#but its also in Polish so I know it because uhh I grew up there and basically everyone knows this song there

[toviitaffee]

So I did get bored. And recorded myself playing guitar and singing in Polish. Don’t mind me just casually ruining my vocal chords because this song is too low for me. Also, Guitar mess ups!  I’m probably gonna regret ever posting this. OH WELL

[words-for-holland]

Quarantine Series: A New Look

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: Y/N decides its the perfect time to change her look. When Tom and the Holland Boys notice, they’re not so sure on how to feel about it.

Check the rest: Burnt Out | A New Look | Secret Cuts & Kisses | Breaking Friendships |The Birthday Week | Movie Night | Silence is Golden?|

It wasnt a bad idea....at least Y/N didnt think it was. As she continued to scroll through her phone, she saw a lot of posts from Instagram and Tik Tok that got her thinking of creating a new look. Y/N noticed how girls were now dressing in crop tops and street wear, exposing their mid-driffs in a way that made them look older and seductive. They wore their hair up in buns, while their polished face was painted with makeup.

Reading the comments, she noticed how guys raved about the social influencers’ look, claiming how messy buns and mid-driffs always hits a man differently. Now, it wasn’t like Y/N wanted the same attention but she did wondered if her boyfriend Tom would have the same reaction. If she dressed like that would he be even more attracted to her? Would he prefer if she dressed more like the girls they see on Instagram or Tik Tok? Surely he must have some appreciation towards the way they look if he and the Holland Boys follow those types of girls.

Y/N was inspired and decided to get up from her bed and go through her closet. Each clothing she picked up didnt seem to fit her vision. They were all normal and modest, the typical Y/N look. Until, she looked further finding a pair of comfy navy colored sweats that were fitted and slightly baggy. Y/N then pulled out a black sports bra, which complemented well with the bottom wear. She hadnt worn it in years, so it was no surprise when she tried it on it felt new. “Oh good, I guess the Quarantine weight didn’t catch up to me...yet”, Y/N joked to herself.

Looking in the mirror, Y/N inspected the outfit closely. She pursed her lips as she made her judgements, only to give it a nod of approval..but there was still something missing. Y/N worked through her old clothes again but none of them were appealing enough. “Maybe...”, she thought again. Her eyes flickered to Tom’s drawer in the room. Her favorite button up flannel of his came into the picture. It was the perfect touch, and the best part it smelled just like him. She put her arms through the sleeves and adjusted the collar, leaving the flannel unbuttoned. Quickly, Y/N fixed up her hair into a high messy bun, pulling out the flyways and loose hair. She took a step back and was proud of the look she created. It was definitely different...in a good way.

Y/N gave the outfit a test run, casually walking down to the kitchen, to grab some oreos and a glass of milk. The boys were right across the other room, still playing Call of Duty. “Boys” she muttered as she opened the package. “Yall, do any of you guys want some oreos?” Y/N yelled out.

No answer. The likely response, when they’re all too busy yelling at each other over who shot who first. Y/N grabbed the package and brought it over to them, hopefully to get their attention. “What it do baby?!” Tuwaine, yelled out as he won his round. The boys chanted in victory, high-fiving each other, but their eyes and mouths dropped when they turned to face you. “YEAHH—UHH” they said in unision.

Y/N let out an amused laugh, guess that’s one way to shut them up. “Oh good, I have your attention...Did any of you guys want some oreo’s?” She asked, offering them the box.

“Yeah..I mean sure but wow Y/N...you look hot!” Harrison spoke out, forgetting his best friend was also in the room. Tom gave him a scowl, hitting him in the arm. “Sorry mate, I mean..you look good Y/N.”

“Yeah what’s with the outfit? Trying to seduce Tom?” Tuwaine joked as he grabbed an oreo.

“I think..what those divs are trying to say is you look different...in a good way.” Harry interrupted, trying not to make the situation anymore awkward. Tom looked at you, trying to read your motives...but in no way did he seem as happy about the look as the other guys were. “You look beautiful, darling” Tom spoke, though the comment felt rather short. The girl in front of him looked completely different. Hot she was, Tom wouldnt deny that, but different it also was and there was something off about it. Did he not like it? Was something wrong?

“Thanks..darling” she spoke softly. “Thought you would like it.” Y/N looked down at the oreos, and the tension within the room grew with silence. The boys knew it was their time to leave as the couple clearly needed some alone time. They quickly bid them goodnight as they headed upstairs to their rooms. Now it was just Tom and Y/N. “So...I guess you didnt like it?”

Tom stood for a moment, not giving away his emotions. “I never said that. I said you were beautiful as always.”

“Well clearly your actions speak louder than words.” Y/N spat back. She closed her eyes for a second, realizing she was getting nasty for no reason. “Sorry, it’s just you didnt seem as thrilled as I imagined you’d be.”

Tom took a step closer to Y/N. “I was only short because I didnt know what to really say. You know I can read you sometimes. For some reason, when I saw you in that outfit...you just seemed off.” He rubbed her arms gently before ge continued “I just wanted to make sure you felt comfortable yourself.”

“I was comfortable...kinda.” She said with less confidence. “I dont know Tom, I just wanted to try a new look and be attractive for you. Is that a crime?”

He laughed as he shook his head, not believing what was coming out of his girlfriend’s mouth. “Y/N there’s never a moment when you’re not attractive to me! I love you just the way you are! Your style, your personality, your looks, and everything else that makes you!”

She looked up at his eyes, giving him a slight smile. “I know, and I hope you know that I love you as is. Every perfection and imperfection. I just know that you and the boys follow a lot of models on Instagram that I was just curious to see if I could pull it off.” Y/N replied, shrugging her shoulders as she made her confession.

“Well I can definitely say it’s surpassed my expectations and all the models on there.” Tom laughed. “Look just promise me that no matter what happens. Whether you change your style or anything about you, you do it for yourself and not because you think it’ll please me or anyone else.”

Y/N held his hand, rubbing small circles with her tiny thumbs. She looked into his eyes once more as she smiled. “I promise.” She leaned in giving him a chaste kiss that left a million fireworks as always. Pulling away, the couple continued to enjoy this precious moment. “So, it’s got the stamp of approval now?” She asked.

Tom smiled with a nod of approval. “Absolutely...but only for my eyes this time. Dont want no other man oogling at my girl’s mid-driff.” He gently placed his cold hands on her exposed skin, performing the same action Y/N did to his hands

“Oh..we wouldnt want that.” She mutter leaning in for another kiss.

“No we wouldnt.” He mumbled against her lips. “Seriously though, it is kinda hot, especially you wearing my flannel..ugh it hits different.” Tom continued to gush.

Y/N laughed at his response. “Good that was the plan all along. Now c’mere and give me another kiss.”

[landedinaverycommoncrisis-505]

Touring Oz Is 'A Holiday With Gigs Attached To It' For Catfish & The Bottlemen

Catfish & The Bottlemen's Van McCann and Johnny Bond tell Anthony Carew about the crowd's going "apeshit" in the rain during their 2016/17 Falls stint, and finding 'The Balance'.

When Catfish & The Bottlemen say they can’t wait to come back to Australia, it’s not just lip service. For the increasingly huge Brit rockers, their previous local tours have brought good times, wild shows and sweet memories. “Every time we get there it just feels like a holiday,” says guitarist Johnny ‘Bondy’ Bond. “A holiday with gigs attached to it. Great gigs."

“There was one festival we did, Falls [in 2016/7], in Byron Bay, and it got rained out,” recounts frontman Van McCann. “Just as we were about to walk on stage, we got told we can’t go on, because there was this torrential rain, comin’ right through the roof, onto drums and onto microphones and everything. So, we head back to the dressing room, and after half an hour we got a tap on the shoulder, sayin’, ‘The crowd’s still there.’ They’d stayed there the whole time. It was like they got even wilder.

"As the weather got worse, they started enjoying it more. When we came out for what, a 20-minute set, they were just goin’ fuckin’ nuts."

“They were already as wet and a muddy as they were gonna get," Bond chips in, "so they just went apeshit, sliding down the hill in the mud. There was this crazy atmosphere in the air.”

For McCann, there’s also a personal connection. “Australian shows always mean so much to us,” he offers. “My folks got married over there, so it’s always a big thing to be able to ring home and be like, ‘Guess what, we’ve sold out Perth,’ or Sydney, or wherever it is.”

It’s a similar thrill to when Catfish & The Bottlemen get to play “back home”, McCann enthuses. “The [shows] close to where we all grew up, that’s always big. There was one [show] we played where it was 15 minutes away from my grandad’s house, up in Liverpool Arena. To do that for the family, with all of them there, that was amazing.”

“I remember when we got announced, last year, in Newcastle,” Bond offers, of his own hometown. “Doing a big outdoor one up there, aside from the guestlist being an absolute nightmare, once that was sorted, it was great. I’d look down the River Tyne, and know that I was playing for family and friends.”

Their latest Australian tour follows the release of the third Catfish & The Bottlemen LP, The Balance. The album builds on the sound minted on their 2014 debut, The Balcony, and polished on their second record, 2016’s The Ride: big riffs, rock’n’roll swagger, and a sound seemingly built to fill stadiums. With Jacknife Lee serving as its producer, The Balance was recorded in Grouse Lodge, a rural studio located in the Irish Midlands. “We knew we wanted to record it somewhere freezin’, ’cause we made the last one out in LA,” McCann says, with a laugh.

The band lived at the studio, literally, while making the record. That didn’t feel entirely new: “We’ve never, like, live lived together, like, in a home, where we’ve gone out together to do the weekly shop,” McCann says, “but we’ve spent so much time together on the road.” Still, living in the studio together did cement a bond between them and colour the resulting record.

“It was a nice experience, to have that isolation,” says Bond. “It made the days have a certain nice quality, where you were either recording or just sat around chatting for hours. There was no Wi-Fi signal, no want or need for it. There was a beautiful simplicity to that, and it was an experience that bought us all closer together.”

“[We were] engulfed in it the whole time,” McCann says. “Our bedrooms were above the studios, so every day when you woke up, on your way to breakfast or whatever, you’d pass the studio, and get excited first thing. I think you can hear that excitement on the songs... We were just havin’ a laugh making it. There was never some bit where it was like, uhh, bangin’ our head up against a wall, can’t come up with something. The first thought that everyone was comin’ up with is what you’re hearing.

"Recording is always a fun thing for us, because you know what’s coming at the end of it. You know you’re gonna get to play those songs for the people, live. You know you’re gonna get out there. So, you know how with [Bob Dylan’s] Blonde On Blonde you can hear the band’re havin’ a good time, they’re enjoying themselves, I think that [this] album sounds like one o’ those, to us. We sit around and listen to it and laugh our heads off about it.”

Part of the excitement of recording, for Catfish & The Bottlemen, is knowing that they’ll get to follow it up with touring. Where many musicians see touring as a grind, for this band it’s a joy. McCann remembers the early tours, as a teenager, “travellin’ to play maybe 20 minutes of music, for petrol money for the next gig”. And before he joined the band, Bond worked stacking shelves in a supermarket. So, no matter how big Catfish & The Bottlemen have gotten, they’ve managed to maintain perspective.

And they’ve gotten plenty big: The Ride debuted at #1 in the UK, and cracked the Australian top ten. Shows, in turn, have grown in size. This reflects that, unlike a self-effacing indie-rock outfit, Catfish & The Bottlemen are genuinely ambitious, openly harbouring biggest-band-in-the-world dreams.

“I don’t know why we’ve always been so ambitious, it’s just always felt natural to us,” McCann offers. “There’s always that feeling where, like, you’re going to America for the first time. And you’re lookin’ ’round, thinkin’: ‘Wait, we’re out here making music, and the reason that we got put on this plane was that song?’ The ambition comes from that. Like, you do something you’ve always dreamt of doing, and, then, there’s something else you see, like, there’s this arena across the road, and wouldn’t it be great to come back and do that? With what we’re doing, there’s so much to be ambitious about.”

Source: The Music | By Anthony Carew

[fleetofshippyships-archive]

Until It’s Old and Comfortable

Pairing: Harry/Ron Word Count: 1,259 Prompt: "Uhh, I think you missed a spot," [Harry or Ron] said, trying to see over his shoulder. (FLUFF, pretty pls <3)  Prompter: @beelsebutt Notes: I changed the prompt heaps, sorry!! But fluff!! There is fluff!! Lame fluff, but fluff!!

Read on AO3 or below

“I think you missed a spot.”

With a loud yelp, Harry spun around, and Ron had to lurch back suddenly to avoid being clobbered in the face by the trophy Harry was currently polishing. Even though it was Ron’s fault he was in detention, and even though he’d just startled him, Harry was glad to see him.

“Come to help?” he asked, tossing the rag at him.

Ron picked up another trophy from the shelf and shrugged one shoulder, looking a bit sheepish for startling him to badly.

Harry put the trophy he had been polishing back on the shelf, adjusting its position carefully, like he had been when Ron had startled him. “I suppose I should be mad about being made to polish these like a first year,” he said.

“I can’t believe she actually gave you detention for passing notes in class,” Ron snorted, sitting down heavily. “For a moment there she looked ready to just burn the note and pretend nothing had happened.”

Harry picked up another trophy and joined him on the floor. “I could see the moment she realised what she was reading.” Thinking about it made his cheeks burn. McGonagall was such a fixed figure in his life, not quite maternal, but not fully detached as a professor either, that to have her reading such a personal note in class was mortifying.

“Thank Merlin she didn’t read it out to the class,” Ron sniggered. “I imagine they’d have all lost it to hear about how you’d rather be sucking cock than sitting in class.”

Harry groaned and put down his rag and trophy to hide his face in his hands. “I can’t believe she read that.” He couldn’t really believe he’d written it down in class. A moment of absolute stupidity. “I can’t believe I outed myself to a professor in a bloody note in class.”

Ron laughed again, shifting to Harry’s side and bumping their shoulders together. “At least she doesn’t know whose cock you would have rather been sucking instead of being stuck in her class.”

Harry lowered his hands and fixed Ron with a glare. “She’s been marking our essays for nearly seven years, you idiot. She knows exactly who I was passing notes to even if she only saw me folding it.”

Even after so many years, it was still shocking to see how quickly Ron’s face could drain of colour.

“Bloody hell,” Ron muttered, putting down his rag and trophy too.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “I could have gone without McGonagall knowing I like sucking your cock. Or any cocks. I can’t believe I wrote that down! She’s going to think I’m some sex crazed lunatic.”

Ron shrugged awkwardly. “My fault, I know. Sorry.”

Harry shook his head. “When are you going to stop doing that, by the way? Surely you see the problem now?”

With a scoff, Ron slung an arm around his shoulder. “There was no problem with me sending you notes in class about how much I love you. You’re the one who started talking about cocks.”

Harry’s face grew hot all over again, and he rocked to the side to jostle Ron. “You know I do stupid things when I’m feeling awkward.”

Ron snorted and let go to move in front of him. Reaching out, he removed Harry’s glasses, then cupped his cheeks and rested their foreheads together.

“Only one thing for it then,” he said softly. “I’ll just have to keep telling you how much I love you until you stop feeling awkward about it.”

“Every class though? And between? Really?” Harry asked. “There is such a thing as too often.”

“Is there?” Ron asked. “Does it make you feel awkward because you don’t feel the same? Because you really should have told me that by now, Harry. Or not said it back the first time if you didn’t really mean it.”

Harry swallowed heavily. “I didn’t say that. I wouldn’t have said it back if I didn’t mean it.”

“Good,” Ron said, and Harry could hear the stupid grin in his voice. “I’ll keep saying it until it gets old and comfortable then. Can’t have you awkwardly blurting out how much you love my cock whenever I want to remind you I love you in public.”

“That’s the only time I’ve responded with that!” Harry grumbled, still mortified.

Ron chuckled. “That’s true. But eventually Hermione will think you’ve actually lost your mind with the stupid things you blurt out at breakfast to distract everyone when I whisper it in your ear.”

They were so close their lips were brushing as they talked. “Then stop saying it at breakfast if you’re worried about what Hermione—.”

His last word was lost as Ron finally kissed him. Slow and gentle, like he always did. Like he was afraid if he started too passionately he’d scare Harry off. Probably not unreasonable, considering that had happened more than once when they’d first started kissing.

The memory of those moments made Harry’s face burn with embarrassment as Ron pulled back and chuckled again. “Not a chance,” he laughed. “I love seeing that expression of hers turned on someone other than me.”

“Prat,” Harry muttered.

Ron just grinned, and then brushed his thumb over Harry’s cheek. “I also love how you look when I tell you I love you. I won’t stop unless it really makes you uncomfortable.”

Harry swallowed and leaned forward to kiss him again. One of Ron’s hands cupped the nape of his neck to pull him closer. But he couldn’t get any closer without clambering onto his lap, which was probably just what he wanted, so Harry stubbornly denied him.

Talk of love wouldn’t distract him from the fact it was Ron’s fault he had detention.

“Are you actually going to help, or just keep distracting me?” he asked as he pulled away. “Because I don’t doubt she’ll just hand out more detentions if it looks like I’ve done nothing.”

With a scoff, Ron pulled his wand out of the pocket of his robes and cast a charm Harry had never heard before. Within moments, every trophy and award in the room was gleaming.

“You prat!” Harry said, hitting his shoulder. “She’s going to know I used magic!”

“Don’t think she cares,” Ron said, stowing his wand away and leaning close again. “Detention was just for show.”

“How do you know?” Harry asked.

“Polishing trophies? Really? Half-arsed punishment, really,” Ron laughed, before leaning in to kiss him again.

“If you’re wrong about that—”

“Then I’ll help you with your next detention too,” Ron replied between short kisses. “Know why?”

Harry shook his head even though he knew the answer. Knowing it and hearing it were still different, which he supposed was why Ron insisted on saying it. And he did like hearing it, even if he went all hot and squirmy, and said stupid things to try and distract from how unable he was to say it so casually himself. Or the fact that some part of him still expected it to change, to disappear at any moment. That every time Ron said it, he could collapse from relief.

He didn’t really think it would ever get old and comfortable, or that he’d stop being such an embarrassment every time Ron said it around other people. Although he would certainly be more careful about what he wrote in notes during class from now on.

Ron’s lips brushed over his lightly as he whispered it, and Harry closed his eyes to hear it better.

“I love you.”

[extradan]

Hey I like your art a ton and I was wondering just how long you have been drawing and working to improve as an artist.

Oh my gosh haha thank you so much for liking my art!

I have been drawing for the longest time, I think ever since kindergarten, well at least the artistic dedication! 

I used to draw my when i was in middle school, starting from fourth grade i have been drawing more and more frequently until fifth grade in which I was drawing on a daily base, back then I would also be sitting and making animations on flash, which unfortunately I dont have backups of

but from middle school, up to high school 2012, my art never improved, it was just all the same all the time, I was back then on ritalin and I decided to start my first pony blog, while updating my blog, I couldnt consider yet Tumblr being part of the effective social websites that I go on as nobody was following me and I had no one to intreact with back, tumblr would be the thing i would check once every few days, it was nothing to me but a mere another google plus, until i was sponsored by catfood-mcfly back when he was running the Herpy Derpy blog, and thats where I got recognized and I was determined to continue my activity on tumblr as an ask blog, and I have gotten to become more interactive with people, being inspired by the many of the art I have been seeing from following other people, I would adopt and experiment with what I saw mostly shines through their art, and 2012 was the year I have made the biggest change in my art throughout the months, whitin 6-8 months I have improved by a ton!  tumblr was a very resourceful to the evolution of my art! and I also made so many friends and I have as well learned to become a better person! I am a better person of who I used to be in the past, and i am still improving! there are still a lot of things I need to work about myself as a person!

Also stepping out of drawing in flash and starting doing my stuff in sai was revolutionary to my art, flash back then wasnt recognized fully as an animators program by macromedia and neither by adobe, as they saw it an all purpose program for making goptimized ames and ads, only until all browsers and webpages grew out of flash and flash officially was blocked by all browsers since you could have implanted malicious codes into flash files, only then flash recognized as an art and animation tool for creators.

So moving to sai allowed me to build sketches and bodies easily and paint and yadda yadda and it was all great and helped boosting my art upwards

Flash limited my improvement as I wasnt drawing sketches on flash since you couldnt just lower the opacity of the layer you drew the sketch on, you would have to go through several actions to achieve that, but you would be lowering the opacity of your selected drawing and not the layer, I couldnt also paint on flash and flash ever since the stone age had those horrible vector tools that SUCKED DICK unless you do stretching and smoothing and fixing, in my opinion at least, they did improve the vector system a bit BUT IT STILL SUCKS, i prefer bitmap brushes more, which why I prefer Toon Boom harmony as a program for animators.

If you have been back in the days, you could have watched me go through a several phases! like drawing like atryl, raikissu’s shading and coloring styles, florecentmoo’s shading techniques and eye pupil style, and I uhh.. dont remember the rest, but theres have been a lot of artists out there whom I adopted artistic traits like:

theflyingtacoz, kittentoots(drunk fluttershy), w300, Santi, belaboy, dr idiot, inzergue (big impact on my current style), David (the guy who now works on mighty magiswords along with kyle), fungasm, colorlesscupcake (known as caek now), ahappypichu (a pretty powerful current impact on how i paint my art today), uhh, also “pinkie in private” which, to this day, drawing the way the draw the cheek for their characters, and some other artists I that I couldnt come up in my mind but I did adapt a trait or two from.

My current big inspirations are artists who work on OK KO and as fake as it might sound, my own fiance! yes!! they have been an inspiration for me for quite a while even back at 2012, but to how I viewed it, I never really dared to adopt anything from them because I was so out of their league, and my art was still shaping and i already had ideas that I wouldnt think would work if i mixed some of their’s, but now that my art have been developed and has a solid state of how it looks, they inspire me so much!!

Drawing ponies was probably the best practice I have ever had that thanks to that I have pushed so far in the art that I do, ponies are so simplified!! and easy to draw! it allowed me to produce more and that means that it allowed me to experience differently with each time! 

It helped me improve with a lot of stuff like gesture, facial and painting and other other minor stuff! drawing ponies was such a booster seat for me!

But unfortunately, from drawing ponies alot you wont learn how to draw humans, which understanding muscle, action line, figure and bones is so crucial for drawing, anything really! understanding how the body works is extremely fundamental and its there for you to know how to manipulate the drawings your making, of any specie, its not there to just teach you how to draw the anatomy of the human body, that will only serve as a plus.

I have learned a lot from ponies but how bodies work and draw clothes lmafo, to this day I cant draw clothes for days

in 2014 I ordered a really good book and I have polished my anatomy and human drawing skills, I yet dont know some stuff because i stopped practicing because of varios reason like relationship, access and physical health.

In the begging of the year I acquired a cintiq and it been nothing but dreadful to me, but im using it because i spent.. so much money on it.. and i have been so concerned about bringing it to my home country as well.. but it has the adventage of a screen so... 

its just, I dont have a low enough desktop or high enough chair to draw on it, its always above my shoulder no matter the angle and it puts so much weight on my shoulders, the thing is heavy too so its not something you could lean on your legs while you draw, neither it is portable, it made work much more harder and difficult and I wasnt drawing as frequesnt because my time wasnt so so enjoyable, my 2015 as well become a dreadful year to me and I was feeling guilty and shitty everyday, and it was my fault because it was all my doing and i let myself feel that way, and I had barely the stamina to work on my art ever over the year, I also lost my passion and motivation to draw and basically it dragged also to 2016, I drew a few commissions but I didnt produce much art neither, then I flew over the united states and I didnt have acess to drawing for 4 months as i was away from my equipment, my fiance had the equipment, but that means that I would have to use their computer for all the dedicated hours I use to work on my art and they would have nothing but a mere phone to entertain themselves, also our time togehter was really precious and every minute counted, so we rathered having fun other than doing work work work

2017 came and I still had the sense of drawing lost in me, I would draw whenever i would have a piece of paper available to me since I find fun in that, since im comfortable and cozy and i dont have to concentrate the entirety of my body weight on my hand and arm as i draw, but I would never draw on the cintiq unless its a miracle or if had a crazy comic idea in mind that i had and MUST HAD executed, i almost didnt draw anything in 2017, and neither in this year but the ok ko drawing i have recently created, but I found a new comfortable focus and its doing 3d, I am using my mouse to do everything and i dont have to feel my horrible chair scraping againt my butt like sandpaper, and I dont to feel like my shoulders are about to give up, I did try Tam’s 13hd and it was so much more comfortable and nice to draw on as i could put it on the bed or on my legs, but I cant afford another expensive piece of equipment, especially not in this generation of technology, wacom fucking sucks but no other brand is willing to be their competitive because tablet is not the purchase the average person would make.

Another reason why I have been so held on drawing and using the cintiq, which was probably the most major thing was it’s total, hot flaming shitty garbage diarrhea poopy stank abysmal horrible disgusting nasty dumbass smelly drivers which made every chance i had to draw a miss because i would battle myself from 30 minutes to over a hour fixing my tablet to draw a single thing, and its been like that every time i would turn my cintiq on! the situation was severe and everytime i would find a solution, it would be later suppressed, it was so harsh that i had a few months in which nothing I would do would make the drivers function, i was basically tabletless, so many, and a lot of opportunities for me to create a piece of drawing was flushed in the toilet with the rest, and so it was a deeper burden on my passion, determination and motivation to draw.

But yeah, now im doing 3d and it feels like a fresh hobby to me since I felt that im not going anywhere in and with my art (even though I yet have to learn how to draw bodies better, let alone drawing limbs, feet and CLOTHES!!)

and now the future has yet to be revealed!

[darby-draws-archive]

I got a bunch of q's for them siblings, Lauren Mark and Nathan!! 5-7, 10, 12, 17, 19, 27, 30 and 31!

Thank you for asking so many questions for these good siblings!! And for being so patient! :,) I feel like I could’ve gotten more into specific scenarios with some of these but I didn’t quite know where to start or which question would have the better examples. But I’m sure you’ll enjoy anyway, I’ve definitely got enough info down for sure! Under the cut for obvious rambling reasons.

5. What traits does each person find endearing in the other?

Mark: Lauren’s ridiculously confident in herself and Nate’s always really passionate and excited about what he does.Lauren: Nathan tries to be friends with everybody and Mark has always had my back. Nathan: Mark’s just the right amount of sarcastic to be fun and he takes the band really seriously. Lauren’s secretly a big softie even when she pretends she’s cooler than everyone else.

6. Which traits does each person find annoying in the other?

Mark: They never shut up.Lauren: Oh my god, Mark thinks he knows everything and Nate never shuts up. He’s the bratty baby brother neither of us asked for. (laUREN!) (its true but they still love him)Nate: tHEY’RE BOSSY. And patronizing. And cynical.

7. How often do they see each other? How often do they talk to each other?

Nate and Mark see each other at least once a week, more if there’s lots of band practice or concerts to play or just wanna hang out! They see Lauren a handful of times throughout the year, at holidays and random visits.

Mark talks with Lauren more than Nathan does, kinda on a weekly basis, sometimes more, depends how busy they are or if they’ve got Exciting Gossip. Lauren and Nate probably talk like once after most full moons and a handful of other times,,, Nate wants to hear how the werewolf adventures go.

10. What would they get for each other as birthday gifts?

Mark’s mostly just gives money tbh, sometimes he’ll go halfsies on more expensive gifts but he doesn’t normally Think of the good gifts. He might take them out like to the record store and buy some things they pick out themselves. This is particularly good with Lauren, since it’s also his birthday and he has the excuse to get stuff he wants, too.

Lauren will usually find various music related things, shirts an posters of some bands they like, patches and pins for their Cool Jackets™. Nate likes comic books and movies, Mark would like biographies of musicians or maybe some video game, it varies but she could definitely find some things.

Nate tries to get Lauren makeup and sometimes it works out. He’d probably be better off with a gift card for it but he’s insistent that he knows “the hottest new eyeshadow thingy” and “the trendiest nail polish colors this season”. (he just Says these things, he doesn’t actually know anything) I think Nathan gets Mark a fun vidya game because he knows everyone else is getting him band related stuff,, unless he’s specifically asking for things.

12. Do either of them have any hobbies or interests which annoy the other?

Nottt particularly? I can’t really think of anything, if they don’t share the interest in something they just kinda leave it alone. Maybe if Lauren had to listen to tooo much of their band practice at once it would annoy her, just because her hearing is sensitive and they’re loud bois. She WANTS to enjoy it but what can u do. Mark kinda thinks they’re both way too into the horror genre but he doesn’t mind all that much.

OF COURSE this was different when they were younger and they often teased one another for certain interests,, but they grew out of that. (okay, mostly,, light teasing may still happen..) Most themes involved Lauren (or Nate’s) love for pop music and boybands or when Nate started experimenting with his guyliner. (and Lauren only teased him bc it was poorly drawn on…)

17. When one is feeling down, how does the other respond?

I kinda mentioned this one with the bros here the first time I reblogged these questions, but to add on Lauren:

On minor sad days, Lauren’s the type to give advice if she can or some kind of generic comforting thing and then kinda joke with her brothers. She kinda downplays her helping, kinda like “the solution’s simple, you just, do this. Is that reALLY all you wanted to talk to me about???” And if she can get either of them to laugh after they’ve been crying then it’s fair game for her to tease them for it.

If it’s a major sad thing, she tries to be The Strong One in those types of situations, even if it’s hard. She’ll listen if they wanna talk and cry, try to sound reassuring when telling them that it’ll be okay.

Mark’s better at comforting Lauren, they were definitely closer growing up so they kinda know exactly what would help. She doesn’t like feeling “weak” from showing emotions but she doesn’t mind crying in front of him and he’s alright at calming her down. But really Lauren usually just needs someone to rant to and maybe give a little advice, (she won’t outright ask for it but she leaves looong pauses for you to suggest something..) Mark knows and can easily handle that.

Nate isn’t used to seeing a sad Lauren and wouldn’t quite know how to react. Can you…. Tease her for this??? Is that allowed? What would Mark do.. But really, he just tries to be his normal happy self to cheer her up! Tell a funny story or joke.

19. Has one ever had to stop the other from making a very foolish decision? And did the other listen to them?

APsolutely. Mark is Lauren’s impulse control and Nate’s bossy older brother. Mark does stupid shit too but I don’t think any of them really stop him. Though, Mark would actually listen to Lauren on occasion. They both wouldn’t really listen to Nate even if he did try to stop them?? They don’t trust his judgement any more than they do their own. Nate might listen to them about half the time maybe? Still very foolish…

Lauren might try to stop Nathan more, Mark’s old enough to do his own thing. Plus, she finds it funnier if Mark fucks something up somehow, with Nate it’s mostly just sad.

Mark used to try and stop Lauren from doing stupid shit a lot in their teen years, but now he stops Nate from doing stupid stuff more often just by proximity and how much they see each other in comparison. Nate is bound to do something foolish at some point. He normally doesn’t find out Lauren’s doing something foolish until after the fact, now.

27. How far would each go to protect the other?

Oh they’re very protective, Mark used to get involved with Lauren’s fights a lot in high school. (She was always gettin into trouble.) I don’t think Nate really gets into situations like that, but in general he’s protective of him, yeah. (and that extends to Izzy, too.. I know this is about the sibs but this is definitely a situation where he treats her like family. He’s just ! A protective older brother all around, for everyone.)

Lauren,, being a werewolf and undoubtedly the strongest of them all now,,,, could do some damage if she needed to and she wouldn’t hesitate if it was to protect her siblings.

Nate’s a lotta bark and no bite, to be honest, so he wouldn’t get in as many fights like they would. But, he’s passionate and wants to protec them too if he can!

30. How far would each person follow the other? Would they trust them enough to commit crime because the other asked them to?

Uhh, pretty far, especially the twins. They have a lot of trust for each other and yeah I could see that involving a crime if it was completely necessary. At the very least, hiding a crime that the other one did..

Mark: We need to fuck someone’s shit up? I’ll fuck someone’s shit up.Lauren: Listen, I’m not saying that. All I’m saying is I know where to find some very sharp teeth and some very secluded woods.Nate: I draw the line at petty theft and arson.

Siiince Nate’s our lil crime boy in the runaway AU though, I’ll expand a lil more on that scenario since it’s more tangible? I think they’d both get involved immediately if he asked/said he was in some kind of trouble. Kind of a heat of the moment ofc I gotta help my lil bro out of a bad situation. But I don’t think he does that. I think he just disappears suddenly for a while and bc of that.. Well, they’d wanna do some detective work to figure out what happened to him,, but might not jump to help him as immediately when he does finally show back up again. They were incredibly worried for him and now that he’s back, they’re mad at him for making them so scared!! ‘You could’ve called a long time ago!’ >:(

Not to say they wouldn’t help him at all, he would just need to do a lot more explaining for either of them to get on board. That being said if the newly blonde and tattooed Nathan showed up at either of their houses with some equally disguised boyfriends then they wouldn’t hesitate to let them hide out n crash there.

31. If one wronged the other badly, would the other forgive them easily?

Mark forgives kinda easily? He’d be upset initially but eventually, he’d rather keep his relationships in tact than hold grudges.

Lauren IS Dramatic and WILL hold grudges, no doubt. Forgiveness might happen eventually, but it’s not easy.

Nate wants to forgive and for sure would try, normally he’d be the first to forgive! But he’s a lil more emotional and if we’re talking badly wronged,, bad feelings and memories would still pop up and he’s not as Over It as he pretends to be. Whatever happened still might hurt him, and he’d also bring previous arguments up even if they weren’t relevant as evidence of maYBE I shouldn’t forgive you this time!! They love their baby brother but they push him around sometimes, sometimes its ‘just teasing’ and sometimes it’s not, and I feel like if they did something that was seriously that bad, he’d start thinking about EVERYthing before telling himself, how much am I gonna put up with.

[janeykath318]

Broken Shackles 22

Graduation Spock craned her neck to see if she could spot Jim in the vast sea of young beings about to receive their diplomas. It was a very diverse group and she counted 12 non human species and various races within the human group and who knows how many hybrids. It was a large class of nearly 200 graduates and the ceremony would be long, Spock didn't mind. She liked seeing the process and the triumphant expressions on most of the graduates receiving their diplomas. Jim's Betazoid counselor, L'Ren, was seated beside them beaming with pride as she watched numerous current and former patients mark the beginning of their new journeys. Jim and his classmates were each clad in long grey robes fastened by sashes that indicated the wearer’s field of study by color. According to the program she received, Spock knew Jim's would be orange and royal blue stripes.

Jim had quite a large contingent of friends to see him successfully finish his college life--Besides Spock and her parents, Ambassador T’Pelek had insisted on attending even though this was not <i>her</i> Jim and Jim had not even met her yet. Spock felt illogically irritated at her elder alternate self's presence for some reason she refused to acknowledge. After all, Vulcan’s didn’t get jealous. That would be illogical. In addition to the ambassador, Captain Pike, Dr. McCoy, and Gaila had also journeyed to Betazed for the happy occasion. L'Ren was busy telling Amanda how much progress Jim had made since he'd first started coming to her and saying how much she would miss him. "The dear human is going to do marvelously in his field. He projects much determination and drive to help others." "Oh, Yes," Amanda agreed. "Jim has such a good heart. I'm so glad it wasn't completely hardened by all he went through." "Your kindness to him played a big part in that," said the Betazoid. "He always was very peaceful when he talked about Vulcan. I couldn't think of a better place for him to have started the healing process." She fell silent as the college president began to speak. The speeches went on for half an hour before the students began lining up to make their walk up to the stage. Spock recognized Jim about halfway through when his row had stood up and was heading up front.   "There's Jim!" Gaila whispered happily. "Do you see him, Leonard?" Dr. McCoy mumbled something in response that might have been a yes. Jim's light brown tresses could be seen poking out from under his cap as he inched toward the platform. He looked toward the crowd several times as if searching for them, but didn't appear to be able to pick them out in the crowd. And then they were calling his name and he was striding up to the stage and shaking hands with the dean. Loud cheers and applause erupted from the student section and Jim's support group in the audience. Vulcan's didn't clap for obvious reasons, but Spock outright smiled at Jim's triumphant pose and grin holding his diploma high up on the air. Strangely, (to Spock), he slapped the outstretched hands of the whole front row of students on the way back to his seat, which made Spock blush. "Is this a human custom that I am unaware of, Captain?" She inquired of Pike. "Yes, Spock," he replied genially, still smiling at Jim's exuberance. "It's a sign of camaraderie and celebration among humans, especially the young. It must look pretty raunchy to you, I'm guessing." "Somewhat," she admitted, smiling faintly. Her possessive nature didn't like Jim touching anybody else's hands, but that was impossible to require of a human. If they bonded though, he would probably learn to be less free with such gestures. When the ceremony had finally concluded with much joy and cheering, they worked their way through the throng to find Jim. His eyes lit up as he recognized his friends and soon had an armful of Gaila. "Jimmy, you clever man!!! You did it!! I'm so happy!!!" "Aww, thanks, Gaila," Jim said, flush of excitement on his face. "Wow! I wasn't expecting to have quite the reception committee. I thought the academy was elbows deep in finals." "Like we could ever miss this, Jim." Leonard put in, grabbing Jim in a bear hug. "Right," agreed Pike, looking extremely pleased. "No way were we going to stay home. Congratulations, Jim." He shook Jim's hand firmly. "Thanks, Chris," Jim replied. Finally, he turned to Spock. "Well, Spock, What did you think??" "It was most interesting. I've never seen such an enthusiastic--or diverse--group of graduates." "Yeah--we're a crazy bunch." Jim admitted, looking fondly at his celebrating classmates. "So glad you could be here." His blue eyes looked at her with a smile that was very different than the one he'd bestowed on the others, clearly showing his affections towards her and making her wish he read her thoughts. Spock missed the knowing look exchanged between Sarek and Amanda as they observed the eye contact between Jim and their daughter. Then Jim greeted her parents. "Hello, Sarek, Amanda, I'm honored that you came. Hope the trip was pleasant." "It was, James," Sarek told him. "This is a most well-organized and efficient ceremony." "Yeah," Jim said, "they have to be with so many students. Otherwise, we'd be here all day." "James Tiberius Kirk." At the sound of the old Vulcan's declaration, Jim eyed the unknown guest curiously. "Uhh, yeah that's me. I don't think I know who you are, though, sorry." "I apologize,” the stately woman said. “I am Ambassador T’Pelek. I heard you resided on Vulcan for a time, but my diplomatic duties prevented me from visiting." "Okay? I didn't think the Vulcan Elders were that curious about me." Jim looked very puzzled and wary, though he tried to maintain a polite attitude. "It's a long, complicated story, Jim," Pike put in. "But she does have a genuine interest in your well-being." "Let's get the happy group pictures over with so we can get on with the catching up," Jim declared, adjusting his cap. "Vulcans don't just show up at a stranger's graduation without there being some deep reason." He eyed T’Pelek suspiciously. Spock sighed and hoped Jim would actually believe it. The truth was, in this case, stranger than fiction. Two weeks later Jim had departed from Betazed for good with much joy and some regret. He'd said a fond farewell to Tom and Ella and Blev and L'Ren and headed back to Vulcan for the week before Spock's graduation. His hopes (and nerves) were high that she'd say yes when he proposed, because he longed to be able to start life with her. His brain was still reeling from the knowledge of the existence of a Spock from another universe--a universe where Jim had had a dad and ended up a Starship captain. He felt weird around Old Spock, knowing that she'd seen a much better, more whole Kirk in his time, but young Spock had sat very close to him and went so far as to wrap an arm around him in a slightly possessive attitude that tickled him and confirmed that she didn't see him as inferior. Before he'd left Vulcan after a delightful visit, he'd made a drastic step--getting a haircut. Much as he'd liked his long locks, he wouldn't be able to keep them once he'd joined the IBI. In addition, he didn't feel like he had to hide anymore. Once the hair was gone, he'd felt oddly light and looked much younger. Hmmm. Not bad if he said so himself. The Starfleet graduation was slick and official and a sea of red uniformed cadets, soon to be chasing the stars. Jim had donned a dress shirt and tie for the occasion and now very much wondered how long it would take Spock to recognize him. Bones himself did a double take when he saw Jim. "Whoa! Is that you, Jim?" He said squinting and looking hard at his friend. "Sure is, Bones. What do you think of my new look?" "Very sharp. You look less like a hobo and more like a young business professional. I think Spock will really go for it." He winked at Jim, looking very polished himself in the dress greys. Jim colored a bit, feeling the small box in his pocket. "I hope so, Bones," he said, pulling the box out and briefly displaying its contents. Bones's smile grew large and he clapped Jim on the back. "Wow, kid, I sure hope she says yes." "So do I, Bones, so do I." He gulped nervously. His pride for Spock grew as he watched her throughout the ceremony. She'd made history as the first Vulcan to graduate the academy--and she'd done it a year early too.

[kaikamahine]

hiii, oh gosh, for once online when you reblog one of these

SALV MY DARLING THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE. You are always welcome to leave me prompts even if we’re not online simultaneously!!

Also, did anyone ask for a witch!AU? Because here u go.

*

5: Nail polish, silver rings, boots made for jumping in puddles

When Peridot was younger, and hadn’t yet learned that her perfect, reasonable, logical, brilliant mother could be wrong, they had a square patch of dirt between their front porch and the fence where their neighbors – with their identical patches – all grew scrappy blue fescue and tried to squeeze in Fisher Price playsets.

“What are we going to do with it?” she asks, clinging to the arm of her mother’s chair and holding very still, both wanting attention and terrified of it, too.

Slowly, her mother pulls her head up. Everything she does is deliberate, precise, no movement wasted. “We’ll make it a weapon,” she decides.

And that’s how Peridot grows up with a garden.

(”Dude, how is a garden a weapon?” Amethyst goes.

“Ugh! Against the bourgeoise, Ames, don’t you know anything? Refusing to have a lawn and commit to the expense of its noisy, unproductive upkeep fights the capitalist agenda!”

“Wow, I didn’t know tomatoes were that powerful,” Steven says. “That adds a whole new meaning to the word ‘superfood’!”)

*

Monitoring the garden’s growth became Peridot’s job, year after year. She snipped buds, staked tomatoes when they got leggy, collected seeds into folding sachets to restart next spring, canvassed the neighborhood after heavy rain to collect earthworms to smash up in the compost, smeared the fence with rancid garlic and chilies to keep the rabbits and raccoons and opportunistic teenagers out.

“Are you a greenwitch?” the neighbor’s girl asks her, peering through the chainlink gate. She’s got a bicycle helmet with flames painted on the sides and two Power Rangers band-aids protecting a scrape on her elbow, and Peridot is painfully jealous of how cool both those things are.

She sits back on her heels. “No, I just work hard,” she says, and then, because it’s that time of year when everything happens at once, “Hey, does your mom want any zucchini?”

*

Her mother gets news from Blue’s coven the week of Peridot’s fourteenth birthday, two months into the new school year. She uproots them and moves them north that same week, a heaving disruption in Peridot’s life like it’s rolling over and sloughing its skin.

“But - “ she tries, and her mother’s knuckles whiten over a rune, eyes coming up to cut at Peridot in that familiar way; why can’t I whittle you to a convenient size.

She says, “Do you have something to say?”

“No, ma’am,” Peridot ducks.

She doesn’t know anything about the north. She doesn’t even own winter gear - just her worm-hunting galoshes, with the ladybugs on them. And her mother won’t let her take those.

There’s no room in the car for sentimentality, so don’t waste our time. Only take what can’t be repurchased.

The spellbooks go into boxes, the rowan rings into bins with the maps the other covens lent them, and the warded topaz bottles get wrapped in cheesecloth to keep their contents calm during the car ride. Her mother hires Jasper to pack the car; she’s the starting quarterback whose trophies are behind glass in the hall where Peridot has - had - her locker. She’s more Arizona-colored than Peridot imagines the entire state of Arizona to be, and whenever her mother has to touch her, she immediately wipes her fingers on the pleats of her pants after.

“I hate it when witches bury themselves in someone else’s grave,” is all she says, inspecting her fingertips like she expects them to still be slimy, like Jasper’s gone-off, rotten all the way through. “Such a waste.”

The night before they leave, Peridot sneaks out the front door.

She starts with a pair of pruners, but those aren’t fast enough, so she resorts to her bare hands; the beans come up first, then the peppers, and the tomatoes as tall as their house, the sunflowers as big as satellite dishes shedding seeds for the birds. It’s the end of September, and Peridot had been looking forward to the weeks of canning ahead of her, pickling everything that could conceivably be pickled and adding them to the neat rows of salsa she made the month before.

When she’s done, the cement is littered with clumps of soil, naked roots, stems jackknifed out of their plots, and she breathes hard, looks at her hands, thinks: gravedirt, and, more accurately: grief.

In the morning, her mother walks over the carnage and doesn’t once look up from her phone.

*

(“LEAVE ME ALONE,” she shouts through the door, then scrabbles across the tile and pulls the shower curtain closed. “GO. AWAY.”

A hasty discussion happens in the hallway.

“- and that makes her just like us,” Steven’s voice comes out the loudest. “Come on!”

More muttering, and then Steven’s back, politely rapping his knuckles on the bathroom door.

“Okay, Peridot, you can stay there,” he calls. “There’s towels in the cabinet over the toilet. They’re pretty fluffy to sleep on, it’ll be fun! Oh! And can you water the plant, maybe?”

“The plant?” Peridot blinks, and looks around, and blinks again.

A pot sits on a ledge over the sink, sprouting tendrils in every direction that trail green, arrowhead leaves half-way to the floor. Curious, Peridot crawls over to inspect it, keeping her one remaining boot tucked possessively under her arm.

“What’s its function?” she asks, caught despite her best efforts.

“Uhh, I don’t … know?” Steven tries. “We don’t use it for spells, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Peridot’s brows come down. “Then what’s the point?”

A pause.

“There doesn’t have to be a point, Peridot,” Steven tells her, treading very carefully. “It just likes it in there. The low light and the humidity from the shower are good for it, and in return, it recycles our air. That’s a function, I guess.”

“You need to be more productive than just recycling air.”

“I don’t know, I’m pretty good at it,” and then Steven laughs, and Peridot touches a fingertip to one soft, green leaf. Her stomach knots itself up so complicated it probably deserves a boy scout badge: homesickness, earned.)

*

(”You know what this means, right!” Steven flings himself bodily down on top of her, somehow managing to squeeze her in a hug despite her greatest attempts to dead weight him into letting her go. “You’re one of us! You’re a Crystal Gem now!”

“Whether you like it or not,” Garnet adds, and her smile somehow even manages to reach her third eye, faintly illuminated over the skin between her eyebrows.)

*

(Amethyst props her hands on her hips. Hanging from her neck, the deep-cut pendant from which she got her name still glows from use, nestled against her breastbone.

”Okay, what’s really wrong with it?” she demands.

“I can’t do it,” Peridot says flatly.

Steven and Amethyst exchange a look. Peridot can feel it, the nonverbal discussion happening. She hunches her shoulders.

Her feet are sandy from the boardwalk, the toes bright green. Amethyst and Pearl had been painting their nails while waiting for the witch hazel to steep, and Peridot wanted in - she’d never done it before, since the fumes always gave her mother a headache. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. With runny eyes, she scrunches up her toes and starts dragging them on the cement, trying to get the paint to chip.

“You can’t - “

“Do magic,” Peridot snaps. “I can’t. I’m not a witch at all. Not in any way that matters.”)

*

She can’t do charms and wards like Steven, or transfiguration like Amethyst, and she definitely can’t do that elite-class elemental spellwork Lapis fires off without giving a shit. She’s not a (renegade) white-witch like Pearl, or a battle-witch like Garnet. She can’t even do necromancy like Jasper, and any idiot with half a brain can do necromancy - Jasper went and swore an oath to some coven leader Peridot never met, then never bothered to sever that bond when she went and got her throat cut. Honestly, and you wonder why the Diamond covens want to control all magic.

*

She’s seventeen, living in the north. She sleeps under the window in the barn, and it’s the best place she has ever lived. 

There aren’t any herbs drying from racks suspended from the ceiling (honestly, she’d like to see you try to avoid banging your head into those when you’re returning several day’s worth of dishes to the kitchen at three in the morning) and no jars of fermenting spells on the shelves, no crystals recharging and no chalk lines to worry about accidentally scuffing and ruining when making that aforementioned shame-trip to the kitchen. The plastic bins aren’t full of rotten ingredients or misbehaving charms winding down their half-life, but perfectly reasonable things, like wrenches, toilet bowl cleaner, and Lapis’s twelve different pairs of the same black jeans. (Although not in the same bin.)

It’s not like anywhere Peridot’s ever been before.

It’s wonderful.

“You’re not a very witchy witch,” she says to Lapis.

Lapis lifts one cobalt-blue headphone off her ear, and from where she’s standing Peridot can hear the tinny feedback. She can’t make out the melody, but she’ll bet three dollars and half a donut that it’s Hybrid Theory. Theoretically, there’s a limit on how many times a person can listen to “Crawling,” but Peridot feels that if she pointed that out, Lapis would just take it as a challenge. She’s twice Peridot’s age and walks around with a near-permanent expression that says I have seen some shit, just try me.

“If I got a familiar,” Lapis says dryly. “Would that make you feel better?”

Peridot perks up.

*

She teaches herself how to play the recorder by watching YouTube, and the look on Amethyst’s face the first time she demonstrates convinces her she probably should have tried the harmonica instead. The look on Steven’s face tells her she probably shouldn’t have used his roaming data to do it.

“Here,” he says sympathetically, and plants his ukelele in her lap. “Do you think you can name the notes if we play a scale?”

“Of course I can,” Peridot responds haughtily, and touches her fingertips to the spellwork etched into the wood.

(Everything Steven owns comes steeped in generations’ worth of magic and love, all patiently waiting for Steven to grow into them.)

(She wonders if this is what having a family is like: a place you go where the love is already in your size, just waiting for you to pick it up and put it on: I am a person Steven loves. She wonders if they know she has it waiting for them, too, whenever they want to wear it: I am a person Peridot loves.)

She keeps herself busy - with music, with the barn, with the unusual breathless hitch in her chest at the way the heavy silver of Lapis’s thumb ring looks against her dark skin, with coming up with solutions to things that aren’t really problems. Steven and his dad take her to the mall to get her a phone, which turns out to be like her mother’s scry stone but with faster Internet connection. The common misconception about magic is that it’s somehow cheating, the lazy way out, but Peridot grew up in a witch’s house and knows exactly how much hard work it takes.

Furtively, she takes cuttings from Steven’s bathroom plant, and then from a monstrous leathery green thing in the laundromat, and an aloe plant sitting in a grocery store display with sunscreen and Solarcaine, and before long has several small pots lining the windowsill as the cuttings take root. The sight of them makes her feel better instantly.

“I still don’t feel like I’m doing anything productive,” she tells Amethyst, who’s got her tongue stuck between her teeth in concentration, picking at the stenciling of the tiny spaceships she’s painting on Peridot’s nails.

Amethyst snorts derisively. “You’re living, P-dot. Life is here to be consumed.”

“Easy for you to say,” Peridot fires back. “I saw you put mayo on your cereal the other day!”

“Exactly! And if I wasn’t here to do that, who would have done it? If you weren’t here, who would tell me everything there is to know about Camp Pining Hearts?”

Peridot swells up. “OKAY BUT - “

*

Here’s the thing about magic.

No wait.

*

Here’s the thing about love:

It comes up like a garden grown out of heartstrings and ribs, and you can spend so much time cultivating it, caring for it, but you’ll never really know if you’ll suddenly have to uproot it, or if you can trust its care to anyone else because so many people come in with good intentions but black thumbs.

But to try -

It’s so brave, just trying; the hope that you’ll get sunflowers as big as satellites turning their faces to the sun, and you’ll have enough love left over that you’ll have to go door to door just to share it all. Peridot grew up in a house with no room for waste. She never knew she had this capacity.

Her mother was wrong.

The earth was never a weapon.

*

Silence lands on them with deafening force.

Steven’s jaw hangs open, and Lapis’s eyes make shocked smears of blue in her face. Peridot trembles.

Amethyst recovers first, her voice revving up, “Perrrrrrr-i-doooooooooot!”

She whoops and pumps the air with her fist.

“LOOK! Look at what you did!”

Peridot tilts her phone towards her, disbelieving.

Spell charged, the screen reads. Would you like to share on Facebook? A minute vibration travels through the phone case into Peridot’s hand. 

Magic, she thinks. My magic.

“I did it,” she says softly, in wonder. Then, louder, “I did it! Wait, what did I do?”

“I think,” and that’s Garnet, materializing behind them in that premonitory way she has. She’s smiling. “You made something entirely new.”

*

[buckykingofmemes]

ice cream man answers

(you guys sent in so many asks im posting all my answers to the ones you asked at once, so i dont take up your whole dashboard.)

chocolate marshmallow: favorite brands of candy? not sure about brands, but i tried pop rocks and they changed everything i knew about reality and what food is

peach: how do you relax? sometimes i fight nazis. thats a nice way to vent steam. petting dogs or cats or birds or literally any other animal is a winner every time. making food is a good because its constructive and at the end i get food. sometimes steve and i go running. but not early in the morning because mornings are terrible.

coffee: favorite cosmetic brands? i dont wear much makeup but pepper breaks out some sephora stuff when we have to go on tv? i like OPI nail polish.

birthday cake: favorite books? i recently read and loved the harry potter books. im a hufflepuff, just so you know.  (Mod Hell loves the Dresden Files, pretty much everything by David Webber or Robin McKinley or Tamora Pierce)

french vanilla: how old are you? buddy, i dont fuckin know anymore. a little under 100, by the books, but how the heck am i supposed to count the cryofreze?

(Mod Hell: I regularly forget my own age, but I’m pretty sure I’m 24)

fudge: turn offs? nazis. really not into nazis. 

chocolate: when was your first kiss? i was…7, probably. grade school sometime. me and stevie saved this girl mary from a real jerk of a bully and she kissed both of us, one right after the other. sent stevie straight into an asthma attack, poor kid. but she was both of our first kisses.

neapolitan: things that stress you out? public speaking. steve inside any aircraft. trains. not having any weaponry. bad hair days.

bubblegum: books or movies? totally depends om my mood. movies, maybe, because they can be more of a group activity, but dont require a ton of social interaction.and the novelty of being able to watch films in your own home hasnt quite worn off.  but i do like to read a lot.

toasted coconut: the beach or the pool? my beach experiences involve either a lot of 1. storming +fighting nazis or 2. sand in my cool robot arm,  which is not fun. so pools. even though im not buoyant enough to float anymore so i wear swim fins on my left arm.

mint chocolate chip: indoors or outdoors? outdoors, when the weather is right.

moose tracks: favorites for manga? orange sherbet: favorites for anime? i read fullmetal alchemist.and then watched the anime. all of it. it was really good, although i feel like clint only showed it to me because of the robot arm thing. its the only manga or anime ive experienced so far, but i really liked it!

blueberry lemon: favorite blogs? i love @iguanamouth‘s crazy animals, and i follow a couple knitting blogs, as well as @dailybadjokes, just so i have some really terrible puns to use when nat breaks out her dad jokes.

superman: do you like sweaters? do i like sweaters. friend, i live in sweaters. i haveta knit em special though so they dont have a left sleeve because otherwise the plates in my arm catch on the knit.

blackberry: have you ever laughed so hard you cried? yes. the first time steve tried out the vibranium shield he missed the rebound and hit himself in the head with the flat side. he flew a good six feet through the air, knocked himself clean out. it was beautiful. i was crying. howard fell over, he was laughing so hard.

cherry: do you drink tea or coffee? yes. it is how i am alive. 

raspberry truffle: favorite kind of music? i have a hard time with this one because im still learning so much about modern music. me and thor like listening to heavy metal, and i like tonys classic rock n’ roll, but im also really fond of the music of the 30s and 40s, the stuff i grew up with. 

praline: a popular book you haven’t read yet? i havent gotten to game of thrones yet. people keep telling me such and such a character is gonna die, but im not sure how they can have that many dead characters and still have enough people for a book.

(Mod Hell has not, and never will, read Fifty Shades of Grey)

toffee: a card game that you’re good at? so far, all of them. but rummy is my game, friends. i will kick anyones ass at rummy.

(Mod Hell has an inexplicable affinity for Up the River/Down the River. And Irish Poker, if you wanna count that as a card game)

mango: when and why did you start your blog? my therapist recommended i write about things that were happening in my life, and mentioned that blogging was a good way to do so. i dont think this was quite what she had in mind, but here we all are, so... anyways, this blog was started on october 10th, 2016.

rocky road: favorite songs at the moment? can i count the entire discography of pink floyd? tony recently introduced me to them and they’re pretty great.

(Mod Hell has been enjoying Down Like Silver’s Wolves, because my taste in music is very very morbid)

butter pecan: favorite songs for life? this is a hard one. lately i have been enjoying fleurie’s ‘soldier’ because im a cliche sonovabitch 

strawberry: a language you wish you could speak?

dog. do dogs talk? not sure but if they do i want in.

butterscotch: what color are your nails right now? uhh... silver on the left, none on the right? except for my right pinkie, which is black because thor accidentally set his hammer down on my fingertip. so theres a blood blister there. gross. but they were red last week. me an nat had a nail night. 

(Mod Hell is rocking a matte black and gold french manicure. I’m getting good at those!)

mint: the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?one time me an the howlies were having a night on the town and i drunkenly forgot steve was huge and i tried to pick him up (i mean literally lift him. i wasnt hitting on steve) because i thought he was still tiny.  i failed. steve did not budge at all.  and in the process of trying to regain my balance i overcompensated and fell into the thames. which wouldnt have been so bad if all the howlies and the girls we were with hadnt been right there laughing at me. its probably not the most embarrassing thing ive ever done but its the first that comes to mind.

 (Mod Hell accidentally flashed a lifeguard once, so quickly I was never sure if he actually saw or not. Still super embarrassing.)

green tea: favorite flavors of ice cream? yes. all of them. now, please.

(Mod Hell:  chocolate chip: what’s your most popular post?  If you’re counting this blog, the “new years resolution: 1080p” post got picked up by a couple bigger blogs and is the frontrunner at 21,000+ notes. Original posts at hellenhighwater usually fade out at like 20 notes. So there’s a bit of a gap there.

Mod Hell: black raspberry: do you have any pets? Oh man yeah. I have two cats, Nimitz and Yamamoto. Nim is small and black and puffy and made primarily of homicidal urges. She is the Terror of the Underbrush; the Reaper and Eater of Souls. Yamamoto is 23 pounds of superbly useless cat. Her favorite activity is slowly petting the stair banister post with her paw. I also have a mated pair of domestic Violet Ringneck doves named Vexation and Vendetta who live in my bedroom, though I’ll be building them an outdoor coop to vacation to in the summer. Vex and Ven are the most wonderful idiots. They live life like it’s a spanish soap opera. Everything is very dramatic and seductive and not in a language I understand.)