#click and zoom boys the quality is bad again

[valfeathers]

no screentime, all of my heart

[sunnyoldbear]

Luca Headcanons Part 3!

I can’t fucking stop please someone help me

Luca:

All seamonsters have a lot of fish qualities and different sea monsters take on different fish qualities, even within a family.

While Luca isn’t as equipped to handle the deep as his uncle is, his father does have some traits that would help him out. Luca doesn’t know this, but he can survive deeper pressure than most others can. Like, significantly deeper, but not to the point of the Deep. He’s have to get accustomed to it and he might not have even survived.

His species can also echolocate! He also doesn’t know he can do this even though it’s from his mom’s side. He just thinks he clicks and squeaks when he’s happy, he doesn’t know he can also echolocate. Since, again, he hasn’t been to the Deep, the ability is very diluted and he can’t locate things very far but… he can, if he tries hard enough. He won’t, though, cause he just thinks his clicks and squeaks are just that.

He loses his shit when he finds out about dinosaurs. He loves them.

If you even mention a museum he will practically beg to go and he will be in there from opening to closing and still come back for more. He takes in every bit of information he possibly can

He doesn’t flip people off, he just sticks his tongue out

Cloud watches! He thinks it’s cute :)

Is cold blooded. They found this out when he passed out in the middle of class one day during the winter. Winter months are very hard for him at school because of it, so he treasures the break and stays under a bunch of warm blankets.

Talks with his hands a lot

One day when he was swimming to the surface after seeing his family, a fisherman who wasn’t too approving of sea monsters tossed their harpoon at him. It grazed his arm and it hurt like hell, but he still tried to hide it. Of course, since he was clutching his arm and there was blood between his fingers, the Marcovaldos panicked and healed him tot he best of their ability, but Luca simply smiled, turned to Alberto, and said “look, we match now!” (If you see Alberto standing beside Luca so that their scarred arms touch since they’re on opposite arms, no you didn’t)

He finds out about bubble wands and thinks they’re the coolest thing!

Avoids every kid named “Bruno” at school like the plague because he doesn’t want them to think he hates them

Whenever something cool happens he instinctively turns to tell Alberto and his face drops when he doesn’t see him

Definitely the kid to accidentally say “mom” (and)or “I love you” to a teacher and then stare in horror

Grabs Alberto’s arm, wrist, or hand when they’re doing something together if he’s not grabbed first just so they don’t lose each other. It’s just instinct.

Once sobbed for an hour because he saw a dead frog in a pool

Falls asleep if his hair is played with

Still gets made fun of for smelling like fish but due to being a fish he can’t really bathe so Giulia and her mom just spray him with perfume. It makes him feel better.

Forgives Guido and Ciccio with no hesitation, will never forgive Ercole. In fact, he’s terrified of Ercole.

Technically canon, but he is the biggest mama’s boy. She learns from her mistakes and fixes her relationship with him and he becomes super close to her

Only lets those close to him call him “Bubble” like his grandma does

Loses his mind when he sees fireflies

He keeps his hair pretty short

Refuses to eat fish

Is more of a prey fish

That being said, he develops a few survival markings, such as a spot on one of his fins to look like eyes

For some reason I feel like he’d be like clownfish and be able to swim through anemone without getting zapped

Was never good at making friends. The Branzino kid often tried to befriend him but he was too scared of disappointing his parents since Daniela and Mrs. Branzino don’t get along

Wears a seashell anklet

His grandma taught him to read secretly when he was little

Never stops talking. Never.

In class, he’s always the kid raising his hand, even if he doesn’t know the answers, just because of his eagerness

Calls Alberto all the time, more than he calls his family

Carries Alberto’s drawing with him everywhere. Used to be in his pockets and then transferred to his wallet.

Is definitely more of a writer than an artist! With his vivid imagination he can write for days, and Alberto is more than happy to draw them out for him

Lets his hair grow out a bit towards the end of his final school year. The stress of school means he doesn’t quite care for his appearance

Can’t sit still. When he’s at school he’s always fiddling with something but when he’s in Portorosso he just grabs Alberto’s hand and plays with his fingers

Definitely a teacher’s pet

Gets bullied a lot. You can’t expect the world to just be okay with sea monsters overnight. A lot of the world will never accept him. There are kids that make his life a living hell at school.

As much as he loves school, he aches to be free sometimes

Gets super flustered super fast

Sits at Alberto’s side and talks about anything and everything and Alberto will sketch it

His scales are more like a duck’s water-resistant feathers. Water rolls right off.

Loves taking Nerone for walks

Definitely wears skirts and dresses in secret! He just thinks they’re neat :)

Loves romance movies but will never admit it

Literally bites his tongue to hold back from rambling. Giulia and Alberto constantly have to tell him it’s okay and he can talk all he wants, but he’s bullied so often for talking too much that he still holds back if he catches himself

Alberto:

Similar to a Betta Fish! His kind of sea monster aren’t known for bonding well and tend to fight.

When healthy, his scales are long and gorgeous just like a Betta’s! (Giulia is mesmerized by them)

You know how dolphins get high with puffer fish? It’s not just dolphins.

His teeth are a little sharper than most other sea monsters. Yes, he bares them at Ercole every time they see each other. No, he won’t stop

Definitely the “he ask for no pickles” friend

No one knows what he’s talking about half the time except for Luca, Giulia, and (sometimes) Massimo. They just kinda go with it.

Has his own words for everything. Only Luca and Giulia know what he means.

He’s actually super, duper close to Giulia, but they do fight pretty often. They’re siblings.

Likes to put his hat on Luca

Everyone thinks he’d be a bad flirt/get flustered super easily but the opposite is true! He’s a big flirt! He just knows what to say to make others fluster around him! Even if he’s not into you, if your his age or he’s trying to charm you, he’ll flirt up a storm. Living on your own from such a young age means you need to pick up survival tactics, and charm and streetsmarts were the ones he picked up.

Sometimes he faces small boats he sees just for the fun of it

He also sometimes grabs a rope or a net from Massimo’s boat when they’re fishing and just zooms to land to get them there quicker

Loves playing games with the kids when he’s on lifeguard duty, even if it can get him in trouble with his boss

You better bet he makes fun of those school uniforms. He laughs his ass off. He thinks they’re the funniest things.

If he sees or hears even a hint of danger, he is shoving his loved ones behind him and will protect them with his life.

Prefers to be barefoot

Heals surprisingly fast. Something about them fish genes.

When he’s fifteen he jokingly tells Luca he should become a teacher and then Luca’s eyes get all big and excited and Alberto regrets opening his mouth. But he still supports him every step of the way.

Whenever he hears Luca click or chirp, he calls out for him if he’s a distance away or grabs his hand since he recognizes it as echolocation before Luca does

More of a predator fish

Keeps his hair long and growing

I think he’d probably grow a mustache. Giulia hates it so much which is why he keeps it. Okay, he kept it to annoy her, but then he actually started to like it. But when Luca said he liked it, that solidified it

He’s so strong it’s kinda scary. Definitely stronger than the average fisherman, but was stronger even beforehand.

Sometimes just eats fish live and terrifies those around him

He’s super fast! Since he’s based on a tuna or swordfish, he’s pretty quick

Unlike Luca, he’s warm blooded. So when he heard Luca has to keep really warm during winters, he offers most of his clothes

His father abandoning him may seem cruel, but for his kind of sea monsters, it was what had to happen. Still, Alberto is a child and it shouldn’t happen.

Mainly a night eater

Can see further than most of his fishy friends

Good night vision too!

Was taught to read and write as a kid by his father but it’s not perfect so he asks Massimo to do it

Loves playing cards

Fins are sharper than average

Squishes Luca’s cheeks

Sword fights with Giulia except they’re sticks

Whenever Luca falls asleep on him (often), he just stays still and refuses to move

Scoops Luca up sometimes

Grabs Luca’s face and blows raspberries instead of kissing it. (Can be interpreted as platonic or romantic!! Italians kiss on cheeks as greetings)

Protectively wraps his tail around those he loves

Water clings to him a bit more since his built-for-speed scales are less water repellent

Every year he gets scared Luca won’t return

Paints the Hideout to look like Luca’s dream fish-stars after he’s told about it. The ceiling, anyway. Don’t ask how he did it, no one knows.

Changes his last name to Marcovaldo

Thinks pet fish and aquariums are hilarious and will poke fun at the fish (“haha, losers! No freedom!” “Alberto!” “What?!”)

LOVES DINOSAURS

He and Luca share a bed when Luca comes over!

The Vespa poster hangs in his room on his door

Calls Luca’s nightlights “light fish” as a nod to stars

Has Giulia and Luca’s names tattooed onto him because they’re his best friends

Tried to take Caligola and Machiavelli on walks… yeah that goes as well as you think

Giulia:

Is a fast reader

Isn’t a massive poetry fan but does have a few favorites

Also keeps a few drawings from Alberto in her folders

Also scoops Luca up randomly

Can and will bite you

Wears dresses as much as she does shorts

Ties her hair up when serious

Rubs her nose against her family’s as a sign of love. It’s just something she did as a kid, so sometimes she’ll just rub her nose against Alberto’s and he gets really confused

Is low key a little jealous of her brother and best friend being sea monsters

Is a bit of a builder! She makes a bridge from her room to the treehouse

Rarely starts fights with Alberto, but she’ll sure finish them

Half regrets teaching Alberto to swear

Though she seems pretty calm, she’s gotten into her fair share of fights at school. Mainly punches kids who bully her and/or Luca. Also sexists.

Although this is 1950/60s Italy, I imagine she’d be very accepting of homosexuality and not hide it, even if rumors of her being one start spreading and she gets hurt. She has a strong sense of justice and she doesn’t care about consequences.

She’s the only person allowed to make fun of Alberto. No one else is. She’ll quite literally attack anyone who dares.

Her parents were surprised she didn’t take after them in fishing or painting

Honestly I can see her mentoring the kids for the race every summer! Once she hits 18 and is no longer able to compete, she holds practice sessions and loves seeing the kids have fun

She definitely runs the race when she’s older. She moves to Portorosso since her marine biology career is helped by her sea monster brother and the town’s closeness to water

Teaches the boys to make sandcastles

Holds such strong resentment for Alberto’s father and Daniela. Lorenzo and Luca’s grandmother she’s fine with, but Alberto’s biological father abandoning him pisses her off more than she can put into words, and Daniela manipulating her son and sending him away makes her want to break something.

Her “santa (cheese)!” comments slowly change into “Santa (fish)!” exclamations. Like, “Santa Goby!” for example. 

Is more close to Alberto than he wants to let people know. She can read him like a book. He’s honestly her best friend. She tells him everything, they go to each other after nightmares, they share everything, all the fun cute stuff that Alberto would rather die than admit.

Still has no idea what “Silenzio Bruno” and “Piacere, girolamo trombetta” mean and at this point she’s too afraid to ask

Though she loves the Portorosso kids, she’d rather die than be a mother. Her parents understand, but secretly hope she changes her mind so they can spoil a grandbaby. 

Begs Massimo to coverup his sea monster tattoo, which he does

Also a “he ask no pickles” friend!

Is super patient with Luca and Alberto’s adaption to the human world (though she doesn’t like it when Alberto shoves his feet on her-which he loves to do because it pisses her off)

Secretly saves money up for the boys to get a Vespa

While she isn’t the best cook, her pasta meals are pretty damn good! 

Has the trophy from the Cup in her room next to a picture of the three of them on the Vespa

[themadlostgirl]

Tech Wizard

*School is kicking my ass but I finally caught a break! Gonna pump out as many requests as my dumb brain can muster while I can!*

Prompt: Modern reader with modern tech amazes our Lost Boy. Also some cute fluffy flustered reader cause I couldn’t help myself.

Requested by: anon

Warnings: none

~~~

Being of the modern era on an island with absolutely no modern technology--let me rephrase--being on an island with no technology outside of rope pulleys and ladders is horrifying. I am a girl that is used to having things such as wi-fi and smartphones and electricity and indoor plumbing! Now I am on an island that doesn’t so much as have an outhouse!

But I can manage. I am fine. Because despite this place having no technology like cellphone towers or outlets electronics still work. Because time doesn’t move or whatever my phone battery never dies and I have full bars and service everywhere I go. It’s actually amazing.

It was me flashing my tech that kept me from getting locked in a cage my first night on Neverland. The Lost Boys were amazed and Peter Pan especially was intrigued by my technology. The first night on the island was spent with me sitting down with him showing him everything my smartphone could do.

“And if you tap this icon it’ll open the camera.” I pressed the camera button. “See?”

“Fascinating. The last time I saw a camera it was this huge contraption with this bright burst of light and a bulb. Yet you can take pictures just with this hunk of glass and metal?”

“Cool right?” I showed him how to zoom in and out. “Oh and if you swipe the screen like this it’ll open the front facing camera. That way you can take selfies.”

“Selfies?” Peter asked, confused.

“Yeah, they’re picture you take of yourself. Here, let me show you. Scoot in closer so you can see both our faces in the screen.” I pressed my cheek against his to get out faces to fit. “Say cheese!”

I took the picture and pulled it up in the gallery. “See? And this is the gallery where you can look at all the other pictures you’ve taken.”

“The quality is amazing. Who are these other people in the your gallery?” He asked as he scrolled through the other images.

“Oh, those are just old friends I lost contact with after I moved.” It was sad seeing all their faces again.

“And this one?” he clicked on a picture of me kissing my ex’s cheek. “You seem rather close with this particular friend.”

“Ex-boyfriend. Things didn’t end well.” I took the phone back. “I know I should have deleted the photos by now but I just haven’t gotten around to it.”

As if sensing that the subject was making me uncomfortable he asked what other features my phone had. I was glad for the distraction and brought up my music app. “It’s basically like having a music box with hundreds of thousands of songs at your fingertips. Here’s a good one.”

I clicked on Man with the Hex. Maybe I should have started with something softer but honestly since stepping onto this island it was all I could think of. Well that and Somewhere In Neverland. I wonder how he would react if I told him about the songs and movies Peter had inadvertently inspired.

“What other music do you have?” Peter asked.

“Tons. I basically got a little bit of everything. There are some songs inspired by the fictional you that I told you about. Did you want to hear one?”

“Songs? What else has this fictional counterpart of mine inspired?”

“A stage play, tv shows, a couple of movies. The animated one is a classic and hilarious but the 2003 live action film is just so wholesome and innocent.”

“Did you refer to me as wholesome and innocent?”

“Well, your fictional counterpart is a kid not a teenager. I’d say he’s at max maybe twelve or thirteen years old when they show him in films.”

“I see...”

“If I can get my hands on a projector we could set up a movie night and I could show you guys one of the movies. I think everyone would get a kick out of it.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“I can’t wait.” Peter and I sat there all night as I played him different songs and we played app games. I started to fall asleep but he still wanted to play with my phone so I handed it over for him to use while I caught a couple hours of shut eye.

I woke up a couple hours later to soft music playing near my ear. The surface I was sleeping on was also a lot softer than I remember falling asleep on. I peeked my eyes open and noticed that at some point I had slumped over and fallen asleep on Peter’s lap.

“Hey, sorry for falling asleep on you.” I yawned. “Still having fun?”

“Yes. It is a fascinating piece of technology.”

“I know.” I realized what song he was playing and smiled. “I see you found my Disney playlist.”

“Disney?”

“Movie company. They’re the people that made that animated feature I told you about.” I sat up, “I don’t have any movies saved on my phone but I can pull it up on YouTube. Give me a second.” I took the phone back and looked up the song he had been listening to.

Cause of course it had to be Kiss the Girl. I wonder how Peter would react to seeing a movie that portrayed mermaids as nice instead of the vicious killers Neverland has.

I started the video and watched him as he watched the video. It was like watching a little kid. He was so impressed by things I thought were so commonplace. “And this was all hand drawn?”

“Yep. Cool, right?”

“Very.”

Our eyes met and my heart leapt into my throat. He was a lot closer than I thought. I could practically feel his breath on my face.

Yes, you want her Look at her, you know you do Possible she want you too, there is one way to ask her It don't take a word, not a single word Go on and kiss the girl

Why couldn’t I have played Poor Unfortunate Souls or Circle of Life? Why did I have to put on this song? It was giving me ideas I don’t think I should be having.

Look like the boy too shy He ain't gonna kiss the girl Sha-la-la-la-la-la, ain't that sad? Ain't it a shame? Too bad He gonna miss the girl

It was only made all the worse by the fact that he wouldn’t stop staring at me now.

Now's your moment Floating in a blue lagoon Boy, you better do it soon, no time will be better She don't say a word and she won't say a word Until you kiss the girl

He looked at me with a smirk. “Is it true?”

“Hm?” I didn’t trust myself to speak at that moment.

“Are you not gonna say a word until I kiss you?” His grin grew wider and my panic grew deeper.

“No. No, I can talk.” I stammered out. “I was just--you know what? I never showed you how to record videos on this. Check this out.” I quickly closed the app and opened the camera again. “See, we click this button and when he tap the center button now it’ll record.”

“It records anything?” He asked with that same mischievous smile of his.

“Yeah. Sure does.”

“That could come in very handy. Let me see.” He took the phone and aimed it at us to record. “There is something that I’d like to hold onto.”

“What’s that?”

“Your flustered face.” He pecked my cheek and my mouth dropped open.

“Peter!”

“And now I have that face forever!” he laughed as he played the video back. “You are going to have to bring more of this stuff over, my little technology wizard. I want to have much more fun with these devices.”

“Yeah. Sure.” I nodded furiously. “I’ll be sure to get right on that. There are tons of movies and video games I think you guys would really like. I could also bring over some flashlights. They’re like torches but they won’t set stuff on fire. Who knows, I might even bring over a karaoke machine. I think that would be really funny to witness.”

“Whatever you say.” Peter lounged back. “Now explain to me what a karaoke machine is.”

[authenticcadence18]

Butterfly pt. 1

Here’s the pre-Battle For Mewni canon-divergent Starco fic I wrote in 2017!!!

Have a note from my younger self to give context to the story:

“I'm not quite sure what events lead up to this or what happens afterward...this story is just a piece of what I imagine could happen during Toffee's eventual attack on Mewni. This scene takes place on Mewni, and Marco obviously used his dimensional scissors to get there.....duh 😜.”

(Also I wrote this four years ago, when my writing style wasn’t nearly as developed/polished as it is now. I could spend hours editing it, but I‘d feel kinda bad doing that to my younger self😂.)

...

AO3

...

"STAR!!!!!!!!!"

Marco struggled relentlessly against the green chains of energy that prohibited him from moving, but there was nothing he could do but watch, horrified, as Toffee drained the life out of his best friend

"STOP!!!! YOU'RE HURTING HER!!!!!"

Piercing green magic gushed from the severed crystal imbedded in the villain's hand and swirled furiously around Star, whose electric blue eyes were growing dimmer by the second. The princess lunged at Toffee, wand-in-hand, in one final attempt to subdue him, but his magical assault had weakened her body beyond repair. With a shrill moan, Star collapsed to the ground and lay motionless, the light in her pupils now almost completely extinguished.

A sob tore through Marco's throat as he struggled against the magical shackles binding him for the umpteenth time, only to discover that he was now able to move freely. He scrambled to his best friend's side and frantically began checking for a pulse, for breath, for anything that indicated she was alright. All the while, he continued to assure her, "It's okay, Star, you're fine, it's going to be fine, please be fine, you'll be just fine, Star, PLEASE be fine!!!!"

But he felt nothing.

Star Butterfly—crown princess, heir to the throne of Mewni, and Marco's best friend—was no more.

"......you killed her......" Marco uttered blankly, staring into the sunken black eyes of the girl who'd radically changed his life in such a short amount of time. Trembling, partially from despair and partially from fury, he inclined his head to meet Toffee's watchful gaze and repeated, "....you KILLED her...!!"

Toffee chuckled, the chilling timbre of his voice not quite clicking with the spindly bird form he still had possession of. "Well, not technically," the former Ludo corrected Marco smoothly, hovering above him with a smile that could have been perceived as understanding, had he not already revealed his hand. "I've merely drained her magical life force. It would be possible to restore it and revive her if you had any healers around, but..."

He smirked.

"I believe the Chancellor is still...out of commission."

Marco's eyes narrowed. "Alright, fine! You've got Star! What about me? Are you going to suck the life out of me too before I karate-chop you into the next multiverse???"

Toffee tisked, an almost fatherly expression appearing on his face. "Oh Marco," he crooned gently, as if gently chiding a disobedient child. "There's no point in that. Without her?" He gestured to Star's broken form. "You're nothing."

With this, the villain cackled menacingly and snatched up Star's wand before zooming out of the cave and slamming a rock in front of the entrance with a wave of his hand, leaving Marco alone with the shell of the coolest girl he'd ever known.

With Toffee gone, the reality of the situation slowly began to sink in....

Star was gone.

And it was his fault.

"....STAR!!!!" Marco wailed, tears blurring his vision. "THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!! I—it's all my fault..... If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have had any reason to cleave your wand in the first place!! You...you'd be alive..."

He took one of Star’s cold hands in his, despair weighing him down so heavily that he doubted he'd ever be able to stand again.

"You trusted me with your friendship, and I hurt you. You trusted me with your life, and I let you die....

"...you trusted me with your heart...." he managed to choke, the final lyrics of Ruberiot's song reverberating within his skull, "...and all I did was push it aside......"

He knelt near Star in silence for a few minutes, grasping desperately for answers within his head. How could this have happened? How could he have let this happen??

"You know," Marco murmured weakly, "Jackie and I decided to stop dating pretty soon after you left Earth. I knew finding my best friend and being there to support her was more important than focusing on a girlfriend, and Jackie agreed....but I also think she was convinced that I'd fallen for you..."

He winced.

“...but I guess none of that really matters now, huh?"

Marco gazed down at the princess's fallen form, wishing beyond belief that he'd done things differently in Star's time on Earth, wishing he knew what he could have done to prevent her from ending up like this, wishing he'd been able to see the truth before it had been too late to act upon it.

"I'll finish what you started, Star," he vowed, determination seeping into his voice. "I promise, I'll do everything I can to protect the citizens of Mewni and defeat Toffee. And I promise that I'll never stop looking for a way to bring you back and that you'll always be the best, most amazing friend I could've ever hoped to have, and that..."

His voice cracked.

"...and that I'll always love you."

Gently, Marco brushed a rebellious strand of blonde hair off of Star's forehead and planted a soft kiss on her brow.

"Goodbye, Star."

With this, Marco's resolve shattered, and he broke down in gut-wrenching sobs, shoulders quaking and chest burning.

So it made sense that he didn't notice when the two hearts stamped on Star's cheeks began glowing faintly.

Slowly, translucent webs of purple began weaving themselves around the princess's form, lifting her up bit by bit as they did so. Star herself did not stir, but something within her most certainly was stirring.

When Marco felt Star's fingers shift away from his, his eyes shot wide open. Out of instinct, he jerked back upon observing her continue to rise off of the ground, still unconscious. As the webs grew thicker and thicker, encasing the princess's entire body, the rosy glow emanating from them only grew as well. Marco watched in awe as the chrysalis began to vibrate when it rose to around five feet off of the ground. Faster and stronger it writhed, until at last, with a searing flash of light so bright and pink that Marco lost his vision for a couple of seconds, the figure within burst free.

"......am I dead? ..... Marco, is that you?? Are we both dead???"

Marco, unfortunately, was currently incapable of offering any sort of response. He simply stood, gaping, with his eyes set upon the girl hovering a few yards away from him.

Star waved her hands in Marco's direction, only to recoil when she found more than eight fingers—and purple ones, no less!—at her disposal. "Yikes!!" she shrieked, recoiling.

Her eyes narrowed as she examined her two newly-formed sets of limbs. "....wait a minute."

Tentatively, she craned her head back--and gasped with joy at what she discovered.

"MY MEWBERTY WINGS!!!!!!!" Star giggled gleefully, twirling circles in the air on a pair of intricately-patterned lavender wings. "THEY'RE ALL GROWN UP!!!!!!"

And indeed they were. Star Butterfly had at last unlocked the full heritage of the Butterfly dynasty coded deep within her DNA. Unfolding from her back were two massive butterfly wings adorned with shimmering hearts. Six arms extended from her torso now, and a pair of dainty antennae bobbled above her head. Her hair, now also a shade of dark violet, had shortened significantly as well, so as not to get caught in her wings.

"This is so cool...!" Star breathed. "Marco, what do you think??"

The sound of Star repeating his name finally snapped Marco out of his stupor.

"....STAR!!!!!!" he proclaimed elatedly, hastily rushing over to her with a luminescent grin on his face. "You're okay!!!!! Well—more than okay, actually!"

Beaming, Star scooped Marco up in a six-armed hug and spun him around in the air a few times, the two of them laughing and celebrating as if the events of the past month or so had never occurred.

But just as quickly as Star's mood spiraled upward, reality set back in as she began recalling where she was. Quickly, the princess set Marco down before planting her own feet on the floor.

"Wait a minute..." she voiced with uncertainty, cocking her head at her best friend. "Didn't Toffee, like, drain my powers and more or less leave me for dead? That's the last thing I remember..."

Marco nodded with a little shiver. “…yup.”

"So...how am I prancing about on newly-grown mewberty wings now?"

Marco shrugged. He had to keep blinking to assure himself that Star’s transformation wasn’t just a cruel trick of his heartache-addled mind.

Star stared at him for a moment, perplexed. Then, without quite knowing why she was led to do so, she tentatively raised a hand to her forehead and touched it—in the very spot where Marco had kissed her only minutes before.

Instantly, a wave of understanding pummeled Star, and she staggered back.

"...it was you!" she gasped.

But before she had the chance to elaborate on this, the stone guarding the entrance to the cave groaned and started shifting to the side.

“You know something, Marco?” Toffee called out as he pushed the stone away. “I’ve been thinking...maybe you have some potential after all! You see, I’ve been meaning to find a new—erm, shall we say, host? And what better person to destroy Mewni as than the former princess’s best fri—“

Toffee took pride in having mastered a distinctly precise ability to mask his emotions. It was one of the qualities that kept him on his toes after centuries of plotting against the Butterfly family. But even he, the immortal monster of legends and tapestries, could not contain his bewilderment at the sight awaiting him.

Star Butterfly was fine. More than fine, actually. She had never appeared more powerful. And Marco Diaz, the seemingly-useless karate boy, was standing right beside her.

Heroes and villain stared wide-eyed at each other, each wondering how to gain the upper hand. After matter of seconds that consisted of Toffee darting his gaze between the princess and her prince, understanding suddenly dawned upon him. He chuckled, quickly regaining his composure.

“Well well…” the monster crooned with a smirk, directing his gaze towards Marco. “Looks like you aren’t as much of a disappointment as I thought.

“And Star! Why, you look just like your mom did the last time we fought. It's a shame to think of her discovering that her dear little princess finally earned her wings but tragically had the life re-drained out of her before she really got to use them…I’ll be sure to dispose of her before she has to find out." With these words, Toffee fired a blast of green magic at the currently-wandless Star, smiling wickedly.

Star, however, wasn't going to give herself up so easily this time. Eyes and hearts igniting, she thrust her hands forward as searing pink magic gushed out of them like a waterfall and formed a bubble around her. Toffee's blast fizzled and sputtered away as soon as it touched the force-field.

Toffee's eyes widened in shock and then narrowed in disdain. He fired another shot at Star, and then another, and then another, but the warrior princess deflected every blast as effortlessly as if she'd been doing it for her whole life. When Toffee realized that he'd lost his chance to defeat her, he made a last-ditch attempt to gain the upper hand by manifesting a giant, luminescent green limb and snatching Marco—who'd been soaking up every second of the battle from the sidelines, awestruck—with it....not realizing his action would have the opposite effect of what he intended.

"NO."

The next thing Toffee knew, he was lying flat on his back with the wind knocked out of his host's puny lungs. He could vaguely make out the hazy form of Star Butterfly hovering over him with a venomous glint in her eyes.

"You can try and kill me all you want, but touch Marco....and I'll destroy you," she declared in a razor-sharp whisper.

For the first time since he'd lost his finger to Moon, all those years ago, Toffee's stomach--though, technically it was still Ludo's stomach--lurched as an unpleasant chill seized his body.

He was afraid.

With the last of his energy, the villain rose from the ground and frantically fled the cave, leaving Star's wand behind in his haste.

Star remained hovering in the air, glaring after him with the same stone-hard expression on her face.

".....Star?"

Tentatively, Marco approached the princess and grabbed the hand that was nearest to him.

"You can calm down now. He's gone."

Star's shoulders relaxed, and she gently sank to the ground, her wings and extra arms folding up and disappearing as she did so. Marco immediately knelt beside his best friend and helped her to stand, supporting her weight while she re-adjusted to her normal form.

Star winced, holding one of two hands to her now-pale forehead

"Ugh....Mom didn't tell me how draining it is to earn your wings...." she grumbled.

Marco, on the other hand, had never felt more alive. "Star, that was amazing!!!!" he exclaimed. "You just took down Toffee, the same guy who managed to defeat the entire magic high commission and drain their powers in less than two minutes!!! And after he'd drained your power, too!!!!! You still managed to beat him!!!!!!"

Star stared at the ground for a bit, the gears in her head whirring. Finally, she raised her gaze to Marco, hand still poised at the top of her head.

"But I couldn't have done it if it weren't for you.”

"....what do you mean?" Marco asked—though deep down he suspected he understood what Star was getting at.

"I--I'm not sure..." Star replied sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders with a meager chuckle. "It's just...it's like....you replenished my power source. I can feel it was you. But I can't figure out how!!"

Marco bit his lip, uncertain as to how he could be more anxious in this moment than he'd been when Toffee was about to possess him.

Then, he spotted the royal wand, which was still strewn on the floor. Swiftly, he scooped up the heirloom and held it out to Star, who seemed to snap back into focus upon seeing it.

"You're right, Marco," the princess decreed, reclaiming her wand from her best friend. "We'll talk through this later."

Grinning mischievously, Star sprang into the air and raised her arms, and suddenly she was a butterfly again!

"Right now, we have a kingdom to save!"

...

Thanks for reading!! I actually wrote part of a continuation to this back in the day but I never quite finished it...soooo I’m going to try to finish it and then post the conclusion sometime!

(And AGAIN there’s a lot of canon-divergent stuff in this fic, I know Star isn’t ACTUALLY biologically a Butterfly😅. But I didn’t know that four years ago, lol!)

[deejadabbles]

A Thousand Songs (Atem/Yami x Reader)

Chapter Three: I Love You

One /// Two /// Three /// Four /// [Five Coming Soon]

Summary: You knew that you and your band could make it big. Not only that, but stay together while doing it; the five of you were family, after all. The only problem was that despite all your musical talents...none of you were particularly good at lyrics. After years of struggling to put out your first full album, the solution finally made himself know in chance meeting on an empty stage.

Rock Band AU, Atem x Reader, gender neutral reader.

Atem’s mind was still reeling as he parked his car in the lot of his building. It had been a normal and rather mundane day at first; he woke, made breakfast, ran his errands, then went to rehearsal. The rehearsal was particularly boring, considering he already memorized their new set of songs for the next show (good thing this was the last few days of rehearsal before the new show debuted). It was likely that very boredom that gave Atem his wistful thought as he packed away his violin. Everyone else had gone, bidding him good night or not even speaking to him as they moved on to their own plans for the night, and Atem found himself alone in the theatre. The stage had always held a bit of...glamour to Atem, and a simple walk around the grand set alone had got him daydreaming- which turned into him singing.

The young man sighed to himself as he rode the elevator up to his floor. He had thought he was singing to himself, that the theatre was empty save for himself and the janitor who was usually outside smoking that time of night. Imagine his surprise when an audience of one had ambushed him the moment his solo was done. He let out another sigh as the elevator stopped.

Atem was careful when opening his door, and the reason why made herself apparent when a delicate ‘mew’ greeted him.

“Hello, Bastet,” he greeted the gray tabby as she rubbed her chin against the door, trying as always to explore beyond the confines of the penthouse.

He scooped her up into his arms as he shut the door, then wandered to the kitchen as his mind continued to replay the odd incident at the theatre. Despite Atem’s shock, the boy- Yugi’s enthusiasm actually made Atem...consider the out-of-the-blue proposal. Him, a first chair violinist, write songs for some rock band? The idea seemed ludicrous at first glance... but, Atem would not deny his interest.

After setting Bastet down on the leather stool by the breakfast bar, Atem pulled out the black business card from his coat pocket, the title “The Dark Magicians” being the first golden text that caught his eye. The name had captured Atem’s interest from the start, though he couldn’t be sure if the name had anything to do with his favorite card from the old Duel Monsters game.

Behind the name of the band, was a circular logo (again, a bit reminiscent of the duel monster) and Atem recognized the symbols of the zodiacs, as well as some other markings he vaguely remembered seeing somewhere, but couldn’t place the meaning of in the moment. Atem then flipped the card over and saw what looked like the names of their social media accounts, but only got a brief glimpse at it before a tug on his coat got his attention.

“Mowo?”

Atem looked down and found Bastet, claws tugging at him and eyes looking expectant. He found himself chuckling and giving her a gentle scratch on the head.

“Sorry, Bastet, you must be hungry, I’ll make us some dinner.”

After finally taking off his coat (the black fabric now covered in his kitten’s fur) Atem turned on his speakers, started his playlist, and got started on dinner: a beef-based stir fry for him, and a can of Fancy Feast for the spoiled cat who wove between his legs the whole time he tried to prepare the meals. And of course, because she really was just that spoiled, Bastet got a small spoon full of his own dinner before he retired to the living room.

Atem kept his music playing as he ate, preferring to get lost in his thoughts rather than his favorite shows; and again Yugi’s proposal swam into his mind and occupied him.

The whole thought was ridiculous, he knew nothing about Yugi or his band, why was he even thinking about writing songs for them? Songwriting was just a hobby for him, it always had been. The orchestra was his career, and though his father had gotten him singing lessons when he was younger, Atem had never truly entertained the idea of making that voice and his lyrics into anything more than a personal amusement. Well, at least not seriously.

Well, and didn’t it say something that Yugi had been so drawn to Atem’s song? The young man had seemed so excited, so sure when he said that he thought Atem was the perfect match for his band. Atem believed in fate, and that had been the first time he sang publicly since he was a child...what were the chances that someone looking for a songwriter would be listening? Not only that, but be so enthralled with the song that he practically bounded down the row of seats to talk with Atem?

As he finished off the last bites of his meal, Atem picked up the card again, looking over the accounts listed on the back. There was one for Youtube and Atem figured that would be a good place to start if he wanted to see what he thought about this band.

He quickly searched the band on the app via his TV (might as well see them on the big screen) and was not surprised with what he saw at first. Their icon was the same logo from the card and they barely had a few thousand subscribers. A small-time group just trying to leave their musical mark on the world. What did surprise him was that they had almost fifty videos posted- though a quick look through their content said that most of them were “band vlogs”.

Their banner picture was nice, all of the band members in the throws of a song with multicolored lights blooming behind them. The picture displayed all five of the members, the framing purposefully showing all of them so no one was left out or hidden behind another member.

Atem of course recognized Yugi first and was intrigued to find the young man working a set of turntables. An odd addition for a rock band- though now that he thought about it, Yugi never actually said what type of band they were. Soon enough, Atem found his eyes drifting to the other members. There was an energetic looking blond pounding on the drums and a brunette woman who had some soul playing the keyboard. Then there were the two guitarists, and the lead guitar player seemed to also be the singer, mouth poised in front of the standing mic and fingers splayed across the strings in unison.

But looking at still pictures would not get Atem far in getting to know the band, so he moved on to the videos. He found a convenient playlist for their actual songs (he’d move on to the vlogs if he liked what he heard) and clicked on the oldest, their first, video.

The setting was simple enough, the five of them standing in an almost warehouse-looking venue, but the video quality wasn’t bad. The girl on the piano started out first and Atem’s found his interest instantly piqued when the notes sounded epic enough to fit in with an orchestra. The singer stepped up to the mic, guitar missing, and started a fast string of lyrics, hard-hitting and dramatic- a perfect combo with the epic-style piano. The drums and bass joined in quick enough and the moment the chorus hit the synthesized sound of the turntables cut in, an interesting contrast to the other instruments that...actually worked...it really really worked. The lead guitarist’s missing strings were deliberate, Atem noted, since the base standing on its own created a deeper sound that complimented the dramatic flair of the song.

It ended too quickly, being barely more than two minutes long, and Atem instantly found himself pressing replay to give the song another listen. This time, now that he wasn’t trying to pick out the different instruments working together, he paid more attention to the lyrics. It sounded like an ode to bad relationships, the toxic kind that made a couple who claimed to love each other fight and scream daily. The singer’s voice was good, and he was impressed with the long note held at the end of the song.

Atem considered giving the title a third listen, but decided he could always come back to it after he sampled their other songs. He moved on to the next, noting that there were a few cover songs in between the originals- though he skipped them for now. This song seemed to have the most views, and Atem figured it was for the actual “music video” style. It was much more entertaining to watch a story-driven video than the band members simply standing on a set (though he thought that was perfectly fine for the first video).

A fade from black showed a ballerina (the pianist?) on the ground, contorted into a common starting position for ballets. A sorrowful note sounded as the camera zoomed in on the ballerina, then, the moment the piano started, she was dancing. It was then that Atem realized that he knew the piano player, at least in passing, she was one of the dancers from the theatre.

The same voice from the first song started to sing, and the dancer soundlessly captured the lyrics with her graceful movements. The thing that truly made Atem stare in wonder though, was the visuals taking place beyond the dance.

As the song went on, the ballerina’s state...worsened. Her visage mirrored the hurt lyrics of the song. At first her make up ran, as if she had been crying, then holes and tears started to appear in her clothes, then bruises on her skin, until finally, half of her tutu was torn and dirty and dark spots littered her body. The pivot point of the song came, and the ballerina fell to the ground, crying, silently conveying that she didn’t want to go on.

But then the tune started to shift, slowly swelling, lifting up as one by one, hands reached out to the despairing dancer. The first gripped her shoulder in comfort, the next wiped away a stray tear, the third rubbed her back, and the fourth simply held itself out to her, a wordless urge to take the offer of help. The ballerina did, and the moment the hands lifted her up, the scene brightened, and her appearance was restored to its original beauty. The woman still had some sadness in her eyes, but the notes were hopeful as she finished her dance, ending the song on an uplifting tune.

Atem found himself simply staring at the screen as a “Thank you for watching!” text scrolled across it. The simple beauty of the video struck him. The song was about loneliness, broken hearts, the darker side of emotions, almost everything most people would feel in their lives. But, ultimately, it was about loved ones making all those things easier to bear- to accept help from those around you and becoming stronger in the process. A song about a sad truth with a hopeful ending.

Atem liked it, he liked it a lot.

He continued to watch the videos and was let down to find that there were only two more original songs by the band. The third was well done too, though Atem admitted that they didn’t capture his attention as much as the previous. It featured the band in steampunk style garb, standing on a stage as masked patrons in ballgowns danced in front of them (Atem knew he recognized said dancers as more ballerinas from the theatre), this song was more light in its beat, though he thought the lyrics alluded to the concept of liars and the masks they wore.

The final song opened with a heavy drum beat and sound effects from the turntables, the black and white camera blinking onto a shot of the drummer in some abandoned building. Water burst from the drums with every hit for even more dramatic visuals as the keyboard and guitars joined in. Then it cut to the singer leaning against a brick-walled alley, still in black and white and the voice Atem was beginning to know well followed the instruments.

He liked the lyrics already, a poetic contrast to the almost upbeat rhythm. What piqued Atem’s interest most, however, was that it was a love song, the first romantic brand of tenderness he’d heard from the band so far.

Where the light shivers offshore

Through the tides of oceans

We are shining in the rising sun

As we are floating in the blue

I am softly watching you

Though, tender as it may be, he couldn’t say it was a happy love song.

Oh boy, your eyes betray what burns inside you

Atem felt something rake at his heart, a pull, the lyrics drawing him in, chest rising with an ache.

Whatever I feel for you

You only seem to care about you

Is there any chance you could see me, too?

'Cause I love you

Is there anything I could do

Just to get some attention from you?

In the waves, I've lost every trace of you

Where are you?

At one point the camera lingered on the singer’s face, eyes pleading and hands splayed in a gesture as if to pull the viewer closer in a desperate embrace. Atem didn’t even realize he was leaning forward until he was at the edge of the seat. If he were a romantic, he might liken the vocalist to a siren, drawing him in with gravitating lyrics.

Whispers are wasted in the sand

As we were dancing in the blue

I was synchronized with you

But now the sound of love is out of tune

Atem had to actively tell himself to sit back in his seat as the chorus came again, though his eyes never left the screen, even as it flashed between all the members in various forsaken settings. It had been a long time since a song made it feel actual heartbreak, made him hang on each pleading lyric.

Not only that, but even as the song began its ending crescendo, Atem’s mind was compiling some violin chords that would slip into the song perfectly. It had been even longer since he wanted to add his own music to a song.

Atem had to give the song one more listen, this time closing his eyes and getting even more lost in the beats and words. Again he had to tell himself not to go for a third listen and moved on to the band’s cover videos. Though, he was momentarily distracted by Bastet as she hopped onto the couch, demanding cuddles and pets by shoving her tail in his face. He obliged, letting her fall asleep on his lap as he flipped through the band’s cover songs, ready to hear more from them.

Most of them featured the players standing in their venue from the first video, which made sense since recording in that simple location allowed the band to pump out videos faster. He liked the diverse array of covers, some were of pop songs, others of rock and metal, and even one rap song. The band made each cover their own, with that unique array of instruments that made Atem endeared to the band.

His favorite covers had to be the ones of Studio Killers’ “Jenny” and “Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce.

The metal song was the only one that had someone other than the lead guitarists singing. Atem understood why, the guitar chords were brutal- and the vocalist was playing them like an expert! Again, Atem was impressed, not just anyone could play the strings like that. Instead Yugi sang, belting his little heart out with some decent talent in singing. Atem may have had the deeper voice, but Yugi pulled off the metal style well. Atem then felt bad for not recognizing the bass player’s skill until the near end of the song, and promised to rewatch the video later to fully appreciate how well the brunette played the bass chords.

Jenny was one of the few covers that got a better video and again, Atem found himself interested and surprised, but for an entirely different reason this time. Although the song was about a lesbian crush, the couple acting out the video were two men: Yugi and the blond drummer. Atem found himself smiling when the video ended with the two men kissing in front of a sunset, Yugi having to pull down the taller boy by the collar of his shirt. The song itself was impressive as well, it was undoubtedly a rock version of the pop song, but it still had that upbeat, almost bubbly quality to the music.

That video was also the first that had the band members speaking to the viewers at the end, all five of them sitting on a couch and smiling brightly at the camera. They explained that the video was made for pride month and that they hope to someday donate all the ad revenue of the video to LGBT charities, once their videos started making money in the first place, that is. Unfortunately, (though not to his surprise) that video had the most amount of dislikes, and Atem found himself leaving a string of heart emojis in the comments just to counteract the negativity- and Atem never used heart emojis.

Before he went on to the other videos, the vlogs, Atem paused the playlist and leaned back on his couch, a string of thoughts taking him over as Bastet purred and stretched out to lay on his chest.

He liked the band.

He liked their style, their diversity and unique form, their creativity, and so far he liked the actual members too. He liked all of it a lot. If he were to ever put his original music out there, he knew it would be with a band like this.

Atem believed in fate, so, had he and Yugi met for a reason?

Atem pressed play on the first band vlog video, making his final decision as he petted the purring cat resting on his chest. So long as these more personal vlogs didn’t tarnish his view of the members, he’d speak to Yugi the next day.

[nerdzzone]

Two Burning Hearts: Chapter 3.5

Sequel to Light After Dark

Summary: After meeting during a time when the world was in total lockdown, Brooke Harris and Henry Cavill are facing the next challenge to their relationship: transitioning back to normal life. Will they be able to cope with the changes they’re facing or will they fall apart once they leave the idyllic peace of isolation that they had in Jersey?

Pairing: Henry Cavill x OFC

A/N: I often get asked to do some things from Henry’s point of view so I thought this would be a fun little extra to add in. Please read chapter three first though or you may be a tad confused! Also, as I’ve said before, I don’t know everything about Henry’s family. I used names I’ve seen tossed around, but if I’m wrong, just go with it!

______________

June. 29. 2020

After Brooke had gone upstairs to shower, Henry grabbed himself a bottle of rosemary water from the fridge and called his brother to see what the plan was for Amelia's birthday chat. It was pretty straight forward. He would send Henry a link to a Zoom chat and everyone would join within the next fifteen to twenty minutes and let him know when they were ready. Then Simon would join with his family and Amelia to surprise her. It seemed easy enough so Henry settled in, made sure Kal was content and wouldn't damage everyone's ears with any loud barking and clicked the link.

The chat popped up, but he quickly realized that he was only the second one to join as the only people already waiting were his brother Charlie and his wife, Heather.

"Henry!"

They cheered enthusiastically making a smile instantly appear on his face.

"Charlie, Heather, it's lovely to see you," He greeted them. "Is it just the two of you?"

"It is," Charlie nodded. "It's already eleven o'clock here so the kids are all tucked up in bed."

"Ah, yes, I forgot about the time difference," Henry told them before taking a sip of his water. "So, how are you both? How's lockdown going over there?"

"It's not so bad right now," Heather informed him. "Things have eased up and opened up quite a bit which is a relief. It was getting tough being cooped up with the kids all day."

"I can imagine," Henry smiled. "It was bad enough with Simon's lot on Jersey and there's only three of them and they're younger than some of yours."

"To be fair, the older ones weren't as bad," Simon shrugged. "We could explain it more to them and they have more ways to stay in touch with their friends. It's the little ones with their boundless energy that were the challenge."

"The energy level of kids is amazing," Henry agreed. "After they had cake on my birthday, I swear they ran around for hours without even pausing to catch their breath. My head was spinning by the time they finally crashed."

Charlie chuckled at the thought, but nodded as he knew the feeling well.

"My head is spinning every night these days."

"But speaking of your birthday cake," Heather segued, a grin on her face. "Where's Brooke? We were hoping to meet her!"

Henry smiled at his sister-in-law's enthusiasm.

"She's in the shower. She just finished a long yoga workout."

"Will she be joining us after?" Charlie asked. "We've heard so much about her, it would be great to finally get to have a chat."

Before Henry could answer, there was a loud ping and the faces of his brother Piers and his wife, Charlotte, popped up with their two sons hovering in the background. Everyone cheered and greeted each other, happy to see each other's faces again after so long apart, but Charlie quickly steered the conversation back to Henry's love life.

"We were just asking if we'll get to meet Brooke today," He told his oldest brother.

"Oh?" Piers grinned. "And do we?"

"I don't think so," Henry smiled, wrinkling his nose. "It's a bit intimidating meeting the whole gang and doing it like this, where it's hard to see and hear everyone just seemed like it would be a bit cruel."

The women nodded, having been through the ordeal of meeting the entire Cavill family themselves, but his brothers rolled their eyes and voiced their protests.

"We're hardly intimidating," Charlie denied. "We're a very welcoming and friendly bunch!"

"We are!" Piers agreed. "And this whole situation might go on for ages, she can't avoid us forever."

There was another ping as he spoke and Niki and his wife, Victoria, appeared.

"Who's avoiding us?" Niki grinned once everyone had greeted the couple.

"Brooke is," Piers teased, knowing it would wind Henry up. "Apparently she's scared to meet us."

"That's not what I said!" Henry protested as expected. "To be honest, I didn't really push the idea because I thought it seemed mean. She wants to meet all of you and I'd be happy for us to organize one on one video chats. We have plenty of time over the next week since we're isolating in preparation for filming to start again."

"Oh, that's right!" Victoria nodded. "You have to quarantine. How's that going? Is it hard since you haven't been together long?"

"Not really," Henry shrugged. "It's been quite relaxing. We enjoy each other's company, but we know when to give each other space. It's only been four days though, she might have killed me by the time it's over."

As he probably should have predicted, his brothers then proceeded to list all his bad qualities and annoying habits that could drive her away until they were thankfully told to be nice or be quiet by their wives. As irritating as it was to be the one that everyone was picking on, Henry couldn't help but smile at the sound of his family all being together again. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed it, but it was heartwarming to see everyone's faces.

Just as all the teasing wound down, his parents joined the chat. The massive grin on his mother's face at the sight of her sons made Henry's heart warm even more. However, after the initial greeting, she turned her focus to Henry and he held back a groan.

"Henry, where's Brooke?" She asked. "You haven't scared her off already, have you?"

His brother's roared with laughter as he shook his head.

"No, I haven't. She's just busy."

"Busy?" His dad asked. "How can she be busy when you're not allowed to leave the house?"

"She's scared to meet us apparently," Niki teased making Henry roll his eyes.

"She's not scared," He repeated. "I just didn't think it would be fair to make her meet everyone all at once over a video chat. It seemed intimidating."

"Oh, that makes sense," Marianne nodded. "I didn't think she'd be the type to be scared that easily. Honestly, boys, she's lovely. Absolutely wonderful. Her mother and I always thought they'd make a good pair, but they were both always off on their own little adventures so it slipped our minds until they found each other all by themselves."

Henry was intrigued by the thought of their parents planning to play matchmaker, but was relieved that they'd never actually attempted it. He knew that he would have been much more reluctant to give her a chance if he'd been pressured into doing so by his mother and he knew that Brooke would probably have reacted the same way. However, knowing that his mother approved so whole heartedly of his girlfriend made Henry very happy. He loved his mother and respected her opinion more than anyone else and the few times that she had been less than impressed with his choice of partner, it hadn't ended well. Not necessarily because her opinion swayed him, but she seemed to have some kind of sixth sense when it came to partners for her children and her lack of approval tended to mean that the relationship was doomed. So, hearing that she had hoped to be able to set him up with Brooke anyway was a relief.

He was eager to talk about something other than his love life though so after letting his mum fill them in a little bit about Brooke, he changed the subject to a recent accomplishment of one of his many nephews and let him have the spotlight for a bit. That didn't last long though as Simon and his crew joined the chat and after a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday, the attention stayed on the giddy little three year old for the rest of the conversation.

-

Tag List: @heartfelt-pen​ @stephartrave @herefortherealdeal @imaginecrushes​ @justaboringadult @ speakerforthedead0 @summersong69 @bichibibi @healojane

Let me know if you’d like to be added!

[silverinia]

I came for Baranski, I stayed for Baranski - a quick Christmas On The Square review someone* actually asked for

(* thank you, anon)

Disclaimer: I am in no way a professional of any sorts when it comes to film and I'm not a journalist either. The last movie review I've written was probably for a school assignment in eighth grade. I didn't do research for this and I've watched the movie exactly one time, so this is just for fun.

It was a Sunday, Sunday the 22nd of November, nearing the end of the train wreck of a year that is 2020. I woke up on an air mattress around seven am, my head aching, my throat itching with pyrosis and light nausea, it was still dark outside behind the closed blinds in front of the windows, when I slowly realised where I was, one of my best girlfriends sleeping next to me in her bed. I had crashed at her place after a warm, fuzzy evening of mulled wine, tacky Christmas movies I would never watch alone (Christmas Chronicles and Holiday Calendar, which I quite honestly didn't enjoy at all, but the company made it fun anyway), doing our nails, wearing the fun kind of face masks for a change and smoking too many cigarettes, as the soft pain in my head informed me right now. She woke up an hour later and the morning went by with coffee and reheated pizza for breakfast, when we decided to watch another movie and I realised that it was THE Sunday I'd been waiting for through Zoom interviews and Dolly Parton twitter memes and the infamous wig gate that will be briefly discussed in the following, and so we clicked on the small icon in the Netflix menu that said "Christmas On The Square".

And oh boy, was it a ride.

To start off, I should mention that I have a hard time watching most modern day American Christmas movies, as I noticed quite vividly again when I watched the two aforementioned Netflix productions last night. The character development is always foreseeable to say the least, the plot lines are plain clichés hunting each other like they're the kids in The Hunger Games, and the writing is generally so bad that you can join the actors in reciting the entire scripts on your first watch. I watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas once a year while I'm gift wrapping and pause every fifteen minutes to shamelessly stare at forties Christine Baranski (I think we should all turn away from the birth of Jesus and instead count our years based on Christine Baranski's date of birth) in flamboyant nightgowns and short Christmas themed dresses, looking so fabulous that every interpreter of Santa Baby ever could only dream of it, I watch Love Actually at least five times a year to lust over Hugh Grant, cry with Emma Thompson and miss Alan Rickman, I enjoy Bridget Jones, which I would definitely consider a Christmas movie, and that's it. That's my yearly Christmas time entertainment routine and I can barely tolerate anything beyond, because I'm still traumatised from the time when I was around five years old and on a holiday family visit where had to sit through National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, the dumbest movie I have ever seen (my apologies if you like it but also, who hurt you?), with my cousins. I hated it. I hated every minute of it. And it scarred me for life.

But this was a Christine Baranski movie, I knew she was going to play the lead and so I was pretty much as excited about this as I could. And the fact that Dolly Parton wrote the whole thing didn't hurt either. As I said earlier to my friend I was watching it with, I have the pop cultural taste of a fifty year old gay man, a quality I am most proud of, and this simply ticked off all my boxes.

I expected something similar to a Mamma Mia experience that wouldn't cause me to crave packing my bags, give Covid the finger and run off to Greece. Light-hearted entertainment, easy to stomach, uplifting music and so little plot that the simplicity feels like a creative choice. That's what my pained, hungover brain knew it could cope with and that's not what I got.

The movie started and I was immediately in the zone. I saw Christine Baranski's name in the front credits (an experience that never fails to make me scream "Yass Queen" at the screen, regardless of where I am and who I'm with, as if I'm the sobering result that pops out of the package when you order Jonathan Van Ness on Wish), the setting was wonderfully corny (I grew up watching Gilmore Girls once a week, so give me warm fairy lights and a gazebo and I'm perfectly happy) and as my friend wondered whether Dolly Parton, in her exaggerated homeless attire that didn't make her look shabby at all, was green-screened into the setting because she stood out so much (which she was because the background dancers were dancing in slow motion, but to be fair, we were probably still a little too drunk to notice that from the start) and I told her I thought that it was just the natural glow someone who's Dolly Parton simply carries with them everywhere they go, I was happy. This was the movie I was prepared for. A movie in which the most problematic thing would be stereotypical characters and the wig they hid Christine's real, flawlessly handmade by God herself hair under.

And then, around five minutes in, Christine Baranski's childhood love interest was revealed as she pressed her perfect pointy nose against the window of his shop and sang about her unrequited love.

And suddenly, things started taking turns at a pace I was still way too sleep-deprived for.

Suddenly, in the middle of my general amazement at seeing Christine Baranski do literally anything and laughing loud at her impeccable comedic delivery, there were unresolved daddy issues, hanging prominently at the wall in her marvellously designed house (she literally says "Daddy" at one point and I couldn't help but think that only someone with her vocal skills could keep from making it sound cringe-worthily kinky). One moment, I was clutching my chest above my heart while she was bonding with little bartender Violet and munching on pretzels while downing some whiskey in that elegant way only Christine Baranski can bond with ten year olds who had it rough, eat pretzels and down whiskey, and the next she felt responsible for said girl's mother's death (which she kinda was too, but I'm not the boss of her). I was still busy making fun of how the very annoyingly, but when you're snacking on pizza with extra cheese at nine in the morning also highly funny, slow talking pastor's name was Christian, and suddenly there was a cancer scare.

It was a lot, a hasty sprint from major issue to major issue with a hint of comedic relief every now and then, and it didn't get any less until the very, rather poorly resolved, end.

The entire, constant up and down was followed by the movie's peak of suspense, the near death of precious Violet, something I couldn't even get too invested in because I was still so busy worrying about Christine's MRT results (I was truly fucking worried), not to mention that I hadn't even started to really process the sudden revelation of the love child and how it had affected her character's actions until this point. Was her constant tendency of pushing people away, as we've seen most clearly with her angel in training assistant who's name I cannot recall right now, the result of her broken trust in her father who practically ripped her son away from her after she had just given birth to him? Was it a result of her never getting the closure she needed with plaid flannel wearing Carl she was clearly still in love with? Maybe both? And what of the many issues was it that made her so incredibly shaken up when Violet blamed herself for her mother's death? Was it 'just' due to the fact that the closed pharmacy was on her, or was there more to it? Was it because she had grown up without a mother herself? Or did I miss a major piece of information because I was momentarily distracted, dumbfoundedly staring at Christine's very blue eyes? No time to ponder on that, little Silverinia, because here comes unconscious Violet in an ambulance, WEE WOO WEE WOO WEE WOO!

I'm not going to go in depth about what plot lines I thought were especially carelessly handled and why, real standouts were the sudden forgiveness towards her father who had still acted like a shitty asshole even though he might have had his reasons, because giving the baby up for adoption just wasn't his choice to make, and the fact that I kind of didn't buy how quickly Regina managed to forgive herself, especially for Violet's mother's passing, considering how deeply her tall, slim, dare I say angelic and entrancing figure was buried beneath the weight of all her issues. It felt rushed and incomplete, but that's as detailed as it gets because my major point is something else.

I think this movie made the great mistake of trying to be more than your average, flat, happy ending Christmas movie. I think no one involved thought it was possible to make it a big hit if the only real plot would've been great Dolly Parton music, fun ensemble dance choreographies, Christine Baranski's outstanding acting skills, fun settings and costumes and a redemption arch with as little plot as it could possibly take to make Christine likable to those who aren't already lost forever in the rabbit hole of being obsessed with her (poor fuckers, can't relate). They didn't notice that with the legends that were involved, they could've easily gone the Mamma Mia way. And I think that's why they tried to include heavier plot lines than most creators would've chosen, experiencing loss at an early age, struggling to find closure, dealing with sickness, teenage pregnancy, parents forcing their choices on their children when they affect their childrens' lives first, adoption, and the fear of losing your kid.

It was a lot and I don't want to say that it didn't work because my friend was crying, like, pretty hard and I questioned my entire existence all through the movie in not the worst way, and I did enjoy it a lot while watching. The "grief is love with nowhere to go" line was a real standout, for example, where the attempt of complexity DID work. It positively gave me fleabag season two, "I don't know what to do with it now, with all the love I have for her." - "I'll take it. It sounds lovely. You have to give it to me." feels, and that's about the biggest praise I can come up with. BUT (and this is written in capital letters because it's the big but) I'm also totally convinced that I wouldn't have enjoyed it if they hadn't cast Christine Baranski for the lead role. In my humble opinion, the hasty, not really at all resolved plot of this movie only worked because Christine Baranski is just a fantastic actress. She quirks a mocking eyebrow and you laugh. She parts her perfectly painted red lips and you immediately hang on them because you don't want to miss a single breath she, a literal goddess, graces us mere peasants of people with. She smiles and you're happy. She laughs and even while she's still laughing, you can't wait to hear her do it again. Her eyes fill with tears and you feel goosebumps on your arms, her voice slightly trembles, a breath hitches in her throat and you feel your heart shattering to pieces. As Chuck Lorre once said, this woman could read you the phone book and you would end up laughing tears because she just gets the job done. She knows what she's doing, she's an absolute pro in her game, and it doesn't matter, not even a little bit, what she's working with, because the work she eventually delivers with it is always at a minimum of 200%. I forced my friend to watch this movie with me because I adore this woman, and I felt for this movie because I felt for her. It wasn't the plot that sadly brutally overestimated itself, it wasn't the songs that I obviously enjoyed, nor the comedic elements that truly made me laugh a lot, it was all her. I came for Baranski, and I stayed for Baranski. This woman can do anything. She can even look graceful in a terrible wig job.

(side note / unpopular opinion: I actually didn't think the wig was all too bad. It wasn't good, actually far from good, but for me, nothing can match the awful wig game of Mamma Mia 2. I loathed that wig, I absolutely cannot stand it. So this didn't feel all that terrible. It definitely wasn't the most problematic part about the movie.)

I enjoyed watching this. It was a nice distraction from all the bullshit in the world. Watching it today was the first thing this year that actually brought me something close to excitement about the holiday season, even though everything will be very different and probably not quite as jolly this year. But it just gave me good vibes and as someone who did not watch this as a film reviewer, that's the biggest part of what leads me to enjoy a movie.

Will I watch this again? For sure. Will I enjoy it when I'm not hungover, having freshly done nails and munching delicious pizza for breakfast? Probably not as much, but it'll still have Christine Baranski in it. Would I recommend watching this? If you share my obsession with Queen B, one hundo. If you don't, probably not.

[haro-whumps]

Box Boy Order Form

(Inspired by @shameless-whumper and @sweetwhumpandhellacomf

CW: slavery, brainwashing, dehumanization, implied noncon)

Ren knew, Ren knew that the reason companies sent out free products to popular youtubers was to get fans to buy said products. Ren knew that. And they absolutely hated that it was working. They loved Host, they’d been an avid follower since well before Colton had entered the picture, but nooooow. 

Ugh.

It wasn’t like they couldn’t. Ren was a real momma’s-child, and had the vast depths of her pockets at their disposal, plus the job they’d inherited--pardon, utilized their connections in order to acquire--paid well. And the way Host played with Colton, it just looked so… terribly fun.

So here Ren was, staring down a couple different websites, filtering their searches and scrolling through half-mindlessly, @just-horrible-things‘ unboxing video playing as a quiet form of background noise. Ren had been consuming all sorts of Box Boy unboxing videos ever since Host had done it, and it just made the itch of want worse and worse.

They almost scrolled past him.

It was the hair, hilariously enough, that made them double take, scrolling back up so the top half was re-exposed on their screen, and then they just stared, disbelieving, for a long moment, eyes locked on the image. That was Soren. Ren clicked on the thumbnail and clicked through the pictures, zooming in on the birthmark on his jaw. That was definitely Soren.

Sweet Soren, gentle Soren, darling precious Soren who’d had a hard time of it when they were teenagers. Soren had always been so nice to everyone he met, with the most beautiful long hair, a sort of dusty gold, and heavy freckles. He’d never been proud, either, he’d never called the nice things Ren did for him charity or rejected their generosity like those other washed-up, penniless nobodies. Soren had always been grateful and thankful and sweet.

Ren had tried, really really tried, back when they were teens, but they’d been fumbling, their efforts graceless and new. They’d tried their hand at manipulating Soren, but it never seemed to stick. He’d put up with Ren’s gentle teasing and playful roughhousing, but always called Ren out whenever he felt they’d pushed too far, and trying to guilt him with how nice they’d otherwise been never worked. He’d been… too secure. Poor and a little underfed, but still confident that he’d have a warm home to go back to that night with a nice family, nice like him. Ren had never gotten him eating out of their palm like the brown-nosers and the toads. And when Ren had blown their lid when he cut his hair, he’d cut them off. 

Oh, but Soren wasn’t so secure now, was he? He, ha, he wouldn’t even remember who Ren was! Oh that was perfect! A second chance. But this time, he’d love them the way they deserved, he would adore them, them exclusively. He’d grow his hair out as long as they wanted him to, nothing like the short and charming mockery staring up at them from the promotional photographs. 

They put their name and credit card down on his profile the moment they stopped being shocked by that cute little birthmark, and went into the customization options.

“You don’t get to reject me this time…” Ren muttered to themself, indicating that they wanted the processors to make him grow his hair out nice and long. They probably had products that promoted hair-growth?

I’d like it if you could make him, I guess touch-starved is a good word? Clingy? Needy! Needy’s the word. I want him hanging off of me. Sweet and doe-eyed, yeah?

They opened each photograph in a new tab, and saved them to their computer. They didn’t hit buy just yet, didn’t want to send off the customization requests before they’d had a chance to specify everything.

Eager and accommodating would also be nice, though I’m sure I can train that myself if you feel like that’s going to take up too much time. But then again, I’m not exactly in a rush.

It was true, Ren hadn’t seen sweet Soren in years, but they weren’t in any hurry. They wanted this to be perfect. They pulled up Host’s unboxing video with little fawnish Colton, who didn’t even have his name yet in that one. They’d seen it a dozen times, but now they were watching it like it was a rehearsal. Soon, they’d be doing this with Soren, and he would be their Soren.

They weren’t a youtuber, personally, but Ren thought about all the unboxing videos they’d been watching and decided to order a high quality camera while they were in a spending mood. They wanted to immortalize the moments when Soren first came to them. Ren also searched for subtle “elf on the shelf” type nannycams, but discreet. They didn’t actually want Soren to know that they were recording him, that they’d be saving the footage, watching his every move, keeping it like a dragon with its hoard. They found some cute decorative pieces, the camera holes so small or seamlessly integrated into the design that Soren would never know. Plus the items themselves were cute. Ren had been thinking of adding some more decoration to their home, anyway. They hit order.

I know you keep yourselves to stringent standards of ethics, and I of course would never doubt that. But if you feel like you need to, I won’t mind if you rough him up a little during training. It might make him even more grateful to be owned by me, haha! Don’t tell him I said that though ;)

The playlist automatically went to “First day with my box boy” and Ren watched it, nerves alight. They watched Host strike Colton, their own breath catching and a pleasant little shiver crawling up their spine, imagining doing that to Soren. They would be doing that to Soren, soon. They wondered what number Soren would have, but discarded the thought. It would never matter.

Could you also please make sure he doesn’t remember his old name, at all? I know sometimes your pretty box boys have foggy memories, at least the quick turnarounds do, but I would like mine to be as blank as possible.

Host went over the positions with Colton, and Ren’s mouth watered. They’d get a whole booklet of positions they could just say and Soren would do them. When Ren told Soren position twenty-three, would he flush and hesitate? Would he smile and duck his head, loose lock of hair falling over his left eye, like how he used to do when Ren bought him roasted almonds or offered to share their fleece when it got unexpectedly cold out?

What had happened to Soren? Sure, he’d never been well-off, but it was hard to imagine life getting so hard for sweet, precious Soren that he would sign himself over to who-knew-what. He could’ve always come crawling back to Ren! They would have forgiven him for acting unreasonable, just because they got mad. He could’ve been their pet and kept his memories, if he’d only asked.

Well, too bad, Soren. He was a pet now, and people that used to know him knew. One person specifically, knew, and now, he would be theirs.

Submit order.

They grinned, and clicked.

Next

[peachy-beomie]

Holding You In My Heart (Until I Can Hold You In My Arms) <KUNTEN>

Genre: Fluff

Pairings: Kunten (Qian Kun x Ten Lee)

Word Count: 1,643

Warnings: None!

Synopsis: COVID AU in which Kun sets up a bunch of cute zoom dates for him and his boyfriend.

A/N: I got bored and I really want to start working on my masterlist so I decided to post this :D

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29410125

From: qiankunprod@gmail.com

To: chittaphonleechaiyapornkul@yahoo.com

Join Zoom Meeting

{zoom link}

I stare quizzically at the email that pops up on my screen, interrupting my FRIENDS marathon. The message comes from none other than my boyfriend Kun, who’s been spending all of quarantine so far looking for ways for us to go on dates.

When COVID hit, Kun and I were forced to confine ourselves in our respective apartments, limiting contact. It hasn’t been too hard thus far, we call and text everyday without fail. Simple good mornings and silly pictures of my cat sufficed for the first month or so. But as the quarantine dragged on, I began missing Kun’s face more and more. We hadn’t been on a proper date in god knows how long, and it was starting to impact my mental health.

Curiosity consumes me as I click the link, awaiting whatever dorky plot Kun had conjured up. Within seconds his lopsided grin filled my screen and drew a small smile from my lips.

“Hi Sunshine!” He greets cheerfully, the familiar pet name bringing warmth to my cheeks.

“Heya baby, what’s this about?”

“Nothing, just missed you.” Kun’s tone has a hint of mischief that doesn’t go unnoticed by me. But playing along with Kun is way more fun than interrogating him.

“Mmm not as much as I missed you. You sure there’s no special reason for this?” I can see Kun’s eyes sparkling despite the low quality graphics.

“Weeeeellllllll I suppose I did want to ask if you’d want to go on a date?”

“A date? How would we do that?”

“Like this!” Kun gestures eagerly at the screen. “Through zoom! I found all kinds of fun things we can do.”

“And when would we do this?”

“I mean I’m free now…” Kun suggests, eliciting a giggle from me. Sometimes Kun’s cuteness is unbelievable.

“That works for me. What’d you have in mind baby?” Kun’s eyes sparkle mischievously.

“Wanna get your ass whooped at Mario Kart?”

“In your d r e a m s Qian.”

⏳

After that initial date, zoom dates with Kun became a frequent occurance. Kun wasn’t kidding when he said he had a lot of ideas. He set up so many dates ranging from movie nights (“You know he comes back in the next movie right?” “TOM HOLLAND IS TOO HOT TO DIE KUN.”) to a talent show consisting mostly of magic and Louis ignoring my attempts to make him do tricks. I began to look forward to each and every one of the meetings. Especially if it’s my turn to plan the date (“It’s more fun playing Just Dance against you cause you’re uncoordinated and I always win.” “Shut up.”). Dates with Kun made quarantine far more tolerable, though I still missed cuddling with Kun. The teddy bear he sent me as a replacement was a kind gesture though.

I hold it close as I watch Kun struggle to repeat the steps I taught him. A small chuckle escapes my lips, and Kun immediately turns to me with a pout.

“Don’t laugh, I think I’m doing alright.”

“Oh yeah at this pace you’ll be in level 2 hiphop in no time,” I joke, only laughing harder at the huff Kun lets out. “I wasn’t laughing at you darling, just thinking about how much I love you.” The older boy looks slightly stunned by my confession but he’s beaming from ear to ear within seconds.

“I love you too Sunshine.”

***

“It’s way too salty.”

“I told you the recipe didn’t call for a cup of salt but you wouldn’t listen!!!” I giggle at my exasperated boyfriend before putting the failed noodle dish in the sink.

“Maybe I should hire a better teacher.”

“Good luck finding someone else who’ll tolerate your bullshit like I do,” We both chuckle at that. “Are you available for another date Friday night?”

I pretend to think it over before shrugging, “I suppose I can fit you into my schedule.” Kun glares cutely at me through the screen. “What do you have planned?”

“It’s a surprise.” Kun wiggles his eyebrows for emphasis.

“Sounds mysterious.”

“Well if I recall correctly you love suspense,” Kun muses, “You in?”

“Of course.”

Kun tries to keep up his mysterious demeanor, but the way he visibly lights up at my confirmation is impossible to miss.

“Then I’ll see you in 3 days sunshine.” And with a final wink, he ends the meeting.

Cheeky fucker.

⏳

Finding the patience to wait for Kun’s surprise proved quite challenging. I couldn’t help but mull over what on earth the older man had planned. The existence of the mystery lifted my previously sour mood, but I couldn’t for the life of me solve for x while Kun’s gleeful words raced through my head.

After nearly an hour of staring at the same math question, I decide planning my outfit would be a better use of my time. Considering I have no idea what Kun is planning, I try to pick an outfit that’s casual but also pretty. I didn’t want to overdo it (it’s only a zoom date after all) but I also wanted Kun to know I tried. I tear my closet apart for about 20 minutes before settling on my favorite white tee and jeans. I also opt to do a little makeup, knowing Kun would appreciate it. Showering, makeup, and hair take up the rest of my time and before I know it, it’s time for our zoom date.

It appears I wasn’t the only one looking forward to the date because even though I logged on a whole 5 minutes early, Kun was already waiting to admit me.

“Someone’s excited.” I tease, proud of the light pink that dusts kun’s cheeks

“I’m the host, what’s your excuse?” He chuckles lightly. “You look gorgeous Sunshine.”

“Not so bad yourself,” my teasing tone barely disguises the obvious want in my voice. Cause Kun. Looks. Adorable. It’s not that he’s dressed up, not at all actually. He’s dressed somewhat similarly to me, drowning in a plain collared long sleeve. The sleeves are long enough to cover his hands, giving him sweater paws that make him appear not only soft, but tiny. His chocolate brown hair is mussed up, only adding to the overall image. To top it all off, he seems to be wearing a little bit of lip balm. I have never wanted to kiss someone so bad in my entire life.

“You frozen there lovebug?” Kun’s amused comment breaks me out of my stupor.

“Nope, just enjoying the view,” I wink nonchalantly once again relishing in the blush rising up Kun’s neck. “So what’s your plan?”

“You should be finding out in about…” He checks his watch dramatically, “5 minutes.” I could only giggle in response as I watched my boyfriend, eyes gleaming with mischief. As I may have mentioned previously: Kun is a dork. He enjoys setting up dates a lot (maybe a bit too much). He likes to come up with weird creative ideas for us to try. It’s one of the things I love most about him. And the way his gaze is flitting every which way and his legs are bouncing all over the place is a clear sign that he’s extremely proud of whatever he’s planned.

A few minutes of mindless chitchat later, I hear the doorbell ring. I give Kun a knowing look as he pretends not to know what’s going on. I open the door to see two boxes of take out from my favorite restaurant. I turn to Kun on the screen.

“You didn’t.”

“Oh, but I did sunshine.”

As I open the delicious smelling box I see that he’d gotten my favorite dish as well. He’d remembered every detail of it. A few tears escape my eyes against my will. Kun seems confused and concerned by my reaction, his beautiful features melting into a frown.

“Did I get something wrong? I swear I checked like 8 times to make sure I just--”

“No Kun it’s perfect,” I smile wetly. “You got everything right baby, I’m just really lucky to have you.” Kun nods understandingly grinning to reveal his dimple, and all of a sudden I’m hit with a wave of sadness and longing. I want nothing more than to be there with Kun, to caress his cheeks and bury my head in his chest and kiss the freckle under his brow that I love so much. I’m hit all at once with the realization that I miss being with Kun, and suddenly the tears are streaming down my cheeks. Kun stays silent, patient as always and it only makes me want to cry more.

“I miss you so fucking much,” I whisper between sobs. My vision is far too blurry to see how Kun is reacting to my outburst. “I hate this stupid quarantine, and the stupid virus, and stupid zoom. I just w-want to hug you so bad kunkun.” My voice breaks at the end of my sobs.

“Aw baby, I know. Any time we do these dates I can’t help but miss everything about you. You mean so much to me and not being able to see you has been torture. But don’t worry too much Sunshine. This is not permanent. I’m confident we’ll be able to see each other again.” Kun’s eyes are practically pouring out affection and genuineness.

“I’m sorry for ruining the date.”

“If you don’t hush right now I’m going to find a way to Zoom slap you,” Kun teased. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for and you haven’t ruined anything. We can just eat and watch a movie together yeah?”

There on my couch, as I lost count of the hours going by with Kun’s voice in my ears: I realized that despite the unideal situation, we’d be okay.

KUNTEN PIC OF THE DAY:

[blueprint-han]

Hehewo, I’m the anon that asked about the quality of the banners/headers. Thank you very much for the answers, I will attempt lmao. I’m sorry for this sjsksjjsks but I’m going to ask anyways. I was also wondering, how do you get the pics of the boys so sharp/from where do you even source them lmao😂✨

Sorry for that and thank you in advance. 💗🧡🧚‍♀️

Hello bubs! 🥺 Sorry I'm getting to this really late! <3 Days have been kinda harsh lately, so sorry :( I made this a full blown tutorial SKSJSJSJSJ sorry if this is too long :(

Anyways! Again, the way to get a good quality pic that is sharp is again just to make sure that the picture you're using is of good quality.

But besides from that, I do use the sharpening settings I showed in the last ask when I'm recolouring a picture to make them look more nice and hq. remember not to sharpen too much! If you do, then the picture will look very weird and grainy and u want to sharpen just enough to make it look defined and neat.

As for the sourcing, I have many places I get them from. If it's an official pic (like a photo for an album), then I try to locate the tweets of the photos from stray kids’ twitter acc.

If that doesn't seem to work, then I simply check the fandom wiki page. It will be hard to navigate from the fandom page itself, so simply Google “[album name] photoshoot fandom wiki” and the first things to pop up will contain your pics.

Here's an example for levanter:

The photos are also pretty hq do good for using in edits! Just follow this format and it should work! <3

Here you can see the difference! The left photo is taken from a Google search and the right one is taken from fandom wiki. It may look similar at first glance, but click on each picture and zoom in and you'll see the difference in quality.

If what I want is from like, something other than an album shoot, like a brand endorsement (for eg Clio), then I just go to the Twitter page (or whatever page they post their pictures on) and download it from there, since it will be the highest quality.

See these two pictures? They look identical, but when you zoom in on them, the right one clearly looks more lq than the left one. The left one is from the Clio official Twitter and the right one is from the first result onna Google search. Which brings me to my next point:

If both of these fail and you just found a picture using Google that you wanna use, instead of directly downloading it from Google itself, go to the source website and then download them. Meaning:

Instead of directly downloading from here, click on where the arrow is pointing and download it from there, because I've learnt from personal experience that photos on google are often decreased by quality in the slightest amount compared to the source photos.

And if everything else fails, try searching for pics on deviantart. Or Pinterest. These two are the biggest site for good photos, and if you dog through them enough, you'll find some good quality photos.

Some more pointers to not make your photos look grainy compared to the bg:

Don't zoom in on your photo too much. A reasonable amount is fine, but don't go too much with the difference. What this means is if you want to fit a photo into a bg, then don't zoom it out too much, because the pixels will start turning more prominent, and the pic will look grainy.

Follow the same 1280 px dimension rule I told you about in the previous ask for pics as well. Any less than that and the moment you zoom in to fit the picture it will look bad.

Just do the same sharpening and texturing options I showed on the previous ask! It will give the photo more depth!

In addition to all of these, I also play with the coloring of the picture, which tends to affect how a picture looks, though not a lot. Just make sure the pic doesn't look very out of place compared to the bg and that the colors blend in well, and the quality will show.

That's it! And pls don't worry about it, don't apologise! 🥺💞 I hope your banner turns out well 🥰 this was so long sjndjd I'm sorry ;-;

[fierycosmos]

FFXV: Prompto Meeting his Date

She’s never been to a dance before, but is there to support her father and stand to represent her family name proudly – but she finds the “adults” talking is boring and excuses herself for some fresh air. She reaches a balcony and looks over the city of Insomnia with childlike wonder. It’s beautiful light up at night, and she’s never gotten the privilege of seeing it from this high up. Suddenly a light catches her eye and she looks down and notices well-light garden that looks enchanting. Making it her new destination, she wanders through the castle for a brief time before she reaches the gardens and is encapsulated with the scenery and is not minding where she’s wandering off. As she walks, she knocks something around her knees and is halted, and whatever she stepped into falters at her touch too. “O-oh.” She muses aloud, thinking she knocked into a bench or pot or something, but realizes it’s a person squatting with a camera in hand. “Whoops, sorry, am I in your way?” Came the pleasant voice of the blonde boy at her feet. “What? No,” She shakes her head, still rather surprised by him being here. “Besides, I’m the one who needs to apologize. I’m sorry for not watching where I was going.” She bows slightly to be polite. “Did I hurt you?” “Nah, I’m tougher than I look.” He smiles broadly. Seeing his charming smile, she does so in return – and then she notices his camera. “Did I ruin your shot?” She asks hesitantly, hoping that wasn’t the case. “Oh, not at all, look.” He excitedly goes to the album and shows the last picture he took: of the flower in front of him low to the ground with white petals that were very illuminated with the moonlight hitting them just right, making them look magical. She squats down next to him, and he somewhat stiffens. “See?” “Wow,” She gasps, looking at the picture whimsically. “You have quite the eye.” She compliments, which earns a blush to appear on his features – highlighting his freckles. She smiles at his bashfulness and blushes in return, but focuses her attention back onto the photo, wanting to keep her cool. “You really captured the elegance of the flower – and how luminous it can be when under the right light.” Prompto’s eyes widen at her analysis and he grins. “Exactly my thought, I couldn’t let a sight like this just slip away, as to why I’m here.” “I’m sorry if I disturbed you from your work.” She apologizes again. “N-no need to apologize,” He blushes and rubs the back of his neck and she smiles at his mannerisms. “I-I’m Prompto, by the way.” He sticks out his hand. “Miranda – nice to meet you.” She grins and shakes his hand. “I-I suppose I shouldn’t be wandering too far from the party, but I’m not used to going to things like this – it’s a little intimidating.” Prompto admits, feeing slightly awkward with his own honesty. Miranda’s eyes widen at sharing the same feeling as him. “A-actually,” Miranda places her forearms on her dress-covered knees bashfully maintaining eye contact with the flower. “I came out here for the same reason.” She explains. “Really?” Prompto gapes. “Yeah, I don’t know what to do in there.” She fiddles with her mutli-layered skirt. “I’m here because of my dad and his new job.” She admits. “I wouldn’t have come if he hadn’t asked me to so persistently.” “Well I’m glad you made it.” He reassures her. She meets his eyes and blushes a bit, and he panics and blushes brightly. “I-I mean, they’re supposed to be fun, uh, I mean, again, I wouldn’t know, but—” Miranda laughs aloud and causes Prompto to falter. “I’m glad you’re here too.” She smiles and blushes deeply, but Prompto just blinks for a moment before grinning stupidly at her. Then he gets an idea, and his face visibly lights up and it catches Miranda’s undivided attention. “Say, could I ask you something?” Prompto asks somewhat hesitantly. “S-sure.” Her hesitation and blush made Prompto do the same. “C-could I take a picture of you.” He falters. Miranda gapes. “Wh-what? Really?” She thought maybe she misheard him or something. “Well, it’s your dress.” He blushes and scratches the back of his head, looking down at her gown. She blinks at him and then looks down at her own dress, not getting the point. “What about it?” “It has the same sort of features as this flower.” He draws her attention again to the flower he just expertly captured on his camera. “I bet it would look great in the moonlight.” “O-oh” She smiles, though feels awkward still but also feeling off because he didn’t just want a picture of her as herself. If it wasn’t for her dress, she may not have received his attention at all and it made her slightly crestfallen.   “But there’s not enough light here.” He continues his thought. He looks around for a good spot in mind, and then his eyes find a bench bathed in moonlight, as there were no trees shading it. “There.” His eye line has it so Miranda follows his glance and sees the bench. “W-well, if you think it would be worth it.” She complies. “Totally.” He encourages, stands up and helps her stand upright with a reach of his hand. She smiles and takes his extended hand – and she’s happily surprised when he doesn’t let go as he leads her to the bench with a smile planted on his face, which causes her to smile beyond the butterflies in her stomach and the blush creeping farther over her face. “Okay, take a seat.” Prompto instructs, and Miranda doe so, though stiffly. “H-how would you like me?” She phrases awkwardly. “H-huh?” Prompto immediately blushes at her statement and almost trips over his own footing. “To pose!” She blurts out, and blushes deep red and feels the heat trickling down her neck. “How should I pose?” “O-oh, uh,” He looks at her intently and steps closer and looks at their surroundings. “Maybe slightly faced this way – since the light is strongest coming from here.” He shifts her shoulders and torso so it faces the moonlight directly. “Should I look at the camera and smile?” “Of course!” His grins and his proclamation makes her smile too and he steps back after moving away from her face and stretching the hem of her dress so it fanned out around her more. “Okay, say chocobo!” “Chocobo?” She questions, her eyebrows unconsciously knitting and her mouth pouting slightly. He laughs and looks at the photo he took and nods in approval. “Okay, let’s try again.” “Can I see?” “Once I get it just right.” He promises. “O-okay.” She agrees hesitantly. Before willing to take another one, she takes a moment to smooth out her dress – thinking he’d give her a second – but the camera clicked anyway, startling her slightly. Then there was another click. “W-wait, I wasn’t ready!” “That was perfect!” He proclaims victoriously. “I wasn’t trying to pose.” She argues, though weakly. “Wow!” He gasps as he goes through his camera. “I should’ve known you being candid would be just right.” “R-really?” “Really! See?” He first shows Miranda the photo of her looking somewhat startled at the camera as she’s slightly bent over playing with the fabric of her dress. She had to admit the way her hair ended up draping over her shoulder and how she looked up had the moonlight give her a softer quality that she liked. Seeing her satisfaction, Prompto moved to show her the first photo of her candidness he took, showing her hands brush through her long hair elegantly and showing how her face and hair this time caught the lighting just right and making her more picturesque than she realized she possessed. “That’s a great one. You look beautiful.” He tightens his lips into a line when he realizes he spoke the latter half of his statement aloud and looks alarmed when he glances at Miranda next, and then quickly back to the picture of the camera and begins zooming out. “Well, it was thanks to your direction and your eye for spotting my good side.” She spoke logically as she eyed him, wary of his reaction, which thankfully gets him to smile at relax again. “Like you have a bad side.” He nudges her gently in a joking yet sincere manner and the two laugh. Their laughter subsided and they stared at each other openly without meaning to – and they realize the same time they each got quiet and they begin to blush again. Prompto was about to speak up again, though hesitantly before hearing some bushes being disturbed. “Prom?” A voice calls with another rumble of some bushes.   “Noct!” Prompto stands up, a smile returning to his face. Noctis appears from around the bushy corner and peers at his friend, but then realizes Prompto isn’t alone and smirks slightly. “Am I interrupting something? I can come back.”  He smirks, which causes Prompto to sputter and Miranda to blush further. “N-no, nothing’s wrong!” Prompto is too quick to answer. “That’s not what I asked.” Noctis smirked knowingly, and he approaches further. Miranda stands up hesitantly before bowing low and politely. “Prince Noctis,” She acknowledges and Noctis nods though looks uncomfortable, and Prompto slightly deflates. “If you need a moment with him, then I will excuse myself.” She began to walk forward to excuse herself. “What?” Prompto’s shock had her pause and look at him expectedly, but he blushes and rubs his neck as the blush spreads again. “No need,” Noctis shrugs, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I just came to check he didn’t run off.” He admits, but then smirks to himself before smirking outright in Prompto’s direction. “I’d hate to interrupt.” Noctis gives Prompto a mischievous look and causes the two to blush. “Come find me when you can.” Noctis nods in both their directions. Prompto nods with a hand still rubbing his neck while Miranda bows again, though not as deeply as before. As Noctis retreats, the silence around Miranda and Prompto returns. “I’m sorry for keeping you away from him.” Miranda apologizes, not knowing what to say to fill up the somewhat awkward atmosphere.   “What?” Prompto mused in a trance almost, as he was lost in his own thoughts. Once her words caught up in his brain, he shook himself out of his state and focused up again, ready now for a proper response. “Hey, not a problem. Besides, not like I don’t like being around you.” The two blush but Miranda smiles as he averts his eyes. Miranda gets the nerve to approach him and clasp his hand with both her hands. Prompto visibly jumps and stiffens, but meets her eyes nonetheless – a blush still evident on his face, and he somewhat relaxes with the warm look on her face. “It’s okay, go.” Miranda mused quietly, and she could feel Prompto stiffen at her words from under her hands. She smiles bigger this time. “He looked like he needed you, and you look worried.” She presumed, but smiled through the sadness growing in her stomach, and then increasing as she saw the dejected look on Prompto’s face. She quickly knew she had to make his smile return. “But on one condition.” He ridges a brow that meets his hairline and is afraid to speak, which makes Miranda smile hesitantly. “I’d like to see you again, some time after this.” She blushed at her words as she slowly let go of his hands as she waited for a response before getting her hopes too high. He quickly grins and reached with both hands for hers, and she’s startled and meets his eyes again. “Yes!” He smiles at her seeing the relief and slight shock in Miranda’s features. “How about tomorrow?” “G-great!” Miranda smiles and Prompto’s smile grows joyously. “When?” “Do you like breakfast?” He asks hopefully. “Of course.” She smiles genuinely. “Then let’s meet for breakfast tomorrow.” He grins. “Okay.” “Meet me outside the gates tomorrow, and I’ll take you to a really great diner nearby.” He promises. “That would be great.” She also grins. “Perfect!” He squeezes her hands in excitement and then pulls her into a hug – which startles her at first, but she quickly relaxes into it. Realizing his actions, Prompto stiffens this time and pulls away abruptly, holding her out at arm’s length by her shoulders. “U-uh,” he sputters, while Miranda’s amused beyond blushing a dark red. “I-I should go – you know – check on Noct.” “Of course.” She nods. He stiffens at her agreeing to leave and takes a step back to head towards where Noct went, but stops and scrunches his face up in thought. She looks at him quizzically, but freezes when he quickly is in front of her again; his lips brush her cheek ever so fleetingly. Her blush grows to incredible new heights as she feels her whole body is on fire from her blush – emanating from the cheek he kissed. He backs away as quickly as he approached and then turns to run. “See you at 9!” He calls over his shoulders, almost tripping as he rounds the corner to find his friend. She’s still frozen, not able to call anything in response after him, and only allows her to hand to ghost above her cheek and feel the place where Prompto kissed too briefly. She smiles dreamily to herself before deciding to make her way back into he ballroom to and waltzes back to her parents - but barely pays them any mind as she is thinking about tomorrow.     

__________

hi so my last of my four-part "ball setting" series with each chocobro meeting a potential significant other i hope this one matches up with the others this one was probs my fave to write cuz i just love stuttering and delightfully awkward prompto and how he doesn't know the first about interacting with girls and second-guessing himself so please indulge me in my awkward writing of promptohe sure can be confident if he wants to - but i feel like if he meets a pretty girl he'll falter -- like he did when meeting cindy please let me know your thoughts on this story and the others too which one's your fave? would love to hear your opinions   also if you want me to write more about the chocobros and have suggestions - comment down below or DM me! story belongs to me prompto and references to ffxv are owned and were created by square enix

[gruntadminloch-moved]

“Hey, Danie, how do you darken those black and white icons anyway?”

((Well friends, disgruntled eevee friend is here with a simple gimp tutorial for you!!

What you’ll need is:

GIMP(other programs should work but I can’t really help you with those. Someone else probably can, though!)

Manga scans(preferably the best quality you can find!  I do not recommend you use fanart, and I do not condone use of fanart without permission from the artist. not just credit linking back to them, not ‘credit to the owner,’ permission.)

Simple enough, right? Pop that bad boy open in GIMP(once you’ve installed it you should be able to find it in the ‘open with’ part of your context menu--the one that pops up by right clicking the pic) and then we can get started!!

Rad. You got your pic. Now then, editing anything black and white to a darker shade is really simple, if a bit time-consuming.

You’re going to want to use the “Free Select Tool”--it should be the third button  on the top right. The little lasso.

You can click on it or just hit the F key and it should pop right over to it. You can also use the Scissors Select Tool(the little scissors on the far right, same line,) but personally I like the Free Select tool a bit better. It does things a bit more. . .stiffly? but I haven’t figured out how to backspace with the scissor thing yet.

MOVING ON. Let’s zoom in on our subject!

Poor Gil’s looking awfully pale. And not just because he’s sick lol, just because it’s in black and white(and he’s a pretty light-skinned character.)  Now, as you can see, not only is his hair in the way, but so are his eyes. On top of that, his hands aren;t touching the rest of his skin, so selection is gonna have to go in multiple places. But, hey! GIMP has a feature for that!

With the Free Select Tool selected, all we have to do is start clicking around the parts we wanna darken. Real simple.

With each click, you should get a little bubble. You can also drag/draw if you wanna make things less. . .angular. The great thing about the bubbles is that they can be dragged about! So if you happen to slap a segment in the wrong place or otherwise wanna move it. . . .

Boop! New location. And if you put one in the wrong place entirely and just wanna get rid of it, hitting backspace will take out the last segment.

So, I’m sure you can figure out what to do from here!  Get to clicking!  Put on some music or a video or something in the background so you don’t get bored, if you’re into that. You can pop another window on top of it too--to check your messages or do your drafts or what have you--and come back and your segments will still be in place until you stop making them or close the image.

Click your way around the part you wanna change the color of(zooming in and out as you go helps--use ctrl+your scroll wheel or the + and - keys to do this without swapping tools) aaaaaand

Tada! All the little dotted lines you see there represent the selection.

As you can see I lucked out with him because his bangs tend to make contact with his eyes--that way I could go around the eyes to keep them out of the selection. . . . But, as you can see, the mouth is still trapped in there.

Now, using the same tool, hold ctrl or click on this box here! Note, this will change the setting of the tool until you click a different box, so be careful!

While holding ctrl or with this box selected, click somewhere within the selection. You’ll start doing the same bubble thing--but this time anything you encapsulate will be removed from the selection. Your cursor-lasso will have a little minus sign next to it before you start clicking.

Bleep bloop! Achievement unlocked. You removed part of your selection. Proud of you! The boundaries of the selection are updated--now there are broken lines inside of it, too, to show where the selection doesn’t go!

“Hey, Danie, what about his hands? Those’re separated!”

You could do them on their own, but you can also hold shift or click on this box right here.

(I usually have this on by default and just use ctrl when i wanna subtract stuff. But how you do it is up to you!)

When you have shift held or that box clicked, you can add to the selection. That means stuff can be selected that’s not touching the initial part that you selected.

Repeat the initial steps! Click click boom.

Now his hands (and that bit of forehead that I missed because Oz’s hand is in the way thanks Oz) are slected as well. That was easy, right? Very simple.

Now then. The coloring part is also simple. However, you may be like me and may want small details changed before you get the darkening in--for example, to turn Gilbert into Loch, he needs to be rid of his double eyelid, because Loch has monolid eyes. It’s just a matter of erasing--but don’t forget to turn off the alpha channel if you’ve got it on. The alpha channel enables transparency, which makes it so that you erase to transparency instead of to your secondary color. To get rid of the alpha channel, just right click the layer in the menu on the right or click the layer menu on the top or right click the picture and go to ‘Layer/Transparency.’

So the next step is a bit more trial-and-error-y and more up to how you want the colors to look. Loch is a pretty dark-skinned guy, so the edit I make will have Gilbert very dark. It’s just a matter of fussing with your chosen settings.

Everything you want now is probably under Colors.

You can choose to play with the Curves, which is a slant/graph of darkness to lightness on various existing shades of light and dark on the picture. Messing with this too much may make your lines in the selection a different shade than the ones outside of it. Personally, I don’t usually play with the Curves much, but they can be useful for altering multiple shades at once.

Before

After!

Pro tip! If you like your setting and plan on using it again to make the same/a similar shade, hit the little plus sign(+) on the dropdown next to Presets! You’ll be able to save that exact setting to make the process easier next time.

My preferred method is simply playing with Brightness and Contrast.  It’s pretty much the same thing but. . .a bit simpler imo. It doesn’t go quite as dark as Curves does, but you’re also less likely to mess up your lines’ shades if you use it.

Before. . . .

After!

As you can see, not as dark as the initial option and it’s fully at the end. Kinda sucks a bit if you’re going for a really dark tone or using a base that’s solid white instead of a little greyish. But it’s also simpler, in my opinion, since you don’t have as many options here as you do playing with the Curves.

Loch is looking much more like himself now! Proud of him. And me. And you, for what you’ve done so far if you’re editing along on your own pic! Good work!!

“But Danie,” you may say if you look at any icons I have of Loch, “his eye shade is still awfully bright. . . .”

“Well, friend, rinse and repeat remains the answer. Deselect everything(Hit the Selection menu and hit “None” or click the very first toolbox option and click anywhere outside of your selection and poof it goes.) and start selecting again!

Poor sick Loch. Or embarrassed, or however I intend on using this image.

Now GIMP is a bit different in that attempting to save the file(ctrl+s) will save it as the gimp editable file.  To save the image you want to hit ctrl+e(or ctrl+shift+e if you don’t wanna lose your base file.) E is for Export and it’ll let you save your image as an image file!

Now that you’ve saved it, time for me to teach you how to make it a simple icon. Real easy stuff!!

Because you edited the whole image, you can also reframe it for icons rather than just having to make a new icon and edit it over and over again. Makes things a bit quicker.

Click the rectangle select tool! (Or Ellipse if you want a circle! I use squares!!)

From here, look down at the settings.  Make sure you have nothing selected.  Chances are, you want an even shape--same length on each side, a nice square or even circle. If you have nothing selected, it’ll be 0,0 and you’ll be all set. If you want a certain ratio, that’s a different story, but we’re talking basics here.

Click the checkbox next to “Fixed” and make sure the dropdown says “Aspect Ratio”! This will make it so that any selection you make will have dimensions that can be divided or multiplied evenly up to that shape--in this case, a perfect square.

Now drag on your image so you can get a selection the size you need! You can adjust the side of it to be more even for cleaner resizing results in the same area. My pic is pretty big, so mine came out to an even 800x.

Copy your selection! just hit ctrl+c--same as any copying. Don’t cut it in case you wanna come back and get another cut of the pic(which helps with actual comic pages!)

Now, hit ctrl+shift+z to paste it into a new image!

Even stevenson.

Now all you have to do is resize the picture to the size you want. If you’re working with a big pic like I am, you’ll see that the size is gonna be wrong because you’re zoomed out--just hit 1 on your keyboard and it’ll maximize your zoom.

you can see your zoom level right there. zoooom~!

Press Image at the top of your window! Then press “Scale Image!”

get a load of that d(ial)og(ue)

You see the little chain connected between the Width and Height measurements? Make sure that’s connected, or manually edit it to the same number--that way you don’t get things shrunk down in weird dimensions like an 800px tall picture that’s only 100px wide.

Change the numbers next to width and height to whatever size you want your icon to be! As an old fashioned LJ/DW rper, I usually go with 100x.

(if it looks a little funky, try a different cut(again, try and make sure your sides are even before you start!) or try messing with the Interpolation. Alternatively, try  smaller cut. Especially if the lines you’re working with are thin.)

Scale!

Smol and icon sized. Now ctrl+E to save it and you’re all set!! You have yourself an edited, b&w manga icon. Don’t forget to go back and make a few more cuts of the images for extra emotional range and options.

I did this in about an hour, including time taken to set up this post. It’s normally not a long process by any means, so please don’t be daunted!

Happy editing, friends!! /o/))

[evenstevensranked]

#26: Season 3, Episode 13 - “Boy On A Rock”

Louis is under the impression that Twitty's ex-girlfriend Allison is hitting on him judging by the looks they've been exchanging. A plot filled with wonderful miscommunication ensues! Meanwhile, Steve volunteers at LJH and Ren competes against Tom for a spot to march in the annual Rose Parade. 

This one opens with Steve driving Louis, Twitty and Ren to school. Steve takes the opportunity to tell them that he’s signed up to be a parent volunteer at their school, to Louis and Ren’s absolute dismay. It’s pretty great when Louis asks if he’s going to embarrass them and Steve says “Well, that’s probably unavoidable.” Well, at least he knows. But, since he knows he’s embarrassing.. why can’t he make a conscious decision to dial it down?! 

We see that Twitty is talking quietly on the phone to someone before he hangs up and reveals it was Allison and that they just broke up. I love this bit because it comes across as refreshingly grown-up. Another thing that feels more High School than Middle School to me. It’s also a very nice moment for Louis and Twitty’s friendship. Louis is super comforting and soft spoken here all “Dude, I’m sorry...” Awww. I love it. 

At school, the flag core is rehearsing their routine for the annual Rose Parade. Coach Tugnut tells them, “Hey! Don’t get too cocky. One miss-twirl and, well..... We all know what happened to Shamski.” This is so funny. Whatever “unfortunate incident” happened to this Shamski guy has opened up a spot on the team. Literally no one else wants the spot other than Ren, so Tugnut is about to give it to her by default -- until good’ol Tom Gribalski comes jogging into the picture, late due to Opera Club running overtime, hoping to try out. Tugnut tells them both to practice and they’ll hold official tryouts after school. 

Louis is in class about to take a quiz when Allison walks by the door and starts cheekily smiling at him. I swear to god this is so freaking funny. Louis does a double take because... why would she randomly stop and stare at him like that?! There’s this sultry, instrumental Spanish flamenco music playing and it kills me. 

The girl is literally biting her lip... what de heck. 

Of course, this is all it takes for Louis to start thinking he’s God’s gift to earth and that every woman ever must be after him. He goes to talk to Tawny about it and says Allison gave him “The Eye” which is great. Tawny thinks he’s being ridiculous so Louis is all “Sounds like you’re jealous that ~the ladies~ are checkin’ me out.” Oh my god. Tawny says “We had our little thing, and now we’re just friends. I’m fine if the ~ladies~ are checking you out” -- which we know is a lie but okay. Again, this all feels very high school to me and I love it tbh. 

Later in the cafeteria line, Allison gives Louis another look. THE MUSIC KICKS IN AGAIN AND IT’S MY FAVORITE THING. This melody gets stuck in my head constantly. I just hum it and laugh to myself because it’s so dramatic and overly romantic sounding for this situation. Louis is now totally convinced that he’s not crazy and she’s definitely into him. Tawny’s had enough already and flat out asks Allison if she’s been checking him out and she says “I have. I like his look.” WELL, DANG. It’s amazing because as soon as she says that, one single chord from the flamenco guitar plays as she walks away and I die every time. This counts as music humor to me. 

Louis gets lost in his thoughts and it zooms into his brain to show us these two elderly men chillin at a Deli discussing the current drama of Louis’ life. WHAT?! 

This show is so freaking random. I don’t even know where they come up with this stuff. I used to think these guys were stupid and pointless, which they kinda are. Especially since we’ve never seen them before and they’re only featured in this one episode. But, the more I thought about it.. the more I started to find it hilarious. One of them thinks Louis should go for it and date Allison, the other thinks it’s wrong because she’s his best friend’s ex. Um, I agree with the latter. Twitty and Allison broke up THAT MORNING and Louis is already considering going in for the kill. I cannot. He’s insane. But that’s already been established many times and these Deli men are just the icing on the cake. 

Just then, Steve busts out of the kitchen shouting “HOWDY, KIDS! STEP RIGHT UP TO BIG STEVE’S TEXAS BARBECUE!” Are you kidding me right now? Yeah, ya know how I said if Steve knows he’s embarrassing he should just do his best to dial it down? It’s like he purposely turned it up to 11: 

I love how Shia does the shirt-over-the-head thing to hide from the embarrassment, lol.

Cut to the flag core tryouts. Ren tries her best, but of course, Tom blows her away. Some stock music that reminds me of “76 Trombones” from The Music Man plays while he does his routine, lol. Steve is now on trash duty and comes over to Ren and asks how it went. She says she’ll probably be watching the parade from home again and Steve is clearly a little mad. You can tell he’s gonna do something about it which... come on, man. Let the better person win. Coach Tugnut goes on to say one of my favorite lines when Tom asks which one of them made the team: “Well, I could tell you that right now... But it would be better for your character if I were to prolong the agony for a couple more hours.” So good. Tugnut says quite a few gems throughout the series, tbh. 

Tawny is me once again and confronts Louis about him seriously considering getting together with Allison. She, too, agrees that it’s way too soon. It cuts to the Deli guys and one of them just says “What does she know?! Ehh, this corned beef is too fatty!” which just makes me laugh. Louis suddenly agrees about it being too soon and says he’ll put a stop to whatever’s brewing between him and Allison IMMEDIATELY. Just then, Allison approaches him and it takes all of 0.5 seconds for Louis to completely cave. 

The flamenco music is playing again here, btw. 

Honestly, y’all gotta hear what this music sounds like for yourself so it can be hilariously stuck in your head too:

Louis goes to the bathroom to talk to himself (and the guys in his head) out loud, as you do when you’re in crisis. Speaking of the bathroom, ya know how I’ve mentioned a few times that Louis moved up to 8th grade in Season 3? Well, this scene is one of the few that definitely confirm it!! The door clearly tells us that he’s in the 8th grade bathroom. Ayyyy!

Still not sure why the bathrooms are segregated like that tho??? Is that a thing?

Tom is in one of the stalls practicing his flag routine and Louis is shocked. He’s all “TOM! What were you doing in there?!” but Tom turns the tables “The better question is, who are you talking to out here?” Gotta love how Louis owns his craziness and explains “OH! Well, there’s these two old guys who hang out at a Deli in my head and help me out with lifes little problems.” Fantastic. Louis asks Tom where Templeton Park is and we get one of the best moments ever. (Tumblr won’t let me embed more than one thing, so click that link to see what I’m talking about. Tom is the GREATEST.) So, yeah. Louis finds out that people call it “Temptation Park” because it’s a popular makeout spot. Seriously, these kids are in high school ok. I refuse to believe otherwise. 

Basically, to shorten and simplify this subplot: Steve bribes Tugnut with donuts so that Ren will get the spot on the flag core... which she does. Ren finds out and gets mad because she a very fair-and-square person. So, she in turn bribes Tugnut with a cheese calzone to ensure Tom gets the spot instead... which he does. THE END!

Ren handing her flag over to Tom -- whose life has just been made. 

Louis is a nervous wreck around Twitty because he obviously knows that he should not be messing around with Allison in any way shape or form. So when Twitty asks if he wants to hang out later, Louis makes up some bogus excuse about needing to go sock shopping with his dad. Wow. As usual, Twitty knows that something’s up. 

CUT TO ~TEMPTATION PARK~! The miscommunication culminates here and I love it so much. Louis meets Allison at the park and she lays out a blanket for them and everything. They get comfortable and she asks “Soo, you wanna try something fun?” and Louis’ voice cracks so bad when he answers “.......su..re....” Oh my freaking god. He’s totally thinking they’re about to makeout or something and it’s too much. It only gets worse when she asks him to slip into a bathing suit she brought with her. I’m dyin right now. The guys in his head are all “No good can come of this!!” - Ain’t that the truth. This is where Louis draws the line. He tells her that Twitty is his best friend and what they’re doing is VERY VERY WRONG. Allison is confused out of her mind like “....what are we doing?” Then we get one of my favorite Louis quotes: 

I cannot get over how CONFIDENT Louis is?! He thought he could easily make a 36 year old woman fall in love with him. Now he assumes Allison can’t resist his gorgeousness as if he’s 1997 Leonardo DiCaprio. Chill, Louis. 

It’s here that we finally learn the real reason why Allison has been checking him out and invited him to the park. She explains “I don’t want to date you, I want to paint you!” Louis is crumbling, oh man... And it only gets worse. She says she wants to recreate her favorite painting “Boy On A Rock” and she was staring at Louis so much because said boy on the rock is literally Louis:

I swear, if Shia had to actually sit for that painting... that is iconic and yet another poster that should exist if Even Stevens ever becomes as big as Seinfeld. Which it won’t. But still. I’d buy it. It’s actually a real painting by Dan Haberkorn, who was the art director for the show. He has it up on his website in high quality! It’s amazing. I so wish he’d sell prints/posters of it! Gah. 

Allison just keeps going on about the similarities between Louis and the painting: “See? Not really handsome, kinda of quirky, a little off...” “OK I GET IT!” Louis interrupts, lol. That must’ve been a wakeup call. Since Louis stopped their non-existent relationship because of Twitty, Allison tells him he’s a very good friend. I like that. They’re cool after that and Louis poses for the painting. (cover photo) I love the quote here: 

Allison: “Louis, you look perfect. Except you’re missing one thing...” 

Louis: “My dignity?”

Twitty happens to be passing through the park and sees Allison running her hands through Louis' hair to make it look more like the original painting. Twitty gets pissed at Louis for lying which leads to the most ridiculous chase sequence. The way Shia runs is so funny, omg. There’s also some stock song that’s sung in gibberish or something that plays here and it always gets stuck in my head, too. Which sucks because there are no actual lyrics, lol. Louis falls into some mud while running which irks me every time. That poor bathing suit! 

He ends up wandering into the middle of some girl scout meeting. They call him a mud monster, accidentally toss a cake on his head, and start chasing him as well, lol. These chases are also amazing because Louis is screaming the entire time, and we all know how great his scream is. Twitty eventually catches up to him and I love this dialogue so much:

Twitty: "So, why're you running?"

Louis: "CAUSE YOU'RE CHASIN' ME, TWITTY!"

My mom and I quote this at least once a week. This is a nice scene, though. The two of them have a heart to heart. Louis basically says it was stupid to let a girl come between them, so they agree that “from now on it’s friends first” -- Disney’s way of saying “bros b4 hoes” which is definitely what two 14 year old middle school boys would say instead. 

Then the girl scouts catch up to him again and the episode fades out on Louis running from them: 

Some say he’s still running today...

And that’s it! This is one of my personal favorites, guys. I LOVE the Louis plot here, haha. I’ve said before, I’m a sucker for teen drama and seeing Louis spiral into insanity over girls will never not be entertaining and endearing. I think this episode is funny, solid, fast-paced, and quotable! AND again, it’s a personal fave. This one has a lot going for it imo. It kinda kills me to place this one at 26, juuuust shy of the Top 25 (which, can you believe we’re about to hit the Top 25?! I can’t!) but yeah. I like this Ren plot too because it involves Tom and he is the best. 

In case you missed the last entry you can read it here. 

Thanks for reading! 

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[coffeeshop-au]

begginings- part 2

hey everyone! it’s me again with another very short chapter (this time about first interactions) which i hope you guys like. xx

 OR YO YO YO FIRST CHAPTER FOR THE NEWCOMER 

summary: how i like to imagine things happened in 2009. or, the one where dan falls hopelessly in love with a dork he met online and his youtube senpai falls in love with him too.

genre:slow burn, eventual phan smut

ao3link

chapter two

It all started a week after Dan followed Phil’s twitter, the replies and stalking. At first they weren’t obvioulsy attention-seeking (and Dan likes to say thet that’s something he never was but deep down he knows that he was phil trash n 1), just jokes like the time Phil tweeted something about a game Dan also played or a show he also watched and a smart pun was the obvious reply.

Even though Phil had liked that tweet, it took about 5 days for him to see the boy on his notifications again. This time it was a comment on how creative he found the newest video, which always made Phil smile. You see, Phil was really popular but he still felt a ting of insecurity and fear of being judged whenever he uploaded a video -actually, he felt the sensation increasing as the amount of followers grew. So it was no surprise that this comments made his day (or wek, actually). He didn’t really give it a lot of thought but @danisnotonfire became na outstandingly present follower, and about a month later when Phil tweeted a joke about Muse aong the first replys was:

@AmazingPhil I think I have a crush on you.

It wasn’t unusual for him to read tweets like those, and yet he was curious to know a bit more about this boy, seeing as he was such a constant presence on his notifications. He opened the boys’ profile, clicked on the icon for it to zoom in and nearly choked on his water. Damn, he was pretty. Like, really really pretty. The kind of pretty that would be evident even in low-quality pictures like this one sadly was. And he seemed funny and interesting, so Phil decided to click the follow button and a few minutes later @danisnotonfire tweeted:

trying so hard not to fangirl right now OMG :x

He debated wether to reply or not, and the conclusion was that even though a cocky coment would be funny it might come across as arrogant so he shouldn’t, since Dan didn’t necessarily say it was because of him (it obviously was, but still). He just sticked with waiting for another oportunity to engange in conversation instead.

And that came a few days later, after Phil had just announced his latest video

@AmazingPhil why are your videos so good?? wish i had your editing skills

@danisnotonfire woud you like some tips?

@AmazingPhil i don’t even post videos actually haha wish i did tho ;3

@danisnotonfire oh why not? :( you totally should!!

And they continued talking about the possibility of Dan posting a video, Phil trying to convince him to and Dan arguing he wouldn’t be good enough. The conversation flowed easily from then, soon going from public tweets to DMs, where Phil finally managed to convince the other boy that he should try posting a video. “It’s probably going to be great, but if you don’t really like it there is no need to post again.” he argued,. Then they moved on to editing tips and agreed that Dan would share his ideas once he gave it enough thought, so they changed the subject.

The conversation still came as naturally as it did before, they had been talking for hours now about just anything, getting to know each other. Of course, they were still at that awkward stage of having just met someone and even thought it was long it had only been one conversation so it wasn’t quite comfortable yet, but the fact that it hadn’t been awkward was enough to make Dan feel grateful. He was usually really bad at talking to people he didn’tknow, and Phil didn’t seeto be so maybe that was why it was okay

first chapter

[connorrenwick]

How Designers Are Working Through This New Reality

COVID-19, or the Coronavirus, seemed to disrupt things overnight requiring people and businesses to alter how everything was done. The creative community has especially been hit hard with people’s priorities shifting to focus on how to stay employed, and more importantly, alive during these uncertain times. Regular fairs and festivals have been shuttered, showrooms and manufacturing facilities have closed up shop, and projects have been pushed off until the dust settles and some sense of normalcy returns. No one knows when this pandemic will end, so designers and small and independent businesses have had to re-think and re-strategize everything in order to stay afloat on a day-to-day basis. With so much uncertainty, we wanted to reach out to some favorites in our field – Bobby Berk, Kate Balsis, Scott Fellows, Nick Cope, Angie Myung, and Robert Highsmith – to see how they’re doing, how things have changed, and where they see things going.

And in case you missed Design Milk’s day of talks called “The Brave New World of Design,” where design experts weighed in on how life might be different after COVID-19, you can watch all of them now on @designmilk IGTV!

Bobby Berk, interior designer and star of Queer Eye

On navigating the disruption- I’m not sure anyone’s lives haven’t been impacted in some way but our only choice is to figure out which way is up, push on, and stay as positive through all of this as we can. When anyone’s norm gets shaken, so do our day to day routines – even something as simple as getting gas or walking outside to retrieving the mail. We’ve never had to think about that to this extreme. Things are very different now, but that is ok. I’m so grateful that I’m with Dewey under the same roof, but also grateful we’re in a space that has separate rooms. We are both able to work remotely and we know our boundaries for one another which makes for any healthy co-habitating situation and a productive workflow while this is all going on.

On making business changes- No one knows how to get through this. Normally in business when you hit a roadblock, you figure out the answers, try solutions, and seek advisors. Now, there’s no playbook. For my business, we are working efficiently and effectively to be a resource for those who need it most. We have existing content and ongoing partnerships built out but have made the decision to shift our editorial and social calendar to focus on resources, tips, and hacks on how to be healthy and productive at home as well as constantly giving people an inspirational place to land to find respite from all of this. We aren’t steering away from what we know best (design) but right now it’s a balance of being a go-to for those who need it creatively as well as emotionally.

My entire team is working from home until further notice as my first priority is their safety and comfort. We host video conference calls and remain positive (insert sending gifs via mass text here). The first week we made a decision that video conf calls vs phone calls would give everyone a sense of community and social distance, and it’s allowed us to connect in a way we never have before. Seeing my team’s faces every day is something that always brings a smile to my face and I love connecting with them in that way to work through what is on the daily agenda.

On reimagining his business- My wheels are constantly churning as an entrepreneur and now beginning to think about what it will look like for “re-entry” post pandemic. When Dorothy landed in Oz, she didn’t know where to go but she got up with those red slippers on and figured her way through uncharted territory. It was new and unusual but she had to navigate her way through obstacles and learn how people were working along the way. I’m not quite there yet in terms of reimagining my business (or having my ruby slippers to click together to bring me back home), but I know that we will hit some forks in our yellow brick road.

On staying positive- It’s been overwhelming to see the “good” happening both locally and around the news. The news can be overwhelming, but if you are able to shut off the noise around Covid-19 for a minute, you can see all of the offerings people and businesses are sharing. Celebrities are banding together to create awareness and raise money, businesses are supporting small businesses, and our earth, for the first time is getting a breath of fresh air to exist without daily pollution. The bravery and efforts from all those in the medical field can also not go unnoticed. These professionals put their lives on the line every day and work so hard through all of this and it’s inspiring to see.

On hope for the future- Good things take time and this is no exception to the rule. A lot of hopes are being had from political to personal. I hope people continue to support small businesses, continue to see the importance in taking care of themselves and their team mentally and emotionally, and see the effects this has brought to our environment. Lessons can always be taken from every situation both good or bad and I hope that people pause to regroup during all of this and bring a focus back to what is really important in life.

Kate Balsis, partner + co-founder of Concrete Collaborative

On navigating the disruption- I think we are in the same boat as a lot of other privately-owned, small businesses where this type of economic uncertainty can be really stressful for owners. I haven’t been able to sleep and had this knot in my stomach of will we have enough revenue to make payroll? For us that meant scaling back and closing the New York and San Francisco showrooms temporarily.

On making business changes- I feel like I’m only finally getting my head above water after weeks of damage control and navigating all this new territory. My partners have been all hands on deck and jumped into action. It definitely brings you together as a team to navigate a true crisis. We have a truly supportive team that have stepped up in a big way through this.

On what she’s experiencing personally + professionally- Personally I have found the time to be quite tough with additionally juggling my kids’ school. I have three boys in 4th, 2nd, and kindergarten and they all have school full time online. I’m juggling their zoom calls with mine. It’s nearly impossible to run a business and get their work done at the same time. However, like many, I have no choice but to adapt. Shift my work schedule. Make the kids be as self sufficient as possible. We are in this together.

On staying positive- Ultimately I’m grateful we are safe and healthy. That perspective keeps me going, well that and coffee and wine. I am lucky to have a close network of friends, family, and work colleagues that keep me sane and laughing. In times like this especially you realize those relationships that matter the most.

On hope for the future- Coming out the other side, for all the negative, it has forced me to slow down. I don’t think I will ever take for granted the time I get out of my house, time I can dedicate to specific things and get breaks from others, in person meetings and being able to travel and eat out.

Scott Fellows

Craig Bassam

Scott Fellows, creative director + co-founder of BassamFellows with Craig Bassam (architect)

On navigating the disruption- I think, like everybody else, we are trying to take things one day at a time. We have the very real problem of some of our factories being temporarily closed, so we are navigating client expectations and trying to keep everyone informed on an on-going basis. The biggest challenge is the uncertainty of the length of the disruption. Once goods are flowing again, how long will it take for business to return to normal and what does the new normal look like?

On making business changes- Since the beginning of our company, our core team of employees and collaborators have always worked remotely/virtually, from Verona, to Milan, to London, to Connecticut, Pennsylvania – even Hawaii, so the remote working has not been a shock to the system. Now, clients are increasingly comfortable with online communication. We have several virtual client presentations and talks scheduled over the next several weeks and I’m really enjoying them. It is a way for us to connect with clients that is perhaps even more personal.

On reimagining the business- Before the pandemic we were planning for the biggest launch in our history in Milan at the Salone del Mobile. We were launching a new chair series called Petal, a chair that pushes the boundaries of 3D wood veneer and has much wider application in contract as well as residential settings. This product was developed over three years with top engineers and developers in Germany, the US, and Italy – each contributing to part of the manufacturing of each piece. Now, those global connections are being disrupted. How do you launch product without the global stage and a global design audience all immersed in design experiences? How do you continue to develop products, such as Petal, that leverage global expertise when supply chains are being disrupted?

We don’t want to retreat to “smallness” and we don’t think it is possible to shrink to greatness. Instead we are thinking about the “localization of the global.” We may be losing the world stage but we can still create powerful experiences such as a product launch event at our new headquarters building in CT – the former Schlumberger Administration Building, designed by Philip Johnson. We can also continue to invest in high quality craft here in the US, as we always have, but marry that with technical expertise and engineering that may exist elsewhere.

On what they’re experiencing personally + professionally- I remember when we first moved to CT from NYC more than 20 years ago, a friend commented to us that we chose “lifestyle.” To me, he was implying that we chose lifestyle over hard work and the success of a city life, which I found irritating at the time. The truth is that the decision to leave the city changed our lives. It set us on a journey where we began to blur the boundaries between life and work to the point that now they are virtually indistinguishable. We prioritize and invest in our physical spaces whether it is at home or at the office because we believe that physical environments are extremely important – light and space and uncluttered simplicity have a direct impact on our happiness. So I guess we did choose lifestyle after all.

During this crisis we are staying focused and productive and enjoying the space and nature that we are fortunate enough to have around us.

On staying positive- I think it is important to dedicate at least some of the time to visioning or imagining the future. The time to stop and think and work “on” the business, rather than “in” the business has been in short supply lately. We are relieved by the slower pace and are finding inspiration and ideas from our imagining of the future.

On hope for the future- I read somewhere about the origins of the word quarantine – that it is a spatial and temporal buffer. That got me thinking about adding a space and time buffer to our decision making and our buying decisions. I think most of us in the design world take a highly considered approach to purchases. Is it well designed for its function? Is it well made? Does it fit my life and my style? Do I really need it? For us, we ask ourselves whether it will be durable and desirable for decades. We hope the “fast” trend in fashion and design will be replaced with a new, “slow” trend – buy less, buy better, and use longer.

Rachel and Nick Cope

Nick Cope, co-founder of Calico Wallpaper + Cope with Rachel Cope

On navigating the disruption- These times are certainly unusual, fortunately, due to many of the digital systems we have in place we were able to move to remote work fairly quickly and seamlessly (good wallpaper pun!). Rachel and I are upstate at our house in Hudson because our kids are out of school and this affords them a lot more room to run around. Of course, we are having to share duties spending time with the kids so our combined work output is a little reduced at the moment.

On making business changes- The business is humming along and we are still designing, sampling, printing, and taking orders without much change at all. Our team has been excellent in handling these sudden changes heroically! We are so grateful that they are working hard to keep the company vision moving forward.

On reimagining their business- The sudden change has reminded me how fragile we all are in this complex ecosystem. Rachel and I have begun to discuss new goals and milestones for our business and although these are private at the moment, we hope to unveil new initiatives soon.

On what they’re experiencing personally + professionally- I feel like my life has done a bit of a 180 in the last month! Rachel and I are in a unique situation too because we are both partners in business and life. We are trying to balance these rapid personal and professional changes without friction and I feel like we have been doing a good job. I would say that it is nice to be upstate with a view of the Catskills out my window, however, I am pretty much glued to my computer at the moment and I miss the interactions with the team or even little trips to the cafe for a break.

On staying positive- Taking walks and spending time with the kids has been the best way to stay positive. Obviously, Tiger King on Netflix has made all the difference too.

On hope for the future- At the moment, I am just hoping for the other side to become clear. There may be some significant lasting impacts to this crisis and hopefully some of them are positive. For instance, attention to health insurance in the United States must become a priority. The system is totally nonsensical and should have been nationalized a century ago like much of the industrialized world. Also, climate change is another crisis that will be an increasingly disruptive force in our lifetime so maybe this crisis will remind us that it is time to act.

Angie Myung, chief creative officer + co-founder of Poketo with Ted Vadakan

On navigating the disruption- Doing the best we can to navigate this new territory. This crisis has upended the entire design and retail industry. We have closed all our our brick and mortar locations temporarily. We are directing business to www.poketo.com which is now the sole revenue channel. The outpouring of support by our customers has been amazing. People are shopping, we want to continue to provide joy to our customers in this time of crisis. Fortunately, so many of our products are perfect for #workfromhome.

On making business changes- We are now working remotely for much of our staff. We do frequent video chats via Google. We have directed our efforts to online and doing regular promotions to make shopping easier for our customers.

On reimagining their business- It has given us time to rethink. We will most likely emerge from this different, but stronger. When you get into a routine, it’s autopilot and you constantly are on the move. This time is allowing us to think about what’s important, how do we streamline, what do we want this new version of the business to look like. We don’t have the answers yet, we are taking things one day at a time.

On what they’re experiencing personally + professionally- It has been really tough. Especially with our team. We are a small, tight-knit group. We are used to seeing each other every day. Adjusting to remote working and not seeing each other face to face, to brainstorm together, to celebrate small victories together is different. Personally though, it has been nice to remember what is important, which is good health. Without health, what is there? So staying mentally and physically sharp is important. We’ve been taking longs walks with the dog, doing yoga, cooking meals at the house. It has been nice that way to reconnect with simple things.

On staying positive- Just knowing that the world is in this together, we are all in the same boat trying to navigate these unchartered waters is reassuring. Something I remind myself is that humans are like grass, we bend with the wind, we don’t break. I try to remember that.

On hope for the future- A healthy business, a team back to work, a strong community ready to create, love, do, make…. We miss our friends, our family, our community… we look forward to celebrating life, art, design, and creativity together once again (sans screen).

Robert Highsmith

Robert Highsmith, co-founder of WORKSTEAD

On navigating the disruption- By coming together – as a company and community. The disruption has inspired our team to be more collaborative and creative than ever. We have also been in close touch with many of our customers and clients – all partners in the design community – and projects, particularly large-scale residential and hospitality in the concept phase of development, are progressing. Supporting one another is crucial in this environment.

On making business changes- Our priority – on both the studio and product side of our business – has always been to provide design solutions and inspiration to our customers and clients. We had long planned on a monthly launch of light fixtures in 2020 and feel very fortunate to be in a position to proceed with that schedule, to continue adding to our assortment.

via http://design-milk.com/

from WordPress https://connorrenwickblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/27/how-designers-are-working-through-this-new-reality/

[santatank0-blog]

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