#anyway here's an explanation for all the pics in order DID YOU KNOW that in fisrt season 1 game the lyrics of fly me to the moon song are

[stimtfil]

[team7-headquarter]

Number 2. KONOHAMARU!!

I've decided to watch the anime at the same time I read the manga, for comparisons. So I'm gonna do a quick reread of Chapter 2 to compare it to the Episode 2 I've already watched! Let's goooo!

I want to start with the quick guide to the shinobi style. It is really cool that we got an explanation for the Konoha's uniform, even acknowledging that this is specifically Konoha's style.

On the left, we have Naruto being... Naruto. I love that this is a file to be shown to other nations and people who'd want to accept Team 7 for their payed missions. The Hokage tolds him so and Naruto quickly answers that he didn't know about any of that, which lol yes, my ignorant baby boy.

The Nine-Tails vessel likes playing pranks and ramen. Of course. And he has artistic vission.

Absolutely king for that.

(right to left) Konohamaru talking about Naruto having a reputation that suggests his prowness will forevee be funny. He's definitely inventing that IF he's not talking about Naruto's reputation on pranks. Again, Naruto king of my heart.

Konohamaru is a reflection of how life would have been for Naruto is Minato had survived. Instead of the honorable grandon, Naruto would be (kinda) the honorable son. Notice how Naruto gets mad at Konohamaru thinking it'd be so easy, especially when Naruto has been fighting for acceptance his whole life.

Naruto reminds me so much of Kushina in those panels on the right picture, especially when he tells Konohamaru he'd have to defeat Naruto in order to become hokage. He's his mother's son, after all. His speech makes me wonder how many times did he repeat those words to himself, when he felt like giving up, he probably repeated silently that it'd never be easy, but he'd do it. He swears.

That's Naruto's spirit right there, accepting that the world is not fair, that things don't come easy even if he deserves it, but going for it anyway.

I also find funny that Konohamaru proclaims that they'll be archirivals and then just becomes his students anyway. *An important point to notice is that the pervert activity is mostly absent in this manga. Half the episode in the anime is Naruto and Konohamaru doing "research" while people mistreats Naruto, but not Konohamaru.

I don't know much about Boruto, but I hope someday Konohamaru and Naruto do get to fight over the Hokage title, like a sort of ceremony that Konohamaru wants to happen so he knows he is ready for the title. Or... Well, he can end up not becoming Hokage, I guess.

Also fuck Hiruzen, your useless old man.

Iruka, proud father of a problematic dreamer.

I'm not showing here the panel of Iruka proudly talking about Naruto 'cause there's a pic limit in posts, but he's the complete opposite of Hiruzen in terms of vibes, you know? Iruka deserves all in the world and then some more TwT

Hiruzen says it'll be hard for Naruto to become a Hokage and be accepted by the village, talking about Minato, his last wish, Naruto being used as a sacrifice and the law forbidding people to talk about Naruto being the Nine-Tails vessel.

Minato is truly one of the best hokages. He died by his wife side, protecting both the village and his son. He wanted the people to see Naruto as their hero, never worrying about how Kushina and he would be remembered.

If you think about it, the reason of the Uchiha and Naruto's sad childhood both come from Hiruzen's inability to clam down the situation and change the public point of view. Which yeah, it's not easy but isn't he the hokage for something? You're telling me he couldn't (or choose not to) protect a baby, a baby he was asked to protect by another Hokage in his last wish? All he's saying right there, those were things Sasuke was going through too.

“To be treated with an animosity so intense as to be annihilating... to have around you many who would deny you even... the right to exist...”

It was what happened to Itachi and Sakumo, the reason why the Uchiha's died, why Gaara became so bitter and violent, the thing Neji fought against in the secondary branch of the Hyuga clan, what every tailed beast vessel had to fight against......... Hiruzen saw it all happen and he allowed the cycle to continue, didn't try to help any of those kids.

He failed his students, he failed Minato, failed the genins, the jounins, the village.

In summary, an intersting character but a terrible terrible hokage skejkdndkd.

🍥 MY NARUTO MANGA RE-READ : VOL 1

Started : 24/02/20223 — Finished : 00/00/0000

*Comments under the cut!!!!!

[alixdelcourt]

Hello hello againnn, tysm for yesterday’s request, I love your writing!<3 I have a new idea I just thought of, tamaki + mha guys/girls (of your choice and if you write fruity fics too) with a reader who draws a lot? And maybe they get caught or they see a sketch of them? If it isn’t so much to ask for- ty!!!

MHA boys x reader who draws a lot

Some fluff and sweetness to brighten your day (I hope so)

Ft : Tamaki, Izuku and Denki

(First pic credits : Peachimis on TikTok)

It’s a beautiful day. The weather is fine: clear blue sky and warm sun. You and Tamaki are strolling in a parc, admiring the nature around and the ambient calm. Your boyfriend carries a wicker basket for you, holding your lunch and stuff in. When you two got hungry, you just settle under a big tree, unwrapping a blanket and having lunch in the branches’ shade. This was the kind of perfect dates that makes you so in love with Tamaki. He’s quiet, and like peaceful time, just like you. Birds of a feather flock together, isn’t it ?

Tamaki’s reading, comfortably leaning against the trunk, and you are scribbling some sketches in your sketchbook. Drawing is a passion, and you can’t help but try to picture whatever’s near you. This sketchbook is your private garden, and Tamaki respects it. He never presses you to show him what you had drawn, he just knows that if you want to, you would come up to him, asking for his opinion about it.

And today, you want to show him the picture of a cute bird who was perched just above your head. You wanted to know if it’s resembling to the model or not. You need an outside look.

“Tamaki ?”

He raised his nose from his book to look at you.

“Yes, (y/n) ?”

“Could you take a look at something ?”

“Of course, honey”

You hand you sketchbook to him, but when he took it from you, a wind blow turned the pages, loosing the small bird’s sketch. And Tamaki came face to face with… himself. It was him, on the drawing. His purple hair, his elf ears, his thin hands… But he was pictured as an angel. It was… really well done, and absolutely lovely.

You quickly shut and take back your sketchbook, brick red colored cheeks. But it was too late. He saw it. And he was hard blushing as well. You were embarrassed. You felt obligated to apologize:

“ I am sorry… Just forget about this… You should never have seen that. It’s bum, anyway… I am sor-”

You can’t continue, because Tamaki arms wrap around your shoulders, pulling you to his embrace. He’s still blushing, and can’t hold your gaze, but he wasn’t mad. Not at all. He was softly smiling, burying his nose in your hair. This drawing was the most precious confession you made for him. Even if it wasn’t on purpose.

“It’s not bum. It’s perfect. I love it.”

And before you could add anything else,

“I love you, (y/n).”

Izuku Midoriya is sick again, and stuck in the infirmary. He had a hard time training when he did push too much on himself, and he needs to rest for a few days. You went to check on him with some friends, and poor baby was so anxious about skipping school and having trouble caching up what he missed.

You have a huge crush on Izuku, and in order to help him, and maybe score some points to him, you decided to take double notes in class, writing down in a new notebook, just like those used by Izuku himself. You’ll give to him after school, so you’re not obliged to lend him your messy notes, and he’ll be able to catch up studying in the infirmary. It was a bit hard to order and organize your note taking, but you want it to be well presented for him.

You struggle at the beginning, but get used quickly to write faster in order to double note on your book and his. Even Aizawa noticed and asked what were you doing. He lowkey congrats you for your “team spirit”. You did it all day long, in every class. You can be pride of yourself, it was a great idea.

But you didn’t notice. You didn’t pay attention to your bad habits. You’re an airhead, having trouble concentrating, and you need to focus your mind on something and keep your hands busy with some repetitive moves. Like fold and unfold the corner of the pages, clicking your pen, or just randomly scribbling on your pages’ edges. Little doodles that you don’t even look at. Oblivious drawings of what’s in your head.

Shiny smiling on, you head to the infirmary immediately after the bell ringing. Recovery Girl let you visit Izuku, who was better than yesterday.

“Izuku-kun ! How are you today ? Better ?”

“Yes, thank you for caring, (y/n)”

You took the notebook out of your bag, and give it to him. His name was beautifully calligraphed on it. He blushed a bit, looking at you for some explanations.

“I did this for you ! So you can study like us, even if you are not taking classes. It’s yours, you can keep it ! But since you’re not coming back tomorrow, Recovery Girl told me, I’ll come in the morning to get it back and to take note for you again. Does it sound okay for you ?”

After long minutes of embarrassed and grateful thanks from Izuku, you left him alone to study and rest.

The next day, as promised, you picked his notebook from his nightstand, since he was asleep, and nearly arrived late to your class. You sit at your desk and prepare yourself to take notes. When you open Izuku’s notebook, a fold paper drops from it. Your name was on it, so you unfold it. You freeze, eyes and mouth wide open, skin turning to a scarlet tone. Matching the redness of the heart that was drawn on the paper. A big bright red heart. With Izuku signature. A few moments later, still red, you have to concentrate if you don’t want to miss what Ectoplasm was explaining. Mathematics always give you headache, so you need to concentrate. It was then that you noticed what Izuku probably noticed as well. Little sketches of him. Everywhere. Him in his hero costume, in his school uniform, in school sportswear, smiling, winking, sticking his tongue out, with random little stars and tiny hearts everywhere.

RIP you. And RIP him as well. He wasn’t asleep this morning, he was all flustered and shy. Was your sketches some kind of flirting ? Even if he likes you as well, he just doesn’t know how to deal with this. But nor do you. Poor crushing babies. Good luck.

Denki is playful. No doubt on that. He’s such a flirt with everyone. It’s his personality. He can’t help it. But when he is in love, it gets worse. You won’t say that he was embarrassing you, but you were confused every  time he smiles or winks at you when you two are in class. In the dorms, he would randomly touch your hair, compliment your food, want to sit next to you on the couch… More than with the other girls. You like all those small attentions, but it makes you feel… insecure. Maybe paranoid. Definitely awkward. He gets flirtier and flirtier every day. Like he was waiting for something. But what ?

He was waiting for you to fall in love, and maybe confess to him afterwards. Even if it seems strange, he’s too shy to do it himself. Everyone is used to him being a tease, but how would you react if he started being romantic ? He’s afraid that you may reject him. Poor baby, don’t please, you would break his heart.

But he’s done waiting. You divert all his attention, he can’t think about anything else than you. So he decided to do something. He’ll let you know about his feelings, but not directly , so you none of you would be embarrassed if it doesn’t work. If you don’t like him, you will just ignore it, and he will be fixed. At least, he has to give it a try.

So, an evening, while everyone was in the common space of the dorm, he sneaked in your room, with a little chocolate box and a letter. A long letter explaining everything. His feelings, the fact that he can’t face you and would die collapsing if he ever tries to, and that you’re not obliged to answer. His heart was speed racing in his chest, and it nearly stopped when he noticed your desk board. There was plenty of little drawings pinned on it, from memo’s notes to random papers full of sketches.

Dozens of little Pikachus staring and smiling at him, or at everyone who would sit on the chair. So you. You were surrounded by drawings of the little electric mouse. He approached in order to ogle the details, and he saw it. Some mention of his name. Little “Denki” written here and there. He imagined you, daydreaming and nibbling the tip of your pencil, like you do in class or when you study, and thinking of him. This thought filled him with the courage he was lacking to tell you about his feelings. He just dropped what he was holding, before running to the common space. No time to waste. He already waited too long.

You were sitting on a high stool near the counter, chatting with others and watching Bakugou cooking. Like everyone, you turned your head when you heard quick footsteps arriving. Why was Denki running ?

“(Y/N) !”

You raised an eyebrow, and before you could answer, he pressed his lips against yours and kissed you with all the love he feels towards you. You don’t remember what happened next because your mind just… stopped working.

“What was that for ?”

“The pikachus”

Mina and Denki voices brought you back, before fainting again when you heard the word Pikachu.

_________________________________________

Heeeere :) Hope you'll enjoy it. Let me know if you want me to change or to fix anything, and feel free to request anything else.

[forasecondtherewedwon]

Runaway Ride

Fandom: Never Have I Ever Pairing: Devi/Paxton Rating: T Word Count: 4889

Summary: Kamala gets herself into a pickle, Devi needs to go to her, and Paxton has a car. Problem-solving has never been so simple, but that's how it is when your new boyfriend is Paxton Hall-Yoshida. Throw in a little hand-holding on the highway and this family crisis might just be the best date Devi will ever have.

When they finally took a break from dancing—disconnecting hands from hips and shoulders, lips from lips—Devi stepped away in a dreamy headspace. She almost collided with Jonah, but he didn’t tell her to look where she was going, only offered a shrewd, indulgent smile.

Actually, everybody was treating her like that; every eye that caught hers on her way to the table where she’d left her stuff was unjudgmental, admiring, straight up fairy-godmotherly. Devi hadn’t received this much notice since her dad’s death and her subsequent paralysis. And those looks had been pitying, freaked out. Positive attention was new and cool and she wondered, as she grabbed her phone out of her turquoise clutch, whether her socials would show more of the same when she opened them. Would people have snapped stealthy pics of her and Paxton dancing now that she’d been vaulted into the pseudo-celebrity strata of the high school hierarchy? Would the Insta posts be captioned with hashtags of their ship name? Paxi? Daxton? Vishwall-Yoshumar?

Devi never got to check.

Unlocking her phone, she found two missed calls from her mother. Maybe two wouldn’t have seemed like a whole lot to someone else, but Devi knew that, in order for her mom to risk rudeness by stepping away from the company she was hosting at home not once but twice, she’d need to be pretty frantic. Two missed calls from Nalini Vishwakumar were the equivalent of six or seven from any other mother.

Skirting the edges of the gym as she headed away from DJ Humanoid—that nit-witted saboteur of slow dances—Devi was about to call her mom back when her screen changed to an incoming call from Kamala. She pressed her other hand to her ear and answered it.

“Hey. Do you know what’s going on with my mom? She called me twice and, honestly, she knows I’m at the d—”

“Devi, shut up. Sorry,” Kamala sighed. “But I may have kidnapped your history teacher and now I’m panicking a little.”

Devi stopped in her tracks.

“You did what? Why is the sound weird?”

As she was trying to identify the background noise coming from Kamala’s end, her eyes swept over the crowd of her classmates and landed on Fabiola’s. Her friend had been smiling, mid-sway as she held Eve from behind and chatted with Sasha, but it fell off her face like Devi off Dr. Jackson’s roof. Fab disentangled herself from her girlfriend and crossed the room to stand with Devi. She was frowning, silently asking for an explanation for Devi’s distress, but Devi didn’t really have one yet.

“We’re in his car on the highway,” her cousin was saying. “He was a little drunk, so I’m driving.”

Devi had imagined that Kamala was exaggerating, but no, this was really starting to sound like a kidnapping.

“You better be on hands-free right now,” she lectured. Then, because she wasn’t exactly a paragon of road safety herself—barely an hour ago, she’d walked right out in front of Paxton’s jeep—didn’t wait for confirmation. “What the hell happened? Context, Kamala!”

“Well, as soon as I snuck out of the house—”

“But why did you sneak out?!”

“Devi, I can’t talk about that right now!” Devi’s eyebrows shot up at the clear and abnormal hysteria in her cousin’s voice. “I ran out of the house,” Kamala continued, “totally directionless, and the first thing that popped into my head was Manish’s invitation for me to come to karaoke…”

“Ew, what the fuck, don’t call Mr. K that.”

What? Fab mouthed at her, but Devi shook her head.

“That is his name and what he asked me to call him. Anyway,” Kamala said, sounding strained, “I went to your school and met up with him and now I’m driving his car and I think I might have shut my sari in the car door, but I’m scared to pull over and check because if I stop the car, I’m going to have to confront things and I think I’d rather not do that yet.”

“Kamala,” Devi said in a heavy, careful voice. “You have to pull over. I totally get what you’re saying because it sounds like something I might do—minus the part where you kidnapped Mr. K—” Fabiola’s eyes went dramatically wide as she was adjusting her tiara. “—but this isn’t you. You don’t run away from your obligations and elope with my teachers!”

“Manish and I didn’t elope. It isn’t in any way romantic.”

“For sure though? It’s not?” Devi heard another voice in the car ask.

“Mr. K, back off! Kamala’s in the middle of a crisis!” she shouted. “And please be drunk enough to forget that I yelled at you.”

“Devi, what should I do?” Kamala asked, sounding desperate in a sad way now.

“Where are you?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Ok, well, which direction are you heading in?”

“Um, either north or south.”

“You’re a disaster,” Devi muttered.

“What was that?”

“Uh… I said, don’t drive any faster. Try to read the next sign you pass so you can tell me where you are.”

“Alright,” Kamala said.

Devi tilted her phone away from her mouth so her cousin wouldn’t hear her frustrated sigh. She locked eyes with Fabiola.

“Kamala panicked at her engagement dinner and ran off with Mr. K. They’re either headed for Mexico or Canada, but I’ll know more in a minute.”

Fab blinked.

“Wow.”

“I know. It’s a lot. And this is me talking,” Devi emphasized.

“I don’t know if you would do anything this big. Mainly because you don’t have a driver’s license.”

“True.”

“Santa Barbara in twenty-six miles,” Kamala said in her ear.

“Damn, you made good time.”

“The traffic was quite manageable.”

“Try to calm down a little and get off the highway when you can. Don’t go past Santa Barbara. I’m coming to talk you down in person,” Devi said. “Oh, and don’t answer any of my mom’s calls; she’ll just stress you out.”

“That doesn’t seem very responsible. How about I send her a text when I stop to let her know I’m ok?”

Devi rolled her eyes.

“Suit yourself.”

“Thank you, Devi. But how will you get here?”

“Let me worry about that. Text me when you stop so I know exactly where I’m going.”

“I will.”

“’K. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Devi hung up and sighed massively, slumping into the wall and feeling a streamer crumple against her back. She and Fabiola stared at each other.

“What are you gonna do?” Fab asked.

“Be the hero my family needs, but not the one they deserve.”

“Are you misquoting Batman to justify doing something reckless?”

“First of all, rescuing Kamala isn’t reckless, and second of all, the movie isn’t called Batman, it’s The Dark Knight. Young-ish Christian Bale, hello.”

Fabiola pointed a finger at her own face.

“Young-ish out-of-touch lesbian, hello. At least I was close.”

Devi sighed again while Fab smiled sadly at her in obvious sympathy.

“It’s after ten at night. How am I gonna get to Santa Barbara?”

“Assuming you’re not going to ask your mom—”

“No.”

“Then you need a ride.”

“You need a ride? I’ll drive you.”

It was Paxton, walking up and tentatively taking Devi’s hand while darting uncertain glances at Fabiola. Devi felt her entire face light up.

“You don’t want to know where or why?” she teased.

His expression said those were insignificant details. Wow. Devi’d never had a fantasy where Paxton joined forces with her, bounty hunter-style, to track down a flighty Kamala, but this felt oddly romantic. Passionate even? They’d see where the night took them.

“You wouldn’t wanna leave the dance unless it was serious,” Paxton reasoned. “So, I’ll drive you. You wanna go now?”

“I guess we better. Lemme just grab my…”

“I’ll get it,” Fab said, raising a hand like the nerd she was as she volunteered.

She darted back through the dancers to grab Devi’s things and Devi watched their classmates part for their Cricket Queen. She was so proud of Fab. Also, she felt kinda bad for ditching such a momentous occasion. But Kamala needed her, and would totally do the same for her if she ever went off the deep end and kidnapped a dude while fleeing a proposal. Not that Devi could see herself fleeing a proposal (she glanced at Paxton as she thought this, then quickly away, thinking, Way too soon!). Carrying out a kidnapping? With a sufficiently convincing pro-and-con list, anything was possible.

“Basically, Kamala freaked and drove to Santa Barbara with a drunken Mr. K,” Devi said, because Paxton might not have asked to be informed, but she wanted him to know what he was getting himself into. Beyond that, she wanted to give him the chance to say, No way, Devi. I came here to look hot and dance up on you, nothing more.

“Oh shit,” was what he said.

“Damn right, oh shit. You still want to drive? This is going to take a while.”

She should probably have felt guilty about trying to subtly persuade him with her eyes, but not only was Paxton the least complicated option, he was also her first choice. If she maintained eye contact long enough, Devi figured it might trigger some kind of boyfriend override that made going for a long drive at night just as appealing as staying here and dancing with her butt pressed thrillingly to his groin when the teacher-chaperones weren’t looking.

“As long as we can hit up the bathrooms first. I was going to, but then I got talking to Trent, and then Marcus was doing a handstand…”

“Definitely,” Devi assured him. “Good call. Empty the tank. Oh, actually, that reminds me… how much gas do you have in your jeep? If we need to stop at a gas station, I’ll have to factor that in to the ETA I give Kamala.”

Paxton shook his head at her, smiling in what she liked to think was affectionate amusement.

“I filled it up on the way here. I needed a minute to, uh…” To her epic astonishment, he ducked his head self-consciously, cheeks pinking. “You know. Get my shit together. Up here.” He tapped his temple with his index finger. “I wanted to show up for you, like, completely. You know?”

Right as Devi was at dangerously high risk of sagging to the floor in blissful bonelessness, Fabiola sprang to her side, shoving the rest of her possessions at her.

“Ok, ok!” Devi said, harried.

She had to dump it all on the bathroom counter a minute later anyway, but after she’d done her pre-road trip pee, she came out and gave Fab a better thank-you.

“Your Highness,” Paxton told Fabiola with a nod.

Fab nodded back, smiling wryly.

“Prosecutor.”

“I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship,” Devi assessed, “but we gotta go! Say congrats to Eve for me again!”

“Sure. Drive safe!”

Devi and Paxton pushed through the doors together, striding quickly with his hand wrapped around hers. In the parking lot, she glanced sideways to see him digging his keychain out of his front pocket.

“Oh,” she said, “so I wasn’t just feeling that you were very happy to dance with me.”

Until they got into the jeep, it was too dark to see whether she’d gotten him to blush again, but she liked to think that she had. He was definitely smiling.

They got in and Devi carefully tucked her skirt around her legs, mind on Kamala’s cautionary tale. At least it was until Paxton leaned forward to shrug out of his jacket and she saw his shoulder muscles jump beneath his fitted button-down, his narrow black tie swinging forward. Dang. Fifty shades of Hall-Yoshida.

“Santa Barbara?” Paxton double-checked once he was settled behind the wheel, steering out of the student lot.

“Santa Barbara.”

Until they were on the highway and heading out of Los Angeles, Devi did her best to keep her worry about Kamala’s situation contained to the way she flapped her phone against her thigh. Usually, she was stressing about the problems right in front of her (when she wasn’t blatantly ignoring them, only to have that approach bite her in the ass later), but with whatever was going on with Kamala, she kinda had to look ahead.

Had she wanted Kamala to get engaged to Prashant that badly? Well, the best thing about Prashant was that you never knew when having additional hot relatives would be to your benefit. (Devi was already hoping that Mr. K would get over the more nerve-wracking elements of this night and just remember having fun with her stunning cousin… and that this could possibly translate into at least a month of generous grades, if she could somehow spin these shenanigans as an intentional blind date arranged by herself.) However, an engaged Kamala was wholly different from a married Kamala. She wouldn’t be around to watch nonsensical episodes of Riverdale, or be duped into hijinks, or listen to Devi when her mom was too tired, or bitch about her shitty lab-mates in exchange for sitting through Devi bitching about her complicated feelings on the subject of Aneesa dating her ex. She wouldn’t live with them anymore, and the family that had begun to miraculously fill out after her dad had died would be back down to three. And the other two members of it would be old (Sorry, Mom, she thought) and not at all prepared to champion her dating life or the cleavage-accentuating formal dress currently buoying it.

So, yeah, Devi was looking ahead—eyes glazed over as the yellow lights of cars slipped around them to prevent her vision from fully adjusting to the blue-black sky—and feeling more than a little nervous and scared of the Kamala-shaped hole she’d have in her life if her dazzling, dorky cousin left her house for one she might eventually fill with the most beautiful children the world had ever seen.

Thankfully, Paxton was there. It startled her when he took one hand off the wheel and felt across her lap to grab hers, loosely interlacing their fingers. Devi quit hitting her phone against her leg. She sent off their updated location to Kamala and then let her phone fall flat.

“Did she say where she was?” Her boyfriend’s voice was quiet in the car and she realized for the first time that her head had been too crammed with thoughts to put on any music.

“Carpinteria State Beach. Do you know the exit?”

“We’ll find it.”

“And if you want me to drive while you rest on the way back…”

Paxton laughed.

“No way. Safety first.”

“Says the guy driving one-handed,” Devi countered, not that she was eager to surrender the hand warming hers.

He turned his head just long enough to shoot her a look.

“Whoa, pal, eyes on the road!” she said. (She had a half-baked plan to call her boyfriend ‘pal’ a few times and thereby de-weaponize the word in a memory that still felt like a fading bruise, an almost-gone sore spot in who she and Paxton were before they were openly a them.)

“Sorry,” he said, staring out the windshield again. He grinned. “You look gorgeous.”

“Really?”

“So gorgeous.” Paxton’s voice was softer this time, the underlying laugh it had carried since she’d offered to drive his jeep drained out of it. It was nearly a sigh.

“Thanks. So do you.”

“You know, I feel fucking awful for hitting you with my car, but I still think I mighta felt worse if I’d walked in and seen you dancing with somebody else.”

Devi twisted their hands, touching the back of his to her thigh so she was sandwiching it between leg and palm for a moment, aiming for reassuring.

“I wanna say I would never be that flaky, but my previous offenses speak for themselves.”

“So does doing this with me.”

“Uh,” she droned, “to recap, you left a fun thing to do a huge favour for me. You’re talking about it like this is my act of redemption. I feel like if you examine it for a sec, you’ll see how I’m actually kind of a dick for accepting your help.”

“I want us to be together,” he said bluntly. “Here we are. Together.”

“It’s that simple?”

“I don’t see why it can’t be.”

“Huh. I think you’re really gonna be good for my tendency to overcomplicate a situation.”

Paxton laughed and unthreaded his fingers from Devi’s. But it wasn’t to release her for pointing out that this date was, in actual fact, the coordinated response to a family crisis; his fingertips moved lightly over her palm, momentarily trapped when her fingers flinched inward in reaction to how it tickled, then traced along the thin skin of her inner wrist. He wasn’t trying to pull away. He was lingering. Though his touch when he sunk his hand into her hair or drew her closer by her waist had always been fairly gentle, it had often had the faint aggression of hastiness to it, clutching her as they made out in her room, always listening for footsteps in the hallway. How Paxton touched her now was pure, exploratory tenderness. It made the hairs on the back of Devi’s neck stand up as a wave of shivers rushed up her spine and crested somewhere around the nape of her neck.

He must’ve felt that wave break, the foamy aftereffects in some tic of her arm or quickening of her pulse while his fingers skimmed gradually up the inside of her arm towards her elbow, because he chanced another quick glance at her.

“That feels good,” she explained.

Paxton looked forward, nodding slowly, and shifted in the driver’s seat.

“Good.”

She thought it must have felt good for him too, knowing he’d made her shiver.

—

The miles were flicking past for Paxton—another, another, another, as fast and steady as the dashed lines painted between the lanes, his arms cutting the water on the front crawl. He wanted Devi, beside him, to believe that he was paying attention to his driving, but he was honestly kinda zoned out. Like that time he’d swum to San Diego, he let his body go through the motions (in this case, twitching the wheel, putting on cruise control when traffic thinned so he didn’t have to focus on the pedals) while his mind floated freely.

Where it floated was to his girlfriend.

At ten years old, he’d been the last kid in his swim class to jump off the 10m board. It was optional—a treat after getting water up their noses turning somersaults below the surface and doing egg-beater legs in between—but all the other boys in the group had done it eagerly, shrieking on their way down to sloppy pencil dives. Paxton had climbed the stairs all the way to the top easily enough, even stepped onto the wide platform, bordered by metal railings and rough under his bare feet. He’d walked out to the end and frozen to find himself so high above the pool.

He hadn’t feared the water, he’d feared the air. Being so exposed on his own at the end of the diving board. Eventually, he’d retreated, then surprised the coach waiting down at the poolside by turning around and taking the jump at a run. Few memories felt as good as the sensation of giving himself back to gravity and letting it reunite him with the water. He’d just had to get past the exposure.

Same thing tonight, going to find Devi at the dance. Holding her hand in his had been him reaching the platform, but when they stood together, just inside the school’s doors, Paxton hadn’t known for sure whether he would take the leap or retreat. And not just for a running start this time, but in a way that turned his sixteen-year-old present self back into one of those nervous ten-year-olds who wimped out and had to take the coward’s way down—descending each step they’d climbed. He might not have run, and yet he hadn’t needed to back up and race into their relationship either. Momentum hadn’t carried them inside for everyone they knew to see them. It had been a calm approach, even if he’d been shaking on the inside when he saw Trent staring at them.

So maybe Paxton had learned something in the last six years, or maybe it was harder to feel exposed with somebody right next to you.

She really did look gorgeous, like he’d said, and because he didn’t want her to worry about his focus if she spotted him gazing at the side of her face while she texted her cousin, the glances he stole were of the knee region. Her dress’s overlay sparkled when the high lights of eighteen-wheelers passed them and the specific teal of the dress itself reminded him of a river he’d swum in once during an out-of-state family vacation. Natural and deep and fresh, and exasperating for his parents because he’d accidentally doggy-paddled himself all the way to a small waterfall and hadn’t heard them calling him back for dinner around the campfire. He felt all that about Devi, except for hoping for a different reaction from his parents when they met her.

Holy shit. He was going to have to introduce his girlfriend to his embarrassing hippy parents. But then, she’d already met Rebecca, so maybe they were set? A sister’s approval should count for a ton.

No, no, no, Devi would have to meet his parents. He was doing this. The two of them were doing this. Paxton exhaled determinedly through his nose and made himself concentrate on the remaining miles he needed to cover. His mind, anyway. His hand continued to stroke and search, covering his girlfriend’s hand with his until he had her fingers tucked away protectively under his own, and then caressing all the way up to the crook of her elbow so suddenly that she made a noise between a laugh and a yelp because he’d unintentionally tickled her. Man, she was cute.

The very end of their journey required the most concentration from Paxton; he finally took back his hand to have both on the wheel as he steered them off the highway and Devi’s got lonely or something, because it chased across to where he was sitting and landed on his thigh. His jaw clenched. He could feel the heat of her palm through his pantleg and congratulated himself on being a driving legend for driving smoothly to where they needed to park for beach access.

Devi had a pink sweater that she put on, but Paxton grabbed his jacket out of the back as well in case she needed it. It was almost midnight and a breeze rolled up off the water, rippling his tie and swishing Devi���s dress. He didn’t have to ask what they should do next—there was just one other car parked nearby and Devi’s cousin was already standing outside of it, raising a hand to wave sheepishly as they got out of his jeep.

“Here,” he said, holding out his jacket for his girlfriend to put her arms through the sleeves. “You guys talk. I’ll be down at the beach.”

Devi turned her back to him as she accepted the jacket, but she glanced over her shoulder with a look of concern.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. You’ll want privacy. I need to stretch my legs anyway.”

“Just don’t swim away, ok?” she requested. “I don’t think I can handle more than one rescue mission per night.”

Paxton could tell by her expression that it wasn’t entirely a joke. He grinned and gripped his lapels, now on Devi, reeling her in.

“I promise. You’d probably take the opportunity to try to drive the jeep home, and I don’t want to risk that.”

“Me committing grand theft auto or me getting hurt?”

“I bet they tested you for smartness,” he said, “but you think they have a test for being a smartass? You’d score high, Vishwakumar.”

“I know, I know, you don’t want me to get hurt.”

She was so infuriatingly flippant, rolling her big brown eyes at him.

“That’s right,” Paxton said plainly. There he was, up on the platform again.

Devi straightened his tie and let her hand rest flat on his chest. He remembered how overwhelmed she’d looked the first time he’d placed her palm there, right on his skin. Even now, it almost made him laugh.

“Ok,” she said, and he was surrendering himself to the sweet strength of gravity, propelled down to the beach while Devi stayed to talk to Kamala.

—

Devi had heard that there were tidepools here, and she was nervous about stepping into one and spearing some aquatic animal on her high heel. Well, she couldn’t magically improve her night vision, but she could take her shoes off and remove the possibility of impalement. They dangled from her fingers as she picked her way down to the beach.

Her boyfriend was sitting in the sand, staring out at the ocean. It just looked so romantic—with the stars the sky was too bright to see at home, and the waves, and the back of Paxton’s white shirt in the moonlight—that Devi decided to slip into the scene without saying anything at all.

A mistake. Paxton gasped and jumped. Apparently, he hadn’t heard her over the noise of the water.

“Sorry, sorry!” she said.

He sighed and smiled, getting to his feet.

“How’d it go?”

“I think it went well. She was feeling calm enough to drive, so she’s on her way home now. She’s gonna cover for me until we get back.”

“That’s good… but what about Mr. Kulkarni?”

“He was passed out in the passenger’s seat,” Devi stated. “I guess he’s kind of a lightweight? Kamala said she’s going to drive back to our school and leave him and his car in the parking lot. She’s planning to call my mom for a ride home. If it were me, I think I’d take the bus and try to sneak back into the house as quietly as possible, but Kamala still has a lot to learn about how to thoroughly dodge your problems.”

“And maybe about how to climb to the second floor of your house from the outside?” Paxton suggested with a meaningful smirk.

She did her best to return it, but the odds were that it didn’t look nearly as sexy on her. Then again, she had moonlight and midnight and well-displayed cleavage on her side.

“How’d you learn to do that so quietly anyway?” Devi asked, tossing her shoes to the sand and stepping forward to boldly wrap her arms around Paxton’s waist.

He’d had his hands in his pockets, but as soon as she’d begun to move towards him, he’d pulled them out. His arms encircled her, his hands on the back of his own black jacket. Although Devi wanted to offer him the jacket back—he felt slightly chilly through his shirt—she didn’t want the two of them to separate. Besides, body heat was a thing. This was practically what it was for. So Devi just pressed herself closer, breathing the scent of the ocean and Paxton’s fading cologne.

“Trent,” he said.

“Yeah, actually, that checks out.”

Were there boundaries between warming someone up while having a conversation and just hugging them? It wasn’t clear to Devi, but it felt good when they both went quiet for a while. She stood unevenly on the cold sand and listened to the thud of Paxton’s heart.

“You never said yes,” he said eventually, quietly.

“Yes to what?”

“I told you I came to the dance as your boyfriend and you never actually agreed to be my girlfriend. We kinda just started making out.”

Devi lifted her cheek from his chest so she could look at him. He didn’t appear disappointed, more like he was making an observation. Maybe he’d been reflecting, out here in the dark, while she and Kamala had talked.

“In my books, that’s an obvious yes,” she said, grinning. “What more do you need?”

She could see him trying not to smile.

“A little atmosphere would be nice,” Paxton said. “Maybe a long drive, or the beach. A full moon. Romance me, Vishwakumar.”

Devi vibrated with silent laughter. Or her heart was just beating really, really freaking hard.

“Sounds like you’ve got some pretty big expectations there.”

“And stars,” he added. “There should be a shitload of stars.”

With that, he took one hand off her back to point far above them. Devi tipped her head back, the light of the stars a friendly blur as she tried to pick one to settle on, just one. Paxton’s face coming forward to hover over hers blotted them out. Her boyfriend kissed her, light and ghosting and then firm and slow.

“On the other hand,” he said, pulling back a little, “I think we were onto something with the making out.”

Devi smiled and dug her toes into the sand to make herself taller, lips at the ready and realigned with his.

“We did set a precedent.”

[1d-discourseoftheday]

💙 Tues 5 Jan ‘21 💚

Is today's biggest story really a pair of socks I mean WHY NOT am I right, that may as well happen! With impeccable timing, as the fandom and the world went bananas about Ho-livia WildStyle (a drag queen name for the ages right there), the first of the limited edition TPWK socks that people ordered basically on blind faith (you fully couldn't tell what they were going to look like at all on the website, and now we know why lmao) have arrived with a bang: they seemed to come with either blue or pink hearts, but in fact it turns out you get one of two color combos, either pink and white or, uh: BLUE AND GREEN HEARTS. I'm not one to carry on about like jeans and a green shirt or what have you but this is a CHOICE, and if the antis don't have performative burnings of their evil larrie merch honestly WHAT is the POINT; the resale market of the limited edition socks is already booming though so there's always that option, if either side can bear to conduct business across the divide. My question is, did they really time it to play out this precisely on purpose? Unlikely tbh, but if that's a thing they're capable of I have some THOUGHTS about the way other Harry merch takes like 4 months to arrive...

Larrie socks aside however, the real discourse continues to be about you-know-what, with the players out there fanning the flames wildly. There's too much nonsense to bother with it all (the quoted sources in the articles directly contradicting each other's stories also makes it difficult) so let's just... *spins wheel*....okay I landed on 'tabloids say Harry's wedding speech talked about his girlfriend Olivia' here goes. Sjksdfjks WHY would you be talking about your girlfriend of three weeks in a speech for your close friends' wedding, OMG, how uncomfortable and inappropriate is that?? Imagine if any of this were real, that Harry ('I'd take my time and make sure a thing was serious before telling people about it', end quote, I mean that's ALSO a stunt quote (oh the layers) but just pointing out that it's contradictory) starts dating his co-worker who just got out of a huge relationship and is also a famous person with presumably an interest in privacy, and immediately the two of you get to work setting up a big reveal to happen right away (even in a weird fantasy world where any of this is real the possibility that JEFF AZOFF'S WEDDING had the paps present for any other reason than to do EXACTLY what they were told is flat impossible- what pap or celeb outlet can afford to be on Jeff's bad list?!) and then he casually writes her into his speech (a guy who's so anxious and shy about public speaking and what to say that he begs people to write speeches for him and practices endlessly) uh huh, sure Jan. There are so many things about this that are ludicrous, but more to the point, none of the things they're saying hold up to scrutiny any better than this. There just isn't any point in taking them that seriously though; Harry is a closeted artist and, just like the many queer artists that came before him who he repeatedly reminds us are his icons, he both lets us know all day every day in a million ways that he's queer, and also plays the industry game and winkingly gives the press their Straight Guy Harry fodder. You don't have to like it, or indeed anything at all in this world, but people do need to accept that whether they like it or not is neither the point nor anyone (including Harry)'s responsibility to respond to or do anything about.

Like I said I can't cover every detail but! I always have a little space for the absurd: today, our best entrant is the possibility that the whole wedding we saw was a sham– fans ask, was this public spectacle Jeff and Glenne's actual wedding? Listen if anyone would be up for it it would be this crew, and if they did stage it I'm sure they had a good laugh! Suspicion has been cast on Glenne's dress (allegedly an untailored 2018 off the rack number), the small guest list (wouldn't they just wait and have a huge event?), and the fact that they invited paps there at all. It would make the no explanation robe pics EVEN FUNNIER though if you imagine that was for our benefit but left totally unadressed (undressed). ANYWAY Don't Worry Darling filming is back in business and Harry was papped some more today, out for a casual not at all pap walk hike with a work associate and multiple items of his own merch (including an unreleased hoodie design.) On the topic of DWD, sometimes a different perspective can be interesting-- for example considering whether Harry is the point of all this at all? Or is he but a bit player in the real DWD publicity drama, an elaborate and very public dramatic reconciliation between Olivia and her ex husband? Either way, he's neither a clueless dupe, a helpless pawn, or anyone's 'boy toy', so please: can we rein in the hand wringing and pointless Olivia bashing a bit?

Let's talk about something else shall we? For example! Liam's setlist, just released for the upcoming LP Show Act 4. Look at that song selection! Fireproof! Strong!! Through The Dark!! More exciting 1D faves! Plus Slow and Home With You off his EP, NICE, singles and more, it looks awesome. The Hugo Man fragrance relaunch is less exciting, featuring the dopiest possible articles full of chat about his skin care routine (oh shucks I'm just  manly man, I don't have one at all... *names two products and refers to 'multiple moisturizers'*), trademark accidental candor (“I’m quite tired!”), and of course trying to describe a fragrance, always an entertaining gymnastics (“every time I spray it, it kind of takes me back to being on that rooftop in Berlin”), but also there are manly new pics of Lia.

A new song Niall co-wrote is coming out! The JC Stewart song, Break My Heart, will be out this Fri! Charlie Lightening posted pics from a year ago on the Walls music video set, featuring an intent Louis in the sun (and fashion voter underrated excellent Looks), and Louis commented on Dave Allen's post (“top man!”)-- the famous boxer is offering to help friends through lockdown by facetiming 3or 4 people a day for home workouts, damn, and also aww. That shitty Doncaster secondary school turned out some really sweet dudes, against all odds tbh. With Los Angeles experiencing some of the worst COVID surges we've seen since the beginning of the pandemic, Grammys organizers have elected to postpone the (already limited) ceremony. Originally scheduled for Jan 31 it is now TBA, tentatively for March. Harry's stalker, who menaced him in and near his London home in 2019, is being charged with violating his restraining order by attempting to contact Harry via social media, Global Fund for Women thanked Harry for donating, and HLDaily and other accounts were suspended for posting pap pics, always a risk, but one trick potato Jeff is on the job; HSD is back up and running, cause they can't have a proper stunt season without their most faithful mouthpieces. Niall continues to vote for himself on twitter threads about what to listen to in the New Year.

[nerdflash]

Lights, Camera Action

A/N: Here’s the second part of the Lights, Camera, Action series. You can find Part One here

Synopsis: Tom Holland x Fem! Reader. You’ve started developing feelings for Tom on the set of his new film. On a day off, you receive a message, that makes you question if he is flirting with you.

Word Count: 1.6k

Mentions: Alcohol and alcohol use, lousy ex boyfriends, men being players and social media.

PART TWO - Mixed Messages

You’re not sure what time it is when your room mate wakes you up leaving the apartment, but you mutter a curse word and reach for your phone to check the time. Even though it’s 10am you’re still feeling wiped out after getting home around 4am but you know you won’t be able to get back to sleep now you’ve looked at your phone. Vanessa has sent you a message, you click on it and smile.

“He asked me out on a third date! He asked ME!! Fancy going for a few drinks later and I can fill you in on all the details?” 

“Sure, I have an apartment viewing at 2pm but free after that. Let me know where, I don’t want to show up looking casual, if you’re in one of your dressing up moods! ;)” 

A few seconds later your phone pings with a reply.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?! Fine, let’s meet at The Varnish around 7pm. Dress code smart casual!” 

“See you later! I can’t wait to hear about your date! <3”

You roll on to your side and reach down to plug your phone charger in. Time for a social media binge before you get out of bed. You scroll through Facebook and reply to a couple of messages to friends back home. This would be the longest amount of time you’d spent away from home, but when you’d been offered the job to coordinate on a feature film, you couldn’t turn it down. You’d had to say goodbye to everyone you loved, knowing you wouldn’t be able to see them for around 8 months, but Vanessa had become a firm friend fast. She was also proving to be a great mentor and had helped you learn so much more.

You click on instagram and are scrolling through, when you see that Tom has uploaded a photo. He’s sat reading through a script and the caption reads “Can’t wait for you guys to see what I’m working on. I hope you like it.” 

You smile as you scroll through the comments and see nothing but support and excitement for Tom from his fans. Quite a fair number declaring their love and apparent attraction to him. You lick your lips and decide to leave a comment. You’re fairly sure he gets that many notifications and comments, he probably won’t even notice it, right? Besides, he doesn’t even know you have instagram.

“They’re going to love it, because you’re much better than you give yourself credit for Mr Holland.” You hit send and decide to face the day, but first coffee. You switch on your Spotify playlist and head into the kitchen, thankful that you don’t have to make small talk with your horrible room mate and her horrible “boyfriend” Soon the kitchen smells of freshly brewed coffee and you’re feeling excited about a bit of a girls night tonight. Your phone pings with a notification.

You click on the screen and are taken to the Instagram app, you feel your palms break out in a sweat when you see that Tom has started following you. You click on the inbox and see a message from Tom. Letting out a little yelp of surprise, you throw your phone on the side as though it’s burnt you.

You pace back and forth for a moment before reaching for the phone and taking a deep breath. You open the message.

“You don’t have to call me Mr Holland on your day off! ;)” 

In spite of the nerves running through you, you can’t help but laugh.

“I don’t have to call you Mr Holland at all…” You hit send and bite your lower lip as you see that Tom is typing something back.

“True...But I kind of like it when you do… Anyway, I should let you get back to sleep right? :P”

Something warm travels deep within you and you realize that you have crossed a line now, where you no longer see Tom as a friend and a work colleague, but someone who you want to spend time with, someone you want to learn more about and give him reasons to smile and be happy. You want to reply with every cell of  your being, but you decide you’ll talk to Vanessa first. She’d noticed that you and Tom spent alot of time talking between takes weeks ago, when she’d asked you about it she’d known by the colour of your cheeks that you had developed a crush on Tom.

Whilst she technically shouldn’t encourage anything, in order to maintain a professional environment on set, she also said that the two of you looked good together and if anything was to happen, then there were some legalities with HR that would need to be sorted but it wasn’t against the law, you wouldn’t lose your job and that she would like ALL the details if anything happened.

You shoot her a quick text.

“Can we meet a bit earlier? Say around 4pm? I need some advice!”

“Of course, are you ok?”

You smile at her concern and reply

“I need to talk about Tom and get your thoughts on a message he sent me!”

“I’ll be there...I want to know everything!”

-

You smile over at Vanessa and pick up your glass.

“Cheers to you and your very successful second date. It sounds like he really likes you Vanessa.” The woman sat opposite you smiles and takes a sip of her drink, a shy smile on her face. Vanessa was so confident at work and amazing at her job, but for some reason, she’d seemed to have dated a lot of losers and in turn, it had made her not be as confident in herself. But she was beautiful, smart and successful, and honestly, this guy did seem really nice.

“You think so?” You nod your head and put your hand on her arm.

“Of course, I mean he kissed you and asked you on a third date, which involves cooking for you. Please. He’s smitten!” Vanessa smiles at you and clinks her glass against yours before taking a sip and sitting back in her seat.

“So...Tell me about this message from Tom.” You fill Vanessa in on a bit of the backstory about how he’d told you he doubted his talent and the name you use to tease him with. You show her his message and watch as she reads. 

“He is totally flirting with you!” Vanessa looks at you. “The way he says he kind of likes it when you call him Mr Holland!” She raises her eyebrows at you and wiggles them, causing you to laugh.

“But, what if he’s just a flirty person and it doesn’t mean anything?” You shrug your shoulder knowing this must be the only explanation because there’s no way Tom Holland could be flirting with you. Vanessa shakes her head and looks thoughtful.

“No, I don’t think so. Usually guys who are just flirty with everyone, tend to keep their comments private because they want to play multiple girls at once without them knowing about the others existence. You need to post a selfie or a hot pic of yourself and see if he comments.”

Your eyes widen at her suggestion. “A selfie? I don’t know. What if he doesn’t comment? I feel like it’s going to be worse if he doesn’t because then I’ll feel extra stupid for flirting with him.” Vanessa looks at you sternly.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You need to make sure he has no choice but to comment. Come on.” She stands up and grabs your hand and leads you over to a wall decorated with flowers, she orders another two drinks from a passing waiter and reaches into her bag. 

“What are you doing?” You ask, as she takes out some setting powder and starts wiping gently across your head and down your nose. 

“Getting you ready for a photo.” You sigh, unsure of what to say. She tells you to put some more lipstick on, so you oblige and shake out your loose curls. Vanessa adjusts them over one shoulder, and pulls one of the straps of your dress down.

“Again, what are you doing?” You reach for the strap but Vanessa swats your hand away.

“Leave it. Trust me, right now hold your drink in this hand, and look that way.” You sigh and roll your eyes.

“I feel ridiculous!” Vanessa laughs and snaps a photo.

“But you look amazing! Ok, stop frowning on this one. Smile….Y/N smile...No, you look like your cringing. Is it hard to smile because you’re British?” And you don’t know why, but this makes you genuinely laugh out loud. Vanessa walks over to you after a few moments, looking pleased.

“Here!” She passes you her phone and you look at the photo, feeling somewhat pleasantly surprised. Your smile is genuine and the way she’s framed the photo, makes it look as though your laughing at someone you’re looking at off camera. The fallen dress strap brings attention to your neck and clavicle, which kind of gives it a sexy vibe. 

“Ok I’m impressed. Send it to me?” Vanessa smiles and takes her phone back. You save the photo on your phone and bite your lip wondering if this is a good idea. Your friend shakes her head and looks you in the eye.

“Come on, post it. You look amazing!” In spite of your nerves you smile and decide to post the photo with the caption.

“Blowing off some steam after a long week at work! Photo credit to my girl @VCullenLA”

You look at your friend “Now what?” She smiles and leads you to the bar.

“More drinks!” And you think nothing more of the photo.

[zekidork]

Why you think ren started dressing like a boy?

Hey there! Thank you for this question, I really appreciate it.

What’s funny is that it’s actually quite a mystery up until now as to why Ren goes from extremely feminine clothing to tomboy clothing in the sense that it’s never explicitly stated or mentioned by any of the characters (like Ai for example). So it really comes down to the reader’s understanding of Ren’s character up until now. There are a few factors that can explain this change, and I’m sure that many of us in the fandom have deducted at least one of these already, but here’s a list of options anyways. Keep in mind that the actual reason could be a mixture of this.

Ren was traumatized by her father’s death and tries mimicking him out of honour

Ren is doing this for Ai

Ren has fully integrated the hunter lifestyle

-Ren was traumatized by her father’s death-

We haven’t yet seen Ren and Ai’s reaction to Zero’s death, but it must’ve surely shocked them, or at least hurt them in some way. It is possible that Ren changes her appearance to look more like her father just out of pure nostalgia and to honour him. We see her wearing a very similar coat that Zero litterally always wears when doing his hunter duties. So she might’ve done it out of pure nostalgia and respect—sort of like a homage to her father. I’ve heard some people say that it actually is Zero’s coat, which would sort of prove the point that she dresses that way to remind her of her father. It would also explain why it looks so big on her in the first chapters of Vkm (it made her shoulders look more broad).But it could also just be a very similar one. Here’a a comparison:

-Ren is doing this for Ai-

To be honest, I think this is the least likely of reasons, but it’s still interesting to think about, so I’m sharing it here.

It’s possible that the reason Ren cuts her hair, wears a very similar jacket to Zero’s, and dresses overall in a tomboy-ish fashion is related to Ai in some way. We already know that Ren has this very weird and vampire-like attachment to Ai, and we know that she desperately wants to protect her (and that it’s one of her main motivations to become a huntress). We also know that Ren doesn’t know who Ai’s first love was, but even so, she already has bad, hateful feelings towards them (see panel below).

A possible explanation would be that Ren eventually finds out that her father was actually Ai’s first love. Of course, Ren won’t hate her father (and I have a suspicion that this sort of knowledge would come about when Ai grieves for Zero’s death, so Ren would definitely not hate her dead father), and she’d most likely use this information as a motivation to resemble more like her father in order to remind Ai of her first love—or! to make Ai feel safer and protected by resembling her first love.

I know it’s weird (at least I find it to be a little disturbing if this is actually a legitimate reason), but I’m including this since Hino portrays Ren and Ai’s relationship in such a manner where I actually wouldn’t be surprised if she goes down this sort of route. We’ve seen a lot of Ren’s possessiveness and desire to protect Ai, so it’s possible that she’s trying to “channel” (so-to-speak) her father’s best traits in order to “please” Ai—or maybe even help her deal with grieving? Again, I personally really doubt that this option is 100% true—maybe the aspect of wanting to protect Ai is a factor, but I think that’s more related to her motivation to become a huntress. But once again, I’m saying this because Hino portrays them in such an ambiguous manner that it gets me thinking.

(^*this is the only photo that doesn’t come from my own mangas in this post, I found it on Pinterest, but there was no source—sorry, I really wanted a clean version of this pic*)

-Ren has fully integrated the hunter lifestyle-

I find that this option is the most plausible out of the three, considering all the factors that play into it. As a child, and even during her adolescent years, Ren would wear very girly clothing. This, of course, would begin to change when she begins to take seriously her hunter training. We see her first wear a coat that’s similar to Zero’ s hunter coat right when she starts her hunter training:

It’s not the exact same coat as the one we see when she’s with human Kaname—it has a little more style than Zero’s, showing that Ren isn’t fully done with being feminine in her clothing choices. Even after the chapters where she had this clothing she goes back to wearing ‘aristocratic’ and feminine attire.

Now, it’s possible that after her father’s death, Ren was inspired to fully embrace the hunter lifestyle and go through a complete makeover—or maybe it was something else that pushed her to go this route. But what’s evident is that Ren’s fashion choices in human Kaname’s time isn’t unusual for female hunters in general. Universally speaking, all women that we’ve seen who are hunters either have short hair, or tie their hair (like Zero’s mom did) in order to be more efficient in their performance. They also wear pants and jackets, and don’t seem to care about looking fashionable—they just want to get the job done. One example would be the huntress who gets manipulated by Sara in volume 12; her fashion choices are similar to Ren’s:

Another example of how hunter culture influences one’s fashion choices would be Seiren, who was Kaname’s servant for the longest time and wore elegant clothing (however, I must say that she was already pretty used to wearing pants, but the change is still visible). After she meets Toga Yagari and decides to stick by his side as her ‘new’ master, her fashion changes slightly; it looks more “hunter-like”:

Both Ren and Seiren are wearing jackets, pants, and they have short hair. While Seiren always had short hair, one could argue that that was because she always needed it in order to be efficient in her ‘missions’ (or whatever Kaname sent her off to do).

So really, this option would be that Ren decides to finally act like a full-fledged huntress, which I find is the more likely reason of why she changes her appearance. However, the loss of her father might have pushed her to become this way, and she might’ve decided to do specific things (like cut her hair instead of tying it up/braiding it, or wearing a coat that’s very similar to Zero’s) because of her relationship with Ai.

I hope this answers your question. It’d be great to hear others’ thoughts on this subject (since there hasn’t been a clear reason stated as of now in the manga). Thank you again for asking!

[freakygirlie]

Hi there. So I’ve been keeping an eye out on this J2 tinhat thing for about 6 months. I started watching SPN very sporadically from 2016 to 2018 in no particular order and then caught up in 2018. I loved them on screen and started watching their videos online and following on Instagram and then saw the Con videos. Now I’m in my 40s double major Communications and Psychology so my antenna goes off at out of the ordinary interpersonal behavior. Boy did I see it in J2. Now I’m not convinced they are a couple because Jared does show signs of loving Gen for many years and much of the‘evidence’ really can be explained but....not the constant physical proximity, touching, eye contact. The hand touching at last question there is no explanation for. Still not 100% convinced yet but hoping. I do think 98% one or both are in love with the other since very early on and either or none may know. ANYWAY.... I noticed something now. I thought Jared was happy to work in Austin so he could be with Gen and the kids. So why did she leave for IDK..her parents? And not because of emergency or she wouldn’t post pics of herself out in her bathing suit every day having a blast. Maybe someone knows. ALSO... If Jared and Gen were together for their anniversary in CO where is their anniversary picture. They post one for every occasion (or one almost every time they go out) every year without fail. I’m just curious. I liked your posts and thoughts so I decided to send this to you. Do what you want with it.

Hi! Thank you for sending this to me, I’m glad you like my posts!<3 I hope you read this and in the end form your opinion <3

Something you definitely have to know about Jared, he is a HUGE flirt. Like major. The guys makes puppy eyes, flirts, banters, gushes with every person he sees. He’s a sweetheart- that’s part of his personality. Now think about it, if a touchy-feely, cuddly guy who’s an absolute gem and treats everyone like they’re precious(some more than others AKA jensen) how do you think he’d be with the ‘’girl he loves’’ ? ALL OF THAT EXCEPT MORE. If you’d see them from a distance, you’d think oh God they’re so in love. In my opinion, and this is mine u don’t have to go by it, Jared and Gen really don’t have that much chemistry. They’re actors, heart eyes, and love things such as that are easy to fake. But actual genuine, sparking chemistry does not- I don’t see it. With no disrespect to anyone, Jared has more chemistry with Lindsey than he does with Gen. 

The physical proximity, the slips, eye contact, the actual legit chemistry that Jared has with Jensen, the touching in secret, that CANNOT be explained. Idc how close two people are, you don’t do all that with your best friend/brother. 

Jared’s real reason for working in Austin was that so he could supply his own Austinites with jobs, in a pandemic such as this. The other reason, to be close with his kids(that’s for sure) and Gen(?). Now if he did want to be so close to Gen, and was so happy to have here there, I have 3 questions:

1) Why did Gen after so little time, leave to go the beach/mountains/wherever she is, if she was happy to be with her husband? 2) Why is Gen currently working on another show???? Wasn’t she supposed to be with Jared, helping him, supporting him, I mean that was the reason(or so they say) that Jared filmed Walker in Austin(or maybe that was just the location of the show in the original as well.) 3) Why did Jared say he wanted Jensen on the show(Walker) bc it would mean having someone he knew, someone close, someone he could count on to help and support him on the show when he had his friggin wife with him?!(at that time) Jensen said it, Jared said it they both reaffirmed each other’s statements, WHY??? Jared had Gen on the show, wasn’t that someone he could have do all that? Um sus.

The anniversary pic is a good question. They post one without fail EVERYTIME. This time it was an old one??? And they were together on it so why didn’t they? Spoiler alert: They went to Colorado together(just bc if Jared went alone it would look really sus, but if they went together someone could easily just assume they went for their anniversary), the same place where Jensen was(according to Danneel’s hairdresser who was with them on a day) so they oculd celebrate Jensen\s birthday. I again am mentioning the slip Jared had while talking about Jackles’s birthday in the virtual panel.

I suggest if you really want convincing, you do some of the following things:

Go through my ‘j2 tinhat’ tag and’slip ups and stuff<3′ tag on my tumblr. Go through the most popular j2 tinhat blogs. Read Speak The Truth- a well-detailed pdf following the events in j2′s lives from the moment they joined the show till 2013. Since you recently became a tinhat, I’m assuming you’re not familiar with the early slips and stuff- like the mortgage story, ring gate, and the proposal stories. Here’s the link: https://speakthetruthj2.weebly.com/intro--start-here.html

Hope you have fun browsing it and if you have a change of heart after it, please do let me know!<3

[gelo-p]

It may be a long request, but what memorable moments (scenes) for each characters from OddTaxi caught your eyes the most ? (included images as well) It will be interesting to hear it from you, as someone who reviewed each episode of this series.(and was fun to read) I can wait if this take some time to answer back, no need to rush(> ◡ 0) Honestly ,this show is so unique & such an underrated gem!! It's like you said: "DAMN. ODDTAXI WHY YOU SO GOOD"

LOL thanks, I’m flattered that you found my weekly ramblings fun to read ^^; I didn’t intend to review the series though. I was planning to just make a series of minor complaints about an otherwise good story, but... well. It was clear by episode 5 that the writing was deeper than I thought.

Having said that, here are my favorite moments for each characters anyway!

(●'◡'●)

------

Taeko-san

Episode 8.

Suddenly acting all cutesy and embarrassed ^^;

------

Nagashima

Episode 1.

I was just surprised to find that he’s in the first 5 minutes of episode 1.

------

Kabasawa

Episode 9.

DEYM, SON @_@

Maaaaybe focus on catching Dobu? Also what the hell, 10k yen to assist on catching Dobu???

Slow clap. Brilliant, mate.

Episode 9.

I did feel bad for him though. In his pursuit of fame, he’s bitten more than he could chew. This scene stood out to me for a different reason though:

Who apologizes in less than a minute???

------

Shibagaki

Episode 6.

It didn’t initially carry much weight, but once you realize he did this to try and remain relevant in the entertainment world, it’s kinda sad. Especially with Baba getting all the attention recently.

Episode 6, ending credits.

------

Baba

Episode 6, ending credits.

Contrast to Shibagaki, Baba is experiencing one hell of a high in his career. Can’t entirely blame him for not focusing too much attention on the N-1 contest anymore. This entire exchange with Shibagaki was so memorable because... it just shows how different their careers have become.

Also, just right before this scene, it was shown that

HE’S ACTUALLY DATING NIKAIDO WTF

------

Kuroda

Episode 3.

This scene where Kakihana thought Kuroda was talking to him was just hilarious. Not to mention once you hear him speak, you realize...

He’s voiced by this guy.

-----

Donraku

Episode 1.

This annoyed the hell out of me. I thought this was one of those typical Japanese TV commentary panels. When I wondered if “Don-chan” might be Donraku, I thought of this scene and concluded “Nah, can’t be him. Would you act all calm - let alone appear on TV like that - if your daughter was missing? Nah.”

How wrong I was of course, but this scene has always stuck in my head.

Of course, the president of the agency being in the shot was probably meant as a clue of some sort... But we didn’t know that yet, did we?

Episode 11.

------

Kakihana

Episode 5.

This was just so awkward to watch. 🤦‍♂️

Episode 9.

I still feel bad for him at the end of it all, of course. He just wants to move on and throws the ring away... but he realizes how much it cost. ^^;

(Finally, of course there’s also that scene with Kuroda from earlier)

------

Tanaka

Episode 4.

This scene. I’ve ranted about it before already :v

Episode 9.

Does this count? Of course we now know that this was actually Little Daimon, but at the time, I was so annoyed at how overpowered Tanaka was made to be.

------

Imai

Episode 8.

Episode 11.

Imai’s love for Mystery Kiss (well, Nikaido) is probably greater than all our love for ODDTAXI combined.

A true man of culture.

------

Big Daimon

Episode 1.

DIRTY COP! DIRTY COP RIGHT HERE- *bang* ughh

------

Little Daimon

Episode 7.

This was the moment I started considering that Odokawa really has nothing to hide in his closet. It would have been extremely risky for him, considering how straight of a cop (albeit a little naive) Little Daimon is.

Episode 12.

This was a genuinely sad moment for me. Your brother, who you decided to punish evil with, was part of the evil you’ve been trying to punish all along. That’s gotta hurt, man.

------

Dobu

Episode 9.

Dobu’s actually quite a nice guy, huh? I mean, yeah, not really, but come on. He did let Kabasawa off with a life lesson instead of a more serious beating.

Episode 10.

Really? :))

Episode 12.

Again, DOBU SHOULD HAVE JUST SHUT UP. “IT’S A SILHOUETTE BRO,  THAT’S NOT ME, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.”

Also, I kinda refuse to believe Dobu would use his silhouette for the game. We couldn’t even tell who the hell ditch-11 was but suddenly *poof* it’s Dobu’s silhouette!

I would have preferred if Tanaka’s story of sending a message was true. It would be much more believable. Then Tanaka sends another message to ditch-11 then and there...

And then Dobu’s phone rings. Surprised pikachu face.

Also, Dobu quit playing some time ago but was still Rank 1??? What the hell?

------

Yano

Episode 7.

When Yano was introduced, I was amazed that they actually made him rhyme all his lines (or at least introduce some rhythm). Even the translation was keeping up!

Episode 8.

He’s an asshole, but he makes funny faces.

Episode 12.

Funny faces :))

------

Sekiguchi

Episode 10.

Sekiguchi provides a very good example of how bad guys can use your social media data. This is practically a PSA.

DON’T POST TOO MUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION ONLINE!!

Episode 11.

I still need an explanation why Nikaido had to do the lifting WHEN SEKIGUCHI, A LITERAL HUGE THUG, IS RIGHT THERE. It’s not like he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, he’s already filthy AF at the 2nd pic!!

Episode 12.

About to be “arrested”, still worried about Yano’s rhyming. ^^;

------

Yamamoto

Episode 2.

Right off the bat, we immediately know that he... has his own share of secrets.

Episode 5.

...But that he also genuinely cares for the girls.

...To some extent, as shown in that entire taxi ride :))

------

Ichimura

Episode 3.

“Oh no.”

Obviously, anybody who shows interest in you, Kakihana, after you misrepresent your salary... probably should be red-flagged. Of course, we the viewers immediately know that she’s being tailed by her manager, so we have an idea that she’s being roped into it.

Episode 8.

I can’t even-

------

Nikaido

Episode 2.

This Nikaido - she’s seen some things.

Episode 7.

Damn, probably done some things as well! D:

Also, that entire thing where Sekiguchi refused to carry Mitsuya’s body?

Nikaido is strong!!!

Idols are scary, man.

------

Mitsuya

Episode 11.

It’s saddening because Mitsuya genuinely wanted to support Nikaido. Had she not gone to the office that night, things would have been much different for all of us.

------

Wadagaki

Episode 5.

“Why is she helping Tanaka???” Of course, I thought she was Mitsuya at this point.

Also, she really loves karaage, huh. I wondered if that was a clue, but I guess not. ^^

...It’s not, right..?

Episode 13.

Need I say more about this scene?

------

Goriki

Episode 1.

THIS WAS CONFUSING, MAN.

Episode 1.

Also, that entire exchange about cassette tapes and Bruce Springsteen ^^;

“Damn these guys are old” LOL

-----

Odokawa

Episode 1.

I like how... rude he is :))

Episode 3.

And so done with bullshit :))

Episode 8.

I do remember when he sneezed while taking the photo, in order to hide the shutter sound. Smart :^)

...

Odokawa’s in a weird position because even though he’s the main character, I remember him more for moving the story rather than being a character, if that makes sense. Sorry! >_<

Episode 13.

Of course, there’s the entire sequence of him flying his taxi... But again, that’s more of a nod to the story, not him. If it counts as “memorable scene involving Odokawa”, then there you go! That final sequence was just beautiful to watch. ^^

------

AND FINALLY!

------

Shirakawa

Episode 2.

Shirakawa’s just a straight-up lovable character. I love that Odokawa can’t handle her XD That entire taxi ride scene was just brilliant.

Episode 2.

And then she tops it all off with that power move with the front camera.

Episode 3.

PLUS SHE CAN DO CAPOEIRA!

Episode 10.

ACTUALLY USABLE-IN-COMBAT CAPOEIRA!

Episode 13.

EVEN UNDERWATER!

Where do I sign up for the Church of Shirakawa???

Shirakawa’s just too damn memorable for me. ^^;

------

Goddamn that was the longest ask I’ve ever answered. I hope my answers were at least satisfactory XD

ODDTAXI AOTY!!

(I didn’t realize answering this kind of question would be hard work :’D Compiling screenshots to make a somewhat objective point is surprisingly easier, huh)

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression, Ep 41 - 'Antique' displayed in showcase. Its true identity is..

K: Hi, this is Dir en grey's Kaoru with this week's episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome again. Ok, should we get straight on with it?

J: Yeh, shall we?

T: Yeah.

J: Just get started quickly.

K: Ok, Ojikyun... (*see last episode*)

T: Yeh, Ojikyun.

J: I'll try my hardest.

T: Ojikyun Joe.

J: Ok, well, this is today's news. 'Antique displayed in showcase, its real identity is..?'　A photo posted to Twitter of a shop's showcase is getting reactions like, 'I had to look twice!', and 'I was fooled!'. The person who posted the photo was walking the streets, when suddenly they saw a shop with a showcase containing numerous pots. But when this person had a closer look, they were amazed. They read the explanation card and discovered the pots were actually Baumkuchen! The pots, made in various sizes, resemble the real finish and shape of an actual flower vase. The shop, named Villon, is a patisserie located in Sakura Shinmachi in Tokyo, and was established in 1965. These Baumkuchen made in the shape of pottery go by the name of 'Grand Villion', and the shop owner says they were born out of an idea to express the beauty of pottery though cakes. The shop also sells many other products, but people who have seen the photos online have been mistaking the cakes for real pots one after another.

So I think if you have a search online, you'll be able to find the images, but it really is Baumkuchen which looks exactly like a pot.

T: Absolutely.

K: Yeh, for sure.

J: What do you think about this?

K: Its incredible.

T: It is, yeh.

J: Yeh, it is.

T: It is amazing.

J: Yeah. I wonder if they sell a lot of these?

K: Can you buy these online?

J: I wonder if you can?

K: Just by looking, it seems like you order it in store.

J: These look like they are probably difficult to deliver.

K: Right.

J: I feel like it would break during delivery.

T: Yeah. But peope are buying these and taking them home as souvenirs.

J: Yeh, using Baumkuchen to make a pot...

T: Won't it become really well-known?

J: Yeah, it will. Its like making curry into the shape of poo as a kid...What? Didn't you do that?

T: Haha

T, K: No

J: Didn't you ever make curry into the shape of poo and offer it to your friends in elementary school?

K: Haha, no.

J: Its only me?? I bet some people did *points to camera*

T: They didn't, I'm sure they didn't, haha. No-one's gonna fall for you with that.

K: Haha

J: Im not Ojikyun material?

T: Not at all.

K: I thought everyone did that.

T: Hahaha

J: Isn't it a good trick? Making poo with curry? This is the same, just making a pot with Baumkuchen.

K: ??? *1

J: Is that a bit rude of me? Don't you make piled up poo with curry?

T: No! Haha.

K: How do you even make that with curry??

J: Its like, if the curry is left for a while, it congeals a bit, right?

K: The roux.

J: Yeah, kinda like the roux. I did it with that when i was a kid.

T: You did it with that? haha

J: I got into trouble with my parents for it.

K: Well, yeh.

T: Yeah, you would..playing with food.

J: ???*2

K: So thats why you're like this now.

J: No no no, ???*3. But anyway, its like an extension of that, what Villon is doing.

K: Its amazing. The cake at the bottom looks exactly like a real pot.

T: Yeah.

J: Yeh, they have uploaded the pics, but at a glance the Grand Villlon seems to cost close to twenty thousand yen.

T: Yeh, twenty thousand.

K: The big one, right?

J: Yeah, the big one.

T: Oh, the medium sized one costs ¥14,500.

J: Yeh, the big one is about ¥20,000. It would make someone very happy if you gave it as a gift.

T: Well, I wanna try it once.

J: Yeh, me too. Though it probably just tastes like regular Baumkuchen.

T: Of course, yeh.

J: So like, curry in the shape of poo tastes like curry, haha.

T: Hahaha

K: It reminds me of that thing, poo flavoured curry or curry flavoured poo?

J: The ultimate decision, right?

T: Oh, I remember that.

K: Which would you choose?

T: Probably curry flavoured..

K: Poo flavoured is impossible.

J: But the poo flavored one is still just curry.

K: Its ok to eat?

J: Yeah. 

K: So if its curry flavored poo, and you eat it will it have an  ???*4 influence?

J:..Yeh. It might be something sent from above. But anyhow, it tastes like curry.

K: So, its poo that doesn't harm your body?

J: No, well, the taste. The taste is curry...What are we talking about?? haha.

T: Right? haha

J, K: hahaha.

K: So for this, its like, is it a real pot?

T: Haha

K: Like, a pot that looks like Baumkuchen, or a Baumkuchen that looks like a pot?

J: I feel like this convo is getting off track.

K: That was your fault.

T: You went off on a tangent all of a sudden, haha.

J: Was it my fault? Im so sorry.

K: Should we buy one of these Baumkuchen?

J: Yeah, lets buy one.

K: Haha

T: Lets buy one.

K: We could eat it together.

J: Yeh, we could each put ¥5000 towards it or something.

T: Well, something like that.

K: Yeah.

T: It looks like this store is well established, I bet its delicious.

J: Its great though, established in 1965. The shop is older than me. Its been there for 55 years.

T: Thats amazing.

J: Definitively, lets try it as the TFoE team.

T: Should we ask Kami?

J: Ok. Kami?

Kami: Yes?

J: Oh, he's there, thats good.

T: Yeh, thats good. I thought he might be asleep.

Kami: Did you guys eat Baumkuchen as kids?

J: Well, honestly I was quite poor as a kid. We had a business in our house, but we suddenly went bankrupt and became poor very quickly. My Dad had a car, and he had about a million yen in debts with it, or fines.

T: When was this?

J: Oh, when I was in elementary school, so about forty years ago. So we didn't really eat fancy sweets like Baumkuchen...not that I can remember anyway.

T: Hm, as a small kid..

Kami: Um, I spent a lot of time in Nishinari in Osaka..Baumkuchen in not common there. (*Nishinari is know as a bit of a slum*)

K: Haha.

T: Im sure you can eat it there.

Kami: No, there didn't used to be any there.

T, K, J: Hahaha

J: So, you were in Nishinari, Kami?

Kami: For quite a long time actually.

J: Oh, really?

Kami: In Nishinari they really work hard making ocotopuses with sausages.

T: Haha

J: Haha. Octopuses with sausages?

T: You can buy that in the supermarket.

J: But its the same kind of idea right? Like making pots with Baumkuchen.

Kami: Also using carrots to make flowers.

J,T: Ahh, yeh, I see.

J: Kami, as soon as you enter, the conversion suddenly gets really common.

T: Yeah

Kami: It is the same idea.

K, T, J: Haha

J: Kami, you are pretty interesting.

T: Have you seen those things that are like deep fried Baumkuchen on skewers?

K: Oh yeh, I have.

T: Have you tried them?

J: I've seen deep fried ice cream, or fruit and stuff on a skewer, but not Baumkuchen.

T: Oh, there is that too.

K: Yeah, there is.

J: Ehh.

T: They definitely did this in Nishinari, right Kami?

K: Yeh, they did.

Kami: No, they didn't.

T: Haha

K: He's sure about that.

J: Yeh, he's certain.

T: He doesn't want to lose on this one.

J: But Kami, do you want to eat these pots made from Baumkuchen?

Kami: Well, yeh, to look at them, they look delicious.

J, T, K: Haha.

T: By the way Kami, how old were you when you first tried Baumkuchen?

Kami: I don't really want to tell you that.

J: Haha, its that much of a secret?

K: Maybe he doesn't remember?

J: Yeah, maybe.

Kami: But first, I want to try one of thier basic Baumkuchen.

J: Ah, more basic than this?

T:???6*

J: Ok, I got it. They do sell regular Baumkuchen too, so we'll get one of those for Kami, and we'll get one of the pot Baumkuchen for us.

T: Yeh, I'll eat that. 

Kami: You still have to share it though.

J, K: Hahaha

J: So you do want to eat it?

Kami: Yeah, I do.

J: You do? You should have been honest from the start. Well, I learned something today...that there is no Baumkuchen in Nishinari.

T: No, there is, there is. Will he get mad at me? There definitely is.

J: There definitely is? Well, we got to learn a bit about Kami's history.

T: You can kinda tell he probably lives in the west.

K: Well, he has a Kansai accent.

J: Yeh, he definitely has a Kansai accent. But now we know specifically about Nishinari.

T: I get the feeling he was just lurking there, as opposed to living.

K: He does seem kinda low class.

T: Yeh, he does.

J: Like, the kinda guy you want to avoid if at all possible, haha.

K: Ok, so, is that it?

J: So, we'll have to go and buy this sometime. Within the year?

T: Lets go asap.

K: Well, if they have to be reserved, we'll make a reservation.

J: Oh, yeah. Well, Kami wants to try a piece too.

K: Will Kami come down to join us then?

Kami: I do want to eat it.

J: No, well, what should we do? How can we give you it, Kami?

T: Right?

J: Kami?

Kami: Yes?

J: Yes?

K: hahaha

J: He doesn't know how to answer that, haha. Clearly, haha. He obviously doesn't know what to say! You're in the sky, right, Kami?

Kami: Thats right.

J: Yeh, so how can we get the cake to you?

Kami: Yeh, Im not sure, how could we? haha

J, K, T: Hahaha

J: He is totally stuck with this unexpected question.

T: What should we do then?

K: How about we look forward to what happens at that time?

J: Certainly!

K: Haha. Ok, well, Lets finish here for this week. Please subscribe. Thank you very much.

*1,2,3,4,5,6 Couldn't make out, usually due to too much background laughing.

[leoneslover]

hi! i was wondering if i could trouble you for a request🥺 it’s my birthday and i was hoping for basically just a lil drabble about how suga would be on his s/o birthday. have a great day :)

𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞

Sugawara Kōshi x reader(gn!)

Warnings: none

A/n: Happy (late) birthday anon! I hope you had a fantastic day 🥺🥺 I hope you don’t mind me doing headcannons instead of a drabble, I wanted to finish it today so it wouldn’t be so late and I usually I tend to extend drabbles a lot lol. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

• He’d probably be really extra about it. He’s always annoying his s/o in a normal day, so for your birthday expect that, but multiply it by ten lol

• He’d probably wait until 12pm to be the first one to text you this really long paragraph about how much he loves you and how special you are to him.

• (yes, he’s been working on that for a few weeks by now, and it probably looks more like a love letter rather than a happy birthday text. But he’s cheesy like that so it’s fine).

• Wouldn’t wait until the morning to start posting his fave pics of you on his stories (even the ugly ones, but for your sake he posts those on his priv. He knows it probably annoys you, but it’s fine, you have enough pics of him to get him back on his birthday).

• He also decorated them with little heart gifs and captions like “my sweetheart is turning ** today 🥺🥺” “time flies 😭😭” on his main and “lol ur getting old 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣” on his priv.

• *Continues to spam random pics of you on his story through the day*

• No but literally, by midnight his story would be so full it’s unbelievable.

• Anyways, back to you. Would probably show up in the early morning to take you out for breakfast, because as much as he loves annoying you, he also likes spoiling you rotten so there’s that.

• Probably got one too many gifts for you, and he’d give them all through the day. Those including something really expensive that makes you gasp and wonder how the fuck did he buy that; and something really simple that he made himself (like a letter, or a little bracelet with something dumb on it, stuff like that).

• His wallet is screaming after all of that but he doesn’t care at all.

• Probably would take you to a really pretty park to have a picnic. Picnic dates are your go to, but both of you love them and it’s almost natural for you, so why wouldn’t you do it on your birthday as well?

• He’d probably confess midday that he’d have rather to take you for lunch somewhere else instead of to a picnic like you always do, but you reassure him that it’s ok and that you love it anyways!

• I mean, there’s always a sense of comfort in the classics right? 🥺

• Also, he baked you a cake (which was probably delicious btw, even tho the decoration was a little crooked but he tried his best ok).

• Yes, he insisted on feeding you the first bite.

• Walking through the park after you’re done eating while you link your pinkies together?? Uhh yes please.

• Something important I forgot to mention !! If you’re ok with pda, then expect a LOT of kisses from him.

• Wheter that be randomly kissing your hand while walking, a casual peck on the cheek after taking a picture, a small smooch on your temple while you’re walking back home, him having his arm around your shoulders or waist, pulling you close to him after so you can lean your head on his shoulder 🥺🥺.

• “oh, you have something on your lips”

• “???”

• “here, let me get it for you” *procedes to almost make out with you to get some cream out of the corner of your mouth* “hmm, sweet :)”

• He thinks he’s so slick istg 😭😭.

• But if you’re not fond of pda, then don’t you worry! Cause the second you walk through the door back to your house, he’d attack you with all the kisses he’s been saving up for this exact moment.

• Probably would tackle you to the couch and fill your face with little pecks, maybe sprinkle some tickling here and there only to see you smile for him again 🥺🥺.

• You just spend the whole day out doing god knows what, so you probably go for something more chill at night.

• Order some of your favorite food, get on your comfy clothes and watch your favorites movies/show until you’re too tired to keep watching.

• But before you even get the chance to fall asleep, he’ll get out of your embrace (because of course you’re cuddling while watching tv duh), and disappearing to the kitchen with 0 explanation.

• “Kou? What are you doing?”

• “Close your eyes bub! And don’t open until I tell you to!”.

• You sit up on the couch, waiting patiently until you feel the couch dip next to you due to his weight.

• “open up :)”.

• Turns out this mf didn’t have enough with the cake from earlier, and bought a single cupcake and put a tiny candle on top, only so he could sing you happy birthday softly in the comfort of your own home.

• After you blow out the candle (holding back tears because goddamn that was so cute), he’d feed you it with a lovesick expression like 🥺🥰☺️☺️.

• Probably smears frosting on your nose and lips so he can lick it off with a kiss.

• You’d probably end up falling asleep on the couch, probably on top of him as well. But since you’re so comfy he wouldn’t have the heart to wake you up to move you to the bedroom.

•So he’ll try to make himself a little bit of room, pressing up against you and whispering a soft “happy birthday, and sweet dreams my love” on your ear and topping it off with a kiss to your temple before trying to fall asleep with you.

• Did he wake up sore the next morning? Yes

• Was it the worst sleep he had in a while? Yes.

• Would he do it again for you? Definitely <3.

[ask-the-crimson-king]

The Return from Art Hell

[RIGHT. SO. THIS TOOK. A BIT. 

Explanations, artist mumblings, and detail shots below the cut, also tagging @luwupercal​ cause you may enjoy the story behind why this exists and what is happening.

SO this image is based on a small Discord rp thing I did with a few others on here where Horus:

Came back. First as a Warp blob, but then with the aid of Magnus, he was able to get a more solid form, (which was a small husky puppo) and eventually becomes this big ol fucker. (Who was designed by @hoholupercal​ )

This was a pain in the fucking ass to draw. I must’ve had five or six drafts on this alone cause I couldn’t get shit right. The pose, the posture, the head (I cannot fucking draw wolves lol I draw birbs) AND THEN I FORGOT IMPORTANT DETAILS RIGHT AS I WAS ALMOST DONE WITH THE FUCKING LINEART. But I do like how this came out, personally. Especially the fire. Very happy with how it looks. 

NOW, along with Warp blob Horus returning, there was a bit of a reunion among brothers. And with this reunion came several revelations, one of which... well, let’s say this nerd:

He learned the truth about what happened to Prospero. Horus confessed. And Magnus was, understandably, pissed. And Horus was, understandably, feeling incredibly guilty and broody.

Now for the random artist tangent: I said fuck the TTS wings and fuck the model wings and based his wings off the Magnus v Guilliman pic because those look cool as fuck and are superior to many other incarnations (including the ones mentioned) and you cannot change my mind. Also the blue sash was because I realized just how much fucking red was gonna be in this picture and decided to add more blue.

Also also added Pandora, the kitten, because why not.

Now, what happens when you have a pissed nerd and a broody wolfish bastard?

You get this little birdstard:

Acting as a botched therapist, trying to force him to talk about his emotional issues and stop being weird and broody. Does it work? Kinda. Kazakh did pull out a knife. Or tried to.

SO that’s why Kazakh is yelling at Horus. Essentially he’s saying “HEY, YOU, STOP BEING WEIRD AND FACE YOUR EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS!” to which Horus is saying “No.”

So. This all happens, and then the brothers start talking again. And eventually the topic switches to that of Kor Phaeron and Erebus since they’re really the ones responsible for everything going to shit. Among other things.

To make a longer story short, the band splits up after making a plan. They’re going to pin one against the other -- Erebus is going to be poisoned and sent a letter that’s “””from””” Kor Phaeron (plagiarism, woo), provoking him into openly attacking the old bastard. Kazakh and Lorgar end up going to the Venegeful Spirit to go poison Erebus, while Magnus, Sanguinius, and Horus prepare to find Kor Phaeron on Sicarus.

Only one problem -- Kor Phaeron isn’t on Sicarus. He’s on the Spirit. And Kazakh and Lorgar find this out after seeking out Abbadon in order to figure out a way to test the poison that Lorgar can create. Kazakh quickly goes flying off to find Magnus and tell him what’s happened, and after some deliberation, Magnus suggests to be direct and to have both of them killed outright instead of them killing each other. He offers to kill Kor Phaeron in Lorgar’s stead, but Lorgar says that he needs to do it.

And so he does. And it is a ride. A feelsy ride. Horus goes to kill Erebus and it’s less feelsy because it’s essentially a one-and-done but no one is complaining. Bastard is gone. 

Sanguinius senses Lorgar’s distress and pulls him back through a portal to their little sanctuary (where this saga began, with the arrival of warp blob Horus) in order to give him comfort. 

AND THUS, we come to the end of the tale, and to the final scene.

Sang, chilling with Lorgar, enjoying a nice, calm conversation and a drink or two.

While Horus enjoys a bottle to himself.

Other little note things: I just threw everyone in the Warp because. Listen. Okay. It was 2:30 am and I was like ‘aw fuck I don’t have an idea for a good background’ so I just yeeted the background together hastily cause DEAR FUCK I WANTED TO BE DONE ALREADY.

AND NOW I AM! A total of 15 or so hours later, and you all get an art piece and a tale. 

Also if anyone wants to come at me for Lorgar and Magnus not having horns, take it up with my wrist because No. Magnus can make his form variable and that four horned Lorgar thing is only fan art, it’s not canon. He and Perturabo don’t have canon daemon prince forms. 

Also also I know I drew a beefcake but please, if you’ve read this far, DON’T FUCKING THIRST OVER MY ART. IT’s not meant to be fetish-y or anything. If you think it’s hot or sexy KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. Don’t leave weird tag comments please. It makes me very uncomfortable. 

Anyway, thanks for reading. This is probably rambly as fuck, and incoherent at points, but if you did read this far, good for you! You get this Kazakh:

[taekooktimeline]

Okay so, that's not exactly a question related to taekook, but, I was curious to know: how did both of you decided to make a timeline and to work together to do it? How did you two met? Sorry if it's too personal!

Sara: Hi ! You’re so cute. It’s not a very personal story :P Back in April I was writing under a tweet about some Taekook-related theories of mine. Kayla then popped up and we started a conversation. Here is the thread although I changed some of my opinions after further research (like the gcf topic): https://twitter.com/taeggukstime/status/1252218411771453441?s=21. It eventually led us into DM’s to discuss things further in a private setting. We talked a looot as we tried to figure out Taekook’s relationship evolution and it led us to some conclusions. Kayla then thought it was a good idea to immortalize it by creating a little Timeline so I agreed to do it because she was very sweet and articulated, a huge taekooker and I enjoyed talking with her, although I had doubts about it because I didn’t want to spend too much time on something that I thought nobody would read. I’ve always been happy being an observer that didn’t really engage with the fandom other than voting, going to concerts and such. My experience was more so between me & BTS and I felt iffy about fandom interaction because I saw all the drama and I’m not a social person (I used to have huge social anxiety and can take a month to reply to a real life friend’s text). Kayla told me she was in contact with a youtuber and would get us promo but for some reason I still didn’t think people would be interested. Anyhow, we initially made a 10 page long document on Word with no pictures that covered the entire 7 years 😂 That was the very first version of what it is today and it was simply a basic explanation of our take on their evolution with some important mentions instead of a compilation of moments. It turned out that we still had like a couple of months until Peach started making her video so we began including more “mentions” of moments that supported the theory and it basically got out of hand to the point that we were rushing to cover the maximum amount of moments before the day of promo. I was so stressed that I was basically eating once a day for a while. You know that finding a single tricky date in which something was filmed can take me 6 hours straight or a couple days? Just the date. Sometimes I have to resort to looking at their earrings as the last option because we had to know the exact order to some key events. Mind you, this was during total lockdown so I had stopped working and couldn’t leave my house even if I wanted to. Luckily we had greater success than I expected even if we aren’t huge influencers and I’m extremely happy that people take the time to read such a long document and furthermore helps them find comfort or they find it eye-opening. Thank you for your appreciation!! 💜

Kayla: hello! This isn’t personal at all! In fact, I’m touched you’d like to know more about us ☺️can you believe I’ve never met Sara in real life? We’re in different countries, an ocean away. I love our synergy so much and the power of technology amazes me. We make a great team. As Sara said, we met through Twitter. I was looking up info on various topics and she was so helpful and answered. We were talking publicly and I asked if I could DM her to discuss further. Within DMs we started organically brainstorming a timeline of TK’s relationship and then I thought we did such a good job we should immortalize it. Peachlesslyyy is an amazing TK YouTube account, who I consider a friend, and I’ve supported her account since before it really took off (and wow has her account grown! She deserves all the love and support). Before my anxiety got the best of me, I’d interact more freely in YT channels, especially in Peach’s YT account because she’s a great moderator whose followers are fantastic at brainstorming and debating respectfully. And at one point I mentioned Sara and I were drafting a timeline. People were interested in seeing it and Peach generously offered to share it on her community tab. She was planning to make a timeline video so it was perfect timing to share what we were seeing. Our little Word doc without pics suddenly evolved to host pics and links to moments, and transitioned to google docs where we could more easily edit. We quickly hurried to add as much as we could. Peach never rushed us but since people were eager we hurried to get it out, which meant the original doc didn’t cover nearly the amount it does now. As you can see in “recent additions”, so much has been added since we unlocked the doc for public viewing. And we hope to add more when we have time! We have quite a bit pending in our private brainstorm doc to review as we can. There’s definitely quite a bit to add ☺️anyway, we never expected the timeline to get the traffic it did and it just blossomed from there, with us adding more moments, updating as we can and creating a tumblr that's more user friendly, while still updating google docs (and it’s all thanks to Sara for finding tumblr and figuring out the nuances of it). Now that we don’t have time constraints, we can review moments at our own pace, around our personal lives, and we can use raw links vs analysts videos as much as possible (or raw + analyst -if we want a moment slowed down or zoomed in then an analyst channel helps greatly, even if we don’t endorse said channel being used). Nona Pocha is also another TK YouTube account who I consider a friend, and who helped promote the timeline when we got it transitioned to tumblr. She has been a great supporter who has cheered us on. I’m incredibly grateful to both for giving our timeline the promotion to grow and reach other taekookers. It helped so much. And I’m just beyond shocked and grateful for the love and support we get for this timeline. Hearing it’s logical and objective, full of love and respect to all members, and is a source of comfort / eye opening is amazing feedback that touches me. Hearing people are recommending it is heartwarming. This is our baby but it's a labor of love. It takes a lot of effort to keep it up and be as objective as possible (which requires a lot of reviewing of the footage then back checking each other). The support truly is the motivation to keep going, knowing people care to hear our thoughts. So thank you for being a supporter and reader💜

[yuumi0035]

Yuumi’s art process (with pics!)

This is how I go about doing the art palettes, and generally how I do art (specially on lose, not so long pieces such as these). I’ll breakdown the process under the cut so I don’t spam people’s timelines (´･ω･`)

I was going to put these final advises at the very end but someone else might make use of these instead of going through the whole thing so here:

Important things to keep in mind in case you’re learning and actually think I’m worth being listened:

References are GOOD. No one is perfect and no one knows how to draw stuff from their memory so go google weird things, Google-sensei won’t judge. Hopefully. (else set your navigation on private).

Brushes and whatnot don’t make the artist, but it sure as hell help you feel like you’re doing what you like or not. I can’t stress enough how many times I’ve just not finished works because my brushes felt “off”.

Posemaniacs is very good for both anatomy and speed practise (I’m aware I’m really fast compared to my fellow artist friends but by no means it’s a standard, I just got used to work fast uwu)

Be careful with your wrist!!! use your whole arm when drawing!! and also T a k e · b r e a k s.

Art block is a bitch and strikes anyone. I’m usually artblocked but if you find something you’re passionate about go draw that, whatever it is. (I hadn’t consistently drawn in p much 5 years after college and thanks to MLB season 3 here I am LOL)

And now for the actual breakdown:

Step 1: Sketch

My first step is the sketch, which some of you might think “but it’s SO CLEAN!!”, yes, sometimes I leave my sketches as lines and polish them a bit. Anyways, these is what my sketch looks like and next an important thing:

...which is the 2/3 rule! Photoshop blabbery ahead, tl:dr how i made the grid

I’ve been doing this small trick by filling a layer of any color, lowering the opacity to 50% and transforming it to 33,33% it’s height duplicate and place on each side of the canvas and then merge, and then another layer doing the same but doing 33,33% width instead of height. Then I merge both layers, set the opacity to 30% and the result is that perfect 2/3 rule. 

If you don’t really know what the rule is, I kindly suggest this instead of my explanation bc words are not my forte. 

Step 2: Lineart! 

Nothing to say here other than cleaning the lines from earlier with a different (or the same in this case) brush as the sketch one. Opacity varies from day to day.

I have several styles of lineart and they all come with the mood I feel on that day, so don’t be afraid of experimenting and finding what you like most! I personally like thin lines a lot but also thick lines too! i’m constantly looking for the perfect line™ and to give an idea this is what my brushes look like:

in summary, practise with as many tools you can find around and see which ones you like most uwu

Step 3: Base Color

This is probably the part where I give up the most bc it boooooores me LOL. I try to spend as little time as possible in order to overcome this step. These are usually colors I use in 99% of my pics, since... idk years. If you look in my old arts in twitter you’ll see them haha.

Something important I’d like to mention here is ✨LAYERS✨:

This is how my layers look like in the base color part. I tend to do 1 for skin color, 2 for hair / eyes, 3+ for clothes and stuff. I tend to separate them in colors so they don’t merge! I go with numbers because... I think it’s faster to type and I’ve been using this way of naming for years so it works for me, what matters is that you group your layers and keep them organized uwu (specially if someone else has to look at your psd files >>)

Step 4: Shading!

Normally, I shade every single layer with a proper shade but on the case of the palette challenge I’m doing just the skin because I want to stress the light mood. Liiiike if I want to go with a softer light I’d use lighter shades or a stronger light = stronger shades. To pick colors, I usually go with that brown from Chat Noir and Marinette’s jacket as my universal black (I don’t like working with black, I’m weird), and most of the colors I just eye pick from the Color Picker on Photoshop. In the right you can see my swatches:

To choose the shade tone (in this example we’ll use Chat Noir’s hair), I picked a Yellow -Adrien’s hair is specially hard to color ugh- And then with that same tone I’d choose its shade going diagonally looking for a darker tone. This way you can find interesting colors! On this pic I did that for Adrien’s hair and... the rest I did the following:

I did my lazy shading™ : which consists in a layer set to Multiply with 50% opacity (this varies depending on the light, again), and I shade everything with the same tone (my to go is purple, but sometimes I use other colors too). This gives a sense of uniformity and the resulting shades are way nicer in my opinion.

Step 5: But Yuumi... where are the palettes???

I take that people straight handpick the palettes and use them to shade all the way and I respect them for that. I instead decided to do whatever floats my boat so I color regularly but add the palettes over the whole thing to change the overall mood and colors of the illustration. I randomly use the Gradient Tool and use the palettes’ colors around and then set that layer to Screen, Multiply, Focal Light, Overlay... etc etc, whatever I feel like doing in that moment, and so the magic happens! :’D 

I don’t usually do this on my works but this is a new way to experiment for me and I’m having fun with it!

Step 6: Finishing Touches

Here is where I use the palettes the most, adding random highlights in whatever way I feel like. Yep, I pretty much Ladybug my whole coloring process: Wing it and go with the flow™. I’m still learning about lighting and whatnots but I really don’t care at this point LOL

To which you’ll say: But Yuumi?? In art school they told me that---

To which I say: shhhhhhhhhhhhh assigntments are over for me. go watch some Bob Ross (I am serious). Do whatever you feel like. Be happy. No one is going to judge you, and if they wanna judge they better be paying for your work first. so. whatever you do: BE HAPPY. or don’t do it. unless it’s a school assignment, in that case go do it or i’ll kick your ass.

✦ Finishing Notes ✦

So yea, that’s my art process in how I’ve been doing these Miraculous Color Palettes and generally how I go about my illustrations most of the time. For more complex illustrations, I need to remember how I did those (oops). And actually, do them. These illustrations usually take up 2 or 3 hours to make, on other pieces i’ve been working on them for up to 8 hours, it really varies from piece to piece, but I hope this was helpful! 

Please let me know if you have any questions, commenting in this very post will help me -and others?- keep track of things and learn together! My asks are also open and I’ll reply as fast as I can uwu (my requests are still waiting there, don’t worry).

aaaaand that’s all, folks. Stay Peachy! 

[eregyrn-falls-art]

Okay!  So, this project was a LONG TIME coming to fruition, considering I first had the idea in about May of 2018, and bought the actual paddle that summer.

There are a number of artists who do painted canoe paddles on Etsy and so on, and I admired them a lot.  Most are strictly geometric (all the easier to do with painter’s tape; see under the cut).  But they’re also pretty expensive, and I didn’t think I could afford one.  THEN I came up with this idea for the design to not just be geometric, but pine trees and a symbolic lake and mountains (specifically 4 pine trees; I bet some of you can guess why!).  Once I had that idea, I couldn’t shake it, and that meant I had to do it myself if I wanted a paddle like that.  (And I wanted one that was full-size so that I could use it once it was all done.)

I bought an unfinished paddle from a seller on Etsy, and some of the materials, last year.  But for one reason and another (partly, intimidation about the process), I didn’t get around to doing it in the summer; and then I didn’t get around to doing it in the fall/winter/spring either.  I finally started it in August of this year.  

I thought that it would take me about 1 week to do.  Perhaps if I’d known what I was doing, it would have.  In fact it took a little over 3 weeks, what with various false starts and fixing mistakes; and also just, drying time for various layers.  Today I finally got a friend to come out with me to a location where I wanted to get a picture of it in good lighting.  Either this weekend or next, I’ll be taking it out with a canoe to actually use it.

I’m pretty happy with it!  It’s hanging in my living room now.  I know a GREAT DEAL more about the process now. If I ever do another one, it will go much more smoothly.  I also really now appreciate why the person whose work on Etsy I admired was charging $275 for one.  That is not over-priced AT ALL.  (I actually never truly thought it was!  Just more than I wanted to spend.  But I totally get her pricing, now, too.)

Under the cut, I’m going to put a bunch of process pics and some explanations, because, might as well record it somewhere!

I don’t have a pic of it in its raw state, but here it is in the midst of the staining process!  In its raw state, it was a very light color; I think it’s made of ash wood.

I should mention that I had drawn patterns to test out the idea, and then used Photoshop and color sampling from Krylon spray paints to work out what colors I wanted to use.  However, as we’ll see below, I ran into a lot of problems with the color samples not actually matching the colors of the spray paint out of the can.

First color on!  Spray paint.  You can see at the top where the masking fabric is still on up near the grip for the stripe of the same color.

Above, just to show what it looked like with the blue “mountain” chevron all taped up. I used these cheap painters cloths to supplement the masking tape, to keep the mist of the spray-paint from getting on the rest of the paddle.  (I was mostly successful.)

Issues with the masking not quite working, and also at right you can see where the color has faintly gotten onto the wood, from the spray’s mist.

Third spray color down!  The “farther mountain”.  At this point I was NOT super happy with how the dark blue looked.  I had wanted it to be a bit lighter and a bit more greyish?  (To suggest a mountain in the middle distance.)  This was a case where the blue out of the can was different from the blue color chip on the website.

Now here’s where things get really tricky!  I had drawn the pine trees on a manila folder, to cut out and create a stencil from them.  At this stage, I didn’t think I could create a tape mask for them, so I decided to hand-paint them.  I was aiming for a nice, deep-but-not-too-dark hunter green.  So I did one side in an acrylic paint. And... it’s not the RIGHT color.  I felt it was too yellowish, whereas I wanted a green that leaned more towards bluish.

So I went and bought more paint, hoping I could get a better color.  (Note: I was also, at this stage, afraid of mixing a custom color, because of the time it would take to paint all those details on BOTH sides of the paddle, needing it to dry between painting each side, and being worried that the custom-mixed acrylic would dry up before I could finish.)

Anyway -- after this attempt, it’s STILL WRONG.  Much too dark. Almost black in some lights.  

At this point I decided that I needed to use spray paint to get the color green I wanted.  But that would mean creating a tape mask for the trees.

So, stick with me here -- I still had the stencil that I had created, to line the pattern onto the paddle, to do the above painting.  But when I was doing the hand-painting, I allowed myself to go over those lines, and make the branches of the pine trees more robust.  But that meant I could not use the older stencil to create the tape mask, because it was now smaller than what I had painted ON the paddle, and wouldn’t cover the existing paint.  

So I got this translucent film (it’s actually for a laminating machine), traced the actual linework on the paddle, used an exacto knife to cut it out, and used THAT as a stencil.

At the same time, I decided to try to fix the problem with the color of the blue chevron, by buying a spray paint that said it was “slate blue”.  AND, I also had to create a little stencil and tape mask for the little pine trees up on the grip.

So yeah, once I had used the stencils to mark the lines of the pine trees on the taped areas, I then had to cut all along those lines with an exacto knife, and carefully peel away the tape on the parts I wanted the paint to go on.  On BOTH sides of the paddle.  

So, you’re not going to believe this, but... BOTH the blue and the green were STILL WRONG!   

The blue was WAY too light and not what I wanted at all.  (The color swatch on the spray can lied to me.)  This doesn’t show it, but the first pass I took with a “hunter green” spray resulted in trees that were also too light.  This was the SECOND spray painting of the trees, with a darker hunter green.  (While it looks very dark here, trust me, this one will actually work out in the end.)

In order to fix the blue chevron, I decided that I would have to custom-mix a color and hand-paint it.  

(You’ll notice above that I had also finally done the symbolic snow-caps on the “farther mountain”.)

This is probably the best pic I have showing the colors pre-varnishing.  This blue is perhaps not completely what I envisioned, but it was close enough that I don’t think it will bother me.  (I would also say that I wish the lavender of the “farther mountain” wasn’t quite so bright, either.  You know -- hat’s off to the “glacial lake” turquoise at the bottom, the only one I never had trouble with!)

I didn’t actually take pictures of all of the varnishing steps, but let me just tell you: so first I tried to use a spray varnish.  But I didn’t like the gritty texture it was producing, I wanted something smooth.  So I had to sand all of that off.  Then I got an oil-based liquid spar urethane (for waterproofing wood on boats and stuff), but it was very yellowish.  While that wasn’t a problem on the darker colors, it definitely could be seen over the lavender, the white, and the turquoise.  So then I had to sand THAT off all those bits.  And I got a water-based crystal clear gloss spar urethane that promised it would not yellow.  

Then I had to do like 4 coats of that, on each side.  And let it dry for a really long time between coats.  And I had to figure out how to do it so that I didn’t get too many long drips of the varnish.  (Problem: trying to do a coat of varnish with the paddle resting over the improvised saw-horses seen in the earlier pics led to problems.   Even letting the varnish dry for longer than usual, this was still August and kind of humid.  I would flip it over to do the other side and -- once I found that the plastic drop-cloth had bonded to the varnish; and I had to sand that off and re-coat those bits. Then, when I tried to rest it on cloth, I found that even though I’d let it dry thoroughly, there was an imprint of the cloth texture in where it had rested.  So I had to sand THAT off and re-coat those bits.  I finally hung it from the basement ceiling, which worked, except even with very thin coats, I got some drips as the varnish dried.  I would LOVE to know how the people who do this for a living get nice even coats of the varnish!)

So anyway, there it is, and the irony is that in the light in my living room, it’s not that easy to see the color of the pine trees anyway, lol.  But I still really like how it looks.  And as you will have seen in the top pics, it looks really nice outside in natural light.

Will I ever do one of these again?  Maybe!  But not soon.

(And if this inspires you to want to do this, and you want an even more exhaustive discussion of what I learned during the process, tips, and what I’d suggest avoiding, please do hit me up!  I will say that if you don’t care about being able to USE the canoe paddle for real afterwards -- if you just want something decorative -- you can get even cheaper canoe blanks on Etsy, and the varnishing would probably be even easier.)

[hamdontlook]

No thoughts head empty

Pepe:

- he doesn't like being alone and that's part of why he shares the house with Bob and they are always together (they are best friends but like.. Pepe doesn't have much "me" time because if he spends days without being with someone it affects his mind a Lot. He needs to learn to be alone basically- but that doesn't mean he needs to remove that part of him. Jefa is super good for him because they are kinda free spirited and kinda just appears when they feel like it but since they enjoy being with Pepe it happens a Lot). At first Jefa thought he was just clingy but slowly they realize what's up- tho they found cute at the begging that part of him, being so social.

- after some time he stops smoking so much in front of them so they don't catch second hand smoking even though Jefa tells him it's okay, they don't mind but still he worries about their health (i mean this is just being a nice person towards other human being but being so insistent about not damaging the other person just because you choose to smoke and stuff that's cool)

- he asks Bob (he's a photographer and I haven't shown this part of him yet AJDJKDD someday when I'm not so focused on these two), well, he asks him to take a sneaky pic of him and Jefa someday because he would like to have A Nice Pic Of Them For No Reason™

- when they are relaxing and napping (Jefa Big time Napper) Pepe can't rly fall asleep so he starts realizing the freckles they have and start counting them or even paint on them. This ends up in the situation that Pepe just happens to stare at Jefa while they sleep

- he starts feeling insecure because he doesn't get the reason why Jefa keeps appearing and hanging out with him besides smooching (like after Let's Call It Adult Smooching ™) and he doesn't think he's that great and doesn't realize Jefa actually cares about him. This ends up making the situation of him being more cold towards them because he's a poopy head who doesn't TALK or COMMUNICATE i stg

- after sorting out that whole thing up there, Pepe confronts Feelings™ slowly and when hes upset he does this thing where he just hugs them from behind and puts his face on the shoulder trying to cry (this sounds dramatic af but it's not that deep lmao sometimes you just need to Try To Cry because ur heart is constipated). When this happens it's not that often so it always catches Jefa off guard and they are like "hhhhh hug💜" (ay dios ay dios mIo)

Jefa

- when people ask Pepe if he's not cold Jefa is like "he's from the north of course he's not cold lmao" but they will always carry a jacket or scarf or gloves for him (LOVE LANGUAGE YALL)

- they make these sculptures and stuff for Pepe (there was a whole comic going on explaining this) and when they see something cool that Pepe might like, they take a photo and have like an "inspo" folder to try to make it later for Pepe

- they want to brush Pepe's hair and touch his head but doesn't know how to tell him without making it weird so they end up doing like a joke or something to end up having their hands on his head sjsj

- they are EMBARRASSED about the fact that they like Pepe (when they FINALLY realize because this takes a Long While™ way longer than Pepe). This is actually shitty from them because they happen to not have taken him seriously after a while of slowly knowing him but it's always been like "pfft this is just some stupid dude nothing to worry about" and well He's this whole person with lots of undiscovered strengths who happens to have a different way of thinking and stuff (besides him Actually being a dummy let's face it) but like yonoe. Afterwards Jefa is embarrassed to have thought so poorly of him like he doesn't deserve that either

- Jefa has a huge breakdown one day and Pepe is like dw ill take you somewhere and they take the bus in a 1 hour trip and end up in a ?? Field?? Idk the word rn and I'm not switching apps to check it out but basically a place full of trash and he's like "ok, break stuff" and they are like "do you break stuff when you are sad or something?" And he's like "what?? No. I take some cool stuff from here for my house but you look like you would want to beat the shit out of something". So this is probably not a Good coping mechanism but idk I think it's interesting for them to have this convo and Pepe thinks of what could be good for Jefa in a situation of anger or sadness, not something he would do because they are so different. So yeah Jefa starts breaking stuff and Pepe is just like ":)" in the background searching for a new table akdbakdjd

- Jefa is so fucking annoying with series and tv shows to watch and they don't shut up about it and at first Pepe was "forced" to watch a few but later he starts watching any new thing Jefa gets into so they have something to talk about and because he's enjoys talking with them about these silly things (LOVE. LanguaGE.)

Both

- After a while, they get used to always sleeping and cuddling together so when they are sleeping alone they don't feel as comfy as they used to (not like it's not comfy but. Now hits different)

- sometimes when they are each of them on their own they happen to randomly think about the other person and wonder what they are up to or what are they doing right now

- both of them in the begging had crushes on different people (even if it's a Strong one or a silly one) and then they listened to songs about love and stuff they would think about their old crush. Welp now they find themselves thinking about each other and they don't know what to do with that sjbfkfnd (still they haven't noticed they have a thing for the other)

- when they Realize™ (each of them in a different rythm) they are SO scared of messing up their actual relationship or the development of those feelings because they dont want to fuck up what they have right now and want to play it safe. Also they would be so embarrassed about the others reaction

- Pepe teaches Jefa to accept their failures and failed projects because Jefa is obsessed with always being right or be Good at whatever they do because of fear of failure and insecurities and hipocresy and etc. Meanwhile, Jefa teaches Pepe that his emotions and feelings are important and bottling up is not a Good Thing. They also insist on Pepe to fight for his dreams and objectives (the pilot thing for example- maybe he doesn't end up being a pilot but he discovers he's good and likes to be in charge of the towers in the airport that gives directions to the planes or something, or even the dude with the lights)

- they start having inside jokes between them and showing themselves laugh more between each other and Bob and Rodney even notice and Rodney in specific since Jefa has been hiding from him all this is like "..wait hold on wait a damn second-"

- they start telling anecdotes and stories to Rodney and Bob (Rodney - Jefa ; Bob - Pepe) of each other. Bob just thinks they are partners (which they aren't yet) without saying a word which leads to misunderstandings and Rodney is like " dude. Ur crushing" and Jefa is like NO!!!! WHAT THE FUCK NO??!!

- one day they just start making out but it's all romantic and stuff and they don't know what to do with this because it's like a Different Setting- i feel like a teen writing all this stuff dbslsnfl my past 15 old self is like YeaaA finally I'm making some juicy oc shipping for myself. Anyways they end up cuddling and it's soft. And now I might be just sad about past relationships lmao let's move on

- when ordering food Pepe is So Fucking Slow because he reads EVERYTHING in the menu and I can't stress this enough EVERYTHING and Jefa being just A Nervous Being decides what to eat under a minute because if they don't they die. So this one day they are giving shit to Pepe saying JUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY and when the waiter comes they tell Jefa the thing they want to order isn't available rn so Jefa just enters a panic state and orders anything random at the spot. The food arrives and Jefa's thing is Not Good and they ask Pepe if he can give them some of his food and he's like yea can u give me some of yours and idk this is just wholesome funni stuff I wanted to make a comic for but I guess I forgot and now I'm just translating this lmao

- they spend one night in jail I don't know how they just do maybe it's because of disturbance in public late at night we will never know. Anyways they make a scene in jail

-" IS it okay if I cuddle with u"... (They do) (one of them sneezes into the others back and fills their t shirt with the sneeze and the other is like EW WHAT THE FUCK)

- Jefa finds notes and books of pilot school stuff and asks Pepe about it. At first he wants to hide it but Jefa is High-key Annoying and he ends up telling them. They proceed to have an intense conversation. They joke about how Pepe doesn't qualify for the thing but he has extended knowledge about how planes work and what's needed (he did bad in the exams because of his insecurities getting in the way but he would have done great if he had faith in himself) and they later joke about how Jefa is just the opposite, people put too much pressure in them being good and stuff so they just said fuck it and only does stuff in their specific way alone or does nothing.

- they are hanging out really late at night inside the house and see that it starts snowing so they go out to play in the snow in their pajamas. Robin starts screaming that whoever is out there doing that much noise, to stop. They proceed to hide laughing about that whole thing a lot (tender moment. Tender). The next morning there's a bunch of snowman next to pepe's house and it's. Super cute aight..

- one day Rodney goes to Jefa's place and he opens their wardrobe because he's just like That™ trying to find something he gave to Jefa a while ago but ends up finding pepe's clothes which he recognizes (like a sweater or a t shirt) and when he asks them about it they are a super shitty liar not knowing what explanation to do and ends up saying "haha it's just a prank I hate him so I'm pranking him". And rodney, who is , not a dumbass is like "...ah..okay..."