#and BAM did a background for once

[kardds-arts]

im drawing again :)

[ateez-himari]

FASHION WEEK; HIGHLIGHTS

"I can be all the things you told me not to be"

MILAN; VERSACE

• The vocalist recognized the journalist that had made tasteless and uncomfortable comments suggesting she was only in ATEEZ because of her appearance in 2021, continuing to throw sly comments into articles since then. When their manager began motioning him over for the common short interviews, she reminded him that he had been blacklisted from events for years - he was also the only one who she did not bow her head to as a greeting.

• When both ambassadors stepped out of the car together, the large crowd that had been gathered for hours flickered with bright flashes almost instantly whilst he extended a hand in order to help stabilize her.

• During the showcase of 'Ephemeral' the vocalist sat down on a white cushion to play the Koto - the national instrument of Japan - in order to accompany the music composed with different Korean instruments, representing her identity perfectly.

• To close off this impressive debut the runway welcomed the artist dressed in flowing light pink fabric adorned with golden details, displaying the very last design of her collection while she thanked the audience. Himari then bowed before the house's artistic director who in response mouthed the word 'Bellissima' and cued for attendees to toss red peonies towards her ambassador, a flower representing prosperity and good fortune in Korean culture.

• San attempted to hide that he was wiping away tears at the sight of their maknae accomplishing one of her dreams right in front of their eyes yet could not conceal his emotions when engulfing her in a tight hug.

• Once the show had concluded, Himari left her bandmates' sides to search the room for someone and hurried over to embrace the house's artistic director, who returned the hug warmly before placing a specially prepared tiara on her ambassador's head. Fans have compared their interaction to an aunt with her favorite niece due to the way Donatella seemed so attentive to her at all times, meanwhile the idol would hold her hand while being introduced to guests and the two were even seen gossiping at some point before the show began.

Afterparty;

• YouTuber Isaac M.I.K taught her how to do the South African dance move 'Tshwala Bam' over which they bonded very quickly before the vocalist in turns taught him the 'Work' challenge which was later released on the ATEEZ TikTok account. He now follows her personal Instagram account.

• In footage posted by guests, she could be seen visibly tipsy while whispering something into Mingi's ear, before pulling away biting her lip with flushed cheeks making shiny doe eyes even more noticeable as she gazed up at him. Whatever was exchanged between them made the rapper tighten his hold on her waist as he left a kiss on her neck. This clip rapidly made the rounds through social media with the unreleased song 'Come Through' by The Weeknd used as the background.

• Throughout the night, Gigi Hadid was seen dancing with her and later on posted several stories containing endless pictures of the two clearly forming some kind of friendship. The poses were different from what is usually seen from female idols but this allowed netizens a look into her more relaxed personality, dimming the cuteness shown during fan interactions to make way for natural charm.

• Madonna asked San for her Instagram handle during the Dolce & Gabbana afterparty the following day, and posted about the Ephemeral Collection with the caption; "What can't this girl do ?"

PARIS; BALMAIN

• The vocalist seemed overwhelmed with the loud sounds created by the crowd as both artists signed autographs, so Hongjoong discreetly reached over before lowering the volume on her hearing aid.

• Upon meeting his ambassador's youngest member for the first time, Olivier Rousteing let out an audible squeal and noted that both seemed to fit the other perfectly in terms of visuals. Some journalists present during the interaction even managed to catch him joking about wanting to steal Versace's Princess for his own fashion house.

• Dove Cameron cheerfully greeted the idol with a warm embrace along with seemingly endless compliments about her beauty when the show was being prepared. An entire camera roll long photoshoot ensued which was then posted on both of their social media accounts with captions conveying affection for the other, and both were seen giggling whilst sitting next to one another.

• Throughout the event the maknae seemed much calmer in the presence of their group's captain and sparked conversations with numerous high profile attendees, although this happened only when he stood at her side. Much like during their debut years, there were several pictures of her holding on to Hongjoong's sleeve while walking around.

• When came time to leave, Mingi stepped out of the car waiting for the bandmates in order to help his girlfriend inside with one hand under her own while the other guided her by the waist. Their manager could be seen standing aside smiling to himself, though trying to hide it, much like their captain.

Extra;

• While the members currently present in the city were taking a stroll, they ran into the vocalist's friend of three years, SEVENTEEN leader S.Coups, who immediately chastised her for having time to travel throughout countries yet none to stop by their studio despite having a keycard to the HYBE building.

• The Paris Saint-Germain Football Club invited their player's younger sister to the game against Rennes and despite having been apart only since Chuseok, the siblings ran up to one another as if it had been years once it was over. Since most players present had never before met her, Hanzo excitedly rambled on about nearly every accomplishment while the embarrassment flushed her cheeks with every passing moment.

[gamerwoo]

[SKZ Imprinted] Stray Kids: Dungeons & DragonsWerewolves (Spin-Off)

Characters: ot8 skz x ocs

Genre/warnings: college au, werewolf au (sort of), humor, minor angst. lots of d&d happening (coming from someone who knows very little about d&d), possible major character death in the beginning and the end but not really, a twist on dream theory

Word count: 2,976

Summary: What if it was all just one elaborate D&D campaign?

a/n: this wasn't requested i just thought this might be fun hehe

SKZ Imprinted Masterlist

This was it. This was the moment the entire pack had been waiting for.

Jungkook was back.

The only problem was it wasn't on the terms they'd hoped. They wanted Namjoon to track him down. They wanted the hunters to bring him to them under safe circumstances so they could be sure everyone on their side would be safe.

Instead, it was chaos.

Ryujin was held tightly in front of him, one of his strong arms wrapped around her to keep her there. In his other hand was a gun, the barrel pressed to her temple. Jungkook's wild eyes scanned the small crowd in front of him.

"Don't move," he threatened through clenched teeth, his jaw impossibly tight, "or I'll shoot."

But how could Minho not move? Of course he was going to do anything to save his mate, even if it meant putting his own life in danger.

He lunged forward, betting on his reflexes being faster than Jungkook's. The hunter moved his arm that held the gun to his sister's head and--

Bam!

The room froze, all eyes going from Ryujin to Minho as time seemed to slow. Chan's jaw dropped as he watched his brother fall to his knees in front of Jungkook. He saw the bullet come out from the back of Minho's head--

"No fuckin' way!"

Aeri slowly lifted her gaze from the two large books she propped up around her like a child in school taking an exam and trying to hide their test behind folders and binders. Spread out in front of her were more papers. But instead of her eyes being wide as she read off of the papers she had written and spent hours planning, she was now glaring at the cause of the interruption.

"Minho died?!" Hyunjin gasped, looking at the dungeon master with wide brown eyes.

"Well dumbass over here wanted to just lunge at Jungkook like a psychopath!" she stated, gesturing across the long table to the psychopath in question.

Minho still looked displeased, continuing his earlier outburst, "There's absolutely no shot I die there."

"There was actually a shot," Seungmin stated, "and you did die to it."

Minho continued to glare at Aeri as he grabbed his d20 without looking, while she scanned over her paperwork to make sure she was correct -- even though she knew she was. She had copies of all of their character sheets and had been keeping careful track of all of their stats. Minho definitely hit 0.

She looked up and nodded once, stating, "Roll."

It was her idea to start this D&D campaign. She actually came up with all of the characters and their backgrounds. She also decided to modify it to make it at least a little more realistic.

Originally, the eight boys were supposed to be part of a gang with all of them having different roles. But her boyfriend begged to be a werewolf, and then Seungmin decided he needed to be one, and it snowballed into all eight men banning together to create their werewolf pack.

Chan was their fearless alpha, which gave him an extra strength point just for that. Aeri assigned Minho as a Rogue, taking some inspiration from his slyness in real life. Changbin was a Rogue Barbarian, using a mix of stealth and brute force to take down any foes in his path. The others in the pack were simply 'Scholars', a class Aeri invented for this "realistic" campaign -- though, Hyunjin's character had a mysterious past that nobody knew details about, and they had yet to discover anything else about his possible class or alignment.

Overall, the girlfriends of the group were simple Human Scholars with their different alignments. The only exceptions were Jamie, and the sisters. Jamie's class and alignment were both unknown, though her character was a mostly non-verbal person with a lot of her thoughts, emotions, and past kept a mystery.

The youngest of the Jeon sisters was classified as a Fighter, while Elsie was a Werewolf Hunter -- another class Aeri invented, but said it was a sub-class of Fighter.

And their brother was made one of the villains, and was the current main villain. All because Aeri was upset he wouldn't join their campaign.

Minho's die hit the table. 14.

"One win," he smirked.

"Two more to go," Aeri reminded him.

"Wasn't there a rule last time about not going with Minho's first answer and letting the group decide?" Ankita recalled while the rolls for combat continued.

"Yeah, but it wasn't as fun," Aeri sighed. "I made an executive decision as DM to undo the rule."

"Honestly," Jamie spoke up, holding a steaming mug of tea between both hands, "it's his own fault for getting shot."

"It's Aeri's fault for rolling a 19!" Minho shouted, making Mari jump during her turn to roll, prematurely dropping the die on the table.

"Okay, okay," Chan stepped in to calm the group before they decided to gang up on his girlfriend, "let's remember this isn't the first time someone got shot -- and Elsie lived."

"Barely," she stated. "I literally met God, like, 3 times."

The bad thing about having a DM who only just recently got into D&D and only knew the bare minimum -- if that -- was that Aeri tended to just make things up as she went. She wasn't always sure when to roll Perception or Initiative or when to roll for one's literal life. So sometimes she just...made things up.

The good thing about having a DM like Aeri, though, was that things were always interesting. Sometimes she would throw things in as she went, even if they weren't pre-planned. Having her ex-boyfriend, Taehyung be the original bad guy along with her mutual friends with him was something she had planned all along, but she decided to really focus on Jungkook out of nowhere when he refused to join the campaign when she offered that one time he came over for the Halloween party. She had always planned for Elsie to be a Fighter, but decided last minute to add on Werewolf Hunter when her and Seungmin went on The World's Shortest Break just to tease them. She made the decision while they were actively rolling for their Abilities to lower Minho, Hyunjin, and Jisung's Intelligence and Wisdom scores despite what they had rolled because she just couldn't have them being smart in any universe.

The die hit the table again. 1.

Aeri smirked at Minho, "Two losses. Good luck, champ."

"Two?!" Minho exclaimed angrily. "But I--"

"If you roll less than 10, it's one loss. If you roll a 1, it counts for two," Seungmin explained before rolling his eyes. "Don't you pay attention to the rules?"

"Not when Chan's girlfriend makes up half of them!" he shouted, gesturing toward the DM at the head of the table.

All she did was stare back at Minho, glance around the table, and shrug.

"Some of us died several times and aren't complaining," Elsie reminded him.

"Babe, can you just roll?" Ryu whined softly. "This is supposed to be fun."

"It's fun when I'm not about to die!" he exclaimed again before tossing the die across the table, landing on Hyunjin's character sheets.

The younger boy looked down in front of him before looking up at Minho to tell him, "19."

Minho tossed his head back and loudly groaned before shouting, "Motherfucker!"

The rest of the table, however, was having a fantastic time watching Minho struggle. He was so close to an instant win, and they couldn't help but laugh at his failure.

"If you die, you can always have Yoongi bring you back to life," Minseo shrugged. "I don't see the problem."

"That was only because Yoongi showed up for one game night and he wanted to do something cool," Aeri stated. "If he's not here, he can't help you."

"That's a stupid rule and you know it," Minho huffed, rolling his eyes until they glared at Aeri.

"Not stupid. Intentionally mean," Hyunjin corrected.

Aeri just grinned, "If it wasn't so funny seeing Minho get this mad at a game, maybe the rules would be different."

"Monopoly may end friendships but DnD completely burns all bridges of friendship," Ankita said quietly as she stared down at the table, too afraid to look up in case she caught Minho's intense stare.

Minho blew on the die, mumbling, "C'mon, c'mon..."

Finally, with a deep breath that was slowly let out, Minho tossed the die onto the table. Everyone leaned over to see what the outcome was, some standing up from their seats to see. And...

Ryu cried out Minho's name, one hand reaching out for him as she squirmed to get away, but Jungkook just tightened his grip. Some of the pack stayed frozen, trying to process what had happened as Minho blood pooled on the floor around where he lay seemingly lifeless. Others fell to their knees, sobs wracking their bodies.

Chan was one of the few that hadn't yet processed what exactly had happened as he stared at Minho's body. But as he stared, he realized...he was still breathing. Was it possible that maybe, somehow, Jungkook hadn't used a silver bullet? Maybe he didn't have access to that after running away? Maybe there was a chance for Minho to live.

But they would have to act quickly.

"I try to distract Jungkook to get his attention off of Minho and avoid a finishing blow, and so Changbin can sneak around and attack," Chan stated for his turn.

Aeri nodded for him to roll the dice.

Slowly, the alpha put up his hands in surrender. Jungkook's gaze and gun immediately pointed to him, but Chan didn't even flinch.

"It doesn't have to end like this," he said slowly and calmly as he tentatively took a small step forward, testing the waters. Jungkok was shaking and had clearly lost all rational thought, but this was still a risk Chan was willing to take for his brother. "You don't want to hurt Ryujin -- I know you don't. You care about her. You just want your family back and for things to go back to normal. Trust me, I understand that. But...this isn't how you should go about it."

Changbin tried to pull himself together, sniffling as he wiped stray tears from his cheeks. His reddened eyes stay trained on Jungkook as he slowly and cautiously took a step to the side. He just wanted to get out of the rogue hunter's line of sight. But currently, Jungkook seemed to have tunnel-visioned onto Chan.

"You still have a chance to stop yourself from hurting her and making it worse," Chan assured Jungkook. His eyes were sincere, even if they were still blood red. "If you walk away now and let Minho go--"

"This isn't realistic literally at all," Elsie was the one to interrupt this time with a huff and a roll of her eyes.

Aeri froze, eyes wide in annoyance and staring at her sheet. She slowly moved her gaze to the older girl toward the other end of the table, "What now?"

"You really think Kookie wouldn't notice that absolute unit side-stepping away?" she snorted.

Jisung sighed, "Fine, I'll roll for distract--"

"No," Seungmin stated. "Every time you roll for speed when you're driving in serious situations, you end up going, like, 5 under."

"Fine, then you do it," Jisung told him in a sassy, high-pitched voice.

"For Minho? No."

"Your character would, though," Hyunjin reminded him.

Seungmin let out the loudest and most drawn-out groan before picking up his die and rolling it in his hand. He threw it on the table and immediately was beaming.

"15!"

However, his smile fell when he saw the way Aeri was looking at him, "What?"

Seungmin took a step forward to start running and immediately shifted, roaring at Jungkook as he lunged toward him. Jungkook's arm moved at lightening speed, and all Chan could do was cry out, "No!"

Jungkook shot Seungmin in the chest, but the distraction was still enough for Changbin to sneak up on the hunter and wrap one arm around his neck before forcing the gun out of his grasp with his other hand. Chan rushed to Ryu's aid to get her away from her brother before handing her off to Felix, who escorted the girl out of the room while she was kicking and screaming for Minho.

"How do I get shot?!" Seungmin demanded.

"Shut it, you're still alive. It wasn't a vital shot. Get a higher number next time," she said dismissively before going back to the story.

Jisung and Jeongin rushed to help Changbin subdue Jungkook, while Hyunjin went to the alpha's side as he examined the hurt wolves. Chan had rolled Minho onto his back and saw his chest was still rising and falling, even if it was shallow. He knew a bullet that wasn't made out of silver wouldn't kill him, but it could still wound him pretty badly. For all he knew, he could have permanent brain damage. And Seungmin could face something similar.

"We need to get them out of here," Chan breathed, trying to stay calm. "We need to get them to Josh and Aya."

"How are they still alive?" Hyunjin questioned. "It shouldn't be possible, right?"

Chan had his suspicion the bullet wasn't silver, but he had to make sure. His eyes scanned the floor until he found the bullet from Minho. Without even thinking about it, he reached for it, hissing in pain as it immediately sizzled against his skin.

His eyes widened.

"Roll to kill Jungkook!" Changbin shouted out of turn.

Aeri immediately turned to him, "Can you wait your turn? It's technically Jeongin's anyway."

"Roll to kill Jungkook!" Jeongin cheered with a wide grin.

"Don't you have the lowest stats?" Jisung asked.

"No, I'm way smarter than you are."

"Are you sure?" Aeri asked, her tone serious as she looked across the table at the youngest. "If you don't roll high enough, it could end badly for you."

"What, another fake shot?" Minho scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"No."

All eyes went to Aeri. This was very crucial information to the campaign. She was warning them that this time, there would be a very real death for Jeongin's character. There would be no going back.

"I don't want to spoil anything, but...I know this run means a lot to you guys so far. So...just a warning," she told him with a shrug. "Are you sure?"

The group looked around between each other. The girls didn't really have much to do with the current predicament, so it was something the boys had to work out. But ultimately, they decided it was Jeongin's decision. Did he think he would be lucky enough to roll a number high enough to actually get rid of the biggest villain thus far in the campaign?

Jeongin stared at his d20. Did he think he could do it? Did he even want to risk it? But if he pulled it off, it would be so cool. And it would be such a big accomplishment within the campaign. They could move onto something new or even expand Ryu and Elsie's lore with this. Overall, the opportunities for Jeongin pulling this off would be great for the group.

But if he failed...

Jeongin lifted his hand, pausing like he was second-guessing if he should pick up the die. But then his hand moved forward again.

"You're killing me off?"

The majority of the group at the table jumped. Hyunjin even let out a gasp and almost fell into Mari's lap as he put a hand to his chest.

"What are you doing here?" Ryu whined, looking at her twin brother that had just walked into Jeongin's parents' dining room.

"Didn't you tell me to pick you guys up at 9?" Jungkook asked, checking his phone again to make sure he had the time right.

Jisung's eyes widened, "It's already 9?!"

"It's passed my bedtime..." Ankita mumbled.

"Oh, shit," Chan chuckled as he also checked the time on his phone. "Didn't realize it was already ending time."

"But it was just getting good!" Minseo whined.

"And I'm on death's door with chucklehead over there," Minho scowled, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to Seungmin. "We can't just leave it like this!"

"If you guys are killing me, shouldn't I fight for myself?" Jungkook asked.

Aeri scoffed, "No! You didn't want to join the campaign to begin with!"

"Yeah, but now my life is on the line," he countered. "Can't I join in at least for the boss battle?"

"We don't even know if Jeongin is gonna go for it," Jamie said.

"And we apparently won't know until next week," Aeri sighed as she slapped one of her books closed.

"Well," Jungkook began as everyone started collecting their belongings and standing up from their chairs to leave, "maybe I'll hang around next week to see what happens."

Aeri eyed the boy up and down, eyes narrowed. She had wanted him to join... Maybe letting him play his own boss battle -- if it happened -- would be interesting. Even if Jeongin didn't go through with it, just watching the group play might convince Jungkook to join.

She grabbed Jungkook's character sheets, and the notes from the campaign so far from her folder and slapped them into his chest, "Study up, buddy."

"Alright, dingdong," Elsie walked up behind her younger brother and reached up to mess up his hair, "let's roll."

Jungkook shot her a dirty look, "Can you not?"

"Bye, guys!" Ryujin called as she put a hand on her brother's back to guide him out behind Elsie.

"Can't believe we're leaving it on a cliffhanger..." Changbin mumbled, clearly unsatisfied with the current ending.

Aeri just shrugged with a sweet smile, "Isn't that what this campaign does best?"

-

tag list (italics are unable to tag): @honeyylin @brattybunfornct @henloiamaweirdobye @anissanightyoung @mythicalamphitrite @nokachiki @liendoesja @smollquokka @hosh1kwon @cyberpunksunwoo @jadeblackwoll @jaspriv @sankyg @animefreak2112 @stay-berry @shuabby1994 @sarcasticsweetlara @bee-the-loser [if you’d like to be added to the tag list, please fill out this form!!!]  

[solar-sunnyside-up]

DIY- Plastic Cap Pins 📌

I've seen Soooo many guides on using bottle caps as pins but honestly? I can't even remember the last time I saw a bottle with a metal cap on it in my house. And so I attempted to hunt down a DIY for a plastic lid version and they... don't seem to exist so here go!

What you'll need:

Design!

Plastic caps (any size really)

Safety pin

Paint + brushes

Lighter (optional)

Sandpaper (mostly optional, depends on paints/cap combo)

Once all assembled, it's pretty easy

Now depending on the pin it's surprisingly easy to just pierce the edge of the cap with a sharp safety pin and it'll go threw, however if your having a hard time or are worried about it then heating up the tip of the pin will help it go through fairly easily.

You can either let it stick out the top and hang it like a metal or you can push it in once it's closed and have it be a regular styled pin

If you want to sand down the cap to get a better surface to paint this is the time!

Now paint away!! I'd recommend doing either a white or black background and a few layers to boot just to ensure a good background. I of course did yellow so I did 3 layers to cover everything

Let dry between layers or you'll end up with a marbled mess like mine. I'm not v patient

Look up or sketch out the design a few times while your waiting! Or drink a fave drink or enjoy something. Remember comfort and joy is the enemy of Capitalism and thus our best friends

And bam!!! A pin!

Go forth my sprouts and flourish with your new gear!! 💕💕🌱🌱

[drill-teeth-art]

Do you have any advice for coloring with markers?

Sure thing!

So I use Ohuhu brush and chisel tip alcohol based markers (I mainly use the brush tip end). And my main tip really if you wanna do shading especially is to get used to how fast your markers dry on the paper. Alcohol markers especially dry really fast. And you can do different things with the colors whether they're laying wet or dry on the paper. If they're still wet, you can blend them much easier. If the ink on the page is already dry, they won't really blend much if at all when you add a new layer.

Here's my sketch.

First, I take swatches of the colors and make myself a mini palette I'm using off to the side. I like to plan out loosely what colors I want to use before I start coloring. You can always dig back in your marker bag if you wanna grab another color. But I like to have a starting point palette to use so most of the markers I am going to use are already set on the table. You wouldn't believe how many times I rifled around my marker bag to pick a color to blend with only to put it on the drawing and realize the layer I wanted to blend it with dried already XD

Then I start to lay down my lightest colors, usually starting with the face if there is one in the illustration. The thing with alcohol markers is you can always go darker with the colors (until you reach pitch black or start ripping your paper), but you can't really make them lighter again. So generally speaking: start light, work dark. Although sometimes if I know something is going to be the darkest color in the palette without much variation, I will lay that down pretty early too.

I laid down the lightest gray first, and then the slightly darker gray to make a softer gradient on the face to subtly show where the light is hitting. I'll add a harsher shadow later.

While I waited on the face to dry, I did lay down the darkest browns I was using. First I put the darkest one down and blended it with a slightly lighter dark brown to add some subtle lighting even to the darkest areas.

Then I returned to the face once the first gradient layer dried completely. As you can see the darker gray isn't blending with the lighter grays because they're already dry. It just stops abruptly to create a harsher shadow.

I rinse and repeat making gradients, letting them dry and layering either a flat shadow or another gradient on top until I'm satisfied with it. Or until I'm sick of it lol.

Then I add my lines in a darker pen, hiding any slight bleeding of the marker outside of the sketch lines and also just to make the lines darker and bolder because I like that look. Do a couple extra color touch ups when the pen dries too.

And I wanted to wrap this piece up with a couple background details. Bam!

That's sort of a peek at my process with markers. It's a lot of timing. Making gradients and layering and getting to know your markers so you get a sense of how fast they dry. Hope these tips help you!

[reigningqueenofwords]

I Don't Need Details

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Part 6 of Little Soldier

You were straddling Bucky’s lap, your hands in his hair as you rocked against him. His arms held you close, not wanting to let you go. You started to kiss over his jaw. “I think we should move to my room.” You breathed.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” He lifted you as he stood, chuckling as you let out a squeak before nipping his neck. “Shit, doll.” He groaned. This was a feeling he had missed more than he knew. The barely half eaten pizza sat forgotten on your coffee table, the show you had been watching nothing more than background noise. Not that either of you were listening to it.

Once in your room, he kicked the door shut, eager to be with you again.

Nat stared at you as you paced her room one night. Dom was having a sleepover with Wanda and Vision, so you’d surprised her by knocking on her door. That had been ten minutes ago. “As much as I love your company at nearly eleven at night, I’d love to know what the hell is going on even more.” She teased. “Or is your plan to make a permanent circle in my carpet?”

Swallowing, you looked at her. “I slept with him.” You blurted out, causing her eyebrows to shoot up. “It just happened! One minute we’re hanging out, eating pizza, and watching a show. The next we’re in my room and well…” 

Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she managed to process that. “You slept with who? Steve?” That’s who her money was on. 

“What is it with you and this Steve thing?!” He looked at her like she was insane. “I will never sleep with Steve. Ever. I’m more likely to sleep with you.” You shot back, rolling your eyes. “I mean Bucky.” You flopped face first on her bed. “We couldn’t agree on a damn cake for Dom, so he suggested taking a break. He ordered pizza and we put on some show to watch. Bam. We’re fucking in my bed.” 

Nat stared at you in complete shock. “Okay, before we unpack all... that .. Please tell me that you used protection!” She hissed. “Don’t tell me you were so stupid!” 

You winced. “Why would I have any?!” You countered. “I went out the next morning and got a plan B pill, though, Mom .” You sighed. “We’re good.” 

“Wait, when did this happen?” 

“Last week.” You muttered seconds before she hit you with a pillow. “I’ve been trying to process this! And next week we all fly out to Maine for Dom’s party. For an entire weekend. I thought I should get this out of my system before that. Don’t you agree?” 

Nat ran a hand through her hair. “I never thought you’d come into my room talking about sleeping with your ex.” She shook her head. “I mean, isn’t it a thing that you don’t fuck your baby daddy?” You furrowed your brows and looked at her. “What? Is there something more going on now?” 

You groaned at her question. “I don’t know what the hell is going on.” You teared up, frustrated. “I don’t know if he slept with me just because he could, if he wanted to because there’s still some feelings there, or what.” You told her. 

“Well, are there feelings there for you? Do you still love Bucky?” She asked, her tone a bit more gentle this time. 

While you were confiding in Nat, Bucky was confiding in Steve. “What’s going on, Buck?” Steve asked, worried about his friend. Was he changing his mind about fatherhood? 

Bucky licked his lips. “I slept with her.” He explained. “We were hanging out, and next thing I know she’s on my lap, kissing me, her hands in my ha--”

“Whoa. I don’t need details.” Steve cut him off. “And who? We know a few women.”  It didn’t occur to him that he meant you. Steve didn’t think that there was any way that would happen. Not after how hard it was for you to move on. Yet, he couldn’t see Nat sleeping with him, either. Or Wanda for obvious reasons. 

“Y/N!” He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, letting his head fall back. “Me and Y/N slept together.” He sighed. “Last week. I have no idea what this means. She hasn’t mentioned it since, and there’s been this awkward tension between us. What if she regrets it?!” He looked at Steve, clearly panicked. “What if this is too much and she’s changed her mind about wanting Dom knowing who I am?”

Steve stared at his friend, surprised. “For one, I highly doubt that she would do that.” He assured him. “Maybe she hasn’t mentioned it because you haven’t? Maybe she’s worried about the same things?” He suggested. “She may think that you regret it, Buck.” 

“But I don’t.” He said easily. “I forgot how much I like being with her, Steve. It just felt right. And it wasn’t like we rushed to get dressed and do the walk of shame, either. I got to stay all night. I got to fall asleep with her on my chest like before.” Bucky went on, letting himself open up and be vulnerable with Steve. “I still love her, and I don’t think I ever stopped. I think I just pushed it down because she was gone.” 

“Wow.” His face softened. “Do you think she’d go on a date with you? Maybe you should ask her out? See if you can start fresh.” While he’d remain protective of you and Dom no matter what happened, he also hoped that maybe his best friend could have the family he deserved. He hoped that you could raise your son with his father and have the life you one day pictured. It would be years late, but maybe that’s what the two of you needed to really know how much you loved each other. Did you still love him? He honestly couldn’t begin to guess. 

You remained quiet for a moment. Did you? Were those feelings you worked so hard to get over still there? You knew that you loved watching Bucky and Dom together. You knew that you were thankful to have him back in your life. Nat watched you, wondering what was going on in your mind. “I don’t think that you should act on it if you do.” She said finally. “He hurt you way too badly before. I don’t want him to have that chance again.” Her tone was gentle, but it was clear she was very firm in her opinion.

“We’re going to tell Dom who he is either way, Nat.” You said softly. “We decided that when we started planning his party. We’re going to have a ‘family dinner’ the night we get there and come clean.” You went on. “That’s why Bucky has been spending so much time with Dom.” 

“I know.” She reminded you. “You told me. Reminding me isn’t going to change how I feel about this. Am I glad that he’s stepped up? Yes. Do I think he deserves to be a father? No.”

Sitting up, you stared at her. “You don’t?” Bucky had been amazing with Dom! “Why not?” 

She raised an eyebrow at you like it was a stupid question. “What happens if he wakes up six months from now and once again doesn’t want anything to do with being a father? What if he walks away from you two again, but this time Dom knows? Dom would know his father abandoned him- for a second time. That would kill him!” The thought of Dom being hurt like that made her upset. 

You chewed on your lip. “I actually talked to Steve about that. When Bucky and I got back from the house. I told him what I was worried about. He says he can’t see Bucky doing that. I trust Steve, he knows Bucky better than most.” 

“You thought you knew him before and look what happened.” Nat countered. “You thought he’d be excited for a family, and instead he didn’t want anything to do with it.” She didn’t want you to trust Bucky with your heart, and Dom’s, just for him to just break them. “Besides, he might have just slept with you because it’s sex. It might have been nothing more than that. Do you really want to go to him wanting more just for him to turn you down because it was nothing to him?” 

“Gee. Thanks.” For some reason, her putting it like that hurt. It made you feel slightly used in her eyes. Getting up, you shook your head. “I’m gonna go take a hot shower and try to think this over.” Clearly coming to her wasn’t the good idea that you thought it was going to be. 

Nat sighed. “Don’t do that. Don’t make me the bad guy because you two couldn’t keep your clothes on.” She watched you move towards the door. 

You shot her a look before saying goodnight and walking out. While part of you understood where she was coming from, at the same time, part of you wanted to see what this meant. As you made your way to your room, you were on autopilot. Before you knew it, you were walking in your door, barely remembering much after leaving Nat’s. Your mind had been so damn sex-with-Bucky focused. 

Blinking, you let out a breath and shut the door, hoping that a hot shower would help. You couldn’t avoid the man forever. You lived with him, and he was your son’s father. “At least I got plan B.” You muttered, not wanting to add a second kid to that equation. No one needed that. Or to explain to everyone else . You could only imagine that conversation ‘hey, we fucked and we’re having another baby together, but we’re not together…’. Not awkward at all.  

Bucky left with Steve’s advice in mind. He was just worried that you wouldn’t want to go on a date because of the past. It wasn’t like he could suggest ‘starting over’. Having Dom made that pretty much impossible. “JARVIS, is Y/N awake?” He asked, simply standing in his kitchen. He was too awake to even attempt to try to sleep. 

“She is currently showering, shall I alert her that you are asking for her?” JARVIS replied easily. 

“Yeah, can you ask her if I can come by shortly?” They couldn’t let this go. The longer they went without talking about this, the more awkward things would become, and the harder this talk would be. He grabbed a bottle of water to sip while he waited for JARVIS to let him know if he could go see you. 

It was another ten minutes before JARVIS spoke again. “She says as long as you bring some ice cream.” 

Smiling to himself, he chuckled and nodded. “On my way.” He agreed. 

You had been surprised when you stepped out of the shower, just to have JARVIS let you know that Bucky wanted to come by. Did he think that you’d sleep with him again? Did he want to tell you that it was a mistake? Your mind went to every possible scenario. Finally, you were dressed, your hair was brushed, and you were waiting for him while you sat on the couch. Hearing his knock, you took a deep breath. “Come in!” You called out. 

Bucky walked in and held up the pint of ice cream. “I believe this was your request?” He teased you. 

“Shush.” You blushed as he handed it over, along with a spoon. He sat on the other end of the couch and watched you open the container. “So, you wanted to see me?” You asked shyly. 

“I thought we should talk about that night sooner rather than later.” He told you. “Don’t you?” 

Taking a bite of the ice cream, you nodded. “I went to talk to Nat. That didn’t go well.” You admitted. 

“Yeah, I went to talk to Stevie. I’m sure my conversation was better than yours.” He sighed. “Nat’s not my biggest fan.” It was old news and really didn’t bother him much anymore. They did what they had to for work, but that was about it. If there wasn’t a reason for them to be ‘nice’, they simply didn’t bother with the other. 

“No, she’s not.” You agreed. “In her mind I shouldn’t even give you a chance to be a father. I don’t agree with her at all about that, I promise.” You assured him quickly. “She’s thinking you might wake up in six months and change your mind. Basically shot down me pointing out that Steve knows you and knows you wouldn’t do that. Said that I thought I knew you and I didn’t.” You looked down, not wanting to make him feel bad, but still wanting to be honest about the chat the two of you had. “Mentioned you might have just slept with me because it’s sex, that it wasn’t anything more.” 

Bucky winced at that. “Thank you for believing in me.” He said softly. “I won’t ever change my mind. I want to be there for Dom.” His tone was firm, making you look at him. “I’ll always regret hurting you, and not being there for him for so long. I’ll spend the rest of my life being the father I should have been from day one.” He saw you tear up while giving him a small smile. “You didn’t know one part of me. Everything else you knew. You didn’t know that because I didn’t want you to. You loved me so completely. I didn’t want you knowing that all I saw when I looked in the mirror was a monster.” Hearing it all over stung. You’d never see him as that, so to know he did hurt. “Of course I liked the sex, but it wasn’t just that. I missed you.” He swallowed. “Not just that, either. The getting to hold you at night, too.” It was his turn to look down, looking shy. “Stevie said I should ask you on a date.” 

You chewed on your lip, thinking. “Counter offer?” You started. “Maybe...maybe we can just hang out here for now?” You suggested. If you went on a date, it would be everywhere. You weren’t ready for that just yet. Especially the way Nat would act after she saw. He looked at you. “Maybe just kinda date in secret for now? Just to see if ‘it’s’ still there?” You were nervous about suggesting this. What if he thought you were ashamed?! “We can have dinners here with Dom, or if he’s with one of the others, just us? Watch movies together?” 

His eyebrows shot up at that. “So, you’re not suggesting a single date? You want to get back together?” 

Your stomach was in knots. “We could try.” Your voice was barely above a whisper. “If we feel like it’ll really work, we can move past dating in secret and let other people know. If not, then we won’t have Nat on our assses.” You really didn’t want to make things worse between Nat and Bucky if things went south. “You can think about it if you want to.” 

Leaning forward, he kissed you softly. “Yes.”

Tagging:

@ilovetaquitosmmmm @vicmc624 @mrs-bucky-barnes-73 @sebastians-love @differenttyphoonwerewolf

[days-until-burnout]

What is this? Mounders angst? Highschool angst? How could you!

No really though that was actually insanely good it felt like I was watching a movie. I had to reread it a couple times just to make sure I soaked in every detail.

The panic??? It captures the feeling so freaking well. It didn't feel too much, not triggering for me personally like most anxiety fics I read do but just enough that it made me relate so hard.

And Godd ik u meant for it to be any polycule and ship but I can already imagine a pearl and Joel romance drama, idky... Childhood friends via Grian if he's pearls brother maybe lol. Ughhh it feels like a movie with a bittersweet ending lol.

and Lizzzie you did her character so well. She would totally help Joel spray the mean girls. God it was so coollll, like the reveal of the fire extinguisher in his hands after saying a quick line about the white particles flying. Idk if it was just me but when I read that line for the first time I thought it was another aspect of her panic and then bam the reveal.

I need to know what happened to Joel and the lore with or without fic please, no pressure tho obv I'll just never sleep at night after this /j.

No but seriously ur writing is stellar. I will go reread it a hundred more times now.

Sorry for the long paragraph

THANK YOU. youre too nice and kind. very glad you liked it and never apologize for long paragraph! also, i just realized while formatting that i couldve written about the lore but i went way back in the lore lol anyways, hope you like this one too! _____

📧 Day 91 -

Characters - Pearl & Joel Words - 524 Time - 15 mins Content - Kids AU | Part 1

behaviour pattern (noun) - a recurrent way of acting by an individual or group toward a given object or in a given situation.

First days are always nerve-wracking. For Pearl, the day seems to drag, but finally, it is lunch time. She walks out with her lunchbox, behind the other kids, hesitantly looking around for a spot to sit. She finds one, under the shade of a tree and away from everyone. The other kids play and laugh loudly, and she watches them, hands on the lid of her lunchbox, not really hungry despite her stomach growling. 

She misses her old school, more than anything, she misses her old friends. Watching everyone play together with big smiles makes her want to cry. But she has to be strong, mum said so, so she stays where she sits, bottom lip trembling. 

The other kids said she talked funny. Some girls said she was too tall. No one had wanted to play with her earlier, and no one talked to her despite the teacher sitting her with two other boys and a girl. During class, she spent it eavesdropping on their hushed conversations and giggles, trying her best to pay attention to the teacher once they shut her out. 

Pearl needs to be strong, though she does not feel like she can be. 

“Eugh. You’re creepy.”

Pearl blinks and looks up from the grass, seeing three girls standing before her, looking down at her with scowls on their faces. She opens her mouth to say something, but they speak faster. 

“Why are you watching us? That’s weird. You’re weird.”

Pearl shuts her mouth, drops her head as she tears prickle at the corners of her eyes. She wants to go home where it is safe, hide under the blankets until dad gets home and tells her stories about dragons in space. Mum will be laughing in the background, then nagging them because they need to wash up for dinner. Maybe later that night they will call her old friends and they can talk about what they would do in the summer when she visits. 

“Sorry…” Pearl whispers as she hiccups. 

“You should–” 

Pearl looks up when she hears nothing, eyes going wide as the other girls look in shock. They all stare at the girl laying on the ground, quickly pushing herself up and crying. Her hair is a mess now, with grass sticking to it. 

“You’re mean.” Everyone looks up and sees a boy standing behind them. He tilts his head, brown curls and brown eyes. He frowns too, and the other girls flinch back. “That’s not nice.”

The two girls help their friend to her feet, and despite being three to one, then run off with sharp shrieks. The boy simply watches them leave, and Pearl watches him. She thinks idly that he could be the prince of fairy tales, rescuing the princess from dragons and witches. 

But the boy walks over, slightly to the side and picks up a red ball. He holds it in his hands, looking at it then finally looks at Pearl, tilting his head curiously. He extends the ball innocently, “Want to play?”

Pearl struggles to find words, but she nods. When lunch is over, the teacher agrees to change her seat. 

_____

soz but grian has nothing to do with the story xD even the original idea when i first wrote it was mounders focused, with lizzie being added a bit later. also, i was going to write how joel met the others and how they all met, but eh, for another day :>

[bonny-kookoo]

When can we see the next part of it??? I badly wanna know what happens to y/n. 🥺

"So.." jungkook timidly starts, fire between the two of them the only background noise as he moves around a bit on his camping chair. "How.. is she?" He wonders quietly, and Taehyung shrugs across from him, arms crossed.

"Good." He answers, a lot more confident in both words and delivery of them as the younger singer. "Recently learned how to knit. She's pretty good at it- but she struggles to concentrate on it for long." He chuckles at the last part, Jungkook softly doing the same as he watches the flames.

"I can imagine." He answers. "She's always been easy to distract."

Taehyung nods. "She's really all over the place sometimes." He mumbles, leaning back a bit more.

"Yeah, but.. you know. If you just help her to stop and kind of recollect herself, she's as if she restarted." He jokingly explains. "Sometimes she just gets overwhelmed."

Again, the older singer nods.

"She.. I saw she had a new collar in the picture you'd sent in the group chat." Jungkook mentions. "I didn't know she liked wearing them." He guiltily admits.

"She likes reassurance." Taehyung explains softly. "She likes to have a reminder that she belongs somewhere. It's like holding a hand when the hand isn't in reach. Her words, not mine, by the way." He tells the younger man, who becomes visibly more somber now as he looks at the fire. "She misses home."

At that, Jungkook cracks a little, running his hands over his face as he adjusts his hat.

"As much as I adore her, it's.. pretty obvious." Taehyung continues, biting through the painful view of his best friend struggling a little more to compile himself with every word spoken. "She asks about you. And Bam, too."

"Fuck." Jungkook chokes out, now completely hiding his face as he tries to keep himself together. There's not been a day where he didn't regret what had happened. Not once has he found himself getting over the whole situation, not even a little bit. Everything reminds him of you.

And it's now worse than ever, after realizing that there might be more going on than just missing a pet or a friend even.

"How's he doing?" He asks, and Jungkook picks himself up a little, taking a deep breath with red and glistening eyes before he answers.

"Great. Awesome, even. My dad loves him." He says. "He's honestly thriving. Listens to my mom better than anyone." He rants a little, before he just let's the tears fall. "He's happy."

"That's good." Taehyung nods. "Do you regret it?" He wonders, and Jungkook nods.

"Getting them both? No." He says. "But I regret not realizing what was going on when it was pretty obvious." He admits. "I just.. I think I really did forget that she's not human. Not fully, at least."

"Its easy to make that mistake." The older singer reminds him. "A lot of people make that. Even with full dogs." He shakes his head, laughing a bit to himself. "Hell, even I pamper Tannie a bit too much here and there. Humanize him." He explains. "But you have to always keep in mind that there's limits to what's alright, and what's not. She's partially human, yes, but there's also partially an animal in there that struggles to understand what's happening right now."

"I know." Jungkook says quietly.

"She's confused." Taehyung offers. "She thinks it's her fault. Or tries to spin the story in a way that puts her at fault at least. Because that's easier than admitting that the person you love hurt you."

At the word love, jungkook flinches a little.

Because he feels so undeserving of it right now.

And he doesn't know if he will ever gain back the right to receive it from you. He knows you got it good with Taehyung. He takes good care of you.

Maybe he should leave it at that.

Maybe he should let you go.

[lutawolf]

My Dear Gangster Oppa Commentary Ep 5

If you haven't read my other commentary on the show. You can find it here. Sorry this is late, hope you still enjoy.

@bl-bam-beyond

The scene starts with them at the beach and transitions to them walking into a hotel room while kissing. Tew double checks that Guy is still okay and once he gets the green light it's all done for.

I love the feet tangled, and that Guy is a very active participant. He wants Tew just as much as Tew wants him.

@bl-bam-beyond

The good thing about being late to writing my review is all the bomb ass gifs. Especially since I can't get my discord still frames to show up. Something really wonky is going on with my Tumblr.

Anyway, Guy is giving off super shy vibes. Unless he is talking about Tew's scars, then he turns into a whiney baby. He quickly learns that maybe he didn't want to know as much as he thought.

Ahhh, here we have talks of Tew leaving the gang again. Boss Daddy isn't going to let him go easily, me thinks.

"I'm all grown up!" but I stayed the night with a friend. 🤣🤣🤣 Tew teasing Guy is too adorable. We are having a too cute sappy moment, so of course that's when Wahl has to show up.

Okay, I'm all about friends being concerned but this just screams ownership. When he doesn't own Guy! Meanwhile, the entire time Wahl is running his mouth, Tew is making some expressions in the background. Which I'm loving. Wahl just doesn't realize that he is only safe because of Guy.

Fuck, I love Guy's speech.

"Listen to me, Wahl. I admit I've changed." He is asking Wahl to listen to him. This is a good way to start a conversation when you need someone to hear you, but this only works if the person values you. He then gives Wahl the benefit of telling him he is right. This will actually make Wahl more receptive to listening because he is showing this isn't a negative conversation set to place blame. "I used to be insecure and have no friends until I met you." Again, using positives in the conversation before the negatives is going to keep the listener receptive. He's also showing that he values Wahl. "You were the friend that I cared about the most. I tried to do the things you liked. Applied to the same university as you. Attempted to fit in with your friends." He is keeping this about himself and not blaming. "Do you know why? Because you told me, I would always be your first choice." You see Wah's eyes drop, and he is clearly thinking, because he is receptive to what Guy is saying. "I've been holding onto what you said for so long. So long until I've become tired of them." Now he is addressing the negative. He is exasperated with himself and Wahl for allowing himself to be stagnant and for Wahl trying to keep him there. "I want to have my own life and someone who truly understands me."

Now we have a sad Wahl at the beachside having a self awareness melt down. Meanwhile, Tew is having a beachside pouting session. He all happy once Guy spills the beans and a cute flirty moment ensues. Now he is more than happy to eat the cake that his boyfriend is offering.

Awww, he wants something personal from Guy.

These two have become sickly cute and I love it. From the teasing to the bite on the nose. I'm entranced.

Boss Daddy can read Tew very well. He knows he did something wrong, he already knew about the lying, and he knows that Tew is in love.

Damn. Daddy not playing around. You got one shot buddy, make it count. But Tew is taking those chances and is lucky. I like that he still shows respect, and I still maintain that Boss Daddy cares for Tew. It's just that he is a gangster boss.

Then Tew accepts the beating that he knew was coming. Relying on his moments with Guy to sustain him. He wraps the handkerchief from Guy around his hand and endures.

Meanwhile, in the land of guilds, they are not happy.

Just as we're about to have a reunion. Tew shows up bloody and beaten. Did the dumbass really suggest calling the police. Did his common sense leave with his virginity? This is so fucking cheesy... I mean, I like it, but it's still cheesy. "Why are you crying?" "I never want to see you hurt like this again. It hurts everywhere." We are falling into the "He fell first, but he fell harder troupe."

We get sweet promises, moments and kisses. Some TLC. That sadly doesn't move to more. Sad for both us and Tew. I'm with you, Tew. Sex makes everything better.

They are so playful. I love it.

So they'll have to do some clean up, but the besties quit the gang together and they've got a plan! If you think this is too easy, then you're right, but let's just enjoy the moment while we can.

Guy and Boss quickly realize that they need help, and guess who shows up.

I love these bitches. Let the teasing and cuteness commence!

I adore Boss's flirtiness, but damn, I don't trust him. Neither does Tul. Also, what did Phai's business card say that had Guy making that face? I have so many questions!!!

And we establish that Muffin is an idiot, but the other two aren't. But it instigated the official announcement of TewGuy. Which, of course, everyone pokes fun at. Good Times.

Tul really doesn't trust Boss. Looks like he was right not to. He works for Wish John Lennon. Sure it's by force but so what. He betrayed the person he is, claiming he'll always be beside. You thin Tew would do that to Guy?

Tul cares but doesn't trust. That is a mood there. One that is valid considering that Boss drugs their drinks.

And that is where the episode concludes. If I was Boss, I would be very afraid of what Tew will do to him for hurting Guy. But we'll have to wait and see.

[sydneyofalltrades]

Okay here is my post about my Ride the Cyclone ✨animation/animatic✨ ideas I’ve been formulating but never really posted bc I cannot draw for the life of me 🥲

@gay-little-axolotl read at your own risk (you’ll be here a while, trust me)

Karnak’s Dream of Life

Basically the exact same as in the show, headless body singing eerily, finding a little doll and popping off the head

there’s a shot of Karnak’s machine at the end of the song which snaps into Welcome…, which is just talk so we don’t need to animate that shit

Fall Faire Suite/Uranium Suite

Since I love them both, I’m writing their ideas both in the same category

When the kids start singing at the beginning of the song, all six of them are in the bandshell, Penny included

However, every time we think we actually get a good look at Penny, something coincidentally blocks her face, whether it be Mischa’s figure, Ocean’s arm, a quick shot of Ricky playing the tambourine, shit like that

The world is in full color while the kids are alive (I’ll explain why that’s important in a sec)

As Karnak explains how the kids got into the accident, we see them get into the coaster*, Ricky needing help from Mischa and Noel, and we see the ride function as normal

In Uranium Suite, you can hear Jane vocalizing ominously in the background, and that little warning sign is present in the way the kids are all a little tense

Once Karnak says “hurtling the children to their deaths,” the color is gone. The kids are drawn in white outlines and all there is is a black screen

During Fall Faire Suite, each kid goes back in color as they speak, only for it to disappear once they’re done

During the “sailing through space” bit, they’re back on the coaster, in slow motion as it falls, then quickly cuts to them in purgatory

“Empty streets of empty shops” has Ocean taking apart little buildings and Constance scooping up the pieces to make a mall

“Smart ones all packed up and went” has Noel dragging out a bunch of suitcases and Mischa labeling the abandoned houses for sale

Very few visuals of Penny are shown, like she disappeared without a trace

“Did we finally leave our town?” has them all in color for a second, then back to white.

Meet Jane Doe

Ocean whispers her line, Karnak says his, and BAM! Spotlight from nowhere

Foreshadowing TBOJD, Jane floats as she’s introduced, and touches ground once she speaks

As she speaks, flashes of the aftermath of the incident show up

“They found my body/not my head” has professionals finding the kids’ bodies, and flashlights looking for Penny’s head

“No parents came” actually has a little boy with a black cape running to the headless girl, screaming a name no one hears

“My life, an unsolved mystery” has pictures of Penny with the choir, her face always strategically covered

What the World Needs

Here we go with the solos!! Ocean’s in color in her song, along with everything she interacts with, the others are in black and white

Ocean wears a varsity jacket with her name in the back, along with a blue shirt that says “Vote for Ocean!” with her hair in a ponytail with a bandana

The others are dressed in “Vote Ocean” propaganda, but whenever Ocean herself insults them, they become newspaper clippings of the people she’s calling them (sandwich artist, security guard, Wal-Mart greeter)

“The move” has Ocean dancing in a club

“The shake” has an earthquake that is covered by a statue of her

“The headline maker” has a newspaper thrown on screen with a headline saying “World’s Greatest Woman!” and a snazzy picture of Ocean

During the second verse, as Ocean is berating Mischa, Constance, and Ricky, there’s a story book-esque animation of each of her interpretations of their lives, under smaller, less important articles

“And as we move through life” is a sliding shot of Ocean standing on top of the world, with the others tiny and insignificant

As the “zeros” bit happens, a big fat 0 is written over everyone’s newspaper picture, and Ocean rips up the paper as she just shoves the thought aside

For the climax, the world spins as Ocean stands on top of it, with the others just barely catching up to admire her and her glory

Final shot is EXACTLY like the 2016 promo shot, her on top of everyone in a human pyramid

Noel’s Lament (TW: drinking, smoking, mu*der, s//h)

Now Noel’s Lament was more fluid for me to think of. Noel himself and his reality is grey, but when he sings about Monique or from her perspective, the world is bright and alive

Noel doesn’t do the quick change, it’s a transition shot from his iconic pose to Monique in a similar stance

The “good girls call me the town bicycle” is Constance and Jane in their costumes (beauteous dresses of the time) whispering while Monique walks past

Claude is Ocean. I will not elaborate (psst she’s in a suit with the cutest low ponytail)

“Ten! Times! In! His! Back!” shows the stabbing, but cuts to Monique holding a cigarette innocently

“Never ending carnival” is a revolving shot of Monique’s hand holding booze, a cigarette, and another man’s hand

The accordion (piano if you’re a 2016 bootleg fan) solo has the little nischa dance, i literally cannot take that away

“I think I am in love with you” cuts to a close up of Monique’s eyes widening a little, whether in fear or in recollection, I’ll leave that up to you

“I give in to the fantasy” is like a little spicy cut, that’s all im saying

“for i sing sONGs” has people passing Monique by as she trips on the road scrounging up some loose change, and she moves into an empty alleyway

Time passes a little, and there are deep lines in Monique’s face and her eyes are heavy with lack of sleep

“In some rat infested Chinese dive” is just Monique smoking alone in an alleyway, pressing the hot cigarette to her arm to try and get a reaction

“Eight months later” is Noel telling the story, then the little gasp is a quick shot of Monique’s eyes filling with tears

We see her forced out of the house and she desperately drags herself through an alley

She’s slumped against a wall when Ricky as the priest approaches her

During the first “for I sing songs,” we see through Monique’s hazy eyes as she spots a bottle of booze and drags herself towards it

We see her drink it, and then her hand goes limp and the bottle shatters

In the real world, Noel’s now in costume, standing on that chair

During the climax, Noel’s singing face is projected over flashes of Monique’s life, her tragedy shown in clips and hastily sewn together

And finally, the song ends with Noel draped against the chair, the others surrounding him

Every Story’s Got a Lesson

Short and simple, but Ocean snaps about Noel’s song and Karnak deadpans

As Ocean says “No.. every story has a lesson!” she finds a grad cape and cap and throws it on

As she sings, a blackboard appears with the words of the song written in chalk

The others, also in capes and caps, whistle and sing along

Somehow Karnak gets a hat on his head too

This Song is Awesome

Unlike Ocean and Noel, since being a rapper isn’t Mischa’s dream or desire, he’s black and white while the others are in full color, along with the contents of his music video

You read that right. Music. Video.

Specifically a music video shot by a seven year old with a short attention span and edited by a bunch of preschoolers

Not that it’s bad, it’s just got focus on things that are irrelevant, the editing goes insane, there’s a brief moment where Jane is literally photoshopped into the sky (TBOJD ref hehe)

Mischa wears a black and gold tracksuit but since it’s black and white you wouldn’t really tell

The others are Mischa’s background dancers, wearing blue and white

Basically every single time Mischa says “awesome,” the word is like edited onto the screen like a history teacher’s presentation

There are really good shots tho, like Mischa driving a convertible to the Hard Rock Cafe with Noel and Ricky

Surprisingly there is a Learjet in the video, no one really knows how that got there

The girls are all fawning over him in the club and then he sees a girl wearing punkish clothes and a white flowy skirt and the music video falls apart

Talia

The second Mischa lays eyes on Talia, the color slightly blooms into the video and he walks over to her

Instead of a photo of her, he genuinely talks to her, and you can see the love and care he has for her

When the others come back, they’re not in a club anymore, they’re out in a garden in a traditional Ukrainian wedding

While the girls escort “Talia,” who’s now been replaced with Jane, the boys help Mischa get prepared

When Mischa and Jane finally do interact, instead of Jane’s doll face, it’s Talia’s big brown eyes and warm smile that greets Mischa

They dance together, happily in love, with the others singing cheerfully in the background

Then Talia is suddenly ripped away from Mischa as he falls, falls, falls from the rollercoaster

As he does, his phone, also falling, flashes a picture of Talia on the lock screen

Mischa’s now in normal clothes, staring at the picture, while the others just dance around him, it’s a whole vibe

Then it cuts to Mischa and Talia in a grainy video, Mischa picks Talia up, spins her around, and she kisses him

Space Age Bachelor Man

I have SO MANY ideas for this song so this is gonna be LONG!

Song starts with Ricky alone, a single spotlight illuminating him in black and white.

“Others from outer space” has a peculiar spacecraft arriving in front of Ricky

Once those claps start, you know it’s gonna be wild

The spacecraft opens and spills a light that makes Ricky come into color, and the boys, in Zolarian couture, alert Ricky of their duty

When Ricky arrives on Zolar, the girls, now space aliens with tails and cat ears, practically throw themselves into his arms

“The naughty/holy daughters of the realm” has a shot of Ricky being crowdsurfed (for lack of a better term) through a sea of cat ladies

Um before the guitar solo, Ricky kisses Cat!Ocean. I don’t make the rules

Now the.. that scene is kept covered for a reason, so naturally I’d also just use shadows to convey wtf is happening then

“Now there is a new challenge” has the boys worried in front of holographic screens showing K-9’s enemy fleet

“For they’re at war with K-9!” had Ricky bursting out with the wildest, sexiest, most glittery costume you could EVER expect and it is everything to me

Suddenly everyone’s holding a laser gun and that makes Ricky freak out

So instead of announcing war, he goes to a podium and explains his desire of peace, which is broadcast to K-9’s fleet (idk how, i just think it’s funny)

“And they listened/and they heard my message” is Ricky breaking the fourth wall, pausing the action Emperor’s New Groove style before going back to the scheduled programming

The rest of the song is basically then partying in the spacecraft as it sends Ricky back home to Earth

The Ballad of Jane Doe

Jane, in a plain white dress, is alone. And everything is black and white. Not a single sliver of color anywhere

Everyone else is in funeral wear, however they pay no attention to Jane, like she was never human to begin with

We see Jane play with the decapitated doll and a rollercoaster toy, watching as it went up, then fall out of the seat

Every so often a flash of color and the faintest hint of a life beyond Jane is shown, but it’s so brief there’s no way to actually see it

As Jane begs St. Peter to let her into heaven(?), Jane tries to look for a helping hand but no one assists

“Wont you tell me at last who I am?” has Jane reaching out, not just to the sky, but to the funeral goers who can’t seem to notice her

Then we cut to Ja/enny (flashes between perspectives) in the rollercoaster, and how she lost her head

As Jane starts flying, her pleads become angry, more scornful since no one is giving her answers, but she’s still getting only tiny flashes. Not even a face, just a feeling or an emotion

“Time eats all his children” is Jane standing ominously, slowly pointing out into the non-existent crowd

“A melody floats through the air” has her flying through the funeral, the others ignoring her as she desperately tries to find herself. Her name

She flies through the graves, her desperation becoming more and more apparent

There’s a flash of a baby, a little boy, a monkey puppet, a thermos

Then Jane stops in front of a freshly dug grave, and she knows it’s her own. But its headstone is unmarked

And she just cries as the funeral goers surround the tomb of the empty girl

The New Birthday Song

Also short and sweet

Everyone wears a birthday outfit and Jane has the cape and hat

As she stands in the middle of the circle, holding the cupcake, the others dance around her

Then Constance gently nudged her arm and gestures to the cupcake

(Jane tries to eat it but Constance blows it out first)

Jawbreaker & Sugar Cloud

Lumping them both bc of the themes

We see the accident through Constance’s eyes. See the way it rose, then suddenly fell

“My heart just welled up” is a shot of Constance’s eyes widening, her terrified face morphing gently into a smile

As this happens, the flashbacks of the mundane things Constance learned to love are shown over it. We see her going back to bed, hanging upside down, her brother, her friends

And she starts to laugh as the coaster falls. And tears spill from her eyes as she does

In the present, Constance, in white outlining, wipes away her tears and collects herself for Sugar Cloud

As the song begins, we see a little flashback of Constance as a little girl given her first jawbreaker. She’s excited, then starts slowly sucking away the layers and gets visibly disappointed

“At first it seems so sweet” shows some clips of Constance growing up, and then she just loses the sparkle in her eye and spring in her step

Then the song starts to pick up and color arrives, everywhere as Constance just siblings merrily

Constance and the others aren’t in the warehouse anymore, they’re in the skies of blue, pink, gold, and purple

Constance jumps through a gold, pink, and blue cloud and emerges with her outfit, a pink jacket over a gold top and blue flats. A pink top hat attached to a headband is on her head

Twirling a cane, Constance genuinely sings happily with the others as they dance and jump through the multicolored clouds

The recorder solo is as memorable as always, with the others hyping Connie on by dancing and cheering excitedly

With no guilt in her heart, Constance happily shouts from the top of the sugary puffs her love for everything in her life, and the others happily back her up

It’s Not a Game/It’s Just a Ride

At this point in time, everyone’s back in their normal uniforms, drawn in their white outlines

The portal’s light gives Jane color, as she’s the one the others picked

Before Jane goes through the portal, she hugs Constance and Ricky, then steps through

A slideshow of clips appear showing of Penny’s life, before and after LEGOLAND, and the others all cuddle together to watch

As the slideshow goes by, the others are overlayed above it, so we can see their expressions now that Penny was brought back

As Penny grows older, she’s closer to her brother, she gets married, has children, is happy

When the slideshow starts showing clips of Penny growing much older, a clip is shown of children pointing at a picture

Older Penny takes a look at it and smiles. “They were my friends,” she seems to say, gently holding the picture of her and the choir

As she dies, Karnak says his final line as Virgil cuts the power cable

As sparks fly and the kids huddle close, they learn they’re not five. They’re six

Penny had come back to the afterlife after her death and the six of them were alone, in their white outlines

“But it’s not a game, it’s not a game” has Ocean picking up pieces of their outfits. A “Vote Ocean” pin, a feather boa, and black and gold cap, a cat ear headband, a doll with no head, a headband with a hat

“It’s just a ride!” has the kids in their outfits actually riding the Cyclone in full color, passing the loop that ended their lives and finishing the ride

*Now that they finished the ride in the afterlife, they all get out of the rollercoaster and reminisce about life together

“We’re all just sailing through space” is the kids as they revolve through all their outfits of the show, while talking about their lives, and their death

“It’s just a ride” has them all holding hands and spinning around, wearing the outfits for their individual songs

Then they fall to the floor and smile as they’re all together again

“And the world will keep on spinning/With no ending or beginning” has flashes of their songs, Ocean’s victory pose, Noel’s dramatic end, Mischa stopping his video, the couple’s fateful kiss, Ricky and his cat warriors, Penny taking Jane’s place on her named grave, and Constance in sugary clouds

Now in their uniforms, the Saint Cassian Chamber Choir is just a group of friends, who are all together and happy in the afterlife forever

“I know this dream of life is never ending” cuts to a girl with French braids waking up on the ground. She stands up and sees the light of the sun

“It goes around and ‘round and ‘round again” shows six friends, bonded by fate and together through time

THIS IS PROBABLY MY LONGEST EVER POST BUT I LOVE IT SO HAHA

[isbus]

So I’m back…

But this time, I have a tutorial!

Do you have a 3DS?

(If you say yes to that, then we’re cooking).

Do you want to draw something similar if not better than…

THIS?!

Then boy I have a tutorial for you!

Since this was drawn on a 3DS, I can’t really tell you anymore than for a 3DS. Sorry..

Step One: Prep!

Grab your 3DS and go to “Nintendo 3DS Camera”! Or whatever it might be called if you have a “New” one.

Optional: If you want you can take a picture within the game- if it’s capable of doing so.

For me I’m gonna use a screenshot from Miitopia.

Step 2: Background!

Part 1: Plain Backgrounds

If you want something like the following image, follow this part’s instructions.

Take a random full screen sized image. Any image will work as long as it fits the screen perfectly. (Take a screenshot from a game such as Tomodachi Life or Miitopia).

Tap the image so that it says graffiti.

Then use a stamp, such as the dialogue bubble.

Hold the stamp and make sure it fills the corners.

Then you have a plain white background! This one you can press finish,but the other method you can’t.

Here’s a quick video tutorial, because I don’t think I phrased it right!

(I took it on my phone, that’s how easy it is).

Part 2: Backgrounds that aren’t pure white!

If you want to make the starting image (but your own), then follow these steps!

(Once again, I’m using Miitopia screenshots for an example).

Once again, GRAFFITI!

Instead of using a stamp, you might have to just color it yourself. Mainly because the stamp method is harder for backgrounds like the first one.

COLOR THE BACKGROUND, BUT DON’T DRAW ANYTHING ELSE. (Unless you just want to draw a background). Trust me, it’s easier.

Boom! Plain background ready for sketching.

Don’t press finish cause it can decrease the quality with enough graffitiing and finishing.

Step 3: Draw the Base!

You gotta draw that body-ody-ody!

Just draw a bust or whatever is easier for you. “Omg IsBus you have to have drawing skills?!” Yeah I know. How could I?

I’m gonna draw the bust up because it’s easier for me.

(Don’t look at me like that.)

For the plain BG ones, just do the same thing for the rest of the steps but for your screen.

Since the background hasn’t been saved, don’t use the eraser because it will remove the white BG. Unless you are using the first background method, that is. (Use the white pencil.)

Step 4: Draw the character / Coloring Page Step!

On the plain BG you can draw what ever but for me and my Miitopia character, I’m gonna draw him. If you did the color-only-a-part-of-the-drawing method (like I’m doing), you can do whatever still.

Think of the white area as a green screen; you can draw whatever you want on it.

This phase is like the pencil part of a physical drawing. White out the base as you get to parts you want over it (for example: hair or clothes).

Bam! Coloring page!

Part 5: Coloring!

Remember when I called it a coloring page? This is why.

Color the drawing how you see fit!

If you’re using the all white bg, then you might have to use the stickers or the rainbow pencil. I recommend the stickers if you want to shade/shine, but if you want more options, use the rainbow brush.

If you’re basically doing what I’m doing, you can use the colors from the image to color your character!

Once you’re done coloring the image, remember to ink the lines again! Use a medium brush for coloring but a thin brush for inking the lines.

Part 6: Final Details!

For people who want any additional details, or need to clean up edges.

If you did the plain bg you can decorate and clean up as much as you need!

If you’re doing what I’m doing, you can clean up the edges of the white spot and add additional details.

And Voila! You did it!

If you have a 3DS and followed my tutorial, show me what you did! I wanna see it!

Have a good day/night! And thank you for reading!

~IsBus

[nikrei]

July Comics Round Up

Trying something new where I actually record this as I read and not all at once at the end of the month.

Hawk & Dove (14-28) (1990-1991)

V v good!! I love Dove she's my baby girl, and by the end of it Hawk was even starting to grow in me like a fungus. Also, thank gawd they stuck to their guns and never did a romance between Hawk and Dove, I really liked their love interests. (Also Babs shows up!!! Love love love) this finished up this run, it was pretty short. 100% recommended reading, especially if you are interested in the lords of chaos/order dynamics.

Doctor Fate (14-31) (1990-1991)

One thing I can say about DeMatteis's run is that despite all the weird "xtianity is the true religion" overtones, the insistence that the center of the universe, the greatest power behind everything, is pure unending joyful compassionate LOVE really gets to me. Could do without the overwhelming unsubtle proselytizing tho. Messner-Loebs follow-up is sooooo good tho holy shit, love love love the social commentary going on.

Starman (20-37) (1990-1991)

Will is such a good boy but he can be so dumb sometimes. Watching him learn and grow is very fun! This run strikes a good balance of drama humor and sincerity.

Doom Patrol (30-44) (1990-1991)

Excellent storytelling, and i got to meet Danny the Street!! Morrisons run is practically crossing itself over with the magnus archives they fit so well together. A little out of step with the rest of dc's mythology but that's sort of the point of it <3

Hellblazer (27-45) (1990-1991)

Most of 1990 I was thinking that John is really not doing a lot of magic stuff, just getting into wierd situations then 91 hit and bam, lung cancer soul selling arc! It was exciting to read after seeing it mentioned in so many places.

Swamp Thing (91-109) (1990-1991)

Okay Wheeler has me feeling all sorts of ways. Obviously his whole deal with planetary afterlifes has me going insane, but also he is so so wierd about christianity like his whole set up of the eden situation with angels that consult god, its all so awkward with established Swamp Thing mythos. Also, the Grey has been introduced and posites that fungus and decay are extraterrestrial life imposed on earth and I sort of hate it. Back in Moore's run, towards the beginning, all discussion of decay was as a part of ecosystems which is true! Having decay be an imposed malicious force is sooooooo dumb I hate it. Wheeler can tell a story but all his subject matter is sus as hell.

The Demon (1-16) (1990-1991)

Does not further my blood/etrigan agenda as much as I would like, but it is pretty fun. Also Klarion and Lobo showed up which was exciting

Batman (443-469) (1990-1991)

It's timbo's time to shine! They really are shilling hard for this kid, but I love him so its okay.

Detective Comics (612-637) (1990-1991)

Frustrating that Jason's name is anathema until tim shows up and then it's all victim blame-y bullshit to make tim look better.

Robin (1-5) (1991)

This is one of the first dc comics I read! So it was very exciting to come back to it with a better understanding of everything going on, especially more Shiva background. Also, new version of Ace the bathound showed up!

Legends of the Dark Knight (1-20) (1989-1991)

Some good stories but I am so tired of the clumsy mystic noble savage trope that these authors love to pull when they involve indigenous folk. Also, the more stories that happen that take up months the funnier i think it is that all of these have to be happening in the first the years of Bruce's career because Dick isn't there yet.

New Titans (65-80) (1990-1991)

Jumped back into the town just in time for my last favorite arc, Wildebeest Jericho, doing my precious baby boy wrong on every possible level. Good slade content yeah, but at what cost? And it gets all mucked up with the Armageddon 2001 event in a way that is just messy storytelling.

The Flash (34-54) (1990-1991)

Wally is my dumb little guy and he is living and learning and trying his best. I'm so glad that he has a full pit crew for his high powered racehorse disposition. Also he got a dog named mercury! So far this run has been a good mix of funny and sincere, action and drama. Deffo recommend.

Suicide Squad (37-57) (1990-1991)

Amanda Waller is really peak boss in these issues. She's softened up in some ways and gotten sharper in others. Very fun to see the squad do the freelance thing. And also BABS IS HERE!! (Oops I mean 'amy') I love her ahhhh

Captain Atom (37-57) (1990-1991)

Finished this one up, all in all it's a good run. Nathan is an interesting hero and there's a lot of themes about truth vs lies and the shitty nature of the us military, but also there are some very funny silly moments. Recommended!

Animal Man (23-40) (1990-1991)

Holy shit Morrison's run was so gooood, 4th wall breaking meta level shit I'm very into it. A very wierd follow-up after that, but it involved Animal Man positing multiverse theory that spit in the face of ordained dc canon (but aligns with my thoughts on the subject hell yeah) But yeah, Buddy is going thru the wars in this.

Green Arrow (29-50) (1990-1991)

They are really leaning into this whole "Ollie kills people now" thing. Also, Dinah continues to be a footnote in service to Ollie's story and I hope she leaves him soon. They aren't bad stories but I think Grell leans too hard into the 'Dark and Gritty.'

The Question (34-36) (1990)/Question Quarterly (1-5) (1990-1992)

If I had realized there were only three issues left on the og I would have just finished it up last time! Proud of Vic for leaving Hub City, truly the worst city in America. Conversely, also proud of Myra for staying and trying to fix things. As far as quarterly goes, I can't believe what they did to Jackie holy hell. Honestly, as far as the whole series goes, the downward spiral of Hub City is so extreme that it really is just a reflection of how everything is getting more uneccessarily dark and gritty on a meta level.

Action Comics (252-285) (1959-1962)

And I am officially back in the silver age!! I started 'Tec/Batman when Batgirl showed up so I figured I'd start Action/Superman when Supergirl showed up! Tbh silver age doesn't really do it for me, so I am skimming these just a bit sometimes, but it really is fun to see just how wacky things could get back then! Also, Clark is wayyy too mean to Kara!! She's always crying wanting to be adopted and have a loving family and he's like! Too bad! Be my secret weapon! Also, these comics have such a messed up idea of adoption and kids having to prove that they're worthy of being loved and the adults shopping around. Is that just what things were like?? Anyway in 285 she's revealed to the world! She has a loving family with the Danvers! It's everything I wanted!!

Superman (130-150) (1959-1962)

Started this at a point to be contemporary with AC. Silver age Clark is certainly a guy, I'm collecting panels of him eating weird things. Also, 60s Lois is the gal of all time absolutely. I sorta can't wait until socials mores move away from "women must want to be married, immediately." Also this current continuity has the Kent's having died before Clark moved to Metropolis, which is sorta wild.

Adventure Comics (247-280) (1958-1961)

The Superboy stuff is honestly really silly when you think of all this shit happening while Clark is a very narrow age range, but also they keep referring to things that happened in previous comics as happening a few years ago in universe. Time isn't real baybee! Anyway I started here because it was the first issue with the Legion! I didn't realize that I was getting Green Arrow and Aquaman backups until I started so that was a fun bonus, especially getting to read Garth's first appearance! Honestly I love that in this time period Arthur is sorta just a homeless loser who has nothing to do with Atlantis but is calling himself the king of the sea anyway.

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen (40-58) (1959-1962)

Jimmy is the sokka of the group sorry I don't make the rules I just say the cursed truth.

Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane (1-28) (1958-1961)

This comic truly is gaslight gaslight girlboss. Aka 66% is Clark gaslighting Lois about superman and the other 34% is Lois being a v 50s/60s girlboss, I love her so much, but oh my gawd this time period goes hard on MARRIAGE. I will be honest the gender essentialism in this does get very annoying. Its in all of the comics but is most focused in this one because it's about Human-Woman Lois Lane.

World's Finest Comics (100-123) (1959-1962)

For the most part I'm not that into these because there's not much actual character interaction, its all just new fight with a new gimmick. This is especially obvious in the Green Arrow backups where they only have 6 pages and it's all to showcase the newest arrow. Didn't read any of the Tommy Tomorrow backups sorry my dude i do not know u i do not care.

Green Lantern (1-10) (1960-1962) + Showcase (22-24) (1959)

This is a lot of fun! I think I like silver age comics like GL and Flash better than batman or superman because they are new characters with no status quo to uphold. Hal can do a lot with his ring, like transmuting matter, that I'm pretty sure can't be done these days, which will be neat to watch develop.

Justice League of America (1-8) (1960-1962) + Brave and the Bold (28-30) (1960)

Fine!! I caved!! I let my terrible completionist nature get the better of me and I'm gonna read the first 75 of these that I skipped last time. Its sorta wild tho, because reading the solos of this time period you'd think that nobody is sharing the same world except superman and batman, and aquaman sometimes, but then there they are on the justice league! (No seriously, superman has been to at least two separate "mysterious Amazon islands" that have nothing to do with paradise island. And he's never made mention of knowing an amazon.)

So my recording as I go experiment has worked, which is honestly a really good thing because I would be really hard pressed to review the stuff from before my time jump right now, oops.

[cking398]

Chapter 6: Revelation

So in 2003 when the stress became too much I developed a plan, I figured I could hire my ex-mentor. I was smoking too many joints and it was a shit plan. I respected Karim’s broking skills immensely. Although Karim had never really taken me aside and explained broking to me. I had worked it out by listening to him. People forget we have 2 ears and one mouth. There is a reason for that, you are meant to listen more than you talk. I figured I could just hire Karim and another apprentice. I would be able to extricate myself from the day-to-day running of the business. Extricate me from the horrible nightmare my life had become because of this one twat trader Vahe and my pregnant girlfriend Sophie. Attacked on two sides. On one side, I was being hit psychologically by my pregnant girlfriend and her bitter complaining, on the other I was being abused at work by one of the biggest players in the market. A man who wanted to control all option prices before him. I could have simply cut his line permanently. Once I really did. Resulting in a farcical situation where he would call Nick on his mobile to trade. I didn't really want to cut this bank's line, he was one of the biggest traders. Never losing a client had become a point of honour for me. Also, if I could no longer have access to his prices it would have meant losing that little bit of competitiveness compared to other brokers who still spoke to him. I felt attacked at work and attacked at home. Something had to give.

By 2003, I was living in Repulse Bay, Hong Kong island. On Belleview Drive. I had the penthouse in this block of flats overlooking the beach. It was 20 minutes from the center of Hong Kong. I had a jacuzzi on the balcony, and a small swimming pool on the roof. Table tennis. A plasma TV screen. A pool table in the living room. Beautiful fiancée with a baby on the way. Materially I had it all. By this point, I knew money did not make me a happy camper necessarily. I was smoking too much hash.

I set my plan into motion. My old mentor, Karim, was arriving from Tokyo for a weekend break, or so he thought, I had other plans to discuss with him. Business plans. Karim was due to appear around 10 pm. It was 7 pm. I was sitting with 'The Apprentice' in my apartment: Charles-Henri Rossignol. He asked Charles about his family background. He was a Christian. I had always relied on his instinctive sense to gauge the goodness in a man. I picked my friends carefully and I thought he could become a good one. Although Charles was handsome in the extreme, he had none of the personality baggage normally associated with the 'beautiful' people. I sat on my massive couch. Rolled up another dubie and started questioning Charles on his family background and then bam. It hit him. 

I never normally got scared. I had learned to control my fear. My life had been kind of scary. Indeed hardly plausible. But in that moment everything made sense. My upbringing, my name, my birthday, everything made sense. It was literally like an atom bomb but confined to my brain. The world around him remained unchanged. I thought a million different things, could I be Jesus reborn, but really, I had no idea. I asked Charles to check the computer. My hands were shaking so much, I could not type. I thought it would be as easy as walking over to the computer next to the TV and typing my name into Google. It was the 23rd of November 2003, 6 days before my 30th birthday.

The story of my Awakening

When I was around 7, my atheist mother asked me what I thought about religion. I have a vague recollection of this. Hers was better, she passed away in 2020 which is appropriate since she was born on the 21st of December 1943, the winter solstice reflecting the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. She told me that I turned, looked at her very seriously, and said “I don’t have time to think about that now, I will think about that later.” Little did I know that 23 years later it would consume a large part of my thoughts.

On a side note, my favorite book is “Reminiscences of a stock operator” by Edwin Lefevre, it is a book that details the experiences of the best financial market trader that ever lived, Jesse Livermore (interesting family name). There is a very interesting chapter in the book that details his trading experiences relating to the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Note: I had no idea that Sophie, my first wife, who had a new boyfriend but was technically cheating on me with her new boyfriend, would be one of the closest people to the epicenter of the Asian tsunami. Back in 1906, the time the ticker symbol of the stock that would be most affected by this tragedy would be Union Pacific. UP would go down. He had no knowledge that the earthquake would occur. But his being knew. He was in Atlantic City strolling along the boardwalk with his buddy. He was young and that day had no particular position in the market. They decided to go into his broker's (Harding Brothers) to look at the board where the quotation prices were. He looks at it, everything is pointing up. He focuses on the price action involving Union Pacific. Very strong. For a reason his friend does not understand he has the urge to sell it, in the hope of buying it back later, after it falls, and taking the difference as profit. He does not even understand why. He keeps selling until his position becomes so big he decides to return to New York. The Earthquake hits, the market does nothing, in fact, it goes down on the news but quickly rallies back to previous levels. His friend is amused. He tells him that was a hell of a premonition but that the market is always right. Jesse rebutts that the market does not always process information in the right way when the unexpected happens (the same thing happened with the emergence of the COVID virus, the market did nothing for a long time and then plunged). He keeps his position. When the full details of the disaster unfold over the coming days the market starts to sell off. A major American city has just been flattened. It finally plunges and like the good trader he is, he takes his profit. A major coup for him. How did he know that UP would go down? Same way I know I am the one the world has been waiting for. I just know. This chapter details what happened the day of my revelation and some of the moments, where I acquired knowledge, that I believe tilted me into knowing it was me.

“The Secret Book of Birthdays” is another book that led to my awakening. Great coffee table book. It's online now. Used to be free up until recently, but now they are cashing in. It’s written by Gary Goldschneider and Joost Elffers. I believe what they did is, they analyzed famous people throughout history and then compiled personality traits of those individuals.

I was 27 and was invited to a dinner party. Can’t remember the girl's name who hosted. I fancied her friend Lisa. Anyway, when invited to people’s homes I tend to head straight for their bookshelf. You can tell a lot about a person by what they read. There was this serious-looking big book talking about birthdays. I thought this would be good for a laugh. So I grabbed the “The Secret Book of Birthdays”. Each page is A4 size and 2 pages are used for each day of the year to describe the person. I read the first line that described me; “has the ability to provoke conflict or thought”, anyone who truly knows me knows this is true. I change the status quo. Always have. I will not go into everything it revealed about me but needless to say, it is remarkably accurate. Even down to my main health issues, a weak stomach. I thought, right, total fluke. I checked my mother’s, my father’s, my brother’s, my best friend's. Basically all the people whose birthday I knew off by heart. All true. This really was a revelation to me. How could the alignment of the planets influence people's personality? It made no sense to me at the time. However, I knew it to be true. What I would come to believe is that the connections that exist in our Universe are of a complexity I had never imagined. Atheism was no longer the appropriate belief, but I could not see a reasonable alternative. My mind had truly been opened. I live in Lasne, Belgium. The owner of my local bar is Patrick, he has a couple of restaurants also. His personality perfectly reflects the description in the book. I have since checked many people. Really incredible. They also have a book dealing with “Destiny”; The Secret Language of Destiny. This gets specific about my goal: “To fully and in detail express their experience of the numinous”. I had to look up Numinous; divine will. Need I say more? I know who I am. I am a product of this Universe and I am here to tell you. Once you die, your soul lives on. So be good.

Back to the main story. Stress, it was 22/11/2003. 7 pm. Repulse Bay. It was 7 days before my 30th birthday, and I was interviewing Charles-Henri from Lyon, France who had just finished a work placement with a good friend of mine Eric Noyel (winner of Young French Entrepreneur 1997 and number 1 toilet brush supplier to the world). Charles was 24 and soon to be my new apprentice, I had 4 people working for me at the time. It was the 22nd of November, yes the same day as JFK got shot. Many would say the most infamous day of the 20th Century. On that day my awakening happened. A strange coincidence. God does not play dice with the U.

Charles was 25 years old. Sweet guy. I was in my big-ass apartment and asking him my regular interview questions for the time. The three questions I would ask as a general rule were: How many siblings do you have? Why did America invade Iraq? The last question I would generally ask is 17x19 in your head. 

People with many siblings are generally better communicators and I needed communicators, the job demanded it. They know how to get along with other people. The ‘only’ children I knew from school tended to be somewhat strange. I would ask about the difference in age and what their siblings were doing now to see if they maintained a strong bond. Family is important, so if they take an avid interest, the better the person tends to be. If they did not answer Oil to the second question. Forget it. Failure to list this as the principal reason would generally cause me to laugh in the candidates' face or get into an argument with them. Just logically, no dictator would allow terrorist cells to operate in his country. Made no sense. All the candidates I asked answered Oil. Later it would come out, no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), no link to al-Qaeda, just a continuation of the ‘Bush’ fire. The last question 17x19 in your head was to measure their mental dexterity. I would tell them that the speed of the answer was not important, although it was, the logic was more important. The quickest way for most people is 20x17 minus 17. A surprising amount of people answer 321.

He must have answered appropriately. I went deeper. I asked him about his religion. Never normally asked this question in interviews and I do not know why I did it then, but I did because I was genuinely interested. He was catholic. I started shaking, not because he was catholic but because I suddenly felt this immense responsibility that I felt I had been given. This shook me to my core. Charles was there and is still among the living. He is a witness. I won’t lie. Not on important stuff. Little lies are important for humans to function in society but I abhor big lies. The default position on the important shit, it’s to tell the motherfucking truth. Why Lie? For whom? Anyway, I don't. I asked him. He said Catholic and then I knew. Not that, that is the right religion. I just felt the pull of God.I just knew it was fucking me. My whole body convulsed. My hands started trembling. I was the man. And I was like fuck no. I knew in my being. I had no choice and I hated the position. My body, dominated as it is by my brain said no, no, no fucKING NO. Not me, please not me. I had everything already. NOT fucKING ME. That split second changed everything. One moment I was an agnostic, the next I believed in the Numen; God to most of you. 

In less than a split second I knew. I knew I had this important destiny. I just did not know precisely what if anything to do about it. Even now I cannot describe the feeling accurately.  It was like a nuclear reaction inside my brain. One atom hit another atom, but instead of the atom breaking, all atoms simply shook together knocking me to my very core. From agnostic to knowing for sure there is a god in one split second and on top of that knowing I was the one with a message to deliver. The messenger. It was all too much. In that instant, I changed irrevocably forever. That moment would define me and would lead me inexorably to the writing of this book 21 years later after the accumulation of a lot of knowledge.

Destiny, you can’t fuck it, you cannot fight it. It just happens. Why me? Ricky Gervais will say I am hallucinating, I am a dick, but I come from pure atheists and I lived the atheist creed better than him. Reason, Logic, my being was in open rebellion against itself. When your heart's intelligence does not work in accordance with your brain's intelligence, problems arise. David Servin Schreiber describes this problem perfectly in his book: “The instinct to Heal, Curing Depression, anxiety and Stress without drugs and without talk therapy”. He died at 50, I hope to have the same luck. Just kidding, although some nutter will probably kill me one day (I would advise against this course of action if you care about your soul in the afterlife). I am allowed to say whatever the fuck I want BTW; First Amendment US constitution and also in the UDHR. It’s a fundamental right. I read a scientific study recently that proves that a belief in God generally makes humans happier and feel better about their lives. It makes sense, we are all programmed to believe.

How to explain that moment on the 22nd of November 2003. The touch. It was like the film “Contact” with Jodi Foster. There was no proof. Just waffle, blah, blah, blah coming from me. The best broker I knew;, that was me. The one who was always able to choose his words carefully. The one who was normally lightning fast and spot on in his responses, even after a few beers at lunch. It’s not as if I heard voices or had been contacted. I just realized something all at once. It was as if every fiber, bone, tissue, and neuron in my body suddenly knew something that had always been within me and that I was meant to do something with my life besides making loads of money and that God existed. I was meant to be a messenger. I knew it. The problem was, for me, not the fact that I now realized that God existed and that I had been sent to deliver a message. The problem was I did not want the job. It was absurd. I was a club-footed, cannabis-smoking, binge-drinking twat who had never really grown up. People saw me differently. As a golden boy, a God of finance, someone to be looked up to. I knew differently. I had been stuck in my teenage years, with a teenage mindset and teenage dreams. 

That day, on the 22nd of November, the tables turned, how do you keep your emotions under control in the face of God? And if you are his messenger are you not supposed to have a message? I knew the war was wrong and Iraq was a travesty but how could I possibly influence world events? 

No, No fucking no was all I thought. I wanted the atheist position. I lived my life, grew rich, and had a good time, it was my playground, and then suddenly, everything, it, him, her, Yahweh, all at once. No, fucking no, fucking NO. I was happy with the thought that I turned to dust and that was it. Okay, I wanted children, but to provide me with happiness, not because God said I should or I was going to complete some mission or actually I was not on this planet to live for me but for IT or Yahweh/Jehovah, or whatever created me. And, fuck, it meant that my soul would go on… it meant I lived forever, a complete revolution. You think you die and it’s all over. No. Not correct. I knew it. What we did now actually mattered. Fuck, fuck, fuck and I understood that all at once. It’s not big brother, it’s not humans watching other humans, it’s fucking real what we do actually matters and it’s not about being judged by our fellow man cause there is a greater power that judges. It was an explosion. It actually is real. God is fucking real. It pissed me off, I remembered the ghost of Mary, I remembered the bloody plastic tractor, the Secret Book of Birthdays. I remembered laughing at the idiots who believed in God. I remembered planning my rise. I remembered everything but I never saw God coming just like the financial industry never saw me coming. I knew. Everything changed. Not only for me, but for all those around me, and not in a good way. My mind jumbled everything. I did not have enough knowledge at the time. All my body seemed to fathom was the enormity of the task but no clear way of achieving the goals. Not that I even knew what those goals were. I had a basic idea, bring peace to the world, how? I had no idea. 

[bi-hop]

7, 10, 14, 15, 16 for any fandom you like

hehe these are spicy...

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

so I tried to look back through my old messages to see if I could find examples of this. for the most part, characters I hate are ones I hate of my own volition and people being obnoxious about said character just solidifies my hate, which isn't precisely the same thing. yeah, I don't have an answer for this. I think the closest I've come in recent years is due to people being violently weird about Marcille on Twiter, but my conclusion was just "I'm a better fan of her than them" and then walking off into the sunset at peace so-

10. worst part of fanon

so, obviously, the racism. obviously. the way white background characters are elevated in certain fandoms to unquestionable beloved status while characters of color, especially Black characters and especially Black characters that are women, are scrutinized, demonized, ignored, or outright tokenized. but also just the racism towards creators of color??? I was looking back again for the sake of number 7 and got blindsided by this from an old server I was in

this was at a friend of mine but I also got treated like this by the same person once they knew I was Black ODAAJSODOJSDD

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

weird ass gender essentialism. fics be so fine and then bam it's presenting this wildly inaccurate thesis on gender and gendered relations and what not. it's not just a fic problem, obviously, but the unrelenting cisnormativity of fandom that's expressed in fics pisses me off LMAOOOO like can we be normal. please.

15. that one thing you see in fanart all the time

WHITEWASHINGGGGG! every time Kabru is drawn with the same skin tone as my girlfriend, an angel dies screaming. heaven forbid they make him gray too. where is the lotion. I also hear people discuss Kabru being treated like the right image in certain ship content

and I'm just like... it's the racism... it's the hypermasculinization any popular brown man in fandom faces... they just can't do that delicate feminizing shit with Laios so-

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

dare I say the idea that Marcille despises Laios or merely tolerates him or doesn't care about him. like people take her moments of irritation or outright anger and put it as the whole of what their relationship is. and it annoys me bc they do like and trust each other. in general actually it's like people buy too heavily into the idea that the party despises Laios in a constant and genuine way and it's like... did we read the same manga? are we watching the same show?

and on another note, tired of the constant posts insisting Marcille's weirdness about gender and gendered presentation is just bc she doesn't want to look at a Falin that looks like Laios. Marcille can just be regressive. you don't have to jump through hoops to be like "well actually this is a woke Farcille moment" when it'd be even more good of her to accept how Falin likes to dress surely. the extremes of how she's flanderized, I suppose.

[beyuwol]

XTH TIME'S THE CHARM !!! hello... as usual i did not write this up nor did i post this in time. sorry about that! i hope my snail pace won't deter you from sticking around! this is velv- *sound of lorry passing by* disregard my previous failed attempts here i promise i will do better this time and today i bring you han yuwol, violin prodigy stepping into the ~band kids zone~ and who knows if that'll work out. happy to be exploring his future with you guys! without further ado, here are the notable links:

PROFILE ⋆ BACKGROUND

other than that, under the cut will be a list of general connections or plot ideas that we can work with, though i'm always open to brainstorm B) as usual, please LIKE THIS POST for me to slide into your ims for plotting purposes! i also have twitter (which sucks now) / discord (sucks less?) upon request

PLOT IDEAS !

if you peruse through his profile, you can see that he... barely has any hobbies tbh. probably not healthy. he would need someone more... free? fun? creative? to introduce him to some Fun hobbies (pls) that ISN'T music related!

more rebellious souls who would convince him to skip violin practice once in a while to hang out. take him to a bar. convince him to get his first piercing. make him Break Some Rules even if it feels like you'd be talking to a wall sometimes... IT WILL HAPPEN

fellow nepobabies who he would've "hung out" with during formal events and the like. people his parents might've told him to "befriend" and the connection remains superficial or... you two actually managed to become real friends!

would be nice if there was a pianist out there who would've performed with yuwol here and there for performances. could be friends... could be... people who were just forced to perform together. here's a ref to the vibes of yuwol's performances (usually it's hauntingly mesmerizing vibes)

other than that, acquaintances or friends from the classical music scene would be nice! people he knew from the orchestra. someone who might've trained with him. whether the connection is negative or positive, i'm open to both. he can't always have friends!

friends or people he knew from high school! he would've been a... goody two shoes, but would also have days when he would be absent performing. i... honestly haven't decided where he went to school so. lol. ehe woopsies. maybe ppl think he always seem so arrogant with how he keeps himself "busy"... or maybe you rlly are friends!

university friends! i also... did not decide where yet. haha woopsies x2! same things apply.

people from the Band Scene(tm), he's kind of 'new' as an active participant (guitarist/violinist/vocalist...?) but he always loved coming to watch performances because he simply loved music. so maybe people he knew from that circle, and now bam the violin prodigy is trying out band!

a few close friends who he can actually talk to. he isn't the most expressive person but he is usually friendly and kind, always willing to lend an ear to those he deems a close friend! he's not above laughing at you or tell you as it is if you fucked up somewhere though. even if he'll try to help out. he might sometimes crash your place when his parents are being Particularly More Unreasonable than usual and he needs an out (rare, but happens!)

can't really imagine him having mutual enemies... if someone disliked him he would just. laugh about it. and act like normal. which, granted, can probably piss people off

drinks coffee. eats junk food if he isn't told to eat properly, tbh. people who work at the cafe he frequents... people who see him eat terribly and then decide THIS HAS TO CHANGE!!! IT'S TIME FOR PROPER MEALS!!

I JUST READ ABOUT THE XMAS MARKET EVENT… so those too, please! 🙏

if you have any other ideas... please hit me with them!! i loveeeeeee brainstorming and mixing ideas and just READING. thank u all &lt;3

[armory-rasa]

Knife day #2 -- this goes a lot faster when you know what you’re doing

Once it had reached a neighborly hour for hammering, I beveled the design:

And man oh MAN, what a difference using good leather makes. Look at that lovely burnishing. 😻😻😻

Experimented with using a seeder stamp to make the background this time:

It’s interesting; I don’t hate it. Reminds me of frog eggs.

Shaping it around the knife over lost a lot of the detail near the fold though. Next time I’ll make sure the tooled parts stay a little further from the spine:

I did some manual touchups to the tooling, and finished the shaping:

Stained it (with Eco-Flo medium brown antiqueing gel, followed by Fiebings dark brown antiqueing paste), gave it a topcoat of resolene:

With the stain, I actually prefer the seeder to the backgrounding texture I used yesterday. I don’t even think it took any longer to do.

Lay down contact cement on inside edges, wait 15 minutes:

Press sides together, decide where you’re going to cut off the excess. I had learned yesterday (but forgotten about, and failed to correct for when I was designing the pattern for this one) that the edge needs more allowance around the handle than the blade, in order to have enough room to fit the rivets, so I widened it out a bit:

Cut off the excess: 

Round & smooth the edges with dremel and sandpaper:

Stained edges and burnished them with tokonole again, then punched my holes. (And set an eyelet into the top, instead of putting two belt loops):

Put in the rest of the rivets and BAM, FINISHED.

and oh my god it is the cutest thing EVER. LOOK AT THIS LITTLE GUY. LOOK HOW PHOTOGENIC HE IS. 😍😍

(I’ll be honest, I’m considering keeping this one for myself instead of selling it.)

So yeah -- sheath all done, and pre-patterning it before molding was a smashing success. I’m looking forward to making more seaxes with knife guy, because I’ve got the sheaths DOWN, my dudes.