voice of the computer would chide her in its way and then do something to get her out of said situation.  There were myriad ways for her to potentially kill herself, but yet these ones, the ones that didn't involve physical harm, the ones that involved her sitting and doing nothing until she died of starvation or maybe asphyxiation - it was hard to tell how well sealed some of those small chambers were - where the ones that warranted intervention.

It was during her rattling around in her anger that she found the first of the strange 'dens'.  She'd been accidentally - she doubted it was an actual accident - sent on a test course full of live turrets.  She'd been slowly making her way through, cursing everything she could think of silently, when she'd turned a way she perhaps had never been intended to go.  Rather than a dead end or a face full of turrets, she'd found a small secret room.  There scribbled on the wall was a statement that echoed her own misgivings:  the cake was a lie.  It also showed a method to deal with the turrets from afar, which she greatly appreciated.  It had been such a shock, to see signs of life in the otherwise empty, dead place.  Clearly someone had been... living here? Staying? Hiding, most likely.  She had a strange feeling of safety while there, as though somehow she was out of notice.  From then on she started to keep an eye open just in case there may have been more of the same.

She had been rewarded, of course, as in the next test chamber she'd found another place to squeak into.  She had to put down the Companion Cube to do it, but she had been rewarded with another discovery.  While she was certain she was being fed a line about the Companion Cube, whoever it was who had been staying there seemed to be obsessed with them, and was angry and distraught about one having been... killed.  The words chilled her to the bone to see, scrawled on the wall, and she spent the rest of the test being very careful with the cube... only to have to throw it in the incinerator.  She hoped that whoever this person was, that they wouldn't be angry at her for her actions.  If they were still out there, of course.  She hadn't actually seen any evidence of their presence outside of what had remained in those two hidden rooms.

The next one hadn't really been a secret room per se... mostly just a hidden corner, a reprieve.  She had ducked inside to catch her breath but also to try to come up with a plan.  The end was coming up soon and she hadn't thought that far ahead.  She sat and listened to the radio and its tinny little sound, wondering just who would have left it at that station.  Who was the cube-obsessed survivor? Where were they now? What were they doing? Had they made it out of the tests, or had they been one of those who had died there?

Finding the next one had been the furthest thing from Chell's mind when she stumbled across it.  She'd been quite busy after the attempted murder with stalking through the strange rooms she'd found herself in once she had broken out of the testing tracks.  Beyond the clean and sterile testing environment, Aperture had seemingly been left to slowly decay.  While there had been signs of people being there once, there was no longer anyone there.  They were all dead or gone.  Even the mysterious person whose secret sleeping room she now stood in.  She couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it would be to curl up on cardboard, terrified of the murder-minded computer lurking around just outside, calling out in the distant hope of somehow getting compliance.  Laughable, really.  Was that how the test was supposed to end, dropping the test subjects into fire? Or was that something reserved just for her? At this point she wasn't sure what to think.  Right now, though, she was glad for the moment to sit, to try to think beyond her next few steps.  Some of the rooms had bottles of water in them, the outside dusty and the contents stale from sitting but still drinkable, and she was grateful for it.  She was also intensely grateful for the guidance, as without the directions they had left for her to follow she wouldn't have had a sense of where to go in some of the areas.  Even the simple directional arrows had been a great help in navigating the confusing corridors of the rooms behind.

And then it had been her and her alone.  There had been no further signs of her unseen ally, and given the situation she had just managed to drag herself out of she felt as though perhaps they might not have made it through.  The rest of her journey she had made on her own, slowly picking her way through the last areas until she had finally come face-to-face with her tormentor and won her freedom.

Or so she had thought! She had woken up not in the parking lot that she had remembered seeing distantly in her dreams upon the computer's destruction, but inside a Relaxation Chamber as part of its standard subject revitalization protocol.  Had the whole thing simply been a dream? Had she imagined the whole thing, all of the tests and dealing with the mad computer at the centre of it all? Was this her really having finally been awoken for the tests she had been conscripted to? She had no idea what was real and what wasn't, and the ramblings of the crazed core that had taken her Relaxation Chamber and smashed it around before dumping her into an overgrown testing track hadn't helped her to confirm one way or the other how much of what she could recall had actually happened.

All of that reminiscence hadn't prepared her for what she was currently seeing, of course.  The feel of the Single Portal Device in her hands was oh-so familiar, like a glove that had been made for her, and her left hand curled under it instinctively while her right hand hovered over the double triggers with a familiarity that could only have been born of endless repetition.  She stared up at the wall before her, horror and shock creeping onto her face.  It was another of those secret rooms, she recognized the scrawling drawings, but she hadn't expected to see a huge painting of herself there.  This person had been alive the whole time, had seen her, and judging from the paintings in this room had been there for the whole thing right from the computer’s creation.  She stared at the mural of herself, almost certain that she could see paint trickling down from it as though it had only just been daubed up there moments ago.  It was bone dry, of course, but the fact that it was her...  Who was this person who had guided her unseen out of the facility? Where were they? How had they been watching her? So many questions swirled around in her mind.  Would she find signs of their passing again? More secret rooms where they had tucked themselves away? Would she finally get to meet them?

Escape was her plan, once more, and perhaps it would be more straightforward now that the facility was in ruins and she had actual help on her way.   A part of her hoped that she could meet the strange, cube-crazed person who had been so instrumental in her escape.  Knowing that what she had been thinking wasn't simply paranoia from being alone and constantly watched.  Knowing that it was okay to have those feelings had helped her to keep from going completely insane by the end.  If she did happen to find that person... she would really like to thank them.

Really, she hoped that she wouldn't get to see them because they had finally managed to escape.

[niamhmcgall-embroidery]

‘Of Meadows and Blue Skies’ by Melody Money

‘Of Meadows and Blue Skies’ by Melody Money was a solo show at Visions Art Museum in San Diego in 2021 that now lives on the form of an online and video exhibition on the Visions website. Melody Money is a mixed media textiles artist who prides herself on attention to detail and is “motivated to take a medium that is traditionally worked on a smaller scale and expand it to a larger version” and that's evident in this show.

After Melody Money received her Fine Art degree from the University of Colorado, she went on to study prismatic colour theory at Rudolph Schaefer school of design, and this schooling in colour theory shines through throughout the show. This works’ colour pallet is almost exclusively bright warm blues, greens and yellows. Few of the pieces from this collection use colour pallets that could be described as realist. Instead, Money opts for the sort of colours that you could imagine a child choosing for a scribbled marker pen landscape that features a buttercup yellow sun in the corner of the page. It’s clear that these colours, maybe even more so them the actual pieces themselves, were designed to invoke a child-like wonder and love for nature.

Money’s piece ‘field studies’ is more reminiscent of a sample board than a fine art piece but that makes me love it even more. The piece itself is a 4 x 10 grid of textiles field studies, these studies are predominantly beaded embroideries of local wildlife like birds, butterflies and various flora. Money clearly prefers creatures that fly as, apart from one solitary fish, all the animals depicted have wings of some variety. I do not find this preference shocking as the sky is a constant reoccurring character in her work, always lovingly decorated with swirling winds. This piece being a series of studies and not one final piece makes the work seem a lot more personal to Money, I feel like I am witness to a before unseen part of her process which is both greatly endearing and gives greater context to the rest of the work in this collection.

Money uses beading throughout these pieces, most significantly in ‘Rain’ but also rather heavily in ‘Field Studies’. All the beads she has chosen have either an iridescent or metallic quality to them, this means that in the bright lights these pieces shine. In ‘Field Studies’ a trio of blue iridescent swallows pull your focus immediately and in ‘Rain’ the whole lower third of the piece is alight, shimmering with silver bead work. These circles of beads and stitch create pools and puddles of rain that reflect both the faux, stitched light in the piece as well as the real, dynamic light of the exhibition space. Melody Money has said that light is the key to making her art sing, and I couldn't agree more, the beading on both these pieces would have been significantly less impactful and appealing had she opted for dull beads; it would have completely lost the magical shifting colours of the swallows and apparent glow and movement of the pooled water. The effect that light has on these pieces and really all of Money’s work make it such a shame I was only able to view this exhibition in the form of consistently lit photos and a lower quality than I would have liked video. I do think her work is lovely but to have seen her work in reality, especially in shifting sun light, would have been something else entirely.

‘Rain’ is an incredibly dynamic work, though the art itself is ever-stationary. Money’s use of layered vertical strips of differing shades of blue draws your eyes up and down the piece. This paired with the influx of cascading, downward-pointing triangles, which colours fade from navy to white, creates a faux sense of gravity, like the fabric rain is really falling. This effect and the way that Money has achieved it is beautiful and, in my opinion, makes ‘Rain’ the most visually stimulating piece in the collection.

By comparison, ‘Chant’ at first glance is a much simpler work; the colour pallet is more muted, and it lacks the flashy beading and intricate forms of some of the other pieces. Instead, most of the piece is made up of layers of silk shaded fields. From a distance this embroidery looks simply like blended colour, but up close the individual threads are evident and reminiscent of thousands of single plants and grasses. Due to the simplicity of the design of this piece, the intensity of the silk shading shines through. The most impressive element is the scale of the piece and volume of stitches - this amount of embroidery is a feat to undertake. But what I can only assume is dozens and dozens of hours of work has absolutely payed off, as all these dense stitches create this sense of never-ending, empty fields. This feeling is accented by the inclusion by seventeen beads of small iridescent birds in flight, up over the fields into the waiting bright blue sky above. These tiny birds seem little and insignificant in scale, compared to the force of nature that surrounds them, to a degree that I can’t help but feel small alongside them.

‘Of Meadows and Blue Skies' is undeniably a love letter in fabric and thread to the ever-changing natural world that surrounds Money’s home in Colorado. Having grown up in an environment similarly surrounded by nature, Money’s work really speaks to me, it reminds me of the importance of enjoying and protecting the wild spaces around us. Money says in her artist statement “I try to shine a light on everyday moments” and for me she does that both completely and beautifully.

[sweetestberryofthebunch]

The one where One Thing goes wrong

The anatomy room was dead silent. No one spoke a word, no one even dared to sneeze. The only sounds were the scribbling of pencil and coals on paper and their professors instructions for the model in front of them. It was some middle aged guy, nothing too interesting of a motif to sketch. Also nothing Crystal hadn’t sketched before. Of course, their professor tried to hire models of a variety of sizes, age and ethnicity, but if most of the people who volunteered for the job were guys from the nearest city looking for the easiest way to gain some cash, there was only so much they could do.

Crystal knew Bosco had applied for the part at least three times, but Thorgy (the eccentric lady let her students use her first name) had turned them down each time, reminding them that while she would certainly let them, it was against school guidelines. Bosco always gave in, not without complaining to their friends over a joint or two though. It was kind of funny, because Crystal was well aware how some of the sketches in Willows portfolio were definitely Daya and Bosco posing for her, even if she didn’t put much detail into their faces.

The memory of that project forced a little sigh out of Crystals mouth. She had meant to ask Gigi if she would pose for her final project of junior year, but each time they had sat together at lunch Crystal had freaked out over it. In the end she had sketched Nicky, for two reasons: It was a safe option, they were close enough friends to stay remotely serious as Crystal sketched and two, they had smoked multiple joints before and Crystal had kept making Titanic jokes, cracking up at herself more than Nicky did. The sketch turned out well, Thorgy had been very impressed, but Crystal still couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if she had just asked Gigi …

A sharp, short lived pain in her ribs brought Crystal back to reality. She looked up from her sketch to glance over at Willow, who had rammed her elbow right between her ribs. The shorter girl nodded towards the desk, shaking her head at Crystal. Between the two of them was a little notebook, a messy little note written in the corner of the page. Crystal checked whether Thorgy was looking over at them before pulling it closer. Heavens, she always forgot how bad Willow‘s handwriting was.

Stop daydreaming and draw Mr Santaclaus here, we have like 40 mins left.

Biting her bottom lip in frustration, Crystal quickly scribbled an answer.

Wiiiillow :( I wanna go to Lagoona’s partyyyy

Furrowing their eyes in confusion, Willow shot her a questioning glance.

Why? Barely anyone is going, it’s mostly for her rich music friends. We chasing clout now?

Rolling her eyes, Crystal shoved Willows elbow, earning them a sharp hiss from Thorgy. Quickly, both of them leaned back over their sketches, playing innocent until they were sure the professors eyes had trailed off again.

I know Gigi is going though :(

Willow took her time with the answer, actually adding a little bit of shading to her sketch first. For Crystal, that was not an option right now, her mind was too filled with Gigi. She wondered if Symone was going too and if they’d wear matching outfits. Handmade of course, maybe even something Gigi had made in her design class? Sometimes, when the others were out and it was just Gigi and Crystal in the Lake House, Crystal would come over to Gigi‘s room and they’d both work on their projects. Gigi sitting at her desk, the sewing machine rattling along as Crystal laid on her bed, legs kicked up and her sketchbook in front of her. More often than not would Crystal find herself using the same colours of Gigi’s fabrics, or asking for scraps to make a collage out of them. They were some of her most cherished works …

Another shove into her ribs. This time, Crystal gasped out in surprise. Again, Thorgy hissed at them, this time raising a finger in a silent warning. Crystal nodded apologetically before looking back down onto the notebook.

Ask Denali if she has a Plus One. I know she got invited because Olivia won’t shut up about it in the dorms.

Thinking about it, Crystal furrowed her brows.

Are you sure? I haven’t really talked to her …

Willow had to visibly suppress a laugh, wincing as if Crystal was making her physically upset. They wouldn’t stop shaking their head as they worded their answer.

Crys, did you take in a word I said? Barely no one from school is going and Nali swears she would rather chew on her own foot than spend the night with Rosé. She’s gonna be glad for every familiar face there. You’d totally help each other out!

Willow let her read the whole thing, barely able to contain their grin as she finished up her sketch. Thinking about the idea, Crystal tried to save her own drawing, which was still in a way too early stage when they had to hand them in. It was okay though, because she totally had a plan now.

„Jesus Christ“, Denali gasped when they climbed out of the Uber. She stared up at the rows of clean white walls and window fronts climbing up to the stars in front of them. Not only did the three sisters live in the middle of downtown, they also lived in one of the few penthouses around. Bright, neon lights flooded the sidewalk through a full glass wall on of the upper floors, long shadows of the people upstairs.

Crystal stayed silent, but she felt Denali‘s awe in her core. However, the buzzing of her fluttering heart was stronger. Pulling down the skirt of her tight, frilly dress, Crystal tippy-toed her way to the front door. „What name?“, she asked as she scanned the two rows of shiny little golden door bells.

„Sport“, Denali answered, „Like Jan“.

The ride in the elevator was silent. While Crystal wasn’t sure why, Denali seemed just as nervous as she was, if not more. As if she had any reason to. In her pale pink, velvet mini dress and two little braided buns, she looked just like the fancy models and influencers that Crystal expected to see tonight, if not better. The two of them kind of clashed, Crystal in bright red frill with stiletto boots and her hair curled and Denali a vision in pastel. It didn’t stop Denali from interlocking their arms as the elevator came to a halt. „Okay“, she mumbled, „We’ll look for people we know and for booze, right? Liv said Mik and her arrived early …“

Nodding along, Crystal was left to wonder if Gigi had already arrived. She did not have the courage to text her, neither earlier as they got ready in Denali‘s dorm or right now. Willow had sent them off with a roll of her eyes, declaring Crystal useless and the wishing them a good time. God, she loved that little gremlin.

The apartment of the three sisters was just about as opulent as the outside of the place. White surfaces, fancy art on the wall, a whole collection of guitars and a remarkable sound system that blasted Christina Aguilera as the two of them walked in. The open kitchen had a bar, an actual bar, crowded by people and with a tall, dark haired girl with pitch black eyeshadow behind it.

„Adore Delano“, Crystal whispered, „Got her record deal before even graduating.“ Denali‘s eyes were wide, staring around the room. „I know her Crys“, she mumbled, „I watched American Idol.“

„Sorry“, Crystal quickly replied, „I‘m just nervous.“

„Hey“, Denali suddenly looped her arm out of Crystals, „How about I go get us something to drink and you look for Liv or someone? Or Jan maybe, so they know we’re here?“

Sure, that made sense. Olivia or Jan, or maybe Gigi. With a nod, Crystal dove head first into the crowd.

Finding specific people in an apartment packed with strangers turned out to be a lot harder than it sounded. Before she knew it, Crystal had not only lost sight of Denali, who had disappeared somewhere in the little crowd around the bar, but she also couldn’t find anyone else either. For a few minutes, all Crystal did was stand there, somewhat awkwardly, not quite in the center of the room but far from the corners as well.

Then, a single tap on her shoulder. Crystal turned around and almost choked on her own breath. Gigi. And she was gorgeous. Several inches taller than her, even more so now in her stilettos, platforms higher than anything Crystal could ever walk in. She had been right with her assumptions, Gigi did indeed dress matching with Symone, who was talking to some other group of older girls just a few steps behind her sister. Symone was clad in babyblue silk, matching shoes and butterfly clips in her hair, while Gigi was a vision in pale green, perfectly complimenting the rosy blush on her face, the deep forest of her eyes and the sea of autumn cascading down her back, perfectly straightened into one shiny curtain, almost reaching her hips by now. She had a gentle shine on her, and it was not just Crystals heart shaped vision. There was highlight gently tapped onto her cheeks, under her brow, the tip of her nose and all over the length of her collarbones. She looked absolutely ethereal, otherworldly. The most beautiful thing Crystal had ever laid eyes on. And she smiled. Gigi smiled at her.

„Hi“, her eyes crinkled up in her excitement, two perfect rows of teeth flashing at Crystal.

„Hi“, was all Crystal managed to reply, her grin so wide, she must look absolutely dumbfounded. But it didn’t matter right now, it wasn’t like she was capable of changing anything about it anyways. For several seconds, all they did was stare at each other, one smile wider than the other. And Crystal probably would have continued like this for the rest of the night. Eventually, though, Gigi‘s eyes wandered down to where their toes were almost touching, clearing her throat. „I didn’t know you‘d be here! Why didn’t you tell me?“

„Oh!“, Crystal tried her best not to stare at Gigi as she talked, but the mossy green shimmer on her eye lids and the pale pink of her lips were just so nice to look at…

„I’m here with Denali!“, she finally spluttered out, „She needed a plus one!“

„Oh“, Gigi seemed surprised, „I didn’t know you were that close.“

We’re not! Crystal felt like screaming it, but no words left her mouth. Instead, all she managed was an oddly robotic shrug, mustering up a smile. Gigi chuckled, vaguely gesturing over her shoulder. „We were just about to go check out the dancefloor. Monét said the AAA Girls are here tonight! Are you coming?“

„I-“, Crystal seriously struggled to form a sentence, her eyes scanning the bar area. „I really shouldn’t leave Denali like that, she wanted to get us drinks … But we’ll follow you guys right after, okay?“

Something fizzled out in Gigi’s eyes, and Crystal was close to panicking. Did she say something wrong? Was everything alright? She could take it back-

„No okay, that makes sense.“ Gigi smiled at her, but it was less bright than before. Crystal felt her heart sink. The other girl gave her another smile before taking a step back. „See you around, Crys!“ She was swallowed by her group swarming into the next room before Crystal had the chance to answer.

Denali did not come back. Neither did Gigi, and there was still no sign of Mik and Olivia. Crystal couldn’t help but sigh, leaning against a bar stool. The only person who had acknowledged her since Gigi had been Jan, giving her a quick hug and promising to send Denali her way if she saw her, as well as a little wave from Lagoona, before the blue haired queen of the night disappeared in the other room where the music was blasting. She was accompanied by Adore Delano, whose movements had begun to get sloppy and voice was loud and slurred, even in the room full of people. Crystal waved back awkwardly, hesitating a moment before leaving her spot to follow them. If Denali hadn’t come back now, she wasn’t going to. So why not have some fun of her own? After all, Gigi said she would be on the dancefloor …

And she sure was. The room was less crowded than the kitchen, everyone having at least some space to move around. Lagoona stood behind a little DJ table, a tall, lanky blonde by her side waving her arms around to the music. The face seemed familiar, but this time Crystal couldn’t put a finger on it. Right in front of them, amidst the swaying and jumping people, Crystal spotted her favourite redhead, a little taller than most people around her, just like in class.

But she immediately wished she hadn’t. Gigi was dancing, moving her hips around, hands over he head. That wasn’t the problem, no that alone would have been marvellous actually. Sadly, it wasn’t the whole picture. No, the whole picture was way, way worse. Because her front was pressed against some slimy, wide-chested guy with slicked back hair and a smile of such satisfaction, Crystal felt the urge to throw up. Her heart sank into the deepest pits of her stomach and the room seemed to spin around her, the only thing in focus was Gigi. And him.

His hands snaked up Gigi‘s sides, over the silky green fabric Crystal had just stared at a while ago. Gigi didn’t look at him, but her arms found their way around his neck, the two of them swaying around in sync now. And then, as if it wasn’t enough already, the slimeball leaned forward. And kissed Gigi.

Crystal didn’t know what ran first, her legs towards the exit or the tears down her face.

[duckyfruitbat]

Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter Wii

Drawn to Life is one of those DS games that just stick with you. The story has a simplicity but it also respects its audience and has some heavy themes and moments, the characters all have there own quirks that make them interesting to talk to, the mechanic of drawing things is fun and gives it a nice charm, and that DS era pristine pixel art that holds up no matter the era. Today we won't be talking about any of that, we'll be talking about the sequel on the Wii. This game took all that was good with the first and uses almost none of it.

The story is very simple, it involves a concern about the villain from the first book possibly being back as some things around the hub town start disappearing. As well as ink monsters appearing around ancient and powerful artifacts that when put together can create a new book of life, the main artifact from the first game that was used to create the world. Spoiler alert, they weren't used for that.

The characters are now bland and lifeless, they only give you quests but with various accents. Also everything is rendered in 3D, which really doesn't work for these character designs. It looks like they just took the 2D sprites and just flipped a switch to make them 3D. If they went more with what the concept art and manuals show that'd be different and be visually interesting. Instead we get pretty boring designs.

The main gimmick of drawing items to life, just doesn't work on the Wii. I can't even draw a circle with the Wii-mote, I had to use the pre made stuff for every prompt. You might be thinking "why didn't it use the U Draw tablet, they're both published from by THQ?" Yes they're both published by the same company, and the U Draw tablet is everywhere, currently have five somewhere in my couch cushions. Unfortunately the tablet was delayed as Drawn to Life Wii was finishing up development, so they had to make due. The only drawing mechanic that does work is with the action drawing. These prompts are kind of puzzle sections, essentially in these boxes scattered throughout each level you need to draw either platforms or big weighted boxes for more platforming or pressing big boxes, or squashing the life out of various living creatures. I can see the potential with the action drawing, but the solutions are pretty obvious and easy to perform.

Everything compiled to the game being pretty boring. At various points my eyes unfocused and I went into autopilot until the story came up. However there was one moment that did end up sticking with me, a small taste of what made the first game great.

Right before the final boss, when the last artifact is collected, the villain is revealed to actually be Circi who turns out to be the old villains widow. Her mission was to use the book of life to bring him back. As she is cornered she starts desperately scribbling in the book screwing up a few drawings as she goes and starts over, all resulting in a scribble monster that consumes her. That turned Circi into a tragic character and made me a bit more interested in her story. I was also interested in seeing her and Wilfre being an evil power couple, we don't get enough of those. Too bad that this game is entirely non cannon.

Yeah it was very much one of those games that the developers didn't actually want to do this one. It was ordered by THQ as they were developing the DS sequel, it was not a priority and it shows. All resulting in this game being a bland and boring sequel to a gem of a game. You can give this one a pass.

[electricea]

"Okay so I know this is a bit late, and into the new year, and I am super sorry for it Ryuji..." Charlotte's honestly mortified it took her this long but it was also in part because one item was trapped in shipping hell since she ordered it too late.

"I was honestly scratching my head for weeks before Christmas on what to even get you locally, too. But I hope you'll like this." She holds up a mid-sized snowflake print gift bag, the opening topped with glittering iridescent white and clear tissue paper, "So, um, Merry Late Christmas."

Inside the gift bag was an assortment of practical gifts with his physical hobbies in mind. Two sports towels with his name embroidered on one of the corners of each, a skull design vacuum insulated stainless steel water bottle with his name in Kanji and English on it (with two skeletal hands giving the middle finger), and pair of light weight breathable running shoes with yellow accents.

There was also a card in the bottom with a mistletoe motif design on the front, containing a wish for happy holidays and a gift card for a top sporting supply store totaling 8500 yen, although the amount isn't listed anywhere in the card.

There's also a note scribbled in the corner of the holiday card for him to lean down, and it seems she's waiting for him to do that.

( Christmas 2022! )

"Ah, you don't have to be sorry Lottie - the holidays can be a busy time for everyone," Even though his actual Christmas day had been pretty modest and quiet, the month leading up to it had been rather hectic - with all of the Christmas shopping and a small touch of Christmas decorations.

"Christmas shopping can be hard," He agrees, giving a sympathetic smile as he takes the gift bag into his hands, gently reaching out to move past all of the tissue paper, searching for the gifts hidden inside. "If it means anything though, Lottie - I'm sure your gifts will be great." He'd never been too picky about Christmas gifts - simply receiving one was nice enough for him.

The towels had been the first to come out of the bag, each clumsily unfolded one after the other, smiling as he spots his name neatly printed on the edge of both of them - a towel was always nice but having his name on them definitely made the gifts feel that much more personal. Gently folding each towel across his arm, the water bottle had been the next gift to reveal itself, his fingers neatly tracing the two outlines of his name, as well as the awesome skeletal hand design - this really was a perfect water bottle for him! Last but not least had been the running shoes - a perfect touch of yellow which suited him well and even matched his hair.

Though of course the gifts didn't even stop there, as hidden at the bottom was a gift card - a gift card with a pretty imrpessive amount of money put onto it - and for one of his favourite stores, no less! Gently rearranging each item back into the bag, he smiled as he gave a shy but appreciative nod of his head, his face joyful and full of appreciation. "Thank you, Lottie! This has all been great!"

He had initially moved to stick the card back into the bag along with the others but upon closer inspection, there seemed to be a note. "Lean...down...?" He blinked, turning over the card as he wondered if there was more to it. Even so, he obliged and leaned down so that he was eye level with Lottie.

"Like...this?"

[terpsichore-rhodes]

peer to peer guidance a flashback self para

Terpsichore was rapidly running out of patience with Hyacinth. Her designs were rarely structurally sound, and even when they were, they lacked grace, elegance, or beauty. But it was her job to instruct, so instruct she would.

“Okay, Hyacinth, let’s look at this...” she peered at the building plan in front of her. “Dwelling?”

Hyacinth pointed to a corner where there was a scribble of illegible handwriting. “It’s a barracks.”

“Ah, which is a sort of dwelling. Immediately I don’t see any place for an armory, and all of your windows are... massive - which would allow for an easy attack in - so I didn’t immediately pin down military usage.”

“I wrote it in the corner.”

“And I usually tell you that the title is best written largely at the top of the document for easy findings. Also, legibly.” Terpsichore took a moment to consider whether or not she should have said that last bit more under her breath. “Gather around, everyone. Let’s do some peer to peer guidance.”

Rhodesy gathered the other classmates around to gaze at the abomination Hyacinth had produced. “Okay, everyone, what do we think we’re looking at here?”

The class gazed in silence for some time before a young man named Berry piped up. “Uh, maybe... maybe like a greenhouse? I would say a prison, but you’d never do windows that big in a prison.”

“I was actually getting prison, too,” said Ryazan, a woman from the largest village in Sylvania. “But maybe it’s a more humane take on prison. Like, it’s above ground, the prisoners can see the outside...”

“But there’s no locks or bars anywhere. It’s more like a dwelling. A home.” Henrich was one of Rhodesy’s favorite students.

Berry shook his head. “But there’s so many rooms. Unless this is like... a special design for a large family?”

“Oh, oh! Is it a hospital?” 

“Oh that actually makes a lot of sense.”

“But there’s no clear operating room. The flow is... off. Where would you separate out the patients if an outbreak happened? Where’s the furnace?”

That revelation from Ryazan put everyone into a murmuring state.

Terpsichore couldn’t help but say: “You could look at the title.”

Henrich’s brow furrowed above his round glasses. “But there isn’t one, is there? I thought Hyacinth purposefully left it off. You know. As a like, learning exercise or something.”

Rhodesy smiled a tight lipped smile. “It’s down in the corner.”

Henrich’s brow furrowed even more. “Oh, I assumed that was just a scribble to test if the charcoal was the right color. What does that say?” The class gathered around to squint at the line of “text.”

Ryazan was the first to offer a guess. “I think it says ‘bakery.’ But that... that can’t be right.”

“This isn’t a bakery. Is it maybe... Barracks?” Berry’s voice was riddled with uncertanity.

Hyacinth lit up and clapped her hands together. “See?! I told you it made sense.”

Henrich looked at the plans again, pushing his glasses up his nose. “I mean. Not really. If this is meant for military usage, the windows should be a lot smaller. You don’t want a shell or something to come through. Also those halls are so narrow - traffic flow for a military would be a nightmare. You typically want it wide enough for a logical number of shields to fit perfectly - two or four or something like that. And... well... do you only have one entrance and exit? Because if that’s the case I’m just going to barricade that front door and set the place on fire and boom - I’ve wiped out your entire military in one go. It’s just... not very well designed.”

Terpsichore beamed with pride. Henrich Alley was going to go places one of these days. Of all the students in this class, he was the one who had some talent. Fine - she would admit a lot of talent.

“Okay, that was excellent work, Henrich. Did we all learn a little something today?” Rhodesy tipped her head to the side, making sure to make eye contact with Hyacinth. The class all nodded and muttered general affirmatives.

“Good. In that case, why don’t we call it for the day? Don’t forget - next week your midterm designs are due. I want to see a clear artistic theme throughout your three building designs. Don’t be afraid to experiment.” She looked down at Hyacinth’s barracks. “As long as the buildings actually make sense.”

[watchmegetobsessed]

Mine Again - Harry Styles

a/n: this is something i just thought about after my nap today lol, so enjoy this treat, a classic exlovers to lovers fic!

pairing: Harry x Famous!Reader

word count: 3.4k

masterlist

Seeing an ex is never easy. Whether it’s by your choice or not. Working together with an ex is even harder and now you brought a situation on yourself where this is your reality.

Arriving to the studio of The Late Late show you immediately get escorted to your designated dressing room where a hair and makeup artist are already waiting for you. Today you are here to promote your new movie, Don’t Worry Darling with your onscreen lover, Harry Styles, however, what no one else in the building knows is that once the two of you were real life lovers.

Your romance blossomed during filming, having spent so much time together on set, it didn’t take long for a relationship to form between you and him, the chemistry you shared was immense and undeniable, anyone could see that and you felt like you were burning in a bonfire of the most intense feelings you’ve felt for any man. It was passionate and intoxicating, it felt like something that could only happen in movies, but it was your reality.

However filming ended and you were forced to go your separate ways, you both tried hard to keep what you had and though your feelings never changed, distance brought the worst out of the both of you. Six months after you became an item, you mutually agreed to break it off.

You haven’t seen him since then, meaning that it’s been five torturous months without having any contact with him and now that promo has officially kicked in, you are forced to travel around and make appearances with the man you love, yes, still love more than anyone on this Earth. Not even five months and absolutely no contact could change your feelings for him, however he might already be over you at this point, having forgotten about feelings and memories you still hold close to your heart.

How has he been doing? What is he like now? Has he been thinking about you? Does he miss you? What is it going to be like to see him for the first time?

The questions flood your mind as you sit in the chair and let the professionals work their magic on you, covering up the dark circles under your eyes that formed due to the sleepless night you had the day before, nonstop thinking about Harry and what it’ll be like to see him for the first time again.

After careful elimination, you choose a dress for the appearance, it’s tight and short, the fabric is covered in glittering sequins down your body and the long sleeves as well and while the dress covers a lot up from the waist, it makes up in the lack of length on your legs as the end of it barely reaches the upper part of your thighs, ending it black feathers that tickle your freshly shaven legs. The nude heels add even more to them, making you appear like you could hit the runway any moment when in reality you are not high enough to be a model.

There’s still some time until the taping starts, James drops by to say hello and tell you how excited he is to have you and Harry on tonight and you chit-chat for a little before you go to take a quick business call outside. When you’re done with that, you head back to your dressing room to take a few quick photos to post later, but right as you near your destination, a door swings open down the hallway and Harry steps out, wearing a black suit, of course, head to toe Gucci. The crispy grey shirt’s first few buttons are left undone, allowing you a glimpse of his toned chest and his necklace with the tiny cross pendant on it.

He looks good. No, he looks absolutely stunning, just like he always does and just the sight of him takes your breath away, forcing you to stop in your tracks when you lay your eyes at him. He spots you as well, stopping to take a look at you before you see a small smile on his perfect pink lips.

“Y/N, hi! You look… gorgeous,” he speaks up lowly, his eyes raking your body up and down.

“I, uhh—Thanks!” you breathe out, feeling already flustered. How are you gonna survive the interview, sitting next to him, talking about what it was like to play a married couple?!

His hand moves a bit and there’s a moment of awkwardness, neither of you really knowing what to do, last time you saw each other you kissed as your hellos, but now it’s not an option, obviously. At last, he moves forward and goes for a hug.

He envelopes you in his arms as you wrap yours around his neck, the warmth of his body bringing you a sense of home and it hits you hard how much you’ve missed him in these five months.

You swear he holds you just a second longer than what would be appropriate before his arms fall from around your frame and you force yourself to let go of him, though every fiber in you is protesting against it.

“How—How have you been?” he asks, his beautiful green eyes finding yours.

“I’m good. I’m good,” you nod. “What about you?”

“Same. Just the… usual stuff.”

“Writing music?” you ask with a soft smile. You still vividly remember those nights you spent together after a long day of filming, crashing at either his or your place and you often found him strumming his guitar in a corner, scribbling words down into his notebook. Sometimes he sang you the songs he came up with, sometimes he kept them to himself.

“Yeah, I’ve been writing a lot lately,” he admits with a shy smile.

Someone calls his name down the hallway and his head snaps up before looking back at you.

“I gotta go, but I’ll see you soon, right?”

“Yeah,” you nod, stepping aside so he can walk past.

“And you really look amazing, Y/N,” he calls after you one last time before jogging down the hallway.

You walk into your dressing room and shutting the door you lean your back against it, huffing heavily as you try to recollect yourself. Somehow, this encounter went really well, because the two of you were civil and respectful, but it was also a painful shock to see him in the flesh again. It was one thing to see pictures of him here and there, but actually meeting him, hugging him, talking to him… you need time to process it all.

Unfortunately, you don’t have much of that. Twenty minutes later you are walked to your spot behind the curtains from where you’ll walk out when James calls your name. Just as you arrive Harry appears as well, casually talking with one of the camera guys, having a laugh and just as he sees you, his eyes fall down your body again and you swear you see him gulp hard before turning his attention back to the man.

“Ready?” he asks upon walking up to you, a hand coming to rest on your lower back. Glancing over your shoulder you look down at his hand, lips parted at the feeling of his welcoming touch. He sees your glance and pulls his hand back quickly. “Sorry, it’s a habit, I guess,” he mumbles, blushing softly.

“It’s fine,” you smile. Of course it’s fine, for what you care, he could throw you over his shoulder like a cave man and run out of the building, you wouldn’t say a word. You want his touch on your body, you’ve been craving it since the moment you last saw him, but are you even allowed to admit it? You have no idea what he is thinking or feeling, you can’t just come right at him like that.

Harry fixes the lapels of his suit jacket, but what he doesn’t see is that the collar of his shirt is kind of stuck under the jacket.

“Your shirt is… let me fix it,” you breathe out and he turns to face you, letting your delicate hands fix his outfit, perfecting the look to the tiniest bit. “There, you look great,” you smile, your hands sliding down his chest before they fall to your sides again.

“Thank you,” he nods smiling back at you before offering an arm that you take gladly. He knows how much you hate high heels and that you are always scared of tripping and falling and being the gentleman that he is, he’ll be the support you need.

The taping soon starts and the two of you stand patiently behind the curtain as James introduces you.

“And now, please welcome the stars of the upcoming hit movie, Don’t Worry Darling! Ladies and gentlemen, Y/N Y/L/N and Harry Styles!”

The crowd starts clapping and cheering as the curtain moves and the two of you walk in, arms linked and Harry makes sure to slow down when you walk down the few little stairs. James welcomes the both of you with two kisses before everyone takes their place, James behind his desk, you and Harry sitting on the couch.

“Thank you so much for dropping by tonight, guys!” James smiles at the two of you.

“Thank you for having us,” Harry nods with a soft smile.

“You both have been guests on the show separately, but tonight you are here as a pair, since your latest movie, Don’t Worry Darling is hitting the theaters this weekend. How are you feeling about that, excited to see the film finally?”

“Very excited,” you nod with a smile. “I can’t wait to see the final version, because obviously we only know the version we envisioned while filming, but the actual movie is going to be something else.”

“Y/N, your role in the movie was originally handed to Florence Pugh who had to step back because she broke her arm,” James points out and you nod.

“Yes, I stepped in her place just about a week before production started and if I’m being honest I was scared that people would prefer to see her in the role, but I had a talk with her actually and she said she helped Olivia, the director to pick out the person to take her place and she said she instantly knew I would be perfect for it, so I trust her.”

“That’s amazing to hear, that the two of you didn’t have any rivalry going on,” James enthuses.

“She actually visited set a few times,” Harry chimes in and you nod.

“Yeah, we had a great time together.”

“Sounds like a lot of fun, the three of you together,” James chuckles. “So, the two of you play a married couple in the film and if I’m not mistaken you didn’t know each other beforehand. Was it hard to get into the roles with not much background on each other?”

“We met up a few times before filming started to get to know each other more and I think we hit it off right away, so it wasn’t hard for me,” Harry speaks up and you nod along.

“It was obviously a little different situation than when you meet someone and become friends, because as we got to know each other more, we had to go through scenes that were meant for a couple that was already years into their relationship, but I think it strengthened our friendship,” you answer, hands laid flat on your bare thighs.

No lie has been told, everything you said was the truth. You just left out the part where you become real life lovers and started dating a month into production.

“Y/N, you’ve been acting for a while now, have quite a few roles under your belt, what did you think of Harry’s acting?”

“I think that he is a wonderful actor and I hope people will give him his much deserved credit for it. He is often still seen as just a silly singer from a former boy band and they don’t take him seriously when he really is a very talented man. You’ll see in the movie as well, his role was a tough one, needed a lot of work and a wide range of emotions, but I think he did an amazing job.”

You dare to glance at him at the end of your little speech and for a moment you forget about the audience, James and the cameras. He is looking at you with so much gratitude and thankfulness. You remember every talk you had where he opened up to you about wanting to be taken seriously in the acting business, that he is not trying to be just a joke and another failed attempt of a singer to try himself out in movies. He told you how scared he is of not being good enough when you saw him every day on set and you were blown by his eternal talent and special take on his role. He deserves to be praised, he deserves every bit of it.

“It was easy, I had a great partner to learn from,” he smiles softly and you feel the heat crawling up your neck.

“You two really have the chemistry we’ve heard so much about, I can’t wait to see it on the big screen!” James sighs. “Tell me a little about what it was like to film? You guys spent a lot of time together, must have made a lot of memories.”

You take a deep breath as all those memories mentioned flood your mind. You had the best time of your life not just with Harry, but with the whole crew. Leaving after production was wrapped really broke your heart.

“It didn’t even feel like working,” Harry starts. “We always joked around, had lunch or dinner together, we were like a big family. It was so nice to have so many amazing, talented and hard-working people around you all day.”

“The jokes never stopped,” you add chuckling.

“I wish I could have been on set!” James laughs wholeheartedly. “That didn’t happen, but we have a little something. The crew has put together a short BTS video of the filming, so let’s have a look at that,” he announces and the video starts playing on every screen in the studio.

It’s a short little montage, but it captures the vibes of filming just perfectly. Clips shown from set are not just of you and Harry, but all the other cast and crew members. Goofing around, having lots and lots of laughs, dancing on set, which happened quite often and just all of you having a great time. Some of the slips however pain your chest, the ones of you and Harry.

This was very early into your relationship, no one on set even knew you were together, but seeing yourself on the screen you can’t deny the sparkles in your eyes every time you were around him.

A clip shows the two of you between two takes, doing a goofy dance in the kitchen of the home that was used as the set of the house of your characters, you are both wearing your costumes, Harry looks great in his suit and your long retro dress is flowing around you with every movement you make. He grabs you by your waist and spins you before you end up in his arms laughing crazily, you were so happy, so carefree. You wish you could go back to that moment…

Another footage was taken in your trailer when Harry took the place of Clare, your makeup artist and tried to do your eyeliner but miserably failed. In the video, he is gently clasping your chin, angling your face for himself as his other hand is working on the line, but it’s wobbly and way too thick, so you both end up just laughing when you check yourself in the mirror.

And there are some small moments of the two of you, moving around on set, lying in bed between takes, sitting in your chairs while eating, just tiny memories you still cherish so much and wish to live through again, but it’s the past. And it wouldn’t hurt this much if you knew Harry from the video was still yours.

When the video ends you need to blink a few times as your eyes have watered a little. You catch Harry’s gaze and he looks worried, he clearly wants to ask if you’re okay, make sure it was just the sentimentality of the moment, but he doesn’t have the chance, the cameras are still rolling.

“That looked like so much fun! Next time make sure to invite me on set too!” James jokes and you force a laugh out of yourself.

A few questions are asked about future plans and just generally about your careers before the taping finally ends. You thank James for the invite again and a photo is taken of the three of you, you standing in the middle with the two men on your sides. When everything is settled, you head to your dressing room, using the chance to slip away silently while Harry is still chit-chatting on the set.

In the comfort and silence of the dressing room, you lean onto the vanity, staring at yourself in the mirror, finding it ironic that on the outside, you look perfectly fine, healthy and pretty, but on the inside… you could scream. You miss Harry so much, you hoped that your feelings for him have toned down a little over these five months, but it was just the same if not even worse.

A faint knock is heard on the door and you quickly fix yourself before calling out to the person outside. The door opens and for your surprise, Harry steps inside, closing the door behind him.

“Hey, you disappeared so fast,” he softly says.

“Yeah, I’m just… a little tired,” you lie, though you know exactly he can see right through you.

“Y/N, I saw that look in your eyes after the video…”

“What look?” you ask with a huff. “What do you want me to say, Harry?”

“The truth,” he answers. “I’m not James, don’t bullshit me.”

“You want the truth? I’ll give it to you, but don’t blame me if it’s uncomfortable for you,” you chuckle bitterly, throwing your hands into the air. “I’ve been miserable, Harry. I miss you so fucking much, seeing you today was like Hell. I really thought it would be easier, but now I’m stuck with going from one interview to the other with red carpet events all around the world, seeing you every day when I terribly miss you and it fucking sucks, because you might not even feel the sa—“

You don’t get to finish, because Harry crosses the distance between the two of you, his hands grab your face and pulls you into a hard and passionate kiss. His lips move perfectly against yours and it feels like he is trying to squeeze every missed moment from the past five months into the kiss, making you melt into his arms completely.

He is everywhere. He is all you can taste, you breathe him in, his hands are everywhere on your body and your chest is pressed tight against his as you wrap your arms around his neck, locking him into your embrace. Your tongues dance, teeth tugging and pulling on lips, it’s a whole mess, but it’s the most perfect mess you’ve ever been. He takes your breath away completely and you don’t even want it back if it means you can’t have him.

Harry pulls away first, both your chests heaving wildly from the heavy make-out session and he looks down at you with hooded eyes.

“If you think I haven’t missed you like crazy… you can’t be more wrong, baby. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, I wanted to call you a thousand times and beg for you to come back to me, but I thought you already moved on.”

“Moving on?!” you huff with a tired smile. “Harry, I could never…”

“Alright, then I’m not letting you go again. No way you are walking out of this building without being mine again.”

A shiver runs down your spine at his words as you pull him down for another kiss, needing to feel his lips on yours.

“I never stopped being yours,” you whisper against his lips and he moans weakly before crashing his lips against yours again. 

-

Thank you for reading, please like and reblog if you enjoyed it!

[goddessofroyalty]

Somehow me dissociating at a work conference today inspired this. It is entirely just a vessel for the image of the family at the table a couple paragraphs in and honestly if I can draw I would have just drawn it. It is why this thing doesn’t make sense timeline wise and is in the offshoot of the AU where they have another pup – it is for the image (because culture-clash despite that not being spelt out in here oops).  

Verse: Zaun Family (so Viktor is their kid as well, no divorce, yes Piltover politics)  

Tags: Omegaverse (not mentioned), mpreg, nursing (but in an idle detail way) 

------------------ 

“Jayce are you coming?” Mel asks as people file out of the main hall into the foyer so the real networking can start.  

“In a minute.” Jayce had finally spotted the red and black that marks the Zaun Representative and his family among the crowds. And he really should check in with one of Hextech’s earliest investors at least to be polite. The fact Viktor had mentioned being made to attend with his family also part of his reason he will admit. “You go ahead.”  

“Tell Viktor he is not to play babysitter all night and come mingle as well,” Mel says after a moment of consideration, joining the flow of foot traffic out of the room as Jayce heads to the far corner of the hall were the Zaunite guests had been placed in the seating plan.  

The family doesn’t seem to be in any rush to follow the crowd. Powder madly drawing on the napkins in a sharp contrast to Viktor’s silent contemplation that Jayce knows means he is running algorithms through his head, the napkin in front of him having a handful of runic combinations scribbled on it in the colors of Powder’s pens but his handwriting. Mylo and Vi are whispering to each other with the kind of intensity that hints at an argument, Claggor chiming in between mouthfuls of the dessert. All the children’s except Viktor’s ties are in a pile on the table that Vander eyes in what seems to be envy as he tries to loosen his own.  

Silco is the only one that looks fully comfortable with their setting. Sitting proud and put together even with the family’s newest member nursing from him. He only slightly adjusts his coat to more cover the pup when he sees Jayce approaching but it could easily be because of the temperature of the room. His clothing designed in a way that Jayce can’t actually see anything even if it’s clear the pup is feeding.  

“Did you enjoy the dinner? Jayce asks because he didn’t actually have a plan before coming over.  

“It was too bland,” Powder answers not even looking up from her work.  

“Powder don’t be rude,” Vander chastises immediately.  

Jayce doesn’t dare tell them how to handle their kids but it is nice to have someone completely honest at the events.  

“It was good for Piltoven cuisine,” Silco says, reaching out to stop Vander from tugging at his tie again as the other hand keeps their youngest settled against him. “The caterers deserve full compliments.”  

Jayce is fairly certain the caterers are entirely or mostly from Zaun by that comment alone.  

“They certainly do.”  

“He’s doing the fake-smile thing again,” Mylo says to one of his siblings but clearly doesn’t care if Jayce overhears him.  

Which is good right? That he feels so comfortable around Jayce.  

“One of us has to and I have no interest in false niceness,” Viktor says, earning a yeah that’s obvious from Vi. “Jayce can be their Golden Boy.”  

“Ugh,” Mylo groans, adequately capturing Jayce’s feelings about that nickname. “Why is Piltover like that?”

“They have more money than sense,” Claggor says in what Jayce is fairly certain is an echo of something he has been told by one of his parents not that Jayce can be sure which.  

“I still don’t know why we have to come to these stupid things too,” Vi says, elbowing Mylo hard when he sniggers at it.  

“Because we all represent Zaun now,” Silco says. “And this is unfortunately a part of engaging in politics in Piltover. Your family standing is more important to them than the quality of your ideas.”  

And nobody in Piltover seems to know how to take the Zaun Representative’s family. Something Jayce has a feeling Silco is aware of.  

“Do you plan on staying in here the rest of the night?” Jayce asks and stops himself from adding on whether he can join if they are.  

“Vander and I will joining once this one is settled for the night,” Silco says with a nod to the pup in his arms. Which makes sense considering he’s currently the pup’s source of dinner, although he could have hired a wet nurse. “I have some things to discuss with Councilor Hoskel and he seems to be avoiding my official requests so I will handle it in person. The others can either watch their sibling or join us.”  

Jayce doesn’t need to look around to know the collective preference is to stay with their sibling. Not that he can judge. He would also prefer to be babysitting over schmoozing.