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generallypo · 5 years ago

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[ Constellation ’Director of the False Last Act’ is looking at you. ]

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dark academia!hsy, yeeee! the white coat is fantastic, but unlike kdj and yjh, she doesn’t really switch up the color scheme. no, her bum-aesthetic purple hoodie does not count. i think she’s super hot. i yell about how much i love her under the cut.

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yo han sooyoung is actually amazing, incredible, powerful, witty, drop-dead sexy... what makes her so irresistible? let me explain

1) yeah, kdj takes the kdj company to end of the scenarios, but please. how many times does he have to kill himself to get there? not to mention his intentional (and unintentional) kill count?

sure, he does the job, but damn is he kind of inefficient about it. say what you like about hsy’s methods or personality, but the 1863rd round far surpasses the 1864th in terms of the lives preserved while still managing to take the team to the end.

without the benefit of cheat-like knowledge, skills, and resurrections, hsy almost single-handedly orchestrates the events of the 1863rd round to a satisfying finale. kmw, problematic as he is, survives and becomes an admittedly better person, yjh finds a timeline where he can rest in peace, and the rest of the cast have their eyes set on the hopeful end of all scenarios. all this, while only being HALF of a person (hsy originally split off into two after misusing her avatar ability). do her actions lead to the happiest ending? no. but it’s the one that sacrifices the least and saves the most. for the greater good, in other words.

hsy may be an intrinsically selfish person, but unlike kdj, she has the ability to grasp the entire picture and avoid tunnel-visioning into a crappier, more convoluted and self-sacrificial solution. ironically, it ends up saving more lives. perks of being a talented writer, i guess.

and the 1864th hsy emerges as a leader in her own right as well. the epilogue arc shows her assuming roughly the same role as her 1863rd self in kdj’s absence: yjh breaks off from the main group (AND BECOMES A TERRORIST AKFDJDSLKSL HAHAHA) to assume a similarly antagonistic role to the remaining members of kdj company. as a result, she’s the most powerful lawful incarnation remaining, and once more the incarnations circle around her for direction.

2) independent, confident, competent (hot and kinda shameless about it). this woman has the most delightfully unrepentant attitude towards life -- how to defeat the man with the strongest defensive ability without dealing a single blow? summon a horde of your naked dancing clones to terrify his innocent sensibilities, and then cackle at his helplessness. the fact that her sponsor is literally the chuuni-est cringefest in the entire galaxy and she gives no fucks about him is just additional comedic gold. her undisguised disgust for what should otherwise be a highly respected/feared entity is a clear indicator of her supremely dominant position over everyone else, and i admire her consistent irreverence of everyone and everything.

hsy is the only character who can consistently bully kdj, brush off his deflections, and bully him again. 1863rd round hsy gives kdj about 50 migraines in the span of 5 minutes of conversation before confirming her superior wit. jhw comes close, but unfortunately, she actually respects the rat bastard. i wish i could mention yjh, but let’s be real: he -- and just about every existing version of him -- has been whipped for the guy for at least 250+ chapters now.

hsy, on the other hand, has no regard for anything except herself... man, i respect that so much. what a queen.

and i won’t lie! i didn’t like her in the first fifty or so chapters. plagiarism? homicide? kind-of-in-general-just-being-an-obstacle-to-kdj’s-plans? yeah, i almost fell into the trap of disliking her purely because she didn’t cave immediately in the grand scheme of kdj’s plotting -- thereby denying me the power rush that came with seeing kdj bulldoze his way through the puny attempts of small fry characters. she’s neither a friend nor a despicable foe, but rather someone who acts independently and in her own self-interest, WITH the ability to thwart major players if need be. aka, the one who frustrated kdj’s plans -- and me -- the most.

going by my previous isekai/power-fantasy trope experience, i figured she’d get pegged into the sexy-but-sassy harem candidate, or get killed off if that didn’t work out. in hindsight, i’m just pretty fucking dumb, but honestly, i can accept that with gratitude --

-- because in fact. the whole ‘she-gets-in-my-way-so-she-either-goes-into-the-harem-or-dies’ trope in light novels/webnovels and the like, is, frankly, misogynistic and boring as hell. i had some admittedly low expectations for ORV, which consequently blasted my ass to the moon and left me there sobbing for 42 years as i mourned my stupidity and paid my respects to its incredible ending and character development. hsy is a particular delight, especially in her meta awareness of these tropes -- blatantly stating she isn’t obligated to kdj for saving her life and declaring the damsel-in-distress cliche as ridiculous, for example.

and it really is, because suspension bridge effect aside, you’re not gonna want to bang a total shady stranger in the middle of the apocalypse. it’s the little statements of self-awareness, self-worth, and frankness that build up hsy’s charm. as ORV progresses, these little windows of her personality bloom as her presence takes stage center -- and then BAM! you really get to know how strong she is, how hugely capable of love she is, how subtly but wonderfully she expresses it, how she leads and protects those close to her, and how damn good she is at it. hsy is amazing. we stan an iconic queen -- no, black flameS EMPRESS. *kneeling*.

3) writes an entire EPIC, just to keep one lonely, broken fifteen-year-old alive. like. at that point in ORV, i knew. i knew. hsy is the fucking GOAT. seeing her spend the rest of her life on WOS, making sure it reaches completion because it’s the only thing that will sustain kdj until the advent of the scenarios... that hits too hard. inadvertently, it also damns the rest of the world to the terror and tragedy that the star stream brings.. but that’s the call she makes in order to save kdj’s life.

obviously, there’s no precise beginning to the timelines -- ORV is so neatly crafted in its cycle of writer, protagonist, and reader -- but i’d have to argue that hsy holds the greatest power in the trinity. creating the existence known as ‘yoo joonghyuk’ and granting life-changing hope to an otherwise forgotten boy.. is pretty powerful. yjh, for the most part, is a slave to the scenarios (until he breaks free in the 1863rd and 1864th rounds, in particular), while kdj (unwittingly) admits it himself: he’s truly the most powerless god in existence. i forget exactly where he mentions it, but it’s in response to lgy’s reverent commentary that, with all his knowledge and presumed confidence, kdj seems like the protagonist of story or a god to him. kdj’s inner monologue, of course, is appropriately self-deprecating and scarily accurate.

in a lot of ways, WOS -- and ORV itself, really -- is a love letter to readers. it’s a two-way connection, writer and reader, between someone who creates with all their passions and someone who consumes and responds with equally sincere feelings. Ways Of Survival -- the story of a man who defied death and grief and great powers far beyond his being -- is a fictional guide to surviving in a ruined world. but to a battered, bullied, and ostracized boy, it’s not just escapism, or wish fulfilment anymore. WOS is the map to navigating the hell of his reality. there’s a certain power in the right words being spoken -- or in this case, written -- at the right time, even if it’s only for the temporary burst of endorphins upon reading an especially delightful chapter. even if it’s forgotten the next day, you’ve managed to connect. you’ve touched another person’s heart. you made them think about questions they’ve never considered before; maybe, you made them smile.

what can i say but the honest truth? ORV, without a shadow of doubt, has most certainly reached me. i’m a goner for this story and its excellent characters -- long, long gone. something has changed, something that wasn’t there the previous day.

the mark has been made on the reader -- small as it is, it’s irrevocable. behold, in all of its little magnificence: the power of a writer, and their story.

#omniscient reader's viewpoint #omniscient reader #orv #han sooyoung #dark acadamia aesthetic #fanart #long ass emotional screeching #wow these are the nights i wish i had someone to yell about orv with #otherwise i stay up at ass-o-clock uncontrollably writing and groaning and writing #anyways hsy is best girl and sexy as fuck

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segafan37 · 4 years ago

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Shadamy Snippets: A Chance Meeting

[Shadow's p.o.v.]

I stared at the cars and people entering and exiting the parking lot. A worker was helping an elderly couple load their groceries. A group of teenagers stood around a car trying to act cool while bobbing their heads to some music. I saw a large mouse family pushing three carts toward the store. Each cart had about 3 to 5 small children inside. The children were all talking at once and playing with each other as their parents and a teen mouse pushed the carts. I then turned my gaze to a red female fox walking back to her vehicle, pushing a cart that held her two little ones: a boy and a girl. The girl was a sky blue, and the boy was a bright orange. They looked about the same age.

Maybe they were twins?

I tried to hold back a smile. I liked being here; listening to the mingled noise of the store, and watching the cars and people go by... The people I was sworn to protect. It was... relaxing. I took a sip of my cappuccino, as I relished these thoughts.

Mmm, that barista girl really knows how to make a GOOD cappuccino!

I took another sip as I viewed the dark clouds in the sky.

Looks like it's going to rain. I guess the weather report was wrong, again!

My multipurpose communicator beeped a reminder.

"Examine Star Case Files"

"Well, back to work." I groaned.

On my motorcycle, it takes me 30 minutes to get back to the hidden entrance of the Mobian's G.U.N. base and the way the weather was looking, I knew that I should probably be heading out now.

I started rising from my chair, but something inside stopped me. It was like I was glued to my seat. Although, if I was being honest, I'd say I didn't want to go. I looked at my communicator again. The digital clock read 1pm.

"You got more than a half an hour left, Shadow!" I reassured myself. "You can stay for another 15 minutes."

I smiled, snoozed the reminder, and gazed back at the window. I was relieved that I didn't have to head back to work, just yet. I closed my eyes to engulf myself in the sounds of all that surrounded me.

Car doors slam, horns beep, shopping carts rattle and squeak. Feet shuffle across the floor, children laugh, friends talk about work, love, school, and life. Workers greet, bar scanners beep and chairs glide across the floor. People serve, people eat, people drink, and people speak.

These people... are why I am here.

I guess I was so entranced in my peace of mind that I didn't hear someone come up beside me. My ears twitched when I heard a female voice say my name.

"Shadow?"

I opened my eyes and turned my head to see the one and only Amy Rose.

"Amy?"

Her eyes widened with delight, and mine with shock. It has been over 7 years since I last saw Miss Rose, when we both attended Vector's wedding.

"Amy." I said again.

"Shadow!"

"How have you been!?" We were both surprised that we said it in unison. She kind of yelled it, but I just spoke it.

We laughed a little at ourselves. I stepped off my bar stool, suddenly feeling okay to leave it, and stepped back to get a good look at Amy. She was older, obviously, and had grown to almost reach my eye level. Her iconic red head band was gone and her quills were longer, the ends just reaching past her shoulders. Her dress was different too. It was still red, but was flowy, lacked the white trim, had short sleeves, and rested below her knees. The only thing about her appearance that was the same were her gold bracelets, boots, and white gloves and socks. (However, her socks were no longer rolled up.)

I was kind of bewildered by her new look. I liked it!

"You look.." I paused and gazed her over again "Good! You look good!" My voice had a hint of excitement to it. She smiled and shrugged.

"Thanks! I feel great, actually! And you look...", she paused, looking me over, "Um?.. Good, too!? The same, but good!"

I chuckled sarcastically. "Wow! Thanks! What a compliment! I feel very special. I'm blushing in fact. You can't see it cuz of my dark fur, but it's there!"

Amy blushed. Her back stiffened and her shoulders went up.

"Oh! Shadow, you know I didn't mean it like that!"

Inwardly, I smiled. That's the Amy I know.

"It's just that,.." she continued, "you're the Ultimate Lifeform! No matter the time span, you'll always look the same."

I sighed and gave an eye roll. I knew she was right and wasn't trying to be rude. I was just slightly annoyed, that she couldn't think of something better to say. Was it that hard for people to see that I've changed?

"Yeah, well, I'm not entirely the same." I retorted.

"Oh!?"

"Yeah! For one, I've grown, height and mass wise." I saw Amy give off a weird face.

Why did I say that!?

But I just continued.

"My voice has more base, if you hadn't noticed. And I work now as the Commander of G.U.N."

After Amy heard the last bit, her weird face disappeared and was replaced with a look of disbelief.

"You're the Commander of G.U.N.?" she slowly asked, pointing a finger at me.

I folded my arms. "Don't look so surprised! I used to be G.U.N.'s top agent, once upon a time!" I said, not hiding my annoyance. I had taken Amy's question as an insult, but her next action proved I was mistaken.

"Shadow, that's incredible! What an honor! You're G.U.N.'s first Mobian Commander!"

I blushed and gave off a small chuckle.

"Yeah, well, with great power comes great responsibility."

Man! That was dumb!

If Amy thought it was dumb, she didn't show it. She just giggled and leaned towards me.

"I see you're blushing!" she teased. "I guess you can see a blush through that dark fur!"

I rolled my eyes and smirked.

"You got me there!"

She laughed. I looked behind me to see if anyone was listening. Of course, no one was. Everyone was too busy in their own world to care about us. I turned to look at Amy again, who was still in her mocking position. I noticed the 'Sweet Bun' sub and drink in her hands.

She must have came up here to sit down and have lunch.

"Hey, would you like a seat?" I pointed to an empty bar stool next to mine.

She rose to her full height as she spoke, "Oh! Thanks! Probably be best."

Amy placed her things on the bar table and took the seat next to mine, as I returned back to my own.

* * * * * * * * *

[Amy's p.o.v.]

As our conversation went on, I couldn't help but notice that there was a change in Shadow. I already saw the difference. He was balanced. However, speaking with him more made the balance more noticeable, and made me to question.

What has happened to him?

I couldn't put my finger on it! Physically, he looked the same, an attribute I knew came with being the Ultimate Lifeform, and his demeanor was still stern and austere, yet his vibe was more relaxed and... friendly!

As I sat listening to the black hedgehog, with my face resting in my palms, I couldn't help but stare, a bit dreamily. His words became muffled, as I thought more of our past, his transformation, and our friendship. I admired him.

That's when I decided,

I like him this way!

I didn't notice that Shadow had stopped talking and was looking at me a bit confused and alarmed. I guess he caught me staring at him.

"What!? Is there something on my face?"

"Oh! Uh.. no!.. I", I stammered. I could feel my face grow red. I swallowed and took a breath.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. It's just..." I trailed off, as I looked into his eyes, "I-I can't help but notice the change in you."

"You mean I'm not as grim or stiff as before." he stated, bluntly.

"Pretty much!" I smiled nervously, " What caused you to be different?"

Shadow furrowed his brows and looked toward the window.

Oh, no! Did I say something wrong!?

"Do you know why I was so grim before?", he asked, still gazing at the window.

Was that a rhetorical question?

"Well.." I started.

"Because the world was in danger!" he firmly interjected. "Eggman was threatening to conquer the world, and I couldn't rest until he was subdued! These people," he gestured his hand toward the window, "deserve to live in safety and have the chance for happiness. I gave a promise long ago to protect the world, and I will do everything in my power to keep it! So, when Eggman and all his evil was destroyed, I was able to breathe."

His voice held such determination and passion, that it was inspiring. He turned back to me. His eyes were sparkling once more and he wore a small smile. I refrained myself from giving any dreamy stares.

I knew he wasn't a cruel being as some perceived him to be.

"And then this is where my study of psychology came in."

"I see, but you still work for G.U.N. Why?" I asked.

"Because the bad guys are still out there. With people like Starline and the Deadly Six wandering about, you can't stop."

"Shadow." I said, thoughtfully.

"Yeah?"

"I like you this way!" I concluded."You've really grown!" He laughed.

"Well, I didn't know my behavior was being quizzed under your 'Self-Improvement Test,.." I started to laugh. He did not just say that! "But I'm glad I passed!", he said with a triumphant smile.

"I didn't mean it like that!", I protested, giving him a shove. He laughed. "I'm just glad that you've loosened up a bit, so that the world can see the good person that I already saw in you."

Shadow opened his mouth to speak, but then smiled. I smiled back. His red, powerful eyes gazed into mine intently, but I wasn't afraid. They were lovely; the eyes of a dear friend that I had almost forgotten. Another loud beeping interrupted the moment. Shadow looked at his wristwatch and turned it off.

"Work?" I asked.

"Yeah. Duty calls!" Shadow said, as he mounted off his stool and grabbed his leather jacket. I followed suit.

"I should probably head out, too. I don't want to get caught in the rain."

"You think it's going to rain, too!?"

"Of course! Have you seen those clouds!? The weather report is never right!"

He laughed. "True that!"

We walked down the stairs and out of the building, stopping just in front of Kangaroo Kroger's front entrance. A silence fell between us as we turned to face each other.

* * * * * * * * *

[Shadow's p.o.v.]

"Yeah! See ya around."

As Amy turned to walk away, I felt that I had forgot something. But what was it? Before I fully understood what I was doing, I called out to her.

"Welp!" Amy started, breaking the silence. "I'll see you around, Shadow!"

"Amy, wait!"

She stopped and looked at me with concern.

"What is it Shadow?"

I began rubbing the back of my neck as I slowly said my reply.

"Can I... give you a hug?" My arms were outstretched and I wore a sheepish grin, with my head slightly down. I felt kind of stupid asking this when we both were about to leave, but I didn't want to let her go, until we had done this. I saw her face questioning my motives.

"I don't want to leave without giving you a proper goodbye."

She smiled and answered warmly "Of course!"

We hugged, a short, friendly side hug. I got a whiff of her hair. It smelled nice.

I wonder what shampoo she uses?

"It was good catching up with you, Amy." I said, as we broke from the hug. "I really enjoyed it."

"Me too!" she agreed with a smile. And with that she turned on her heels and waved goodbye.

"Bye Shadow!"

"Bye Amy! I'll catch you later!"

I didn't know then how true those words would be.

Exsert from Shadamy fanfic "12 Years Later: A New Dawn". You can read the rest of this chapter and more on Wattpad, DeviantArt, Quotev, or Webnovel.

#shadow the hedgehog #amy rose #shadamy #sonic couple #shadamyforever #fanfiction #fanfic #shadamy fanfiction #my work #story snippet #wattpad #deviantart #quotev #webnovel #writers on tumblr

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revasserium · 5 years ago

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what lies beyond forever with oikawa

hq!!reqs temporarily: closed ; all other reqs: open

send me a number a character and i’ll write you a drabble ;

82. what lies beyond forever oikawa ; college!au ; 1,653 words

he’d never believed in forever, not really -- the thought of some eternal plane stretching into the neverending distance, somewhere across the horizon -- it never found purchase in the vast winding tributaries of his mind. he never thought about the eventual heat-death of the universe, or the possibility of impending doom lurking across the cornflower sky, beyond the atmosphere where time and space became one and the same, where the very fabrics of reality, his reality, to be clear, might tear and be resewn into a different patchwork of truths.

he never thought he’d yearn for forever.

until he met you.

you blow through his life like the summer wind, sweet and warm and a little unexpected but never unwelcomed. you smiled like sunsets and laughed like thunderstorms in the middle of july, the lightening around your shoulders striking through him, setting his very bones a-chatter. iwaizumii tells him he’s in love to his face, and still, oikawa refuses to believe him.

“i don’t sing but if i did, it’d be that one song from the stupid disney movie you like about that dude with the weird hair and chin.”

oikawa sputters, “first of all, i’ve heard you sing -- if you actually tried, you might not be half bad, not as great as me, obviously,” he ducks to avoid a narrow swipe for his head, “and second, hercules is a classic disney masterpiece and his hair and chin are iconic.”

iwaizumi grunts, flipping through another page of the most recent issue of jump.

“right, but that whole -- bitch, why you lyin’ song from there. that one -- that’s you right now.”

oikawa heaves a stage-worthy sigh as he slumps down next to iwaizumi on their dorm couch.

“iwa, i know i’ve taught you better than this -- you know that song’s from the why you always lyin’ meme, and not hercules.” and people have the gall to call him impatient. ignorant fools. but, he supposes that iwaizumi isn’t wrong (the fact that he usually never is pisses oikawa off more than he’d ever admit out loud), and that well, he is, technically, kind of sort of really actually, pretty deeply, in love.

with you.

“whatever. point is. you’ve got the shits. now what do you do about it?”

oikawa grimaces, “could you not make my love life sound like irritable bowel syndrome? thanks.”

“too bad your love life is actually like ibs. you think i’d be here otherwise?”

oikawa blinks, “you’re only here cause i’m suffering from emotional diarrhea?”

“isn’t there a saying about best friends being there to laugh at you in jail before bailing you out?” iwaizumi glances up from the comic. oikawa pouts.

“that’s not how the saying goes -- it doesn’t even make any sense!”

iwaizumi flaps a nonchalant hand at him, “whatever. point is. you’re deep in this shit, and somethin’s gotta be done.”

oikawa heaves another sigh. what is it with iwaizumi and making shit-analogies. he was like this in highschool too, with all the shit-based nicknames. oikawa shudders as he remembers some of iwaizumi’s more creative names and decides there are better things to mope about. like you, and the fact that he’s still yet to make any moves towards this relationship he’d like to be in with you.

“i mean,” oikawa mutters, huffing as he curls his arms around his knees on the sofa, “i know what i have to do. i just gotta grow another pair of balls and ask her out.”

iwaizumi chuckles, “that’s assuming you already have a pair. and from where i’m sitting, that ain’t true. so let’s focus on just growing one pair, mkay?”

this time, it’s iwaizumi who ducks barely in time to miss the couch cushion swung wide in his direction.

“you’re the fucking worst.”

iwaizumi grunts, grinning, “ain’t that what best friends are for?”

when he sees you the next day, he wonders if iwaizumi was right -- if this is what love feels like. and it’s so much more than butterflies -- it had seemed so much easier in his head, and it’s not like he hasn’t dated before. but all those times, he was the one being confessed to. now that he’s on the other side of the equation, he starts to feel a little sorry for all the girls he's rejected across the span of his dating career -- if you say no, right now, he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to recover.

“tooru-san, are you okay?”

oikawa clears his throat, casts his eyes about, wincing as he accidentally looks right into the light of the afternoon sun. it’s too damn hot. summer’s never really been his season, but sweet heavens, does it look good on you. or maybe it’s just the sundress. yeah, that oughtta be it.

“i... i want you to go out with me.”

you blink, before the corners of your lips lift and you breaking into a torrent of laughter. oikawa stares at you, dumbfounded. of all the way’s he expected this to go -- this was not one of them.

“ah, right -- hajime-sempai did say you were going to confess today.”

oikawa’s eyes go wide, he gapes at you for a few moments, his mouth working silently over all the words he doesn’t know how to say.

“iwa told you? and since when were you guys on first-name terms?”

“we’re in the same chem lab together.”

oikawa scoffs, “right, i forgot that you’re both trying to be rocket scientists in the future.”

you smile, “says the pre-med student.”

oikawa flushes, “that’s besides the point.”

you quirk an eyebrow, “ah, right. you were confessing, sorry -- please do continue.”

oikawa scowls, knitting his arms across his chest, resisting the urge to stomp his feet like a petulant child.

“well that’s not fair. you pre-empted me. you --!” he fights for a word, any word that might encompass some of what he’s feeling right now, but he comes up blank. finally, he simply settles for another huff, shoulders scrunched up in frustration.

you grin, “would a date make it better?”

“no -- it wouldn’t -- wait, what?” he does a double-take, all anger and embarrassment and irritability leaving him at your words and all they could entail. a date? with him? and you? does that mean --

you nod, “yeah, to make up for ruining your confession.”

he narrows his eyes, “did iwa put you up to this too, because if he did, i swear to god i’ll kick his ass so hard it goes concave --”

you’re laughing again, and the sound punches him in the stomach, hard, leaving him winded and unsteady. he’s always loved the way you laugh, but somehow, it lands differently on this side of the almost-confession.

“he didn’t! i promise, and even if he did, that doesn’t change the fact that i’d still want to go with you.”

“you... want to go... with me.” oikawa repeats the words as if trying to remember what each of them means. and then, his eyes brighten up like a cascade of bursting stars.

“like on date?” he asks, hopeful, childish, wonderous.

you roll your eyes, “didn’t i just say that?” but there’s no malice in your voice, and the smile on your lips is sweeter than anything oikawa’s ever seen in his entire life.

“yeah -- ha -- guess you did,” he scratches at the back of his head, unsure of how to proceed from here. in his head, he’d only ever planned out the speech, the grandiose way in which he’d declare his love for you, how you’d hopefully accept, and then you’d somehow end up walking hand in hand into the blistering summer sunset, but this -- this fast-forward of events catches him off guard.

it’s not in his nature of think about things like forevers. and he’s still not quite used to it. but with you, he thinks that he might have to reconsider.

“so...? where should we go?” you ask, rocking on the balls of your feet.

oikawa lets out a helpless laugh and shakes his head.

“dunno. but uhm... let’s go find somewhere to go. together, maybe.”

it’s not in his nature of falter either. but then again, he supposes that this is what love does to a person. scramble up their entire lives, upend it over a cliff till all the bits that used to make sense are sunk somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.

you nod once, grinning wide and reach out to take his hand. he lets you lace your fingers. he lets you swing your arms.

he lets you lead him towards the little bakery around the corner of the street, still a little dumbstruck by the turn of events but as the summer sun blows out over the vast horizon, he can’t help but wonder at all the impossible things that may lie beyond it.

he smiles. three seconds into this relationship thing, and he’s already turning into a sap.

but maybe iwaizumi really was right, and maybe this is just what love does to a person -- reshape the foundations of their world, make them wonder about the future, the one that no one can ever see, the one where the universe might die in a boom or a fizzle, where forever isn’t just a thought but a concept, tangible and achievable. dark -- terrifying. lonely.

he holds your hand a little bit tighter, smiles to himself, tells himself that he’s being stupid. but then he thinks that that’s part of love too -- being stupid enough to think about all those things, about all that might lay on the other side of forever, and then decide that well, he’s perfectly happy with everything on his side of forever, just the way it is.

#oikawa tooru #oikawa tooru x reader #oikawa x reader #iwaizumi hajime #haikyuu imagines #oikawa #floofy floof floof #yo this turned out to be more of an iwaoi friendship fic than proper romance but lol i liked it #just kidding it has a good amount of actual romance #its cute #and oikawa is such a lovable jackass i couldn't resist #making him stutter and calling him on his bullshit #u__u #haiCUTIES

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: Evangelion 3.0+1.0 is a Happy End to Evangelion

A note on safety: The following movie review undertook the strictest of safety procedures to watch the anime film in cinemas in Japan, including washing hands with disinfectant before and after, sitting in seats apart from others, going to a cinema outside of the busy metro area, and wearing a mask during the entire runtime of the movie. We strongly urge everyone to follow the recommended safety protocol in your country and always wear a mask when in public — not just for your sake, but everyone else’s as well.

In the spirit of the recent release of the latest (and final) Evangelion movie, we wish to talk about the momentous occasion in an honest, but respectful way for those outside of Japan who cannot see the movie yet. Here, you will find our totally spoiler-free review. Later, we will be posting a full spoiler-filled review for those who wish to read. Stay tuned!

If Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo is the tale of death, despair, and hopelessness, then Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is the antithesis of that. It’s easy to see why the films were originally supposed to be seen together. Like a melody, they complement each other, with 3.0+1.0 building on the threads 3.0 left hanging. Maybe that happens in another world, but after nine years of waiting for the final Evangelion film, it feels like those threads were twisted into something different; something much greater.

Originally slated to release in 2008, it’s been a long road to the final Evangelion film, at least now as we know it. What we would have gotten back then, or even in 2015, is not the film that we got today, and I think that largely has to do with the film’s creator Hideaki Anno.

Anno once said that the Rebuild of Evangelion films was an “aim to walk towards the future.” 3.0+1.0 embodies that immensely, not just story-wise and animation-wise, nor even as a reflection of the anime industry as a whole. Rather, it’s Anno’s reflection on the series, and what it means to him through the eyes of Shinji Ikari.

From the get-go, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 returns to the roots of what makes the franchise so eternal. We get to see the human aspect of Evangelion outside the headspace of Ikari, as well as see how humanity has survived through the near-apocalyptic events that frequent this universe.

All of it helps to ground the Rebuild films back from … whatever happened in Evangelion 3.0. As questions are answered, more questions arise, but that’s the nature of Evangelion. It isn’t Anno’s job to give all the answers; It’s his job to take the viewer for a ride, and with that, he delivers it in the most Evangelion way possible.

Know that if you’re a fan of Evangelion, the story and subsequent conclusion will be satisfying. Yeah, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 goes pretty meta, as expected of a film that is inspired by the End of Evangelion, but there’s no tumbling down here.

One of the sorer points of the film is the animation. While not bad, in terms of how far Khara has gone with 3DCGI is congratulatory the quality of the 2D animation and post-processing doesn’t really build on what we’ve seen in the previous entries in the series. For better or worse, the 3.0+1.0 films keep the same animation aesthetic.

And remember that Evangelion 1.0 came out in 2007. The time span between 3.0+1.0 and 1.0 is longer than between End of Evangelion and 1.0.

While the quality of the 2D animation has roughly stayed the same, the level of detail in the animation movement is as meticulous as always. Using the preview as an example, as the crew tries to put the USB in the plug, they fumble, putting it the wrong way around before fixing their mistake. That level of thoughtful level detail of the character animation is littered throughout the film through both the high-action moments and the mundane.

There are a few scenes that use the CG elements Khara is best known for to create some beautiful sun-lit landscapes, complemented by beautiful backgrounds. While Khara doesn’t go for the full blend of CG and 2D, the CG has very much improved since 2012.

Though, does that really matter if 3.0+1.0 is the peak of visuals for the most optimum visual experience of the Evangelion franchise? The iconic visual language that Evangelion has built over the last two and half decades merged with the red aesthetic that populated the visuals in Evangelion 3.0 helps bring the Evangelion identity to its peak.

The movie’s storyboarding work continues to truly be a highlight. The magnificent mise-en-scène continues to elevate the franchise to be some of the best scene direction in anime. As the characters converse – or refuse to in some parts– the way they’re placed in the scene, along with the color, the camera angle, and whatever mild animation is occurring, comes through just in the character’s body language and tone.

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A preview of Hikaru Utada’s wonderful theme for Evangelion 3.0+1.0

I was lucky enough to watch the film in IMAX, and while the format didn’t help the animation look any better, the sound design was immensely heart-thumping, but not so loud that it drowned out the dialogue or music. From Mari taking on an “Angel” in Paris to the final sweeping shot, every sound effect reverberated through me as I took in what was happening.

One perfect example of this sounds design. There is one scene in which there are multiple conversations going on at once in multiple locations, in which the characters are melancholically processing what is happening around them during a rainstorm, much like a scene out of The Garden of Words. At no point did I miss a single piece of dialogue throughout the interactions, nor was I unable to hear any other sound effects or music. It was oddly calming for an Evangelion flick.

This brings me to the score of the film, once again composed by Shiro Sagisu. Evangelion is known for its great music (so much so that Anno “borrowed” it for Shin Godzilla) and is so recognizable that anyone in Japan knows the battle theme; that Timpani rhythmic beat is iconic.

Sagisu once again brings it home with some of the best pieces in Evangelion history. There are the usual tracks you will remember from past films, but some of them have been remixed and changed to suit what is trying to be conveyed. The music felt like it has evolved, taking inspiration from scores from the last decade in films like Mad Max: Fury Road. The sounds are distinctly Evangelion but just an evolved form.

One thing Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time makes certain, and something I couldn’t believe despite all the marketing messages is that this is Hideaki Anno’s true end of Evangelion. It may not be the last time we get an Evangelion-something, but this is the end of the franchise for Anno. The end, which brought a tear to my eye, perfectly encapsulated Anno’s feelings on the matter.

And for that, I thank him for pouring his heart and soul into the film, and I bid a big Bye-Bye, All of Evangelion.

And as promised, there was fanservice all the way to the end.

Evangelion 3.0+1.0 posters next to Demon Slayer (Photo: Daryl Harding)

There is much more to discuss with Anno’s final Evangelion film than what is written here. Shinji’s voice actor Megumi Ogata said that March 22 was the embargo on spoilers so stay tuned for our spoiler-filled review because we need to talk about that final part in the movie in some way.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is currently showing in theaters across Japan, there’s no word on an international release at this stage.

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daryl Harding

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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iamtheblondestblonde · 5 years ago

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Slides and Serendipity

Part 5 (3.6k)

Masterlist

AN: So this one is a little shorter but that’s only because I would’ve had an awkward break otherwise. The next part will be up as well though so enjoy

Warnings: Language at most

I had to know what people were saying about me, so the next morning I asked Mara to give me some pointers but ignored everyone else blowing up my phone. I’d deal with this the same way I’d dealt with the issues before that, by myself.

Yogi could tell that something was up as well, staying close by on our morning walk and then following my every step after that, even nosing at me from time to time.

The pictures of Tyler and I that were circling the blogs were actually kind of cute, even I had to admit that. There was one from the aquarium that I liked most with me leaning against his side while his hand was resting on my lower back, his big fingers easily spanning from one side to the other. I remembered the tingling feeling his touch caused and not for the first time I wished that people had just let us be in peace.

You cursed at the two girls in the front of the video that had caused this entire shitstorm, even if they seemed too oblivious to notice anything around them. They were sitting at the edge of the pool and the camera focused on them before slowly panning out towards the rest of the area. That’s when you could clearly see Tyler with me wrapped around him, his tattoos making him easy to recognize for anyone. I watched myself smile up at him giddily while reaching out to run my hand through his hair before finally joining my arms around his neck.

The video ended then, thankfully not showing our moment that we’d had by the waterfall but the damage was already done. I could see why people thought there was something going on between us, hell from looking at the ‘evidence’ I was almost convinced myself. The hike with the dogs, the clinging to each other in the pool, the constant touching in the aquarium and lastly the shopping run for furniture all pointed towards something more that was hard to dismiss.

“At least I look good in those pictures”, I muttered to myself because if there was one thing worse than having such personal moments displayed to everyone, it would be looking bad so everyone could make fun of me.

After a light breakfast I finally dared to face Instagram. After tapping on the icon the app lagged for a second under the amount of notifications pouring in at once. I hadn’t been on the site since the aquarium and couldn’t believe the amount of traffic on my profile.

My message requests were overflowing and my follower count had climbed up quite a bit in the last 24 hours. People had even started commenting under my more recent posts, asking if I was Tyler’s girlfriend or insulting me.

I couldn’t believe the amount of people interested in this supposed relationship. For a while I contemplated deleting all of those stupid comments but I was pretty sure that new ones would show up anyway so there really was no point.

Some people in my messages were actually concerned about me ‘wasting myself on a player like Tyler’ but most of the messages were just downright mean, some even implying that I was a gold digger. I was pretty confident, especially proud of my body after countless hours at the gym, but reading those messages was harder than I’d imagined. I didn’t respond to a single one but didn’t delete them either.

Thankfully I was used to taking heat and I wouldn’t exactly describe myself as sensitive when confronted with insults. People had given me shit after I took down Flappy Bird and I’d even received multiple death threats, but at least the hate had been about something that I’d done and not because of who I was associated with or the way I looked. I took great pride in my work and people mentioning my name for something else besides my accomplishments hurt my ego more than I’d like to admit.

To distract myself from all this drama I put together everything that I’d bought for the office the day before, enjoying the mindless work for the next few hours, but I knew that eventually I had to face my situation so I looked at my phone.

Tyler had texted me earlier to see how I was doing and Katie had reached out to me as well. My girls had let me know that they’d listen if needed and then proceeded to send cute animal pictures for me to look at, knowing full well by now that I usually preferred to be left alone to deal with my problems.

Before I could even think about what to respond to Tyler, my phone announced an incoming call from Mia. It was weird to hear her voice again after close to three years but we instantly fell back into our old patterns, chatting easily before deciding to grab dinner together tomorrow. I was pretty confident that I could convince her to come work with me and at this point I couldn’t wait to be productive again.

I let everyone know that I was doing alright and then decided to go on a run, something that always helped me to think.

I changed and put a leash on Yogi, my feet pounding on the pavement soon. I played some music for the rhythm but kept it low so I could clear my head.

Setting one foot in front of the other I tried my best to see the situation from an objective standpoint. It was a fact that the damage was already done and no amount of denying the rumors would stop them if I wanted to keep seeing Tyler. I didn’t want to stop seeing him either, not willing to sacrifice our connection at this point anymore.

The run had the intended purpose and I soon came to multiple realizations.

Tyler was a famous pro athlete which meant that him and media attention were kind of a package deal and maybe, just maybe I should just get over my bruised ego. As I kept thinking about the issue at hand I realized that I kind of had no other option than to put up with the shit coming at me.

I pushed myself until I felt like my lungs weren’t getting enough oxygen and then circled back to my house at a slower pace, basking in the runner’s high to plan out the rest of the day before showering and getting to work.

I’d realized that Katie was probably the most suited to give me some tips about my current struggle so I called her. She didn’t answer at first but then she called back as I was pulling out ingredients for some lemon cakes, suddenly in the mood for some baking.

“Sorry I didn’t see you calling, we just got back from this team get-together. Tyler was deep in thought all afternoon and kept checking his phone by the way”, she greeted me and I smiled at her attempt to make me feel better. I didn’t like him not being in a good mood because of me but it showed that he cared at least.

“Yeah about that, I need some advice from you…”, I started and then asked how she dealt with people thinking that they had the right to judge her based on her relationship with Jamie. I knew that she had a private Instagram profile now and while that might deter some hate, I guessed that she probably still got lots of stupid comments.

Going private was not an option for me, as I used my media presence to pull in new jobs even if most of my posts had nothing to do with my work.

“I know me saying just ignore it is stupid because it seems impossible, but trust me it isn’t. It also doesn’t help that people think you’re with a player that has one of the biggest fanbases among the league. People probably already looked at your profile as soon as he started following you, some are that obsessed”, she said and I flinched at the thought of people following Tyler’s every move to this extent.

“Do you not care at all that people basically treat you as an accessory to Jamie?”, I asked her the question that had been bugging me all day.

“I try to look at it differently. At hockey events I’m simply there to support him and I’m more than willing to take a step back in those cases. For everything else you just have to remember that while the fans may only focus on him, you’re the most important person to him so it doesn’t really matter what everyone else thinks”, she explained and I understood what she was trying to say, even if our situations were different.

She told me about how she struggled with the attention at first, something I at least had some experience with. Only now it was for a different reason but I decided to just ignore that fact, drawing from years of practice at ignoring insults.

“You’ll actually get a lot of nice messages too because hockey has really supportive fans and those are always great to read. If I were you I wouldn’t delete the stupid messages though, new ones just keep coming either way. Don’t give the haters the time of your day and just let them pile up in your requests. Sometimes I respond to the nice ones but mostly I enjoy them in silence, that’s up to you though”, she said and I decided that I’d probably handle things the same way. I had to check my requests for work opportunities but I could just skip over everything else.

“You just have to stay calm amidst all of the crazy stuff. Things will get even worse when you two officially start dating so be prepared”, she continued and I couldn’t help bun notice how she said when, not if but I didn’t correct her.

“Thanks for everything Katie. I kind of reached that way of thinking over the course of the day but it still feels good to hear it out loud”, I sighed as I finally put the cake into the oven.

“Don’t worry about it, we’ve all been there before and supported each other through the ups and downs. By the way, some other better halves and I are going out on Saturday, just the girls, and your presence has been requested as well.”

I debated her offer for a second, knowing full well that I wasn’t a ‘better half’ like the rest of them but ultimately decided that I needed to make new friends either way.

“Of course I’ll come, thanks for asking. Just text me when and where.”

We continued talking for a while but then she had to leave because Jamie wanted to start on dinner. I decided to finally talk with Tyler and texted him to see if I could come over.

Tyler: Of course, I’m in the backyard with the guys so bring Yogi too if you want

He then proceeded to text me the code to his front gate, which surprised me. It wasn’t the code to his house but a big step nevertheless. I decided to bring along some lemon cakes and then made my way over, Yogi excitedly pulling ahead.

I entered the code and made my way around the house towards his backyard. Tyler hadn’t noticed me yet and I could see him spitting something into a bush.

“Well that’s mildly disgusting”, I announced my presence flatly and he jumped a little before turning towards me. As soon as I let Yogi off his leash he ran over to Gerry, greeting his new best friend before chasing him around the yard.

“Sorry, bad habit”

“I think you just mispronounced ‘addiction’”, I commented, knowing exactly that chewing tobacco wasn’t any better than smoking it. I reached up with my free hand to hug him and reveled in the feeling of being wrapped in his arms. It had started to cool down already but he was radiating heat through his t shirt.

“I brought a piece offering and don’t worry, it’s diet-friendly”, I said, holding out the box for him to take.

“Why would you need to make a peace offering?”

He looked at me with his eyebrows crinkled in confusion, a look that made him look young and innocent.

“Because I shut you out and basically ignored you all day”

“You don’t have to apologize for that, I know it’s kind of a lot to be caught up in this shit so I don’t blame you for needing some time to sort everything out. If anyone needs to say sorry it’s me for dragging you into this.” He looked at me sheepishly, lifting his snapback to run his hand through his hair before putting it on backwards.

“It’s definitely been a crazy week since we met”, I admitted with a small laugh but I wasn’t mad anymore. It would take some getting used to but I was willing to try.

“Has it really only been a week?”, he asked and I knew exactly what he meant. So much had happened already and I was feeling closer to him that I should after just seven days but yet here we were.

“Are you hungry? I was about to make dinner.” I gave him a skeptical look that made my doubt in his cooking skills, or lack thereof clear.

“Hey I know how to feed myself. I’m not as good as you but I get by with a few easy standard meals”, he protested and I had to laugh at the cute pout he was now sporting.

“Lead the way then. I’ll watch you and we can have the cakes for dessert.” At least one part of dinner was safe that way.

I watched him prepare some pasta and was baffled when I discovered that he barely used any spices, despite having a full spice rack in his pantry. With a huff I grabbed some of them and then proceeded to explain to him when to use what, the pasta smelling more delicious by the minute.

“This tastes like an entirely different meal”, he exclaimed after I was finally satisfied with the result. He really had a lot to learn but at least he was enthusiastic about trying new things.

“I’ll make a cook out of you yet but it is a mystery how you could survive up to this point by yourself”, I teased and he laughed.

“That’s thanks to the nutritionists that supervise us, otherwise I’d eat like shit all the time.”

Tyler loved the lemon cakes, explaining that they were ‘just the right amount of sweet’, which was due to the apple sauce I’d used in place of regular sugar.

We settled on the couch with the dogs surrounding us, some sports show quietly playing in the background. He was spread out on his back and I was tucked into his side, my head resting on his shoulder. I was glad that it didn’t take a lengthy conversation for him to understand my point of view on the situation, that certainly made things easier. As if he was reading my thoughts he said:

“You know we can talk about what happened. The fans are a big part of my life and I know that they can go a little overboard sometimes but I can’t change that. I’m still sorry that people are giving you shit now though.”

“Really it’s okay. I think I just needed to wrap my head around things. I get that the attention and you are a package deal and if having haters is what it takes to keep you around, I’ll gladly do it.”

He smiled softly and opened his arms for me to fully snuggle up against his side, his arm now wrapped around my back.

“I’m glad that you’re willing to put up with it”, he murmured against my head and I smiled. We’d only just met and yet here we were. I’d never felt anything like this before, although to be fair I hadn’t really tried either. Besides the obvious attraction that was between us, there was also something deeper. He didn’t just make me happy, he understood me without needing long conversations or years of friendship beforehand.

Every moment I spent with him I could feel my resolve against not sleeping with him weaken. He’d been nothing but sweet to me but while I deemed myself a good judge of character I knew that one week wasn’t enough time. We needed to be stable enough for a friends with benefits situation to not get awkward or we both had to want something more. Until I wasn’t sure where we stood there simply couldn’t be any sex, as hard as it may be sometimes.

The show was showing some football highlights and I soon grew tired of watching. Despite having lived in the States for quite a while now I still couldn’t understand the obsession with it. The games were slow and too long and there were too many commercial breaks in my opinion. I didn’t follow any teams and the only reason I regularly watched the Super Bowl was because of the parties and the food.

“This shouldn’t be allowed to call itself football, their feet rarely touch the ball. It should be throwball or something like that”, I huffed and I could feel Tyler’s chest rumble with laughter beneath my cheek. As a German there was only one football in my life and it was the one that was actually played with feet.

“Throwball sounds ridiculous.”

“Well football is a little ridiculous in itself so it would be fitting.”

“You should be glad that I’m Canadian or otherwise I would have to kick you out for insulting America’s favorite sport.” I knew that he wouldn’t do it either way, his arms wrapped so tightly around me that I wouldn’t be able to leave even if I wanted to.

“I’d like to see you try”, I teased and lifted my head to stick out my tongue at him.

“Are you sure you’re 25? I’m thinking more like five.”

“Five and a half actually if you have to ask.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m hilarious and you know it.”

Now he was actually trying to push me off the couch but I just wrapped my leg around his thighs and held on tightly so he had to try a different approach. I didn’t expect him to pick me up before throwing me back town and moving to hover over me however. I didn’t even get the chance to resist before he grabbed both of my hands in one of his. His other arm was boxing me in and he had now effectively rendered me defenseless below him. At this point our giggles had turned into pants, his probably from the effort of throwing me around and mine because I loved the way he was manhandling me.

I looked up to him through my lashes, my thoughts going to places I’d sworn I wouldn’t let them wander to anymore just minutes earlier. He looked down at me with an unreadable expression and I would’ve given anything to know what he was thinking in that moment.

For a few seconds neither of us moved but then the moment was ruined by Gerry, who probably wanted to be a part of the action, licking Tyler’s face.

“Ew dude what the fuck?”, he exclaimed, sitting up to push the dog away before wiping the slobber off his face. Now I had to giggle at his exasperated expression and moved to sit up as well.

“I should probably go either way, I know you have an early practice and it’s gotten kind of late.” I was actually just trying to prevent myself from jumping him but he didn’t need to know that.

“Here put my sweater on, it’s gotten pretty late and I don’t want you to get cold on the way home.”

He pulled off his sweater and I really tried not look at the skin that was exposed as his t shirt rid up with it but my horny brain caused me to fail. I didn’t even try to reason with him that a five-minute walk in the cold wouldn’t kill me because I knew that there was no point, once he set his mind on something there was no stopping him. I also really wanted to wear his sweater but I would never admit that.

I put the sweater on and reveled in his scent for a moment before getting up to grab Yogi’s things.

“Look at what you did buddy, you scared her off”, I could hear Tyler say quietly to Gerry and I was pretty sure that that wasn’t meant to reach my ears. A small smile crept on my face but I tried to not let anything on as I reached town to get Yogi ready to go.

“Thanks for dinner Tyler, your attempt wasn’t completely terrible”, I joked as we finally both stood in his front door.

“Thanks for the lemon cakes and the spice tutoring, I definitely still have a lot to learn though. And again I’m really sorry for what people are saying about you, they just don’t know you well enough to know that you’re actually amazing.” I could tell that he didn’t plan on letting that last part slip because his cheeks immediately turned pink which in turn made me blush as well.

I reached up to hug him before wishing him a good night and then making my way home, thoughts running wild until I finally managed to fall asleep.

Part 6 here

#Slides and Serendipity #Tyler Seguin #Tyler Seguin imagine #NHL #nhl hockey #nhl imagine #fanfiction #Dallas #Dallas Stars #hockey writing #hot hockey players #nhl writing #imagine

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babyczk · 5 years ago

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christmas with you — eh

summary: edwin finds himself stranded on campus for christmas, quickly realizing he isn’t the only one who isn’t able to go home for the holidays

authors note: literally just some fluff (:

•••

the subtle throbbing of music coming through the walls of edwin’s tiny dorm usually wouldn’t frustrate him, but he was already in the grumpiest of moods.

it was christmas eve, a time of year that edwin particularly loved [aside from halloween] but unfortunately for him, he’d been scheduled to work through the holiday season, and there had been absolutely no way he could get his shifts covered to venture back home to the bronx.

he was missing matching pajama sets with his entire family, iconic pictures that would be used as christmas cards in the future, and time away from school and with the people he loved most. it was excruciatingly painful to sit on facetime with his parents and siblings instead of physically being there.

the only good thing was he would be alone in the dorms, figuring that mostly everyone else would’ve left for the winter break. his roommate had, leaving edwin with a bit more space than usual. of course, like everything else in his life, things just couldn’t go his way.

when the music seemed to be growing louder with each passing minute, and edwin had exceeded the volume for netflix on his laptop, he begrudgingly threw off his sheet covers, angrily slipping his feet into slippers.

muttering profanities under his breah, he opened his door and marched the three feet over to the next room. knocking loudly, he waited impatiently on the other side of the door, having every intention of letting his anger out on whoever was about to open it.

the music instantly stopped, edwin hearing rustling from the other side, before the door swung open. his breath halted in his throat, seeing the bouncy curls of adaline summers. jeans rolled up, and sweatshirt sleeves cuffed, her brown eyes held nothing but confusion and question as she stared at edwin.

his mouth was insanely dry all of a sudden, mostly because he shared three classes with adaline, and in each one he found her progressively more beautiful than the last. his friends were constantly teasing him about his middle grade crush on her, but honestly, how could he not find her attractive.

“do you need something?” she asked, leaning against the frame of the door in curiosity.

“uh... n-no. i mean, i just...” edwin stuttered over himself, wishing the entirety of the floor would open up and swallow him whole, saving him from this excruciatingly, embarrassing moment.

adaline blinked, clearly more puzzled then before. “sorry?”

“i just didn’t think anyone was still in the dorms this close to christmas, s’all,” edwin blurted. “music was kinda loud.”

the puzzled expression on adaline’s face quickly turned to horror, followed by immediate regret. she pushed a stray curl away from her face, sheepishly smiling at the dominican boy. “fuck. i’m so sorry. i didn’t think anyone was here either, usually i’d have my headphones in. totally my bad.”

edwin felt a course of pity run through him. clearly, he could’ve stuffed some noise canceling headphones on himself, or maybe gone down to the lounge. he didn’t need to be a buzzkill and shut down her music, but another part of him knew he was only trying to find an excuse because this was adaline summers.

“no, no. you’re fine.”

adaline shook her head. “i swear, if i knew you were on this floor, i wouldn’t have been this much of an asshole.”

“i believe you,” edwin smiled shyly. “i didn’t even know you lived in this room until five minutes ago.”

adaline squinted a little, her eyes raking in one swift movement over edwin’s figure. she knew him from the three classes they shared, and she also knew he was an audio engineering major, sometimes seeing him putting flyers up around the dorms advertising shows he was playing in at local bars or clubs.

“funny, seems like we’re the only two people still on campus for christmas,” she pointed out. edwin shrugged, pulling at the drawstrings of his hoodie.

“kinda sad if you think about it, huh?”

adaline shrugged, kicking her door open a little wider. “only if you think about it. mind me asking if you’re doing anything worthwhile right now, edwin?”

his mouth dried up at the sound of his name coming from her tongue. a sense of pure giddiness at her simply remembering who he was.

“netflix and chilling, mostly. why?”

edwin half expected adaline to wrinkle her button nose in discontent, changing her mind and slamming the door in his face, but instead he was met with her dimpled grin, which might’ve caused severe heart palpitations for him.

“i know the most amazing spot for hot chocolate.”

he furrowed his brows. “aren’t all public restaurants closed right now?”

a mischievous glint reflected in her eyes, causing edwin to swallow thickly. “i might know a way to get in... unless you don’t want to come with me?”

edwin weighed his options. he could either decline and spend christmas eve, alone, burrowed under a plethora of blankets, with his eyes glued to his laptop screen. or, he could agree, and spend what was supposed to be a pity party with a beautiful girl, drinking hot chocolate.

he chose the latter.

adaline beamed. “great choice. lemme grab my jacket and keys, real quick.” edwin nodded, deciding to use that time to grab his stuff from his room as well, practically giddy with excitement as he flitted around the small space, the goofiest smile on his lips.

“ready?” he whirled around to see her leaning against his door he’d left propped open. she’d secured her curly hair in a messy bun above her head, a few tendrils coming down and framing her face. her red puffer was pulled up to her chin, making her look, in edwin’s opinion, the cutest he’s ever seen her look.

he hummed in agreement, the two of them bundled up to brace the cold weather, as they walked side by side through the empty campus. the conversation flowed easily, edwin finding himself having to stop in his tracks multiple times from doubling over in laughter.

“what’s your plan to get this hot chocolate?” he asked.

producing a set of keys from her pocket, she jangled them in front of his face, the mischievous glint still in her eyes. “like this.”

“how’d you get those?”

“i work here,” she said, matter-of-factly. “figured my compensation for closing up last week could come in this.”

“so we won’t get in trouble?”

“not if we don’t get caught.”

edwin gulped, letting adaline fiddle with the keys in the lock. he couldn’t afford to get caught, knowing breaking and entering would probably get him a one way ticket straight out of university, and him being on scholarship meant he had to be on his best behavior at all times. and right now, adaline was making that extremely hard.

the door to the small cafe creaked open, and adaline stood up, a triumphant grin on her lips. pushing herself inside, edwin followed behind tentatively, the rush of warm air hitting him. the lights flickered on, as adaline began taking chairs off of an adjacent table, beckoning for edwin to sit.

“any special requests for your hot chocolate?” she asked, already walking behind the counter.

“you got marshmallows?”

she smiled. “just for you.”

the cafe was cozy, lights strung up around the place, and different christmas decorations on the surrounding tables. edwin relaxed in the plush chair, looking up when adaline came back around with two steaming mugs, each topped with whipped cream and as she promised, edwin’s had marshmallows littering his.

“i’ve been told i’m a hot chocolate expert, y’know.” edwin hummed, letting the warm liquid run through his body. the chocolate goodness was enough to agree with adaline’s sentiment, and she laughed at his expression.

“well, you’ve been told right.” edwin glanced at the clock behind her head, noticing that it was exactly one minute until christmas day. “if someone had told me this was how i was spending my last minute of christmas eve, i don’t think i would’ve believed them.”

adaline raised a brow. “meaning?”

“breaking into a cafe with a beautiful girl, and drinking hot chocolate. probably beats out every other year.”

adaline’s laugh bounced off of the walls, the sound infectious and causing multiple butterflies in edwin’s stomach.

“you think i’m beautiful?”

“maybe...”

adaline leaned forward in her chair, elbows on the table. her fingers ghosted over edwin’s face, tracing over his skin, lingering at the tops of his lips. he was frozen in his seat, too afraid to move and disrupt her movements.

“i think you’re beautiful too.”

she dropped her fingers, much to edwin’s dismay, and before he could open his mouth to respond, she scooted her chair around, to the point where there was only a few inches of space between them.

“can i do something?”

edwin nodded once, curiousity taking over. adaline leaned forward, her chocolate breath waning over his face. instinctively, he closed his eyes, feeling her soft lips capture his softly, as if testing the waters. edwin, always the eager, couldn’t get enough, gripping the side of her face and pulling her in more. adaline smiled against the kiss, pulling away after a few moments.

“merry christmas, edwin.”

•••

in honor of december starting!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 500 FOLLOWERS, I LOVE YOU GUYS. also thank you for dealing with my inability to write lately, cranked this out over the span of a couple of days, and i still don’t know how i feel about it.

#christmas vibes #edwin honoret #edwin honoret imagines #edwin honoret blurbs #edwin honoret fluff #prettymuch #prettymuch imagines #writing

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bluedraggy · 5 years ago

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How I Color in Photoshop

I’ve been asked before how I do coloring. I hesitate to call this a tutorial as that implies this is the RIGHT way to do it. Instead, this is just how I do it. My image is a bit risque, but I think Tumblr will be okay with it. This assumes you already have a drawing saved as some sort of file that can be opened in Photoshop. The principal is the same in about every program, but the specifics of how to do things are different. So I’m starting with this:

(BTW, if the images are too small, try right-clicking and Open In New Tab. Seems to show a bigger image.)

So first off, you may need to change the mode to RGB to work with it. I’ve opened the file here and am changing the mode to RGB. (Edit > Mode > RGB). Once that’s done, we can start working with adding a flat color, a soft shade and a shine layer to it. That’s what I’ll be up to here.

Next, I like to make the line layer editable, so I click the little lock icon there. By default when you do this it will name it Layer 0. That’s fine. If you’re anal you can change it to Line Layer or something.

Next I’m changing the Line Layer to Multiply. This is pretty critical. You can do it from the top menu there, or there’s a place just above the layer name (where we Unlocked earlier) too. Either does the same thing. As best I understand, Multiply says to combine other layers with this layer So when we color, the white areas will be colored, the black lines won’t be.

Now I’m adding a new layer that my flat colors will “live” on. It can be a Normal layer since it’s going UNDER the line layer and nothing needs be seen underneath it.

Okay, you can see my new layer on the bottom right I named Flat Color. That’s where our actual colors will be painted. (or more accurately, PENCILED!). You can drag layers above and below each other there, and this layer needs to be under the line layer. I used to make this the Multiply layer and had the line layer underneath it. That works, but will lead to issues later on as you learn to do more layers, so best to just always keep the line layer on top and MOST other layers under it.

Last step before we get to work. I do NOT paint flat colors with a paintbrush. I use a PENCIL. Because the pencil tool is pixel-perfect. That is, there’s no soft edges on a pencil line. Each pixel is either fully colored, or it’s not at all. Even the hardest brushes still have bleed over from pixel to pixel. The size of the pencil really depends on the size of the lines in the line art, but typically I set it at about 5 pixels. That’s pretty small, but lets me get into tight places. I’ve seen others do this differently - but this isn’t about them. It’s how I do it.

Time to zoom in and get coloring. I’ve chosen my color. Obviously this pencil is bigger than 5 pixels, but I wanted it to be clear what I’m doing. I’m drawing with my pencil right into the line itself. If I stray outside, I use the eraser (ALSO SET TO PENCIL SO IT ERASES PIXEL PERFECT) and keep the edge of the color underneath the black lines. I don’t care about the other side because Flood Fill/Paint Bucket will handle that later.

Here I’ve finished drawing the color inside her butt cheek, keeping the edge under the black lines. In practice I’d have gone on to everything that needs to be colored with the same flat color, but keeping this simple. Now I’m switching to Flood Fill/Paint bucket and am going to fill in the rest with one click. It normally will fill the entire section pixel-perfect, though sometimes around very tight angles it may miss a few. Those I fix with a pencil directly.

Bang! Butt cheek filled with a solid flat color. Now draw the rest of the damn owl. No, but seriously I will do this for the entire character with the various colors I want. For her I did this color for her body, a pinkish color for the tail and nose, a white and a green for the eyes. But there’s another advantage of doing this - I can select entire body parts by just selecting the Flat Color layer and use the magic wand to select everything that is that one color. Trust me, that’s a real benefit. You can get stylish later on, but having this flat layer is still awfully handy to keep FLAT. Okay. On to shading. Notice I now have a 3rd layer in between the Line and the Flat layers. It’s where I’m going to do Soft Shading. I also put it in between the line and flat layers, and I set the layer type again to MULTIPLY. Because I do want the flat colors showing through it.

Now I’m getting ready for soft shading. I almost always you a greyish-purple color for shading. For me, it just seems to work the best. I know there are more intricate things, but this is a basics lesson. Another thing, when doing Soft Shading, I use a HUGE paintbrush set to the softest possible setting. Typically the brush spans the entire size of the body part I’m painting. I also SELECT just the part I’m shading. Sometime that takes some patience with the lasso tool, sometimes you get lucky and can just use the Flat layer to select, then move back to the Soft Shade layer. The important thing is to select only the part you are going to shade. You’ll have to do it over again on the other parts. Ideally the separation between the body parts will be a nice line you can hide the transition inside of. Othewise the Smudge tool is your friend to correct small mistakes in shading.

HUGE soft round brush. I think I used about 400px here. But the important part is, you don’t even put the center of the brush inside the section you’re shading! The shading is done with the edge of the brush. Essentially you’re almost doing a gradient.

Zoomed out with a nice soft shading. I did use a similarly soft eraser to work it back a little too.

BONUS! Notice the new layer? SHINE layer! I put it above the soft shade. Really I’d probably do a hard shade layer in as well, done similarly to the soft shade in the same color but with a smaller, harder edged brush and just in limited places.

But I want to show the MAGIC of COLOR DODGE! That’s what my Shine layer is set to. Essentially if you color in black, nothing changes. If you color in a grey, it lightens the colors underneath. If you color in white, no matter the underlaying color, you get white. There are other blending types that work similarly but I just like the effect of color dodge best.

Also, note the color I’m chosing. It’s ALMOST black (which would result in no change). It takes only a very small bit of not-black to make a big difference. Going to give that cheek a highlight. First, with a soft brush at maybe 40px.

What a difference a little dot makes!!! Now that cheek’s really popping out! The type of brush used when making a highlight makes a big difference too. I do tend to overdo this, I know - but I like it! I can’t help myself! One last thing - what if I use a hard-edge brush instead of soft for the highlight?

Same size brush, but now its hard edged highlight. Really the softness (or other texture used) defines the kind of surface it’s on. The soft looks more natural, esp. on skin. The hard edge looks more like rubber/latex surface. (Neither look like rat fur, but sometimes you don’t care!)

That’s it. This is how I do stuff. Plenty of other things I could have mentioned. Reflection layer is a biggie. I like to do both soft and hard shading too. Eyes of course. Nothing makes a picture shine like good eyes. And then there’s what I truly call Highlights - a layer that goes on top of the line layer, so it can obscure even the lines. Backgrounds, which I’m not very good at but I almost always do them anyway because I like pictures that define a place and time as well as just a character. Shadows (as opposed to shading) which is frankly an art form in itself. But I’ve already put in more pictures of a rat butt than Tumblr is happy with so I’ll end it here.

#photoshop #coloring #photshop tutorial coloring shading rendering #rendering #shading

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ivyveil · 6 years ago

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Love is the Punchline Prequel

the one where Harry is the universe and you are in love

A Continuation of LITP (masterlist here)

You two had been drunk.

His hair was softened by the moonlight, tousled locks cascading across his forehead and curling against the tips of his ears. He looked disheveled and massively wasted. A Greek god who had stumbled into the sin of men, yet unable to fully shake his reverence.

You knew you were staring.

You couldn’t have been more obvious if you had a neon, flashing sign reading I’m Star-gazing in the Galaxies of Your Eyes. But what do kids who are told not to stare in the sun do? They stare anyway. So you continued, a dopey smile induced by whatever drink Harry had made you in his fancy ass kitchen, with his fancy ass kitchen supplies.

You wanted to nestle in his open jacket, feel the roughed cotton rolling into balls along the edges of the material, have the uneven tie-strings lay, lopsided, in between your heads. You wanted to place your head against the slope of his shoulder, into the darkened scruff of his neck, and inhale. Not for anything explicitly sexual, just because your soul craved to know what it was like to be his. Laying together in the silence that only belonged to you two, in the midst of a universe of noise.

You wanted to brush your fingers through his hair and get an idea of what it would look like in the morning. The thoughts that made your cheeks flush, a warm radiance perhaps indiscernible from the heat already surrounding.

Harry wasn’t oblivious however – in fact, the liquid racing through his veins made him unabashedly brave in staring back. Your makeup was a bit screwed up, the eyeliner missing in patches from when you were crying from laughter as he made stupid, stupid puns. He loved how you smiled when he was being an idiot, being himself.

He poked each of your cheeks (after missing once and pushing your nose inwards by mistake) and giggled to himself. To him, you were the epitome of feeling alive.

“My head is too heavy,” you mumbled, feeling the command from your body to relax your arms and let gravity do its work. You slouched further in the grass, resting your head on one of the pathway stones. You were in Harry’s private backyard garden, a bottle of rum tucked between Harry’s legs and a gathering of gnomes watching from the tomato patch.

Harry was slouched against the side of his house, donning an unzipped jacket, sweats, and god-awful Nike sliders. It was one of the few outfits he made you promise, multiple times, to never mention to anyone for fear it would leak to the public. Not that he genuinely thought you would, but after you saw his collection of ‘Normal Clothing’ you started continuously sending him pictures of clothing you considered “fuck-boy, Haz, it’s the shit girls don’t keep when the boys leave because they’ll find the same stuff anywhere.” He just wanted to make it clear, he would only be this expression of himself around you.

Right now, he wasn’t Mega Pop Icon Harry Styles, he was a drunk friend making O shapes with his mouth like a guppy and giggling quietly to himself, over God-knows-what. His butterfly tattoo movedwith each laugh, his skin patched slightly with dirt from when he tried to roll down a ‘hill’ that was genuinely nonexistent, a product of his drunken imagination.

“C’mon, over here then, love,” he straightened up, offering an arm to you and a spot next to him against the house. In an attempt to persuade you, he moved the bottle to his side and shook his hand through his hair. As if you would be goaded into curling up next to his shirtless form simply because he was cleaned up a bit.

Didn’t this boy know you would do anything he asked you to, and that would only get worse after a night drinking?

You slowly lifted yourself off the ground and crawled over to Harry, groaning as your body protested. Pushing some dirt off his shoulder, you tucked yourself under his arm and placed yours gently on his stomach.

The night was quiet.

“That’s better,” he whispered, eyes scanning the top bits of your face visible to him, as he tucked a piece of your hair behind your ear.

You loved it too much, you knew that perfectly well. You grinned nonetheless and tried to hide it by moving your face closer to his bare chest. Which didn’t necessarily help, because now you were surrounded by his aura and felt intoxicated for another reason entirely.

Harry wrapped his arm tighter around you, pulling your gentle beauty closer to him in the process. Your hair smelled like vanilla and that one hair product you always used – the one in the green bottle? He didn’t know the name, but he made a mental note to buy you 500 jars of it when he had access to his computer. Feeling smug at how greatly he would be able to provide for you, even in a small way, he nestled deeper in the space his body was occupying, taking a deep breath of the cold night air.

The world was spinning slightly after the bit he drank (“’M not a lightweight” he had, embarrassingly, slurred before you opened his patio door outside, but you both knew that was the biggest lie) but everything became extraordinarily sharp as he felt the puffs of your exhales against his chest. Maybe it was the feeling of masculinity that caused the swell of pride in his chest, some instinctive sense that yes, he felt complete. His heart was so full with contentment.

Harry had grown up with the idea that he would be able to clearly recognize when his soul had been etched with someone’s name, like the universe would send a lightning bolt and he would suddenly feel his home transfer from the physical into some emotional connection with another’s soul.

Yet he had known for a while - all that you were to him. It wasn’t anything worth words – the most basic, simple things of life didn’t need to be drawn out into massive explanations. He could wax poetic words like the best of them, but he hadn’t found the proper analogies for something as simple and pure as you. Whatever the universe was centered around, didn’t matter, because it had become you, for him.

Not in a massive, delusional way. More like the sunrise echoed only softly how your eyes would shine, a sky set on fire. The feeling right before a thunderstorm made him think of your movie nights together. Being wrapped up in “oodles of blankets, Haz, we need oodles” and not minding when you lit all 12 of his candles, because Tangled had so many lanterns and you wanted to mimic the lake scene.

“You’re going to need to tap into your enthusiasm tomorrow, Haz.”

Harry blinked, groggily searching through his fuzzy mind to try and figure out what the hell you were talking about. After a brief moment of expectant silence, you sighed and leaned out from your safe haven in his arms to look at him.

One eye was now completely rid of eyeliner, Harry felt certain it was on his chest somewhere, an addition to the rest of the ink already there.

“Your horoscope, H. Gotta get jazzed up for your life soon, change is coming.”

“Yeh read my horoscope?” It had never occurred to him, despite your amateur obsession with the topic, that you would read others’ daily advice. Could his heart grow any more for you?

“Course. Wanna make sure the universe is taking care of my boy,” you sounded casual, scrunching your face together in an attempt of seeming like an authority figure, but it just reminded Harry of bunnies twitching their noses.

He giggled.

“If I’m yours, I just want you taking care of me, love.”

He knew the words were coming out, it wasn’t a mistake. It could be taken completely platonically, but the hushed tone of his voice – the shred of hesitancy that clouded over the flow of conversation – transferred his stance. A moment before, he had been a source of comfort and ease, and then he suddenly became an emblem of fragility, fingers itching to reach out and touch the skin of a person they could never know every inch of, before.

The moment felt inevitable, exciting and the most natural thing in the world. Harry saw a questioning glance shade over your eyes, before registering into something he couldn’t quite place.

To put it honestly, you wanted to kiss him. In the wild, dirty sense of the word – it really wasn’t much of a rapid mental shift after Harry spoke, because the idea had been lurking just beyond the horizon of your mind all night.

To grind your hips into his and see if the bones connected as well as your souls. You wanted to kiss him because you wanted to see how he’d react if you pulled on his hair, your lips moving harshly against the stubble on his chin. See if his ears were sensitive, if marks on his neck were the key to making him moan, make his hands move faster than his brain.

You wanted to see his weaknesses and for him to see your strengths. You wanted to prove yourself to him in a way you had never before, could have never before. It echoed in your ribcage as an incessant longing, an itch you couldn’t scratch until you saw his eyes flutter closed, to see the millions of galaxies blindingly exploding on the backs of his eyelids.

But…

In the back of your mind, you knew he wouldn’t be able to remain for the commitment afterwards. To kiss him would be connected to the risk of never being able to kiss him in the same way again. Time changed people, an entire tour wouldn’t leave enough for you two to reconnect as the same individuals.

To know what could be, and to know it was possible both a beginning and an ending, caused your fingers to still from their pattern tracing his butterfly’s antennas. You were back, tucked into his side, feeling the heat radiate from his skin. Nothing had altered much in your outward countenance, or the way you kept your eyes focused on his potted daisies across the yard.

“(Y/N)…” It was strained, his eyes attached to a point on the roof so as not to be compelled to move before he knew what was on your mind. He had heard a low moan come out of your mouth as you were mentally imagining everything you could do to his body in the span of eternity, and it only made his own imagination run wild.

“C’mon, love, take what’s yours.”

So you did. Shifting yourself upwards, a bit slowly to ignore the dizzy sensation, you slotted one of your legs in between his. You two slowly took the other in, looking in the others’ eyes. His had never looked clearer, his tongue moving slowly around his lips as his eyes noticeably grew darker. He looked like a starved man, his head angled, tilting at a side to properly look at your beautiful face. He distinctly registered how red your cheeks were, how absolutely gorgeous you were at that moment.

You looked good all the time, in his truthful opinion, but it was an extraordinarily strange and surreal experience for him to realize that your beauty was so impressive to him at that moment, because it was all because of him. You were glowing because he made you feel like no one else. Harry only knew this because, for him, it was the same. You two were the same, identical cores pulsating under your breasts and echoing in your thoughts.

Like a trigger, you both set off. Tongue everywhere you could mark him, his hands grasping for anything they could manage in the suffocating exhilaration, the intoxication upping to unknown territories once he grew familiar with the taste of you. You swallowed your laughter at his excitement, how his breath became heavy and he shuddered with each bite against his collarbones.

His moans resonated in the air, sinking around the two of you and slowing down the constraints of time. The nature around you was in awe of his respiration, your gentle moans. It was something epic, beautiful, orgasmic in the natural rhythm of intimacy. Like a piano creating a melody out of thin air, he was an orchestra of harmony against your chest, his lips rushing crescendos against opening of your blouse.

“Jesus, woman,” he muttered, exasperated, as your hips swayed against his. (The bones connected, your souls connected, you didn’t know life could feel this good). You knew right then, you could fill the emptiness within his soul, patch up the wounds left by others. You could decorate his hair with flowers and make him the golden god of the universe. Because right then, everything about Harry was hypnotic, the heaviness of his eyelids, his lips swollen from pushing, biting, enveloping yours.

“Haz, you’ve got to be the most exquisite man I’ve ever known,”

You pushed his jacket off his shoulders, wrapping your fingers around his shoulders as you leaned in close to his ear. He was positively shaking, a quiet, inhuman noise escaping his throat as he slowly wrapped his hands around your waist to hold you steady. It only satisfied your theory that he was an entity beyond all humans, that the Sun would snatch him back in an instant.

“Y-yeah?” the strength of his grip wasn’t reflected in the staccato’ed pitch of his voice.

You nodded, humming a confirmation as your fingers drew close to the drawstrings of his pants, delicately brushing against the slew of tattoos littering his sides. The skin was delicate, pale under the moonlight.

Then, one of his hands reached forward to tuck between your two bodies, to wrap around your fingers. It was a gentle tug, enough for you to know he was regretful in doing so, but firm nonetheless.

“Y/N…I don’t, I don’t think that’s, it’s what we should do,” he started, seeing your gaze come up and his eyes shifted to either side of you, randomly staring at various points in his garden. You could feel his heart. It was racing.

“I have things I want to say. Before we do, I mean if we were to do-”

“Okay, Haz. We can talk, it’s fine.” you assured him, moving slightly away from his body so you wouldn’t be fully straddling the poor boy as he attempted to catch his breath. You had some straightening up to do, as well, fixing your bra straps he had somehow tangled up in his rushed motion to reach all pieces of your skin.

“Thank you.”

You were sitting on a barstool in his kitchen, an untouched glass of water on the counter. Harry had poured you one, saying you should start getting hydrated before exhaustion finally kicked in. You were fairly certain it was all his nerves, though, that he wasn’t sure what to do after what happened in the garden. He had simply reverted to the safe place of playing Host. You slouched further in your chair.

He was leaning against the counter, facing you, running his hands down his face. His jacket was securely on again, this time zipped. You were sure Harry had realized the scattered beginnings of purple markings against his chest would just make the conversation more difficult to have.

You finally sipped some water, not taking your eyes off Haz’s face, wondering why it looked so squishy as he ran his hands back up again.

You weren’t nervous exactly, to hear what he had to say. It was going to be a confession, followed by an apology. Something like, “I think you’re a great girl” followed by “I want us to stay friends.” The letdown was already etched in your mind, your body ready to respond to the rejection and take it in stride. You were never expecting Harry to truly confine himself to just being yours, not when he was ineffably Everything the creators had blessed the universe with.

(You never claimed to be subtle or hold back exaggeration, not when Harry was the most true person in your realm of existence.)

“I really like yeh,” he began, staring deeply at the floor. His hands went from tugging at the roots at the nape of his neck, to being stuffed in his pockets.

“I like you too, Haz.” You set the glass down, folding your arms and leaning against the counter. Fighting against the sinking feeling, you couldn’t let him feel sorry for you.

“No, listen for a mo’. I…” he turned his head to the side, squinting his eyes shut as he tried to find the words. They were painfully clear to him, but his mouth wasn’t in collaboration with his mind, a blockade of fear and nerves pounding through his veins.

“It’s okay, Harry,” Your words were gentle. Your heart felt heavy in your chest. It tried to fight your mind, scream out the words it scrawled against the jail of your lungs for years, the poems and odes to things as stupid as how adorable Harry was when he washed his hands before setting the kitchen table. But, hearts couldn’t win in the game of Protecting Yourself. This wasn’t some movie, it was your real life and your life wouldn’t be the same without Harry. Nothing else mattered, keeping him close was what kept you feeling sane.

You could give up loving him, if it meant he would still be there. Couldn’t you?

Being something more with Harry would feel like a waiting game for you, it was the fear that kept you from being honest with him, with yourself. You rationalized that it was the concept of not being able to have someone, the obstacle of it being firmly rooted as a friendship and thus developing into a game that had kept Harry intrigued and wrapped in the threads of your lust for him.

You weren’t necessarily low on self-confidence, but how could you keep up with someone like him? His words moved the world, and yours couldn’t even leave your thoughts. Harry Styles was the epitome of feeling alive, to you.

There was no way you could measure up.

Thinking back over the whole idea, the quick thought of confessing how his laughter was the only thing lately drawing you out of the depressed haze of reality, your bravery shrank in the cold light of sobriety.

“It wouldn’t be a good idea,” you agreed to his nonexistent response, missing the hurt confusion that trickled down his face. His spine felt cold, doubt circulating the edges of his vision. Hadn’t you wanted it too, out in the garden?

It was your turn to keep your eyes down, to proceed on with the last words you ever wanted to tell him. Or maybe second to last words, since you were apparently too scared to confess anything honest.

“You’re about to travel, you’ve got work to do. I’ve got projects coming up. It’s our time to be there for each other. Can’t do that if we’ve mucked around throwing blurred lines on the perimeters of such a great, great friendship.” The bitterness was lost in your exhaustion of saying the words, the corners of your eyes stinging and your lungs burning as you looked up.

Harry was silently staring at you, his expression unreadable. It was unnerving, making eye contact with him in this way, and you wondered, with brief anger, if he was upset you didn’t want to give him a quickie before he jetted off around the globe for months.

In reality, that didn’t seem like him, but you never claimed to be completely rational. Not when everything in life had become so difficult, so quickly.

“Yeah,” he croaked out, nodding. The words were vapid, empty, a hollow agreement.

A brief hesitation, a determination sweeping over his features. His eyes were intense, boring directly into yours and softening slightly.

“I love…”

The silence was deafening.

“Don’t, Haz.” The lump in your throat was a mountain created in seconds, a pathetic echo replaced your voice as someone you had never known before. A woman, scared of love, scared of anything remotely beyond the comfort of predictability.

A woman who had caused Harry to freeze, devastation lapsing his entire body. His shoulders slumped.

Harry looked away first, nodding again as if it was the only programmed response he had in his turned-off brain.

“I love being friends,” he finished, the words sounding warped, strangled. He had a brief coughing fit, and reached for your water, looking up to ask for permission. You nodded, pushing the glass towards him and watching as he slowly drank the rest of it. His eyes were shut tight as he drank, and the echo of heartbreak didn’t leave his posture when he put the glass in the sink.

He didn’t look you in the eye when he shuffled off his god-awful Nike sliders by the patio door.

Or when he slowly locked it, pressing the panel next to the door that set the alarm for the night.

Or when he started to walk back to his room.

All he did was pause in the hallway, between the kitchen and the space leading to his room, shifting his body slightly to indicate that yes, he was speaking to you.

“I need sleep. Jeff’ll kill me if I’m hungover on the flight tomorrow.”

Hollow pangs of desperation stung, tearing its talons against your flesh, into your throat, around your mind. Your eyes were stinging with the need to cry, but your heart yanked back the waterfall before it could begin pouring out.

You had done this on purpose, with clear intention, there was nothing wrong with wanting to stay friends. It was keeping you both safe, keeping your lives orderly and not any different from the past few years, which had been some of the most joyful and content of your life.

It was only the drinks that had made this hard, you told yourself. Everything would be fine in the morning, once you two could reasonably look this over and agree it was a drunken, confusing, mistake.

All you could manage was a mumbled, “Okay” before he continued, his back still faced to you.

“Text meh. When ‘m away. Don’t want this to make..to have made anything weird between us.”

He left.

You both knew how his earlier words were supposed to have ended, how you were supposed to repeat them back, because it was the truth.

Everything was wrong.

You were in his dark kitchen alone. Your arms wrapped around your body tightly, nails digging into your sides without any mercy. Your back was hunched over, protecting your lungs and heart from shattering. Your body knew the process as if it had been trained to deal with this. You had prepared for this, after all. You brought this on yourself.

Slowly, with the distinct impression the night had not actually happened and you would wake up wrapped in Harry’s arms as he justified his midnight cuddle sessions as “just an accident, nothing I wouldn’t do with Nick, love,” you made your way to his guest room. The door was foreign to you, never having been where you spent the night, for the entirety of your friendship with Harry.

In fact the bed was unmade, Harry having assumed that you would take his room with him because that’s just what you two did. And him not having given it proper thought after you shred his heart apart in the span of seconds, mercilessly and intentionally.

You curled into a ball on your side, the naked mattress feeling like a shell against your skin. Against the overall intense feeling of nausea that had become a tyrant in your system, an insufferable bubble of laughter pushed through.

You felt sure you made the right, moral decision to maintain your relationship with Harry - to keep it clear of assured destruction and the eventual heartbreak when he discovered the depths of your flaws. It was the smart thing to do, because you were a smart girl. You made rational decisions that protected your future, that was all you knew.

Somewhere in the house, you heard a loud bang. Something had smashed against a wall. There was a brief silence, before the crying began several rooms away.

You had never felt so alone.

Love was a fucking joke.

A/N: Check the masterlist of LITP here, and let me know your thoughts if you would like!

#harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #archive of our own #mine #one direction fanfic #one direction fanfiction #one direction fic #harry styles fluff #harry styles drabble #harry styles blurb #harry styles fic

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fayewonglibrary · 5 years ago

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Melting of the Ice Queen (2000)

Once the music world’s Ice Queen, Faye Wong warms up to motherhood and new love as Rebecca Li uncovers.

AS Faye Wong walks into the photo studio at Chai Wan, Hong Kong, casually dressed in baby-blue pants and pink No Name sneakers that look like a cross between sports shoes and ballet slippers, she looks relaxed and girlish.

The colours of her outfit suggest that her life is absolutely bright and sunny. Even without makeup, her eyes obscured by aviator shades, she still looks completely stunning.

Well-known for her nonchalance to the media and her chameleon-like image changes, Asia’s most charismatically enigmatic chanteuse seems to have mellowed. Does it have anything to do with the birth of her daughter Jingtong in February 1997?

“The greatest change in me came not after the birth of my child, but after I converted to Buddhism in 1992,” says the 31-year-old. “I used to ask myself questions like ‘Why is it so?’ But not everything in the world can be explained. If it is so, it is so; there is no why. If it is fated, then it is so! You can only learn to accept your fate. A simple principle, but easier said than done.”

LIFE GOES ON

With her divorce from Taiwanese rocker Dou Wei out of the way, Faye seems to have moved on. The big news now is that she is dating a younger man, and not just any younger man too, but Hong Kong heartthrob Nicholas Tse, who’s all of 19.

The source of the rumor? The pair was snapped by paparazzi earlier this year, kissing at a party in Hong Kong club Greenspot…during a drinking game. And to add fuel to the fire, they have also been spotted having intimate dinners together on several occasions.

Gossip aside, it’s amazing how the public just cannot get enough of this long-limbed, 1.72 metre-tall Beijing-born beauty, who first set foot in Hong Kong in 1987 at the age of 18.

Back then, the artiste formerly known as Shirley Wong Ching Man didn’t even speak a word of Cantonese, and out of boredom, she enrolled herself in singing classes that helped her develop that ethereal voice that she is now so famous for.

After spending a couple of years in New York studying music, she returned to Hong Kong in 1992, changed her name to Faye, and released an album entitled COMING HOME. The rest, as they say, is history. In 1993, she was voted “Most Popular Asian Singer” and over the years, her star has just kept rising higher.

Within a short span of time, Faye has attained the kind of pop icon status that took her favorite singer Teresa Teng an entire lifetime to achieve.

Fans from as far as France devote entire websites to her. Film critics in Sweden gave her the “Best Actress” award for her role in CHUNGKING EXPRESS. Sony Playstation felt she was appealing enough to the youth market to pay her US$1 million to sing the ending theme song for their popular video game Final Fantasy 8.

If you’d holidayed in China last year and felt a thirst for Pepsi, you would have seen her gorgeous face emblazoned all over the can (that is, before the limited edition ran out).

A Japanese cellphone company used her for their commercial, but that perhaps is not even half as flattering as the fact that a Taiwanese artiste, Kung Mei Mei, released a debut album entitled I LOVE FAYE WONG.

QUEEN OF MODESTY

Faye has proven herself as one of the very few singers who have made a successful crossover into acting, with CHUNGKING EXPRESS, LOVE AFFAIR IN OKINAWA (which hit Singapore screens on 9 August) and the yet-to-be-completed 2046. But she still remains unimpressed by her own thespian talents.

“Actually I don’t have much acting to do in LOVE AFFAIR IN OKINAWA… and it is nothing as crazy as the character in CHUNGKING EXPRESS. It is much more normal and easy-going.”

And contrary to what others say, the movie has not been tailormade for her, she clarifies. “Maybe they just know this is how I am, I simply can’t act. Maybe it is because it is a different director (Peter Chan). I have only worked with Wong Kar Wai before. I’m more familiar with what he wants… I’m afraid of the demands from other directors, that I may not be able to meet their requirements…”

Faye says that she does not like acting because it involves teamwork and requires a lot of patience.

“For me, when you are making a movie, you have to wait. It takes a lot of time, and it can be boring. When you sing, you just need to go to the studio. I would know if I have not sung a line well, so I can ask to do it again. When it comes to acting, I wouldn’t know which way is better. When the director says it is okay, then it’s okay for me, I wouldn’t have any opinion of my own.

"I have also sought advice from many actors, like Carina Lau, for example, who never went through formal training either. She said, it will be fine, just keep doing it, it will come with experience! Maybe that’s true, I’ve only made three movies, which is not much of an experience.”

While most actors eagerly dissect every film they can get their hands on, Faye says she is not even a movie buff to begin with. “I don’t like to watch martial arts movies, war movies, period movies,” she says, without pausing for breath. “I do watch comedies, but if it is blatantly slapstick, I will definitely not watch it.”

And contrary to how so-called “serious” actors try to get into their roles by trying to get under the skin of the character they’re taking on, Faye prefers not to get in too deep.

“When you are doing a Wong Kar Wai movie, you can never be quite in it, because you won’t even know what the story is all about. When I was filming CHUNGKING EXPRESS, I really didn’t know what I was doing. You have to read the script a few times to understand what he’s trying to say. As I was playing the role, I was feeling that this girl is so irritating and inexplicable. Haha…" Self-mockery has always been a virtue of survivors.

LOVE ACCORDING TO FAYE

Now that she has reclaimed her "single” status, perhaps Faye will reveal the kind of man that attracts her?

But this line of questioning doesn’t get much information out of her – Faye would rather speak in generalities, and not about any specific person. Nicholas Tse’s name is not mentioned throughout the interview.

Sexiness, Faye says, is a matter of personality, a kind of feel. For her, there are no criteria to speak of.

“I have always been one to follow my intuition. When it feels right, then it’s right. The most important thing for a man is to be upright, frank, not to make me do any second-guessing, not to say one thing and do another thing. Whether he is sexy or not is secondary. There is not particular look that I go for. Except that I don’t like guys that talk to much.”

Still, despite her ice queen persona, there’s still a hint that the man who manages to make her thaw will find a hopeless romantic underneath.

“I feel that everything is fated. When a person is in love, it is like having a magic spell cast on you, you just can’t wriggle out of it, and you can’t be so level-headed as to examine yourself objectively. Some would calculate various factors while choosing a marriage partner and decide according to one’s requirements. But I’m definitely not someone like that.”

Translated by Ts’ Ming.

FAYE ON HER LEADING MEN

Tony Leung Chiu Wai - “I have worked with him the most number of times but never really talked to him. I don’t understand him too well. He doesn’t talk much, but sometimes he would behave like … he would be very affectionate, it’s rather odd. I guess he is harder to fathom.”

Leslie Cheung - “He is a buddy. He is someone who makes clear distinctions between what he loves and what he hates. He would explain why he likes something and why he doesn’t like something … a headstrong type of person.”

Tony Leung Kar Fai - “He is a very agreeable character, he would share his private matters with others, things like where his family has gone traveling, what they have encountered, how his daughter is doing … I think he would make a perfect husband, very nice, caring, and attentive.”

Takuya Kimura - “Kimura is a very smart person. But sometimes he’s very playful too. He’s actually a very professional actor.”

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

On hobbies - “Shopping for clothes is no longer my hobby, I only shop for 'working clothes’, so that doesn’t count. Recently, I haven’t’ had any hobbies. Apart from work, I just lie around at home, or meet up with some friends. I have not played mahjong for a long time." (Right, who has time for mahjong when one is too busy dating?)

On music - "Thinking back on my first record, it was released without much thought, and it was not very me. I tend to be more carefree while recording in the studio, other than that I behave very awkwardly. I’m not one who needs to listen to music everyday.”

On pursuits - “I’m not very worried about what to eat, or what to wear, just as long as I have a place to live comfortably. Actually I’m usually not so concerned about my appearance. I think the only thing I care for is my records, choosing my songs, recording a good album. Although there are some works that I’m satisfied with, I still hope to do more.”

On happiness - “A lot of times, that’s just a state of mind. As long as you know how to let go, you will be much happier.”

On her daughter - “I never planned to have children. I’m not a patient person but I tend to be nicer to children. Fortunately, Jing Tong is not naughty at all. I will not interfere with her future, my responsibility is just to raise her. Whichever path she takes from then on would be her own, that’s beyond my control.”

MAKING OF A COVER GIRL

Faye Wong has a habit of browsing through magazines while making up. She would rather stay a while longer than to rush an interview while making up and doing her hair. Such insistence is rare among entertainers, but how else to share your thoughts with so many people around to interrupt?

So this reporter had to watch her making up, doing her hair, trying her dress and taking the polaroids for a full five hours. But that helped her to warm up and made it easier to strike up a conversation.

As expected, her daughter Jing Tong turned up at 5:30 pm sharp, insisted on a hug and kiss, and on being Faye’s personal dresser – she followed Mum into the changing room. Faye looked completely transformed as she emerged, and her daughter started to mimic her, much to everyone’s amusement.

During the interview, the cute little girl interrupted three or four times, but she also knew when to back off after every act, without being told off.

As the interview drew to a close, Jing Tong grew more and more impatient. She shouted with all her might: “Mum, Mum, let’s go home!" It sounded like a little wish that was too long suppressed.

------------------------------------------------------------------

SOURCE: ELLE

#2000

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lovelytonys · 6 years ago

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The Official Lovelytonys Guide to Iron Man Comics

Not to toot my own horn, but I’m about to save some lives. Buckle up.

Six months ago, I was asked for comic recs. I’m posting those recs today. Why so long? Because I couldn’t just make a rec list, no, I’m too extra for that. I had to go and make, to the best of my ability and knowledge, my own entire personal guide to Iron Man comics. I also have a tendency to start projects and not do them. But I did this one! And now I share it with you.

For your assistance, I’m going to link this Comic Book Herald article which is a full Iron Man reading order (LIFESAVER) and has links to amazon to buy the collections & arcs being talked about if you are so inclined.

You can find comics on amazon, ebay, the marvel website or Marvel Digital Comics Store (you can buy digital versions of comics), or just find a local comic shop and see what they have. You can easily find any comic you want free to read online, but the websites are a little shady. I’ll leave it to your discretion.

Disclaimer: Remember that these are all my personal opinions. Often, they will not line up with popular opinions. You might really like stuff that I didn’t care for. You might dislike my favorites. You might agree with my opinions. If any comic fans read this and are offended by any of my opinions, please don’t be!! Opinions on comics are SO subjective, just find out what you like and stick to it. I just figured I’d lend my own personal helping hand for you get started, because doing so can be intimidating.

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, let’s begin under the cut! (If you are on mobile...I am so, so sorry about this)

Short version (the recommendation-y part)

Recs because I like them:

Iron Man Volume 3 (1998)- #1-25 (my actual absolute FAVORITE RUN of all time and my number one recommendation. It’s by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, and Sean Chen), #26-30, #62-63, #73-78. Iron Man Volume 4 (2005) #1-35. Invincible Iron Man (2008) spanned many years so you should read at least some, and it has many fans, but I am not one of them, so I’m not gonna rec too much. Issues #1-6 and its epilogue, #7, are worth a read and the arc spanning #8-19 is probably the best from the era, I would say that I enjoyed that arc. Next is Brian Michael Bendis’ stuff, which has a pretty bad rep and while I don’t hate it as much as others do, I wouldn’t say I love it. It is, however, the most recent completed run & important stuff happens, and there’s some good stuff here and there, so yeah. I don’t really have any specific recs from here...just read the whole thing and see what you get out of it or scroll down to the guide section and see the highlights I picked out. Invincible Iron Man (2015) #1-25, and Invincible Iron Man (2016) #1-600 (they changed the numbering halfway through, it’s not 600 issues it’s only I think 19).

Recs because important stuff happens even if I don’t necessarily like them:

Civil War I (occurs during the Iron Man run starting in 2005), Civil War II (occurs during Brian Michael Bendis era), Iron Man (2012) #9-17 “The Secret Origin of Tony Stark.”

Long version (the guide-y part)

First off, I’m going to tell you that my suggested starting points are Invincible Iron Man (1998) which was my starting point, and Invincible Iron Man (2005). Much more on those below.

I haven’t read Mr. Stark’s classic adventures yet because there’s a daunting number of them and I still need to find a starting point, so we’re gonna start with...

Volume 3 (1998):

Okay I have SO MUCH to say here because I’d die for this volume!! It’s considered by many to be nothing special but there’s a lot to appreciate if you’re a fan of Tony in the way that many are here on tumblr- caring about character development & character moments first and foremost. I’ll break down my favorites for ya

#1- does a good job of setting the tone for Tony and this era of Invincible Iron Man. Some nice Tony character details are in there. Volume 3 is started with Kurt Busiek writing (later joined by Roger Stern) and Sean Chen on pencils. I LOVED this team, this is my FAVORITE run of Iron Man that I’ve read, PLEASE read all 25 issues. I thought Busiek understood Tony really well and I just loved the way Chen drew Tony (and everything else), and their first issue is surprisingly enjoyable for mostly existing to set the groundwork for a fresh start.

#4-5- I think this is where the run starts to kick into gear. Tony’s on-and-off girlfriend for the era, Rumiko, is introduced and she’s fun (but as the years went on, deserved much better writing). Tony kicks some butt & is a hero.

#6- an awesome Iron Man/Black Widow team up. It shows a really nice friendship between Tony & Nat. Also, Nat kicks butt & it’s great

I’m recommending every issue that builds Tony’s relationship with Carol Danvers (at this time, she was Warbird, not Captain Marvel). #7, #11-12, #18, #19, #21, and #23-25. Their storyline details Tony’s endeavors to help Carol overcome alcoholism. At least read the Carol parts of the issues she’s only in a few panels of. Major highlight of the Iron Man comics I’ve read. Also- knowing this background will definitely make Civil War II have more weight

#8-12- Tony gets the actual daylights beaten out of him and then some, leading into a compelling 2-issue Mandarin arc, this then leads into an interesting 2-issue team up with Warbird that gives us an answer as to why his injuries were so bad. It hurts but it’s good

#13- an actually really compelling single-issue story that involves some trippy, creepy mind control stuff and takes a look into Tony’s head- specifically questioning whether or not being Iron Man has become an addiction. You can’t tell yet but I’m trying my hardest to not recommend every single issue

#26-30- The Mask in the Iron Man arc. This is the first issue without Busiek writing- Joe Quesada steps in and it’s good stuff. It’s also Sean Chen’s last arc. It starts with Tony punching a guy in the face to protect Rumiko but getting punched back and having to wear a nose splint- it’s really cute. Then Tony and Ru run into relationship problems. Then the Iron Man armor becomes sentient, basically falls in love with Tony, and kidnaps him on a remote island. Wait-what? Yeah, it’s really weird in hindsight, but while you’re reading it, it sure does pull you in. One of the biggest standouts of the whole era and something of an instant classic. Also, the first few pages of #31 give you a little aftermath.

#37-40- this wasn’t my favorite arc but I’m recommending it just because of how wild it ends up being. These were the days when IIM wasn’t afraid to have a big imagination. And I mean big, like, who thought of this? Well, Frank Tieri is writing at this point (he’s okay, not my favorite of the volume), and Alitha Martinez & Paul Ryan are on pencils (it’s fine, but you’ll miss Sean Chen) (you’ll always miss Sean Chen). Also, a major player in this arc is Tiberius Stone so maybe read it to know who he is.

#50- “Tinman”. Issue 50 was meant to be a place for new readers to jump in. Mike Grell & Michael Ryan are at the reigns as writer and artist. Grell’s characterization was fairly solid, my favorite next to Busiek in this era. His version of Tony is more in touch with his emotions, I guess, than some like to characterize him. Sometimes he gets aggressive when he’s angry but there’s also a lot of really sweet moments and they portray him as doing a lot of good, like funding a rehab/safehouse for kids on the street. Grell’s stories are generally grittier and more violent but Tony himself doesn’t really take a dark turn. Issue #50 has both action and a VERY SOFT Tony, definitely recommend it

#53-55- “Book of the Ten Rings”. Again, it’s grittier than the stuff that came before it, but it’s good. Once the main story wraps up, something really important happens at the end. Also, it’s important to note here for people that weren’t previously into comics that at this point, Pepper and Happy are a thing, not Pepper and Tony as seen in the MCU

#59-61- “In Shining Armor”. Tony travels back to Medieval times and it’s not exactly a good time for him but it’s a wild time for us. Gotta love a good old fashioned time travel arc

#62-63- “You Can’t Always Get”. Oh god PLEASE read this one, if you only listen to one of my post-Busiek & Chen recs this is the one, the Tony content is so precious

#73-78- “The Best Defense”. The arc detailing Tony’s journey to becoming Secretary of Defense because yes, that happened. A very interesting concept to watch Tony go through and one of the most notable stories in this era.

Volume 4 (2005):

This is the last of what I consider the Really Good Stuff (except for Civil War, but we’ll get there). These comics defined Tony Stark as we know him today, and you’ll notice that MCU Tony was definitely influenced by them. If you’re starting here, it’ll be Iron Man as you basically already know it. If you’re coming here off of Volume 3, then you’ll notice the tone of not just the stories but of Tony himself get darker. For whatever reason, writers looked at Tony and said “let’s find ways to bring his morals into question bc that’s Interesting!” It’s not bad (the Iron Man title, that is- Civil War is bad) but it doesn’t really reflect what came before it, I guess. I’m recommending all 35 issues bc why not but I’ll break it down for ya & make sure to point out my favorites

#1-6- “Extremis”. A must read. One of the most iconic Iron Man stories in 21st century comic history. It’s on everyone’s list. You are, as an Iron Man fan looking to get into IM comics, legally obligated to read this. This would also be the arc where I believe the MCU looked for inspiration for Tony characterization. Also Extremis obviously ended up in the MCU but it’s like way different in the MCU than in the source material

#7-12- “Execute Program”- Basically, Tony is screwed up post-Extremis. Poor guy. Please read this. Directly leads to Civil War…

Civil War (2006) #1-7- Ugh. So. Civil War. In my personal opinion- not a fan. I actually like the movie MUCH better and imo the movie is the way this should have been written. Unfortunately, you’ve gotta read it because it’s an important event. You’ll see people calling it “Tony Stark characterization murder” and THAT’S VALID. Like. Tony suddenly became...a villain?? literally the worst?? under the poorly written guise of “just doing what I have to do” but the stuff that happens….it just can’t be explained with “doing what I have to do”. Honestly it reads like the writers just wanted to pit Tony against Steve and didn’t care about keeping him in character. Tony basically had to be turned into a villain to make the story work because In-Character Tony would not have fit their needs. It sucks and I don’t want to recommend it but you have to read it because it affects so much that comes after it.

THE ONLY CIVIL WAR ANYTHING YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER are tie ins and oneshots and I will tell you a couple

Invincible Iron Man #13-14- IIM’s CW tie ins. Issue 13 comes after CW #2, issue 14 after CW #5. Read these

Captain America/Iron Man: Casualties of War- oneshot to be read after Civil War #4. Tony offers Steve the chance to try and talk it out. Both explain their positions and a lot of comic history between them is brought up.

Civil War: The Confession: SO after CW, SPOILER SPOILER poor Steve is assassinated in Captain America #25 (it’s actually more wild than that bc superheroes don’t just die but whatever) and this is a oneshot with two halves, the first takes place after Steve is dead and is Tony-centric and I LITERALLY CRIED and the second takes place when Steve is imprisoned before he is killed. PLEASE read this

There’s more tie ins involving Tony that you should read but I’m sick of talking abt CW

BACK TO THE IRON MAN SOLO TITLE

Sooooo the title now changes from Invincible Iron Man to Iron Man: Director of SHIELD but it’s the same book

#15-18- It’s Tony’s first story arc as Director and it ends up being kind of wild actually

#21-28- ‘Haunted’. Starts out as a sort of murder mystery thing, spirals into something much bigger. Also, poor Tony is so screwed up in the head but what’s new. Definitely read this one

#29-32- ‘With Iron Hands’. Basically, an entire arc of Tony feeling guilty about his past?? Pretty much. There’s also a terrorist and a giant weapon and more fun stuff. The last you’ll see of Tony for the volume bc stuff goes down in the Secret Invasion event and War Machine takes over for the last 3 issues of the title. Wish I could be of help in regards to Secret Invasion, but I haven’t actually read it because I haven’t been able to find it. Just, idk, google search the plot of Secret Invasion like I did and you should be able to get by

Invincible Iron Man (2008) AKA Other Volume 4:

Okay lots of comics fans think this is one of the best Iron Man runs in history and I respect their opinions and perhaps you will share them but I’m gonna cut to the chase here: I am not one of those people. Look, I read all 62 issues so I have a fair opinion, and I’m just not a huge fan. Matt Fraction is writing and Salvador Larroca is drawing. In my experience, the stories drag on and it gets to the point where you’re just bored. I think I read the 89 issues of volume 3 faster than I read the 62 issues of this because I was just so bored with it. Also, I’m really not a fan of Larroca’s work on the book. I really disliked the way he drew Tony and the more I looked at it, it almost made me...uncomfortable? Some of his art is kind of gross imo. Plus, I didn’t love Fraction’s Tony characterization. I can’t quite articulate why, it just didn’t sit nicely w me. There were some moments where I thought “oh yeah that’s Correct” but many other moments where I thought “No Why Did You Write That”. He was good at writing some wild and intricate stories but sometimes I felt that character got lost in the midst of the action. That’s just me though, you might really like Fraction’s run, and there is some stuff worth pointing out.

#1-6- ‘The Five Nightmares’. A fairly iconic modern Iron Man story. Tony’s worst nightmare comes true when the son of Obadiah Stane uses Stark tech to cause absolutely horrific acts of terrorism. It gets pretty serious, but it sets the groundwork for this entire era of Iron Man. As far as Fraction stories go for me, it’s one of the better ones.

#7- Five Nightmares Epilogue. A team-up of sorts with Spider-Man that I actually genuinely think you should read, especially for the ending (and because Peter & Tony clearly wish they could be buddies again in this post-Civil War world).

#8-19- Okay it’s really long but I remember it stood out to me, all I remember is that it’s basically Tony Stark Brain Annihilation over the course of 12 issues and it hurts like heecckkk. Actually I’m gonna say definitely read this one. Also Rescue happens and that’s A Thing you should know about. Stuff gets fixed in the next arc, #20-24, but it’s not worth recommending imo so don’t read this if you’re gonna read it but if you’re not just know that SPOILER SPOILER Tony is fine except he accidentally erased Civil War from his memory (god I wish I could do that). SPOILER OVER

I think I’m gonna end it there for Fraction issues of interest. There’s probably more in there I should be recommending but I just. Can’t be bothered to comb through Fraction’s volume sorryyyyy I’m just not a fan

Iron Man (2012):

So this run is by Kieron Gillen and I don’t really want to recommend anything from it. I didn’t love it as a whole. Gillen laid way too heavily into the idea of “Tony Stark is a walking ego”. The stories were kind of interesting in theory but I thought the execution was mediocre for some reason. Although, not necessarily the art but specifically the coloring was nice- very vibrant. The actual art was by Greg Land who comic fans really seem to hate. I didn’t think his work on this was too bad idk. Again I don’t really want to recommend anything so there’s only one thing I’m putting on here and it’s:

#9-17- “The Secret Origin of Tony Stark”. So here’s the thing. Kieron Gillen said to himself “I need to do something that turns Tony Stark’s identity on its head. I need to redefine him”. And he actually kind of succeeded in that. And it’s actually annoying and it actually feels like something that should be retconned…. but hasn’t been?? And since it hasn’t been, it’s going to be important going forward so you should probably know about it. You could also just google it.

Invincible Iron (2015) by Man-Brian Michael Bendis

Yes, the infamous BMB. So, what’s the truth about his run on Iron Man? Is the amount of hate warranted? Well…that’ll be for you to decide. Personally, I think it was generally...meh. Not necessarily terrible just. Meh. Many fanboys act like this run is the bane of their existence and I don’t think I dislike it to that extent at all. I mean, it gets boring after a while, but the good moments are really enjoyable and I think it’s worth reading. Bendis’ characterization was sometimes weird because it felt notably inconsistent. However, the moments when he nailed it, he really did nail it. His Tony is a bit of a dork, a bit of a hot mess, a little vulnerable, and the moments when that’s at the forefront are great. There’s also some notable stuff going on here- Civil War 2 falls under this era (I hate it less than the first one but Marvel could do 50 Civil War events and I will probably not like any of them), and so does Riri Williams (who I love, just to get that opinion over with). Finding recs for this era is kind of weird for me because the things that stood out were almost never actual issues or stories, but rather specific character moments, so like, the volume is only 14 issues so tbh you can just trudge through them all and savor the good moments, but I’ll try to pull some recs out for ya

#2, #3- just for some character moments. These two are a part of a larger arc so it might be a little confusing to read them on their own but who cares

#4, #5- Tony fights ninjas and visits kids at a hospital and MJ Watson & Doctor Strange make appearances so it’s kinda cool idk

#9-11- only because you meet Miss Riri Williams, the other parts won’t make sense since it’s in the middle of an arc but eh. Honestly the actual story didn’t strike me as being very special so like unless you’re into it you can just skim for the parts that Riri is in since she’ll be important later

Aaaand CIVIL WAR 2

Civil War II #0-8- okay I don’t dislike it as strongly as I dislike the first CW but I still?? Don’t like it?? Like at all? But something really important to Tony’s stories happens at the end and Tony is one of the main characters in the event so like. You should read it. The main problem I remember is that the pace felt so slow. This event is Iron Man vs Captain Marvel which kinda hurt me bc of how much I loved them from 1998’s volume but it’s fine!! They never address their past in the actual event but there’s a tie-in that does so that’s good I guess. Just get through it idk what to tell you

Back to Invincible Iron Man

#12, #13, #14- tie-ins to Civil War II. #12 and #13 I think come after CW2 #2?? Maybe?? And I think #14 comes after CW2 #6?? Anyway #14 actually acknowledges Tony & Carol’s past so you should give that a read while going through the event.

Invincible Iron Man (2016)

Sooo some Serious Stuff happened in Civil War II that’s going to have an effect that lasts a while. I don’t wanna spoil it, though. When you do get to the end of CW2, you can rest assured that Tony will still have a major presence as a character in this title, but Riri Williams takes the spotlight. Opinions on her are mixed, I personally love her. This, like its 2015 sister, can honestly just be read all the way through, it’s only 19 issues, but I’ll try to find stuff. Also, Tony & Riri’s banter is ALWAYS golden so just read to enjoy it tbh. On we go!

#1, #2- gives you the background on Riri now that she’s taking center stage. She’s just so darn endearing.

#11- It’s basically an issue about everyone reflecting on how Tony is a good person and different from how the public perceives him. He holds orphaned babies from around the world. It’s good stuff.

#593-600- the numbering changed, there’s obviously not actually 600 issues lol. So yes this is kind of long for an arc, but it’s important because it resolves what happened to Tony in Civil War 2. I remember getting bored with it after a few issues, like it wasn’t bad I just remember it feeling slow. Idk. It’s important. Just read it.

Stuff that I don’t think is worth your time:

Invincible Iron Man volume 2 (1996)- I think Marvel was doing some kind of reboot or something because Iron Man’s origin was redone as well as The Hulk’s. It’s amazing how a run that was only 13 issues felt like such a large waste of my time. I didn’t think there was anything of note. I basically don’t even remember what happened in it. Also the sexualization of women was so casual and constant on top of the run not being particularly remarkable so yeah don’t waste your time

Superior Iron Man (2015)- I dislike the idea of this so much that I don’t even want to explain it ugh it’s a spin off of an event called Axis that involved some psychic type stuff that altered the personalities of those involved, boosting Tony’s worst qualities and making him evil. Marvel then decided to make a series about it and it’s only 9 issues but wow it’s amazing how hard it can be for me to get through 9 issues. I could barely read it I just so strongly dislike this idea ok so basically Evil Tony creates Extremis 3.0 which is an app that lets a person make themselves physically into the person they wish they were (In the pages of Axis, Tony personally made himself not an alcoholic because that’s not disrespecting an incredibly important character detail and there was one particularly awful panel of him drinking alcohol in front of a crowd of cheering people and saying “I missed you, sweetheart”). He is testing this app on San Francisco and effectively creates two classes of people- the “perfect” people who could access the app and the “imperfect” people who can’t and that goes about as well as you’d think. Then he makes it obscenely expensive to use which also goes about as well as you’d think. And more stuff happens. Here’s the thing. I’m sure many people thought the concept of a villainous Tony Stark was cool, but I just don’t like the implications of it. The way it’s written kind of gives the idea that, with his personality, Tony could easily become a villain. Given that some people already think of Tony Stark as a villain, reading it just made me cringe. And the WORST thing about it is that, while this is a result of Axis, it’s still Tony himself. According to the writers, he has “surrendered to his id and his legendary ego” (god I’m about to gag) after the mind-altering events of Axis brought those things out in him. Despite my qualms, was the book well-written? I will never be able to read it that objectively, so I can’t say. But clearly, as you can see by the size of this here rant (sorry), I dislike the very idea of it enough to put it on my “do not touch” list.

Okay. Wow. I finally did it. Wow. Six months and it’s done.

I am simply the mentor figure in your hero’s journey. As you get used to navigating comics and reading orders, you’ll find it easier to venture out, and there’s so many ways to go. A character crossed over into something you read and you liked them a lot? Look up their reading order. A writer or artist really impressed you? Do a google search and find what else they’ve worked on. There’s a whole world of comics out there. Go have some fun.

I leave you with 3 rules of being a comic fan:

1. No one hates comics more than comic book readers. We’re bitter because we care. You’ll be like a jaded war veteran who writes a thousand word rant about why a certain author’s mischaracterization of your fave offended you personally way faster than you’d think.

2. Follow the trail of what interests you and, while acknowledging what may be widely believed, proudly own your personal opinions.

3. It’s addictive. Embrace it. You start with one issue, and before you know it, you’ve read 200 issues and know 20 years of history on one character in less than a year. That might be how it goes for you. Just go with it.

Happy reading!

#lovelytonys guide to comics #tony stark #iron man #marvel #marvel comics

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zwritestuff · 6 years ago

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Only Angel - snippet

yes i’m finally writing the victoria’s secret au, scyvie side. here’s a snippet bc i wanna share with the world my love for this au and the vsfs franchise. 💓

The moment Scarlet turned into a Victoria’s Secret Angel, her life changed forever.

She had just arrived home from a gig, her body sore from the hours standing in a corset and stilettos, walking runway after runway. It was okay, she thought, one day it’d all be worth it.

Her career was rather fresh and on the very beginning; she joined the IMG Models family thanks to her manager and older sister, Pearl Liaison, pulling some strings — Pearl was a current Victoria’s Secret Angel, one of the most popular, actually. Her name was a powerhouse; it was convenient for IMG Models to have her little sister on their company, odds were she would breakout and achieve her sister’s level of fame at some point.

That had yet to happen, but Scarlet never lost hope.

She was coming off from the shower when the her phone went off, on the screen appeared the name of her manager.

“Nina, if you’re going to tell me I have to do yet another show tomorrow I’m gonna scream,” she whined. Although she loved walking down the runway, and the thrill of having all eyes on you, she had been booked for the entire week, including weekend. All she wanted to do was catch some sleep.

“Oh, you’ll love what I have to tell you, trust me,” Nina assured, with a cheery tone. Scarlet could see the smile on her face. “I have news from the casting director of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.” Scarlet nearly passed out.

The casting for the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show had been a month ago, and over a thousand girls had attended, among them was Scarlet. It was her third —maybe fourth?— try out. She longed for the day she’d be able to join her sister in such iconic show.

Just like every year, she greeted the panel of judges, told one or two jokes, walked the runway and did random poses, had a small interview about why she wanted to be an angel, and for the first time she mentioned Pearl: she talked about how much it’d mean to walk the runway with her sister, to be able to share this moment and spend time with her, since they hadn’t seen each other in a while.

Years before, she’d never said she was Pearl’s sister — well, middle sister, actually. Nobody would think they were even half related; they were so different in every possible way.

Ed Razek had shared a look with Monica Mitro, muttered some words behind his breath, wrote something down and thanked her for coming.

Scarlet squeezed her eyes shut, feeling slightly dizzy.

“And…?”

Nina was silent for a moment, and even though she had been so cheerful at the beginning, Scarlet was beginning to wonder if it was just a facade to not let her down right off the bat.

“Guess who they wanna book for the 2018 show, and as a full time angel?”

Scarlet dropped her phone to the ground, covering her mouth with her hands, holding back a loud sob.

She was on the show. She was an angel now.

The redhead kneeled to pick up her phone with an hysteric desperation, now uncontrollably sobbing. She heard Nina screech on the other side of the line.

“Fucking congrats! You damn deserve it!”

“Nina, thank you,” Scarlet managed to say between the sobs. “I— I can’t believe it. I’m an angel. A Victoria’s Secret Angel, no less!”

The newly proclaimed angel put Nina on speaker as she floated around the hotel room, dancing happily and maneuvering to get changed into some comfy pyjamas while doing so. Nina was saying something about booking a flight back to New York so they could make the contract reading, film some interviews and whatnot.

Scarlet said something about wanting to tell her sister about her contract, but Nina stopped her, remembering her about the company policy of not divulging the line-up and/or revealing the new angels before time.

The weeks of silence passed so painfully slow; she wanted to shout from the rooftops that she was angel, she’d be given wings and model for the most important fashion show of all times.

When the day arrived, Scarlet’s following flooded and her bookings skyrocketed — her face was everywhere; magazines, news, photoshoots she’d done for some brands long ago appeared on every big screen on the city that never sleeps.

Everything was going so well, so damn well, it took her off guard when things went downhill.

She was suddenly being marketed as Pearl’s little sister by Victoria’s Secret, and the media soon followed in their steps.

“When little girls follow in the bigger sister’s steps.”

“Things you didn’t know about the new Victoria’s Secret Angel — Pearl Liaison’s half sister?”

“Was Scarlet James contracted as an angel just for being Pearl Liaison’s sister?”

“Pearl Liaison and Scarlet James to be the first sisters to walk down the Victoria’s Secret runway.”

Everywhere she looked at, someone was saying her casting as an angel was only due to Pearl. And, okay, she did mention Pearl once or twice in her interview, but that didn’t mean it was the reason she got the contract… Right?

In the span of a month she went from flying across the sky due to happiness, to wanting to bury herself alive if it meant she’d stop seeing such comments on her feed.

Suddenly, being an angel wasn’t as awesome as before.

#Victoria's Secret AU #Only Angel #my fanfiction #rpdr fanfiction

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sophieelinorbrown · 6 years ago

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Six or so years ago when I was last in Paris, I went to the Louvre and I saw the Mona Lisa. She was in a big, central room that had multiple access points and while it was fairly crowded up front, I'm pretty sure I just about stumbled across it.

Her main digs are being renovated right now, though, so she’s been temporarily relocated to a remote island somewhere off one of the Louvre’s most far flung wings. A person of sound mind and body might consider a more central location given that roughly 50,000 people per day come specifically just to see that one painting, but I have come to understand that we are dealing with an evil mastermind. Only the purist of sadists would hide something that sought after so devilishly.

Let’s start with the initial line.

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You’d be right in thinking, “Holy shit, that’s a long line. But at least once I get to the front of it I can see the Mona Lisa in that little Auditorium thingy”.

No. You are wrong.

The Auditorium has nothing to do with her. She’s not in there. Forget the Auditorium. Much like an iceberg, the visible part of the line represents maybe ten per cent of it? Now is the time to get your affairs in order because you are probably going to spend the next seventy years in this line.

One nice touch, however, is the complimentary umbrellas given out at the front end of that initial line. Because you are essentially a big dumb ant under the giant magnifying glass of the pyramids above the foyer, to prevent spontaneous combustion they loan you a brolly.

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Once you’re through the ant-burning zone, you are unceremoniously herded up a staircase and into “two lines” to go through the security check points.

This is the first of many bottlenecks you will experience on your journey today. The second bottleneck will follow immediately. It’s a real one-two (three-four-five-six...) punch in terms of bottlenecks. You are funnelled into a narrow hallway, which is terrible for traffic flow but does work a treat consolidating those two lines back down again.

By this point you’ve been standing shoulder to sweat-stained shoulder with piles of other clueless art connoisseurs for a good half an hour. The air is stale. You’re starting to taste regret, but you think it’s been so long now, surely you must be getting close. How young and naive you are in that moment. You’re barely halfway.

Like lambs to the slaughter, you approach an escalator, and are shuffled mindlessly onwards and upwards.

One escalator. Then around the entire perimeter of the room to another escalator. It seems as if the Louvre has gained extra floors somehow in this particular area; floors which are only accessible via escalators. It doesn’t feel like it obeys the laws of physics, but that makes perfect sense given the lawless state you almost certainly have now entered.

At last you reach the top floor. There is sunlight. There might still be a god??

Or... maybe not. Your despairing throng still has to seep through this impossibly long room to get inside. There’s a banner of Mona Lisa at the doorway, presumably as some sort of morale boost. To my eye, it feels more like the propaganda of a tyrannical dictator. Toil, peasants.

Along with bottlenecks, the other common theme of this perilous journey is false hope. Every time you think you’re getting close, your hopes will be dashed. It’s like Da Vinci posthumously installed a complex series of mirages to accompany his painting.

When you finally make it to that doorway... PSYCH! She’s not in there.

You now have to march, single file, in a dense zig zag that folds in on itself and also spans the entire room. I’ve given up all hope by now. My spirit is broken. I just want it to end. I no longer care about the stupid painting, but I’ve come too far.

Finally, we make it to her room. Or, as I like to call it, Dante’s seventh circle.

It’s even bigger than the preceding one, with longer and more zig-zagging lines. People start to lose their minds when they catch a glimpse of her. It’s been four score and seven years since we first embarked on this voyage, it feels like, and now here we are. We’ve grown. We’ve changed. We’ve aged horribly.

A small area directly in front of the painting is cordoned off, and only small groups are allowed in at once. We have long since abandoned common decency, and as each section is let in, it’s every man for himself. Elbows are jabbing with a vigour usually reserved for the front row of a stadium concert. People are pushing and cramming in, desperate to get that Mona Lisa selfie.

I'm despondent. I don’t want to be here any more. I drag my feet into the front section and stare at this stupid famous painting with her stupid face and stupid half smile, hating this inanimate icon so irrationally.

We’re in there for, I don’t know, two minutes maybe? And then we’re told to move on. Get your photo and get out.

As I exit the room, leaving her behind, I feel intense relief. The ordeal is over.

See you in hell, Lisa.

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