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madfantasy · 3 years ago

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I haven't seen you post in a while, I hope you've been doing okay? How is everything? Hope it's been a good year so far for you 💕💕

You're too kind, u & everyone who made inquiries, bless ur hearts.. im sorry for disappearing, but yeah, I don't have net— using my phone credit and hope this posts..

I tried to record my voice answering this, like I sometimes did on tik, suddenly ended up trying to muffle the floods of my burning tears, so now I have an awkward vid of me talking then weeping out of nowhere, which a good reason for me to keep up the no cry habit, heh.. but seriously, I suppose I'm fine till I be conscious of it.. its much easier for not to talk .. even tho I'm aching to be back in thy company, lonely in my foresight to catch on to the present that joins us, hand held out to reach like minded souls but shying from the fear of forgetfulness occurring..

I'm fine tho, did few new stuff, merely drowning in too muchness and nothingness as usual, this month I guess you could say I took an act of mad fury in search of any happy source because the echoing silence and the swarm of sadness nipping on my brain cells thickened, and the reasoning merged with the obscene. So instead of giving my guardians the usual of 3/4 of my earnings last month for net and groceries, I spent it all. Ya know, as it was told to me it mine to do as I please? As being prevented any chance of work if it was possible, 't was supposed to be spent on art supplies & measly delights craved for years ?

Before hand, I've been begging them to take me for months to get any clothing or whatever, be it the first time I ever see a shop, then just to drive around, then just me peaking to the outside when the front door is open, merely seeking change I suppose. They kept vaguely promising me until they refused point blank— getting tired of my nagging, then their car just stopped working till this day. Its in the workshop rn..

Anyway, befouled by despair, needing the mere basics of life and not granted, I was delighted when i found a site to buy from cheap & pretty, I pressed buy without any further considerations, or taking their permission and thrilled to be able get gifts for my siblings too. I say gifts but really they are deprived necessities too and not even much just one each cuz well, they are 5 of my babies and to start with the top of priorities; we all draw

I could already see it, they can't help themselves; heck seeped through the clenched gates of their mouths, trying desperately to poison me with undirect attempts this time, cuz I bought for my sibs they're out of the option of calling me selfish. I was upping the same trance like state of vague existence dealing with them, absorbing their insults and degrading just to make sure my shi arrives safe.

Unfortunate for me, the site chose the worst carrier in this country

I did everything in my power to make it into their convenience, by embarrassingly messaging the carrier daily, they took a week of promising to deliver and flanking so my guardians reached a heated level of threatening, waving their hands nd almost tossing shi at mE saying that they don't care if they came and if i dared to order something again they'll do this and that. Not allowing me to open the door for the delivery guy when he comes, blaming me for missing vaccination dates (they kept missing them even before)& missing going to important places(again, they just didn't go to for ages), made them loose sleep, etc etc— in turn, I seen red and regretfully blew up.

I screamed at them its literally the only time I ever did this, it BECAUSE it easier on them & I'll do what I want whatever anyway, & to stop interrupting me while I try to explain things , then they suddnly back done and be like I'm not mad at u I'm mad at the delivery ppl, that they are proud of me for being able to do all this, and such sort. I left them to cool in my room, Idk how I did it but must have slam-gripped something so hard it chipped most of my short nails & cracked one, was glad I didn't hurt my drawing hand but yeah, goofy mani

They robbed me of the joy of anticipation & the dissipation of apathy, I started to lose sleep again and my liberating dreams left me and I don't think I remember leaving bed.

But still, If not force myself to do things.. there'll be nothing for me if I don't.. at least I know im able of that

I got my guardians happy tho after another tiresome refusal, by trying out one of those Uber-eat like local apps here, since they have no car and being disabled & ill, I ordered McDonald's for the first time. Slythry behind their backs per habit, told them someone coming and they had that look again, but thankfully the guy came through and didn't steal my money, heh. For a big 1800 calories meal I suppose it was passable, the happy fam faces I got was the real treat..

Oh with that thing with the credit card stating I owe them money, waited weeks & nobody got back to us? They started taking from my guardian's account directly to pay it, saying oh we did send you warnings--- TO THE SHADOWY LINES OF THEIR POSTERIOR A.K.A NOWHERE. Thankfully the account is mostly empty nd just for random transactions, i alerted my guardians not to use it. And again, my god, another round of endless calls and promises started, and we wait again so they just don't act as if we owe them a frking 17k dollars that we don't have.. was panicking cuz I have nothing and but my guardians were weirdly comforting about it and told me not to worry

One thing good bout no net is it made me stop thinking about life in general, and stop the tiny unnoticeable prick of misery when I have no input to share, trying not to helplessly compare people just living, in inflated style or not, in media, to my isolated-most-of-my-life style and missing much of that organic "life experiences and chances", heh. At least, my situation would be favorable to me if it was ever possible for it to let me have peace, or have the simple knowledge I'm not virtually imprisoned and have never familiarised with nothing of this world but the surrounding walls.. its nice to have more time to be consumed by muse and day dreaming that flutters life through my dull being and sing chorus of inspiring means for art to flow and finds its way delicately onto my realised canvas.. but no, I continued drawing whilst sight blurred with salty droplets contradicting that happy tintin dance on tiktok I worked so long on just cuz I couldn't stop, not the tears or the mad scribbles of determined intention to visualise the mourned excitement I need, hating everything I make

Somehow the lilac dream still intrudes, visualising me friends, living, in a quaint home, maybe we roommate, arm in arm we go to make every fracture of fate's encounters a disgusting adventurous thrill, like building a maze of cardboard or chasing each other in the dark.. maybe getting that half bleached head and endless ear pericings ... then it dies and I totally forget it..

But what those awesome headphones helped me do, literally blocks all their voices listening to Sev losing it and I can Waltz around not feeling gutted to go and interfere or play the referee each time. But I can't wear them forever, gives me a bad headache, and honestly; I can't be too neglectful.. my sibs hates me for it already hehe

At least these clothing came true to their measurements, felt the new sensations on how everything I wore hugs me & learnt the baffling ways on how "gender" and region plays different tunes on the same measurements. Getting fitting things felt like suddenly there's hope to be, for myself to be me, and ease this severe disassociation between who I am, and what my body is .. from how little I see myself nd consider it worthy of anything because of how long it been living like a phantom among people.. to numb this dysphoria until it be gone one day

Saddened that the only site I can't order from again if they keep using that awful carrier

...

I missed our country's 91 national day, too. They made sales everything 91 riyal so.. but knowing the sellers here, I don't think most of em went true with their offers.. Horrible news tho on the celebrations, sigh

I turned this into a dear diary, guess bothered you enough today, sorry

So thankful to yous, Idk if I can be back, but I'll remain creating, and will keep the thought alive of being tickled when sharing my creations with your viewing pleasure somehow

'till then my precious dears, take care 💛🙏

26.9.2021, 8 pm, sleeping

#ask #text #diary #personal #my art #miss

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artificialqueens · 4 years ago

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Me and You Together, 2/10 (Taywhora) - Ortega

fic summary: The cardinal rule of having flatmates is that you Do Not Catch Feelings For Your Flatmates, because everything inevitably goes to shit and gets made horrifically awkward. A’whora and Tayce both know this, but being in first year of uni and making good decisions have never really gone hand in hand.

a/n: thank u so so much if you left a lil love or a reblog on the first chapter of this!!!! it honestly means the world and i do see and appreciate it all so thank u SO much! hope u all enjoy the next chapter!

last chapter: December- A'whora and Tayce finally kissed after months of build-up after A'whora was jealous of the attention Tayce recieved on a night out.

this chapter: September- On a damp, bright Saturday in September, six flatmates move into their student flat and meet for the first time.

***

september- i can’t remember when we met

It’s a damp, bright day when Tayce arrives in the city for the first time.

She’s been here before- once when she was eight and again for the open day- but today it’s as if she’s seeing everything through fresh eyes. The sunshine on the puddles on the pavement gives everything a sparkle and a kind of magic, and the blue sky that pokes out from the jagged edges and roofs of stone buildings fills her with a sense of excitement and optimism.

They’ve been on the road since nine in the morning and awake since seven, and Tayce should be tired, shattered even, but she feels energised and alive as she peers out the passenger window and drinks in every last little detail of the place she’s going to be calling home for the next few years: the cobbled roads that make her Mum worry about the car’s suspension, the way the streets and roads seem to snake, dip and overlap over each other in a series of bridges and tunnels that make it almost impossible to navigate, every single little cafe and boutique and restaurant and office and kebab shop. The signs for places she’s never heard of and the buses on their way there.

Nothing can dull her excitement when they pull up on the narrow, hilled street where her block of flats are hiding, not even her Dad almost having a nervous breakdown at the wheel about the lack of parking. They decide to throw caution to the wind and park on the double yellow lines outside, her parents hurriedly helping her with her heavy, stuffed suitcase and the bin bag with all her bedding in it and walking with her as she not so much trundles but drags her things through the gates into the courtyard. Tayce takes in her surroundings with darting eyes, too much to drink in at once. There’s a high stone wall in the far left-hand corner and what looks to be the laundry room on the ground floor of the building beside it. A few scrubs of plants lined with bricks are dotted around the courtyard, where a few students are already sitting smoking. The rest of the buildings that hem them in are tall with little windows dotted all over them, and each side is painted a different colour: white, powder blue, or coral red. It’s an interesting combination but Tayce supposes she doesn’t have to look all too long or all too hard at the outside of the building if she’s going to be living inside it.

There’s some little tables set up outside with uni staff manning them, so Tayce leaves her parents with her things while she goes over to pick up her keys. It’s not a long process- she gives her name and she gets handed two keys (which she’s told are her room key and her flat key) with a keyring on them, a messy scribble that reads block 4, flat 10, room 2 with a four-digit code for the front door of the block. A welcome pack gets thrust into her other hand, and she’s sent on her way with an “enjoy freshers!”.

It doesn’t take the three of them long to find block four, but they’re instantly dismayed to find out that flat ten is on the top floor and there’s no elevator. Tayce’s Dad is left to carry her suitcase up each flight of stairs while her Mum takes the bin bag and casts a judgemental eye over each floor of the echoey stairwell, clearly nervous about leaving her oldest child in the care of five strangers who could all very well be psychopaths.

“Mum,” Tayce cocks an eyebrow at her, reaching out to loop her arm through hers as they reach the top floor and the door of her flat. “I’ll be fine, okay? I’m a smart, sensible, responsible, gorgeous young lady. You did a great job raising me, I’ll be fucking golden, okay?”

“Hey! Watch your language, missus,” her Mum warns her, and Tayce stops herself from rolling her eyes and arguing about the fact that she’s about to begin her actual journey towards adulthood in favour of giving her Mum’s arm a squeeze of apology. “Of course you’ll be fine, I know you’ll be fine. You’re still my baby, though, I’m allowed to worry.”

“I know,” Tayce smiles sheepishly, looking down at her phone at the message she’s got from her sister. Opening it, she ends up snorting with laughter and beckoning her Dad over to look. “You should probably be more worried about what these three are getting up to with Gran, though.”

“Shit in the kettle,” her Mum exhales exasperatedly as she looks at the photo on the screen- Tayce’s sister mid-scream in the garden, as her two brothers and her Gran appear to be in the middle of a silly-string fight. Tayce is doubled over as her Mum turns to her Dad, insisting that she knew they should’ve taken them all on the journey up. Tayce is inclined to agree- she knows there wouldn’t have been space for all of them as well as her huge suitcase, but her family are close and she’s used to doing everything together. As much as she’s excited for uni, it’s going to be weird living somewhere other than her big crazy, busy house in Newport, with constant noise and bustle and the walls almost bursting at the seams with love.

If she thinks about it too much though she’ll end up getting emotional, so she pulls her keys out of the pocket of her jacket and flips her hair over her shoulder, because it’ll make things easier for her parents if they think she’s as confident and self-assured as she seems. “Besides, I’m sure the girls I’ll be living with will all have their heads screwed on alright.”

As she turns the key in the lock and opens the door, she’s met with a loud blast of music from the hallway that almost physically knocks her back a bit. Tayce turns to her Mum and Dad, smiling tightly as if to urge them not to let the loud music discredit the point she’s made.

“Hello?” Tayce yells into the hallway, tentatively approaching the first room where the door’s open and that the music is blaring out of. When there’s no answer she peers through the doorframe, a little nervous. Inside there’s a single bed, a cupboard, a set of drawers, a desk, and a bedside table all in the same pale wood-effect colour. There’s also a sink, a mirror, and a window. It’s all a very basic set of furniture, but the girl inside the room is livening the surroundings up a bit. Her hair falls in bouncy brown curls that rest on her shoulders, with a purple ribbon that snakes through them and is tied in a bow at her parting. She’s pale with dark eyebrows but the little absent-minded smile on her face goes some way to assuage Tayce’s nerves, and she’s humming along with her music as she unpacks her clothes from the suitcase she’s heaved onto the bed.

(It occurs to Tayce, as a result of the fact that Madonna is playing and that the girl’s wearing a red flannel shirt tucked into a pair of high-waisted Mom jeans, that at least she won’t be the only lesbian in the flat.)

It’s the relief that prompts Tayce to yell out a “hey!”, which in turn makes the girl in the room yelp and snap her head around to face her, her mouth set in a slack-jawed expression of surprise which quickly melts into one of relief.

“Fuck me sideways, I just about shat myself there!” she laughs loudly, immediately turning down her music. “Oh my God, hi babes! I’ve got a flatmate, finally! We gettin’ pished or what?”

Tayce bursts out laughing, darts her eyes to her Mum and Dad’s slightly horrified expressions from further down the hall. “Bit early for that, nah?”

“It’s never too early in Scotland!” the girl cackles, approaching Tayce and immediately giving her a hug. “Hey flatmate, I’m Lawrence! Do you want a drink?”

Tayce keeps trying not to laugh but fails when Lawrence looks out into the hall and sees Tayce’s Mum and Dad, her face immediately falling in embarrassment.

“Oh. Hi, Mr and Mrs Flatmate! I’m Lawrence!”

Tayce snorts at the way her Dad gives her a resigned wave and how her Mum’s face is the picture of grimaced concern.

“I’m Tayce. That’s my Mum and Dad,” she introduces. Then, slightly embarrassed about the fact she’s got her parents with her, follows it up with, “But they’ll be leaving soon anyway.”

She hears a muttered “charming” from her Dad.

“What room’ve you got?”

“Uh…” Tayce checks her keyring, reminding herself. “Two.”

“That’s next to me!” Lawrence says enthusiastically, banging on the wall at her side as if to make her point. “Here, I’ll let you go get unpacked and say goodbye to the fam and we’ll chat after that, awright? I’ll see you after.”

“See you in a bit,” Tayce replies, trundling her suitcase down the hall as her parents follow her. As she unlocks the door to her room, she turns to them and smiles encouragingly. “See? She seems nice!”

Her Mum’s raised eyebrows prompt her not to push things.

Tayce’s room is identical to Lawrence’s- the furniture’s all in the same positions and all in the same style. A little further down the corridor past the other bedrooms is the kitchen and living-room area, which her Mum runs her fingers over to check it’s been cleaned properly. When it’s been established she’s satisfied with it the three of them return to Tayce’s room, empty apart from her belongings. The blank canvas fills her with a little tingle of excitement at the possibility of getting to decorate it all to make it properly hers, chill and cosy just like her room at home. When she thinks about home again, though, it makes her want to burst out crying and never stop, so she turns around to her parents and takes a little breath, fixing a smile onto her face.

“Well! I guess you two can leave me to get up to all sorts of mischief now. Drink beer upside-down from a tube or…whatever happens here.”

Her Mum tearfully laughs and it becomes even harder to stop herself getting upset. She asks Tayce if she wants she and her Dad to stay to help her get unpacked or if she wants to go for some food anywhere, but Tayce’s Dad, stoic as ever, says what Tayce wants to but won’t in case she hurts her Mum’s feelings- that Tayce will want to talk to her flatmate, and she won’t want her parents hanging around for too long.

So they hug goodbye tightly with tears in their eyes and snuffly noses, Tayce promising to phone every week (but she’ll probably get so homesick that it’ll be more frequent than that). She feels guilty as all hell waving her parents off down the stairs, as if she’s leaving some well-loved pet behind at a rehoming centre, but she tries to push down her emotions in favour of the small rush of excitement that’s beginning to bubble up through the upset- she’s here, it’s uni, it’s freshers, this big event that’s been built up so much in her mind.

She hopes it lives up to the hype.

It’s when she closes the front door that she hears a movement behind her, a series of small thuds against the floor.

“Right! You wanting a drink now?”

Lawrence sits in Tayce’s room while she unpacks and they talk like old friends. There’s not really any awkwardness with Lawrence; she’s outgoing and energetic and knows how to hold a conversation. Because of this, Tayce would’ve guessed she’d be studying something to do with film and TV, but it turns out she’s studying textiles and she gets excited when Tayce tells her she’s studying fine art because they’ll both have lectures at the art college. Lawrence is seventeen which shakes nineteen-year-old Tayce to her core, and they have a huge discussion about how the hell they’re both starting uni at the same time when there’s such a disparity in age between them. It turns out that the answer is Tayce taking a year out to decide what she wanted to do with her life after sixth form, and a Scottish school system that lets kids start school at the age of four. Lawrence doesn’t seem worried that her inability to get into clubs will hinder her freshers’ week, as she’s got a friend who’s in second year and is letting her borrow her ID for the week (Lawrence’s post-9pm alias for the next seven days is named Rosé McCorkell).

“How come you didn’t just take a year out and wait til you were eighteen?” Tayce asks, taking a sip of peach schnapps from one of the plastic tumblers Lawrence has offered her.

“Because I didn’t want to,” Lawrence shrugs, and Tayce raises her eyebrows in a fair enough. “I wanted to leave home- not in a bad way, but I was just bored. You’d be too if you lived there.”

Lawrence is from Helensburgh, a town Tayce has never heard of but apparently has a Waitrose and that’s about it. This indicates to Tayce that Helensburgh is a town full of Tories. No wonder Lawrence was in such a rush to get away.

Her parents seem like they’re the cool kind of parents. They dropped her off at the flat at two in the afternoon with her suitcase and a Sainsbury’s bag full of alcohol for the week (hence the reason she has so much for someone who can’t legally buy it). Her Dad doesn’t really agree with what she’s decided to study, because apparently she got the grades for something like Law or Medicine and he wanted her to do something where she was guaranteed stability and a career. In response to this Lawrence apparently sent off five different applications to five different art schools in one of the most silent, passive-aggressive fuck you-s in history.

Tayce can relate to this. She tells Lawrence what it was like to have finally decided on something to do at uni, only to be met with “are you really sure?” and “do you think that’s wise?” and “but what will you do with that?”. They moan about how it’s so frustrating to have to justify wanting to study something when really the only desire comes from just finding it interesting, or fun, or being passionate about it.

They’re about to launch into a conversation about what each of their experiences at school had been like (stemming from a story Lawrence told her about telling her guidance counsellor to get fucked when he suggested she should train to be a teacher) when there’s a commotion out in the hall, which in turn makes the two of them run to the doorframe in excitement. They find two new flatmates laughing and grappling with their suitcases which appear to have become stuck in the small hallway: one with straight, flowing dark hair that hangs over her shoulders, dark makeup, leopard print sweatpants and an excitable smile on her face, and the other with a chaotic blonde bun that looks as if they’ve slept in it, a black bralet underneath a denim jacket, and a little Kate Moss-esque gap in their teeth when they smile.

“Here! You wantin’ a hand with those?” Lawrence yells, and the two newbies give a shriek of delight, abandoning their suitcases and climbing over them to hug their two new flatmates.

They talk at about a mile a minute as they introduce themselves and pile into Tayce’s bedroom, uninvited but by no means unwelcome. Leopard-print sweatpants’ name is Tia and bun-head’s name is Bimini. In a spooky twist of fate it turns out that their seats happened to be opposite each other on the train up, and they got talking and realised they were both going to be at the same uni, in the same accomodation, and in the same flat. They’ve been excited and a little drunk ever since, Bimini tells them, the trolley on the train acting as a mobile bar for the pair of them to order endless amounts of prosecco and toast to their new friendship.

Lawrence and Tayce decide to let the pair drop their things in each of their rooms, while they relocate to the kitchen which is much bigger. Lawrence sets all her alcohol out on the rickety dining table while Tayce thuds herself down on one of the purple sofas, looking out of the adjacent window and taking in the views out onto the buildings and streets below. She’ll go exploring tomorrow, get her bearings a bit. Tonight is for getting silly with her new flatmates and sussing them all out. She’s lucky, though, that they all seem nice enough so far.

“They seem nice, don’t they? The other two,” Tayce turns to Lawrence and verbalises what she’s thinking, and Lawrence nods in agreement as she crosses over to the sofa and takes her cup to refill it.

“Yeah. I think we’ve got lucky, to be honest, My friend in second year- that one whose ID I’m borrowing- she’s told me total horror stories about weirdo flatmates.”

“We’ve still got two to arrive, there’s still time,” Tayce considers with a snort, and Lawrence shrugs in agreement.

Bimini emerges first, wedging the fire extinguisher against the kitchen door to prop it open so that any of the other new flatmates arriving will instantly know where they are. Lawrence shoves a tumbler into their hand like some sort of bartender and they all squash onto the sofas as they chat to their new flatmate. Bimini is another one who’s glad to get out of their hometown, and has come to uni to study journalism.

“I’ve already got the fucked sleeping pattern and constant hangover, so I’m halfway there,” they say almost proudly, their accent making Tayce laugh in spite of herself.

Tia joins them all as Bimini’s halfway through a rant about how hard it was to try and sort accommodation for uni, which the other girls agree with.

“They seemed to think I could commute from Helensburgh to here every day,” Lawrence rolls her eyes, and Bimini laughs in agreement.

“Well I had a fuckin’ nightmare as well. They tried putting me in a twelve-person flat at first-”

“That’s not a flat, that’s a fuckin’ small village!”

“Right! So then they kept trying to shoehorn me into an all-boys flat, because fuck, I don’t know…they heard the words ‘non-binary’ and thought ‘man’ I guess?”

“Jesus,” Tayce wrinkles her nose up. She can’t think of anything worse than having to share with a bunch of guys. No wonder Bimini didn’t want to.

Bimini laughs ruefully as they finish their story. “In the end I rang them up and said look, what do you want…do you want me to scan you a picture of my fuckin’ genitals? Why are you so obsessed, love, just give me the fuckin’ flat I want before I pass out!”

“I never thought how annoying that must be. You know, the whole all-girl flats and all-boy flats,” Tia muses, Tayce nodding in agreement. Bimini waves a dismissive hand.

“Aw, don’t get me wrong, I’m sort of glad they exist. I mean I already know I’m gonna like living here with you lot way more than a bunch of rugby lads who barely understand the concept of women, never mind me,” Bimini smiles, and the fact they’re already feeling positive about the flat makes Tayce’s heart warm. She feels the same- she’s getting good vibes from her flatmates already, and they’re doing wonders to offset the rumbling feeling of homesickness she’s pushed to the back of her mind.

Talk turns to Tia, who’s travelled all the way up from Essex. She’s studying computer science and is, in her own words, excited to turn up to her lectures and remind everyone that women exist. She’s another girl who’s come to uni straight from school, and from the sounds of it Tia couldn’t wait to leave. Essex girls- or at least the ones in Tia’s year- seemed to live up to the stereotype, and the fact that Tia didn’t walk around constantly caked in fake tan, lash extensions and heavy makeup made her a walking target for catty comments, poorly-concealed laughter and the occasional shove in the corridor.

Tayce laments with the others about how mean people could be in school. She didn’t have things too bad, she considers. Tayce was well-liked and popular for the right reasons. She always made sure to be kind to everyone (because her Gran would’ve killed her if she wasn’t) and if she had any nasty comments to make she kept them strictly between her and her best friend Cara, who she knew wouldn’t spread things around.

(She’s also the only person at school she came out to. She imagines her high school life would’ve been a lot different if she’d brought that into the mix.)

They’ve moved on to discussing what they think uni life will be like (Bimini is particularly looking forward to getting to make pancakes for breakfast every day) when Tayce notices Lawrence’s gaze lock onto something behind Tayce’s head. Her face grows shocked and awed, and a massive smile starts to spread across it. As Tayce turns around she sees another girl standing at the doorway into the kitchen with a similar expression on her face.

Tia, who’s sitting beside Lawrence, shoots the girl a smile and a wave. “Hey-”

“Aw, fuck off! Not you! Not you!”

Tayce flinches as Lawrence leaps up from the sofa, running across the room to wrap the girl in a massive hug. Their height difference makes the hug look funny, as the new girl is tall. Tayce always thought she was tall, but this girl almost defies the laws of physics. In fact, everything about the girl seems to work in extremes- her blonde hair is so thick and full of volume that her curls seem to stick out at all angles, barely tamed by a pink scrunchie keeping half of it in order on the top of her head. Her makeup is bold and perfect, two sweeps of eyeliner framing her big eyes and pink eyeshadow dusted over her lids. Two huge heart-shaped purple earrings hang from her ears embossed with the word “bitch”, which skews Tayce’s first impression somewhat. But the girl is also in a full pink tie-dye Barbie tracksuit, so she can’t be all that mean.

Lawrence finally releases her from the hug, and the girl’s laughing breathlessly as she continues to talk. “What are you actually doing here?”

The girl splutters a laugh, shakes Lawrence by the shoulders. “Bitch! I live here! I’m moving in!”

Lawrence gives a screech of excitement again, throwing her arms around the girl and swaying her from side to side. Tayce shares a look of bewildered amusement between Bimini and Tia, none of them any the wiser as to what’s going on.

When Lawrence releases the girl again, she addresses the others this time. “Well, folks, it looks like we finally got a shatmate!”

“Fuck up!” the girl shoves her side, then dashes over to the sofas. “Hey! Nice to meet you all, I’m Ellie!”

The others all get up to hug her excitedly and introduce themselves, happy that they’re all one step closer to having a full flat, and Ellie budges up in between Lawrence and Tia on the sofa opposite Tayce as she chats about herself and learns about the others. It turns out that she and Lawrence are old friends in the most bizarre coincidence ever.

“Every Easter my family would go down to the Haven holiday park in Northumberland,” Ellie tells them the story, looking at Lawrence with a rueful smile on her face. “And we’d always get the same caravan. Well, my family got talking to the family in the caravan next door, and they had a daughter the same age as me and my brother. Turns out it was this cunt, wasn’t it!”

Lawrence laughs, smacking Ellie on the arm. “We ended up going down at the same time every year! This was from when we were six right up until we were like, sixteen. And me and her and her brothers would cause absolute abject riots together. We’d spend all day in the arcade doing the dance mats-”

“And we’d always thrash you because you were so shit!” Ellie squeals, the others laughing as Lawrence gives Ellie another thump. “I still remember when you kicked the poor guy in the Bradley Bear costume in the balls because I was so scared of him that I was crying!”

“Jesus Christ, we’re really kicking off with the embarrassing stories already,” Lawrence rolls her eyes, but from the little twinkle in them Tayce can tell she’s not really too bothered.

Ellie’s another seventeen year old (Tayce makes some joke about Scotland’s school system sending infants to university) but she seems to have ordered a fake ID off some website and it looks legit enough, Tayce inspecting it as she passes it around proudly. She’s from a place called Broughty Ferry (“but it’s easier to just say Dundee”) which has a beach and a funfair and a caravan park.

“It’s the posh part of Dundee, which is a bit of a juxtaposition in all honesty,” she explains, earning a blurt of a laugh from Bimini.

Ellie’s the first in her family to go to university, and she’s studying costume design which makes Lawrence and Tayce excited about having someone else to walk over to the college of art with in the mornings. It turns out she’s got two brothers, one of which is her twin, and she and Tayce bond over how weird it’ll be to not be living with their siblings for the first time in their lives.

Tayce doesn’t know when the minutes turn to hours but they do, the sky outside gradually growing a little darker before she even realises it. In all honesty, she feels she’s got lucky with her flatmates; they all seem to be a good laugh and kind and normal enough. It’s odd, though, that there’s still the five of them. Tayce checks her phone and she sees that it’s gone seven.

“Do we think the other girl’s going to come tomorrow?” she wonders out loud, as Tia tops up Ellie’s glass with the litre bottle of vodka she’s brought with her.

“Maybe? Bit weird not coming for the first night of freshers,” Ellie wrinkles her nose in disapproval.

“Well maybe she’s got a long haul flight or something,” Tia shrugs.

“I hope she’s not posh.”

Ellie rolls her eyes and turns to her friend. “Lawrence, you think anyone that’s from anywhere south of Paisley is posh.”

Tayce snorts at Ellie’s delivery and Lawrence’s affronted reaction, despite the fact she couldn’t put Paisley on a map if you paid her. Just then, Bimini emerges from the hall, having been to their room to grab some cigarettes so they can smoke out the window.

“We talking about the last flatmate? There’s someone moving around in the room next to mine.”

Tayce’s eyes widen a little as she looks at the others. “Have they just arrived?”

“Nah, door was shut so they’ve probably been there a while, we just ain’t noticed. Too busy getting bevved.”

“How come they’ve not come through?” Lawrence asks, her eyes narrowing. Ellie gives her a dig in the ribs with her elbow, her drink sloshing out of her glass a little.

“Because you screeching every word you speak doesn’t exactly scream ‘calm, welcoming environment’?”

“Did you knock on the door?” Tayce asks Bimini, who pulls a face.

“Well, it was kinda awkward. Think they might’ve been crying. I could hear a lot of sniffing. Still, maybe they just got a runny nose. Or they were doing a key.”

The girls all splutter at Bimini’s turn of phrase, but something heavy and uncomfortable lodges itself in Tayce’s heart at the thought of one of her new flatmates in their room on their own, alone and upset. That could very well have been Tayce if she hadn’t had Lawrence’s infectiously funny energy to pull her out of her potential slump. She decides to slide off the sofa, decisive if a little nervous.

“I’ll go see if I can talk to them.”

“Should we come with you?” Ellie asks earnestly, earning her a snort from Tia.

“Babe, the last thing she wants if she’s upset is all of us barging into her room half-drunk and hyper!”

As the others laugh, Tayce watches an ashamed little blush colour Ellie’s face. She shrugs and addresses her new flatmates as she heads towards the doorframe. “I’ll be five minutes tops. Then we can all get ready to go out.”

Tayce leaves and her plan makes the others give a little cheer of anticipation. She’s admittedly a little nervous, though. She doesn’t want to disturb her new flatmate if they just want to be left on their own, nor does she want to annoy them or give the impression of being too nosy. The only thing that keeps her approaching the room beside hers, however, is the knowledge that if it had been her in their position, she’d have wanted the same.

The door to the girl’s room is slightly ajar, but Tayce still knocks before she pushes it open a little. She doesn’t hear a “go away” or a “piss off”, so she takes that as a cue to go inside. As the room is gradually revealed to her, Tayce realises that Bimini was right when they said she must have been there for a while- the room is more or less fully decorated. There’s a string of pink fairy lights which gives the room a soft, warm glow, and photos are stuck to most available surfaces. A rose gold Macbook sits on the desk beside a little money plant in a dark green pot, and there’s stationary all perfectly laid out too. Everything is tidy and neatly in its place, and on top of the bed with its palm leaf printed duvet cover and pillows a girl is sitting curled up into a ball, hugging a well-worn cuddly toy cat to her chest which is immediately discarded under her pillow when she realises Tayce’s eyes are on her.

“Hey,” Tayce begins softly, acutely aware she’s intruded on an emotional moment. “Do you mind if I come in?”

The girl swipes two perfectly applied acrylics under her lashes, snuffles and gives a forced smile. “No, of course! No. It’s fine, come in.”

Tayce smiles tightly as she crosses the room, perches on the edge of the girl’s bed awkwardly. “I’m Tayce, by the way.”

The girl takes a little breath and composes herself. Her makeup is still perfect save from the small black smudges at her lower lash line and the way a little bit of her foundation has rubbed off on her nose. Her smile grows a little more genuine as she introduces herself to Tayce in her Northern accent. “I’m Aurora. Sorry, this is so embarrassing!”

“Oh, babe, don’t worry,” Tayce reassures her, shaking her head. “Honestly I was almost like that leaving my parents as well. Only reason I wasn’t was because I had the others to take my mind off things.”

“Still, not exactly a cracking first impression I’m making. Hiding in my room like a freak,” Aurora rolls her eyes at herself, stretching her legs a bit so they’re not hugged at her chest. She gives a little sigh. “Just…it was hard leaving my sister. We’re really close and I’ve not been away from her like this before. Longest was probably a week on year six camp and I cried like a baby every night then as well. Good to know not much has changed.”

Tayce smiles gently at her joke. “It’s alright, I don’t think I’ve matured much since I was in year six either.”

Aurora lets out a genuine giggle and tucks her long, blonde hair behind her ears. Knowing she’s helped her feel a little better reassures Tayce that coming to see her was the right thing to do.

“Probably a good thing that you decorated your room first anyway. I still haven’t made my bed, that’s a job for drunk me coming in tonight,” Tayce continues, heartened as Aurora laughs again. “You’re gonna hear me stumbling around with a sheet over my head like a Scooby-Doo ghost.”

“I’d offer to help but my goal for the night is to get so drunk that I forget about missing my family entirely, or that I even have a family. Or that I’m even a sentient human being.”

“Oh, that’s the goal right there. First night of freshers, gotta go big or go home,” Tayce winks, and the pair of them share a smile.

“So wait, are you next door to me then?” Aurora asks, tilting her head with intrigue.

“I’m on that side, Bimini’s on your other side,” Tayce points at each wall in turn, and Aurora nods. Tayce bounces a little on the bed as she slaps her lap decisively. “Speaking of, d’you want to come meet everyone?”

Tayce can see the uncertainty and hesitation on Aurora’s face. She clearly notices Tayce watching her, because she meets her eyes and gives a bashful sort of smile. “God, honestly, I promise I’m not normally this shy. I’m just scared that everyone thinks I’m a total weird bitch for hiding in my room.”

“They don’t at all!” Tayce protests, smiling kindly at Aurora as she insists. “They’re all lovely, honestly. Bimini is so fun already, Tia is really nice and so’s Ellie, and it’s impossible to be sad when Lawrence is around, she’s hilarious. C’mon, I’ll go with you.”

“God, I’ve probably ruined all my makeup,” Aurora moans, sliding off her bed and crossing the room to look at her reflection in the mirror. She turns around to face Tayce as she speaks again. “Do I look like total shit? You have to be honest with me, we’re flatmates.”

Tayce laughs at Aurora’s joke, and she looks properly at her flatmate. She’s got these big brown eyes and long lashes and Tayce is already a little jealous of both of them. Her lips are full and her nose is small and her skin is clear and glowing.

She’s really pretty.

“You look lush,” Tayce smiles supportively, putting a hand on the doorhandle and making to open it. “Don’t be nervous. I’ll even be your government assigned emotional support flatmate tonight, if you want.”

“Tonight? I think I’ll need one every night,” Aurora laughs bashfully, tucking her hair behind her ears again. “This was really kind of you, y’know. Thanks, Tayce.”

Tayce opens the door and holds it open for her, glad she’s drawn her new flatmate out of her shell and excited for the first night of freshers to properly begin.

“No worries. Let’s go get drunk.”

#rpdr fanfiction #rpdr uk #ortega #me and you together #taywhora #uk2 #lesbian au #university au #british au #college au #freshers au #roommate au #tayce #a'whora #friends with benefits to lovers #lawrence chaney #ellie diamond #bimini bon boulash #tia kofi

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jettremy · 5 years ago

Note

24 for cas :p

( * seven minutes in heaven ~ PART ONE. )

➥ ( 24. ) trailing kisses from stomach to mouth.

WHEN SOMEONE DUMPS YOU & takes a big fat chunk out of your bleeding heart, you usually don’t end up making out with them on an uncomfortable, tiny as shit closet floor after four excruciatingly languid years of no contact whatsoever, or at least that’s the case 99.99% of the time. that rare, peculiar and quite miserable 0.01% consists of the world’s tallest dweebus & his besotted memey edgelord who are in the midst of producing a well composed symphony of sharp intakes of breath and light humming that might just be heard on the outside of the closet door if a curious ear happened to be in the close proximity of it. even though they’re S O L E L Y making out for the time being, the smooth glide of their mouths, the home-like familiarity cassius’ embrace delivers, and the aching NOSTALGIA for better times lure these obscene noises away from jeremy’s vocal cords, causing the faint moans to slip into cas’ oral cavity and resonate in his lungs, the vibrations transmitting the t o r t u r e d artist’s inexplicable need for the older, equally sexual & emotional. his in comparison two-centimeter-smaller hands trace every available inch of the other’s body, getting REACQUAINTED with all the dents and curves and in a way testing his memory when it comes to the data his tactile senses have previously stored. once they’ve trailed and teased the skin atop cas’ entire spine, jeremy’s salacious fingers become entangled in the soft peachy locks on the back of cas’ head, tugging briefly in order to coax a sound or two out of the one on top before slamming their lips together deeper and deeper each time. he fails to be embarrassed at the telltale whimper he emits once their burning tongues lecherously tantalize each other since this is the man who’s aware of jeremy’s tendencies to get vocal & noisy when at their most intimate, and above all because this is the man in front of whom he has no shame, the man who knows even the dustiest, most moldy corners of his being like the back of his hand. jeremy’s cautiously leaning back inch by inch, his strong abs tensing and allowing him to do so until one of his elbows reaches the floor and he’s slightly propped up. his unoccupied hand gets busy kneading the flesh of cas’ inner thigh when a B I T E to his luscious bottom lip ends their kiss in order for them to take a breather. his other arm joint accompanies the previous one on the floor and jeremy’s stuck gazing at cassius with a leer plastered on his amused face, as if the older put all the stars in the sky for him. ❛ you adorable piece of fucking shit … you’ll be the DEATH of me, y’know that ? ❜ a throaty chuckle’s added for the emphasis before he, abruptly and without a warning, drags cas up on his pelvis, where he belongs. his big browns are invitingly flirting, and vomit-inducing butterflies slam at his innards when he detects cas leaning down for another round of desperate lip-locking. except, his digits find a job for themselves on the small buttons of jeremy’s silky dress shirt. sure, they have only a few fucking minutes and they won’t manage to get very far, but who is jeremy lee to stop cas from doing what his little heart desires ?

ONE QUICK SWIPE of skeletal fingers unveils a highly contrasting dark ink etched into a pasty, fleshy torso, displaying an artistic canvas in the form of jeremy’s chest & hard-to-maintain abs. among the scattered graphics, there’s one inspired by the splendid man atop, and it torments jeremy’s thin, dilapidated HEARTSTRINGS when he dips down to join his lips with that exact spot, the reposing male’s eyes naturally falling shut as he succumbs to the older’s ministrations and the gratification they give him. he can’t say he gives a damn about what he’ll look like when he exits the closet, with a collapsed hairstyle and devastatingly crinkled dress shirt, a suspicious, k n o w i n g look on his visage whenever he so as glances at his ex-boyfriend during the rest of the night, doesn’t concern with brainstorming about all kinds of gossip that will spread like wildfire due to the two of them allowing themselves to enjoy each other’s company in the way they truly desire. he’s jaded, enervated because of all the HIDING they’re doing, as well as concealing their once existing feelings in front of the group. he delightfully wants to inform everyone about cas’ favorite dishes he used to tirelessly, blithely cook for him, their hilarious adventures and the fact that he knows the older’s body better than his own, rant about his adorable, captivating quirks & kooky habits, brag about how he could make him blush without trying much, or please his every need. perhaps not every - if he had been capable, then maybe cas would have stayed, would have made it work, or would have taken jeremy with him, who was pathetically prepared to go to the ends of the world for him and with him, still is. perhaps then it would have been harder to leave, would be more HARROWING for him to be in jeremy’s immediate vicinity, perhaps then all of jeremy’s delicate touches would incinerate his whole being, both gnaw at & heal his ruptured, defected heart. perhaps then he’d feel like jeremy does, perpetually suffer just like him, carry a chest full of separation anxiety & a constant crippling bellyache, like an abandoned child ( which, coincidentally, he was ). it’s insane, worrisome that after all this time he only has HIMSELF to blame for not being worthy, good enough for cas to stay, for him to seek him out, reach out, check whether he’s well and with a pulse, say he misses him, thinks about him, smiles or cries when their memories inevitably surface from time to time, that seeing bikes on the street reminds him of the breezy rides jeremy would take him on, that tattoos will never be the same after him, dial him even intoxicated, out of his right mind. and though jeremy always slept with his sound on and phone right next to his head, never dropped the old number, he didn’t get a single call. too fixated on feeling him right here & right now, savoring his coveted touches while he still can because no one guarantees that this will ever happen again, he doesn’t detect the burning wet trails rolling down his face, paints his battle with suffocation as himself trying not to moan due to cassius’ cushioned lips being too close to his leather belt. he’s terrified cas would vanish if he asks him if he missed him, if he loved him, if he still has a sliver of olden feelings within him, if this means more than just cas needing him physically, more than just their starving bodies being PERFECTLY COMPATIBLE. and even though he dons a convincing mask every day in order not to perturb & plague two and a half people who give a shit about him, as well as not give the likes of han yeseul any material to inhumanely gloat over, he hasn’t been fine for the longest time —— he can sense himself slipping more & more, hands itching to burn a joint or an abandoned building routinely, too often for it to be considered normal anymore. a sane person wouldn’t let themself be manipulated, tortured like this, wouldn’t be collapsing under their ex’s spell once again —— alas, he didn’t learn & has no intention of denying cassius anything, which he imprudently affirms when he ravenously, anticipatorily grips his styled pastel locks hard as he awaits the businessman’s tongue to come in contact & glide over his sharp v line, causing his stomach to hollow and dip with the gravitational force, towards his spine, his tactile receptors both enjoying the sensation and finding it too much to handle. he exhales some of the pain from his rotten, aching lungs, wistful, hopeless wails for love emitted in the form of moans, his toes curl as arresting ELECTRICITY speeds through his limbs, causing his not expecting muscles to tense & clench powerfully as cas’ immoral mouth makes its way upwards, molesting all the sweet spots he’s aware jeremy has. his plush lip is nearly mangled by his incisors as a response to his hypersensitive nipple being toyed with and he can no longer restrain himself, prevent his hands from h a r s h l y gripping his former lover’s hips and making him relieve them both by grinding on him as more of jeremy’s tears pitifully roll down his pale temples on either side of his face. it’s not long before he’s cowardly tilting his anguish-stuffed head to the side, not only to conceal the fact that he’s crying but also to expose his neck in sheer NEED for cas, a string of vile curses bouncing off the walls of the treasured closet as he gets caught off guard with light suction on his tender flesh, whispering a hoarse, growly you can, knowing cas would immediately know what it means. he wouldn’t mind being eternally branded as cassius’, he’d haughtily wear any expression of love given to him by the adorably taller, just like he, hopefully, at least once, wore the ring jeremy got from his biological mother & gifted him as a symbol of his undying love. though he’d get paralyzed at the visceral memories of cas dragging his lithe tongue over his jawline, all the way to his shell where he’d whisper to him, now he forces himself not to shut down completely as it happens, not even when he gets asked why he’s crying. a deflective just kiss me proves to be enough to avoid the otherwise exhausting interrogation he’d be trapped in if he took the bait & answered that inquiry.

A BIG, HEFTY PILE OF DOG SHIT is undoubtedly worth more to jeremy than any of han yeseul’s opinions or words and would consequently evoke more emotion within him than she’ll ever be able to. the human equivalent to an intestinal parasite with an eternal, fat, spiked stick up its rotten ass will never affect his state of mind even slightly, or cause him to doubt himself and his actions even more than a mere millisecond. her little spiel the other day came into one of his ears and immediately exited through the other, safe for a single tidbit of information with which she fucked herself over. if there were any truth to her retching-inducing interest in cassius, she brought jeremy’s attention to it and now he’ll do everything in his power to sabotage whatever she has planned, because he’d rather die than let her defile & corrupt, rob the walking talking piece of heaven called cassius hwang. on top of that, he considers his ex to be highly intelligent & skilled at recognizing soul-sucking, good-for-nothing, money-hungry, skanky snakes. again, why the fuck does kerry hang out with her ? for a moment, he’s concerned about the girl’s neural cells and healthy judgement, or lack thereof. she must be at least half brain dead to hang out with someone with zero positive qualities. furthermore, underestimating jeremy’s ELEPHANTINE ego, unvacillating confidence & cockiness is a rookie mistake no one in their right mind should make since the honey-mouthed rascal is so self-assured that he’s in result convinced that he can woo just about anyone you could point at in a crowd of people. it’s downright pathetic how she ridiculously presents herself as overly self-confident whilst her insecure, attention-hungry eyes always stray to check if HE’s watching whenever she is interacting with cas, that she feels the need to send him taunting texts as if she’s fucking desperate for jeremy’s reactions —— FUCK, maybe she’s foolishly trying to make him jealous because she’s obviously fucking obsessed with him & not his ex ?! regardless, her devious plan to demolish what he has with cassius will be nothing short of a FAILURE, which is only further proven by the way the heated pair refuses to make their bodies part even as they’re aware that the majority of their given time has surely passed. ‘ ONE MORE MINUTE ! ’ a voice echoes, disturbingly close to the thin door, as if the meddlesome person has been listening the entire time, to the duet of smooching noises & responding grunts, but jeremy has no more than an eight of a brain at the moment & cannot be bothered to figure out who the owner of it is. with his spidery, inked limbs faster than his awareness of the action being done, he flips cassius onto the ground with determination and cages him, forces him to look at his overweening, lordly face up close before kneeling between his squat-thickened legs & slowly beginning to button up his unfortunate shirt. midway, he becomes bored with the tedious, repetitive task and yanks cassius up into a sitting position to finish that mundane action, only for his shuttered eyes to unexpectedly roll, head carelessly thrown back at the sloppy neck kisses he’s willingly receiving as his rose gold shirt gets fixed into the best state possible regarding the fact that they spent almost full seven minutes messing around on the floor. ❛ you know birthdays are sacred, right ? … you should spend it with someone who loves you .. if you get what i’m saying … ahm. let’s continue this tonight, after the party ? ❜ the evocative offer hangs in the air as jeremy’s gifted, elegant digits find those of the lanky male’s in order to hold them —— instantly they detect an INTRICATE ACCESSORY around one of the fingers, mindlessly lifting his hand up to inspect it since he cannot for the life of him hold eye contact as he awaits the nerve-racking response that could have painful consequences for his exhausted heart. promptly his orbs shine with recognition, shifting hilariously between cas’ browns and the object of his interest so violently and swiftly that they threaten to turn into an endless slot machine. he’s devastatingly BAFFLED, shook to the core, heart racing & hands blatantly starting to tremble. it’s that feeling in your stomach that only appears when you’re at the highest peak of a roller coaster, cart making a terrifying pause over the edge as it prepares to lunge down, and you’re a millisecond away from screaming your poor lungs out, peeing yourself and puking all over your buddy, but in a good way, you know ? —— does this mean anything more than cassius simply appreciating the ring for its aesthetic value, and is there any hope for the emotionally mutilated tattoo artist ? he doesn’t dare open that pandora’s box considering how little time they have in the privacy of solely each other’s company, but he wants to showcase his acknowledgement & gratitude for the fact that cas hasn’t tossed the piece of jewelry in the first dumpster after their parting. he topples over the man, pinning him to the ground strongly and nearly suffocating with a flurry of emotional kisses, those which shamelessly expose just how touched he is by a seemingly small, unimportant thing to the outsider, which means the world to jeremy. what he is yet to learn is that the festive group on the other side of the door is ready to steal this piece of heaven away from them and disrupt what they have going on. ❛ dae, it’s over, open it~ ! ❜ a particularly ( unnecessarily ) loud blonde amazonian shouts from the ridiculously boujee sofa once her phone startles her by having its alarm go off when no one in particular was paying attention to the device in question. shockingly obedient, daehyun gives the closet another awfully polite knock & announces that they will be letting them outside before poking their little head through the thinly cracked door, eyes innocently peering & needing a bit of time to adjust to the darkness before they yelp at the sight of the ongoing, all but chaste scene before them. embarrassed, with pink hued cheeks, they regretfully shut it and back away a little, whispering a few words of warning to the hot & bothered pair, so that they wouldn’t be discovered by the remainder of the group. they mentally smirk like the evil little minx they are, though, because their INTUITION was right yet again. ❛ guys ! hurry up ! ❜ daehyun rushes them in now full on panic when their ears pick up on a set of dooming footsteps coming towards them chillingly, and they’re right to do so, making jeremy laughably snap out of it & pull back from cassius in a matter of seconds, as if his ex has been crafted from fucking lava itself. shit. he clears his throat & straightens up, aiding cas to his feet and brazenly winking at daehyun —— he’s convinced they’ll be taking this mutually shameful little incident to the grave anyway, partially because of their baseless & quite frankly ridiculous fear of cassius. the cogs in his overflowing brain surprisingly start turning swiftly & he masterfully begins pretending to continue a business conversation with cas, something about promoting his tattoo show on his radio station, as they step out of the closet & join the ogling bunch, not paying them the time of day since he doesn’t want to see their prying expressions and beady little eyes scanning them from head to toe as if they’re america’s most wanted criminals. he simpers victoriously when cas announces that the game should be over in order for them to get to the established birthday venue in time for their reservation, and as everyone casually packs up & moves outside towards the over the top limo, jeremy bluffs being busy looking for something in order to be the last one out with cas who needs to lock up the place, only to steal a sneaky peck & give his irresistible ass a squeeze sub rosa. he runs off to join their friends before he can hear cas potentially complain.

A COLOURFUL DISPLAY OF AMBROSIAL DRINKS decorates the opulent, chic black table of the private booth, the grandest & most exclusive one in the entirety of the polished & tastefully stylized venue —— at the very arrival, a frivolous discussion was held about which celebrities might have sat in whose seat, neglecting the fact that KENT, OHIO isn’t HOLLYWOOD per se. jeremy has no doubt that this, along with the posh birthday dinner they attended prior to the nightclub, has only made a small dent in cas’ account —— a street rat like jeremy ( one that cassius’ affluent parents accepted warmly regardless of the fact that he wasn’t as well-heeled as them, for which he will carry everlasting gratitude in his heart ) could never imagine having enough money to splurge on a similar event he’d forget anyways if he let himself negligently dive into his notoriously reckless alcohol consumption. with his lonesome prepregaming, the drinking games they played, wine that was served along with dinner and this being their first round of drinks here, the architect equipped with a stomach of steel is still certain on his feet & clear in his mind, enough to pick up on a set of venomous eyes burning holes in his skull as he endearingly follows the birthday boy with his own pair of obsidians. since she’s withing an earshot & the music is yet to reach brain-liquifying levels, he scoffs & addresses her without allowing the others to sense any negative vibes. ❛ �� give it a rest with the ogling, yeseul … you’re not my type. but it seems that doesn’t go for that dude over there, so be a p e s t elsewhere, ❜ he motions vaguely until the literal demon goddess herself, chu yumi, comes to collect her frenemy ( & hopefully drag her back to the frozen depths of hell where they both belong ), buzzing about a threesome & whatever else jeremy didn’t manage to catch her ranting about due to her insufferable, fast speaking manner, and he can’t say he’s interested. though chumi has that same irritatingly-crafted, arrogant, emotionally fucking stupid vixen personality to her, at least he can go without taking her blabbing head off her shoulders whilst they’re together in a room for longer than five minutes, and he believes he could be tolerant when it comes to the other snake too only if she dropped her pitiful attempts to annoy him by messing with someone he obviously cares about more than anyone’s ever cared for her. alas, he was’t about to duel her & disappoint cas by quarreling and ruining his day, so he played it off as if he didn’t know she was staring at him because she was continuing to see through his bullshit, or however she phrased it that one time when she tried to lecture him. a light burn of booze down the throat deletes her presence from his already cluttered brain entirely & for the rest of the night he can’t say that she crosses his mind at all. it passes majorly with daehyun’s whiny, restless tugs & yanks of his silky sleeves towards the dance floor, and he ultimately does cave without being the single grim black sheep of the group, but he frequently goes back to their booth for a calming cigarette & another taste of alcohol, because without an intoxicating sip beforehand he physically wouldn’t be able to make a fool of himself carelessly in a dance circle. currently the artist is on a mini break in order for his feet & calves to recover, two pieces of a minty fresh bubblegum popped into his mouth after his last death stick; all alone in his seat, he’s checking the appointments he has for the next week, since he cleared the schedule for cas’ birthday —— the biggest pieces he already has all sketched up and confirmed with the customer, so he’s not too stressed about taking a few days off. he reflexively raises his unfocused pupils from the multicoloured pixels when he feels someone drop beside him, the deafening music preventing him from hearing their hard breathing, but he can see the hyper rise & fall of cas’ slightly sweaty chest. he carefully lowers his phone down onto the table, meticulous about avoiding a couple of wet spots from cocktail spillage, and offers the exhausted dancer his untouched glass of water, watching him gulp it down in seconds, making it disappear like a magician. always being generous ( philanthropic, even ) with compliments when it comes to cas, he leans up to his ear & makes sure to let him know how SEXY he was up on that dance floor, his hand unabashedly landing on his muscular thigh, the shell covered with nips & torturing, languid laps of jeremy’s tongue. light strokes & squishes interchange, as if he’s kneading dough under the table, and his free hand tilts the gorgeous, glowing man’s head towards himself. no one’s looking, he whispers nostalgically —— he frequently used to be on the receiving end of those secretive words when, nine years ago, they hung out in their neighbourhood & jeremy wasn’t openly CASSEXUAL, so he worried about kissing him in public in the fear of having his ass kicked by his homophobic friends. tonight, he’s the one to reassure the other that no one but strangers would discover them, and soon lazy, tipsy smiles melt & mold together euphorically —— it’s the club atmosphere, he assumes, heightening the sexual desire, since generally he would be more than fine with solely getting kisses for days, but now it’s as if he’ll wither & die if he doesn’t get the older on his lap immediately. a pleading let’s go gets repeated a couple of times in sheer need before the ache for cas’ body becomes so unbearable that he has to speak his mind. ❛ leave the limo for them, tell the driver to pick us up in a different car. half of them have scattered already anyway, they won’t notice we’re gone. if they do, i’ll tell them i took you home because you were sick tomorrow. —— fuck’s sake, we don’t have to explain ourselves to them. ❜ it doesn’t take too much convincing since when they look around there’s none of their friends in sight, most having found entertainment in each other’s or a stranger’s company. besides, they have the driver’s number shared in their group chat, as well as junhyuk having one of his own, as well as enough money to get each of them an uber SEPARATELY, so jeremy isn’t worried about those grown ass motherfuckers at all. he cannot recall the entirety of the following events, only getting some fresh air with cas before holding hands in the backseat of the car, small nuzzles exchanged as they did their best to keep their manners & not traumatize the poor employee. but he does clearly remember how they didn’t jump each other’s bones as soon as they set foot into the house, how they were both sober enough to know they really wanted each other, how they played it cool for a couple of minutes in the kitchen, or fuck —— maybe it was their ancient feelings crawling back, preventing them from doing it unemotionally, and instead setting up a slightly more ROMANTIC scenario than they would for a pure stranger. ❛ ah, but am i really worthy of your super special, limited edition, exclusive, vintage, valued at approx. couple a’ thousands o’ dollars whiskey ? tsk, you flatter me, cassie. ❜ a purr tickles the shell of cassius’ ear as jeremy presses his lean body against the older’s back. though he’s slightly shorter, he can still peek over the other’s shoulder and see him pouring some of the amber liquor on the rocks in two pricey glasses at the kitchen counter, and jeremy knows he could make him drop & spill all that money by catching him off the guard with his touches, but he can’t help it when his starving mouth grazes the side of his ex’ exposed neck, impatient hands pulling at the slightly tucked shirt & exploring the smooth flesh below. he hyperfocuses on the spot which elicits the loudest of noises, and he can feel a gulp underneath his tongue as cassius swallows his shot. he gives him enough space to turn around, one of his inklike brows lifting curiously as he gets offered his drink —— claiming his hands are awfully busy, he parts his lips ridiculously with the tip of his tongue poking out, bratty, daring but twinkling eyes observing him until he feels the liquid hit his tasting muscle, the excess spilling down the sides of his chin, luring out a few of his signature giggles. it’s as if a sudden switch is flipped when jeremy stops with his shenanigans & you could cut the tension with a knife between them when they both notice a glint in each other’s eye, rushing to collide their desperate lips, greedily suckling at each other & tasting alcohol, becoming braver & braver with each passing second, burning hands wandering, teasing, groping, pulling at the annoying garments as their backs hit the walls and counters in this lustful battle. and it isn’t until he gently grips cassius’ throat that they manage to catch a breath. ❛ on your knees, ❜ he commands calmly, unshakable resolution clear in his gruff voice. he knows cassius won’t be able to resist it, he knows his legs will shake at the sound of it. and why not bless a couple of different rooms, when they have the luxurious abode all to themselves ?

ALL SPREAD OUT ON HIS EX’S BED, jeremy’s cozily resting on his v-shaped back with dormant cassius all curled up and preciously molded into his side. the younger’s swollen lips are abnormally, attractively crimson in color, all the hemoglobin rushing to those overworked, puffed petals which are now gingerly pressed in a nurturing, soothing pucker against a smooth, golden patch of skin on the SLEEPING BEAUTY’s no longer sweaty forehead —— he’s been awake for the past nine minutes, putting his all into convincing himself that he’s not lucid dreaming or perhaps high as all hell, painting the unreachable picture he’s been yearning to see for the past four years. he’s whispering the sweetest of nothings as loving, no longer held back pecks get delivered to the comatose features of the adored individual, yet he knows not even those would wake the snoozing giant after how badly, triumphantly jeremy has tired him out, combined with the numbing spirits they consumed during their celebrations. thanks to this unlimited ‘cassius - vital information’ bank, he dexterously sneaks out of his embrace & dreaming nest, covering himself by a pair of fitted black boxer briefs which leave nothing to your devilish imagination, and heads out of the room in order to prepare one of his unmistakably appetizing culinary creations, which raise from the dead, obtain a glass of water & painkillers for a potential headachin’ beanstalk, but his quest is derelict once he hears commotion & a cacophony of bangs, hums & steps coming from the floor below —— it dawns upon him that cas isn’t the singular inhabitant of this chateau-esque manor and that having his studious, virginal mansionmate catch him at his peaceful dwelling this early in the morning and so scantily-clad would be a grand calamity. with a low curse murmured under his perfectly face-appropriate nose, he makes a swift half ballerina twirl & returns to his ex, an endeared smile blessing & stretching his pillowy lips when he sees the drowsy, dazed man blindly investigating the crinkled, still warm yet empty spot beside him in search for something or someone. HIM ? should he allow himself to dream that cas is needing him & thinking of him right as he lifts his heavy eyelids, and that he’s not hunting for an item as simple as his phone in order to check the time ? ❛ hush, i’m here … i tried to go and make you some breakfast, but junhyuk’s causing a ruckus downstairs and i doubt you want him to know i spent the night … ❜ jeremy thoughtlessly gives himself the right to assume cassius wouldn’t be overjoyed if anyone found out that they hooked up, let alone learned about their past. though the forlorn, anarchic tattoo artist himself has no problem with it, he’s convinced that cas would be devastatingly ashamed to admit his heart once belonged to someone as woeful, wretched, toxic & eccentric as jeremy, so he’s eternally thankful that taemin hasn’t squeaked to anyone about it yet. he dives deep into the softness of the most comfortable, homely mattress in the world, unlaxing on his side this time as he pulls closer the man who’s mirroring his position, the thick white duvet covering their nude bodies, safe for jeremy’s underwear slipped on in a rush. his restless, greedy hand finds its place on cas’ narrow waist and travels lower on its own accord, stroking & soothing each and every muscle it eventually reaches. ❛ sore ? ❜ an unhesitant nod lures a complacent, yet not too wide or toothy grin onto his amused features —— jeremy really did a number on him last night, but neither of them were complaining whilst in the heat of the moment, unbothered & unaware of both physical & emotional, inexorable consequences of their indomitable arousal & sweet sin. ❛ tired ? hungover ? ❜ the additional unreluctant affirmations cause a childlike coo to strum his vocal cords, and he brigs some needed moisture to his lips with a singular swipe of his proficient tongue before connecting their rosiness with his favorite pair in the world, heart pouncing humiliatingly when he feels a hand on himself as well, encouraging him to resume the session for at least a few minutes. here, right here, is his SERENITY, his SAFETY, his HEAVEN, his HOME —— right here in cas’ arms, where everything is okay, where the one who’s holding him is the one who’s to be credited for jeremy’s pulse not flatlining yet, for his insides twisting & curling, his palms sweating & toes curling, the one who makes him nervous & blissful, the one he wants to cry with and laugh with and live with for the remainder of his days on this cursed earth, the one he’ll love until the very last breath leaves his lungs, and even longer if anything awaits after death. he knows that a lifetime with this man wouldn’t be enough, that he’d be a REBORN BELIEVER, that he’d pray on his bleeding knees that death wouldn’t do them part. as the waltz of slippery pink muscles meets its end with a timid titter, jeremy’s caring thumb comes up to hastily wipe at cas’ bite-mark adorned lower lip, pecking over it as if to heal the lightest of imprints. he harmoniously entwines their fingers on the disrupted mattress between them, tracing the meaningful ring cas is still wearing, fondly, recalling seeing it in the closet, having flashes of his cerebration from back then, remembering their breakup, and the idyllic little bubble of bliss he’s been captured in since last night BURSTS without warning. gingerly, warily he brings their joint hands up to his quivering mouth & kisses the ring before wordlessly resting them down & gazing lamentably at the man he loves, as if he’s in mourning. he has no right to still be here, or talk about making breakfast and nursing him through a hangover, or even imagine hanging out for the rest of the day, cuddling, watching movies and maybe going for round number whichever. he yet again recalls their text exchange where cassius questioned if jeremy still had feelings for him, and he made it clear last night, whispering hushed I LOVE YOUs to him while they were making love repeatedly, and all jeremy wants to ask now is if cas has them too. he wants to beg him to spare him of all the misery, of tragic hoping, to help him either come to terms of it being fully over and aid him in moving on, or give him a reason to work on them, on getting back to what they used to be to each other, an improved version of THEM. but he can’t. and he has no right to try & sabotage whoever wants to get with cas, because he’s a free man with a mind of his own. all jeremy wants for him is to be happy, and he tries to convince himself that he’s been attempting to keep him away from bad people, but if they are the source of cas’ happiness, he’ll gladly step back. ❛ have i overstayed my welcome ? should i go ? ❜ he asks directly, eyes glassy and leaking onto the pillow below his tragic head. but all he wants to know is —— do you still love me ? can i have another chance to make it right ?

#riotvcn #answered #icb this is seeing the light of day LMAO #she once again said quantity over quality

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99centthoughts · 5 years ago

Note

i keep reading 'orion' as 'onion' so thats. who they are to me now

ONION……………………….. now im picturing orion as onion from steven universe and i am very stressed out by the thought

MORE ASKS UNDER THE CUT!!! (a lot of asks im sorry)

1) D..DONT DIE YET ANON……….. SOON!!! I have a break coming up and i wanna do more comics stuff 😭

2) LOL omg IM SORRY !!!! I Messed up the layout a couple of times while editing it so it must have been weird 😨

1) Hiya! Honestly I think it would be best to get comfortable with more realistic proportions before you branch out into cartoon/anime style! I did it the other way round and I regret it a lot, bc I think it made my foundations really shaky and inconsistent. THAT’S NOT TO SAY u have to master the traditional art style before u start drawing any cartoons though!! I think it’s fine to do them together, just don’t neglect traditional anatomy and all that, bc it will help you a lot in the future regardless of the style you eventually choose to stick to!

2) LKMKLDS ANON STOP NOW IM GOING TO THINK OF THE STORE WHENEVER I THINK OF JC ………… he would be Mr penney???? MR..PENNEY..

thank YOU for enjoying my drawings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ahhhh thank you so much for such a sweet message oh gosh ANON YOU’RE MAKING MY HEART GROW 3 SIZES!!! Messages like this make me want to share everything with everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’M HONESTLY SO HAPPY that my silly little tips and stuff can make drawing fun for you BC THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN HAVING FUN WHILE DRAWING!!! MAY YOU INSPIRE LOTS AND LOTS OF PEOPLE and most importantly I hope you always find joy in your own art!!!! THIS MESSAGE MEANS THE WORLD TO ME AND YOU DO TOO ILU ANON!!! IM GONNA KEEP THIS FOREVER

1) A NERD AND A PUNK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2) omg I have thought about basically every combination o f my ocs at least once anon lKMDLskdlj they would be cute!!!!!!! and a very calm couple… I feel like emmett would be patient enough to handle fay though it would take a lot to get there bc rn emmett is low key terrified of fay LOL

1) IM NOT SURE U WOULD WANT TO MARRY THEM ¾ OF THEM ARE A MESS!!!!!!!

2) OH I googled around a bit bc tbh I have no idea what they are called too, and I think it’s called the terminator/ half tone?? it’s basically the bit of colour between the light and the core shadow (the darkest part of where the shadow starts)

THe coloured outline of shadows that alot of artists do is an exaggeration of how it looks in rl but it is pretty neat bc it makes the object look like it’s glowing haha

1) AW THANK YOU ANON!!!!!!!!! it’s so sweet that you’ve stuck around for so long and that you take the time to do that!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HOPE I’LL KEEP DRAWING AND MAKING ART THAT YOU ENJOY FOR YEARS TO COME!!!!

2) OH no that plant is a random plant that I made up hahhaaa

1) HELLO AGAIN AND thank you ahhh it means a lot to me that you take the time to interpret and think about my art in such a thoughtful manner😭😭😭 It’s really sweet and it makes me look at my art in a different way? I was thinking that the redrawn version seems more stiff and I wasn’t sure if I liked them more than the old ones, but after seeing this message I was like ohhh that is true I did try different things with the new versions and that is something I should appreciate and be proud of !! so thank YOU for the lovely words, it is my absolute pleasure to share my art with u!!

2) HE IS YOURS PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THIS WHIRLWIND

1) I like using poses from magazines to study anatomy!! I either follow blogs that post magazine scans or I buy them myself when i can! Another thing I’ve found rly helpful was using fitness books/ videos as references… like those for muscle-building/ weight lifters, where there are diagrams of which muscles are working for a specific exercise. YOUTUBE has a lot of fitness videos, just type xxx workout, pause the video at any random frame, and u should be able to get a nice reference to study muscles with!! If u want references for the muscles themselves, some good books I’ve found helpful are: Strength training Anatomy and Anatomy for sculptors (I can give them to you off anon if you’d like)!

2) I HOPE YOU ARE enjoying the brushes !!! NO WORRIES AT ALL I’m happy to share my brushes with anyone who might want to try using htem!! SENDS YOU ALL OF MY LOVE BACK I HOPE YOU ARE ALWAYS HAPPY AND INSPIRED ❤❤

1) omg this is so hard bc there are 213213 options and I could picture them as more than 1 type of fantasy creature tbh ……… BUT FIRST ONES THAT COME TO MIND WOULD BE : some kind faerie for fay haha, werewolf for tyler, centaur for emmett, vampire for jc, some kinda elemental spirit for cyrus, an orc for wade, and UHH some kind of wise gate guarding creature for parisi LOL

ILY TOO AND thank YOU for loving my silly boys!!!!!!!!!

2) AHHHH thank u anon I WISH YOU ALL tHE BEST AND I HOPE YOU KEEP DRAWING AS WELL ALWAYS 💞💞💞💞

1) OR PERHAPS PARISI IS JUST ENORMOUS but also yes it’s true baby tyler is a tiny baby bean

2) LSKMDLKSM HOW CAN I NOT SAY I LOVE YOU BACK TO YOU THE SWEETEST ANON OF ALL TIME 💖💖💖💖💖

1) omg anon this is a lie I am terrible at drawing anything symmetrically and if I somehow produced anything to make u think so, it’s probably because I spent 10 hours on getting it to look ok LOL I.. TRY TO USE GUIDELINES and flip my canvas to check that things are balanced… that helps me out a lot :’D

2) thank u anon for this ask it is beautiful and I will frame it and keep it in my room to encourage myself to start drawing batfam art again

1) HEY ANON and thank u! I have a list of resources that I’ve found helpful here (at the bottom of the page) !! I hope some of that might be useful for you and feel free to drop me another msg if u need more/ want something more specific!!!!!!! ALL THE BEST

2) omg I havent replied to asks in so long that I didnt even rmb what picture this was referring to and I had to go back and look LOL HE’S TRYING HIS BEST ANON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE CANT HELP BEING AN AVERAGE MAN SURROUNDED BY MODELS HOW RIDICULOUS OF THEM !!!!

#thank u for ur patience i will try to be better with replying ..#ILU ALL #sometimes i wish i knew who theese anons are so that i can befriend them #kelno #Anonymous

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franeridart · 6 years ago

Note

Do you care for any of the dekusquad?

I care for most if not all hero-related characters in bnha! But if with care you mean if any dekusquad member is between my favorite characters/if I care enough about any of them to draw them more than once every blue moon, then my Todoroki tag might tip you off, there lol

Anon said:Will you ever draw Bakukamikiri again? I rlly loved how you did them!!

Thank you!!! And I think I will, though I don’t have any project to do so in the near future, sorry!

Anon said:Soo KyouHaba day (6/16) is coming up and was wondering if you could do some seijoh next gen stuff. Yahaba is often forgot about a and Kyoutani isn’t really included in a lot of Aoba Johsai stuff. Feel free to not do anything just suggesting something

Aw sorry anon but I don’t have the time to do day-themed stuff right now! KyoHaba is currently the hq ship I’m most likely to draw for, though, since they’re the only ones I’m still reading fics for! So I don’t think any will come around 6/16, but I don’t exclude I might draw them anyway in the near future! :D

Anon said:Omg your taking part in a zine!! I’m so excited! And it’s a BakuSquad one too! Ik I’m definitely going to be buying it when pre-orders open up!

I’m taking part in TWO zines, actually!! Both the @takemyhandzine and the @sixthwheelzine !!!!! I’ll be making comics for both, and if you do decide to buy either I really hope you’ll like them!!!!

Anon said:whats a zine?

In general, a zine is an amatorially published magazine! Specifically tho here we’re talking about fanzines, so magazines put together and published by fans for other fans! The ones I’m taking part in are both about kiribaku, and will include both fanart (fancomics included) and fanfics! Depending on how much you wish to spend on it, you can also buy a bundle with fanmade merch too, and the Sixth Wheel zine is gonna have a pdf version too, in case you’d prefer to buy it like that! They’re super cool projects I’m insanely happy I got invited to take part in!!!!

Anon said:Your art style is so pretty and I love to see your amazing bnha drawing on my dash

There is literally no way I could ever stop being into d gray man ever and I’m also still following hq’s manga, yes! I dunno if and when I’ll draw for either fandom next, tho, sorry! ;^;

Anon said:Everytime you draw kiribaku I gain 1 life,,,,, tysm I love ur art SM ur such an inspiration,,,💖💖💖

Oh my g o d s thank you so much ;^;

Anon said:Your Kiridragon is the cutest, I love him and want Katsuki to protect him forever. Thank you for sharing that last story with us!!! (Ps. Can we expect more Kiridragon adventures in the future? *puppy eyes*)

Thank you for liking him!!!!!! And if you’re talking about the fantasy AU in general, I’ll 100% for sure draw more for it! If you’re talking about them as kids tho I can’t say for sure - I definitely want to, tho, right now!! ;^;

Anon said:As a suggestion, could you maybe do Kiri*Deku, whether it be romantic, platonic, or misinterpreted by Bakugou and he takes Kirishima because that’s his sunshine boy thank you very much, get your own

Aw anon sorry but krdk is…………. really not my thing, so I don’t take suggestions for it ;-; I might end up doodling them in the future anyway since I have in the past, but that’s only gonna be if I find an idea I really really really wanna draw, I’m sorry

Anon said:Just wanted to say that I love your art and I just went through a majority of your blog. But I noticed you used to draw erasermic but haven’t recently and I was wondering if you still ship it??? It’s okay if you don’t or if you just haven’t gotten the inspiration recently, I’m just curious. Anyways, keep doing what you do and being amazing

Thank youuuu!!!!! And I’ve actually always drawn erasermic super sporadically! They’re one of my main ships in the fandom honestly, but since they’re sorta hard to draw for me I rarely end up drawing them? I do still love them with all my heart tho! You can expect to see more of them in the future, for sure ;u;

Anon said:I came for my kiribaku fix (it HAD to be him I’m dying all over again) but. God ur art always blows me tf away ur so good and skilled and ur improvement in like… everything inspires me SO much so bless u and I hope u have a WONDERFUL day

I’m so glad I can inspire anyone, oh my g o o o o o o d ;O; thank you so so much!!!!

Anon said:Wow your dragon kiribaku art is so cute! Will there be a sequel!

Not for the immediately after, for now! Since Horikoshi is yet to give me the official design for Kiri’s mom //sob - but as I said up there I do want to draw more with them as kids in the fantasy AU, so maybe, yeah!!!

Anon said:I absolutely love EVERY SINGLE facial expression that Bakugou makes in your Fantasy Babies comic strip. He’s such an unapologetic little shit.

THANK YOU!!!!! I was mostly trying to convey the fact that he’s too young to think about the consequences of his actions before doing stuff like calling the rage of a dragon mom upon his city l m a o glad you liked him!!! :D

Anon said:The way you draw the baby bois has me weak 💖💕❤️💗💞💓💝 That baby dragon Kiri 💯💯💯💖💖💖😊😊😊

Thank you so muuuuuucccchhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:EYYYYY! Love your art, the newest comic made me laugh so hard that I almost chocked to death :D (Jk, I just couldn’t breathe normally) God bless youuuuuuuuuu

I’m SUPER HAPPY it made you laugh!!!!!! heck!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;^;

Anon said:You content makes my heart go doki doki doki doki doki

THANK!!!! YOU!!!!! SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:the way you draw wings is so cool, i love it. your art is just amazing in ggeneral to be honest, like akjdjkhdlkdl

AAAAHHHHHHHH I’M HAPPY YOU LIKE THEM I have so much fun drawing them, honestly!!!

Anon said:I love the fact that mina and kiri are cannonically childhood friends (middle school counts as childhood right??) Like I love their friendship so much and they both deserve the world.

Real, they’re adorable and I wish Horikoshi would actually have them interact a bit more in the manga, since as for now their scenes together are pretty much non-existent aside from their backstory ;^;

Anon said:THEY ANIMATED IT!!! THE HAND GRAB!!! IT’S IN MOVING COLOUR!!!

HELL YES I DIED IT’S BEEN NEARLY A WEEK AND I’M STILL DYING WHAT A BEAUTIFUL TIME TO BE ALIVE

Anon said:You with your beautiful beautiful art and Chonideno with her beautiful beautiful writing about Kiri and Bakugou makes my heart so happy and warm and just… Thank you for existing and love Kiribaku! I don’t know, your art makes me so happy

Ohhhhhhhhhhh boy what an honor to be put at the same level as mag ;^; I love her and her writing so much, honestly !!!!!! thank you so so much for the compliment, anon!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Kirishima braiding his hair while he talks is both adorable and relatable. Thank you for that.

I’m!!!! mostly happy you caught it hahahaha thank you !!!!!!

Anon said:Hey. You seem insecure but your art is great. What kind of color scheme do you see for Hawks?

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I honestly don’t like thinking about stuff I think Hori will give me in canon soon enough? But out of instincts I mostly imagined him in shades of brown, I think - typical birds of prey and/or aviator colors, you know!

Anon said:I love ur drawings but i also love reading ur tag. They re so funny sometimes

lmao that’s good too!! As long as I can make people enjoy a couple of moments of their time I don’t really mind how I do it hahaha

Anon said:your art is beautiful anfndfnd

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Hello fran, just wanted to say i’ve been here for a long long time (since the h/q times :‘o) and today i was thinking about some of your old art and if you remember, you had a soulmates au for b/n/h/a that was super good and i really loved so i wanted to tell you!! You as an artist have such an impact on me and that au is my fave of yours!! ;0; have the nicest day ever!! -soulmates anon (4 future ref!!!)

OH MAN I’m so happy to hear you still remember that one?? It was such a fun experiment to play around with, I’m glad you liked it this much!!!! Thank you for telling me omg !!!!! ;^;

Anon said:Hi, so where did you go to watch Haikyuu (I’m assuming probably Crunchyroll but ya never know) and where might I find the dubbed version?

Aw anon sorry I don’t watch the dubbed version! Since I’m Italian, I don’t really have much use for the English dubs haha I’m pretty sure you can find it on kissanime, tho!

Anon said:could you briefly go through the process of making and completing one of your comics? I wanted to start some short bnha comics but idk where to start, thank you!

Sorry this took me an age to answer - I have answered this question a while back, I think it might be in my art tips tag! But to go through it fast, my process is something like

find a line or an exchange I want to deliver, or a topic I want discussed (usually happens randomly as I’m doing other things)

spend a million years just staring at a wall or at my ceiling or anything else as I build a whole scene in my mind to have the lines or topic take the form of an actual comic (might take two minutes, might take a month)

draw a rough sketch of the whole comic - I do this with all panels (and pages, when I separate a comic in pages) on the same canvas, so that I can look at the whole scene all together and get a good sense of the general flow of the storytelling. This process includes cutting panels, moving panels around, reshaping panels, trying different poses and angles for the same panels to find the right one, writing and deleting and re-writing lines till I’m sure the wording is what I’m going for*

line the panels - I mean the actual panels, the straight lines delimitating the panel, I line them all first and put them on a separate layer

line the people!! All the characters in every panel are lined in this stage

line the backgrounds! In case there are backgrounds and the comic is meant to stay in black and white, if not then color the backgrounds! (I always start coloring from the backgrounds cause they’re the boring parts and if I leave them for last I never do them ever #rip)

in case of black and white comics, we fill in flat, gray-scale colors at this point (or, as I’ve lately started doing, I only put down shadows and leave it at that). If it’s in colors, we color the people!

Write down the dialogue!! *at this point we change a lot of the dialogue again because enough time has passed since I sketched it that I changed my mind on everything, don’t be like me

you’re done!

All of it is done on one single canvas, unless it’s a comic with separate paneled pages in which case they’re all done on their own canvas but still drawn all together. That’s about it, hope it was at least a little bit useful!

Anon said:Hi! I just wanted to thank you for your art, especially your KiriBaku. I was exactly in the same situation than Bakugou in the post tagged “bakugou being blunt about his feelings” (except we are 2 girls) , so I used it to confess to her. She said yes! X3

OH MY GOD I’m so super happy to hear that!!!!! Congrats on your gf, anon!!!!!! *throws hearts at u*

#fran answers #im back to not answering asks i mean to draw for #if you never see those asks answered #im sorry im a f disaster #anyway about that first ask!!! todoroki is actually one of my main faves!!!!#i don't have enough ideas for him but if i did i'd always be drawing him t b h #oh also #art tips #cause there's something like that in this #tho it's just more or less my comic making process #which can be summed in 'think about something for a million years!!!' and then 'rush through it in half a day!!!!!!'#im #such an organized person am i n o t #:)))))))))))))))#anonymous

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reallyhardydraws · 6 years ago

Text

ask response time !!! ✨✨✨

so as to save everyone’s dashboards i’ll answer as many as i can here, then ones that won’t fit in i’ll respond separately... so just scroll/hit J to skip this post if necessary.

anonymous said: Hi! You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but all my art has felt pixelated to me and idk what to do. What program do you use and what canvas size and brush settings do you use for your art? Thank you!

i use paint tool SAI (a cracked version, i don’t remember where i downloaded it from sorry!) and i’m not gonna lie, i work pretty stupid small, usually just 1000x1500 for a portrait/landscape piece, and 1000x1000 for a square piece. then sometimes i adjust to 1200 or 1300 for height but... it’s not really an exact science, i know those size settings definitely won’t blur on tumblr tho! 🎨🎨🎨

anonymous said: i love your scooby doo art. just wanted to know which characters you headcanon as being in relationships.

in my scooby-doo: where are you? AU fic i’m writing (which you can read here!) i’m only 2 chapters in as of now but have it down that daphne and fred are officially dating, but i ship the human members of mystery inc as a poly OT4 (and that’s what the fic is essentially about) so by the end of the story they’re all gonna be sure they’re all in love together. 💕💕💕 (tho if ur familiar with my work it might be obvious i actually ship shaggyxvelma and daphnexvelma much more than daphnexfred)

anonymous said: Chunkus McCoy anonymous said: Chunkus Sparkleshell! I’m lame; I like my D&D last names in that vein. anonymous said: IM!!! I LOVE CHUNKUS!!!! THE B E S T!!! anonymous said: Chunkus Freshy-Funkus!

these are all responses to me trying to give chunkus a last name huh :’) oh AND some general love for chunkus. thank you so much for the love for chunkus everyone! as for his last name, right now he’s still chilling without one, but thank you for all the suggestions. 🐢🐢🐢

anonymous said: you’re my fave artist of all time 💕✨🎨

thank you!!! i’m honoured you enjoy my stuff so much! 💖💖💖

anonymous said: Do u like Splatoon?? The bright colors remind me of u, especially the squid sisters!

i definitely dig the aesthetic!!! i think the characters are so cute and yes i do like the squid sisters!!! my lovely friend @hanaxsongs has shown me some splatoon in the past and i dig it, but me and actually playing video games just doesn’t mix. i am absymal at them and i just get way too stressed out which makes it not fun for anyone :’) 🐠🦑🏊

anonymous said: hi, i absolutely love your art style!! do you take requests? bc i would love too see some dear evan hansen in your style. keep doing awesome stuff! :)

i do not take requests, however if you really want to guarantee art from me, my commissions are open! and otherwise, thank you, i’m really glad you enjoy my stuff! 🌟🌟🌟

anonymous said: What does the kazookeylele sound like/how is it played??

so...i first heard of the kazookeylele from this video:

youtube

it’s essentially a toy piano with a ukulele neck and strings, and a kazoo attached. and my choice of it being my d&d character’s main bardic instrument was... just a joke tbh but i ended up really liking chunkus as a character and so when i drew my updated design for chunkus, i slightly altered the kazookeylele to be more like a uke with a xylophone attached, because i thought a xylophone would fit in a bit better with a fantasy setting? but xylophones have bars rather than keys - so really it ought to be called a kazoobarlele now!!! 🎶🎶🎶

anonymous said: i love your scooby doo art!!!

thanks! i’m very glad you do, and i hope to have more for you soon! 🍟🐾🌭

anonymous said: Do you like Animal Crossing??

in theory yes!!! i never had any video game consoles as a kid growing up so i only really ever played it when i borrowed my friend’s DS in primary school/early high school but! (and i still can’t afford one now cry) but i think its a really cute game, i love the look of the lil villages and characters! 💚💚💚

#not art #long post

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egophiliac · 7 years ago

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What inspires you?

hmm, that’s always a hard thing to put into words! bear with me, I’ll try.

for me, my inspiration mostly comes from things that other people make. not just in the sense of drawing fanart (though there’s a lot of that too) but in seeing shapes that they use, the way they color things, stuff like that…sometimes it just hits me like “oh, I wanna do something like that!”

obviously I don’t mean that I just copy other artists – sometimes I do try to closely imitate other styles as an exercise, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. it’s more like…trying to capture the feeling I get from someone else’s art, or taking one thing that I like about what they’ve done and doing my own thing with it. and I keep it pretty loose, so it usually evolves way past that first point of inspiration anyway, and it’s hard to tell how it came out of the original inspiration to begin with.

like…this is recent enough that I can remember what started it: the other day I saw a really cute drawing of a turtle, where the artist had colored the lines in a way that made it look really soft and ambient and peaceful. and that made me want to draw something that had the same kind of feeling! for some reason I decided that meant Starcatcher, idk I guess I just associate her character with those kinds of feelings? and I did this:

I didn’t initially post it because it’s not particularly interesting, as drawings go, and I was also thinking about coloring it maybe with a similar line treatment later? but anyway that’s what I was going for, and that’s where it came from! hopefully that makes…some amount of sense. :U

(alternately: sometimes it’s convenience! Moonstuck’s desaturated colors came from me thinking greys would be faster to do, and it turned into a weirdly iconic style. I also did some paintings for class that my teacher called “psychologically interesting”, because they were all of people turned away from the viewer, constricted to the edge of the canvas, surrounded by blank dark backgrounds…which was all because that meant I didn’t have to paint as much. it doesn’t count as being lazy if you make a style out of it!)

(alternately alternately: Inconvenient Trixie came to me in a dream. sometimes divine prophecy is the only explanation.)

#art #sketch #mlp #g3 redesigns #tl;dr there was a cute turtle

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criticalthinkingedu-blog · 6 years ago

Text

The Last Leaf

In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called "places." These "places" make strange angles and curves. One Street crosses itself a time or two. An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in this street. Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper and canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself coming back, without a cent having been paid on account!

So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth Avenue, and became a "colony."

At the top of a squatty, three-story brick Sue and Johnsy had their studio. "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna. One was from Maine; the other from California. They had met at the table d'hôte of an Eighth Street "Delmonico's," and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint studio resulted.

That was in May. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers. Over on the east side this ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores, but his feet trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown "places."

Mr. Pneumonia was not what you would call a chivalric old gentleman. A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California zephyrs was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer. But Johnsy he smote; and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at the blank side of the next brick house.

One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with a shaggy, grey eyebrow.

"She has one chance in - let us say, ten," he said, as he shook down the mercury in his clinical thermometer. " And that chance is for her to want to live. This way people have of lining-u on the side of the undertaker makes the entire pharmacopoeia look silly. Your little lady has made up her mind that she's not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?"

"She - she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day." said Sue.

"Paint? - bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking twice - a man for instance?"

"A man?" said Sue, with a jew's-harp twang in her voice. "Is a man worth - but, no, doctor; there is nothing of the kind."

"Well, it is the weakness, then," said the doctor. "I will do all that science, so far as it may filter through my efforts, can accomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines. If you will get her to ask one question about the new winter styles in cloak sleeves I will promise you a one-in-five chance for her, instead of one in ten."

After the doctor had gone Sue went into the workroom and cried a Japanese napkin to a pulp. Then she swaggered into Johnsy's room with her drawing board, whistling ragtime.

Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window. Sue stopped whistling, thinking she was asleep.

She arranged her board and began a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate a magazine story. Young artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write to pave their way to Literature.

As Sue was sketching a pair of elegant horseshow riding trousers and a monocle of the figure of the hero, an Idaho cowboy, she heard a low sound, several times repeated. She went quickly to the bedside.

Johnsy's eyes were open wide. She was looking out the window and counting - counting backward.

"Twelve," she said, and little later "eleven"; and then "ten," and "nine"; and then "eight" and "seven", almost together.

Sue look solicitously out of the window. What was there to count? There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away. An old, old ivy vine, gnarled and decayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick wall. The cold breath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the vine until its skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks.

"What is it, dear?" asked Sue.

"Six," said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. "They're falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. It made my head ache to count them. But now it's easy. There goes another one. There are only five left now."

"Five what, dear? Tell your Sudie."

"Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go, too. I've known that for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you?"

"Oh, I never heard of such nonsense," complained Sue, with magnificent scorn. "What have old ivy leaves to do with your getting well? And you used to love that vine so, you naughty girl. Don't be a goosey. Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for getting well real soon were - let's see exactly what he said - he said the chances were ten to one! Why, that's almost as good a chance as we have in New York when we ride on the street cars or walk past a new building. Try to take some broth now, and let Sudie go back to her drawing, so she can sell the editor man with it, and buy port wine for her sick child, and pork chops for her greedy self."

"You needn't get any more wine," said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed out the window. "There goes another. No, I don't want any broth. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I'll go, too."

"Johnsy, dear," said Sue, bending over her, "will you promise me to keep your eyes closed, and not look out the window until I am done working? I must hand those drawings in by to-morrow. I need the light, or I would draw the shade down."

"Couldn't you draw in the other room?" asked Johnsy, coldly.

"I'd rather be here by you," said Sue. "Beside, I don't want you to keep looking at those silly ivy leaves."

"Tell me as soon as you have finished," said Johnsy, closing her eyes, and lying white and still as fallen statue, "because I want to see the last one fall. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves."

"Try to sleep," said Sue. "I must call Behrman up to be my model for the old hermit miner. I'll not be gone a minute. Don't try to move 'til I come back."

Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them. He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along with the body of an imp. Behrman was a failure in art. Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe. He had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet begun it. For several years he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in the line of commerce or advertising. He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists in the colony who could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin to excess, and still talked of his coming masterpiece. For the rest he was a fierce little old man, who scoffed terribly at softness in any one, and who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above.

Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his dimly lighted den below. In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy's fancy, and how she feared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float away, when her slight hold upon the world grew weaker.

Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming, shouted his contempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings.

"Vass!" he cried. "Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine? I haf not heard of such a thing. No, I will not bose as a model for your fool hermit-dunderhead. Vy do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in der brain of her? Ach, dot poor leetle Miss Yohnsy."

"She is very ill and weak," said Sue, "and the fever has left her mind morbid and full of strange fancies. Very well, Mr. Behrman, if you do not care to pose for me, you needn't. But I think you are a horrid old - old flibbertigibbet."

"You are just like a woman!" yelled Behrman. "Who said I will not bose? Go on. I come mit you. For half an hour I haf peen trying to say dot I am ready to bose. Gott! dis is not any blace in which one so goot as Miss Yohnsy shall lie sick. Some day I vill baint a masterpiece, and ve shall all go away. Gott! yes."

Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shade down to the window-sill, and motioned Behrman into the other room. In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine. Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking. A persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow. Behrman, in his old blue shirt, took his seat as the hermit miner on an upturned kettle for a rock.

When Sue awoke from an hour's sleep the next morning she found Johnsy with dull, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn green shade.

"Pull it up; I want to see," she ordered, in a whisper.

Wearily Sue obeyed.

But, lo! after the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had endured through the livelong night, there yet stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last one on the vine. Still dark green near its stem, with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from the branch some twenty feet above the ground.

"It is the last one," said Johnsy. "I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall to-day, and I shall die at the same time."

"Dear, dear!" said Sue, leaning her worn face down to the pillow, "think of me, if you won't think of yourself. What would I do?"

But Johnsy did not answer. The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey. The fancy seemed to possess her more strongly as one by one the ties that bound her to friendship and to earth were loosed.

The day wore away, and even through the twilight they could see the lone ivy leaf clinging to its stem against the wall. And then, with the coming of the night the north wind was again loosed, while the rain still beat against the windows and pattered down from the low Dutch eaves.

When it was light enough Johnsy, the merciless, commanded that the shade be raised.

The ivy leaf was still there.

Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. And then she called to Sue, who was stirring her chicken broth over the gas stove.

"I've been a bad girl, Sudie," said Johnsy. "Something has made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin to want to die. You may bring a me a little broth now, and some milk with a little port in it, and - no; bring me a hand-mirror first, and then pack some pillows about me, and I will sit up and watch you cook."

And hour later she said:

"Sudie, some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples."

The doctor came in the afternoon, and Sue had an excuse to go into the hallway as he left.

"Even chances," said the doctor, taking Sue's thin, shaking hand in his. "With good nursing you'll win." And now I must see another case I have downstairs. Behrman, his name is - some kind of an artist, I believe. Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is acute. There is no hope for him; but he goes to the hospital to-day to be made more comfortable."

The next day the doctor said to Sue: "She's out of danger. You won. Nutrition and care now - that's all."

And that afternoon Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, contentedly knitting a very blue and very useless woollen shoulder scarf, and put one arm around her, pillows and all.

"I have something to tell you, white mouse," she said. "Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia to-day in the hospital. He was ill only two days. The janitor found him the morning of the first day in his room downstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold. They couldn't imagine where he had been on such a dreadful night. And then they found a lantern, still lighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colours mixed on it, and - look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece - he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell."

#the last leaf #o`henry

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ldoesanartthing · 6 years ago

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Hiya! You're art is really good! I was wondering if you could show your drawing process? I'm trying to develop some tips and stuff, heh.. thank you!!! - ♡♡♡

Well for starters, thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoy my art! But I’m very sorry if this isn’t as in depth as one might hope, I’ve been in a bit of a rush this morning, so my apologies (also please forgive my uncropped screencaps)

To start off, I either sketch it out on paper and take a pic, or sketch in krita. I typically use krita for almost everything I draw digitally. To start, my default canvas size is around 3300 x 3000, and if I’m not feeling lazy, I fill the canvas a nice grey. I don’t know why, but it makes the drawings nicer.

I like to start off with a basic idea of what posing I want, with a loose crosshair on the head to figure out where the character is looking, in this case, the weird floating thing we got here

Next, I start putting in shapes and finalizing our pose. most drawings of mine are built with shapes (usually most obvious with DKtDW Michael, he’s very rectangular.) For hands I use that pentagon shape, this helps me plug in the thumbs and fingers. Our character here is very slight, so i used sort of a tube, ect, ect,

next, I refine the crosshair. Most artists who use a crosshair only have a line for the bottom of the eyes, but I never got the hang of that one, so I have it for the top and bottom (also I gave her a tail. Because.) And then I place the face stuff on. Eyes I like to do “anime style” (sparkly, only the top and bottom lash line are lined, ect, ect,) unless it’s robots, and by exenstion animatronics. One thing I’ve learned is a good idea is if your character has pupils, sketch the iris first, then the pupils. This will work better for you and gives you a nice ratio of iris to pupil.

Next, plan the hairline. I usually have two hairlines I apply, rounded, and widow’s peak. This will help you plan the hair out easier, which is beneficial for short and long hair.

I’ve never known how to describe the way I draw hair, but generally, make it flowy if it’s long. Hair tends to be curlier with shorter hair, because it’s less weighed down, and please, practice different hair textures and styles, I may go into that more if anyone wants me to try to do a hair tutorial.

Next, move onto clothes, and refining other details. I like to make skirts flowy, flowy is fun, dynamic, and interesting, visually.

uhhh let’s refine that glowy thing, right? Let’s make it a crystal. Crystals are fun.

Next, let’s give her a background.I wanted to draw space, so we’re drawing space now. I gave her a planet.

Line the background! I use Basic_tip_default on weighted smoothing for almost all my lineart. Don’t be afraid to use the line and circle tools. They’re helpful, and denying yourself the tools that the program comes with is dumb, and limiting.

Rad, the lineart’s done on the background!

Next, let’s line the character. For hair lining, use gentle strokes, it creates a feathery and light feel

For lining around the eyes I turn off weighted smoothing, and feather ‘til it looks like eyelashes

lineart complete, nice

Next, let’s lay out some background colors. Try not to make them too overpowering compared to the character, or you’ll the character as the focal point. I’ve chosen my main galaxy colors, and my color for the planet. The balcony will be a sleek white. I’ve been taught not to use pure white or pure blacks and greys, but you do whatever makes you happy, don’t let anyone boss you around unless you’re paying them to teach you, or they’re paying you. I use pure black for lines, and pure white for eye shines, but it’s important that you work out what makes you happiest. Art isn’t about what’s the standard of the time, it’s about what makes you happy. If neon ponies is what makes your heart soar, then make all the neon ponies you could ever dream of, you beautiful soul.

Next, fill in the bg’s most prominent color with either the fill bucket or a large brush, this is my galaxy base.

I like to airbrush the other colors, but sometimes it’s too sharp, so let’s

b l u r i t o u t. I used the 99 x 99 radius to get it absolutely dreamy

star it up baby, bc you’re a star. my favorite brush for sparkles and stars is FX_splat_starfield, it’s lovely

next the planet, I airbrushed some darker and lighter teals for detail, as well as gave it a haze around the edge for because.

Then we’re all colored!

shade it up, babey. In this piece’s case, our light source is the planet, so we shade accordingly. the shades in the ref docker are my go-to’s. Good rule of thumb is the warmer the light, the warmer the shade, but my default is the purple-ish blue color, i set it to multiply and the opacity to 40%

Next I block in the character’s colors, I only do this if this is my first time drawing them, if not, i use the previous image or the character’s ref sheet

flats are done, and she looks spiffy, let’s shade her

cool

close up of the hair shading. i always take my lining brush, and make it thinner for hair shading, it looks fluffy, and nice. this is also the beginning of the eye shining process, for fancy eyes like hers, i take white and lower the opacity, that way no detail is lost, and it’s still nice and shiny, for plain eyes, i just up the saturation and lightness

next, over the lineart, put pure white like this, it make the eyes have lots of depth. and an option if you have a light source that’s a different color, a shine of that will really tie it together.

nice, she’s shaded and highlighting. but now we need some… glowies

much better. if your light is especially bright or your character is pale, some reflection goes a long way. i use the airbrush for glowy stuff and these reflections on matte surfaces

Now we shade in a way that effects bg and character, i call envo shade. I went ahead and took my airbrush set to erase where stuff glows, but now it looks too sharps, so…

We blur it up again. Perfect.

Never forget to sign and date your work. Dating is so you can look back and see how much you’ve improved, and signing is just good practice, but i won’t get into it. i tend to watermark my stuff after it being reposted so many times, but that’s something you can decide on. Again, please keep experimenting and trying different things to develop how you draw, and if you ever use these methods, feel free to send me the link so I can see ^^, have a lovely day, and if you need me to explain anything further, shoot me another ask.

Commission info

#lydiaistired #lydia does an art thing #art process #art tutorial #ish #digital art #artists on tumblr #autistic artists

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resbang-bookclub · 7 years ago

Text

AMA Transcript: Close Your Eyes

Next up, @redphlox & @mrsashketchum stopped by to chat about their Resbang, Close Your Eyes. Here’s some of what went down:

Q: What inspired the concept behind the fic?

redphlox: WELL, I've had the idea to write a left-at-the-altar fic for a while, but I never quite had it envisioned in my mind scene/plot wise. I only had the premise. Then this year I decided to research wedding planning and ask my married friends [about] their wedding planning experience, and after brainstorming/talking it out with @professor-maka I had a solid idea finally. I love writing about emotions, especially coming-of-age/working through difficult situations, but writing this was difficult because I've never been in that situation (being left at the altar) so it was a journey.

Q: Mak, what went into how you chose which scenes to art/gif?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I actually had to work closely with Julie on what scenes to art and for the animatic :D But for the first piece, I really loved the bathtub scene and I thought it was such a unique challenge for me to draw the backgrounds and to bring the scene to life visually :0 If it makes sense?

redphlox: Mak drew the bathtub scene first right after she read the first chapter, like she mentioned, and we worked on picking out the scene for the icon collage together! I had the characters closing their eyes during specific moments and wanted to highlight those, and Mak brought them to life!

Q: Jackie/Soul brotp is a thing that you've created in not only this fic but some of your past ones as well! What inspired that? :D

redphlox: I LOVE Jackie so much, I think it's because I see her as a snarky, quietly sarcastic type that I relate to, so writing her with grumpy ass Soul just makes sense to me. They both are so reticent in canon, it just fits to me to put them together and have them be BFFs :D

Q: Mak, what made you decide to do an animatic?? It was so cool I looooved it.

Mak (mrsashketchum): I enjoy making animatics so much and I've always wanted to be a storyboard artist. I've also been planning to make an animatic anyway for Resbang, but when I saw Julie's fic summary I knew that the animatic was absolutely something I wanted. And I thought a trailer-like thing would go very well with the story? (This is definitely not because of watching so many wedding themed movies before, nope, lol).

Q: For Julie: There were a lot of feelings spread out through the fic, some that nearly brought me to tears. Did you have the same reactions to writing it? What emotions exactly were you trying to bring out in the reader? (because you brought out a lot).

redphlox: Hmmm, well... I wanted to bring out a sense of loss in reference to relationships, and rebuilding, and growing together after the trust is lost or the other person seems to be changing in a way you aren't. I also wanted to touch on Soul and Maka's separate and individual relationships with other people outside of their relationship, if that makes sense? I also aimed to highlight all sorts of love, so it was important to me to talk about everyone's relationships with each other. Friendship, lala, haha. My reaction to writing it was... ahh, frustration, because certain scenes were beyond reasonably difficult to write.

Q: What brought about the Soul and Wes conflict? Because like I was telling you in DMs, that wounded me ahahaha it was way too real.

redphlox: The Soul and Wes conflict was something that came up as I writing. Originally Wes was supposed to be the all-knowing, all supportive and understanding brother, but the more I wrote the more Soul started to resent Wes's blind optimism, and it makes sense - Soul can be a negative person, and it seems like he needs to sulk to process, and Wes just wasn't having it. Their personalities are too different, and showing that was important because it's okay to love someone and not know how to comfort them.

Q: That felt so real julie I loved it. As the owner of many siblings it read as absolutely true. Did your life influence that?

redphlox: Wes and Soul's relationship issues are inspired by some self-reflecting I've been doing, and taking the Love Languages test and comparing it to my loved one's results.

Q: For Mak: What inspired your color palette for the bathroom scene? It was very warm and it brought out as much emotion through visuals as the words themselves did. Was that intentional?

Mak (mrsashketchum): Yes it was definitely intentional! Like I said in my previous answer, I worked so closely with Julie (we fangirled so much over everything honestly), she helped me with colors and their poses and if there were tiny details I missed. She sent me a lot of references too which is very helpful for me since I tend to make use visual references more. It's always helpful to work closely with the author so that the feeling of the artwork doesn't wholly overwhelm the feeling of the writing style? Like I wanted it to match as well :") I'm glad it turned out amazingly.

Q: I was wondering Julie how you came up with the concept of the radio confession. I loved that Jackie's show was commandeered.

redphlox: Well, I was thinking, what's the opposite of having Soul be constipated with his feelings?? Blurting them out in public of course, haha, so that's how I came up with that scene. It's the first scene I had actually, and I plotted the fic for that ending. I also have Jackie as a public figure in many of AU's, she was a blogger in my model au, so the role seems a running gag in my writing.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Constipated was the best way to describe him with his feelings.

Q: So weird question for Julie: There's a movie I remember watching years and years ago, that I was reminded of when reading the radio confession scene, unfortunately for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Did you draw that scene up from what would have fit into the story, or were you influenced by an outside source, like perhaps that mystery movie?

redphlox: I like to listen to the morning radio and always wonder how people are brave enough to go live on air and talk about their relationships or embarrassing moments etc, so that kind of inspired the radio scene too!

Q: I really enjoyed TsuWes btw, and it's not a ship I've really seen. What made you decide on it?

redphlox: AHHH well, they're both Tall, and I love both of them so.... I made them love each other. Also the ship name WesTsu Bestu got me.

Mak (mrsashketchum): I always thought that Tsu and Wes love to tease Soul and Maka together, so the ship happened like that haha.

Q: Btw Tsubaki owning a flower shop is greaaat was that always the plan?

redphlox: Tsu owning a flower shop was also one of those things that just came about because I needed someone to deliver those "I still love you" flowers, but it fit so perfectly because of how Soul fit into learning flower arranging from her and thus getting him to stay in Death City. It was one of those things that fell into place.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Those stuff in AUs that fall into place are the best accidents, if u can call it that.

Q: Question for Mak; the animatic, that collage, the illustration; how did you manage to capture the fic in its entirety, while still giving each piece made its own personality so to speak? For example; the bathroom scene with your color choices made it warm, melancholy, touching, the watercolor for the collage was deep and soothing at the same time, intense, and the animatic, the monotones give it a blank canvas for each viewer to create their own emotional interpretation. How are you absolutely amazing I guess is my overall question??

redphlox: This is the most important question of this AMA tbh. I love the lighting in that piece akfdsgnfkdfdss. I felt it in my heart.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Oh my god. Thank u for the question!!!! I... actually honestly have no idea haha. I guess it's just that when you love a concept so much and completely have a wonderful connection with your partner that it just flows? I wanted to really make the artworks fit into the theme and the feel of the writing. I made sure that while Julie checked if my artwork had the feel she was going for, I also wanted to make sure that what I was feeling was gonna reflect on it as well. This is for the bathtub scene btw haha. The collage was actually supposed to be monochrome as well but I wanted to give it some color too? Like the fic in its entirety is just blasting with emotions? And yet it's generally so soft to me. The animatic was really supposed to have that gray background because I've seen a lot of animatics drawn that way haha. But I did make it work to my advantage that it wasn't too overwhelmingly dark but it's so that you could see the tears as well? It would be hard if the background was white and the tears were white too, right? :0

Q: By the way I loved the weddings in the fic. Like I wanted to attend them they sounded gorgeous. How did you decide on those elements?

redphlox: I have an aesthetic/personal blog where I reblog a lot of pictures of flowers and I came across one that was a ball room covered in flowers and I thought - yep, Wes and Tsu would be married here. As for Soul and Maka's wedding, I LOVE being out at night, and I love soft lighting and would like a night wedding if I ever get married, so yeah. Aesthetic, haha.

Q: How did you manage to capture a canon-like Soul in an AU?

redphlox: Ahhh I just... plot out the fic centered with feelings first and go from there.

Q: I wanna know more about this fantastic partnership. it sounds like you guys were a great team and worked so well together - any tips on communication for anyone out there who may have felt shy? Also, give us the beta comments >:)

redphlox: Okay I LOVED working with Mak! Even though we're like, what, twelve hrs time difference??? we still managed to be online at the same time and work on our projects together. She'd draw line art and show me and I'd write a scene and show her and we'd keysmash at each other. It was soooo rewarding and fun!

Mak (mrsashketchum): I would like to say that Julie and I are the Angst Twins actually. I love working with Julie too???? Like everything just really worked out.

redphlox: It wasn't even planned tbh, I would see her online and go like :eyes: and she'd be like "im working on the collage!" or vice versa. It really felt like it was OUR resbang and not just MINE y’know? Tip wise, I'd say find a platform you really enjoy being on/are available on the most and communicate through there, that really worked for Mak and I.

redphlox: Since this was a srs fic most beta comments were of surprise and like, offended bc I did something Bad.

Jaded [@jaded-envy] made a lot of silly comments! She is amazing. Like when Maka is at the bookstore and looking up self help books for looooove, jaded titled them after some fics i've written.

Q: Question for both Mak and Julie; your partnership sounded like it flowed like a dream. Did you guys ever feel like you were overpowering one another? I know alot of partnerships struggle with the "am I bugging them too much" or "what if i'm doing it wrong" mindsets, so how did you guys get past that, for anyone who suffered from those feelings.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Oh that's actually an interesting question! I never thought of me overpowering Julie or her overpowering over me? It's more like I want to be able to do as much work as she does? Since we're partners we must work hand-in-hand and not with one of us being the overpowering one? So to speak.

redphlox: SAME what Mak said, I always offered her to give suggestions for the fic and she always asked me for advice on colors and we listened to each other. Basically we were considerate of each other, it was/is amazing :' D

Mak (mrsashketchum): aaaaaaa true ;w; Since it is technically a partnership, we treated it as if it were like something we needed to work on together, and doing stuff at the same time really helped put it into perspective in a way?

Q: Where did the inspo from the bathtub scene came from? Did you draw from a specific experience/influence for that?

redphlox: Hmm... well, no specific experience influenced that, it just like, happened? I thought like, "ok where would Maka be if she were crying?" and it made sense to put her in the bathtub after she spilled the ink on herself, and she prob had no energy to leave, so there she stayed until Soul found her.

Q: Also Julie, I know you suffered from writers block I kicked your butt into gear once, lol. How did you overcome it? When I get to a sentence or idea that I can't exactly word or find a way to explain, I usually drop it for weeks and then come back to it. Can't do that with Resbang to an extent so how'd you get past it within a limited amount of time without rushing the pace, or glossing over an idea that was meant to be incorporated into the fic?

redphlox: ahhhh WELL, I wrote 40kish between Jan 1st and Jan 16th, so a deadline kicks me into high gear. A lot of the block was not knowing what happens in weddings and doing research tbh x) I died a little but it made me stronger.

Q: Okay you broke my heart a number of times, can you explain the thought process of why Maka never texted Soul?

redphlox: Maka was just too shook to think rationally :0 Have you ever been so anxious it feels like you're going to die? That's basically how it was for her, the emotion was too strong. She realizes later she could have done better and coming to terms that she makes mistakes is also a lesson she had to learn.

Q: How long did recording voices for the animatic take? And did you have any silly moments while doing so? haha

Mak (mrsashketchum): I actually had the weirdest time doing every voice, it's crazy. It took half an hour to be honest? It didn't need to be perfect, it just needed to have the right emotion. I had to channel every angsty fiber of my being for crying!Maka.

Q: For Mak: Do you feel like you grew in your art skills through this bang? If so, how?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I actually did grow a lot in my art skills with this bang! I felt that giving myself more challenges in backgrounds helped a lot in dealing with drawing perspective. And also with hair. I learned so much with color as well and how each shade and palette is definitely super important.

Q: What are you most proud of for the piece/pieces you did?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I’m really proud of all my pieces! But if i could only pick one then it would be the bathtub scene for sure! I spent most of my waking hours for it and I even made a 3d model for the perspective just for a reference.

Q: What are you working on next?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I’m definitely working on some more animatics and animations and my Vday art will be super late haha. Also SoMa Week is near and I'm planning really big things!

Q: Favorite/least favorite moment/scene to write?

redphlox: Mmm my fave scene to write was all of them, I felt like I looked forward to all of them now that I look back to it, if that makes sense?

Q: Hardest scene/part to write?

Redphlox: A difficult scene to write was the very end where Soul and Maka finally talk it out bc I felt that I had gotten them in SO MUCH TROUBLE that I was like "how the fffff do I fix this?" But luckily I had the best betas, jaded and proma, there as I wrote it and we were all on the doc at the same time and we were all just, live writing/betaing. I’m v happy to have explored Soul and Maka's friendships and family life. One of my favorite scenes was the scene where Liz talked Maka through some Hard Truths. I love Liz. I think there was a scene I had to delete bc it just wasn’t fitting, it was with Kim and Soul, but I ended up using bits of it later.

Q: Tell us about your writing process.

redphlox: My writing process was basically writing like a turtle at the beginning/struggling to find inspiring music to write to/plotting, and then the last bit was writing 7k daily and going !!!! internally. Lots of keysmashes to my betas.

Q: What are you most proud of this Resbang?

redphlox: Im really proud of writing and finishing this resbang tbh, I had an amazing partner and had fun with my betas, and I pushed my writing speed/abilities because I explored some feelings I hadn't ever experienced before (being left at the altar) I'm happy with the outcome!

Q: Was music important to your process at all, and if so, are there any songs/playlists that were relevant?

redphlox: Yesssss so jaded made a playlist! Lemme get it. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7rssdV2CkoNRl4-cPWuqm7ocC-QxP0Vn

Q: What are you working on next?

redphlox: Next, I'm working on plotting this year's Resbang, finishing Siren AU, writing and posting my longfic Sailor Moon AU, and aside from writing I'm working on being a better reviewer/commenter and beta :D

#AMA transcripts #close your eyes #rbbc #resbang book club #resbang 2017

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askguyslikeus · 7 years ago

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oh shit yall send lots of questions hoo nelly answering almost all of them under the cut ,,, im gunan try and answer more technical ones first then fun ones and ones about the mod later so u dont gotta scroll all the way to the bottom for the good deets

Hi! I'm still kinda new to the blog and I was wondering what are the 'do and do-not' kind question I should do? Because im sure theres always that one ask thats just Innapropiated, like that one of Michael 'taking advantage og high Jeremy' that was just not cool. i got this ask a lot so ill be clear with yall. im just not a big angst fan? so sending michael asks about his anxiety nonstop and about how he had a panic attack in the bathroom over and over again wasnt that fun. usually if it pertains the musical though you should be find sending an ask about it? but sometimes i get asks that are like “jeremy ur nothing and how does it feel knowing u fucked everything up” like homie how i think its feels? how u think hes gunna react to that? i made this blog to negate a lot of negativity in my own life so i can promise u im going to be answering asks mostly positive always forever. that being said tho i sometimes get asks pertaining to a few things that ive dealt with in the past and these topics make me very very uncomfortable. dont send asks about these topics please. this is the no no list

-self harm, cancer, suicide, rape, parent death, car accidents, sudden death.

What was your inspiration for this blog? hoo boy well,,, ultimately i thought of them rooming together and got emotional and made a huge list of headcanons and was like ,,, why not run an askblog for a bit ill just abandon it after three asks lets have some fun. but somehow im still here and i got sucked in by the complexity of michael and jeremy. i know that sounds kinda silly but just, as someone who is dealing with a lot of similar things, like dependency issues and abandonment issues and depression and anxiety, having these fun functioning character to explore was such a gift for me. i believe honestly thats why im still here and doing this. being able to try and portray a healthy relationship and a healthy way of coping and growing has helped me a lot this past month and given me an outlet i didnt have before. TBH THO the main reason i made this blog if imma be real with u guys id because i didnt like the treatment of a lot of these issues in the fandom. it made me very upset to see depression used as an plot device and michaels dependency issues treated as romantic so i wanted to make a blog that had little to no angst. ANYWAYS somehow im still here ,,, gvrkjvrnkjfd sorry i rambled

honestly I just wanna say first that I love his blog and your art and you're so cool and kind!! a question would be (I'm not sure if you've answered this before or not) but is there like an on going story here, or is it mostly just answering questions with the characters set in this universe? (if that makes sense I'm sorry!) thank you, you're super awesome! ❤️ djrnjg first off thank u so much aaaa,, ive kind of answered this before but its ok its been a while since then! but um i do kinda have a story but how howdy i sure am dragging my feet. the story isn a hUGE OVERARCHING EPIC OF WOE AND THIS PERSON IS UPSET AND THIS PERSON IS MAD AT THIS PERSON its just michael and jeremy getting together. i have a plan and ive talked to a few people on how i want it to happen but ive gained like ,,,, 6,000 followers since then and im kinda nervous BUT ILL DO MY BEST but also please understand that i do this for fun for myself and if i dont get to it im so so so sorry woops

i know this has been said before but i'm really really happy w how you're handling so many aspects of their characters. i.e. michael being trans, michael and jeremy's anxiety, michael's dependency issues, and other stuff i'm too tired to think of. you made the characters have even more depth than they did in the play and i'm rly grateful for the way you're dealing w my favorite boys. (also your richjake is suuuper adorable) ahhhhhh thank u so much? i talked a bit about this on my main but im really glad people are happy with my decision on this blog because im suPER SUPER NERvous anytime i post an ask dealing with these things. (ask hachi or nate i always message them like freaking out and send them my scripts and asks and wait for them to tell me its ok before i post it omg) also like i talked about before i love,,, having these fun stoner gamer boys to explore these issues with. im honestly shocked by how many people also deal with dependency issues because when i first listened to the musical i was so overwhlemed by the song michael int he bathroom because i had never heard someone basically write “dependency issue: the song” and it felt so so so good to realize i wasnt alone in this pit of despair i fall into so easily aha. but im!! glad everyone is ok with this wild ride im on right now (also thank u so much i struggle writing rich and jake but i get so emotional cause they would TOTES call each other babe)

how come you just use sketch form for most of your drawing (sketches and uses sketch for the final result)? im ,,, not really sure what this is asking but i thnk its along the lines of why do i only sketch my answers?? and i do that because dude do u see how often i post and how lONG some of them are. i made this blog for fun and i love doing comics but i hate lineart and coloring and if i tried to churn out finished pics for every post id defs have given up a few asks in,, shrugs

I want to say I love your little comics they're so funny! How long does it take you to make a comic? Are any of them based on your experiences? Ok have a nice day! thank you! i love my little comics too! it usually takes me anywhere from an hour to five hours if im dragging my ass or talking on discord while im drawing. it can be kinda exhausting but since i took my break ive also been like, starting long comics one day and finishing them another day which, before i would do it all in one sitting then post it hahha. AS FOR EXPERIENCE the first half of the lifeguard comic was based on real life! we were stuck stoned up there for like an hour or two? but we didnt have anyone to help us but we got down eventually!! the wendys comic is also something i did because man!! i need to compliment food workers if they do a good job!! ummmmm just like jenna i also have a friend that said HAHA BYE and moved to cali and she is also lIVING IT UP and doing really well for herself and shes very independent and shes very inspiring to me! hmm i think thats it besides i used to have movie nights with my dad all the time too except we would watch my fave animated movies and sometimes lord of the rings cause my dad loved that

What kinds of things can we NOT ask ? What kinds of things do you WANT us to ask ? i covered the what not to ask in the first question so!!! um if my askbox is open and u want to respond to previous asks ive answered for the boys that would be so so so rad. sometimes im done with a certain ask and i have nothing to add but sometimes ive got more to say but am looking for an opportunity! that being said it made me really happy that i got a lot of asks about pj? shes not going to the main focus of any more asks but!!! i was nervous to introduce her and im glad u guys like her shes fun to write. but overall just general asks i can make a big ol fun story out of so!! dont worry too much about what to ask, if its something ud ask a real person and not like “lol what if ur dad died” ur gunna be fine probably

Hi! Not a question but your blog is so sweet and refreshing! I actually really appreciate that you refuse angst, that stuff tends to rub me the wrong way in fandoms... Keep taking good care of these boys ! gggg thank u!!! it means a lot to me that a lot of people are backing me up on this! i mean if u are an angst fan there are a lot of askblogs that explore that!! so its not in short supply bmc askblog fandoms got something for everyone

Which drawing program do you use?? i use paint tool sai and my tablet is a cintiq !!

this isn't really related to the faq but that bakunawa boy reference was great I LOVE THAT FIC MAN!!! the line was originally a little diff in that ask but i changed it cause ,,,, i could,,,,

an art style question. how do you keep the design of characters consistent from frame to frame? my characters they look a lil different every time I draw em (or a lot different) and it tends to disrupt the flow of my comics/animations ohh boy hoo wee props for doing animations im too scared to give that a whirl but!! it helps that i draw all the panels for an ask on one canvas! so if my next panel is going to be the same character in the same spot just in a diff pose i keep the lower layer on just at low opacity so i can use it as a ref! that helps me a lot!

Sorry if I'm nosy or rude, but are you reflecting Micheal Anxiety, Panic attacks and depence? iii think this is asking if i reflect my own issues onto them boys? and if so then yes i do. i dont place any of my own personality or anything on the boys but i do use them as a way to help me learn how to cope with my own shit and i try to deal with their issues in the healthiest way possible while also keeping in mind they are flawed individuals aaa

what are your pronouns??? and maybe your main blog?? im a cis girl so she/her is good! and my main is squigglegigs! also that being said IF YOU SEE THE USERNAME SQUIGGLEGIGS ANYWHERE JUST?? ASSUME ITS ME?? i have a twitter and an instagram and my tumblr account

((Hello mod will Michael and Jeremy eventually someday get together. I love them.)) if all goes according to plan yes! if i get overwhelmed and stop having fun on this blog then no! sorry thems the breaks but! i do want them to get together so HOPEFULLY

going off on that confrience on pornogrefy for birds, Im geussing jeremy has played Hatoful Boyfriend. am I wrong? well it wasnt intended as that ref and i dont know anything about hatoful boyfriend but i can see jerm finding it and playing it so, sure homie! the pornography for birds thing is a my brother my brother and me reference! i love that show and them boys so give it a scope!

I'm crying bcuz Michael said he's in love with Jeremy and it's beautiful yeah that boy is DEEP IN love with his bro bro

Any advice for running an ask blog?? (Ps i love this blog keep it up) personally whats worked for me so far is doing just sketches for art. honestly ive been able to work so much more and post so much more often while also trying to work on my expressions and poses! also taking my own experiences and shaping them to fit the characters has been SO MUCH FUN. th most important thing tho is,,, dont overwork urself dude. if ur having a fun time it shows. if ur just forcing urself to churn out material and its not fun? like shit we doing this for free dont push urself? idk idk overall being looser with my art and writing the dialogue before hand has been the most helpful for me for this askblog! ive run a bunch before including @ask-maz and ive run that sporadically for ,, three or four years? its so funny cause u can see my art style juMP AROUND SO MUCH but i love that blog and i only update it like every other month or so but?? i still like doing it and no on likes those posts but it makes me smile so ANYWAYS

~ok from here on its mostly just me replying to nice messages or people asking me personal questions that dont pertain to askguyslikeus so!!~

I just wanted to say I really really love your blog and just your art in general!! Keep up the good work and hope you're having fun! thank u!!! i am having fun and im glad u enjoy it!!

What other musicals do you like? :0 i really like heathers A LOT. i also like doctor horrible i know thats not technically a musical but i just relistened to it and im emotional. i like dear evan hansen but it makes me really sad so i can only take it in moderation! ummm rent? chicago?? music man? now im just naming musicals i was in rip. being in a musical fandom is a new thing to me? i was really into heathers last year but didnt really interract with the fandom at SO THIS IS SUPER NEW?? ive never been into a musical as much as im into bmc and heathers tho

tell us a little bit about urself!! u seem v cool i am squigs or fork!! im 24 and work fulltime as a barista at starbucks! i get high on the beach with my friend gwen a lot and drink wayy to many slushies, my tv shows are brooklyn nine nine and bobs burgers right now! i table at conventions sometimes and sell my art as merch and whatnot and i cosplay as a hobby as well. im pretty boring but i draw a lot and always carry my big sketchbook with me and im pretty sure its given me back issues BUT OH WELL HAHA also i am very not cool THE TRUTH COMES OUT

Who do you most relate to from bmc and why? like ,,, a mix of michael and christine with a sprinkle of jeremy i guess ahaha i relate to michaels dependency issues and overarching positive attitude and love of music, i relate to christines bright disposition and the need to not stick to one set thing? like she loves theater cause she can be sO MANY PEOPLE and like same homie thats why i cosplay. and jeremys need to be likes while also ability to put himself out there is very relatable. i also identify strongly with his dad issues idk idk whats good

Also -- just thank you for how you handled all the panic attack and anxiety attack asks. I used to deal with anxiety attacks multiple times a day and it just was really nice that it was positive and not them having one. Thank you, sincerely. ahhhhhh ur so welcome i,,, have anxiety and it sucks and i deal with panic attacks like everyday at work so i dont really wanna come home and draw someone having one i guess? im glad its helping other people too tho!

Dude- I love your art? Actually so much? It's... I love it. The whole sketch-ish way your art style is, and the way you color, and the expressions! I'm so glad I found your work - you've given me so much inspiration. Keep doin what you're doin and I hope you have a good day! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ANytime any one compliments my expressions i die cause i legit made this blog to help with that as well ,,, like dam

im lvoe ur art style b o i :0 !!!!!!

Mod, I love you so much I love you you have my soul and my love and my eternal gratitude thank you and I love you (This is the guy who was excited about PJ on your ig live stream a while ago and I love you) !!!!!!!!! im so happy u like my content omg and that u like pj im so glad!! shes a good bean

I just wanna say... I'm crying over that post about Michael and his anxiety? cuz I know how it can feel that you're only your flaws and weaknesses, but Michael just tells that to screw off in the most wonderful way and I'm?? thank you so much for that post, I bookmarked it for future times when I can't look past my depression... honestly, that post made my day (along with every other post on this blog), thank you for being such a lovely part of this fandom ,,,, im,,,, im scared of a lot of this fandom tbh but if i can be something good that come out of it and my love of these boys and desire to show them functioning together in a healthy way can help other people its so much more than i ever thought id ever be able to do. i am blown away everyday by the support ive been given on this blog and i might be crying right now because i never thought id be able to touch other people like this and i just. im really glad yall are here with me for all this.

(To the mod: You are a beautiful person that I highly respect. I love this blog and what you set out to do. thanks for giving something that makes me smile and gives me something to look forward to everyday, keep up the good work! ❤ ) hey im still crying from the previous ask aaaaa im honestly so emotional

what are ur true feelings for wendy's??? i fucking love wendys man thats some top tier fast food right there

what fast food restaurant do you think has the best nuggets WENDYS HANDS DOWN

do you have a favorite movie? paranorman makes me very nostalgic and ive seen it like eighty times and used to watch it with my dad a lot and i love it

I would just like you to know that your Wendy's comic prompted me to pull the same thing with a bakery in the town I'm visiting and the baker got so excited and happy, so thank you for making that comic because I made that woman's day. GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE COMPLIMENT ME WHEN IM WORKING DUDE LIKE IM SO GLAD IT MADE U DO THIS!!! IM SMILING REALLY BIG!!

chocolate milk or strawberry milk? or plain? woops i hate milk im so sorry

do u love michael mell with all of ur heart, mod? i really truly do man what a fucking good ass character

hi squigs i love you! i love your content too and i hope u have a good day pal :> WHAT A SWEET BEAN!!! THANK YOU?? OMG

I'm just saying that recent ask you did with Michael really hit me hard because I really related to it and I started crying because it made me realize that I've been pining my self worth on everything my anxiety causes and I'm so much more than that. Thank you, so much for that I really needed it because I'm in a really bad place right now. <3 -for the mod i legit cry everytime i get asks or dms like this cause once again the idea that im helping other people is so ovwehelming i love you??? i let myself just be”depressed” for ahwile and by that i mean i just,, let my sadness consume me and i was scared of getting better cause the sadness was all i knew for so long and just. its so easy to think u are ur illness but you are so much more. soooo much more man.

I relate A Lot to Michael so the way you portray him in the blog is really good, and I think it's really awesome you refuse to like?? do terrible stuff and answer bad questions just bc people wanna see that. You run this blog really well 👌 AHHHH THis is the biggest compliment thank u so much ,,, i get real anxious bout this blog soemtiems but then yall send me sweet things like this and its worth it man

Hey mod, just know you're a really cool person. Thanks for running this blog in the first place. Keep doing the great work. thank you!!!! for ur support!!!!

not really a question!! i just wanted to say your posts on this blog always brighten my day and you're really an incredible artist and person, keep rockin on my dude!! *clutching my heart* the fuck this is so sweet

1 .I just wanted to say your blog is really awesome! It's very lovely. I also like how you made michael trans and like handled it? (just with how all the characters treat him and stuff its v nice). Your art is super duper! Thanks for running this awesome blog! 2. Hey! This isn't a question but I wanted to say that I appreciate michael being trans!! As a trans boy it's just rly awesome to see something like that casually thrown into an ask blog without making it a huge weird deal :D immm,,, i kinda really love the idea of michael being trans cause a lot of my trans male friends are actually pretty confident in their skin and michael is a very confident character? and u rarely see that with trans representation and its so refreshing to see it portrayed well. im trying to do that here but again if! i do anything wrong let me know!

how did you first get into art? (also i really love your blog, it's amazing!) ive been drawing as long as i remember! ive got mad adhd and wasnt diagnosed until late in ym life so i would just draw nonstop in my classes ahaha i used to read the sunday comics a lot and they really inspired me to try and make comics of my own too!! (and omg thank u)

someone also asked me if i went to church or was religious but tumblr ate the ask but i used to go to church a lot as a kid but im currently not religious at all aaa

ok holy shit that was a lot but thanks again to everyone i legit cry a lot about how supportive u all are thank u so much aaaa

#modpost #holy fuck that was so much

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justoneday-namjoonii · 8 years ago

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Just a flower? (Jungkook Tattooartist!au)

Summary: “Something small...a flower?”

Genre: Jungkook x Reader TattooArtist!au ( A little angst, fluff )

A/N: Helloo!! Thx to the anon that requested this btw. I hope you like it I kind of went wild with the plot! ❤️ p.s if u want links for the tattoos ill put them on here and use your imagination for your tattoo placement and or style ❀ ✿ ❁ ✾ ✽ ❃ ❋ enjoy!

“You're such a goodie two shoes! You mean to tell me you've never gone to a random club for the heck of it, not even once?”

"Leave me alone!" You dropped your pencil and gave her a look. "You're supposed to be at a meeting anyway, not instigating my personal life." Poking out your bottom lip you pouted to yourself. She laughed while grabbing a bottle of orange juice and a bagel. You sat at the island with a few books, tea and a pencil as you watched her scramble to get out because she was late. The whole morning she wouldn't get off your case about your so called 'innocence'.

"I'm just saying Y/N, you traveled across the world and your nose is stuck in a book! Live a little! Do something spontaneous for once. See you later!" She ran out and you sighed in relief, you could breathe, she was finally off your back.

Do something spontaneous she says, you've done plenty of spontaneous things including moving here. You moved here for school but it still counts, right? You sighed, resting your chin in the palm of your hand in thought. Maybe she was right, maybe you did need to do something on a whim.

You pushed back a strand of your hair before securing the lid of the beautiful drink.

“Jungkook?” You called the order name, searching around for whoever it might be. Who you presumed to be the man who ordered it looked up from his phone and his soft features caught your attention; and not only that but the sleeve of tattoos on his left arm, the multiple pierces in his ear, the tasteful ensemble of dark clothes. You had never seen him before, or maybe you just never noticed him; but how could you not notice someone like that? You handed him the drink and he thanked you with a friendly smile before going on his way.

Instead of gawking at the door like a crazed love struck girl, you untied your apron and ran to the back to get changed. Yoojin, your coworker and good friend was getting off the same time as you. She walked in, punching in her time and grabbing her backpack.

“That's it!” You snapped, smiling brightly to yourself.

“Y/N? Are you ok?” Your sudden outburst startled her and she gave you a look.

“Sorry, sorry- I just figured it out.” With your hands fiddling in hair you took out the rubber band.

“Figured out what?” She remained baffled.

You grabbed her by the shoulders and laughed, “I'm gonna get a tattoo!” With that you ran out the back.

“You can do this, you can do this, you can do this....” You repeated that phrase in your head and aloud, hopping to hype yourself up. You scheduled your consultation for this evening and after this long day it was finally time. After walking a few blocks you found the spot and quickly stepped into the clean little establishment.

“Hi, - Y/N? You called for the consultation?” You nodded. A guy behind them the front desk who was equally as tattooed as most of the people in here.

“Right past there are a few couches, you can wait for him there.” Timidly you went where he directed you and took a seat. As you fiddled with your fingers to distract yourself you noticed all of the photos of tattoos and drawings on the wall and for some reason you got nervous.

“You're my 5 o'clock right?” That same guy, Jungkook, the one at the cafe that you made a drink for. He must've remembered you too, he furrowed his brow and smiled. “Wait - I know you, you work at the cafe a few blocks down, don't you?” He finally put his finger on it.

“Yeah, I saw you were there yesterday.” You nodded as he took his seat across from you with a clip board, paper and a pen.

“Ah, you were the one that made my drink.” He said.

“Yep,” You squirmed in your seat, biting your lips, “that was me.”

“It was good by the way...” Your cheeks glowed a subtle rose at the compliment, even if it was for your amazing barista skills you took it to heart. “So, you're looking to get a tattoo. Do you have your eye on something in particular or are you just looking?”

“Um, I don't really know, I really like elegant pieces on the back.”

“Yeah, pieces like those are always really pretty, is that what you want?”

“I think so...”

“Let me show you some work I've done, similar to that.” He pulled a big binder from under the center table and got up to sit next to you. He opened up the well organized binder and flipped a few pages before stopping. You stared in aw at the elegant works of art, most of them were huge; covering most of the back or somewhere on the leg. As much as you hated to admit it, you really couldn't concentrate on the book when his arm was in full view showcasing the pieces of art. You managed to stutter, “I like that one, I want mine that big.” He peered at the one you pointed at and he nodded in agreement. “That one is one of my personal favorites, it looks simple but it required a lot of precision on my part, it was worth it though.”

“Ok, I can draw something along the the lines of that, to see if you like it, sound good?” You nodded. His hand went to work, the pen moving back and forth with his movements. You sat there, for 15 maybe 20 minutes as he continued to draw the art that will soon be on your body. Oddly enough you weren't even looking at it, you stared out of the window, watching the people go by; it almost calmed you.

“Done.” He showed you the paper and your mouth hung open in astonishment, how could he come up with this in such a short amount of time.

“It's beautiful...really, really beautiful. You're very talented.” You brushed your fingers over the drawing, admiring the little details on gentle creature. It was funny how you could actually see it on yourself, it was literally made for you.

“Thanks, I try to put the canvas into prospective- the canvas being my client of course.” He giggled to himself. “You'd look great with this, it compliments your skin and the overall way you look.” He ripped the papa we out and went to a what looked like a printer. He came back over with a sheet of paper and handed it to you. “So when do you want to set up the appointments.” The question.

“Appointments? More than one?”

“For a tattoo that big I normally suggest a series of appointments, the pain can be a little much in one day. But we can do it in one day, it'll be a few hours. How about next Thursday at noon? You'll be my only appointment.” He was steadily sliding on some gloves as he continued to talk to you.

You mentally viewed your schedule and you were free. “I can do that.”

“Ok, I'll see you then.”

With a coffee in your hand you sat at a two person table, trying to relax and take your mind off of it you decided to sit in your favorite cafe and draw for a little bit.

“Is this seat taken?” A familiar voice chirped from behind you. It was him again, how come you two keep meeting?

“Jungkook? Hi- no, it's not go ahead.” You smiled gesturing to the seat. He sat across from you with a back pack, and a book in his arm. Was he drawing too? The cafe was usually crowded at this time and you were glad the only free seat was next to you. Although he probably didn't notice you took every chance you got to look at his face or maybe you were just looking at all of him. It was silent between you two, you both mutual have each other space and you glance at his paper but you couldn't make out what it was.

“I never caught your name.” He spoke. You looked up sort of timidly, he was looking at you with curious eyes and you took off your reading glasses and sat down your pencil. “Y/N.” You responded softly.

“That's a pretty name.” That smile. His smile was absolutely breathtaking and the way stared deep into your eyes was charming, even if he wasn't trying to be.

“Thank you...um your tattoos, they're really beautiful, did you do them yourself?” You pointed to his left arm where a majority of his tattoos were; subconsciously he touched and looked at them. “I did a few of them, maybe 5 or 6? All free handed too. Free hand is my favorite...it's relaxing. I see you like to draw.” His gaze drifted over to your paper.

“Oh, yeah it's...relaxing,” you giggled, “I guess...”

“Can I see it?” You handed him the paper and his eyes lit up. “You drew this?” You nodded unsure of his reaction. “I love it.” He brought the paper close so he could study it better. “Can I use this? I swear I'll give you full credit it's just too good not to be used.”

“Sure, I don't mind, keep it. But it really isn't that good, It's just a flower...” With a slight smile on your lips you took out your phone and looked at a series of missed texts. You were late for work. “Shoot, I have to go, I'm gonna be late!” Frantically you there your stuff in your bag and took the last sip of your coffee. “It was nice talking to you!” You waved goodbye as you rushed out of the building before he could respond.

After your last meeting a few days went by and now today is the day. You were doing it, you were about to get a permanent piece of art on your body. You were proving to yourself you could be adventurous, spontaneous, all of it. You arrived at the shop and stood in front the glass door chewing on your bottom lip. “You can do this...” You pushed open the door and you looked around in confusion.

“Hello?” Nobody was here, it was empty and silent. Did he give you the wrong time or day. “Jungkook?-” He peeked from a back room smiling at you with his bunny teeth. “Back here sweetheart.” He waved you over.

“Oh, there you are.” You made your way to the room and you saw he had all his equipment ready, it sort of added to your nerves. It's really happening...

“Do you like it?” He showed you the large outline and you swallowed thickly.

“Yeah, I like it...” Your eyes skimmed over the paper.

“So, you just take off your top and bra and I'll be back.” When he shut the door you stripped and held your shirt against your chest.

“Knock, knock,” He knocked on the door and he peeked pass the door “are you ready?”

“Ready as I'll ever be...” You kicked your legs mindlessly, awaiting his instruction.

“Lay down for me.” A few seconds went by and his gloved hand your lower back and you shivered upon contact. You felt the thin paper press against your skin along with his warm hand pressing precisely.

“Ok, go see how it looks.” He handed you a hand mirror and you made your way to the mirror holding it up in front of you so you could see the mirror through the one in your hand. It was big, it reached a few inches from your shoulder and lower back. It was big.

“Do you like the placement?” He voiced from his stool, you could see him eyeing you through the mirror. He seemed to have taken a liking to your figure but he kept it at bay, diverting his eyes when you turned around.

“Yeah, i-it's good.” You got up on the cushiony table, laying flat in front of him. You could hear him fiddling with the needle and you were trying to steady your breathing.

“Don't be nervous baby girl, it's not too bad.” He pat your shoulder in a friendly way, trying to comfort you and soothe your nerves but it did very little to help you. “Everyone gets a little nervous on their first time. If it gets too much I can give you some Advil or we can finish up another day.” He suggested. You nodded quickly, but he was getting the feeling that you weren't prepared for this. Taking a deep breath he turned the needle on and the sound alone gaze you freaking out, you were tense and just as the needle was about to touch your skin you panicked.

“Stop, stop, stop. I can't do it...” You sat up, burying your face in your hands and he put the needle down in shock. You wiped the stray tears from your face as you also tried to keep your decency in tact. He rubbed your thigh in concern, “Hey, it's ok, don't cry...do you not like the tattoo? Is it too big? You could've told me, I would've drawn you something different-”

“No, it's not that...I-I Just don't know what I'm doing here.” You turned around so that your back was the only thing facing him and changed quickly. He watched you situate yourself, he didn't have a clue where this was coming from.

“I'm sorry I wasted your time, really I am but I don't wanna do this anymore.” You took deliberate steps to the door but you got jerked back by his hand wrapped around your wrist.

“Wait, please. Can you at least talk to me about it? I just wanna help...” His doe eyes bore into you like a begging puppy, you were tempted to say no but how could you? “Fine...” With his hand still on your wrist he led you to sit back down and he sat beside you.

“If it's not the tattoo, what is it? Is it me?” He hoped it wasn’t.

“Of course it's not you. It's me.” You deadpanned.

“You? I don't understand-”

“I'm not like most of the people around here Jungkook, I don't go out a lot, I traveled half across the world and I still feel like I’m missing out, there's not much to me...I've never done this before, I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do something different or at least have a little fun for once in my life- but I can't...” Your head hung low as you looked down at your fingers, how could you get like this in front of him? You were just burdening him with your own personal problems. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't even be telling you this...I should go...” You ease off the table and stand there for a good few seconds.

“No, you shouldn't.” He stood up, towering over you with hopeful eyes. “You should go to lunch with me...My treat?” Although your were taken and your first instinct was to say yes- no, scream yes but you held your self together. “Ok...”

A few weeks went by and you can say you've never met someone who looked at you the way he did. The past few weeks you had come to grow fond of his random late night texts, the times he'd steal you from home even if he knew you were studying. Sometimes on the weekend he'd come to the apartment just to watch tv with you, regardless of how crazy or cheesy the flics were you two would poke fun at them together. A majority of the time the night would end with you waking him up and telling him to go home or him convincing you to let him stay the night, you were the one to give in most of the time. You'd rarely go to his tattoo shop anymore, not since that first appointment. He said he wasn't bothered by it but you knew he'd like it if you'd eat lunch with him sometimes. During lunch break you'd both go to the same place and bring your food back to your jobs. He'd ask you to come over sometimes and even though your excuses not to go were terrible he went with them anyway.

Your phone vibrated on your bed and you held it up to your face as you tried to shake of your sleepy eyesight. message from Jungkook

8:27

morning

good morning angel

morning lovely

r u still sleeping ?

9:03

hey are u alive bby?

heyy

9:05

if you r alv can u come by

can u come by the shop???

I'm coming to your room window with a rock if you don't respond in 2 mins

“Huh..” You sighed.

It’s a saturday...dont make me go anywhr

pleaseee it wont tak long

fine, be there in 15. You went to take your shower and get dressed in a comfy pair of jeans and a t shirt. You didn’t feel like going throught he hassle of making breakfast so you grabbed a banana and went out the door.

You walked into to the back room where he always was and there he was on his phone. When he caught your gaze he immediately got up to embrace you. “Hi baby.” He kissed your forehead playfully. “I have something to show you.” He took you by the hand and into the room you were gonna get tattooed in.

“What is it?” You were anxious onto what it might be and by the excitement in his face it must've been good.

“Tah-dah!” He pulled down his shirt, exposing the front of his shoulder to you with a huge smile.

“Oh my g- Jungkook, is that my drawing?...” Your mouth hung open in shock; you got closer and touched the still slightly red skin around the flower a few centimeters from his collar bone. “You liked it that much?...”

“Yeah, I got it done yesterday and I just couldn’t wait any longer to show you. When I told you I loved it I really meant it, I’ve been looking for something different and your flower was perfect.” He couldn’t keep a smile from forming on his lips.

“Jungkook, that’s really sweet...” You wrapped your arms around his neck and his went to your waist, pulling him in for a warm hug and you two just stood there, enjoying each others hold.

“You know, I’ve been thinking. I have an idea for a tattoo that would be perfect for you.” You rested your hands on his chest.

“I don’t know, if I get one I want to be sure that I love it, without a doubt...you know?” You laid your head on his shoulder and he subconsciously tapped the pads of his fingers on your back.

“Can I give you a tattoo? Just a small one, I have just the one in mind for you...”

“Ok, fine.”

“Really?” You were as shocked as him to be honest. As soon as you nodded he had the needle ready, gloves and you sat down. He had this planned, you thought but you’ll let it slide. As he began the process you both agreed on the perfect place for it, and he started. The pain was fairly bearable, especially since you weren't a panicking mess, you trusted him.

“All done, it looks beautiful.” You sat there for maybe an hour and he finally set you free. And your heart was pounding out of your chest, you hadn't gotten a glimpse of it and now was the big reveal. You got up unsteadily and trudged over to the mirror.

“A flower?...” You gawked at it in the mirror, admiring every little detail, in your opinion it was for more creative than yours. He watched you look at the tattoo and he was getting a little nervous, did you like it? Did you hate it?

“You do like it, right? I thought since you like to draw plants and things like that I'd-”

“Thank you, I love it, I love it,” Wrapping yours arms around his torso you cut him off. He pecked your pinkish lips making a light tint of blush appear on your cheeks. “I'm glad I was getting a little scared there. You really do love it?”

You nodded. “it's perfect.”

❀ ✿ ❁ ✾ ✽ ❃ ❋❀ ✿ ❁ ✾ ✽ ❃ ❋

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suzanneshannon · 6 years ago

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Typography for Developers

Taimur Abdaal leads design at Retool, a fast way to build internal tools. They're working on a new design system for their platform, to let anyone easily build beautiful custom apps. Typography will be a huge part of this and Taimur wrote this based on that experience.

You may have read the title for this post and thought, "Why on earth does a developer need to know anything about typography?" I mean, there’s already a lot on your plate and you’re making hundreds of decisions a day. Should you use React or Vue? npm or Yarn? ES6 or ES7? Sadly, this often leaves something like type as an afterthought. But, let’s remember that web design is 95% typography:

95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.

Even though we deal with content everyday — whether reading, writing, or designing it — typography can be daunting to delve into because it’s filled with jargon and subjectivity, and it’s uncommon to see it taught extensively at school.

This is intended as a practical guide for developers to learn web typography. We’ll cover a range of practical and useful topics, like how to choose and use custom fonts on the web, but more importantly, how to lay text out to create a pleasant user experience. We’ll go over the principles of typography and the CSS properties that control them, as well as handy tips to get good results, quickly.

What is typography?

First and foremost, typography is about usability. Type is the user interface for conveying information, and conveying information is what we’re here to do on the web. There are many levers we can pull to affect the usability of reading text, and only by being deliberate about these can we create a pleasant experience for our users.

After (and only after) usability, typography is about emotion. Do the letters complement your content, or contradict it? Do they amplify your brand’s personality, or dampen it? Applied to the same text, different type will make people feel different things. Being deliberate about typography lets us control these feelings.

Same text, different personalities. I’ll bet the first experience is much more expensive. Typefaces: Bodoni 72 (Top), Tsukushi A Round Gothic (Bottom)

Despite what many golden ratio enthusiasts might try to tell you, typography isn’t an exact science. Good guidelines will get you most of the way there, but you’ll need to apply a little intuition too. Luckily, you’ve been reading text your whole life — books, magazines, the Internet — so you have a lot more untapped intuition than you think!

What’s in a font?

Let’s start off by getting a handle on some basic terminology and how fonts are categorized.

Typeface vs. Font

This is how the two have traditionally been defined and distinguished from one another:

Typeface: The design of a collection of glyphs (e.g. letters, numbers, symbols)

Font: A specific size, weight, or style of a typeface (e.g. regular, bold, italic)

In essence, a typeface is like a song and a font is like its MP3 file. You’ll see both terms used in typography literature, so it’s worth knowing the distinction. "Font vs. Typeface" is also a bit of meme in the design community — you might see it crop up on Twitter, so it’ll help to be "in the know."

HOW 2 MAJOR IN GRAPHIC DESIGN: - CHOOSE A FONT - "ITS CALLED A TYPEFACE NOT A FONT" - CHOOSE A GODDAMN TYPEFACE - U MADE THE WRONG CHOICE

— Deena (@itsDeenasaur) November 2, 2014

I may have used font and typeface interchangeably in this story. Please send all complaints to [email protected]. https://t.co/IuHHmlaNAT

— Tristin Hopper (@TristinHopper) January 14, 2019

But, more recently, you can essentially use both terms interchangeably and people will know what you mean.

How fonts are categorized

The broadest split is between serif and sans-serif typefaces. It’s likely you’ve come across these terms just by seeing some some typeface names floating around (like, ahem, Comic Sans).

A "serif" is a small stroke attached to the ends of letters, giving them a traditional feel. In fact, most books and newspapers are set in serif typefaces. On the contrary, sans-serif typefaces don’t have these extra strokes, giving them a smooth, modern feel.

Times (left) and Helvetica Neue (right)

Both serif and sans-serif have categories within them. For example, serif has sub-categories including didone, slab and old style.

Didot (left), Rockwell (center) and Hoefler Text (right)

As far as sans-serif goes, it includes humanist, geometric and grotesk as sub-categories.

Gill Sans (left), Futura (center) and Aktiv Grotesk (right)

Monospace fonts (yes, fonts) are a noteworthy category all its own. Each glyph (i.e. letter/number/symbol) in a monospace font has the same width (hence the mono spacing terminology), so it’s possible to arrange them into visual structures. You may be well familiar with monospace because we see it often when writing code, where it’s helpful to make brackets and indents line up visually. The code editor you have open right now is likely using monospace.

Monaco

How to choose fonts and font pairings

This is subjective, and depends on what you’re trying to do. Each typeface has its own personality, so you’ll have to find one that aligns with your brand or the content it’s communicating. Typefaces have to be considered within the context that they’re being applied. Are we looking for formality? Maybe start with the serif family. Warm, fun and friendly? That might be a cue for sans-serif. Heck, there’s a time and a place even for Comic Sans… really! Just know that there is no hard science to choosing a font, and even the most trained of typographers are considering contextual cues to find the "right" one.

But fonts can be paired together in the same design. For example, some designs use one typeface for headings and another for body text. This is a good way to get a unique look, but it does take a fair bit of work to get it right. Like colors in a palette, some typefaces work well together while others clash. And even purposeful clashing can make sense, again, given the right context.

The only way to find out if two fonts are complementary is to see them together. Tools like FontPair and TypeConnection can help with this. If a font catches your eye when surfing the web, WhatFont is a great browser extension to help identify it. Another great resource is Typewolf which allows you to see examples of great web typography, including different font combinations in use:

Alice Lee (left), American Documentary (center) and Studio Stereo (right)

While there’s a lot of subjectivity in choosing fonts, there are some objective considerations.

Font weight as a consideration

Some font families have a wide range of font weights — Light, Book, Regular, Medium, Semi-Bold, Bold, Black — whereas others just have a couple.

Inter UI comes with a fantastic range of weights

If you’re building a complex web app UI, you might need a range of font weights to establish hierarchy in different contexts. For something less complex, say a blog, you’ll likely be fine with just a couple.

Complex UI hierarchy (left) and Simple blog hierarchy (right)

Variable fonts are an exciting new technology that provide precise control over a font's characteristics. For font weights, this means there's no longer limitations to using "Light," "Regular," and "Bold," but really any weight in between. Try some variable fonts out here and check out Ollie Williams' post as well.

It's still early days — there aren't many variable fonts available right now, and browser support is limited. But definitely a space worth watching!

Consider the legibility of a font

Some typefaces are harder to read than others. Stay away from elaborate fonts when it comes to paragraphs, and if you must have tiny text somewhere, make sure its typeface is legible at those tiny sizes.

Of these two examples, which is easier on the eyes? (There is a right answer here. 🙂)

See the Pen Font Comparison: Body by Geoff Graham (@geoffgraham) on CodePen.

Remember, fonts come in a variety of styles

Making a font bold isn’t as simple as adding an outline to the text, and italics are more than slanted letters. Good fonts have specific bold and italic styles, without which the browser tries to "fake" it:

Lato

These faux styles tend to reduce legibility and break the text’s visual cohesion because the browser can only do so much with what it’s given. Stick to fonts that offer true bold/italics styles, if you can.

Other things worth consideration

What we’ve looked at so far are the high level characteristics and features of fonts that can help us decide which to choose for a particular design or context. There are many other things that can (and probably should) be taken into consideration, including:

Language support: Some fonts have glyphs for foreign characters, which may be a requirement for a project geared toward a multilingual audience or that contains multilingual content.

Ligatures: Some fonts (typically serifs) have glyphs to replace otherwise awkward characters, like ﬃ and ﬄ which are multiple characters in a single glyph.

File size: You’re a developer, so I know you care about performance. Some fonts come in bigger files than others and those can cause a site to take a hit on load times.

Using fonts on the world wide web

A mere 10 years ago, there were two complex ways to use custom fonts on the web:

SiFR: Embedding a Flash (remember that thing?) widget to render text.

cufon: converting the font to a proprietary format, and using a specific JavaScript rendering engine to generate the text using VML on an HTML <canvas>.

Today, there’s all we need is a single simple one: @font-face. It lets you specify a font file URL, which the browser then downloads and uses on your site.

You can use the @font-face declaration to define your custom font:

@font-face { font-family: 'MyWebFont'; src: url('webfont.eot'); /* IE9 Compat Modes */ src: url('webfont.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'), /* IE6-IE8 */ url('webfont.woff2') format('woff2'), /* Super Modern Browsers */ url('webfont.woff') format('woff'), /* Pretty Modern Browsers */ url('webfont.ttf') format('truetype'), /* Safari, Android, iOS */ url('webfont.svg#svgFontName') format('svg'); /* Legacy iOS */ }

And then refer to it as normal, by the font-family attribute:

body { font-family: 'MyWebFont', Fallback, sans-serif; }

Even though @font-face is light years ahead of the old school approaches to custom web fonts, there is quite a bit to consider as far as browser support goes. Here’s a guide to getting the right amount of cross-browser support.

The impact of fonts on performance

Performance is the only downside to using custom fonts on the web. Fonts are relatively large assets — often hundreds of kilobytes in size — and will have and adverse effect on the speed of any site.

Here are some tips to soften the blow:

Use GZIP compression on your web font files.

Disable font features you don’t need, e.g. hinting, kerning.

Remove glyphs that you don’t need, e.g. foreign language characters.

One tool that can help tailor a font file to suit your needs is Transfonter. Just make sure you have the rights to any font that you want to use on your site because, well, it’s just the right thing to do.

Some services will host web fonts for you

One other significant way to shed some of the weight of using custom web fonts is to use a service that will host and serve them for you. The benefit here is that third-parties store the files on a speedy CDN, optimize them, and serve them to your site via a JavaScript snippet that gets dropped into the document head. In short: it takes a lot of hassle off your hands.

How easy is it to use a hosted service? Consider that using anything on Google Fonts only requires a single <link> in the HTML head:

<html> <head> <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto" rel="stylesheet"> <style> body { font-family: 'Roboto', sans-serif; } </style> </head>

This example was taken from Google Fonts — the most popular hosted font service. It’s free to use, and, at the time of writing, has a catalogue of 915 font families. The quality of these can be hit-or-miss. Some are truly top-notch — beautiful design, many weights, true bold/italics, and advanced features like ligatures. Others, typically the more novel designs, are bare-bones, and might not be suitable for serious projects with evolving needs.

Adobe Fonts is also very popular. It comes bundled with Adobe’s Creative Cloud offering, which starts at $20.99 per month. At the time of writing, it has a catalogue of 1,636 font families. These are typically high quality fonts that you’d have to pay for, but with Adobe Fonts, you can access them all in a Netflix all-you-can-eat model.

Here are some other options:

Adobe Edge Web Fonts: This is the free version of Adobe Fonts. Adobe partnered with Google on this, so there’s a lot of overlap with the Google Fonts library. It has 503 font families in total.

Fontspring: This is a massive library of over 14,000 font families, but with an individual licensing model. This means paying more up-front, starting at ~$20 per individual font (and per weight or style), but no recurring costs. It’s also self-serve — you’ll have to host the files yourself.

MyFonts by Monotype: This is major type foundry. Similar to Fontspring: massive library of font families with an individual licensing model.

Fonts.com: This is similar to Fontspring. Options for one-off or pay-as-you go pricing (based on page views).

Cloud.typography by Hoefler&Co: This is a major type foundry. Over 1,000 font families (all by Hoefler&Co), with options for hosted (subscription, starting at $99 per year) or self-hosted (individually licensed) web fonts. The benefit here is that you get access to a library of fonts you cannot find anywhere else.

Fontstand: This services allows you to "rent" individual fonts cheaply on a monthly basis, starting ~$10 per month), which you get to own automatically after 12 months. To date, it boasts 1,500 families, with a hosted web font service.

CSS and Typography

OK, let’s move on to the intersection of design and development. We’ve covered a lot of the foundational terms and concepts of typography, but now we can turn our attention to what affordances we have to manipulate and style type, specifically with CSS.

Adjusting font sizing

Changing the size of a font is something that inevitably pops up in a typical project. Size is important because it creates hierarchy, implicitly guiding the user through the page. So, in this section, we’re going to look at two CSS features that are available in our tool belt for adjusting font sizes to create better content hierarchy.

Sizes can be expressed in a different units of measure

Did you know that there are 15 different units for sizing in CSS? Crazy, right? Most of us are probably aware of and comfortable working with pixels (px) but there are so many other ways we can define the size of a font.

Some of these are relative units, and others are absolute. The actual size of an element expressed in relative units depends on other parts of the page, while the actual size of an element expressed in absolute units is always the same. And, as you might expect, that difference is important because they serve different functions, depending on a design’s needs.

Of the 15 units we have available, we will selectively look at two in particular: px and em. Not only are these perhaps the two most used units that you’ll see used to define font sizes, but they also perfectly demonstrate the difference between absolute and relative sizing.

First off, px is an absolute unit and it actually doesn’t have much to do with pixels (it’s considered an angular measurement), but it’s defined so that a line of width 1px appears sharp and visible, no matter the screen resolution. The px value corresponds, roughly, to a little more than the distance from the highest ascender (e.g. the top of the letter A) to the lowest descender (e.g. the bottom of the letter p) in the font. Some fonts have taller letters than others, so 16px in one font might look noticeably "bigger" than 16px in another. Yet another consideration to take into account when choosing a font!

Interestingly enough, when it comes to typography, the px is a unit to be understood, but not used. The true purpose of px units is to serve as the foundation of a type system based on relative units. In other words, it’s an absolute value that a relative unit can point to in order to define its own size relative to that value.

Which takes us to em, a relative unit. Text with a font size of 2em would be twice as big as the font-size of its parent element. The body doesn’t have a parent element, but each device has its own default font-size for the body element. For example, desktop browsers usually default to 16px. Other devices (e.g. mobile phones and TVs) might have different defaults that are optimized for their form factors.

The em lets you reason about your typography intuitively: "I want this title to be twice as big as the paragraph text" corresponds directly to 2em. It’s also easy to maintain — if you need a media query to make everything bigger on mobile, it’s a simple matter of increasing one font-size attribute. Dealing in em units also lets you set other typographical elements in relation to font-size, as we’ll see later.

There are semantic HTML elements that CSS can target to adjust size

You’re sold on the em, but how many em units should each element be? You’ll want to have a range of text sizes to establish hierarchy between different elements of your page. More often than not, you’ll see hierarchies that are six level deep, which corresponds to the HTML heading elements, h1 through h6.

The right size scale depends on the use case. As a guideline, many people choose to use a modular scale. That refers to a scale based on a constant ratio for successive text elements in the hierarchy.

Example of a modular scale with a ratio of 1.4

Modular Scales is a tool by Tim Brown, who popularized this approach, which makes it easy to visualize different size scales.

Adjusting a font’s vertical spacing and alignment

The physical size of a font is a super common way we use CSS to style a font, but vertical spacing is another incredibly powerful way CSS can help improve the legibility of content.

Use line-height to define how tall to make a line of text

Line height is one of the most important factors affecting readability. It’s controlled by the line-height property, best expressed as a unit-less number that corresponds to a multiple of the defined font size.

Let’s say we are working with a computed font size of 16px (specified in the CSS as em units, of course), a line-height of 1.2 would make each line 19.2px tall. (Remember that px aren’t actually pixels, so decimals are valid!)

Most browsers default to a line-height of 1.2 but the problem is that this is usually too tight — you probably want something closer to 1.5 because provides a little more breathing room for your eyes when reading.

Here are some general guidelines to define a good line height:

Increase line-height for thick fonts

Increase line-height when fonts are a dark color

Increase line-height for long-form content

Increasing the line-height can drastically improve legibility

Fonts can’t dance, but they still have rhythm

Rhythm describes how text flows vertically on a page. Much like music, some amount of consistency and structure usually leads to good "rhythm." Like most design techniques, rhythm isn’t an exact science but there are some sensible guidelines that give good results.

One school of thought prescribes the use of paragraph line height as a baseline unit from which all other spacing is derived. This includes gaps between paragraphs and headings, and padding between the text and other page elements.

Under this system, you might set the line height of a heading to twice the line height of paragraphs, and leave a one-line gap between a heading and paragraph. Handily, you can use the same em units to define margins and padding, so there’s really no need to hard-code anything.