#also the second image was me trying to capture a rainbow I saw in the distance while fossil hunting

[angrybatgaming]

Some more fun with photo mode, but Red Dead Redemption 2.

🎵 I like big horses and I cannot lie 🎵

[puppy-phum]

Every month of 2023 ✨

Post your most popular and/or favorite edit/gifset for each month (it’s okay to skip months!)

thank you so much for tagging me zey [x] @smileytharn, mj [x] @forcebook, jessi [x] @daymork, and antania [x] @raypakorn ♥ it was so lovely to look through all of your creations! you've all worked hard during the past year and i hope i get to see more creations from all of you throughout this year ^^

-

i'm collecting my creations for each month under the cut but let's look at some fun statistics at first! (inspired by antania's post ♥)

i created 68 edits

additionally, there were 5 photo collabs (jimmysea photoshoots)

and 4 text post meme posts (for last twilight)

the most edits i made in may (due to our skyy 2 episodes)

most of my edits were related to vice versa (13 in total)

the second most popular ones were bad buddy (8 edits) and last twilight (10 edits)

most of my edits were either lovely/warm or angsty

i got deep into episode edits this year

and also took inspiration from other than poetry and lyrics

thank you so much for being part of all this!

January

my most popular edit was this vegaspete set i made for @spicyvampire ♥ i actually like it a ton! but my personal favorite from this month is my bad buddy characters + the real 5 love languages set. i like the meme a ton and i loved how the set turned out (+ for me, it's super funny).

February

my most popular edit this month was the toddblack differences edit i made for @i-got-the-feels ♥ it was a very different type of edit and i'm very happy ppl liked it this much. personal favorite is this jimmy(sea) set for the varitda mv he/they appeared in. i loved the aesthetic of the mv and i feel like i captured that very well.

March

the most popular edit in march was my akkayan + one direction piece dedicated to @fitfmybeloved ♥ i think i need to make something else with a similar style sometime. my favorites would be the puen & talay's top 10 outfits edits which technically happened in february and march. i had a ton of fun with them and i honestly adore looking at the results.

April

my birthday month! the most popular creation was my beyond evil edit which was interesting to make according to @nongnaos's request ♥ i had never edited this show (or any kdrama) before and i also struggled a bit with figuring out the layout. it's a very simple set but felt fitting. my favorite this month would be this puentalay set made for you antania ♥ it took a lot of time, especially all the coloring, but it was worth every second! (special mention for my sea bday set which i still cannot believe the bday boy actually saw and liked on twt ;; i love him so much!)

May

i think it's very deserved that my most popular edit in may was this puentalay one for my our skyy 2 episode edits series. it's for the first vice versa episode and tbh also my personal favorite out of all those episode edits i made ^^ the coloring just worked super well there. my true favorite of the month was the pran's life anthem edit i made for @pransobrave ♥

June

as is fitting for pride month, my most popular edit and also my personal favorite was my our skyy 2 couples edit where i tried to describe all of their different loves through the colors of a rainbow. it was a lot of fun to do!

July

the most popular edit this month was the pran set i made for @punpunsutatta ♥ i had a lot of fun with this one bc i got to try some new things with it. personal faves and my peak as an editor (in my own opinion) were the two puentalay edits i made this month. this sam smith song inspired one i made for you zey ♥ i adore the layout and the colors, it makes me think about vintage images and letters. and this other one was born bc the quote haunted me. i love the pink in it a lot, it's so soft.

August

for august, i felt like i was making a ton of things even if i didn't have the energy or the time. in reality, i didn't make that many but i made a couple of very big sets. one of them and the most popular one this month was my winteam set made for @jimmysea ♥ making it took some research and then i had to go through the episodes a little while i searched for the fitting scenes. personal favorite was this akktheo set bc it turned out looking very cute. i think it captures their feeling as a couple and their story well. special mention for my jimmy bday set bc i poured my heart into it ♥ i love this man so much (and i currently wish he is fine and gets well soon, he's apparently in the hospital ;;)

September

things got hectic in september as i started my internship and had to travel around a lot. i was too tired to do much else but work and study and watch dramas without any brain. that's why i only made two edits. my most popular set was my last request edit for my event. it was patpran with the lyrics from ford arun's song come closer and made for @celestial-sapphicss ♥ i love the colors in this so much. personal favorite, only barely, is still my puentalay + 8 types of love set. i had a blast making it as a kind of collab with @dimpledpran who made the patpran version!

October

made only two edits (or well, one cut into two parts) in october too due to being very busy and tired. they were quite big tho bc i used a long while gathering material for them. it was its own type of research project when i wrote down all the times puentalay told each other 'i love you' without saying those exact words to each other. i struggled with the layout too as mimi can probably remember :'D but i love these sets a lot so they're both my favorite and most popular ♥

November

finally in november last twilight came to save all of us and so it's no wonder i created a lot for that during this month :'D i honestly wished to make more but i was still mostly busy with my internship and with starting my thesis. my most popular one was this last twilight trailer edit. i think it was fun to kind of make it similar to my mock trailer edit all that time ago. my personal favorite is the mork + linkin park edit that probably caters to only myself lol. am honestly obsessed with each song mentioned in this bc i can see it with mork so well. it was a relief to get that one out.

December

haven't really had the time to dive as deep into last twilight and make as many edits for it as i'd wanted due to using most of december to catch up on sleep and all the studying i couldn't do during my internship, but hopefully now i'll have more time to devastate yall ♥ the most popular post was this last twilight + random tweets thing and my personal favorite is the only morkday quote edit i've managed so far. i love the colors and the whole concept to bits, and cannot wait to make more ^^

-

thank you if you read this far! i'm not sure who hasn't been tagged yet bc i'm a bit late with this one but if you have done this already, you can always send it my way! i almost demand you do. i love appreciating all your art ♥

tagging: @dimpledpran @jimmysea @moonkhao @chinzillas @khaotunqs @pranink @dengswei @taeminie @psychic-waffles (i'd love to see your art!) @yilinglaozu @eohachu @difanghua @mooninagust @namchyoon ♥

[taichoushadow]

Make love to me - Taehyung imagine (M)

A/N: Hallo lieverds. It’s been awhile since I posted something. It’s been a tough year since last summer and everything just changed after I to had to let go of my dog Brammetje after a sick bed. In the end you find out,already do knowing how much you love that little soul and that he held you together and kept you sane. Knowing that it will break your heart when you kiss his little nose one last time as he crosses the rainbow bridge.

but I hope with writing again I’ll find myself a little more and more. It’s thanks to @taeandpuppies​ patience and understanding that I managed to write something and so this one has been dedicated to her.  This doesn’t mean my requests are open yet, as I only get to write when my mind allows it to. 

This contains love, kissing, making out, oral and sex. 

Enjoy ~

‘‘Y/N?’‘ 

You just hummed, putting the last laundry away after you folded them, thinking back to the delicious dinner Taehyung made you, surprising you full out not thinking he would make your favourite stew. Then again, Taehyung was always full of suprises. 

‘‘Y/N?’‘ He tried again, this time bumping his hips against your side making sure he got your attention.

‘‘Do you want to make love?’‘ 

This had your attention immediately, wipping your head to the side to look him in the face and what you saw was blinking eyes, arms wrapped over his chest as he seemed to patiently wait for your answer.  You blinked too, not finding words as you didnt really know what to answer because well you were sure you both knew the answer to that. ‘’Um, well yeah?’’ 

Taehyung huffed and dropped his arms at his side and shook his head with a chuckle. ‘’Ah. that doesnt really sound convincing.’’ and put his arm around your waist, pulling you closer. ‘’I was just thinking about it. You sit down and I will clean it up here.’’ he mumbled against your lips as he placed a quick kiss on them and you felt his warmth dissapear. This left you stuttering. Ever since he asked you that question, images automatically flooded your mind and with that you could surely feel you wanted him now. Honestly.. you always wanted him and you were pretty sure he knew that too but what just occured left you so confused that you turned around and snatched the towel of the bed, he was neatly folding and grabbed onto both his arms. 

‘‘Hey! I was folding that baby!’‘ Taehyung whined, a pout sitting on his lips. ‘‘No, no. Ask me again.’‘

‘‘Ask what again, babe?’‘ 

‘‘You know..’‘ you trailed off, ears slowly blossoming red. ‘‘The making love..’‘

Taehyung clicked his tongue and nodded and raised an eyebrow in amusement. His hand settled down into your hair, curling a strand around his finger ‘’Let me reprase it, if that’s okay with you?’’ without one breath you exhaled out a yes, feeling his biceps move under your arm. ‘’

‘‘What do you think about when you think of me making love to you? What do you want me to do to you? Tell me.’‘ 

This time, your breath hitched in your throat and unknowingly stepped closer to the man infront of you, the man who now placed his free hand just above your buttcheeks, feeling yourself throbbing already. 

Eventhough your heart was raising and your whole body flushing at the idea you held eye contact with the man gazing at you intently. ‘’I picture you sitting me down on the bed.’’  Taehyung hummed. ‘’And how? ‘’

‘‘W-what?’‘

‘‘How would I sit you down on the bed?’‘ Taehyung tilted his head to the side with a smug smile on his face. ‘’Show me.’’

You looked at him, he looked back and maybe it was the way he was looking at you. As if he knew you wouldn’t do it, would only stutter however he should have known you were someone that liked to prove people wrong and so you fingers clamped onto the waistband of his shorts, bringing him in closer.  ‘’You know..’’ you began, grabbing his chin between your fingers. ‘’I will show you.’’

Letting go of his waistband, you tapped his lips and pushed against his shoulder gently to sit him down on the edge of the bed, followed by you wrapping your arms around his neck and your waist beside his hips, wandering your hands through his hair, ‘’Like this.’’  your voice was low, holding eye contact. 

The lighting in the bathroom set up a romantic vibe, the soft orange glowing in the corner near the window as you could see the leaves moving on the ryhtym of the rain as you felt his lips on your neck, placing open mouthed kisses. 

‘‘As always, you taste delicious. ‘‘ Taehyung grinned when you pulled him back, the kisses getting you going a little too fast. You huffed at that with a smile, grasping onto his cheeks and capturing his lips. A passionate kiss was shared, your legs trembling around his waist as you slowly grinded down onto him while you moaned into his mouth and Taehyung answered with a low groan. 

‘‘W-wait.’‘ He stuttered when you pressed yourself onto him more and more causing Taehyung to almost fall down on the bed. Also what you intended but he stopped you by pressing a hand against your chest. Tilting your head to the side in confusion you sat more up right not being able to hold back a pout while trying to catch your breath, both of you were. 

‘‘y/n..’‘ A chuckle was heard through the room, pulling you back into his embrace. ‘‘Don’t pout on me. I just want to take it slow, thats all.’‘ and comforted you by running his hands up and down your back. You answered him back by burying your face in the croock of his neck, lips puckering against his skin. 

The dark felt somehow strangely private, not as scary as you always thought it was while gazing out the window again taking in the feel of the man holding you. You always felt safe whenever you were with him, feeling like no harm could come to you. ‘’Hands up.’’ came his words and you did what he asked you. Sitting more upright again, you held your arms high so he could take off your shirt, pecking your lips once it was off and flung it somewhere in the room. 

This time his hands traveled towards your chest, his eyes zero’ing in on your purple bra, laces of flowers embracing your beautiful curves. To him, you were magical, to him you were not human but someone from outer space. The cute childlike eyes that he always gazed in especially when they changed to a more mischevious look had him twitching in his sweatpants. The combination of those two.. 

‘‘Tae.’‘ You whined, your hands searching for his and once you felt his fingers tracing the lace of your bra, you grasped onto them moving them towards the clasp of your bra. ‘‘Please.’‘ His fingers ghosted over your skin and you shivered yet Taehyung let out a small chuckle thinking how you most likely forgot what he told you mere minutes ago but he decided not to say anything and unclasped the purple bra. Sighing out in relief when you felt the bra loosen, you kissed his cheek, his eyelid back to his nose and to his lips. Taehyung however slowly removed the bra straps down your arm while basking in your kisses. 

Once the bra too was somewhere thrown in the room, he didnt hesitate a moment to cup your breasts into his palms, gently kneeding the flesh, listening attently to your breathing how it picked up, how you dropped your head onto his shoulder, your hands clutching his shirt and thats when you breathed out ‘’W-why are you still wearing a shirt.. It has to go.’’  His breath hitched when you pushed up the hem of his black shirt, black fabric make the golden skin even more bronze. Your fingertips grazed his nipples and his breath hitched again, more noticable this time. The loss of his fingers playing with your own nipples as he had to lift up his arms in order to take his shirt off caused to better thinking and you knew what you wanted to do next. 

Slipping off his thighs you crouched down, grasping his knees as you crawled between them when he spread and tugged at the waisband of his black boxers. Taehyung lifted his hips helpfully, his body seeming to move on auto pilot. You slid your fingers up his thighs once his boxers were off, eyes zooming on his cock that stood proudly up against his abdomen, waiting to be touched. The further you got to his inner thigh, the more harder he became. So far for wanting to go slow, his body clearly told him something else. 

You liked the way he started to leak more pre cum once you grasped him into your palm, his hips jerking forwards, a silent ‘fuck’ leaving his mouth. He watched you, eyes fully focused on your hand. Thumb rubbing slowly over the tip the way you knew he liked very much so, Taehyung threw his head back with his eyes shut, fisting the sheets.

You didnt waste any moment and leaned down to take his cock into your mouth, further down your throat, tongue circeling around his grith while your hand pumped what you couldnt reach with your mouth. Hearing his gasp, your own heat started to throb more and more, begging for some relief as you felt your own panties dampening by the second but right now it was pleasuring your man who’s chest heaved up and down faster by the second, his fingers searching for something to hold onto, you knew he liked to have his hands in your hair but he didnt want to hurt you so he desperately searched and you knew the sheets weren’t enough so you slipped up the bed, eyes watching his face, searching for his hand and when you felt his fingers you turned his hand around and interwined your fingers together, letting him tug. His lower lip was caught between his teeth and when his eyes met yours a muscle in his jaw jumped. 

You knew he was close, tasting more and more precum on your tongue. You were never really fond of swallowing cum or tasting for that matter however that was until Taehyung entered your life, his moans of your name when you didnt stop blowing him when he was about to come and feeling his cock twitch in your mouth was something incredibly hot to you and so you bobbed your head up and down in a slow rythym, focusing on making him cum. 

Taehyung’s eyes were shut again, mouth fallen open and his eyes shut, lashes fluttering, his head lulling from side to side. ‘’I’m so close.’’ it seemed his whisper into the dark room, your glasped hands he brought up to his mouth and grazed his teeth onto your skin. With one last tug on his cock as you swallowed around him he gasped loudly this time biting down as he came down your throat. 

You felt his thighs trembling, as you swallowed as much as you could, your free hand caressing the trembling limp and let his member fall out of your mouth once you felt him soften his hips jerking away from overstimulation. 

Climbing on the bed, throwing your legs around his waist, your stroked his cheek, smiling down when you noticed his content smile on his face. His eyes fluttered open, kissing your intertwined hands especially on the bite marks he left but you didnt mind, it didnt hurt however Taehyung didnt seem to take his time, his mouth instantly on yours, letting your hand fall to your side as he cupped the back of your head. 

Lips were growing more pliant, ravishing your mouth slowly, tenderly, angling your head to the side as you licked his lips, Taehyung answered within a heartbeat and let your tongue press into his mouth with a growl. You didnt know how long you two kissed but once he pulled away, leaving you to whine and chase after his lips you saw how red his were, wet, slick and swollen. 

You also noticed how he was pressing against your clothed core and you slowly rocked into his lap needing to feel some friction yet Taehyung wasnt having any of it and rolled you over to the matress, him hovering over you with a smirk. 

This time it was you that your breath got stuck in your throat, your dark orbs looking into his own while his fingers wandered down from your neck, down the valley of your breast, circling your belly button to the hem of your panties. ‘’You know.’’ He began, his voice an octave lower, bending his head down until it was right beside your ear ‘’I can smell you from here.’’ 

You whimpered, thighs rubbing together ‘’And you smell devine.’’ He took in a deep breath, lips finding its place on your neck while he dipped into your purple panties that were just damp from your arousal and you couldnt help but blush once you heard the obvious sounds of how wet you were when he touched your slit. ‘’Oh my.. I knew you were wet but this wet..’’ Taehyung chuckled lowly, kissing down your neck, pressing his tongue just below your ear. 

‘‘Taehyung..’‘ Your voice trembled, wrapping your fingers around his wrist pressing his hand against your core. ‘‘What do you want me to do. How do you want me to make love to you, y/n?’‘ He lifted his head up, other hand once again settling down ontop of your left breast as his gaze focused on you. 

This man was way too gorgeous for his own good, just looking at his face, his red lips, dilated pupils and messy hair had you throbbing and you knew Taehyung definitely felt that one, him not hesitating to sink in one digit down your heat, and slowly moved his wrist, slipping in and out of you before he followed with one finger more. Your walls clenched around his finger, legs kicking up while you bit your lip trying not to cry out. ‘’Tell me, y/n. Please.’’ 

Face hot, abdomen muscles clenching, fingers digging into his arms you moan his name loud and clear when he begs you to say something, needs to hear you say it before he starts what he craves. He is a little impatient, he knows that but he promised to himself to go slow and so eventhough he begs you, he waits while slowly pumping his fingers into you, his thumb rubbing softly your clit. 

‘‘I..’‘ You start, closing your eyes shut, rolling your neck from side to side as your  legs tremble. ‘‘Yes.. say it, let me know.’‘ Taehyung cups your chin, tapping your lips as he slides in his thumb, pressing down on your tongue before sliding out. 

‘‘I want.. ‘‘

‘‘Yes.’‘

‘‘Your mouth.’‘ 

‘‘Where, sweetheart. Where do you want my mouth?’‘ 

‘‘Taehyung, please.’‘ Taehyung nudges your throat with his nose, sliding his fingers out as he traces his path downward with his lips until he is face to face with your clothed core and he cant help himself but to take a whiff. ‘‘Devine.’‘ he mumbles more to himself before he hooks his fingers into the waistband and slide them down your hips, while grazing the bare skin of your inner thighs with his knuckles. 

Spreading your legs fare enough to lay between them, he winks up to you and bite his lips with a teasing eyebrow raised and laps up your arousal from your slit. This has your tighs immediately closing around his head but he tuts against your core, hands finding its home on your thighs as he holds them. ‘’Let me make you feel good. ‘’ The vibration of his voice causes your hips to stutter, butt lifting from the matress, almost grinding against his lips. ‘’It’s okay. I’ve got you.’’

Teeth find your bundle of nerves, and rolls them between them, tongue carefully flicking against it, his grip on your legs thightening when he feels them tremble. He sucks, lips covering your mound as he crawl closer to let go of your thighs to settle them on your buttcheeks and lift them up from the matress now being able to suck you a little more deeper. 

He notices how his fingers are close enough to your lowerlips to spread them open and he does, sinking his tongue down into your heat and you let out a scream, hips bucking into him, legs shaking in the air. 

‘‘Taehyung.’‘ You stutter, gripping the pillow behind you as you feel your release building up, your body feels hot, too hot. Your cheeks burn from pleasure, your mouth falling open as you feel how he never stop pleasuring you, his nose rubbing your clit, tongue licking your inner walls and with one last stutter of your hips, you cum. You feel your body tensing before it lets go completely and you find Taehyung’s bicep. 

He laps you up, licking up your arousal with a grin on his face and crawls towards you, letting his body rest ontop of yours. ‘’How was that?’’ 

You just watch him with a tired but satisfied smile on your face. ‘’As usual. That was amazing.’’ you manage to get out and cant help but to giggle as his grin grows wider. ‘’I love you.’’ Taehyung mutters, wiping the hair that sticks to your skin from your forehead and leans up to peck your lips. While he leans up to kiss you, you both moan as you feel his hardness press against your core. 

He looks at you, licks your lips and both close your eyes as you open up for him, this time its his tongue that kisses yours, grinding his cock against your slick heat. Moans tumble out and he does not wait, his hands lay flat against your slick heat, moving up and down until he grips his hard cock and pumps it a few times making sure your arousal lays on his member as lube and guides himself towards you core. Once he feels the tip slipping past your lower lips, he lets go, settling his hand down beside you and he moves his hips forward, falling deeper and deeper into your heat until his hips meet yours.  

Your own arms lay around his neck while he taps your thigh and you wrap your legs around his waist and apparently that movement has him sinking in that one last inch, now being fully settled in. 

He buries his face in the croock of your neck and slowly pulls his hips back to only move it tenderly slow forward again. ‘’You feel out of this world.’’ Taehyung’s own voice trembles, fingers touching the back of your neck featherlight. He strokes your scar, rocking his hips slowly into you, grunting out your name over and over. The sensation of his cock tickling down your walls, his fingers caressing your scar as he keeps his eyes on you once he takes one sharp thrust where you dig your fingers into his shoulderblades. ‘’Look at me. Look at me when I make love to you. Does it feel good?’’

‘‘Yes! It feels so so good!’‘ Your tongue doesnt hesitate to let those words fall from your mouth while trying to remain eye contact with your boyfriend. 

‘‘It feels too good. Taehyung, please.’‘ You cry out, tears pooling in your eyes from all the pleasure you’re feeling. His rocks his hips a little faster, in and out of you, taking bliss into the wet sounds he hears from your arousal. He feels how your arousal drips down his member and he breaks the eye contact for his own pleasure as he sits back and lift you up, you’re now seated in his lap, his arms caging you against him. 

The way he sits still in your heat, has you clenching around him your body asking for his thrusts and his body instantely responses, bucking his hips up into you and Taehyung throws his head back in pleasure, a loud grunt bouncing off the walls and you are following suit with a whimper slipping past. 

‘‘You gotta help me, princess.’‘ His jaw clenches as he grabs your waist and begins to buck up his hips, hitting your spot over and over again and sink down onto him when he thrusts up. 

‘‘Yes, just like that beautiful. Just like that.’‘ 

Your eyes roll to the back of your head, and fight against falling over, feeling no strength at all but Taehyung has a tight grip onto you, and you see how his eyes are focused on how his cock slips in and out your heat while he bites his lip, a layer of sweat both coating your bodies. 

‘‘Taehyung..’‘ 

He hums. 

‘‘Taehyung.. ‘‘ You try again, desperately fighting against your orgasm as you only want to let go when you have his eyes locked on you. And he doesnt make it any easier when he starts to rub your clit soothingly, never stopping the ryhtym of his hips until you start to clench harder down on him and he knows, he knows and snaps his face up to you when he hears his name loud and clear. 

Your expressions tells him everything, the way your eyebrows are scrunched together, your mouth falling open while deseperately gazing into his warm eyes has his own hips stuttering. ‘’I know. I got you, babe.’’

And you do, your vision blurs. sounds fade away as you let go, release bursting through your body, your walls clamping down on his cock in a tight grip and you drool, you cant help but drool when your release feels like an enternity and Taehyung.. Taehyung cries out a loud loud moan and you collapse against him with a tired laugh, not believing how good you are feeling. He catches you and lays you down on your back and he follows, resting his body ontop of yours as he takes a few minutes to come down from his high. One hand plays with his hair, other hand strokes up and down his back while placing pecks all over his face. 

‘‘I love you too, Tae. More than I ever can explain.’‘

resting his cheek against your belly, you catch a content smile on his face.  He is silent, wanting to bask in your warmth before he slides out of your heat and rolls off of you and lays down beside you. ‘’Hmm. I wouldn’t know what to do without you. You are literally my home.’’ and with that he plants a loving wet kiss against your lips, and cages you into his arms, your back to his stomach. 

‘‘Should we shower?’‘ You ask after a few minutes. 

‘‘Yes, yes we should.’‘ 

Yet the two of you dont move, enjoying the peaceful stillness of the night while listening how your hearts slowly beat to a softer pace.  

[purfectprincessgirl]

*Catches the latest RH doll news on IG*

*suddenly feels like ranking them all ‘cause h y p e*:

(Spoiler images below)

Sooooo uh w o w, looks like I’m gonna need a second wallet for how much these girls are gonna steal my soul gjgjgk 😍💕First impression-wise here’s my own rankings so far:

~(Royal Three trio)~

1) Minnie/Pink girl (Idk what it is exactly but she just looks so soft and cuuute~ ☺️💕I'd love to own her first! ^w^)

2) Tiara Song/Purple girl (I'll have to see her up-close/other outfits to know for sure but glad to finally see her doll version, she's lovely~💜)

3) Tessa Park/Pastel Blue(?) girl (Again like Tiara I'll prob have to see her more upclose to judge her for sure, but I like her clothing style & color choice its also pretty cute~)

~(Costume Ball, Shadow High)~

1) Eliza McFee/Fairy (*yall know me and my fairy bias will never go away lol* -But omggg she is stunning~ that icy bluish color scheme with the makeup and the shiny wings and hair aaaaa I gotta have her now TwT 💙✨)

2) Lola Wilde/Werecat (Wasn't sure what to think when I first saw her box art leaks, but her doll form's looking pretty cute actually now that I see her! :3 I love the mix of light pink, black and magenta its all so lovely~ 🥰)

3) Demi Batista/Vampire (Hmmmm, I feel like I should love her more 'cause I've always adored vampires/goth aesthetics in-general... but hmm, idk how to feel yet? .3. I like the mix of purples and the rainbow iridescent look under her cape though, maybe some more in-person pics will help me decide for sure! 👍)

~(Costume Ball, Rainbow High)~

1) Witch Bella (More. Bella. Yes. Please~ 💖💕😩And omg her witch aesthetic here I did *not* see coming but she's pulling it off SO beautifully~ Bless you MGA for listening to us to give Bella more doll love! 🥺 )

2) Spider Robin (Oooohh, interesting idea they decided to play into Robin's brief spider makeup from last season to this design! :3 Was lowkey expecting more of a goth-y spider vibe though but I do get what they're going for nonetheless ^^ The more Robin the better~)

3) Superhero/Catwoman Violet (Hmmmmm... I do get the vibe they're trying to capture here (*esp with the lowkey callback to Tim Burton's Catwoman?*)... b u t eh, she's kinda not giving me the same "flair" like the others to get more into her rn? .w.; Idk maybe that's just me-)

[desire-tenderness]

𝒜𝑣𝑒𝑐 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑟, 𝒯𝑖𝑚𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒.

14 January 2021,

Hello my love, I hope you’re well. I have written much more often than before. When we are energized or distressed, it flows perfectly. And, well, I’m here in my room writing you a letter. Barefoot, to contrast the warmth I feel after drinking two glasses of Negroni, while listening to a song, Jardin D'Iver. "Ta robe à fleur Sous la pluie de novembre Mes mains qui courent Je n'en peux plus de t'attendre" I want to thank you for giving us space so we could talk in October last year. Jack has been a great friend to me, it’s good to have him around. I’m sure he opened up this space for you to hear me. I need to thank him for taking care of you, he told me how things are going. You’re such a strong woman, Lily; so amazing. Life is a school, we need to go through situations to learn how it works. It’s I know, sometimes I sound like an old man talking, damn it. I’m still sorry for all the pain and chaos involving your father, that sucks. You know you have me to talk to about anything. I wish I could hug her or at least see her smile, even from afar. Are you reading? As a religious man, I ask God to. Remember how we were in September 2019? When I said those days on Capri were the best days of my life, it wasn’t and never will be. I remember every second, every detail, every smell, taste, or feeling. Fucking Lily, this shit was so real to us.

When it was all over, the emptiness filled me for long days, months, it’s true.. I’m wrong, I’m flawed in many ways. Many times I get tired of the image that they built for me and it made me lose heart in June last year, I am not proud, but I should not condemn myself. I was not happy, I was in disgrace on the inside. I care a lot about these things. But I would never want my care to be misinterpreted. I’m just a guy trying to be the best for my family, my career, my friends, the best for me, the best for you. But I always look like Weird Chalamet, the guy who’s super dedicated to his work, clumsy and smug. But all the moments I spent beside him I could truly see and feel the boy I carry inside, who I am without fear or fear. My best version of it. Lily, my heart is wild, it’s human. Once you told me that I have a perfect soul, would I have failed you if that were true?

In that house, alone, in the middle of the vast green at Woodstock I could reflect so much, you have no idea. I needed it, my chest caught fire from the inside. Capturing the essence of a Dylan of my own, my version, it brought me contradictory thoughts about what I was feeling, but those thoughts were very strong. Sometimes I think some things I feel are wrong. the questioning lives inside me, it even disturbs me. I wanted to be alone with myself. Being "alone" is not bad, it is essential to know how to be well alone. I get a lot of pleasure from enjoying things alone. Travel somewhere where I was anonymous and it was just me and my backpack for a few days. You know what I found when I walked into the house? An ashtray with a sticker from a Hot Chocolate disc. It reminded me of Thanksgiving when we were all gathered in the room waiting for you to show up with the cake. When you started playing You Sexy Thing and you showed up with the cake in your hands, I immediately saw the most beautiful smile in the world and your cigarette on the red cigarette holder. I only used the ashtray a few times while I was there.

The sun was shining in Woodstock and a rainbow formed in my head. That sunlight passing through the trees. I could breathe a little and even sleep soundly. I had my coffee on the balcony while I filled out the Chronicles book. Ali, I heard at least 7 times the Bob Dylan’s Dream song before entering again. That time alone served me to learn more about myself and the world. However, that night there was the feeling that the room was getting too big, the microwave lasagna with the individual portion gave me a slap in the face. I looked around wanting to find a familiar expression, someone who asked me about my day.

Shit, I needed to call you right now to say these things, but I would cry. I spend all my time imagining you, Lily. As I lie in my bed, I can’t stop thinking about everything you said to me those days, those nights, those afternoons. Thinkin'Bout You in the starry night, remember? Frank Ocean playing perfectly to make love. We got so drunk that we could barely concentrate on what was around. But we had total control over what was going on in that room. It’s inexplicable how much more beautiful everything looks when you’re around. I remember perfectly how you led me to the delirium. You kissed my back as you bit her, and I looked you in the back of my eyes and I was hypnotized. Your breasts fit perfectly in my hands, your perfectly drawn mouth bewilders me, your wide smile automatically makes me imagine the power of your lips, man.. limb starts throbbing.

You said "Peach me Timmy", and our kisses began to burn, my body feels its touch like never before. Orgasm was like being under the influence of psychodelia. Come on, I’ve never felt it before and neither have you. That morning we made our breakfast to the sound of Otis Redding - Cigarettes And Coffee and we loved each other again. I want the fire we both made to still burn on you. Nothing is the same. I wrote to you almost every day in secret. Adult loneliness is fucked up. And I’m as weak as a man could be and I can’t help it. I want to feel you close to me, if you snap your fingers I’ll run to you, Lily. House Of Cards started playing here in the room, it’s like the volume is increasing by itself and the loneliness starts to fuck my brain without mercy, without affection. It seems like it’s part of adult life to feel this tightness in your chest, this urge to have someone within reach of your hand, skin and embrace. Seeking shelter in the pleasure of others does not solve this. I understand that opening the house and life to another person is scary, but I never wanted another person. I’m sorry about the media toxins, that shit really gets to me. I just want to spend my time with you, hold you tight, squeeze you, tell you what I want. I want to make you happy, I want to be happy. It’s so hard to leave her alone. Oh, fuck, I’m gonna burn that letter and call you right now. [Dialing]   ...   [Ringtone] - Timoly, ça va? - Lily, merci de me recevoir. [Relief] - I was writing a letter, but I need to hear your voice. I need to feel your voice or look into your eyes. [Voice trembles as if a knot were to untie in tears] - It’s delicious to hear yours. Put me in your room or come to me, and I’ll sing Sexual healing for you. I miss you. [chuckled with excitement] - You surprise me like it’s the first time, it’s so wonderful. I have so much to tell you. Can I find you now? - I wait here at home, you know my address. I also have a lot to say. - A bientôt, mon amour. je t'aime. - je t'aime, Timoly.

{This is a fanfic. All I write about is my feelings and desires. Here I transcribed my interpretations and sensations about the feelings of Timothée Chalamet. TEXT BY: L.M }

[bird-in-a-cage]

Inspired by the wonderful @cockasinthebird, for being my muse and talking filth in my ear.

Whipped

Steve was riled up. Inventory day usually made him edgy, but this week was bad. Bad to the point the regional manager just happened to 'pop by' to help discover why Scoops was down a case of whipped cream and a whole kilo box of rainbow sprinkles. Steve was sure it wasn't him or Robin giving out too much, mostly because him and Robin just didn't give a shit about customer satisfaction and just wanted to get through the day as easily as possible. Yeah if it was a kid's birthday or something they would both put a bit extra on, pile the whipped cream a touch higher, be a little heavy handed with sprinkles, a couple extra cherries even. But not a whole case or a kilo's worth.

It just, bothered him.

It bothered him all the way driving home, tapping his thumbs on the wheel, his brain coming up with ridiculous thoughts like maybe there was a very specific thief that only took cream and sprinkles and not the cash register full of money, or the safe that lived in the back office also full of money from the week's takings ready to go to the bank. Maybe the delivery guys were running a racket, siphoning off little pieces of product and reselling it to make some money on the side. Maybe it was just the fact that Steve couldn't count when taking the delivery, which he knew for a fact couldn't be the case because he didn't do deliveries any more for that exact reason, because of The Butterscotch Incident, which he was pretty sure they were still trying to use up three months later.

The bothering feeling dissipated as soon as Steve saw rainbow sprinkles on his doormat. They did have the tendency to follow him home like glitter, but never carefully arranged into an arrow pointing inside under the closed front door. Steve rolled his eyes like he had an audience but still couldn't help the grin growing to his cheeks.

Only one person had a spare key and the gaul to decorate the welcome mat in such a way.

Unlocking the door revealed a trail of multicoloured arrows over the carpet, clearly placed with loving precision, pointing towards the kitchen where the only light was on, illuminating the scene in the hallway.

Steve kicked his shoes off at the door as always, and followed them like breadcrumbs. He wasn't sure what to expect, but what greeted him wasn't it. Even if the image before him did make his brain melt out his ears, just a little.

Laying on Steve's kitchen island, on top of his mother's best dish towel printed with little corn flowers and chickens, was Billy, naked as the day he was born. He smirked hot at Steve's presence, shifted to lean up on his elbow, and sprayed a whipped cream arrow down his chest, pointing to his rock hard cock.

Steve's dick kicked to life rapidly in his uniform Scoops issued shorts. At least this answered some of his questions. He stepped into the room and could feel Billy's smirk burning his attention. There were little dots of cream all across his chest, in seemingly random spots. Some of them were just simple sprays and others looked a little like cheesy love hearts. The two over his nipples definitely were.

"How long have you been here?" Steve stopped when he came flush with the edge of the island between Billy's tree trunk legs that dangled down at the knees. His thighs were warm under Steve's hands, sunkissed from sitting in the lifeguard chair all day, a small tan line starting to circle the muscle that Steve's fingers found with ease. He resisted touching what clearly needed the most attention, throbbing and standing proud between them.

"Long enough," Billy purred, reaching down to rub over the back of Steve's left hand, trying to force it higher. Steve dug his fingers into the firm flesh and resisted, just for now, demanding something of an explanation with the look he gave. Not that Billy was about to give him one. Instead he sat up properly, shook what was left in the can, and sprayed a picture perfect whip on the head of his cock. The designs he'd given himself over his body melted down a touch, leaving his skin greasy and shiny. Like he’d oiled himself up. It made his muscles pop. "You want me to put a cherry on top too?"

Steve felt his throat tighten as his mouth threatened to run over. He knew what Billy could do with cherries. The guy had been teasing him all summer with knotted stems left on the glass display counter, much to Robin's annoyance when she would find one. Steve knew first hand how talented that teasing tongue could be. He was lucky enough to feel it most nights.

"Oh, you wouldn't wanna be too sweet now, would ya?" Steve leaned his head down to flick the tip of his tongue through the little cream pile before it started to melt, nowhere near where Billy clearly intended the first lick to be if his unfortunately desperate whine was anything to go by. But Steve wasn't one for a drawn out tease like Billy was, and soon licked again, dragging his tongue slowly through all the sweet to find salt starting to weep through. Billy groaned and moved again, leaning back on both elbows, still elevated enough to watch.

Billy liked to watch. He also liked Steve to wear the stupid sailor hat, which he had thankfully left in his car. He doubted Billy would want to wait for him to go and retrieve it.

Muscular fingers found their way into Steve's hair, twisting and grabbing loose and he started running his tongue over more of Billy's thick, aching length, rolling down low, tracing the edge of a vein that disappeared into a well groomed tuft of musty curls. Just breathing hot over velvety skin was enough to make Billy's thighs tense. He must have been here for a while, just hard and waiting for the grand reveal. 

Fuck, if that wasn't a thought to ponder on later.

Just as evenly paced, Steve worked his way back up and slipped his lips around the head in a perfect o, pressing his tongue up firm against the sensitive underside and swirling in a slow circle around all those responsive nerve endings, like he was licking up a dripping cone. The hand on the back of his head started pressing down, getting desperate. Steve flicked his eyes up and was met by dark pools of blue like the middle of the ocean in a storm, straight teeth capturing a plump pink bottom lip to keep the noise back even though there was no need. There were only the two of them here if the purpose of the dish towel was anything to go by.

Steve’s mother would have a fit otherwise.

Only when the sweet taste of the cream was completely cleaned up did Steve start sinking lower, sucking down more until his lips stretched painfully but not unbearable, and Billy hit the back of his throat, twitching on his tongue. Steve groaned softly around what was in his mouth and pressed a hand down the front of his shorts to help alleviate some of the building pressure. Billy’s hand moved to the back of Steve’s neck as he swallowed as best he could, ripping free a strangled cry from the other boy.

“Fuuck! Baby… you’re so good, my double fudge.”

Steve pulled back his mouth immediately at that and pinched at the soft skin of Billy’s inner thigh, which caused him to yelp but not for a moment did it stop the grin under his moustache. 

“Call me that again and I’m stopping. I mean it.” Steve tried to sound threatening, even a little, but even by the end of his sentence he wanted to laugh. They both knew he didn’t mean a single word. Not when Billy had literally caused Scoops regional manager to blow a mental fuse trying to work out where all the missing cream stock had gone just to get a blow job.

Steve didn’t want to look in his fridge, but he knew the rest of it would be in there. Depending on how much Billy had eaten during the apparent midnight raid of course. The picture of Billy behind the wheel of his camaro, squirting a whole can down his throat while driving was far too real. He didn’t even want to think how Billy had made it out of the mall with all those cans, but they were in the back room alone a lot, most of the time Steve didn’t have any real recollection of what was happening…

“You don’t like my nicknames, my sweet vanilla bean?” 

Steve pinched again. Billy laughed around another small yelp, but Steve’s slender fingers soothed the skin this time, rubbing up higher towards Billy’s sac which looked heavy and full. Not touching but getting teasingly close. It was kind of a reward even though Steve hated the barrage of nicknames he got daily, all based around ice cream flavours. Well, he didn’t hate them really. Just pretended to hate them because he couldn’t really call Billy anything lifeguard related. Steve had called him a pool noodle once, which was quickly turned around as a nickname for his own dick. The timing of it had been quite impressive really so he couldn’t be too mad.

Billy’s hand on his cheek brought Steve back to the moment, to the urgency in front of him. With one last stern look that they both knew meant nothing at all, he sunk back down until his lips were firmly clasped around the wide base of Billy’s cock and sucked. Hard. With all intention to shut his boyfriend up. At least for now. Sweeping his tongue over weak spots seemed to do the trick as Steve started to bob his head, Billy’s hand just resting in his hair again. Not pushing for more or pulling for less, letting Steve take control of the situation at last. He knew every one of Billy’s soft points, had them memorised like landmarks on a city map. Knew the exact amount of pressure to put where and when, whether his tongue should be pointed or flat, when to suck deeper or let up for a second, using more and more spit because Billy liked it messy to the point where all the fluid was spilling down Steve's chin.

He may not have done all that well in school, but he would have aced a cock sucking class hands down.

It was no time at all before he could taste more salt, hear Billy’s moans getting desperate and ragged as he leaked more and more over Steve’s tongue whenever he would make his way to the tip to sweep across the over sensative slit. Every now and then retracting his lips totally so Billy could watch and observe just how much Steve loved his taste. A little ego boost.

The more he tasted, the more the pressure in Steve’s shorts got intolerable. But he refused to just drop and shoot in his kitchen. Not without getting Billy’s hands on him in some way first. And Billy could always go two rounds. Always. 

Steve placed his hand on a tanned thigh, felt how tense it was under his fingertips, how much Billy was trying to hold back. That wouldn’t do at all. But Steve still had one card left to play, his guaranteed full house. He glanced up at Billy under hooded eyes, all innocent and coy in the way that made the other boy groan deep and protective, made him pull Steve just that little bit closer and push his head down just a little, desperate to be enveloped again. Steve obliged of course, but ever so faintly, dragged his teeth over the aching cockhead on the way back down.

Billy was gone. He cried out and came heavy and thick over Steve’s tongue, painting the inside of his mouth in three strong surges. Only when the grip on his head relaxed did Steve move, slipping off with an obscenely wet pop and shifted onto the balls of his feet to kiss over Billy’s sculpted torso, licking off what was left of the cream over his stomach hungrily and letting the flavours mix in his mouth. 

It wasn’t wholly unpleasant.

Billy sat up before he got any further and cupped Steve’s cheeks to kiss him deeply, tongue licking against his, manic and bold. They panted hard when they broke apart, foreheads resting together as Steve cupped the hands over the ones on his face, thumbing across strong fingers that disappeared into his slightly sweaty hair. The grin Billy wore was adorable and stupid, blissed out but also still socially aware. Aware enough to notice the tent in Steve’s shorts and the unavoidable growing wet patch through two layers of fabric. The grin turned hot again.

“Need some help with that, my sweet honey almond?”

Steve was far too desperate and turned on to correct him a third time. He could do that later, once they were both satisfied.

[sea-side-scribbles]

Fanfiction: Sympathy For A Downer

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22737214/chapters/73811022

Chapter 53

Arthur asked his questions and quickly left. The whole situation was quite upside-down: Arthur wanted to leave and Nick would've loved to keep him for a while longer. At least that's what it looked like to Arthur, who was very happy about it. However, he didn't want to risk being confronted with Morrie again. What if the Make Believe wanted to take a closer look at this curious reporter? Arthur didn't want to lose his new job after all. Unfortunately, this way, he got no statements from Morrie for his article. Arthur was annoyed by that as soon as he left the house, only comforting himself with the image of the next meeting with Nick. And then finally without a task.

He made an effort not to show it, but the interviews with Nick were rather complicated. It was hard not to ask anything that somehow concerned them both too. He had been assuring Nick over and over that he didn't have to answer, but it didn't seem to bother the rockstar as much as it did Arthur, who instead felt like he gained information about his lover's emotional life by trickery, rather than earning his trust. Therefore, he avoided asking too many questions about his private life, what Mrs. Oliphant would probably pick at. Nick of course was a professional and had his stock answers ready for situations like these, but then it felt as if they were putting on an act. Arthur was rather glad when it was over.

He finished his article just in time for the next issue. His boss, who was visibly busy, shortly looked at it, said a simple "Oh, splendid, splendid" and he was dismissed. In the evening, he went back into the tunnel suite, eyeing the chocolate and waiting for Nick to come by. Later, he fell asleep and woke up alone. Then he waited until noon. After all, he had missed Nick before and didn't want it to happen again. But nobody came.

Arthur stared gloomily at the chocolate, as if it should've summoned Nick. Then he felt more and more strange in this brightly colored room. It happened to him sometimes, when his lover wasn't there. As if Nick's presence changed him, as if he could become a part of Nick's glamorous world through him. Without him, he fell back into his own world, as a Downer that lived in the dirt and darkness, in the ruins of the once glamorous town. Without Nick, that matched him better. Because he felt like hiding himself away again, he wrote a message for Nick: "I'm next door if you need me".  He planned to stay nearby, because he was sure that Nick would come today. When he slowly left the suite, he hoped that he would run into the rockstar yet, stopping again and again, until he reached his safe house.

There he caught his breath, as if he had been running from mortal danger. Only here, he felt really safe, in his own customized hideout, that nobody who was still in one's senses would enter. That he now couldn't leave anymore because he wanted to wait for Nick. He passed the time with rummaging in his numerous loot and crafting some useful things for himself. After a while, he even enjoyed it, thinking he really should've become an engineer. Or better, an inventor. But wasn't that the same? Inventor sounded better. He invented a lot of things, actually. Sadly only Downers would buy his stuff. Or burglars. That shop wouldn't go too well, he thought smiling to himself. Like that, he diverted himself, wondering about what Nick would say if he saw his little gadgets. That he could give Nick's smash hits a literal meaning if he wanted.

When he had used up everything he could find, it was already late in the evening. Arthur now worried that he had somehow overheard his lover and went back to the suite. There, his note lay on the bed, just where he had left it. Well, we still have all night, he thought and  took another long shower. The misadvantage of crafting was that he could barely get the lube off his hands. Getting out halfway clean, he hoped that Nick would let him get away with it.

Dressed in a new suit, he sat down on the soft, round bed and waited. Then he thought it would look better if he was doing something, when Nick came, so he started to dust the room. There wasn't much, but enough to busy himself with it. Passing by the golden statue, his gaze rested on it. It was a tiny version of the one that decorated the Avalon Hotel entrance. Perhaps he only had it to test the pose. Or to remember himself of the good old days. Arthur picked it up and slowly turned it around, eyeing it from all sides. He saw his own reflexion in the golden coating. Then he put it back at the exact same spot. It took some more time until he was able break away from it and continued cleaning. After he had rounded the entire suite, Nick was still not there.

Alone, he sat back on the bed, considering to pay him another visit. But he abandoned the idea, because of the risk, and because the rockstar was probably busy. Where was he? Did he really have no time, even for a small visit, just to say that everything was alright? Perhaps he had, and was already on the way here. Arthur, who was tired from crafting, who was only kept awake by impatience, crawled under the blanket. In his mind, he played Nick's new songs. The sang him to sleep, bit by bit. The next morning, he was still alone. He brewed himself a coffee at Nick's bar and waited for a very long time. Still no rockstar.

Frustrated, he mused what to do. Another day in the tunnel? Nicky could come by any moment, but yet he wanted to go outside again, making sure the town was still standing. So he left another note, hoping that he could convince Nick to wait for him until he came back. It didn't have to be a long walk anyway.

With Sunshine and Mojo by his side, he left the hatch and wantered along the rainbow colored road, imitating the Wellies that mindlessly strutted by. A few greetings here and there, a little smalltalk about the weather later, Arthur was certain that everything was the same. Everyone looked high and happy. Later, someone mentioned Nick's new record and engaged Arthur in a conversation. "You know, deep inside, I always knew he was a decent bloke. All these rumours and shittalk about him, I never believed it." "Me neither", said Arthur, not quite persuaded. "Some people are so dense", the Wellie said as if he had to defend himself. "Yeah...but not you, I guess". "And not you. I reckon I'll see you tonight too?" He eyed Arthur. "Uh..where?" "At the concert, of course! I guess whole Hamlyn Village will be there, but trust me, most of them are frauds." "I know what you mean." Arthur had no clue. "Stay away from fake fans, you hear me?" "Sure..." Arthur rather backed away, but the chance to see another concert was spinning in his head.

It was probably the reason why Nick had no time. Perhaps he could get into the backstage area somehow? With his press pass it was now easier to visit these events. He would've liked to ask the guy about the time and place, but he didn't want to come out as a fake fan or something. Other Wellies could tell him more though.

He had to pass another way too big amount of time, before he finally stood in front of a stage, with a camera ready, and waiting some more. Unfortunately he didn't find a way into the backstage area and now he was standing in between the screeching fans, trying not to get squashed. They came closer and closer to the stage and the Bobbies had their hands full pushing them back. Arthur's heart was pounding heavily up to his throat. This time, he had enough Joy for a couple of hours and was sure not to lose his head again. What could go wrong though, was that he could burst with impatience. Two days without Nick! And now only seeing him on stage! Nick would have to make up for that.

When the band finally arrived, the shrieking increased to an earpiercing level. Arthur barely heard the music and felt merely lost in the chaos. Fixing his eyes on Nick, he remembered having a camera. With shivering fingers, he took the first picture and his flash lightened up for a few seconds. Nick promptly turned into his direction. Arthur tried waving at him, and it looked like Nick understood. The rockstar threw himself into a pose that Arthur simply needed to capture on camera. Soon, it seemed like they were playing a game, with Nick adjusting his choreography for him. Arthur would've loved to eternalize every second with his camera anyway, but the concert had just started.

Nick was in high spirits today, Arthur found, watching him showing his affection to his recovered friends. He kept whispering to them, sometimes put his arms around them and blew kisses after solos. Arthur assumed he was simply happy to have them back, like he said in the interviews. And he probably wanted to make up for everything. That he lay on Morrie's piano during a love ballade and darted ambiguous glances at him, he found was a little bit too much. Still, he took photos of that moment. It was only a show after all.

Nick felt awesome. With the fans in front of him and the band behind him, he could truly forget everything else. Finally, he wasn't alone on stage anymore. He fooled around with his friends, kept thanking them again and again, also remembering himself not to neglect his fans. Even Arthur was there, Nick could see his flashlight. He also gave him attention and looked forward to see the photos.

While he was dancing along, suddenly a fan jumped on stage, grabbed him and sticked their tongue into his throat. Randomly gagged like that, Nick didn't find it too bad. It was spicing up the show, and after all, a true fan deserved a reward for sneaking past the Bobbies. So he returned the kiss with passion. The other fans freaked out, probably most of them wishing they could switch places with the lucky sod on stage, and many reached out their hands. Nick thought it would make a great photo. Letting go of the fan, his gaze fell on a familar face and he startled. Kitty Bates was standing in front of him.

She was all aroused, with her cheeks red, and her voice shivered a bit when she asked: "Will you do it now, Nicky?" The music became quieter, lurking. The band was probably expecting another surprise act. Nick quickly switched off his microphone. "C...can't we wait until after the gig?" Kitty wasn't amused about that. "I've been waiting long enough!", she hissed. "Do it now, or I'll tell everyone what you did!" "This is blackmail!" "You promised, Nicky! And this moment is perfect!" Nick stared at her, but her expession was merciless. He couldn't draw it out any longer. It was getting awkward, everybody was waiting for something to happen. And if he wanted to save this gig and his career...

Defeated, he switched the microphone back on and went down on one knee. "Kitty Bates...", he said with regret. All noises had vanished off the concert hall. He only heard his suit rustle and his own breath. "I can't imagine my life without you. Since we met...you've been my Joy", he lied. It had once been true, now all these words were delayed. "I promise I'll be yours...forever." It sounded awful to him, but Kitty's eyes watered. There were some "Awwws" from the audience, probably from those who weren't bursting with jealousy. So far, so good, but he still had no ring. From sheer necessity, he grabbed his necklace, pulled off the pendant and presented it to her. "Will you marry me?", he forced his tongue to say. Then he gave her the mic. Her sobbing echoed through the hall.

"Yes...yes, I will! I want to be your wife, Nicky!" she cried and gave him her hand. Nick had to slip the pendant on her finger. It looked rather weird, but nobody saw it from far away. Then he got up and wrapped his arms around Kitty, who was bursting into tears. They received applause for their show, the band accompanied it, but Nick was afraid what Matt and Morrie thought right now. And Arthur.

Somehow, he persuaded Kitty to leave the stage. She was followed by Bobbies, making sure that Nick's new wife won't be attacked by the many rivals. They continued, but this gig's magic was gone. Nick was afraid of the end. He played  the happy rockstar as good as he could and avoided certain band members. Chris and Brad had no idea what was going on and were still in a good mood. He once got a slap on the shoulder from Chris, if out of pity or out of happiness, he wasn't sure. He had tried to find Arthur again, but his flashlight was gone.

Arthur didn't take a single photo of this whole scene. He only stared with a gaping mouth. Firstly, he waited for Nick to reject that woman and hand her to the Bobbies. When nothing likely happened, he started to worry. And when Nick fell on his knee to say all these awful things to her, he felt like he was about to faint. He was watching the scene from start to finish, always expecting that it would turn out to be a spoof. But there was no hint. Only the feeling of being betrayed that grew inside him. Nick had worn this ring all the time, letting it dangle right in front of Arthur's face. The mere thought gave him nausea. He had enough photos to fill an album, he needed to get out of here.

When the band left the stage, Nick followed Chris and Brad. "I hope you won't regret this", Chris just said when Matt suddenly grabbed Nick's arm, turned him around and slapped him hard in the face. "Matthew!", Brad shouted. The bassist normally wasn't the aggressive type. Chris placed himself in front of Nick, who kept quiet and held back tears. "Hey, what's wrong?" "Keep out of this, Chris! This is about me and Nick!" "Just calm down, okay?" Brad tried. "You know what you did!",  Matt snapped at Nick. "Do you have any shame?" Nick couldn't take it any longer. "I don't want to marry her!", he sobbed. "Believe me, I don't!" Now everybody was confused. "Then why did you propose?", Chris asked. "She blackmails me..." They exchanged glances.

"Uh...guys?", Virgil approached them. "How about an encore? The fans are a bit upset. Soon we'll have another bill for a damaged stage..." He stopped and eyed the scene in front of him. "Nick, what happened? Where's Morrie?" "I get him!", Matt seemed to be eager to leave the scene. He ran past Virgil to the dressing rooms. Brad gently squeezed Nick's arm. "Don't worry, Nicky. We'll deal with her later. Just take another Joy and forget her." Nick nodded and digged into his pocket while Chris gestured to Virgil that everything was under control. Nick popped two pills and moaned as all colors exlpoded in front of his eyes. The world was full of rainbows. "I can't see anything...", he muttered. Then he stumbled outside. "Whatever." Chris and Brad exchanged glances before they followed him.

The first minutes of the encore, Nick was in a trance and kept forgetting the lyrics. Then the effect died down and he felt both tired and excited at once. After finishing the song, he threw up behind the stage. "Shit", Brad held him so he won't fall over. Chris palpated Nick's forehead. "Do you need a flash?" "No, no...I'm okay...I'm okay...", Nick muttered, who was feeling a little bit better. "Virgil, do you think we need another encore?", he heard Matt ask. "No chance..., no chance...", Brad said before everything turned black.

Nick woke up surrounded by his band and Virgil, and turned around, trying to orient himself. He felt horrible. They gave him another black pill. "Take your Joy. Take your Joy. Yeah, there you go..." It was getting better. They helped him up and he was able to walk home with them, even thought it all felt like a dream. At home, he fell on the first couch he saw. "I'm so tired...", he muttered. Somebody patted his back. "Sleep well, Nicky. We'll talk tomorrow." It was Virgil's voice, that had such a soothing effect on him that he dozed off.

A few seconds later, he jumped up again. Arthur. He had no clue. He could hurt himself. Nick struggled his way outside, with a nasty feeling in his stomach. The next hatch wasn't far away though. Only the way felt much longer and his fear grew. How much time had passed? How long had Arthur been alone? He reached his suite, but it was empty. "Arthur?", he rasped. He was too weak to shout. He crawled to his hideout and used all the strenght he had left to knock at the door. Then he slid down on the stone floor. Colored dots danced before his eyes. The door opened, just when Nick's stomach had decided to turn again.

"What the...?", Arthur jumped aside. "Nick!", he hissed, "What are you doing here? Did you forget you're getting married?" "I don't want to marry her", Nick squeezed out. "She blackmails me...she..." Arthur was confused. "Why don't you fight back? I bet a rock idol like you can afford a lawyer, right?" Nick pressed a hand on his head. "Too much Joy...", he said, then he curled up into a ball. Arthur's anger vanished when he considered that Nick was just about to die of an overdose. He ran to his chest where he kept his supplies and came back with a syringe.

"This is gonna sting a little", he said, hoping he wouldn't hurt him too much. Nick whined loudly, when the syringe touched him, but perhaps he was only complaining about his general state. Arthur could see no injuries. He had no idea if flash even worked for Nick, with all the drugs he probably had in his blood. He lifted him up and put him down on one of the pallets. The rockstar calmed down. "You don't want to marry her?", Arthur asked again. "No...", Nick moaned. "No, I don't want to...." Arthur gave him a kiss on the cheek. And then another. He lay beside Nick and pulled a blanket over them.

Sometime Nick awoke again and tossed around, feeling horrible again. He startled Arthur awake. "Nick, what's wrong?" "My Joy...I need...my Joy...where is it?" Nick rummaged around in his pockets. Arthur palpated him and quickly found it in an inside pocket, that Nick couldn't find in his state. Nick clumsily reached out for the Joy, but Arthur instinctively pulled it away from him. In this very moment, Nick was a Downer. Arthur could deny him the drug, make him see the truth.

"Arthur?", Nick whispered.

He was still helpless, but he could get agressive without his Joy, and then Arthur would have to lock him up somewhere until he was completely sober. Still, he could leave the room and lock it up. Nick would be caught. But he would surely hate Arthur after that. Arthur himself had had a choice. Nobody had made him a Downer. And wouldn't it feel better if Nick would choose this truth all by himself?

With a heavy heart, he gave the pill to Nick. His lover popped it and relaxed. His breath got calmer, the stress faded away. Arthur lay back down next to him and waited. "Oh...yeah...that's much better...", Nick sighed after a while. Arthur put an arm around him. Nick turned around and looked at him, beaming. "I'm so happy that I found you! I was so worried about you!", he sighed. Arthur was still worried. "So...you really didn't mean it? The proposal?" Nick's eyes widened with horror and he began to avoid Arthur's gaze.

"I had no choice." He rammed his fist into the mattress. "Goddamnit, what should I do?" Also Arthur's mood dropped. "What does she have on you?" "Oh..." Nick covered his face with his hands. "Just some bad luck! If only I didn't go...! If only I listened to Virgil! This is my punishment!" Arthur petted his arm. "There must be a way..." "If I remembered....", Nick whined. "Damn Party Favors!" "What happened?" Nick moaned, curled up and made another woeful noise.

"Let me help you", Arthur went on. "You know, I don't want you to marry her, too. If I can prevent that somehow, tell me." Nick laughed bitterly. "Only Sherlock Holmes could help me now...", he muttered more to himself. "Pardon?" Nick looked at him again. "Can you solve a murder, Arthur? Or hypnotise me so that I remember what happened?" "I can try", Arthur said, who'd rather do that than nothing. "But I need some more information." Nick scratched his throat. It was obvious that he felt very uncomfortable talking about it.

"Nick, trust me, whatever happens, we face it out together. And if you...were up to something...I guess I'm the last person that should judge you." Nick's eyes were pleading. "Do you think I could hurt anyone?" "No...honestly, not at all. But I know that in this town, you have to do things, that..." Arthur sighed deeply. "Well, things that you regret. We take Joy to forget them." Nick ruffled his hair. "Oh, Arthur, I swear, I didn't do anything! I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time! Because I was high...again." "That sounds more like you", Arthur said and tried a smile. It worked. Nick's mouth corners twitched a bit.

He silenced for a while, pondering. Then he asked slowly, approaching the topic: "I guess...you heard that...Richard Bates...is dead?" "I...think it was in the press..." Arthur sometimes read newspapers he found on a bench. "Foggy Jack got another one, was it him?" "Uh....huh...maybe...you know, the night it happened, I was there, with Kitty." "Oh, Kitty Bates", Arthur understood. "She's his...sister?" Nick gave another bitter laugh. "No...his wife. And a passionate Lightbearer fan. Anyway...Because I was high I can't remember what happened that night. I swear, I've been with Kitty all the time, but she believes I killed her husband to marry her myself. And if I don't do it, she'll tell everyone her story!"

"Could it be that she did it herself?" Nick stared at Arthur, surprised how quickly he went along with him. "Well...she is quite bonkers...but a murderer? I don't think she could do it." Arthur fell quiet, musing. "You see how hopeless this is?" Nick shook his head. "And I thought she'll forget." "Forget...", Arthur muttered. "Nick, that's it! She must forget!" Nick gave him an unwitting look. "How?" "Well...I could use Oblivion! It doesn't erase all memories, but I guess it could do with the most recent ones. It could work!" "Isn't that...dangerous? What if she gets insane?" "More than she already is? I mean, what choice do we have?" "And how do you plan to give it to her?" "I could put it in her tea or something...Don't look at me like that. You know I can break into houses. This time I'll do it for us!" "Oh, Arthur, if something happens to you..." Nick took his hand. "I'll take care. The alarm systems are rather primitive and I'd go at night, when she's asleep. Come on, I risk my life every day. I could just as well risk it for something helpful this time." "Oh..." Nick embraced Arthur. "You really are a life saviour. What would I do without you?" Arthur kissed him. "She'll leave you alone soon."

Nick began to smile. He held Arthur for a while longer, then he let go and his expression turned sadder. "Arthur...I...I don't know how to say it...but I must go. I dashed off to look for you. Nobody knows where I am. I'm sure they worry about me." "They aren't in danger, Nick. You're a grown up man, you can do what you want!" Nick shook his head. "The last time they saw me, I was out of my mind. They'll think I jumped off a cliff or something." "But you didn't", Arthur insisted. "You can tell them tomorrow what happened." Nick fought with himself, but Arthur was done waiting "Well, If you can't stop thinking about it, it's pointless." He crossed his arms and stared at the wall.

Nick eyed Arthur, who didn't move anymore and looked rather hurt, and decided he didn't want to leave like that. Even though he couldn't stay for long. He pulled himself together and hugged Arthur again, kissing him, apologizing. Arthur clutched him, as if he would never let him go again. After all that stress, they needed extensively kissing and petting to get in the mood. Nick let Arthur crawl onto him and Arthur savoured the moment, making Nick moan and beg for release until he couldn't take it any longer himself. And yet it was Arthur, who was begging in silence when Nick put his clothes on and left the bed. "Be careful, my King", Nick said and drew out the goodbye kiss.

When Nick was gone, Arthur searched his supplies for Oblivion.

[cringeyvanillamilk]

Who are your favorite top ten black clover characters and favorite ships? Talk about them. (why I feel like I've sent you this already, hmmmm)

ALRIGHT! It’s time for the last half of the question! This was hard because there aren't many ships in Black Clover that I’m passionate about, but I’ll try my best~! I’ll also keep this short!

Here are my top 10 Black Clover ships!

1. Magna x Luck

Out of all the ships that I felt the strongest emotions or most attachment towards, it would have to be Magna and Luck. I personally found the ‘bros’ or ‘best friends’ ships to be the most versatile to work with! While you can ship them platonically as the greatest best friends, there are always other romantic tropes that I absolutely love that are associated with this type of ship. Friends to lovers, mutual pining, slow burns, etc!! I really love how fun and entertaining their dynamic is in the anime! I can’t help but laugh when these two are together~!

2. Asta x Leopold

I’m telling you, when Asta called out all the nobles during that party, Leopold experienced his first bisexual awakening. I found his quick interest in Asta to be very endearing!! The fact that another royal is enchanted by Asta is hilarious to me! There’s a lot to like about this pairing! Firstly, they both radiate dumbass energy. Same vibe? Same vibe! Secondly, I also love how Asta seems like he has the most brain cells between the two. I never thought Asta having the most brain cell in a pair is possible but here we are-! Thirdly, Leopold’s obsessive rivalry with Asta is adorable!! He has to be so loud about this interest in Asta!! He practically forced his way into being Asta’s rival and that's GOLD!! This pair is just so fun and entertaining! It even checks my royal + peasant trope! I love that dynamic so much!!

3. Asta x Yuno

Okay this was my very first ship!! I always thought Asta and Yuno’s dynamic was the perfect image of what a healthy rivalry should look like! They completely subverted my expectation of what I thought their dynamic would be and I’m honestly glad! Their relationship is full of pure support and love! The way Yuno always teases Asta is also cute! You can tell he has no malice behind his words and Asta’s reactions are always hilarious to watch! I can honestly see why he’d continuously tease him-! Asta is just a cutie-! I also love their competitive attitudes and how they use each other as a motivator! This ship is just full of great vibes and I’m here for it!!

4. Zara x Julius

I bet no one saw this one coming-! This ship is where it’s at!! I like how Juilus, a noble, had so much respect towards Zara, a commoner, because he showcased true heroic traits of a magic knight! There’s so many endless possibilities for this ship, but too bad Zara is d e a d. SMH. They could’ve been Clover Kingdom’s ultimate power couple!! There’s so many things I want to see between these two! Zara possibly pranking Julius with his rainbow stink bug and Julius pranking him back with his time magic, Juilus helping Zara take care of young Zora like a second father, expose the corruption inside the purple orca together, and maybe have a family dinner together!! I’m hungry for this type of content for this ship! This ship is full of pure goodness!!

5. Yami x Charlotte

This is such a cute ship!! If I were to ship Yami with someone in the anime, it had to be Charlotte! There are just so many hilarious interactions between these two that I can’t help but root for this couple! I honestly think Charlotte mostly carries this ship. Her outbursts and overthinking really brings this ship to life!! It’s used as comedy and I enjoy it every time!! Charlotte is just so awkward with her crush on Yami and Yami’s obliviousness is not helping her situation either! This dynamic has all the entertainment one needs to be satisfied!! But what I really like about this ship is the reason behind Charlotte’s infatuation towards Yami. Yami saved her from her curse in the most frank way possible, subverting the stereotypical charming prince saving the damsel in distress trope. Yami was not charming nor romantic in his speech, which makes this moment very memorable to me! I think it’s sweet that Yami’s words captured Charlotte’s heart and in turn broke Charlotte’s curse. I just really like this ship! Yami’s unabashed personality also contrasts so much to Charlotte’s easily flustered personality. That’s hysterical! If these two were a movie genre, they’d be a romantic comedy. 

6. Nebra x Zora

I would like to thank @thespiralgrimoire for this juicy ship. This ship has all that spice!! It has two bad bitches who also have a soft spot for each other. What else can you ask for? This is technically a crack pair but I don’t care!! This ship has potential and I will continue to make content between these two! This ship is not only hot, but there might be some nuance between the two with one being a classist noblewoman and the other being a vigilante commoner! So many lessons for these two to learn, especially Nebra!! This ship is a 10/10!!

7. Gauche x Grey

Bless Grey for being a potential romantic route for Gauche. This guy needs someone who’s not Marie in his life and thankfully Grey exists!! This ship is very soft to me!! Grey’s shy feelings towards Gauche are just so cute!! I like their dynamic a lot! I also like the idea of Gauche being a bit of a tsundere towards Grey because he is used to showing his softer side to only Marie. It makes this ship even more cuter!

8. Mereoleona x Gordon

Listen. I will die for this crack ship. I’m not lying when I say that there is potential behind this ship! Not only do we have the loud jock x quiet goth ship, but they could also help each other’s weaknesses! Gordon can help try to soften Mereoleona up and Mereoleona can help Gordon be more loud! It’s a win-win situation!! Also they make a wacky and cute couple!! I think they just look perfect for each other lmao.

9. Nozel x Fuegoleon

Honestly, I don’t really ship these two extremely hard, but thanks to all the hilarious content surrounding this ship, I ended up liking this ship a lot more than before! The fandom really makes this ship very entertaining and it’s all thanks to them that this ship made it on my top 10!! The dumb Fuegoleon and stressed Nozel dynamic always makes me laugh!!

10. Finral x Nozel

Shout out to my boi @dapperrokyuu for this crack ship. Thanks to her ideas, I ended up falling for this disaster duo! The quote below is what I put in the description of my comic for these two. It basically summarizes the appeal of this ship and I still stand by it lmao.“She brought out the idea of what if Nozel developed a crush on Finral, who at the time doesn’t know he’s bi. Just imagine Nozel internally suffering as Finral carry on his day with no idea that Nozel caught feelings for him. This rare pair just has comedy and spice!!” 

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

S.T. REWRITE - S2:E7; Chapter Seven, The Lost Sister - [Pt. 1]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

In their search for answers, psychic visions draw Eleven and Y/n to a band of violent outcasts and an angry girl with a shadowy past.

↬ previously ↫

"Mama? It's me. Jane. I'm home."

"No."

"RUN!"

"Breathe."

"RUN!"

"Three to the right, four to the left."

"Breathe."

"Sunflower."

"Rainbow."

"Three the right."

"RUN!"

"Four fifty."

"RUN!"

"Rainbow."

"Three to the right."

"RUN!"

El rips the blindfold off her eyes in panic, her breathing heavy and uneven. As she is brought back to reality she looks up at her mother in her rocking chair. There are tears in her eyes and she is sadly uttering the same words.

"Run. Breathe. Sunflower. Rainbow. Three to the right. Four to the left."

El feels a pair of arms wrap gently around her and she can feel her own shaking, her shoulders rising and falling rapidly. She feels a hand grab hers and she knows it's Y/n. She squeezes her hand for comfort and Y/n gently runs her thumb over the back of her hand, showing her support.

No one says anything for a while, and apart from her mother's mumbling, she sits in silence embracing the support given to her as she tries to calm her racing heart.

||3rd Person POV||

"And it just kept repeating?" Becky asks.

The three had returned to the kitchen, Becky and El sitting across one another while Y/n stood leaning against the counter behind El, a glass of water in hand. El frowned at the foreign word.

"Repeat?"

"Like a circle?" Becky answered. "Just showing you the same image over and over?"

El thought bout this, and her eyes glanced in Y/n's direction without moving her head.

"She kept showing the woman, and the girl in the room."

"The rainbow room?"

El nodded, flinching ever so slightly at the invasion of a flashback. A memory that wasn't hers, trapped in her mind.

Becky thought about this, her fingers drummed lightly against the back of her hand lost in thought. She shrugged, her hand waving slightly before falling back onto the table.

"I guess that makes sense, Terry always believed you weren't the only..." Becky trailed off, her eyes fixed on the other young girl in her kitchen.

Y/n had her eyes fixed on the tile floor, her glass of water she had been refilling from the kitchen sink gripped tightly in hand though it hung lazily against her chest. She seemed to be lost in thought, though she must have only been listening. Her e/c eyes left the floor when she noticed Becky had stopped talking and she looked between her and El, curiously as if she had missed something.

But then she noted that Becky's eyes bad fallen to her glass and Y/n's eyes followed. The water had begun to bubble only slightly, but it was all too visible through the crystal glass. Y/n's eyes widened, quickly she set the cup down on the counter and the bubbles disappeared within seconds. She cleared her throat, uncomfortable with the attention and her eyes fell to the floor once more. Save for a few glances at Becky, who eyed her curiously.

Becky spoke finally, in response to El, although her eyes were still drawn to Y/n.

"The woman she kept showing you, what did she look like?"

In the time between El departure from her mother's mind, and their current discussion at the table, El had briefly filled them in on each image she was shown to the best of her ability. And while they had gotten the picture, it was still out of focus, details were fuzzy and hard to identify.

That was, until now.

El thought about the question, she had only seen it played out normally once, and the woman was at a great distance. But this didn't stop her from trying. She spoke slowly with a frown on her face as she reached farther and farther into her memory.

"She was pretty." She began, smiling sadly. "She had [h/l] [h/t] [h/c] hair. And [s/c] skin. She was [y/h]."

El met her aunt's gaze and nodded, confirming her suspicions.

"I think..." she turned to her best friend, who watched with teary eyes. "It was your mom."

"My- My mom, she showed you my mom?"

El nodded sadly. Y/n looked between Becky and El shifted on her feet, wringing her hands nervously.

"So, my mom, she's...?" Y/n took a deep breath and attempted to swallow the lump in her throat.

El nodded, and for a moment studied the body language of her friend. El didn't quite have a read on body language, but she knew enough to know her best friend was in great distress. Tentatively, she reached out her arm over the back of the wooden chair and extended her hand, offering what Y/n had offered her countless times in their friendship. Support and understanding.

Y/n graciously took her hand and sniffled. Though it proved fruitless and she stepped forward, and grabbed a napkin from the center of the table and blew her nose before sitting down between Becky and El. She wiped her nose and looked to El.

"Why did they take her? Why did they, you know... What did she do?"

El's gaze fell to the table and she thought about it.

"I'm not sure. She said Mama could still make it. That she knew where to go."

Becky sighed, capturing the two girls' attention and she planted her face in her hands. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and swept her hands across her face before addressing Y/n and El.

"You two have to realize, I only did what I thought was best for Terry. I really thought all those things, that happened to her, that it had affected her. That's why I didn't believe her."

They looked at her curiously, having already understood this. She anxiously met their eye before looking away again.

"But another thing she told me, something she insisted before she," Becky faltered, and gestured to her sister in the other room. "Terry thought she could have gotten you out. Terry thought she could have gotten you out because someone else did."

"For the longest time, she was telling me about [y/m/n]. I didn't really believe her, but according to her another woman had a baby," Becky paused, looking at Y/n briefly who was listening intently. "A special baby. Like you, El. And they wanted her, but according to Terry, and I guess, what you saw, she really did get her baby out."

Something clicked in Y/n's mind, and she focused carefully on the intricate patterns of the wooden table as her mind brought the pieces into place.

"I was found." She muttered.

El and Becky shared a look before returning their attention to her.

"My mom and Dustin - my brother, he was no bigger than I was at the time," she added last minute to Becky. "was in town, visiting family. And mom said they found me."

She shook her head and scoffed lightly in disbelief. Tears streaming freely down her S/C cheeks.

"On a walk. She said she stepped out to get some air, and she heard me crying... the neighborhood, I guess, was on the edge of the woods or something," Y/n blubbered, she wiped her nose with her napkin once more and took several deep breaths. "All I had was a thin blanket, I hadn't even been properly cleaned. Mom always said it was a miracle I didn't freeze to death out there,"

El tilted her head, clearly confused. "Miracle?"

"A very very good thing that isn't usual, or expected."

Becky explained.

"Anyway," Y/n sniffled, cracking the smallest of smiles. "I guess that answers that question, I kept myself warm."

A weak chuckle escaped her and El smiled weakly. Becky didn't understand but Y/n quickly explained.

"It wasn't until last year I found out I had... powers."

After all this time, Y/n still felt a little silly saying it. It didn't help that she almost never spoke it aloud but she guess in this instance she could.

"To be perfectly honest I'm still finding things I didn't know I could do."

"That doesn't really surprise me," Becky piped. "Then again, it's getting kinda hard to surprise me at the moment. Terry went on about you a lot. She said they were after [y/m/n]'s daughter because she- you were supposed to have-"

Becky stopped, the same words from last year popping back into her mind. The same words she told that Byers woman and the chief.

"Supposedly had some 'untapped potential for the greater good.' Some real pseudoscience shit."

She bit her lip before she could say the words and Y/n's frown hardened. She leaned forward, urgently.

"What?"

Becky looked at the kid before her, her eyes were pleading and she already felt guilty. But she also couldn't dump such a heavy load on a child, especially after she had learned what she just learned.

Becky sighed and looked at the girl.

"Potential. Apparently, whoever was after you had plenty of reasons to believe that you can do a whole lot more than boil some water. Let's just leave it at that."

She said, gesturing with her eyes to the forgotten glass of water sitting on the counter. Y/n gave her an incredulous look.

"What do you-? That can't be right. I mean, sure my mom must have been, well you know experimented on when she was pregnant with me, but I didn't grow up in a lab like El. I wasn't trained, or-"

She stopped, choosing her words carefully.

"I never learned how to use my powers. How could I have any more potential than El?"

Becky shrugged her shoulders and looked between the girls.

"I really don't know sweetie, to be honest, I'm still getting used to the fact that all this stuff is real."

A defeated sigh escaped her chest and her chin came to rest on her hand, propped up by her arms resting on the surface of the coffee table. There was a brief silence apart from the mumbles of the television and El allowed herself to dwell on the loop of borrowed memories playing over in her head.

"The girl," She reminds, tentative. "She also kept showing me the girl."

Y/n turned to her, quizzically, the gears turning in her head.

"What about her, El?"

"I think Mama wants us to find her."

A frown found it's way onto Y/n's face but she allowed her friend the benefit of the doubt. She was unsure about all of this, but unlike El's aunt, she was still in the process of swallowing all of this new information herself. The girl looked at Becky and she nodded in thought, before rising from the table. El and Y/n followed curiously as she led them into the next room, the small office space adjoining the living room. Becky bent over and pulled open a drawer from a steel filing cabinet, it was filled with several manilla folders.

"When Terry was looking for you," Becky began, her fingers riffling through the dozens of file folders. "She kept these files of other missing kids. Kids she thought were like you."

Without glancing back at them, Becky grabbed a small handful of files and dropped on the floor near Y/n and El's feet while she kept searching. Immediately, the pair of friends knelt down to the ground and began pouring over the folders.

"Maybe that girl is in here somewhere." Becky finished, grabbing the last of the folders before joining the girls on the carpet.

Y/n and El had each taken a folder, and anytime Y/n had happened across a photo she would show to El. But she would only shake her head. Y/n did keep an eye put for any possible leads as to her possible birth mother. She had a first name and a description. But that something. And something she could certainly keep an eye out for.

"Does anyone look familiar?" Becky asked hopefully.

She was met with silence as El continued to riffle through her folder. El had nearly reached the end when she unexpectedly froze, grabbing the attention of the other two in her company. Before either her friend or her aunt could attempt to sneak a glimpse of the photo, El grabbed the photocopy and closed the folder. It was another newspaper article, featuring a photo of a very young girl with braids. The caption read, "VANISHED! Indian Girl Missing in London".

"Is that her?" Becky asked softly.

El looked up, her heart racing, and nodded.

⊹ ⊹ ⊹

El found herself in the void for the third time that day. Her toes sinking into the imaginary water, and she was greeted by the usual chill. Like a visible mantra, she repeats the image of the girl her mother had shown her, not the picture she held in her hands. The girl in the rainbow room, the girl playing with blocks, and before she knows it El can hear a small crackling behind her.

She turns and much to her relief, her hopeful heart spiking, she sees a figure standing in the distance. The figure had their back turned to El and they were standing over a large metal barrel with fire bubbling over the top. It was a very strange sight to El, but in a way, it was quite rewarding. El had finally found some luck, this being the first sign of the girl she had found since her first attempt.

After finding the article, she had set out to search for the girl with no such luck. Night had fallen by now and Y/n had thanked her past self for packing an extra set of clothes. Y/n was wary of staying the night but ultimately agreed they needed more information. Becky was more than accommodating, she had pulled out a futon for the girls to share where they now lay. Few words were exchanged, given the tremendous load, the friends had been through. Though they still managed to crack a smile when El had learned from Y/n what the term sleepover meant.

"Thanks for bringing me along El," Y/n mumbled, wrapped under their shared blanket, head sinking into her pillow.

El had turned her head to look at her friend and nodded simply. Between themselves, Y/n was slightly better at holding a conversation, but it was nice. Y/n never pressured her to talk.

"I'm sorry it wasn't under better circumstances, but, at least we get to have our first sleepover," she whispered sleepily.

Y/n quickly noted the confusion on her friend's face, and smiled weakly, fighting the weight of her heavy eyelids.

"A sleepover is something best friends do. Stay at each other's houses, usually, they watch a movie or play a game or something but, "Y/n trailed off, a yawn escaping her. "Well, you know. But you get to talk after dark, and even see each other in the morning. The point is, it's nice that we get to spend some time together."

El found herself smiling at the words and her spirits perked for the first time since their arrival. It gave El a spark of hope. Hope that, when all of this was figured out, and everything had smoothed over. That maybe she could have a normal life. A normal life with her aunt and she could have a real chance at seeing Mike, and having sleepovers with Y/n, and playing outside and just being a kid. But that was on the back burner. She needed to find this girl, she had done what she had set out to do, she found her mother and she couldn't help but feel like her mother was telling her something. To seek out this girl.

And that's just what she had to do.

It wasn't long until Y/n had turned over on her side, mumbling a soft goodnight before she was fast asleep. But El was still wide awake. Her mother's memories were still plaguing her and she felt restless. El picked up the picture of the girl from the newspaper, she had kept it in her pocket and she decided to herself that another attempt wouldn't hurt.

So here she was, creeping cautiously towards her fate with bated breath. Guardedly, she calls out to figure, smoke flocking into the air from where the makeshift firepit stands before it.

"Hello?"

She approaches the figure and as she gets closer and closer her suspicions are quickly confirmed when she recognizes the figure. The girl, as she was in her mother's memories, she was a few years older than herself. And she was dressed in dark shabby clothing, and her hair looks, purple? El isn't sure, but her heart is hammering much too hard in her chest to worry and before she has time to glance at her face she is gasping for breathing, back in reality.

Excitedly, she turns to Y/n, but she is lost in sleep and she allows her friend a few more minutes. Like herself, she had been through a great deal and it seemed to have taken a toll on her. But she would tell her aunt. She practically jumps from the mattress, and bursts into the hallway, running for stairs. Fighting the urge to shout, she calls out to her aunt when she reaches the top of the stairs.

"Becky! Becky, I found her!"

When she reaches the kitchen, she looks around excitedly for the woman, surely she would know what to do next. Only seconds pass until she tubes into her aunt's voice carrying from the other room.

"I just-- I didn't know who to call."

El steps further into the kitchen, her head peeking around the corner to find her aunt Becky, phone to her ear. She was talking anxiously into the phone as she paced across her back porch, the door ajar as she glanced at a slip of paper.

"He gave me this number, and he came here looking for her. I thought maybe he could help me."

El felt a sick feeling bubble up in her stomach, and a dark and heavy weight settle onto her heart as she watched the all too familiar exchange. It reminded her of the nice man that took her in when she first escaped. But she desperately attempts to put that memory from her mind.

"Yeah, Jim Hopper, he came here with some woman named Joyce Byers?"

El watches disgusted and hurt as her only remaining family turns her in. Their own private conversation from before plays mockingly over in her head. Of when she was invited to stay. In the lovely, and comforting room that was supposed to be hers. And although her mom wasn't the same, she could still be with her. And just as soon as it had come, the dream life she had conjured for herself just minutes ago, evaporated into thin air. A normal life with no rules, where she could go outside, or at the very least, look out of a single window.

Visits with Mike, sleepovers with Y/n. A normal life. Gone. Just like that.

"Well," sighed Becky, her figure temporarily stepping out of view. "that's a little hard to explain. Uh..."

El shifted uneasily, the dark sludge in her stomach only multiplying in volume at what Becky mentioned next.

"There's another girl, two actually, uh, she came here with a friend of hers? I don't know much, but it sounds like the kid comes from the same side of the tracks as the other but as far as I know, she's got a family. Said she was adopted... No, I did not, I did not catch a last name but she goes by Y/n. Look, I don't if she's a runaway, or what, but she showed up at my doorstep with the other and I just put them to bed... No, mam, it's just those two, but I think another one is missing. I just, I just didn't know who to call... Thank you, thank you. And you are?"

"Florence," Becky repeated, though she paused when she heard the distant sound of the front door opening.

"I'm gonna have to call you back." She mumbled nervously into the phone, though she is already steadily on her way to the kitchen counter.

Discarding the phone and the slip of paper, she looks on in disbelief as she finds the contents of her purse spilling out across the counter. And in the center, wide open and empty, her leather wallet.

Picking up her speed she races through the front room and towards the front door, it remains wide open and the cold autumn wind seeping in hits her like the brisk reality she faces.

And like the dreams El had conjured, the girls were gone as easily as they came.

+++

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[venus-says]

Futari wa Pretty Cure Episodes 27-49

Fighting Darkness with Hope. 

The second week of the Precure Rewatch series is here and we reach the end of our first season! I know I'm late, part of it is my fault because I kept watching AGDQ videos and procrastinated a lot, I admit that (the high temperatures I'm having adds into that too because I become no one in the heat). But also, if you don't know, January is a month that rains a lot here in Brazil and in some cases rain equals the power going down a lot so it was hard for me to watch everything on time.

But enough excuses, let's get right into the meat of this post.

I always had a hard time with Futari wa's second half, in my mind that has always been the weakest portion of the original season, but I gotta be honest, I enjoyed the latter half more than the first one during this rewatch! Yes, I still have a problem with the change of villains and everything, to me the Dark King gets revived way too soon, and Pollun is definitely a handful. But honestly? It didn't bother me as much, at least not as much as I expected.

What this part has that put it above the first half to me is how better the fighting got. The formula is still the same, most of the cases it's just the girls being beat down until Pollun comes to the rescue thanks to the Power of Crying™ and they fire a beam of light to the enemy. The difference here is that in between these scripted points we have physical fights and some of them are top-notch, real good stuff that adds so much to this format and it doesn't make it feel stale. It also helps a lot that there were very few instances of using Zakennas for the precure portion which means they were fighting against the new generals directly in most of the cases and this is a thing I think more shows that follow the MOTW style of combat should follow.

Speaking of the new generals, here's another very glad surprise I had during this rewatch. While I still think they "lose" in terms of design when putting them in comparison with the first team, Juna, Regine, and Belzei, the Seeds of Darkness as I like to call them (because Dark Warriors is a very generic name and I don't like it),  are very great villains. Maybe Juna not so much since I think he's not expressive at all and he doesn't do much, but Regine and Belzei more than compensate for him. I like this quirky of Regine's civilian form has of being quiet and shy even though she's like a living demon of darkness, I also love that whenever she transforms and her hair gets "pulled" all the way back and then bounces back in those curls I go all "YAS QUEEN, WORK MAMA". Much like Juna I feel like she doesn't do a lot, she worked on a team with him quite sometimes and it was very interesting to see in most cases, but overall her presence felt a little empty, I still love her regardless. Belzei is total final boss material, he's powerful, he's smart, he's scary, everything we need from a villain. Not gonna lie, when I saw they were going to betray the Dark King I started rooting for them because I like them more as villains than I like the Dark King.

On the side of our heroines, things got more interesting as well. I think one of the charms of this part was the period where Wisdom was captured by the Seeds of Evil, I wish we had seen the girls actively trying to locate and rescue the Guardian more times, but overall it was a good experience, it revealed he had quite a lot of personality and it wasn't just another background character from the Garden of Light. Speaking of characters with personality, Pollun was a huge part this time around and even though his selfishness was annoying, and all the whining was hard to cope with, he was great, by the end of the season I acquired an appreciation for him that I didn't know it was possible for me to have, especially seeing how terrible I remembered him being. Maybe he gets worse in Max Heart and that's the image I had of him in my mind, but he's a child and he's very genuine with his feelings which leads to one of the most touching scenes in the season during the climax battle where he sorta sacrifices himself because he loves the Precure and he wants to help them SO BADLY he's willing to do anything for them no matter how scared he is. I have mixed feelings about his powers because I thought the Rainbow Bracelets were a thing because he had the power of the Prism Stones inside him but later in the season it seems that apparently that wasn't the case and I think that's kinda off, but it doesn't tickle me off that much so I'm fine with letting this pass.

If in the first half the characters were the greatest for me, I'm glad to say the second half kept the good work going and it was just as great with the characters as well. This second half had a lot more fillers, but I feel like this isn't a problem since most of these fillers were to give some development and character for the side characters which was excellent, first because made characters that were more or less just there doing nothing in the first half be more active and feel more like real people that live in this world, and second, no filler came alone and without purpose, even in the less eventful ones either Nagisa, Honoka, or Pollun had something that they could learn from those situations. From Nagisa's brother to even their teacher, I feel like most of the side characters were explored in these episodes, and it was a delight to watch them.

Nagisa had some interesting growth, I feel like this second half was more focused on her than in Honoka, which is kinda sad but I feel like I can't complain since what Nagisa got was very good. Of course I have a problem with part of her development coming from her admiration/relationship with Fujipi, but she has a lot of moments where she's more down and she gets the opportunity to reflect about herself which I appreciate, I also realized that this could've been a relationship I could root for if only their relation had any major changes throughout the season. Sadly that's not the case, for the most part, Fujipi is there unaware of everything and just living his life, while Nagisa never dares to break the status quo and actually confess her feelings which makes this relationship be stale, though it's great for Nagisa as a person and I do think it's important for her to go through some of those emotions so I'm not as mad as I was with it during the first portion.

Poor Honoka wasn't as fleshed out in this second half, part of her development was more or less intertwined with Nagisa so she didn't have a lot of opportunities to shine, which is obviously a downside. However, they chose to pick one of her most interesting plotlines from the first half and did something that was very deep, strong, and beautiful with her feelings about Kiriya which I appreciate. But I can't deny that I wish they had done some more stuff around this, I know it's hard seeing how things happened with Kiriya in his goodbye, but since they would bring him back for the final arc I would like if they had given us more especially seeing how this relationship has left such a strong impact on Honoka.

I know it sounds awful when most of my points related to character growth involve romantic interests, but even with that element it was still pretty good to watch, and one thing that I definitely like more here than in the first half is that none of their conflicts centered around a "romantic" figure was a detriment or weakened their friendship. And to me, this is what makes this second half great, honestly. Nagisa and Honoka have their boy issues but this second half don't forget these characters have a very strong and beautiful friendship, we're always reminded of that, we're always seeing them help each other, and we're always seeing this friendship evolving and moving forward. One of my favorite moments of this season is on episode 42 that is an episode solely made to showcase this friendship and it's just so powerful and emotional, I think this episode embodies everything that Futari wa is about and it's definitely a high point in this second half, in the season, and a huge landmark for the development of our heroines.

Since I mentioned Episode 42, here are other episodes that were highlights for me in this second half:

Episode 28, the one with Honoka's Grandma story from the time of the war was very touching, and it also laid down one of the most important lessons of this show, the one about Hope and Despair going back to back and we choose on what we wanna focus the most. Yes, is a somewhat naive way to see things, but it's important nonetheless and that was just amazing. It also introduced Regine and that was also a plus. Episode 30 was awesome because it delivered on the action, it was also the point where Pollun gets the power of the Prism Stones inside him and the Precure get their new finisher that is their main attack used for the rest of the season, it was great. Episode 36 got me with mixed feelings, I love the portion where we follow the Guardian as he tries to escape, but I hate the plotline going in the side of the girls because it was another one of those stories where Mepple is an asshole but ends up as a hero in the end and y'all know how much I love that, don't you?

37 was great because it was a school play where we got to see Nagisa and Honoka acting as Romeo and Juliet, but my favorite thing about this episode was seeing the girls fight IN THEIR CIVILIAN FORM against the knight Zakennas in front of a live audience, that was just marvelous. I like episode 40 because they went all Freddie Krueger and attacked the girls on their dreams, which is always interesting. And the entire final arc, from episode 47 to 49, was very great as well. It was a strong finale, even though I had a few problems with it.

And that's pretty much it. Despite my technical problems, I really enjoyed rewatching this season, it was great for me to rediscover characters and moments that I loved and also find out new passions about this wonderful season, it sparkled something on me and now I feel like the precure flame inside me is more strong than ever. Thank you so much for sticking with me through the end of this huge post once again, I hope I can see you again in the next time. Bye folks~

[squiishiichaos]

Soriku fic in which sora and riku are just chilling on the beach after a rough day

(A rough day?  Oof.  Okay.   Some exhausted Soriku coming your way.  Let’s begin.)

_____

Watching Sora collapse back against the dense sand was just the cherry on top of a perfect day, and by perfect, Riku meant horrible in every single way possible. 

Their morning had started the same way every morning started these days: up before the sun, forcing a quick breakfast down their throats, and heading off to begin training before the stars had a chance to go out and herald a new day.   

In the earliest moments of a dark morning–when the moon was still shining and the sun’s rays just beginning to dip along the horizon in a golden glow–the flash of their keyblades being summoned provided a wakefulness that felt fake after spending half their evening doing the exact same thing. 

That’s the burden of being a Master. Riku could still hear the lecture fresh in his mind, even after weeks without Yen Sid saying a word to either of them.  After all the hard work they’d both put into training–and, ya know, saving the world–it had felt like a slap in the face.   He hadn’t expected a break–still didn’t–but it would be nice if someone didn’t treat them–for once–like this was their first rodeo.  

“What’s with that sour face?” Sora asked on a groan as he rolled onto his stomach.  Riku was too tired to stifle a laugh at the many sandy grains stuck in his hair.  Sora chuckled, too.   “Hey!  That was a serious question!  Don’t try and dodge it!”

“I wasn’t!  You’re just covered in sand.”

An impish grin split the Brunet’s lips.  “That’s another deflection.  C’mon, share with the class!”

Rolling his eyes, Riku stretched his legs out before him and balanced his top half on straight elbows behind him.  “Just tired is all.  You’d think getting up at the ass-crack of dawn would get easier with time–”

“But it doesn’t.”  No, it really didn’t.   Not when the two of them went to bed with blisters on their extremities, exhausted and broken.   Not even their surplus of potions could help the level of sore they teetered on.   “This morning, Donald practically had to drag me out the door.  Said if I didn’t get up, he’d go get Roxas and I was not about that life.” 

“No, I can’t imagine anyone is, especially after Donald woke him up to wake someone else up.  At that point, I’d rather just face the Organization all alone; I’d stand a better chance.” 

Sora’s laugh was breathy and soft with only a twinge of the fatigue still latching tight to his normally upbeat voice.  “Yeah, he can be scary when he wants to be, but we all can be.   You know, I successfully cast ultima the other day.” 

“You did?  How was it?” 

“Terrifying.”  Though a smile still captured his lips, the rest of his expression was a barren wasteland.   “I almost destroyed Merlin’s study.”

“Really?  Wow…”  When Riku had tried his hand at that spell, he’d barely managed to dent a table, let alone destroy something.   Sora’s really come a long way… “Guess I should add you to my don’t piss off list.” 

“Wait, you mean I wasn’t already on it?” He scoffed.

“Why would you be?”  Sora sat up in an instant, raining a downpour of sand from the depths of his unruly hair.   Atop that normally charged smile was a challenge in cerulean eyes.

It had Riku’s chest clenching with an emotion he really wished would leave him the fuck alone.  “Excuse you, I handed you your ass back in the day!”

“Yeah, when we were like fourteen!  We both know I win about 99% of our spars–then and now.” 

“Because it’s a spar!  I don’t wanna hurt you!” 

“Excuses, excuses.”    Riku watched that pout form from the corner of his eye, obscuring the bright fluorescence of a smile and replacing it with a glare of conviction.   Every fiber of his being wanted to reach over and kiss the expression back to sunshine and rainbows–to tell him, just kidding.  You’re at the top of all my lists–but he couldn’t.  

He just couldn’t.  “C’mon, Riku!  I can totally–”

“I know you can.”  He hoped his attempt at a smile didn’t look lovesick in any way, but who the hell was he kidding?  It definitely was.   Good thing Sora is so fucking dense.  “I’m just teasing.” 

“Aww, Riku!  But I was looking forward to another spar!” 

“How?  We’ve literally been sparring all day, and I know for a fact I am not that interesting of a person.” 

“I think you’re interesting!”  Of course you do.  You see the good in everyone.  Please, just let me have this one thing.  This one reason why you can’t like me.   You’re not the one who needs excuses, Sora.  “You’ve survived so much!”

“Yeah, and so have you.  Everyone’s a survivor of something.”  Letting himself fall back against the cooling sands, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.   

A light shift of sand screamed in his ears, displacing shards in a dip of weight beside his head.   Close enough he felt compelled to open his eyes after only a second or two to see what Sora could possibly be doing now.

That.

Was a mistake.

Bright blue sapphires stared back like a second ocean lapping at the shore of his world, drawing him deeper into their waves to drown in the picturesque scene that stopped the gasp where it began in his chest and choked it right back down.  Grains of sand counted each rapid beat of his heart in a chaotic descent with each steady, caring breath Sora drew.   Bent over him–close enough Riku barely had to lift his hand to caress his cheek–with an elbow bent on either side of his head, that worried grin looked less like a welcome visitor and more like an unwanted intruder.  

No sunrise or sunset would ever compare to the sight of Sora this up close and personal.   He was his sun.  His breath.  His life.  

God, he…

He loved him.   

“Riku…you’re amazing, you know that right?” No, he wasn’t.  He was weak. So, so, so, so, so, so weak.  “Don’t let those words get you down, okay?  I don’t care what Yen Side says.  You’ll always be the greatest Master in my heart!” 

He was way too close to be saying such things.  Especially when Riku’s chest was already too tight to begin with.  He wasn’t getting enough oxygen to think clearly, nor his heart functioning well enough to deliver it even if he was.   

God, he took his earlier statement back.   He’d rather face an angry Roxas than ever deal with this.  

And now that he hadn’t answered, Sora just wouldn’t stop!  “You’re smart and strong and you’re always so cool!  Literally, you’re probably the coolest person here, but you’re also super kind and considerate.  Like that time you spent a whole week training with Xion to help her fix her form, or that other time you sat with Aqua all night after she had that nightmare!  You’re a really good friend, Riku, and you really shouldn’t put yourself down so–”

He couldn’t take it, anymore.  “What about you?   You’re a fucking miracle worker, Sora!  Stop praising me like I’m the sun when it’s really you!” 

“Riku!”

“No!  Don’t Riku me!  I hear the way you talk about yourself, Sora.    Your friends aren’t your only power, they’re just a piece of it.  The real seat of that power is you.  You’re the one who deserved to be Master–long before I did–and don’t you dare try and refute me!  I will literally do everything in my power to shut you up if you even try!” 

“But–”  Well, can’t say he didn’t warn him.  

A part of him expected resistance when his hands flew up to plush cheeks.  Expected those brilliant clear skies to widen with the inclement threat of rain clouds.  That Sora might reel back in a panic or ask him what the hell he was doing?  

But he didn’t.   He didn’t say a goddamn word as Riku saw lily green reflected atop still ponds the closer he drew.  Didn’t utter a sound or even blink as his eyelids fluttered shut and he slotted their lips together.  

This was the moment where it happened.   

You know the one.   

When the shock wears off and the realization dawns.   Where Sora finally gets back into a head space to recognize Riku is kissing him and shove him away.   Maybe, if he’s kind enough, he’ll do it hard enough–he knows he can–to smash his skull on the beach and leave him there to bleed out.  

But it doesn’t.  Fuck!  

Great, he thought, I fell asleep again.  This is just a dream, right?  And when I open my eyes, Sora is going to be drawing–the thoughts died as creamy lids peeled away from solid green and peered at the image of absolute peace.  Of dark eyelashes casting shadows where they do not belong below the curve of closed eyes.   The hint of a smile still pressed tight to his own line of confusion, threatening to move with him if he dares take that leap. 

And when he drew back–breathless and terrified–he didn’t miss the trace of disappointment that turned a soft smile right into a frown. 

“I’m–”

“If you apologize, I’m gonna practice Ultima on you, I swear to Kingdom Hearts, Riku.”  

“But, I–”

“As much as I love watching you babble, Riku, please, just…shut up? For me?”  With the first hint of nerves, Sora closed the gap between them this time and pressed into the kiss with a care that betrayed the restraint shaking through the rest of him.   Felt it in the fingers that played at the silver strands of his hair where they mingled with the sand and in the hesitant attempt to deepen it. 

Riku had imagined this so many different ways–none of them were like this.  Most of them ended with him rejected and crying, a few of them with a broken jaw, and one or two with Sora being nice enough to let him dream before he licked his lips and told him, Sorry, Riku, but I don’t feel the same.  Can we just be friends?

Never.  Not once.  Had he ever imagined this.  

Maybe that’s why Sora pulled back and looked down at him, blue shaded navy in–was that fear?  Of what?!  “Riku…this is okay…right?”

“Yes.”  Long fingers were in brunet spikes before Sora could even think to respond, dragging him back down and into a bruising liplock as the adrenaline finally took control of his actions.    Urged him to ride this wave of confidence with a lap of tongue against pliant lips, practically choking on the grateful sound the Brunet breathed into his mouth.  

After memorizing his taste and mapping every inch, he finally drew back far enough to take in a shaky gasp.  He almost–almost–gave in when Sora tried to reconnect them, but he kept his grip firm enough and resolve checked in to holding him at bay.  

The Brunet groaned and let his forehead fall against his chin in frustration.  “Are you serious right now?!  Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?”

“No.  Tell me.”

“Seriously?! Are you just being a jerk again or are you for real?”  When blue met green, Riku didn’t waver.   The innocent blink that answered him almost stopped his heart.  “You really didn’t know?”

“Uh, no.  I thought you had it bad for Kairi.  Everyone did!”

A bark of a laugh escaped Sora in a sound that hammered at his heart.  “Not Donald and Goofy.  They’ve seen every embarrassing swoon and lovesick fawn.  Believe me, there were a lot.” 

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Well…” Blue diverted to the ground as Sora licked his lips and shrugged his shoulders.  “I figured, ya know, that you had more important things to–”

“Sora.  You are literally the most important thing in my life.” 

“Don’t say that–”

“Why not?  It’s true.”  

“But Riku!”  Sitting up so he couldn’t be silenced by more cheap tricks, Sora fell back on his haunches and heaved a sigh.  “What’s so great about me?”

“With all due respect,” he muttered while rolling onto his stomach and rising to his hands and knees, glare firmly in place, “don’t you ever say that around me–no, just ever–again.”  

“But–”

“Sora, listen.  I don’t care what anyone else says.  For me, there is no light brighter–no person stronger–than you.  When I stole your keyblade and your friends, you still came to get it back and put me in my right mind, and you did.  When the idiots at Castle Oblivion tried to wipe your memories and turn you into a puppet, you felled them all and saved my clone at the same time!  You not only defeated an entire horde of heartless and nobodies–by yourself!–but you also helped defeat Xemnas and were willing despite everything to spend the rest of your life with me in the realm of darkness if it meant protecting your friends.  So, please, don’t you dare ask me again, what’s so great about me, because the answer is everything.” 

“Wow…”  A shy laugh fell off familiar lips as Sora crossed his legs and seated his arms between them like a child looking up at their idol.   A bright smile captured his expression and lit his eyes like the mid-day ocean glittering just feet from them.  “I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say, Riku.” 

“A…are you serious?  That’s what you got from all that?”

Kind eyes squeezed shut in a wide, toothy grin as his head tilted a little bit to the side.   No camera in the world could hope to capture that much beauty.  “And that you love me!”

“Sora!”  

A giggle fell off the Brunet’s lips as he gracefully jumped to his feet and pivoted toward the wide-open beach around them.  “C’mon, Riku!  Last one to our Special Place is the loser!”  Without even waiting for him to stand up, he took off with a hearty laugh and another of those heart-stopping smiles over his shoulder. 

With a shake of his head, Riku slowly got to his feet and scratched the sand from his hair.  “How did I fall for such an idiot?”

“Hey!  Apologize you meanie!”

A smirk shifted his expression just before a laugh tore through it.  “Only if you beat me.  Think you can manage that, Sora?”

“Bring it on!” 

And together, they raced off along the sunlit stretch of beach.  

[ashxpad]

Photographing Rainbow Eyes By Using Birefringence

One of the many fascinating effects of cross-polarization is called “birefringence”, which is responsible for the psychedelic gradients in the seen here.

This article is part two of a two-part series explaining cross-polarization and birefringence. The first part can be read here.

What does “Cross Polarization” mean?

While we delve deeper into this issue here, let’s recap: Cross polarization is a technique that allows us to virtually eliminate specular highlights from images by using polarized light, but it also holds a lot of creative potential as it can be used to bring out eye-catching rainbow gradients in subjects such as plastics, ice, and certain crystals.

In some industries, this technique is used to locate areas of stress in plastic, but it also holds a lot of potential for interesting macro images:

The image illustrates the molecular structure of some thin ice. Which colors these structures take on depends on the orientation of the polarizer in front of your lens. The photo was created by freezing water on a polarizing filter, which I then placed on a flat and even light source (in this case a repurposed notebook).

The two polarizing filters in the set-up above are oriented in opposing directions. This would cancel out all light as the CPL filter under the ice polarizes the entering light.

As the light enters the ice it gets doubly refracted which causes the original light ray to split into two rays that travel in different directions according to the refractive index. Both rays are still polarized. As one wave gets retarded with respect to the other, interference occurs between the waves as they pass through the second polarizer.

This phenomenon is called birefringence and it is responsible for the gradients of color in the images above.

Which colors these gradients take on depends on the orientation of the polarizers in relation to each other:

Also noteworthy: the best results will be achieved with linear polarizers.

Using only one Polarizer

To experiment with this without having to purchase an additional polarizer you can simply use your computer screen instead. Due to the way that LCD displays work, they emit polarized light so all you need to do is to load an empty word document or a white wallpaper and you can start exploring the effects of birefringence at home.

Just try to hold a CPL filter in front of your computer screen and you will see how it’s blocking out varying amounts of light, depending on the angle of the filter:

You can start exploring the effects of birefringence by using a computer screen for your light source and just a single CPL on your camera lens.

Experiment with different sets and subjects

But not only translucent subjects such as plastics, ice, or crystals are capable of producing fascinating colors under cross-polarization: even the human iris will create interesting gradients of color when illuminated with polarized light and viewed with a second polarizer.

To have a look at my set-up that I used to capture the iris image above, please have a look here:

I had previously noticed some rainbow-colored highlights in my own (brown) eyes, but not really quite enough to leave me just as stumped or fascinated as I was upon discovering such colorful gradients on my camera screen:

When I saw some rainbow coloured highlights in my own eye I didn’t really think too much of it at first.

A bit more research and some further testing with two sets of brown and two sets of blue eyes revealed that this effect related to the color of blue eyes. Brown eyes have an additional layer of melanin which sits on top of the iris. The darker the color of the iris, the more of the pigment is present. This additional layer is the reason why such gradients won’t show up in brown eyes.

Even though I have a basic idea as to the reason for this phenomenon, I am admittedly not quite certain of the physical process that causes these colors to show, so if you can explain the science please share your knowledge!

About the author: Maximilian Simson is a photographer and artist based in London, Ontario. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Simson’s work on his website and Facebook. This article is a combination of two stories also published here and here.

from PetaPixel https://ift.tt/2LRfvMz

[potter-imagines]

First Impressions - Peter Parker

Prompt: Y/n Stark is left alone for the weekend as the Avengers are out of town. Her dad decides to send a good friend of his over to spend the day with his daughter although forgets to mention anything to Y/n about it leading her to find an intruder in her kitchen. Not all first impressions are great. 

Words: 5,391

Warnings: Maybe three swear words

Rain kissed the filthy sidewalks of Manhattan in a baptizing fashion. The water droplets rid the city of it’s sin by simply showering over head. Y/n Stark watched the mesmerizing scenery from her bedroom window seat, in awe of the beauty. An old throw blanket was snuggled to her body as she leaded her head on the wood of the sill capturing the view below. The rain picturfully had no effect of the daily life of the city goers as they all continued rushing around, the only change was the addition of umbrellas. Most were black, few clear and a rare bit of yellow. The color of the tarps pulled Y/n in allowing her to calculate the amount of vibrant souls and those unlike the rest.

For the moment being she could see thirty or so dark coverings, three rainbow patterns, one red with black polka dots, a child umbrella resembling a frog, and two summer sky blue umbrellas.

With squinted eyes rain boots were still not visible but that was alright. This was her favorite weather and Y/n Stark had the intention of watching the show all day. Well that was until her stomach growled in agony.

Home alone meant freedom to most but to Y/n, it was loneliness. No one around for days, no conversation, no laughter, no smiling faces, no sassy comments, and no family. Defeated, Y/n peeled the blanket back and escaped from the material walking to her bedroom door. 

She peeked out the frame, basking for a moment in the tranquility of the compound. Bucky and Sam weren’t bickering, Nat wasn’t causing mayhem alongside Clint, Steve wasn’t scolding, Wanda wasn’t helping Vision cook, Tony and Bruce weren’t helping Y/n with her lab assignments, and Pepper wasn’t lecturing Y/n on her weekend plans. For once, it was nice.

Pepper was gone on a business trip which meant Y/n had no mom either for the short lived weekend. Of course tomorrow was a school day so there wasn’t much room for trouble to be caused. Either way the young girl followed the path towards the kitchen in search of food to fulfil her needs.

School was a month away from being released and finding herself drained from endless studying, Y/n was not fully aware of her surroundings as she strolled into the highly equipped kitchen. 

Her mouth opened largely as an unladylike noise erupted mirroring some type of a yawn. Thankfully with the Avengers off on some type of ‘bonding mission’ to try and rebuild burnt bridges, Y/n Stark could make whatever noise she wanted too and also had no worries on her appearance, not that she ever did when they were around. Clint would tease her for her ‘homeless’ look but that was as bad as it got.

She wondered for a moment if the new recruit her dad picked up had joined the team for their small task. From what she hear and what she saw from videos, he was pretty cool. He called himself Spider-Man, or Spider-Boy, Y/n couldn’t recall. Anyways he was around her age from what she inferred but there wasn’t much to go off of.

His real name was Peter Parker and without much knowledge he had managed to steal the girl’s attention and she was sure he didn’t even know her first name. There was some element to him that intrigued her despite the lack of information she had on him.

The two, born only months apart, had never once shared a conversation. They were never properly introduced, never crossed paths, never brought into topic of discussion and never seen. 

The ambitious Stark was determined to get to know the only other person in the compound her age and made an effort daily. She pretended to be working in Tony’s lab in hopes of the pair, or just Peter, to waltz in. Then her dad, having no other choice unless extremely awkward, would have to introduce them. Y/n trained extra hours in the gym pushing her body to the brink of over exhaustion just to open up her window more to his arrival but he was never there. For crying out loud she had no idea what he even looked like, all she heard was conversations about him and that was enough to further her interest.

For a while she wondered if he was purposefully ignoring her, maybe Tony had warded him off or possibly Steve did. She had no idea but told herself they were bound to run into each other eventually. 

Padding around the freshly swept floor Y/n opened up the cupboard harboring her favorite cereal, Lucky Charms. She smiled in delight and closed the door knowing her dad was bluffing. He tried to replace all the seemingly unhealthy breakfast items with whole wheat only products but Y/n agreed that no one was capable of that level of evil. She was sure Thor threatened him as he tried to throw out the sugary poptarts. 

Snatching a clear glass bowl from the cabinet and the cold milk from the fridge Y/n pictured her cozy spot on the couch spending the day peacefully there. Although as she turned around the sight before her eyes was not one she expected. Behind her, entirely starstruck, was a blushing teenage boy. He was sat as quiet as a mouse at the kitchen counter digging in to a bowl of Lucky Charms himself. A cup of orange juice was to the left of his bowl and his brightly lit phone on the right. 

Neither spoke, instead staring suspiciously at one another. The bowl in her hands suddenly felt heavy and the milk was set aside on the marble top. She carefully placed the bowl and cereal down on the table watching the boy’s every move though it wasn’t much. Y/n wondered how she had missed him when she entered the room. Had she really been too tired to miss the other presence? What was he even doing here?

He looked harmless for the most part though that didn’t stop Y/n from dissecting him. A loose fitting light navy blue sweatshirt cascaded down his front. She scanned the logo trying to place it but nothing came. ‘Midtown School of Science & Technology’. That didn’t sound like any college she had toured. The print resembled an atom reading an establishment year of 1962 below. Who was this kid?

The boy on the other hand was in complete awe at the sight before him. Never in his life had he seen such a picture perfect view. The girl was roughly his age, maybe a year older but her looks told a story of its own. Her natural features were breathtaking and the shine from the light above her head casted down perfectly created a sort of stage light around her making her appear even more angelic than first seen. Small parade of freckles were sparkled around her nose and cheeks like someone had blown a handful of glitter in her face and it stuck.

She seemed sharp despite her lack of words. The teenager already saw the Stark in her from the second her laid eyes on her. He had money riding on her being brilliant beyond her years and far more witty than most. Her voice was sure to sound like a soothing lullaby, sweet like honey. Lost in her trance the boy let his guard down and found himself stuck on her. 

Not in the mood to take any chances Y/n quickly formed a plan of action. Her e/c eyes darted to his unlocked Iphone then back at him. He followed her gaze, unsure of her thoughts. Now was her slot.

Lunging forward Y/n swiped the cellphone from the smudgeless counter and bolted to the nearest room containing a lock. That happened to be the bathroom. Before she found herself in safety the intruder placed his hand around her wrist lightly tugging her backwards. She heard him talking though paid no mind to his words. 

Without hesitation Y/n spun around and gave him a swift uppercut roundhouse kick to his jaw. The teen crumbled in pain releasing her and aiding to his wound. She swung the door open in panic and locked in behind her shoving anything she could in front of the door to barricade it.

Jumping from the window wasn’t an option seeing as she was on the seventh floor and the fall was sure to create damage. Instead she resulted to hiding in the shower for the time being and concentrating on the phone in her possession. Her fingers rapidly typed in the all too familiar number- and no not the emergency line which was logical. The image of her father popped up the second she hit the call button and confusion flooded. She took in the other title of ‘speed dial 2’ under Mr. Stark and almost dropped the device. A voice came from the other end of the line making Y/n snap back to reality. Bringing the phone up to her ear she heard the exasperated sound of her dad’s voice.

“What do you need Spider-boy, I’m sort of in the middle of something.”

“Spider-boy… dad it’s me! It’s Y/n! I need you to come home right away, there’s someone in the house please!” Her brows were furrowed together at his words. Tony Stark didn’t even question who was calling. Had he already saved the contact? That would’ve meant he was familiar with the owner. She ignored it and instead focused on the importance of saving her life.

“Woah, woah, slow down. Who is in the house? Y/n where are you?” His panic was evident as Tony separated himself from the team who were currently in the middle of a staged rescue.

“I’m hiding in the bathroom and I don’t know who it is! He has brown hair and brown eyes. He’s wearing a shirt and it says Midtown High or something like that! I stole his phone and- dad why are you on his speed dial?” The million dollar question was shared across the line earning a chuckle from Tony. Y/n checked the phone again just to be sure she wasn’t hallucinating and there it was. A handful of the Avengers approached Tony, curious to see what was going on. They sensed his fear from the first word he spoke and stood idly by. 

“The kid has me on speed dial, how cute.” The group of Avengers sigh in relief, happy the situation was of no harm. They dispersed back to the original task expect Bruce, Thor, Nat and Steve who waited in the background. In order to complete the task they needed Tony’s help.

On the other end of the phone Y/n was left in the dark and still buzzing with freight. “What? You know him?”

“Oh yeah, that’s Peter Parker. I sent him over to check on you and keep you company, guessing I probably should’ve warned you.” Y/n’s mouth hit the floor. Not only had she just made a fool out of herself in front of her unidentified crush, she ran away from him and stole his phone!

“You think?” She huffed in annoyance. Her back was placed flat up against the bathroom door trying to hear for the boy outside. Abruptly Y/n pushed herself to standing straight and let out a yelp. “Oh my god.” 

The opposite end of the line spoke up upon the escalated tone of the caller. Tony signalled for his team to hold their conversations and motioned towards the jet already deciding his daughter needed saving. Banner and Thor were already one step ahead practically sprinting towards their homebound journey. Rolling his eyes at his partner's actions Tony stated his concern as the rest of the group listened in. 

“What, are you alright? Talk to me, sweetheart. What’s going on?” Natasha stepped forward waiting for his call. She was ready to rush back to the compound in your rescue. Steve Rogers was close behind her and glanced around for the rest of his team knowing if you were in legitimate danger they needed to act quick. Just as the super soldier went to search for the other’s he caught word of the billionaire’s young daughter’s humiliated tone. 

“Dad, I kicked him in the face.” She groaned. Out of all the things to do when a handsome boy is in your kitchen and she attempted to knock him out cold! In her defence she was unaware of his arrival so she viewed him only as an intruder but still! Tony’s eyes widened in surprise- clearly not expecting your confession but he was pleased with it nonetheless. 

“That’s my girl.”

A proud smile laced Black Widow’s face and made sure to remember to congratulate you when she arrived. Tony gave a large smirk and waved the two lethal Avengers off, silently telling them everything was fine and to continue on with the bonding. Steve nodded once and vanished to Bruce and Thor figuring he should tell them to stand down. Tony chuckled at Y/n’s ranting self, finding the situation extremely amusing. 

“This isn’t funny! What do I do?”

“First, get out of the bathroom. You’re a Stark and you can kick anyone’s ass. Secondly, apologize to the poor kid. He’s probably scared out of his mind and in pain. Believe me if you kick anywhere near as hard as you punch, he’s gonna be hurting. I should know.”

Mr. Stark had been on the wrong end of his child’s powerful blow far too many times. From simple training sessions to releasing her anger of being denied a night out with friends, Tony had taken it all. Alongside a handful of icing and heating pad dates. All he could imagine was his unbiological prodgie having a near death panic attack in his million dollar living room all because he raised his daughter in an enviornment where everyone wanted her as some kind of leverage to use against him- and for the fact he forgot to mention the guest to her.

Y/n nodded to herself and placed her hand on the crystal door knob. Her heart felt like a small humminbird as it pounded ruthlessly in her chest. Working up the courage she twisted the handle and pulled it open an inch, peeking out. Seeing the coast was clear she decided to fill her father in on her future actions seeking approval. 

“Okay, I’m gonna go see if he’s alright.”

Tony Stark smiled faintly at her voice. For a girl who appeared as innocent as a field of lilies, she was a force to be reckoned with. She contained the strength of a warrior and a heart of gold. 

“Sounds good, sweetheart. Call me if anything else comes up, love you.”

Y/n released the heavy air she had trapped inside and bobbed her head, trying to reassure herself all was fine. 

“Love you too, dad.” She pulled the phone from her ear awaiting the clink to cut off the line but once she went to press the red button a voice stopped her. 

“Oh and Y/n?” Tony added on. The girl brought the device back to its former position against her ear and replied, 

“Yeah?” The line grew quiet for a moment or two before Tony finished his thought. She was assuming it was bound to be a light scolding although she was pleasantly taken aback at the outcome. 

“Don’t tell your mom this but I’m proud of you.” After that the beep came and the phone returned to its previous stage of the default background photo. Y/n’s heart warmed at her father’s words. Tony Stark wasn’t much for the mushy parenting gig. Sure he passed out hugs on occasions and ‘I love yous’ didn’t come rare, Y/n was sure she had yet to hear those words come from his mouth. It was an unexplainable feeling to describe when she processed it.

‘Proud of her’... Tony prided himself on the most lenient level of tough love for his daughter. No he didn’t go to the extremes as he had experienced himself- he didn’t dare. But it was important to Tony that Y/n learned how to work for things, to earn what she strived for. He didn’t let her leave her room until all her homework was done because he refused to let MIT and Harvard accept her based solely on her last name. 

Both Tony and Pepper agreed on a curfew of eight for school nights and eleven on the weekends. Y/n had thrown a fit to herself in her room on this rule more than once but sadly she understood their reasoning. They taught their daughter that even though her image was entirely her choice, it didn’t hurt to be smart about it. She had a lot riding on her and a huge weight thrown on her shoulders, if Tony being strict was what she needed to feel like some of that was lifted off, then he would gladly do so.

Y/n allowed herself an up and down full body scan of her attire before exiting her shelter. Her hair was tossed up in a messy bun, a majority of it collapsing on her left side. She looked like she was carrying the Leaning Tower of Pisa on her head.

Pulling the band out of her hair with a yank Y/n combed through her main and managed to fix most of the disaster. Luckily her outfit wasn’t a huge mess. Sure sporting a pair of red and black warm flannel pants was no first pick, it could’ve been a lot worse. At least she had pants on. Her trusty old grey and red Boston College t-shirt provided a bit of comfort easing her into the confrontation.

Finally she stepped out of hiding and started wandering around the floor in search of the new comer. The kitchen was empty as well as the hall so she resorted to calling out his name instead. 

“Peter? Peter Parker?” She poked her head around the corner towards the elevator and sure enough there he was.

“Hey uh, hi- um yeah that’s me. I… think I’m gonna head back uh, figured you’d want to be alone, y’know?” He mumbled awkwardly. The elevator door hinged open and Y/n’s heart sank in disappointment. She tried to speak up and ask him to stay but her mouth refused to operate. Instead she shook her head and hoped that would settle for enough. Peter’s eyes shifted from the metal box to the girl in front of him and before he could make up his mind the two door slid close and the elevator carried on its route. He was confused by her actions. It wasn’t everyday he took a foot to the face.

Y/n Stark stepped towards the boy who hesitantly stumbled back. Guilt erupted and a terrible taste consumed her mouth. He feared she was ready to unleash all sorts of hell on him. The last thing he wanted was to get screamed at by a Stark for being an idiot. Although she shocked him as she gave an apologetic smile and sincere eyes.

“Peter I am so sorry for kicking you. I didn’t know who you were and you scared me so I acted on instincts. I hope your okay.” She explained hoping that her words could mend the event. His moon like orbs traveled down to her hand then to her stare again. Y/n examined her grasp and sighed, “Oh, and sorry for stealing your phone, here.” Extending her hand forward Y/n watched as Peter accepted her offering and let his phone fall into the pocket of his blue jeans. A boyish grin perched his face as he looked up at Y/n.

“No, no, no. Don’t worry about it, that was my fault. I probably shouldn’t sit in someone’s kitchen and not introduce myself. I had just assumed your dad told you I was coming over, I didn’t know so sorry about that.” To say he felt like a total creeper slash stalker was highly an understatement. All he could think of was how her forever impression of him was to be him sitting in her kitchen staring at her like a lovestruck puppy. 

But was he really to blame for his reaction! She was gorgeous beyond compare to any girl Peter had ever laid eyes on. He was bashful to admit he had search the girl more than once on social media but nothing obsessive. She was Tony Stark’s daughter for crying out loud! For a while Peter was sure she was fake, it didn’t seem possible for someone to hold that much pure beauty inside and out. Y/n Stark appeared to be perfect.

Peter was snagged to reality as he watched the radiating girl run a hand through her h/l locks. She seemed stressed and he couldn’t help but feel responsible.

“Don’t be sorry, Peter. This is all my fault.” She said. The hall was empty besides the pair which she was thankful for. Peter’s posture was a bit more relaxed and not as gated which made Y/n ease up.

Peter dug his hands into the front of his jean pockets trying to play it cool or rather mask his shakiness. All Starks had a similar intimidating affect to them but Y/n’s differed immensely from her father’s. She had no cocky demeanor, no self obsessed conceitedness rather so a positive alluring personality that made one feel as if they had been close acquaintances with her for years when they had only just met.

Running a hand over his burning jaw Peter shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

“No it’s not, really. You’ve got killer instincts though, it’s pretty impressive.” His comment earned a flash flood of redness across the delicate skin of Y/n’s cheeks. She was flustered by his compliment.

“Thanks.” Meeting his eyes she allowed herself to examine the mark she had made and spending a mere second overlooking it made her see the pain she inflicted. “Holy shit, your jaw! Peter I’m so sorry, come with me I’ll grab some ice!”Her hand wrapped around his palm dragging him in toll. She rounded the corner and they entered the cause of the contusion. Y/n led Peter to the high tops forcing him onto his bottom by placing force on his shoulder. He leaned into the cushion due to her hand pushing him away so she could get a better look.

A gloss flashed across her e/c eyes as she raced to the freezer. There she dug out a whole line up of frozen packets. Some were gel packs, other’s authentic ice and the last few looked to be vegetables used for purposes other than cooking, coming in handy after training. It wasn’t hard to picture to whole team of Avengers scattered around the living room icing their entire bodies with frozen corn and peas.

Peter accepted the first ice pack hoping to please the distressed teen. She wasn’t satisfied enough as she turned back and scoped out the bone chilling freezer for another pack and whatever else would be useful. Not wanting to watch the girl tear her own fridge apart because of him, Peter took the ice off of his tingling jaw and held it up. He showcased his liveliness and motioned towards Y/n.

“I’m fine really-”

“No you’re not and it’s okay to admit it. I can’t believe I did that!” She cried out. Her sorrow took effect on Peter as he didn’t want her blame herself for a natural reaction. He was Spider-Man! One kick- one thunderous kick, shouldn’t have the power to take him out. Peter wrapped his hand around her arm, catching her as she went to go find supplies in the medical cabinet. His lips curved into a friendly smile trying to reassure her he was okay.

“It hardly even hurts.” Even if that was true there was close to nothing anyone could do for a bruise. Peter prayed it for all the pain he got from it that the mark would at least look cool. Y/n narrowed her gaze and struck a finger in his face.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a terrible liar, cause you are.”

Peter’s head moved to the side trying to convince her of his lie but she saw right through him. So instead of arguing she played along and decided to test out his theory. In lightning speed she reached her slim finger out and gave the nasty bruise a light tap. His reaction was all she needed for an answer. He nearly fell out of his chair, cradling his jaw in the palm of his hands. A childlike yelp sounded and he shot Y/n a confused stare. She held a smug feature as if taunting him for lying. Peter huffed and threw his hands in the air,

“Yeah it hurts like hell. How the hell did you even move that fast? I swear I didn’t even see it coming like one second I was up then the suddenly your foot kicked me into next year and I was down for good.”

“How can I make this up to you?” Lacking intention she rested her hand slightly above his knee. A wave of uncontrollable shivers shook Peter’s body and his eyes snapped to her position. Y/n muttered a small apology and removed her grasp making Peter’s insides unclench. Cursing himself for letting it show he was fazed Peter stared at the floor waiting for an answer. He wondered if it would be too forward to suggest a date. Why would a girl like her ever want to go out with a nerd like him? Before his brain was done processing the results Peter shot his question,

“Do you like hot chocolate?”

“Huh?” Hot chocolate? What did that have to do with any of this? Sure she loved the warm homey liquid- especially on days like today although the relevance was confusing. Y/n tilted her head at the doe eyed boy and gave a small shrug. Peter sat the ice pack down on the sleek coffee table forgetting about it all together. Y/n previewed the red marks the chilling pad left of the underside of his jaw and creeping along his neck. A blossoming flower of purple and yellow was already blooming as the bruise settled in. Her heart twisted in guilt at the sight.

Peter caught her stare and shivered under the soften eyes. The regret was on display and he was eager to distract her, as well as himself, from the pain. Peter stood up from his spot on and threw his arms up with a smile. 

“Hot chocolate? C’mon I know you’re a Stark but your parents had to have made you hot cocoa when you were a kid, right?” He teased her playfully hoping she would take the bait and change the topic, and she did. Although her hand grabbed the frozen package backup and reached up on her tippy toes to hold it against Peter’s jaw. She giggled loudly and nodded her head,

“Of course they did! I love it.” Their eyes met for a brief moment, though it felt like a lifetime. Peter felt her warm radiating off of his body and hold his breath in fear of it staggering. His hand clasped over her own, silenting letting her know he was able to handle the task. Y/n retreated to her normal flat footed state and waited for the conversation to pick back up. The brown haired teen finally released the air he was hiding away and informed her on his idea.

“Okay well there’s a coffee house a block down the street and they claim to have the best cup of hot chocolate, maybe we could test it out and see for ourselves?”

Her brow quirked at his suggestion and her insides went warm with fuz. Feeding off his boost of confidence she made her own,

“Do you like pizza? Cause there’s a pizza place right next to it and I for one am a sucker for pizza and hot chocolate with a cute boy on a rainy day. Maybe throw some movies int0 the mix too when we get back.” The words hadn’t registered entirely. Y/n stepped away wondering if she had made up the extra add on to the end in her head. Her mouth moved faster than her brain. Maybe he hadn’t heard her, or maybe if she moved fast enough she’d get to her room in time to avoid the uncomfortable let down.

Turning in the direction of her room Y/n brushed back the loose strands of her hair that framed her face. She was drowning in a downfall of negative apprehension doubtful if he kind boy had heard her that he’d present a response she liked.

Pondering her wanting to change outfits had been successful as he watched her dismiss herself to her room. Peter chuckled at her idea of a day and stood up from his spot. His feet carried him to the corridor leading to the elevator as their exit.

“Pizza for breakfast? I’m in.” Y/n smiled over her shoulder at him about to enter her room that was until he registered her slip. “Wait did you call me cute?”

As if her day was bound to get any worse. Y/n’s head pressed against her bedroom door as the building anxiety bursted as one giant bubble. Screwing her orbs closed she shuffled her way through lies and cover ups but none fit the situation. Refusing to take a gape at him Y/n nodded her head shamefully.

“Uh, yeah… sorry it kind of slipped I meant-” Footsteps cut her off as the handsome teen appeared by her side. Peter hastily, nervous as well, reach for her hand picking it up from her side and squeezed it gently. His face was brightly lit by a one of a kind smile that she had yet to see on a human being. She was sure her hand was shaking but he didn’t seem to care.

“I can’t ever say I’ve taken a beautiful girl out for pizza and hot chocolate with the promise of movies afterwards so I’m not letting her back down from this offer.” A comfortable silence took over and Y/n found herself smiling like a schoolgirl. Peter had lost his shy bashful ways and seemed a bit more assured, which was good seeing as Y/n had not. She barely managed to get out her response as it was above a whisper but Peter still heard.

“I’ll go get changed then.” A scarlet blush graced her cheek as she jabbed her thumb to her french cut door. Y/n was already searching and scanning for the perfect outfit to go with her favorite pair of sunflower rain boots. By the looks of Peter’s attire she noted to grab him a umbrella as well.

The boy unlaced their hands leaving a cold and loneliness to both of them. The grin had yet to wipe away from his face as he pointed towards the ground.

“I’ll wait here.” 

Y/n giggled happily and approved as she tucked away into her room. The moment she closed to door behind her she found herself pressing her hand to her mouth letting out a masked squeal of delight. She planned on getting all of her giddiness out before their date to keep from embarrassing herself further. Her excitement was flooding overboard and she darted to her closet in search of the perfect outfit.

Little did she know outside her door Peter was dong a celebration dance of his own. He had no idea how he scored a date with the most beautiful girl in the world but he vowed not to waste it.

Their first impressions of each other may have started off on the wrong of the wrong foot but it was sure to end better than either of them had planned. Who knew taking a kick to the face would be so worth it?

- Daizy xx

[matan4il]

Iceland pics

I promised I would post this quite a while ago, mostly to @stulot and @beautifulhusbands, and while it took me more than I thought it would, I do try to come through when I promise things. So, here’s a bunch of pics from the Iceland trip.

Summarizing image: hardened lava fields, the waters that flow to the Blue Lagoon (hot water pools filled with minerals) and the steam rising from geo-thermal activity in the background.

The airplane that took us to the Netherlands. One of my fave things is actually when you don’t go through a ‘sleeve’ and get to experience the airport a bit.

First waterfall. There’s an insane amount of those in Iceland. Also, note that the island is so much greener than you would anticipate. Not just given its name, but also when you consider that it was formed through volcanic activity.

Second waterfall... of the day. No seriously, crazy amount. This one is actually made up of two levels of waterfalls.

First sighting of ponies... I mean Icelandic horses! Totally not ponies, not at all, not even a little bit! Just, you know. By definition of everyone living outside of Iceland. What’s nice is that quite a few live free in the wild. Sad thing? If you take an Icelandic pony, damnit horse out of Iceland, which they do for international competitions, they’re not allowed to return, they have to be sold to someone that will raise them outside of their native lands.

Arriving at an area of geyser activity:

And the geyser itself (note the people for height reference):

Third waterfall of the day:

( again, for comparison, note the people on the right: )

(don’t worry, skipping the 4th waterfall of the day) Next up, the Black Beach, where the sand is black because it’s volcanic stone that’s been eroded with the years. In the sea you can glimpse black rocks protruding out of the water and there’s also this mini-cave on the beach and you can see in its walls volcanic rock formulations:

The biggest hardened lava field in Iceland, created in the deadliest volcanic eruption the island has known, killing about a third of its population:

Casually driving by the tip of Europe’s biggest iceberg:

Same iceberg, up close and personal, along with the lake created by the edges of it melting... (who said ‘global warming’ and didn’t get any?) Where the iceberg is black, that’s volcanic ashes (very close to the sand on the Black Beach). Where it’s blue, that’s where the ice is older and more condensed.

Continuation of the lake and a boat ride through it...

Like a bird on an iceberg... (can you spot it?)

Bluest of the pieces of iceberg floating on the lake on their drifty way to the sea -

On their way to the sea, a lot of these shards of iceberg end up stranded on a shore now known as Diamond Beach, possibly one of my favorite spots in Iceland (a black sand beach again made the contrast dazzling):

The piece of iceberg and volcanic sand became one -

The black cliff shores of Iceland -

This portion is dedicated to @letthebluerain (as if the volcanic nature of Iceland didn’t make me think of you enough as I was choosing my pics), this is the house of the world’s biggest privately owned rock collection. Appropriately, started by a woman named Petra (today run by her descendants):

My sis, two of our hotel’s Icelandic horses and a rainbow...

A rest stop in a café that's built in the more traditional Icelandic way (disappointingly, most buildings we saw were very modern and quite boring):

Spared you the 5th waterfall, a sand storm and sights that look like the moon’s surface, where NASA astronauts actually trained for their mission, to bring you the 6th waterfall, because I captured it with a double rainbow:

Another area of geothermal activity, stinks from Sulphur so badly that I wanted to throw up physically from the smell... Still cool.

Crater lake created by volcanic activity at the top of a mountain (with 2 ducks swimming in it):

Hardened lava formations that inspired troll tales:

Pseudo craters (formed not by volcanic eruptions, but rather by lava cooling off speedily in water) and the sheep that love them:

Northern lights! Not the best display we saw that night, but it took me a while to figure out how to take pictures of this with my smart phone:

Hey, guess what? Another waterfall!

A museum dedicated to traditional Icelandic construction:

Another highlight, whale watching. I loved how the whales were not even a little bit impressed by the humans, they just ignored us and enjoyed their swim...

Aaaand I hope I haven’t bored you too much. Thanks for having a look!

[thenightling]

What is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman?

What is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman?

Explanation below.

Warning: Here there be Spoilers.

I fully admit that I, myself, am a late comer to the fandom of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics.  Back in the 1990s many friends had recommended the series to me and or insisted that I would love “Death.”   But no one gave me a proper explanation or summary of what I was to expect.  I figured it had to have been an over-rated trend.  I was too busy trying to get people to watch or listen to the Nightmare before Christmas soundtrack (which hadn’t yet become the cultural phenomena it became in the early 2000s).

The comics I read in those days mostly consisted of the likes of Morbius: The Living Vampire, The Midnight Sons, Legion of Monsters, Tomb of Dracula and the occasional Tales from the Crypt reprint when I could find it.  I was lucky enough to have recurring access to a store called Dracula’s Comic Crypt on Long Island.   But as a woman into all things Gothic (and most especially art in the style of Bernie Wrightson) I was recommended Sandman over and over again.

Part of what discouraged me was that I have always had poor eyesight.  Today, of course, on a nice twenty inch computer monitor I can make the comic book images nice and big and keep physical copies mostly for collecting purposes. But mostly I just didn’t really know what Sandman was all about. 

Well, fast forward over twenty years later...  The TV show Lucifer has gained my attention and is both fascinating and fun for being different so I finally cave and decide to read the comics that he first came from... Sandman.  I was particularly interested in the storyline where Lucifer quits Hell (Season of Mists) but I wisely decided to start from the beginning.  I started at the beginning...  It wasn’t long before I realized that I liked this thing... I really, really liked this thing.  In fact I soon found I liked the protagonist, Morpheus, more than Lucifer.   

My response was along the lines of “Why didn’t anyone tell me this was so good?” to which several friends practically shouted “WE DID!”

So for anyone who was or is in a similar situation to me, I’ll explain Sandman as best I can for you right now since no one properly explained it to me back when it was first recommended to me a almost a quarter of a century ago.

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DC comics has had three characters named Sandman.  The first was a gas mask wearing Noir character named  Wesley Dodds.  The second was a golden age style superhero who later passed his mantel on to another, the replacement character called Hector Hall. 

And now for the third, the most important of DC’s Sandman / Sandmen.  The literal Sandman AKA Dream of the Endless, otherwise known as Morpheus. Ruler of The Dreaming realm.  Master of both Dreams and Nightmares.  First published by DC and later concluded by Vertigo (DC’s adult content label) Sandman was a very unique kind of story, set in the DC universe. 

  Morpheus (AKA Dream) sometimes changes his form but he’s fairly easy to recognize because he is always depicted with black talk bubbles with white text, originally intended to indicate a psychic form of communication more than actually vocal (but I think that idea was mostly dropped after the first issue and only hinted at again in the storyline called A Game of You). 

During the very first storyline of Sandman comics Morpheus was captured by humans.

Later it is revealed in a stand alone comic that the universe (in an effort to balance itself out) granted Wesley Dodds certain dream based abilities.  Dodds had something of a psychic link with Morpheus while Morpheus was in captivity. 

Later two nightmares escape from The Dreaming realm and these two (Brute and Glob) manipulate the super hero “Sandman” and his successor, Hector Hall. They do this to create a dream dimension of their own since the one Morpheus ruled had fallen into chaos without him. 

Morpheus / Dream is a member of The Endless and his full title (besides Sandman) is Dream of The Endless.

The Endless is a family of anthropamorphic personifications representing seven aspects or abstract concepts in relation to conscious life.    It’s not as complicated as it seems.

The Endless are:

Destiny:  Destiny is the eldest.  He is depicted as a shrouded blind man whose wrist is chained to a book containing the past, present and future.  Despite being apparently blind he can read his own book.  His sigil (the symbol that represents him) is a book.

Destruction.  Destruction grew weary of ...well, destruction when he saw humanity progressing toward increasing violence.  Determining that each Endless actually represents a concept and it’s counter-part he quit his vocation and wandered off to try to reinvent himself as a creative force instead of destructive.  His sigil is a sword.

Death.  Death is Death incarnate, much like Death of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld but instead of resembling the traditional Grim Reaper Death takes the form of a pale Goth girl with an eye of horas tattoo under her right eye.  You might think that she should be the most depressed or brooding of the group but no.  She’s friendly and optimistic.  She also loves films like Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid (Disney version).  She wears an ankh pendant, which also is her sigil.

Now we have Dream AKA Morpheus. He is The Sandman of folklore.  Dream is the middle sibling and he is The Sandman.  He rules the realm of The Dreaming.  He has wild “Robert Smith style” hair, bone-white skin and black eyes with small star-like pupils.  Morpheus is also very tall and skinny.  Dream’s sigil is his “Helm” - a battle mask he made for himself using the bones of two Lovecraftian “Old Gods” that attacked The Dreaming a long time ago.  (He almost never gets to wear this helm in actual battle as Morpheus is not really a warrior character by nature).  The helm is made from a large skull and spine and so it resembles a bone version of Wesley Dodd’s gas mask. 

     Desire.  Now come the twins, the first of which is Desire.  Desire is a genderfluid being that can be male or female (or both or neither) at will.  Desire is very fickle and can also be extremely cruel but also (on occasion) can be helpful and once even saved the universe (even though Desire doesn’t remember doing it).  Desire is slender, androgynous and has golden eyes.  Desire’s sigil is a heart. 

Despair.  Despair is the twin of Desire though you might never know it.  They look nothing at all alike.  Despair is a short, very full-figured woman who has jagged tusk-like teeth, and almost never wears clothes.  Despair’s sigil is a ring with a sharp hook attached to it. 

Delirium.  Delirium is the youngest of the Endless and very child-like.  She used to be Delight but someone or something hurt or abused her a long time ago and she became Delirium as a way to cope.  It’s implied that someday she might return to being Delight but as it stands that might take a whole lot of therapy.   Delirium can be very sweet but if you are mean to her or try to touch her without permission she will punish you by driving you to madness.  Her sigil was once a flower.  Now it’s a rainbow blob or smearing of color.

And there you have it.  The Endless in a nutshell.  Now on to the basic plot of Sandman...

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Sandman was first published in late 1988 and ran until 1996.  It then had several spin-offs and one shots, a prequel novel set in Ancient Japan (Dream hunters), a collection of short story comics called Endless Nights (one for each Endless), and finally the gorgeous prequel comic Sandman: Overture (compiled as a graphic novel in 2016).

Since the first run of Sandman is over seventy five issues long I will only give a summary of the first story arc.  Preludes and Nocturnes...

____________________

Preludes and Nocturnes:

A group of late Victorian / Edwardian era occultists known as The Order of Ancient Mysteries (Modeled loosely after the Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn) is lead by their Lord Magus, Roderick Burgess.  They use a grimoire known as the Magdalene Grimoire (which will later get use in Green Arrow) to cast a ritual spell to summon Death incarnate but instead of summoning her they accidentally summon The Sandman.

They realize their mistake but decide to keep Dream as their prisoner anyway.

A “sickness” occurs where several people end up with severe sleeping disorders because of the way Morpheus was taken.  One woman ends up with “Sleeping beauty syndrome” where she would wake for brief periods of time but usually slept.  Another goes into a coma.  One young man in Africa dreamt of a cloud castle, as was his usual dream, but the castle crumbled and he became catatonic.  A soldier would suffer a form of “Shell shock” that made him severely insomniactic.  But in general most people continued to sleep and dream normally. 

However in The Dreaming realm Morpheus’ absence was noticed.  And over time things started to deteriorate.  The vast library in The Dreaming started to disappear.  Some dream entities vanished.  Some Nightmare creatures escaped into the human world.

And Morpheus’ castle began to fall into disrepair.  This all happened over the span of many years, mind you.

For over seventy-two-years Morpheus is kept prisoner inside a clear crystal-glass cage, surrounded by a magical binding circle in Roderick’s cellar.   They take his helm, his pouch of dream sand, and his ruby amulet as magical trophies. They also take his clothes and leave him naked and caged.  They don’t even bother to feed him and though he won’t die of starvation he does suffer hunger.  The binding circle holds back Morpheus’ magick and psychic powers while the glass cage holds his physical body. 

During Morpheus’ captivity Roderick grew old and died and his son took his place as Morpheus’ main captor.  And eventually old age started to creep up on the son, Alexander.  One night Alexander visit’s his prisoner (who has refused to speak the entire time of his captivity) and Alex’s assistant (and lover) Paul, accidentally brushes Alex’s wheelchair slightly over the rim of the binding circle, breaching it and it’s hold over Morpheus’ psychic abilities. But they do not notice this slight breach.  Morpheus, however, does notice the breach in the circle holding him prisoner.  Morpheus waits for his opportunity.  As one of his guards has a brief day dream about a vacation on a beach, Morpheus is able to psychically connect with this dream to steal a fistful of the sand there on the dream beach and use this sand as he would use his pouch of dream sand.

Morpheus pretends to collapse within his cage.  

Appearing to be dead, the guards call for their employer, and open the glass cell.  Morpheus uses the pilfered dream sand to make good his escape.  

The first thing Morpheus does is he enters someone’s dream about wearing a clown costume to a party and no one else is in costume.  Here Morpheus (still quite naked) raids the buffet, even eating frog legs from a fried chicken style bucket held by Colonel Sanders.  He’s too hungry to think about anything other than eating. 

Once that’s done he conjures clothes for himself and seeks revenge on his captor...

Morpheus enters the dream of Alexander Burgess where he confronts him on holding him prisoner and how he treated him.  Morpheus used to be a very cruel and petty being and his cruelty lingers long enough for him to punish Alexander severely.  He condemns him to a dream of eternal waking, an eternal nightmare which entails waking up from a nightmare only to find he’s in yet another nightmare, just to wake up again and be in yet another nightmare and on and on forever while his body remains comatose and or may actually, one day, die while his soul could be stuck in that nightmare within The Dreaming for eternity. (Dream does eventually release Alexander Burgess though and forgives him).

Exhausted by this act of vengeance, Morpheus tries to make his way to his castle at The Heart of The Dreaming but faints in “The shifting lands” where he’s found by Gregory The Gargoyle.  Gregory is the pet of Cain. 

Cain and Abel are old horror host comic book characters from the 1960 and 1970s in the style of the Crypt Keeper, with Cain compulsively murdering Abel roughly once a night (Abel recovers each time as he’s immortal).  And yet Cain and Abel weirdly love each other. 

These characters originally came from the comic book series The House of Mystery and The House of Secrets.

The House of Secrets are the comics that first introduced DC’s Swamp Thing. 

At The House of Mystery (Cain’s home) Cain is presenting Abel with a new baby gargoyle egg (this gargoyle eventually gets named Goldie.  Originally Abel called the baby gargoyle Irving but Cain insisted that gargoyles need G names) that’s when Gregory (the large green Gargoyle) carries the barely conscious Morpheus to Cain.  This is one of the only times in the comics where you out right see Morpheus ask for help.  He’s a very proud character.

Cain and Abel set about nursing their king back to health.

Morpheus gradually recovers in Cain’s House of Mystery (Abel’s home is The House of Secrets) before making his way to his castle (now in ruins) in the heart of The Dreaming.  Morpheus’ loyal librarian, Lucien, had been trying to keep things running in Morpheus’ absence.

Lucien AKA Mr. Raven (not to be confused with Morpheus’ spy raven, Matthew, who comes later) is another horror host from older DC comics and the castle he resided in (known as the “Ghost Castle”) turns out to be Morpheus’ own castle, which has appeared in both The Waking World and The Dreaming, much like Cain’s House of Mystery and Abel’s House of Secrets.

Meanwhile Morpheus’ usual groundskeeper, Mervyn (A Jack-o-lantern headed scarecrow) had taken to driving a bus in The Dreaming and had to be brought back to The Castle to return to his original duties. 

Morpheus realizes he needs to get his property back- The pouch of dream sand, his helm, and his ruby dreamstone amulet (which is a conduit and amplifier for his powers) that had been taken at the start of his captivity and had drifted to different owners over time.  The Hecateae (The triple goddess AKA The Furies AKA The Fates AKA The Kindly Ones) tell Morpheus that John Constantine had his pouch of Dream Sand.  And so Morpheus goes to meet Constantine.  

John Constantine (who is a practicing occultist and private investigator) figures out that a former lover of his his own has the pouch of self-replenishing dream sand (he, himself, was unable to pull the draw strings of the pouch). The exlover has tragically been using the sand to get high and several Dream entities have been feeding on her imagination when she does this.  Her body is shutting down.  By the time Morpheus and Constantine find her there is little that can be done but Constantine demands Morpheus do something for her and so Morpheus gives her a pleasant final dream before she passes away.  Morpheus repays Constantine’s assistance by helping him with his chronic nightmares.

Next Morpheus has to retrieve his helm, which was taken by a demon.  Morpheus is forced to visit Hell to reclaim it.  Here he is guided by Etrigan The Demon (a demon that exists Dr. Jekyll and Hyde style with a human immortal host, Jason Blood).  Etrigan deliberately takes Morpheus past an imprisoned former lover of Morpheus’ own, Nada. She pleads for Morpheus to rescue her but he tells her that though he loves her he has not yet forgiven her.  (later we learn Morpheus left her in Hell because she rejected him back when he was a much crueler character).

Morpheus has started to change since his captivity.  He’s becoming softer, less cruel.  And though he does not rescue her here, he will eventually go back for her after his older sister, Death makes him realize that he had wronged Nada.

The demon who has taken Morpheus’ helm challenges him to a contest where each one has to out do the creativity of the other, inventing personas that would best the previous one conceived by the opponent.  Eventually Morpheus wins with the simple phrase “I am Hope.”  

This is later (much later) very bitterly sweetly elaborated on in the prequel comic Sandman: Overture, where Hope is revealed to have been a little girl whose ghost helps Morpheus but all he can remember of her is her name.

Side note: Lucifer (the main ruler of this Hell) becomes bitter and slowly makes up his mind to quit ruling there.  He does not get around to doing this until the storyline called Season of Mists, in which Lucifer leaves the key to Hell to Morpheus when Morpheus came back, looking to rescue Nada.  Lucifer also asks Morpheus to help him by cutting off Lucifer’s large bat-like wings for him. (Lucifer gets those wings back in his own solo comics, back to their original white, feathery Angelic state).

Eventually Morpheus gives The Key to Hell to two Angels who turn Hell into a place of redemption, and Lucifer retires to Earth where he opens a piano bar in LA called Lux but that’s a whole other story.

Morpheus’ ruby dreamstone amulet had been taken by the villain Doctor Destiny AKA John (or Johnny) Dee. (Not to be confused with Morpheus’ elder brother, Destiny personified).  Doctor Destiny AKA John Dee was being kept at Arkham Asylum.  Doctor Destiny happens to escape around this time as Morpheus is trying to reclaim his lost amulet.  The amulet was in a Justice League of America storage warehouse.  The amulet had been so corrupted by Doctor Destiny that merely touching it saps Morpheus of a great deal of his strength and he collapses, fainting in the warehouse, where it was being stored. 

By the time Morpheus regains consciousness, he finds that Doctor Destiny has taken the amulet and Doctor Destiny had used the ruby’s power on a diner full of people (whom he has toyed with, driven to madness, and then ultimately killed or made them kill each other and themselves in very gruesome ways).  Doctor Destiny and Morpheus have a confrontation where Doctor Destiny says he will kill Morpheus. 

Morpheus tricks Doctor Destiny into following him into The Dreaming where Doctor Destiny destroys the ruby, believing it will kill Morpheus if The Dreamstone is destoryed.  Instead of killing Morpheus, the power that was in the ruby dreamstone reverts to him, making Morpheus more powerful than he had been in centuries.  The ruby had contained a small fragment of Morpheus’ very soul.  Morpheus (who has started to change, becoming a bit kinder) shows pity on Doctor Destiny and instead of cruelly punishing him, he escorts him back to Arkham Asylum where he gives all the inmates a night of deep sleep and pleasant dreams.    

Once Morpheus has gotten back his lost artifacts he restores his castle and library. 

Now Morpheus feels restless and uncertain as to what to do with himself.  He’s lonely and feels like he’s lost his purpose.  So he goes to a park to feed the pigeons in order to try to cheer himself up.

(He loves birds and feeding birds is a comfort for him).  Here he meets up with his sister, Death, who makes pop culture references that fly right over his head (Since he’s been out of touch for nearly a century and wasn’t very good at slang to begin with). 

Morpheus loves and respects his sister and doesn’t understand why so many people fear her. 

He considers himself far more terrible than she could ever be.  She manages to cheer him up by simply being there.  She has him accompany her as she makes her rounds through the city, escorting souls to where they are meant to go. 

There are several adventures for Morpheus after this but this is the first story of the Sandman comics.  Most of his adventures deal with Morpheus righting the wrongs of his own dark past and coming to terms with very human things such as loneliness, friendship, guilt and grief.

Marvel fans might notice that Morpheus AKA Dream has certain similarities to Marvels’ Nightmare character.  And there are definite similarities.  The biggest difference is Dream is essentially what would happen if Nightmare went on a redemption arc.

_________________________

Other adventures of note:

At one point Morpheus is summoned to help Calliope, the muse.  Calliope and Morpheus had been married thousands of years earlier.  She has recently been held prisoner by cruel mortals who use her for inspiration and have physically abused her as well.  Morpheus tries to ask for her release and when that doesn’t work he’s forced to torment her captor with maddening, intensely creative dreams until he releases her.

Another storyline deals with Morpheus going back to Hell to rescue his abandoned lover, Nada, only to find that Lucifer has quit and Lucifer asks Morpheus to help him cut off his large bat wings (which he gets back as pretty feathery wings later in his own solo comics.)

Lucifer goes to Earth and decides to learn how to play Piano, among other things.  His lover, the demoness, Mazikeen, soon follows, while Morpheus’ older sister, Death, tries to sort out what to do with all the newly displaced wandering souls.

When Morpheus is left the key to Hell, various supernatural entities, beings of folklore, and religion come to The Dreaming to try to claim it from him.  One demon that arrives (made of many mouths) has Nada imprisoned inside of his very being.  Morpheus goes inside the demon and rescues Nada and while he’s there he also finds and rescues the very demon that had once had his helm and challenged him during the first Sandman storyline, Preludes and Nocturns.  Morpheus’ sense of compassion has grown.

In his pride Morpheus gives a flimsy apology to Nada for leaving her in Hell and she slaps him hard across the face.

He apologizes more sincerely after momentarily getting angry and tells her that she has a choice to make.  Nada chooses to be reincarnated.

When she’s reborn in Hong Kong, Morpheus sneaks into the nursery in the hospital maternity ward, where he cradles the baby, (The baby is male), telling the baby that he’ll never forget her and that she’ll always be welcome in The Dreaming.   

The key to Hell is ultimately passed to two Angels who choose to try to make it a place of reformation and redemption but somehow devise tortures equally as cruel (if not crueler) than what was there when Lucifer ran the place.  In Neil Gaiman’s lore souls only go to Hell if they believe that is what they deserve and then demons take advantage of that there in Hell.  In Lucifer’s stand alone comics it’s revealed that he was not given Hell as a punishment but as a place where he wouldn’t have to live in his Father’s shadow.  It became a place of darkness and misery because of Lucifer’s own dark mindset.  Lucifer now seems content on Earth and never returns to ruling Hell.

(Note: The current Devil / Satan of the DC universe is “First of the Fallen” (a different entity from Lucifer as Lucifer is “retired” and is not actually categorized as evil anymore.)   

In current DC / Vertigo lore, a different being, “First of The Fallen” has taken the title of Satan while Lucifer has happily become a neutral character, considered neither Good nor Evil (though leaning heavily toward Good in his TV show incarnation).  Lucifer is retired and categorized as Neutral in his moral alignment while First of the Fallen is categorized as Evil.  Lucifer may have been the first Angel to fall from grace but he was not the first entity to fall from grace (by that list Lucifer is actually the fourth to fall) and so Lucifer does not actually have the title First of the Fallen in the current comics. 

One sweet storyline in Sandman is how Morpheus met a man who ‘refused to die” (an immortal) and the man (known as Hob and later Robert) agreed to meet with Morpheus every century to tell him what it was like to go from being mortal to being immortal, how his life has been for the last century, and to tell him if he wanted to continue to live).  In the 1700s they run into John Constantine’s Great, great, grandmother, Johanna Constantine, who mistakes Morpheus and Robert (Hob) as “The Devil and the Wandering Jew” and tries to capture Hob / Robert and Morpheus. 

In the 1800s Hob confronts Morpheus on the fact that there are actually other formerly-human immortals around the world and Hob believes Morpheus only meets with him once a century because they are friends and not because he is curious to know how Hob handles his immortality.  Morpheus becomes indignant and prideful, insisting that he doesn’t need friends.

He storms off and Hob calls after him that if he shows up next century he’ll know it’s because they’re friends and no other reason.

A century later Morpheus arrives and Hob admits he had not thought he’d come and Morpheus tells him that he had been told that it is rude to keep one’s friends waiting.  It’s sweet.

In the lore of Sandman Morpheus is the father of the mythological Orpheus, the musician who went into the Greek underworld to retrieve his dead wife. Orpheus’ mother is the muse, Calliope.  Hades agreed to let Orpheus have his wife back if he did not look back at her until they left The Underworld, proving his trust in the Greek God of The Dead.  Orpheus made the mistake of looking back at her at the last second and so lost her just before they could exit The Underworld.  Orpheus was then later torn apart by zealots and since he was condemned to immortality he was stuck as a severed head.  Shortly before going to The Underworld Orpheus had denounced his father, Morpheus, for refusing to help get his wife back from The Land of The Dead.  Hurt and angry, Morpheus refused to help him other than to send some priests dreams about Orpheus so that they and their descendants would tend to him (as he’s just a severed head) for centuries to come.

In the early 1990s, when Morpheus’ youngest sister, Delirium wants to find their lost brother, Destruction, Morpheus is forced to go to Orpheus to find out where Destruction is.  Orpheus bitterly greets his estranged father and tells him that he will give him the information he needs but only if he does him the one mercy he has been pleading for, for centuries.  Morpheus does not want to do it but finally out of mercy he kills his own son, reuniting Orpheus with his wife in The Underworld.  But Morpheus is left with a deep remorse over how he treated his son and for Orpheus’ death.  Morpheus retreats to his private rooms in his castle where he weeps, alone.

Morpheus eventually gets mistaken as the kidnapper of baby Daniel ( a child who, while fetal, spent an unusually long time in The Dreaming realm.  Daniel is the son of Hector Hall, the second superhero Sandman who passed away).   Lyta, the baby’s Mother, is lead to believe her child is dead.  She calls upon the Kindly Ones (representatives of the crone aspect of The Triple Goddess) to seek revenge. They tell her that they cannot seek revenge for her son but an Endless is not allowed to kill someone of their own blood, nor is Morpheus allowed to kill at all except to protect The Dreaming.  As Morpheus has violated these ancient rules, they can seek revenge over the death of Orpheus.

The end of the Sandman comics has Morpheus “die” sacrificing himself to stop The Kindly Ones from Destroying The Dreaming.  Morpheus’ loved ones grieve him but it’s a little ambiguous as to if he’s truly dead.  Morpheus had become weary of his role as ruler of The Dreaming but he knew that he could not just abandon it the way Destruction had abandoned his role.  And he could not quit the way Lucifer had, though he does quote Lucifer about being so very tired.

 The Kindly ones seek Morpheus’ death or the destruction of The Dreaming.  Morpheus gives up his life to save his realm, allowing his sister, Death, to take him.  As Morpheus “dies” all of his memories and power pass on into baby Daniel, who transforms and now wears an emerald with a small amount of Dream’s soul within it.  Everything that was mortal of Daniel is gone as he is transformed into the new incarnation of Dream.

When Lyta had mistakenly thought Morpheus had taken her baby, Daniel had actually been kidnapped by Puck and Loki but Daniel was ultimately rescued by a Nightmare being known as The Corinthian, and Morpheus’ Raven spy / messenger, Matthew (who had been a human soul who died in his sleep and was allowed to remain in The Dreaming after his death as Morpheus’ loyal servant.  Matthew (in his human form) had originally been a character of the Swamp Thing comics.

Daniel- now simply calling himself Dream- (which was Morpheus’ alternate name) took an adult form that looks much like Morpheus except with white hair instead of black.  This can be seen as similar to a Doctor Who style regeneration however there are other things that make Morpheus’ death fishy and or potentially a false ending.

Hob AKA Robert (Morpheus’ immortal friend) has a dream of Morpheus in which Morpheus is with a man he does not know (Destruction) and both walk off together. 

This can imply two things.  1.  Morpheus could have faked his death very elaborately and is telling Hob (as he has told Hob things via dreams before) or 2.  Morpheus did die and Daniel resurrected him as a Dream (which actually is one of his powers, to resurrect anyone who dies in The Dreaming realm as a Dream entity, maintaining free will, personality, and soul).  

And that’s about it.

Though there are serious and complex parts, some of Sandman is fun and light too, such as when Morpheus allows Delirium to drive... in the human world...

And there you go.  A crash course in what the Hell Neil Gaiman’s Sandman actually is.  Despite the spoilers of this post, I assure you that the actual comics are much more enjoyable to read.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/snapchat-spectacles-3-review-pretty-pricey/

Snapchat Spectacles 3 review: Pretty, pricey

No one’s going to pay $380 for decent point-of-view video glasses and some trippy filters. But that’s kind of the point of Snapchat Spectacles 3. They’re merely a stepping stone towards true augmented reality eyewear — a public hardware beta for the Snap Lab R&D team that Apple and Facebook aren’t getting as they tinker in their bunkers.

Still, I hoped for something that could at least unlock the talents of forward-thinking video creators. Yet the unpredictable and uncontrollable AR effects sadly fail to make use of Spectacles‘ fashionable form factor in premium steel. The clunky software requires clips be uploaded for processing and then re-downloaded before you can apply the 10 starter effects like a rainbow landscape filter or a shimmering fantasy falcon. This all makes producing AR content a chore instead of a joy for something only briefly novel.

Spectacles 3 go on sale today for $380 in black ‘Carbon’ or rose gold-ish ‘Mineral’ color schemes on Spectacles.com, Neiman Marcus, and Ron Robinson in the UK, shipping in a week. Announced in August, they’re sunglasses with two stereoscopic lenses capable of capturing depth to produce “3D” photos, and videos you can add AR effects to on your phone. You also get a very nice folds-flat leather USB-C charging case that powers up the glasses four times, and a Google Cardboard-style VR viewer.

“Spectacles 3 is a limited production run. We’re not looking for massive sales here. We’re targeting people who are excited about these effects  — creative storytellers” says Matt Hanover of the Snap Lab team.

Gen 1 featured a “toy-like design to get people used to wearing tech on their face”, while Gen 2 and 2.1 had a more subdued look abandoning the coral color schemes to push mainstream adoption. What Gen 3 can’t do is force a $40 million write-off due to poor sales, as V1 did after only shipping 220,000 with hundreds of thousands more gathering dust somewhere. Snap is already losing $227 million per quarter as it scrambles to break even.

So it seems with Spectacles 3 that Snap is gathering data and biding its time, trying to avoid burning too much cash until it can build a version that overlays effects atop a user’s view through the glasses. “We’re still able to get feedback from the customer and inform the future of Spectacles. That’s really the goal for us” Hanover confirms.

His CEO Evan Spiegel agrees, telling me on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt that it would be 10 years until we see augmented reality glasses worthy of mainstream consumer adoption. That’s a long time for an unprofitable company to spend competing to invest in R&D versus cash-rich companies like Facebook and Apple.

tl;dr

Spectacles could be worth the steep $380 if you’re a videographer for a living, perhaps making futuristic social media clips like Karen X Cheng, a creator Snap hired to demonstrate the device’s potential. They’re cool enough looking that you could wear them around Cannes or Coachella without people getting weirded out like they did with Google Glass. And as Snap’s Lens Studio lets anyone build 3D effects for Spectacles 3, perhaps we’ll see some filters and imaginary characters that are more than just a momentary gimmick.

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But for those simply seeking first-person camera glasses, I’d still recommend the Spectacles 2 at $150 to $200 depending on style. The 3D features don’t carry the weight of paying double the price for Spec 3s. And at least the 2nd-gen Specs are waterproof, which make them great for ocean play with fun underwater shooting when you don’t want to risk losing or fizzling your phone.

“We’re testing the price point and the premium aesthetic to see if it lands with this demographic” Hanover says. But Snap’s Director Of Communications Liz Markman notes that “there isn’t this perfect one-to-one overlap with the core Snap users.”

The result is that Spectacles 3 are really more for Snap’s benefit than yours.

Slick Eyewear, Now Where’s The AR?

The Spectacles 3 software is disappointing, but you’ll be delighted when you open the box. Slick black packaging reveal sturdily built metal sunglasses with a luxury matte finish. As they magnetically dislodge from their charging case, you definitely get they sense you’re trying on something futuristic.

The style concurs, with a flat black bar at the top connecting the round lenses with a camera on both corners. Unlike the old Specs that sat right on your nose, feeling heavy at times, Spectacles 3 offers adjustable acetate non-slip nose tips to keep the weight off. All the tech is built discreetly into the hinges and temples without appearing too chunky.

Tap the button either arm, and LED light swooshes in a circle to let people know you’re recording a video for 10 seconds, with multiple presses growing that to up to 60. Tap and hold to shoot a photo, and the light blinks. There’s no obnoxious yellow rubber ring to shout “these are cameras”, and the defused LEDs are more subtle than Gen 2’s dots while remaining an obvious enough signal to passersby so they’re not creepy.

One charge powers up to 70 captures and transfers to your phone over a combined Bluetooth built-in Wifi connection. The 4 gigabyte storage holds up to 100 videos or 1200 photos, and Spectacles 3 even have GPS and GLOSNASS on-board. A 4-mic array picks up audio from others and your own voice, though they’re susceptible to windshear if you’re biking or running.

The magnetically-sealing folding leather USB-C charging case is my favorite part. I wish I could get an even flatter one without a battery in it for my other sunglasses. It’s a huge improvement on the unpocketable bulky triangular case of the previous versions.

A Toy Not Fun Enough For The Price

So far so good, right? But then it comes time to actually see and augment what you shot.

Pairing and syncing is much easier than Gen 1. The glasses forge a Bluetooth connection, then spawn a WiFi network for getting media to your phone faster.

If you just want to share to Snapchat, you’re in luck. Spectacles content posts to Stories or messages in its cool circular format that lets viewers tilt their phones around while always staying full-screen to reveal the edges of your shots. Otherwise, you still have to go through the chore of exporting from Snapchat to your camera roll. Spectacles can at least now export in a variety of croppings for better sharing on Instagram and elsewhere.

What’s new are the 3D photos and videos. They utilize the space between the stereoscopic cameras in the corners of Spectacles employ parallax to sense the depth of a scene. After tapping the 3D button on a photo, you can wiggle the perspective of the image around to almost see around the edges of what you’re looking at. Spectacles will automatically pan back and forth for you, and export 3D photos as short Boomerang-esque six-second videos.

Unfortunately, I found that I didn’t get much sense of depth from most of the 3D photos I shot or saw. It takes a very particular kind of three-dimensional object from the right angle in the right light to much sense of movement from the wiggle. Snapchat’s algorithms also had a bad habit of mistakenly assigning bits of the foreground and background to each other, breaking the illusion. Occasionally you’ll have someone’s ear or their hair left behind and disembodied by the 3D effect.

Don’t expect these to flood social media or convince prospective Spectacles buyers. The 3D selfies you can shoot on Snapchat for free look better anyways.

The biggest problem comes with the delay when playing with 3D videos. Snapchat has to do the depth processing on its servers, so you have to wait for your video to upload, get scanned, and be re-downloaded before you can apply the 3D AR filters. On WiFi that takes about 35 seconds per 10 second video, which is quite a bore. It takes forever over a mobile connection. That means you often won’t be able to apply the filters and see how they look until you’re home and unable to reshoot anything.

The filter set is also limited and haphazard. You can add a 3D bird or balloons around you, wander through golden snow or neon arcs, overlay flower projections or rainbow waves, or sprinkle on sparkles and light-bending blobs. While the bird is cute, and the rainbows and flowers are remarkably psychedelic, none of them are more than briefly entertaining.

The 3D objects often glitch through real pieces of scenery, and you can’t control them at all. No summoning the bird mid-video. My favorite trick, learned from Karen X Cheng, was to export unedited and filtered versions of a video and splice them together on my computer as scene in my demo video above. You can’t actually do that from within Snapchat.

Snap will have to build a lot cooler filters with interactivity if they’re going to compel creators to fork over $380 for Spectacles 3. It could hope to rely on its Lens Studio community platform, but so few developers or users will have the glasses that most will stick to making and using filters for phones.

Spectacles 3 are too expensive to be a toy, but don’t excel at being much more. Videography influencers might enjoy having a pair in their tool bag. But it’s hard to imagine anyone not sharing content professionally paying for the gadget.

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Iteration vs Ideation

“We’re now pushing to elevate the technology and the design to master depth technically” Hanover tells me. “Holing ourselves up within an R&D center for years and years? That’s not our approach. It’s important to meet the customer where they are today and continue to iterate and get that feedback.”

But this iteration doesn’t feel like Snap meeting the customer where they are. That raises the question of whether Snapchat is really getting enough data out of the whole endeavor to justify publicly releasing Spectacles at all. The company will have to hope that testing short-term is worth thinking short-term, when it’s trying to win the long-term war in augmented reality eyewear.