#colors and outfits are messed up because I used different reference photos

[purpleplease1212]

I think I would be quite happy to see Marshall Lee play guitar for him

[marlequinncos]

Cosplay Build Guide: Marko's Jacket from The Lost Boys (1987)

I am a lover of the horror genre; horror movies, books, games, you name it! And one of my favorite horror movies is the 1987 classic “The Lost Boys”, which focuses on a gang of motorcycle-riding vampires in the fictional California town of Santa Carla. I'm also a big fan of thrifting and modifying items for cosplay. I decided to combine those two things and make a garment that has lived rent-free in my head since I first saw the film: the colorful patchwork jacket worn by the vampire Marko.

I'm going to walk you through how I made Marko's jacket, breaking down the different parts that comprise the garment.

Marko’s outfit is made up of several components: a white cropped tank top, light wash denim jeans, leather chaps, custom painted leather moto boots, fingerless motorcycle gloves, a black skull earring, and of course, that iconic and extremely loud jacket. 

All four titular vampires have a signature jacket they wear in the movie, and Marko’s is by far the most elaborate and distinctive. It consists of three main parts: the base jacket, the Italian tapestries, and the patches. Because of the nature of this build, I had to do a ton of intensive research to determine the individual and highly specific parts of the jacket. My main references were photos from movie memorabilia auction sites whenever one of the original jackets went up for sale, since they photograph the jacket from all angles.

Part 1: The Base Jacket

Marko’s base jacket is, according to my research, a men’s black Levi’s denim jacket in a size 40, which I believe translates to a medium. Now, I’m a petite woman (5’3”, athletic but slim), so I knew that the exact jacket would be too big for my frame. Instead, I found a men’s black denim jacket in an extra small; it's very similar in style to the original, but a little better proportioned for me. It's still very much oversized though. The first things I did were remove the buttons and pockets, and I cut off the hem of the jacket and the sleeve cuffs. Then I tossed the jacket in the washing machine to fray the edges. 

Part 2: The Tapestries

The hardest part of the jacket by far was finding the tapestries, for two reasons. The first is that the tapestries were all from the 1960’s and 1970’s, meaning I had to scour vintage stores and websites to find the right ones. The second is the variation. Six jackets were made for each Lost Boy in the movie; this is standard for a film, since some jackets would be used for closeups (the”hero” jackets) while others were used for stunts, and a few even have intentional holes in them for harness rigging. Because of that and the thrifted nature of the jacket, the Marko jackets for the film all differ slightly in the placement of the tapestries and patches.

There are five tapestries in total. Three are velvet: the matador, the peacock, and the leopard with the messed up face. These are impossible to dupe via Spoonflower or Contrado (custom fabric printing websites) due to the fact that these three are essentially small rugs. The other two, chariot lady and cat lady, are dupable via Spoonflower or Contrado printing since they aren’t the same fabric as the others.

The two pin-up tapestries are nearly impossible to find, more so than the velvet ones. In my months of searching, I never found either pin-up tapestry, so I had them printed by Contrado, along with the collar trim.

If you go searching for the velvet tapestries, you'll notice that there are several different versions of each one, with slight changes in color and placement of things in the art. How accurate you want to be is up to you. My peacock and matador are accurate to the tapestries on one of the stunt jackets, whereas my leopard is the correct color but wrong direction. That's doesn't bother me much, personally, especially since the leopard is the hardest of the velvet tapestries to find by far.

Once the tapestries were acquired, I measured different sections based on the dimensions of the jacket, mapped it out using washi tape on the tapestries, and then cut them all out. There was a decent amount of math involved here, specifically regarding scaling the sections of tapestry down by a few inches since my jacket is smaller than the original. I then arranged them all onto the denim jacket and pinned them in place before hand sewing them (yes, you read that right; I hand sewed this whole thing) on in the correct overlap. I also added the rhinestones to the cat lady.

I recommend using embroidery needles and upholstery thread to attach the tapestries to the jacket, due to the thickness and the weight. I also sewed along the designs in the tapestries themselves to better hide the stitching within the image.

Part 3: The Patches

Marko’s jacket has a total of 26 different patches on it, most of which are motorcycle or punk themed. For these, I found a seller on Etsy who makes 24 of them, and I used Contrado to print the remaining two (the anarchy symbol and the large skull) on canvas and added the stitching. You could thrift and find the patches as well, but here's the thing: while some of these patches are pretty easy to find, others seem to be nonexistent, to the point that I wonder if some were made exclusively for the movie. That's why I went and purchased my patches instead of hunting them down. My personal favorite is the “Screw U” one. One fun fact about the patches is that the large winged skull on the back is a leftover from the movie “The Warriors”.

I once again hand sewed these all on as per the references from the movie. You might think that ironing the patches on is an easier method, but there's a few reasons why that won't work: 1) the patches in the movie are sewn on; if you zoom in, you can see the stitching 2) I'm not sure the patches would even adhere to the velvet and velour of the tapestries and 3) if you decide you don't like the placement of a patch that you sewed on, you can just seam rip the stitching and adjust it, which you can't really do as cleanly with an ironed-on patch.

Part 4: The Tassels

The tassels on the jacket’s shoulder are not tassels at all; they’re squid skirts (a type of fishing lure), which is something I never knew existed until I started researching for this build. For these, I found a fishing tackle website that had the closest match to the colors I needed, a blue-grey/orange and a yellow/green. Both squids also have glitter and little eyes painted on.

Part 5: Weathering and Finishing Touches

Lastly, I weathered the jacket to give it that lived-in look. For the dirt/dust on the patches, I used powder eyeshadow. I also picked at the edges of the tapestries to fray them a bit. And to make the patches less stiff, I just broke the jacket in by wearing it around my house. The great thing about this jacket is that the more I wear it and the more it weathers, the better it'll look.

FAQ

How heavy and warm is the jacket?

The jacket is made of denim and rugs, so its pretty warm and heavy. It honestly feels like wearing a weighted blanket, which is a nice bonus if you're anxiety made flesh like I am. It makes a lot of sense for the jacket to be on the heavier side, because if you’ve been to Northern California, you know how cold it can get on the coast, especially at night (not sure if vampires can feel cold, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

How long did it take you to make the jacket?

I don’t time my cosplay builds, but I can guess based on the amount of TV/movies/podcasts/playlists consumed as I was working on it. I'm also pretty fast when it comes to hand sewing. By my estimation, the jacket took me about 45-50 hours of work, and that’s not counting the time I spent searching for the tapestries.

Can you make me one?

Sorry friend, I don't take commissions. Even if I did, there's no guarantee I could find the exact tapestries again. I appreciate the interest though!

One of the most useful resources for making this jacket is the Replica Prop Forum! There's a ton of information there, as well as discussions and troubleshooting about the construction of the jacket.

I hope you enjoyed this walkthrough of Marko's jacket! This was a fun build and I'm really proud of the finished product. I'm going to make the rest of Marko's outfit + wig to complete the cosplay, so stay tuned for that!

If you have any other questions, feel free to plop them in my inbox! In addition to tumblr, you can also find my cosplay work on instagram and bluesky @/marlequinncos

[obsessivestar]

'What If It's All A RomCom?' - a Ted Nivison x Reader

{{-Haha remember when I said the next few chapters might be a lil' smaller cause I'm taking my time? Lol this one is another big one SORRY NOT SORRY welcome to chapter 12-}}

//General Warnings: 18+ Fic (MINORS DNI), Reader implied to be afab and under 5'5

Chapter Warnings: More Hamilton References, bit of makin' out and ooh thigh riding??? You're Canadian now sorry (you're barely Canadian) AYO AND SCHLATT AND TUCKER ARE HERE\\

Word Count: 4.5k

☆▪︎▪︎▪︎Taglist!▪︎▪︎▪︎☆

@k-k0129 & @callsign-scully

☆Love Ya To Death!☆

Chapter 12: I'm Satisfied

The photoshoot was a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be, at least for Ted and I. For practice, Tanner got Dan and Joe in front of the camera, using them to figure out what angles, backdrops and lighting worked best. Tanner even got in front of the camera for a bit, knowing he already had his own headshots. Dude just wanted to have fun, and honestly, it was a lot of fun being in front of that camera. We had music playing, we got to feel like hot, important models and got to see the raw shots afterwards.

Ted and I went through so many different outfits for the shoot, taking photos together and apart. One thing that messed me up a bit at first was all the flashing from the camera, but your eyes eventually get used to it. Tanner had us wearing contrasting colours whenever we took solo shots, but had us wearing warmer colors when in front of the camera together. When taking pictures on our own, we gave simple smiles and somber looks into the camera, following it as Tanner changed the angles, unless Tanner directed us to look away of course. We all took turns suggesting music for our respective photoshoots, until Tanner had the odd idea to put on the entire Hamilton soundtrack when we all ran out of songs to drop, though that made keeping my mouth closed for the photos a little harder. I'd be mouthing certain lyrics excitingly, getting an occasional friendly scolding from Ted. Sometimes he'd have to straight up cover my mouth to get me to stop, until the soundtrack got to 'Satisfied', where he surprised me by joining in.

'You strike me as a woman who has never been satisfied.'

'I'm sure I don't know what you mean, you forget yourself.'

'You're like me, I'm never satisfied.'

'Is that right?'

'I have never been satisfied.'

This is where I learn there was a particular couple weeks where Tanner had forced Ted to learn part of the soundtrack for reasons they both refused to admit to me, but man did Tanner get some good shots because of it. One particular shot really warmed my heart to look at the first time. Ted was supposed to simply hold my waist with one hand, but I just wouldn't stop singing or at least mouthing lyrics, so Ted gently placed a finger over my lips to make me close them. Ted and I had been relatively careful with how we acted in front of regular members of the film crew, but in this moment, it was like it was just the two of us. His dark eyes sparkled down at me, a genuine warm smile across his blush toned lips. I smiled back at him, feeling his hand slowly fall from my lips to take my hand in his while his other hand snaked around my waist to rest on my lower back. It was...personal, intimate, but brief. A shame it was so brief.

We looked over all of the good shots once Tanner gave us the O.K. to relax and take a break. God, did we look good. I hadn't even felt the flashing from all of the pictures Tanner had gotten once Ted had touched my lips, but they were perfect. All of them were perfect. "You guys gotta recreate that one next week, in your ball wear." Tanner suggested with a proud smile.

"Ball wear?" Ted repeated with a humorous smile, looking at Tanner with a raised brow.

"Like, a royal ball. Our dream outfits." I clarified for him, placing my hand excitingly on Ted's shoulder before addressing Tanner. "Tanner, I'm gonna need all of those photos. I need them."

"Oh yeah, you'll get them." Tanner nodded at me a little. "Dan's gonna start editing them as soon as we clean up."

"Yeah, I need that one. Could be my lock screen." Ted points at the camera when it shows the shot of his arm around my back and our hands intertwined. Fuck, this man makes my chest flutter so easily, its maddening. I look at him after he says that, taking in his warm but eager expression as he continues going back and forth with Tanner about next week. Anytime I get to share a glance or contact with Ted, I feel happy. I feel validated. I'm...satisfied.

Dan and Tanner went upstairs with the camera to start editing the photos on their PC's. Hell, Tanner moved his PC into Dan's room so they could work side by side. It looked a little funny when we went back later to check on them. With the remainder of the day, Joe cleared most of the living room and began to go through the dance sequence with Ted and I, as well as some spare members of the wardrobe team that volunteered to be extras. He went through some ballroom dancing basics with us, essentially teaching a mini masterclass on royal etiquette. We quickly figured out that I'd have to wear heels for my dance with Ted, he's just so tall and it would look better if I was a bit more at his eye level. He made sure to tease me about my height any chance got, and I made sure to ''accidentally'' step on his feet a few times in response. He may call me princess, but I'm a brat at heart and I know he likes it.

Once the sun began to set, we called it for the day, with Ted and I moving upstairs together as members of the film crew packed up and left. We headed into his room for now, though we'd be filming the podcast in separate rooms later on. Ted casually took off the orange shirt they had made him wear, moving to his closet to put on an old looking white shirt. I shamelessly glance over his bare back before he covers himself, a knowing smile spreading along my face. I can't believe I have such a fine man wrapped around my finger.

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty fuckin' royal right now.." Ted commented with a humorous smirk, moving to sit at his computer chair. I decided to sit at the edge of his bed, letting out a little laugh.

"You feel royal in your..." I pause to look down at the shirt he had chosen, raising a brow with a slight chuckle. "...weird lookin' baseball shirt from 2004."

"Hey, I look great in this shirt." Ted pointed at me with a knowing smile. "Tucker's gonna be happy that I'm wearin' it; Schlatt, not so much. He's already been drinkin' a little tonight so I know he's gonna be poking at everything."

"Everything?" I repeated, smiling a bit more. "Even me? Should I be worried?" I decide to ask, shifting a bit on Ted's bed. I could've worded that better. I wasn't 'worried' about him perse. I've watched an episode or two of the podcast so I have a relative idea of how he is, I just can't help but wonder how he's going to be with me there, knowing what he knows.

Ted pulled up Discord, letting out a sigh instead of responding right away. His silence made my smile falter a little, crossing my arms in front of my chest. "Alright look, Schlatt isn't....really an asshole." Ted answered after a long pause, turning in his chair to look at me. "I talked to him and Tucker a bit about this earlier, he knows what line not to cross."

"You've already talked to them?" I ask, raising my brows at him. "When?"

"While Tanner was takin' your photos. I didn't get into anything huge, just gave em' a quick rundown of, uh....how us happened." Ted admitted with a little shrug. "I already said this morning that he'll probably make some comments, he may even...dance around that line a little, especially if he's provoked. Tucker and I do it all the time."

"Yeah, you do.." I manage to let out a little laugh.

"But at the end of the day, he's one of my best friends; they both are. He's not gonna lose it. He knows I don't want anythin' out there, so he won't put anythin' out." Ted's reassurance definitely helped any last-minute nerves I may have been feeling. Plus, I'm sure if anything slipped out, it could be bleeped or cut out entirely. They've done it before. "I mean, pfff, he might flirt with you to throw people off." Ted spoke again with a shrug, turning back to his computer screen. "He's been wantin' you as a guest for a while."

"Wait, really? Really???" I furrow my brows and let out a surprised laugh, sitting up more on the bed. "You're fucking with me. Schlatt knows of me?"

"Yeah. He wanted to try to get at least you and NakeyJakey as guests before the end of the year."

"What the fuck??" I find myself laughing even more at how outrageous this all sounded, though I 100% believed Ted. I just couldn't really believe it. It seems like all of MY friends knew Ted and all of HIS friends knew me, yet WE only met a week ago. Small world. Smaaaaaaall fuckin' world. "I never got any messages or anything! I totally would've said yes!" I manage to speak after coming down from my laughter, standing up from Ted's bed.

"He might've tried to reach you on Twitter if your Discord isn't available.." Ted admitted, typing in what appeared to be a groupchat, probably the one with the chuckle guys.

"Ooh, yeah, I...stopped using Twitter." I reply somewhat sheepishly, raising my shoulders a bit.

"Understandable, honestly." Ted turns his chair to me again after sending a message, giving me a warm smile. "Anyways, do you wanna be in the room with me, or record in your room? I'm good with either." I notice Ted's gaze linger down a little before meeting my eyes again, making me raise a curious brow at him.

"Are you good with either?" I ask with a knowing smile, crossing my arms in front of my chest again.

"Well, I mean, it'll be hard not to touch you if we're in the same room.." Ted gives me a mischievous smirk, leaning back against his chair and spreading his lap out a bit.

"Oh? That's your concern, mm?" I let out a little hum, moving forward to carefully climb into Ted's lap, straddling it with my knees resting at each sides of his hips.

"Mhmm, it's gettin' harder bein' away from you.." Ted purrs back at me. I feel him snake his hands around my waist, gazing up at me with his half-lidded eyes.

"Well yknow, I could just...do the podcast right here.." I bring my hands up to his chest, picking at the white shirt before smoothing my hands up to rest on his shoulders.

"Oh yeah? With the camera on?.." Ted raised his brows at me, sitting up a bit more in his seat. "Is this how we're gonna reveal it? You in my lap, giving me bedroom eyes?..."

"Is the camera on?.." I feel a faint blush appear on my cheeks, bringing one of my hands up to touch my face as I look at his setup.

"No, do you want it on?.." He gives me a suggestive little grin, his eyes glancing down at me once more.

Oh, I know what he wants...

I smile down at him warmly as I lean in close, closing my eyes as I connect our lips in a gentle kiss. Ted kept his hands around my waist as he returns the kiss, slowly moving his lips with mine with a low hum. His growing stubble lightly rubbed along my face when he begins to deepen the kiss, pulling me more into his lap by my hips. My hands reach up to cup his stubbled cheeks, tilting my head into the warm, almost antagonizingly slow kiss. When I hear a quiet, dark sounding moan leave Ted, I instinctively angle my hips in response, a quiet gasp leaving me when I realize I've straddled one of his thighs. My inner thighs begin to feel warm against his leg, making me slowly rock my hips back and forth against him. He chuckles lowly in the kiss in response, listening to my quiet, needy sounding moans in his mouth. I feel his hands sneak their way under my shirt, opening his mouth more in the kiss to slip the tip of his tongue along my lower lip. I try to pull him in more by his face, my hands moving around to grip into his tall, dark hair. His lap feels so good to grind against, his tongue is making our kiss sloppy and arousing, we're moaning and growling at each other, I'm getting warm and tingly all over, I feel like we can't stop....

Until the Discord Call Notification starts blaring from Ted's computer.

We both flinch pretty hard and pull back from the deep kiss, stopping everything that we were doing. We both let out shaky, breathy little laughs as Ted turns the chair towards his desk. "It's just Schlatt, hold on.." Ted spoke, taking a deep breath. He kept one hand on my hip, moving the other around me to take his mouse into his hand.

"Should I get off?" I manage to speak out after catching my breath, still panting against his chest a little.

"Nah, not yet." Ted replies simply. "He's just checkin' on me, makin' sure you're good to go. I'll tell him 10 minutes, hold on."

"Y-You're gonna answer?"

"Yeah, I'll keep my camera off, hold on, stay."

"Ted, I-I don't--"

"Shh. Stay."

I feel Ted's hand snake around to push me more into his lap from my lower back, keeping his grip on me. Most of my body is now pressed against his, my hands are tucked in front of my chest. Before I can think about protesting again, Ted answers the call, so I close my mouth to stay as quiet as possible.

"There he iiiiiiiiss.." Ted spoke into his mic with a big smile, despite not having his camera on. I turn my head to see Schlatt in his usual setup, sporting a grey hoodie with the hood up, his headphones strangely on over the hood itself.

"There I am? Where are you?" Schlatt narrows his eyes at the screen, sitting back on his chair. "Your camera die again?"

"Nah, it's not dead, just not turning it on till' we start." Ted shrugged a little, making me smirk against his chest.

Well, If he really isn't gonna turn it on, I can still have some fun...

"Damn, did the Canadian's get to ya?" Schlatt cackled a little, resting his hands behind his head. "Does Tanner have you wearin' fuckin...red flannel n shit? That's all they wear, right? Got ya lookin' like a fuckin' lumberjack?"

"I'm not even in Canada, dude." Ted chuckles with a little shrug. "I'm, like, an--an hour away from my-my house."

Ted's tone softens and he starts to stutter a little when I begin to trail little kisses along his neck, making sure to keep quiet so they wouldn't be picked up by his microphone.

"Yeah, but Joe and Tanner are Canadian, ain't they? Ain't they involved?" Schlatt asked with a raised brow, lightly scratching at one of his mutton chops.

"Well yeah, but--" Ted's eyes flicker closed as I nibble at his thick Adam's apple, finding a little spot along his throat to suckle on gently. I feel Ted's hand grip my hip a little tighter; a warning grip, one I choose to ignore.

"But...they're doin' good. I've been having a lot of fun.."

"Aaaaaaah, riiiight.." Schlatt cackles again, leaning forward in his seat. "Fun, eh? Ya happy, Ted? Ya happy ya finally got to hit it?" A big, knowing grin spreads along Schlatt's face, nodding slowly. I was smiling just as big as Schlatt was, moving my little kisses up to Ted's ear.

"Yeah, Teddy.." I whisper softly into Ted's ear, nibbling a little at the edge of it. "Happy you finally hit it?.."

Ted lets out a quiet huff and removes his hand from my hip to move it up to the back of my head, taking a fistful of my hair.

"Hit what?"

With a good tug, he pulls my head away from his ear and forces me to look at him. I'm smiling like a fool, chuckling quietly at how flutered Ted already looks.

"Ohhhhh don't fuckin' toy with me, dude!" Schlatt let's out a mocking laugh, smacking one of his hands on his desk. "You have been talking non-fucking-stop about (Y/N) ALL WEEK! ALL FUCKIN' WEEK, MAN! Tucker was tellin' me everythin' earlier! How does it take you over a year to pull this girl?"

Ted leans his head back and rolls his eyes, a clear embarrassed smile on his face. He looks at me, still keeping my head still by my hair and mouths 'I'm gonna kill him.', making me giggle quietly. "Ok, I have her now, don't I?" Ted faces his computer again with a little shrug, glancing at me briefly. "I figured it out in the end."

"Aaah, I'm just fuckin' with ya, dude. Just excited for ya." Schlatt playfully scoffs, shaking his head a bit. "If you're happy, I'm happy. She seems good for ya."

I see Ted relax more in his chair and he lets go of my hair, looking down at his keyboard with a genuinely warm smile. It makes me smile too. I didn't realize that Ted had been pining for me for this long. I mean, Joe's wedding was almost 2 years ago. Has he really been thinking about me for almost 2 years? "...but seriously, why isn't your camera on, man? Are you ready or what?" Schlatt speaks up again after a pause, crossing his arms in front of him.

"I'm almost ready, just need about 10 minutes." Ted answers plainly, moving his mouse to hover over the hang-up button. "Is that alright?"

"Yeah dude, 10 minutes is good."

"Alright, great, call ya back."

"Make sure you add (Y/N) in."

"I will."

"She gonna be cool about me?"

"She's probably gonna fuck with me, with you."

"Greaaaat! Love her already! See ya soon!"

"Yep."

"Alright."

Ted hangs up the call and let's out a sigh, shaking his head a little before looking at me. "You little fucker.." Ted snickers a little at me. "You're lucky we don't have time for a quickie.."

"I think I'm unlucky if anything.." I reply with a little giggle, fixing up my hair with one of my hands. "Ya sure we can't do a lil' bit?.."

"Oh no, I'd need more than 10. I like to take my time with you.." Ted shakes his head at me with a little smirk, leaning in to kiss my lips once more with a content little hum. I smile against his lips, bringing my hands up to cup his face again. The kiss is brief, but I felt satisfied with it. I thought about what Schlatt had said, that Ted had been trying to 'pull me' since Joe's wedding. I wanted to get more information on that, but decided to leave it for now. I wouldn't want to try and sneak it in the podcast, unless Schlath decides to bring it up, but I feel like the more Ted and I say we're together, the more I want to know about it all. There's a mystery around it that I don't understand. It feels like everyone has the right context but me.

I reluctantly moved off of Ted's lap, getting one last little kiss on the back of my hand from him before I exited his room to move into my own. I didn't have as much of a professional PC set up as everyone else staying here did, but it was good enough to record with. I sit in front of my PC and begin to set everything up, putting my headphones on and making sure my mic was all set up before opening Discord, seeing that I had already been added to the group chat. I smile excitingly to myself as I message everyone that I'm good to go, making sure botj ofmy cameras are clear and charged before hearing the Discord Call jingle play, seeing Ted and Tucker hop in with Schlatt.

I take a deep breath, triple check everything and enter the call.

"AAAAAAAAAAYE THERE SHE FUCKIN' IS!" Schlatt is the first to speak up, blasting everyone's ears with an excited cackle while clapping like an absolute buffon. "THERE SHE FUCKIN IS!"

"Holy shit, she's real!" Tucker chimes in, wearing a green sweatshirt with the word 'Loon' in big bold letters. "Ted, your Canadian girlfriend is actually real. That's crazy."

"Wait, you're actually Canadian? That's not a joke?" Schlatt placed a hand on his mic to adjust it, already furrowing his brows at me.

"Ok hold on here. I'm, like, barely Canadian." I clarify, holding my hands out a little defensively. "I was just born there. I grew up in Washington."

"Nope. Still counts. You're not cool anymore." Schlatt shakes his head, his usual sarcastic tone taking him over. "Sorry Ted, she's not cool anymore."

"Uh, she's pretty fuckin' cool, actually." Ted clarifies in a defensive tone, adjusting his own mic.

"I pulled out my Loon shirt for the occasion." Tucker chimes in, moving a bit in frame to reveal that the bottom of the shirt had some actual loons on it, making me lean back in my chair and laugh. "These guys are on your coins, right?" Tucker asked with the most genuine smile on his face.

"They're not MY coins! I grew up in Washington!" I laugh, shaking my head.

"Nah, If you were born there, you're already tainted." Schlatt replies plainly.

"She's fiiiiiine, don't be like that.." Ted playfully whines at Schlatt, tilting his head a little.

"What the fuck is with you and Canadians, anyways?" I decide to ask, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

"There's just something about you guys, I don't know. Buncha liberals." Schlatt crosses his arms as well, as if to mock me. "Buncha do gooder liberals."

"We haven't even started the episode yet and Schlatt is already deep into character." Tucker grins a little, a dark chuckle leaving Ted as Schlatt and I continue to bicker back and forth.

"Are you mad that they're nicer than y'all? I don't get it."

"I'm not mad. Maybe--Maybe I AM mad. I'm gettin' mad."

"Is it the free healthcare that tips ya off?"

"I'm rich, I don't give a fuck about your free Healthcare."

"You keep saying 'your'. I'm not Canadian."

"You look Canadian."

"Okay, I don't consider myself Canadian."

"I consider you to be Canadian."

"I wasn't even there for a full fucking year."

"Don't care. You just have this liberal Canadian vibe, I don't know man."

"Okay, and you have this Alabama sister fucker vibe, can we start the episode now?"

Ted and Tucker erupt into laughter, with Schlatt and I eventually chiming in as well. We're all shifting around in our respective chairs as we laugh out, holding our chests, rubbing under our eyes, clapping weakly, taking in steady breaths and everything. I knew it was all in good fun.

"Okay okay! I like her again!" Schlatt cackles, sitting up more in his chair.

"Are we all ready now? Have we gotten everything out of our system?" Tucker asks, still chuckling a little from my comment.

"I've been ready. I've just been enjoying this little pre-show." Ted admits with a snicker, adjusting his headphones on his head.

"Yeah, I'm recording a little already so it's up to you guys on when we start." I speak up as well.

"Did you get all that? That whole back and forth?" Tucker asks me, still smiling all big.

"Abso-fucking-lutely I got all that!" I reply with a chuckle, shifting in my chair.

"Alright alright, on 3, we'll start." Ted nods a little, moving his hand down to his keyboard.

"Wait, can I start the episode?" I ask with an eager grin, holding my hands up in front of my chest.

"You mean say the line before the theme song? 100%, you have my permission." Schlatt agrees with a grin, moving his hand down to his keyboard as well.

"Yeah, I'm totally fine with that. Make it a good one." Tucker adds.

"But don't add your Canadian-ness to it." Schlatt speaks with his sarcastic tone again.

"If it'll get you to stop bitching about Canada, fine." I roll my eyes and shake my head, getting another cackle from Schlatt.

"Ya picked a good one, Ted. Ya picked a good one."

"Alright. 3, 2, 1.."

After everyone counts down from three, I see everyone hit a key on their keyboard and shift a bit in their seats, indicating that recording had begun. "Wait a minute, your background is different, Ted." Schlatt speaks up again, furrowing his brows at his computer screen. "You said you were an hour away from home. Is that true?"

"That is true, I am not currently home." Ted nods, resting his hands in his lap with a grin. "I'm at, like, a beach house or somethin', I don't know. For the project I was tellin' you about."

"Ah, you're finally livin' around your means. Finally stopped bein' fuckin' modest." Schlatt spits a little, nodding his head as he speaks. "How big is it? Who's all there?"

"There's, like, 5 of us here." I add with a little smile. "Tanner, Joe, Ted, Myself and a guy named--"

"Wait, you're both in the same house right now?" Schlatt loudly cuts me off, sitting up more in his seat with narrowed eyes glued to his screen. "What the fuck?"

"Yeah, she's in the room next to me." Ted answered, furrowing his own brows with a confused smile. "Why is that upsetting?"

"You're in the same fucking house?"

"Yeah."

"Why the fuck are you in separate rooms?"

"I don't know"

"Hey, you told me to record in my room!" I chime in with a gravely chuckle, playfully scowling at my screen. "You told me to go, Ted!"

"Okay, hold on--" Ted tries to speak up again, quickly cut off by Schlatt.

"I don't fucking believe you." Schlatt speaks, shaking his head. "I don't believe you two for a fuckin' second."

"You don't believe we're in the same house? You don't believe her?" Ted raises his brows with a smirk.

"Nope, not even a little." Schlatt answers simply, leaning back in his chair.

As they bicker for a little bit longer, I realize that you can see Ted's closed door in frame, so I get an idea. "Y'know what? Here."

I quickly remove my headphones and hop off my chair, unable to hear if any of them noticed me take off. I quickly run out of my room and quietly open Ted's door enough to be able to swing it open with one swift kick, hearing Ted jump and shout out surprisingly. Knowing I'm in frame, I enter his room a little more and take in a deep breath, shouting out those 4 magic words to officially start the episode.

"WELCOME TO CHUCKLE SANDWHICH!"

__________________________________

Chapter 1 || Chapter 2 || Chapter 3 || Chapter 4 || Chapter 5 || Chapter 6 (smut) || Chapter 7 || Chapter 8 || Chapter 9 || Chapter 10 (smut) || Chapter 11 || Chapter 13 || Chapter 14 (smut) || Chapter 15 || Chapter 16 || Chapter 17 ||

[anoddrock]

Do you ever look at how you analyze media and go ‘huh. Well my upbringing affects this analysis substantially. Ok’

Because I‘be been watching the original doctor who and All I See Are Sets And Costuming. Like I’m following and enjoying the narrative, truly. However the costuming and sets and makeup are so significant to me in how I enjoy the story.

And it’s like, oh. My mom went to school for Costuming and spent significant time studying fashion history. I grew up with a shoe-sized textbook on the history/different types of shoes, which she got partially because of that cute size-of-subject detail, and partially because she was fascinated by the subject matter and the fact that the photos and drawings in the book was almost all to scale. This is the one I mention because it’s the one I could reach on her shelf and flip though most easily, and tbh I really liked shoes when I was little(still do, but not as aggressively) but she has three shelves of the book space in her sewing room holding textbooks about drafting(historical and modern) practicality of different clothing items in different situations, where and when certain clothing items and styles existed and were popular, just all the ‘how’s and ‘why’s and ‘when’s of clothes being what they were. She gave me a book on natural dyeing(which I keep in my reference shelf) when she realized she’d never use it and heard me mention being interested in the array of color in natural dyes, and how most things are likely synthetically dyed. She already had a book in the process of making and using natural dyes, and gave it to me and it lives on my reference shelf. She worked in Live Theatre for a while and helped with props when needed, and had a focus on if things made sense for the time the shows were in.

And while watching Dr Who, my first thought with every outfit I see is ‘does that make sense for the situation.’ And I love that. I love that lens she’s created and how you can see that so well. Maybe I’m not good at drawing clothes yet, maybe I don’t have her encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history and have fun mixing eras in my head. But the practicality of costuming and how it’d be made is something I see and pay attention to, and I’m so glad that I have that. Yeah, she messes up, and I’m not sure if I want to stay in contact with her after college. But I’ll always have that lens when watching shows or reading comics, and it’s like a little ‘I love you’ from her, and a lovely reminder of what I think is one of the most genuine parts of our relationship.

I dunno. I just think it’s worth thinking about and talking about how things influence us and how we feel about that influence. And while I want to shake of some of the things she’s influenced in my being, this is one thing I want to keep.

[littlx-songbxrd]

ok so tlh is set in 1903 and there are a few things we know about the clothes from the books themselves- 1. we have a vague idea of the silhouette, as briefly described in the book and the dresses on the cover (although those are mostly incorrect, they do, I suppose, set the reader into the general mindset.) and 2. apparently only pastel colors are fashionable, they do not look nice on cordelia specifically (not all poc girls look 'washed out' in these colors, Kamala, who is often depicted in official art with a similar skin tone to cordelia is stated in the books to look very nice in her pastel dresses)

firstly, the 1900s were a rather odd decade for clothes silhouette wise. this decade was the transition from the 1800s dresses with foot-length hemlines and fuller skirts into the 1910s trends of dresses that reached to the bottom of the calf and a more utilitarian and accessible style. Dresses in the 1900s still had the tubular shape of the 1890s, although it was less severe and it eventually faded out by about 1906 or 1907.

Speaking for now only about the first half of the decade as the books do take place in 1903, the dresses would have had a very structured bodice with flowing skirts that reached to about the ankle. Their undergarments would have included at least three layers (something in between the corset and their body, the corset, and a corset cover) with drawers, stockings, padding at their hips and bust, and at least 1-2 petticoats. dresses consisted of the bodice and skirt as separate pieces, with lace and embellishments used to bring the attention to the bodice.

Day clothes were more structured and less busy, most of them including high necklines and long sleeves. (yes this means that the stupid thing with james always staring at cordelia's chest is not realistic.)

The ballgowns and party dresses that are often mentioned are slightly more accurate. These dresses tended to be very busy with lots of patterns and lace on them, often toward the bust line to achieve an ideal silhouette. skirts were longer and fuller than the day dresses and gloves were always worn with these dresses to make it appear more modest as it had low necklines and short sleeves.

a couple of notes about historical accuracy- number one being the corset. there is a part in chain of gold where cordelia complains about her corset that makes me mad every time I read it. corset were modern bras but more comfortable, they were incredibly supportive and didn't mess with anything permanently. there was always a layer between the skin and the corset as protection for both the skin and the corset as they were intended to be worn for years on end and needed protected from oil and dirt from the body. tight lacing is essentially the historic equivalent to people today who get dressed up in their fanciest clothes for an 8 a.m college class. it wasn't standard and it was only done in very specific situations in which the wearer wanted to look a certain way. for the most part, the super narrow waist wasn't actually all that small, and it looked that way because of padding on the hips and chest.

number two on the standards for fashion at the time. at this point being fashionable was less about standing out as it was about fitting in. If you were wearing something out of fashion it was abnormal and you would be ridiculed for it, along the lines of wearing jeans and a t-shirt to a formal wedding. it was a matter of propriety and respect. Getting dressed a certain way wasn't chore or special thing, it just was.

number three is on the aesthetic dress movement. this would be the category the cover dresses fall into. the aesthetic dress movement encouraged women to dress individually by rejecting the high fashion and emphasizing freedom of movement and practicality. (that is not to mean that high fashions weren't practical and comfortable, its basically just the equivalent of wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants as opposed to something like jeans, a blouse, and five accessories. both are good, its just that they feel very different.) these clothes took from greco-romanic traditions as well as that of eastern asian cultures, with flowing, airy fabrics and loose silhouettes. this style was usually only worn around the home.

next we're going to talk about color. first of all, pastels do not wash cordelia out, she is absolutely stunning in them, as well as the jewel tones. on a more historical note, clothes in the 1900s weren't all pastels????? lighter colors were in trend, as more of an aesthetic dressing style was in fashion, but dark colors could never actually go out of style from a practical standpoint. day dresses from the early half of the decade usually had darker colors, I will link or send another ask with two examples. one, from 1900, is a dark red and gray dress and the other is a walking dress actually from 1903 and is a perfect example of something cordelia could have worn. (it has a very nice brownish gray color with gold embellishments and a high neck.)

now evening dresses on the other hand were usually light colored, almost all of the surviving ones from this decade are a creme or gold color (there are a few in black and some in other colors as well, but the majority are creme, gold, or extremely light to the point they look white.) this is where the biggest plot hole is in my opinion. so it would have been most fashionable by mundane standards to wear a white or gold, which are the mourning and wedding colors respectively, so they obviously couldn’t have done that, which means that the women are either wearing day dresses that wouldn't come into creation until 3-5 years later, they are breaking mundane fashion rules, or they are breaking strict shadowhunter tradition. (out of all the shadowhunter things, the color code seems to actually be the one most consistent through all of the series, aside from the line about the youth in london wearing white sailing outfits.)

cordelias jewel tone wardrobe from anna is incredibly unrealistic in multiple aspects. for one, multiple dresses that would have had to have been custom made by hand plus, correct me if i'm wrong, accessories or undergarments, would have been WILDLY unrealistically expensive. there are plenty of money questions for the shadowhunter universe, but an entire wardrobe like that isn't even historically accurate for the british royal family even with all their blood money. on top of that is the fact that with the cultural implications of certain fashions cordelia very well could have become an outcast for wearing something so wildly out of fashion. there isn't really a modern correlation for it, but while she wouldn't necessarily have become a complete outcast or pariah, with the way we are told the shadowhunters align with societal values of the time (I.e cordelia being ruined) accepting that wardrobe would have been completely counterintuitive to her mission of being accepted by the shadowhunter society.

so that was a lot and i'm not sure if I got everything. let me know if you need any clarification, or want anything continued!!! thank you so much for letting me info dump and rant in your inbox, you are amazing!!

links for photos:

Worth 1903 evening dress

Worth 1903 walking dress

Worth 1900 day dress

plus an article that is the best thing i've ever read

I also have some other video/article links if anyone wants them!!

I will be honest with you anon

I really have nothing to add to all this besides that this is absolutely fascinating

I love how you compared clothing to different types of modern day equivalent that genuinely made it so much easier for me to visualize

I had actually heard complaints about the corset thing before! I had actually seen that many authors seem to write them as if they are the bane of many ya historical fantasies, when in reality it wasn't that at all. So in that scene in chog Cordelias corset was the equivilant of dressing in your fansiest clothes for a class?

See I would have never guessed it!

So more flowy greco-roman inspired clothing got it!

The movement mostly went towards freedom and practicality

Oh that does seem like a problem

The confiction between being appropriate in shadowhunter culture and in the fashion of the time

THE MONEY THING ALWAYS BAFLED ME TOO LIKE HOW ARE THESE HUNTERS WASTING SO MUCH TIME IN THIS WHEN THEY DESPISE FASHION-

Anyways

This is amazing

I will be refering to it more for ficts :D

THANK YOU I WILL BE WATCHING ALL THAT

[thehayleytake]

Ok, let’s talk about red lipstick…

Of all colors, it can be the most intimidating.

With Covid, many of us have ditched lipstick because it gets messed up underneath unwanted masks.

It’s like our lips have taken an extended sabbatical and are completely unfamiliar with the concept of lipstick at all.

Makeup companies have been shutting down due to this.  Literally.

Nonetheless, whether an outfit is neutral, monochrome or anything in-between, red lipstick instantaneously elevates any look to next level status, working like your most flattering pair of jeans or little black dress.

It can be your beauty secret weapon- one that not only beautifully finishes any look but also delivers a strong sense of confidence.

Here are my favorite red lipsticks, at different price points and various finishes.

MAC Ruby Woo

Photo Credit: nordstrom.com

One of the most legendary lipsticks ever created and with a cult following across the globe, Ruby Woo has become MAC’s best-selling lipstick in the United States with seven tubes sold every minute. Released in 1999 and adapted from previously top selling formula Russian Red, it became highly coveted by makeup artists to celebrities and consumers, including Janet Jackson and Rita Ora.   It has blue undertones and a matte finish. Many people have called this lipstick the “perfect red.”  Despite its wining points, this lipstick is known to be a “dryer” lipstick when applied and is recommended to have products applied preceding it in the following order- a lip scrub, lip balm, a coordinating pencil, and then finally the Ruby Woo to finish.  MAC Prep and prime works amazingly to prep the lips, and the MAC lip pencil in Cherry coordinates incredibly well with Ruby Woo on top.

Rouge Dior Refillable Lipstick in 999

Photo Credit: faces.com

Also referred to as “Iconic”, this is a reformulated shade inspired by the reds paired with Christian Dior’s couture dresses in his 1953 fashion show with three sold every hour in the U.S.  The 999 shade is known to look great on every skin tone, and it comes in four finishes: a velvet, matte, satin, and a metallic.  The satin shade is transferrable and does not stay like a liquid lipstick- you will have to reapply after meals and throughout the day.  The velvet has a very creamy feel to it, and the matte is a comfortable matte- it is moisturizing and won’t dry out your lips.  The formula is lightly scented.  If you liked the color, it also comes a liquid lipstick called the Rouge Dior Forever Liquid Transfer-Proof Lipstick in the shade 999 Forever Dior, which is known for is non-budging formula.

Nars Lip Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl  

Photo Credit: sephora.com

Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl is a must to add to your lipstick library due to its truly unique shade –few colors are like it.  It has a fuchsia-pink undertones that that make it incredibly eye catching.  The shade also comes in the PowerMatte Lip Pigment formula and the Air Matte Lip Color.   Taylor Swift, known for her love of red lipstick, is a fan of this one as well- she famously wore it to the Met Gala in 2014.  It is also available on Amazon for the severely discounted $19- a big break from the retail price of $27.

SEPHORA COLLECTION Cream Lip Stain Liquid Lipstick 01 Always Red

Photo Credit: sephora.com

I noticed this one on a friend many years ago, and she said, “Its only $15 at Sephora, and it’s the Sephora brand!” It is a blue-red undertone liquid lipstick with major staying power (through meals) with incredibly creamy formula, flattering all skin tones with very few reapplications.  If you are the type of person who just starting out your lipstick wardrobe or is not wanting to invest very much but is wanting superb quality all the same- this is your go to.  It is Sephora’s best-selling liquid lipstick, and it also comes in 86 other colors, in case you really like it. 

Christian Louboutin Velvet Matte Lip Colour in Rouge Louboutin 001M 

Photo Credit: sephora.com

If looking for the ultimate luxurious red lip for yourself or a fantastic gift for the person who has everything luxurious under the sun, go no farther- Christian Louboutin’s Velvet Matte lipstick in Rouge Louboutin 001M is your best pick.  At $90 for one lipstick, few can justify this purchase- and to re purchase.  But after many try this lipstick, a surprising number are converted- it becomes a must have in their collection, and they never go back.  A true work of art itself- each tube is an ornately decorated pendant with a gorgeous cap that looks like hybrid between turret and a crown.  It is hung by a ribbon on the cap, so you can decide if you want to wear it out on the town or use it like art for next year’s Christmas Tree.  It is known as the best-selling red lip in Paris, and it won the Allure Best of Beauty award in 2019 and has a long-lasting and comfortable formula.  

Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Color in Red Ribbon

Photo Credit: lisaeldridge.com

The British makeup artist, with the celebrity following of Kiera Knightly, Rihanna, Rosie Huntington Whitley, Duo Lipa, Winnie Harlow, and Victoria Beckham (just to name a few), Lisa Eldridge has been a tour de force in all aspects of makeup artistry.  After first starting her YouTube channel in 2010 with outpouring success, she started her own makeup line in 2018 by launching a limited-edition collection of True Velvet lipsticks that sold out within seconds. The Velvet Ribbon shade, a red that was the first to launch, which was an immediate sell out.  The highly pigmented shade has a finish that looks exactly like velvet fabric but on the lips. The packaging Is luxurious, coming in retro metallic brushed gold with Lisa’s initials embossed on the cap.   The shade also comes in a matching lip liner, which she has made a slight shade deeper than the lips.  

Her beauty channel is one of the best on YouTube- she keeps it fresh by doing trendy looks on herself while also featuring looks on celebrities and guest artists.  An emerald green eye look created for Emma Roberts and replicated on Lisa’s channel is outstanding- it is a saturated green with smoked-out grey edges for a truly edgy look.  Another look worth watching is the recreation of Adele’s signature look, which includes the breakdown of her famous winged eyeliner, step by step.

Sephora is in the middle of their Spring sale, with Beauty Insiders, VIBs, and ROUGE levels all having access to the sale through tomorrow, April 11th with the code SAVESPRING.  

Sephora Brand Products are all 30% off - the liquid lipstick comes from $15 down to $10.50.  

All of these lipsticks except for the MAC’s Ruby Woo and Lisa’s lipsticks will be included in the sale.

At Ulta, the Ruby Woo gets Double Points through the end of today.  

The Ruby Woo is available in a Matte Lipstick Prep and Prime set with the Primer and the Ruby Woo together for $25- a great deal (the primer is $20 and the lipstick is $19 individually)

What are your favorite red lipsticks? I would love to hear your thoughts!

[gilf-grievous]

Star Wars Inspired Outfit Concepts 1

Jango Fett / Boba Fett / Din Djarin

Jango (Kamino)

I was inspired by Jango’s outfit (pjs?) on Kamino. The power that scene where he rolls his sleeves up has over me is just chefs kiss. Tbh I just really like rompers and the gunslinger aesthetic of his belt(which I was actually more inspired by Ahsoka’s belt for but shhhh). Ahsoka also inspired adding the kar’ta to the design as her outfit during the seige of Mandalore had one snuck on there!

Jango

I really like the aesthetic I achieved for all the mandos though this one I’m still uncertain of. Maybe the color balance is a bit off? The color of his kute is different in comics sometimes so I did make a version with that coloration. Idk I really do like the whole fishnet/keyhole/crop look, maybe I’ve just been looking at it for too long lmao. Anyway this one is just like a “wearable” interpretation of Jango’s armor. I tried to keep this one kinda spicier because the bts of AOTC says Jango’s armor supposed to have a new millennium chic kinda look.

Boba

I love this look, it think it’s the first one where I achieved the perfect mix of SW and an outifit that could conceivably be worn. I gave this one a hood solely because I though it made it seem a bit edgier (although I did consider it a sorta joke before I drew up the rest- Boba has a hood but Jango doesn’t). I think this one just really really work and captures what I want exactly.

Boba (Tatooine)

I also very much love this one. Boba just looks so great in The Mandalorian. I forwent any fishnet in this so it would be distinct and have more of a updated/restored vibe to go with the fact that Boba repainted his armor. I thought a clasp near the collarbone would just make it a bit edgier. Tbh I was absolutely just going to do a skirt bc I thought Boba was wearing one in the show and was very disappointed to find out it was more of a Rey situation, so I settled for 3/4ths of a skirt. I also had the pants be gathered at the bottom like joggers instead of open like the cargo pants of the past incarnations to create another difference in silhouette and detail. Also, I brought the keyhole back because I wanted to (honestly that’s where like 90% of my design choices come from lol).

Din Djarin

This one is the most covered up of all of them so it’d look unique but also because of the creed (you’d have to pry cute crop top beskar’gam with my cold dead hands though). I love love love the look of long sleeves with thumb holes so thats absolutely what’s happening here. This one I’m iffy on the references for this one because I looked at pre beskar and post beskar images so it might be slightly off? I’m not sure. Also I just really wanted one deep pocket to double as the thigh plate and sling he keeps Grogu in (I absolutely just used a photo of the Grogu ityy bitty plush bc I couldn’t be bothered to actually draw him oops). I really do love this though I might mess around with the left leg a bit?

Anyway I’ve got a TON more of these concepts in the works so feel free to talk to me about them. Maybe if my sewing machine was working I’d actually try to mess around and make these but for now they’re just concepts. One day though...

[flamebearrel]

I don’t have any specific questions but I would love to hear about your thought process behind ur recent spirit phone art!! All the details you put into it were so cool, I was staring at it for so long lol

Skfjsjsh THANK YOU, I’m glad to hear you liked them that much :DD This may get a little long

I started the original SP one in... February? March? Then I lost motivation for a while (as one does with most of their projects) and picked it up again at the end of summer. As stated before, I tried to replicate Ms. Doyle’s shading - both as a general study and because I wanted to learn my way around Medibang (which I just started using on my new tablet this year)! The finer lines and details weren’t things I could implement back when I drew on my phone

The alternates weren’t set in motion until after I finished shading the main one; I wanted to do them from the get-go, but almost didn’t because of how long the main one was already taking. Ultimately I decided to go through with them, just with flat colors... and I'm glad I did

I started with Live (Only Not)'s design since the cover already provided me both an outfit and a color palette to go off of, then I bounced between all the others! (Generally it went LON -> VM -> IABC -> DSA/NT in order of difficulty)

Lucky for me that most of the albums already had photos/videos I could reference! VM is from its trailer:

IABC is from the little opening clip at the beginning of the album video, except I changed the dollar into a scarf:

And DSA came from the album's bonus cover plus two other photos that I think are from the same shoot:

Nature Tapes doesn’t have any official looks associated with it (aside from maybe Goosebumps but that’s pretty dubious). Instead, I decided to push the “thrown-together” vibe by combining different parts from the single covers!

The outfit: Adrien Brody’s suit + Raymond’s flannel + the My Trains bandana and overalls + the mask (it was getting a little too busy to add things from RCW, unfortunately)

The typography: My Trains + Jaws + the text from the NeedleJuice NT release

The only thing difficult about writing said typography was getting the spacing right!! Dinosaurchestra and VM were the hardest on that front because of their borders; otherwise it was just a lot of messing with ruler tools

As for Maui, I referenced pictures of him in different lighting:

A few other details:

I spent an UNREASONABLY LONG amount of time on perfecting the LON glasses shine... When I started adding in the others and saw I had to do it again for Dave I just threw down one blue line and called it a day lol

NT Maui was gonna have a shark fin headpiece at first; I changed it to Eddie Murphy Truck (tm) to differentiate it more from the Goodsie headpiece and add more to the unsettling feeling. It's iconic enough to forgive it not being a direct NT reference, right?

Dinosaurchestra was already mostly colored before I settled on expressions for Neil and Maui (a whistle and a roar respectively)

“But... overnight... my hair turned white.” ;)

My "favorites" kept changing throughout the process, but I think the ones that turned out best are View-Monster, IABC and Spirit Phone itself!

Okay yeah that's all. Have another alternate version (one that's more simplified) for going through all of this!!

[uwua3]

Um hi! I was wondering if I could get headcanons on kazunari spending time with an old friend after being separated for a long time? Thank you so much! 🌸

of course! i’m sososo happy for this request :O it allowed me to get closure for a similar experience i’ve had, so this was healing ♡ thank you so much, i love you!!! (^з^)-☆

summary: sometimes, friends aren’t forever. nevertheless, friendship break ups were definitely more painful than romantic ones

warnings: angst, breakdowns, closure, crying, friendship break ups, hitting (jokingly), insecurities

author’s note: as seen in the title, this contains lots of social media (especially tik tok) references! please read this and understand, it’s okay to not be friends with someone anymore—not everyone is meant to be your bff, and that’s okay ! you’re okay ♡ (reminder: this is a platonic writing! no romantic feelings whatsoever)

word count: 5,267

music: electric love – børns

tik tok famous

🌻🎨 miyoshi kazunari

the kazunari you were best friends with was gone—instead, it was someone you didn’t recognize

you scrolled through the account tagged in an ad promoting a play in your area, the stranger familiar in a painful way. why you had clicked, you had no idea, but here you were: stalking your ex best friend’s instablam profile

it felt like high school again. laying in bed between four pitch black walls, with nothing but your phone illuminated by kazunari’s smiling face in a trending post. nights spent thinking about the artistic popular boy in your grade caught up to you even in university

swipe. another selfie of kazunari grinning with his friends. swipe. a group photo with his cast members, apparently. swipe. the same promotional poster for his company’s play that was just advertised to you not too long ago

you stared at the screen, mindlessly scrolling through each and every single post just to see his face again and again. there was no reason to, you hadn’t thought of him in years

but... why couldn’t you look away?

before you could end up years in advance of his perfectly structured feed, a notification appeared at the top of your screen

kazu-PIKO started a live video! watch it before it ends!

your finger hovered over the rainbow circle now around kazunari’s icon, hesitating due to the countless worries in your head. what if he remembered who you were? though, with a followers count like his, he was maybe too famous to even notice

when you decided to leave his life for good and ended the friendship before senior year, you never expected to find him again. you had moved on and treasured the good memories before everything became a mess, but now, all you wanted to do was see your best friend again

sighing, you decided it wasn’t worth it. there was no point bringing up the past, it was a process but it was time to keep letting go. you were about to exit his profile but you must’ve misclicked, because suddenly you were brought to kazunari’s slightly sweaty but energized grin on the screen

you could’ve left the live any time. pretended like none of this happened and you could never see kazunari again in your entire life

but... no, you stayed and settled back into your bed, watching the screen as kazunari talked on and on

he was wearing an elaborate costume you were sure he just finished performing in, his cast members bustling around him excitedly in what seemed like a dressing room. it must’ve been closing night, considering the bouquets of flowers all around them from adoring fans and more

“what’s up, what’s up~?” kazunari yelled out, a chorus of shushes in the background apparent even as he laughed. taking a quick gulp of water, kazunari said something to a person behind the camera with a wink and promise of hanging out post after–party. you followed the comments, all of them congratulating kazunari on his final show of the season

he was always the more popular, friendly, and extroverted one. of course he had a fanbase, he was meant to be in the spotlight. and, you... weren’t

“kazu here! wanted to see how everyone liked summer troupe’s newest play~ how’d i do? super good?” kazunari giggled, resting in a director’s chair as the mirror behind him reflected four other people trying their best to avoid the camera (wait... was that famous child actor tenma sumeragi—?!)

“you know... we’ve been thinking—” kazunari started, stopping with a loud protest when a towel hit his face. “stop thinking, you only get bad ideas.” a rough voice complained, the tone harsh but quickly turned into an accidental yelp when kazunari panned the camera to reveal a young green–haired boy who moved to the side to hide

laughing again, kazunari said something about how yukki–chan was too cute for his own good before continuing his statement, using the towel to wipe his forehead

“anyways~ isn’t it time for a mankai instablam?!” kazunari exclaimed, the chat matching his vibe by keyboard smashing to express their support. you wondered why that name rang a bell, but ultimately became distracted by kazunari’s effortless sunshine disposition

“frooch—” a quick side eye glance to his left with a nervous laugh, “sakyo–san! definitely meant that... i love you, sakyo~” a kiss was blown in the same direction and a defeated sigh of “kazunari...” was heard

“sakyo finally let us kids have some fun and get instablam for the theatre company! run by yours truly, but posted by everyone~ check it out!”

you noticed he dropped the username in the comments and when you looked back up, it felt like he was looking into your eyes again. you missed him, a lot

you followed the mankai profile, watching the count rise up as you got lost in the numbers. he wouldn’t notice, he couldn’t have, he would never

when the live ended, it felt like the room was suddenly too quiet. like you were missing your other half... you ignored it and went to bed, tired from social media

(hours later, kazunari let out a sigh of relief, closing the door to his dorm gently as his back slid against the surface. he hit the floor softly, his mood ruined once he pulled out his phone and scrolled through the recent followers again. he never thought he’d see you again, but here you were, following his company’s instagram)

(it had been a long time since he missed you like this. kazunari turned in from the party uncharacteristically early, just to stare at your profile. if only he could follow back)

you didn’t know when it became a habit, but the first thing you did when you woke up was check the mankai instablam. one thing led to another, and you’d find yourself continuining your day but with the casual obsession of seeing if it was kazunari who posted

over time, you learned the company members’ names just from the sheer content twenty (20) boys could produce. from following the profile to catching up on the blogs to every livestream in between, it was an understatement to say you were a fan

you never did follow kazunari’s personal blog, but he would always be your favorite. something about his acting and friendliness drew you in all over again, fighting to be the first to like his new update

sure, at first, you didn’t physically recognize him. he had dyed his hair now, a much more vibrant blonde with stylish and trendy fashion to make him stand out. his black hair and basic school uniform days were gone and only in your memories

but, throughout the years apart, he had remained the same. once a people pleaser, always a people pleaser, you suppose. you could never keep up with his intense energy and rambunctious vibes, he was a force on his own

mankai_company just posted a photo!

you subconsciously smiled when you saw kazunari posted again, this time a selfie instead of the usual group hang out photo. he seemed to be in a track suit inside the practice room, his reflection showing it was just misumi making a triangle with his hands behind the phone

(some part inside you wished you could’ve taken cute bonding pictures together with kazunari... but that time was gone now)

you were about to scroll through the rapid comments before you noticed the caption with the typical kazu stars and emoticons

“heya mankai fam~! ^_−☆ check out our newest tik tok account! @ mankai_company ~ see ya there!!! – kazuuu ✨”

you weren’t exactly shocked to see sakyo finally let the gen z kids of the ensemble finally get their hands on a shared tik tok account. switching to the other app, you followed and put on notifications like always

maybe it was following mankai that changed the algorithim, but suddenly your feed on tik tok was... different, to say the least

kazunari’s rising popularity wasn’t just from his theatre gig, but also his own individual account. of course he had his own content, you should’ve known

kazunari was becoming a well known tik toker who often posted anything under the sun. dance videos, funny pranks on his troupe members, and acting povs that were way too professional

you didn’t think anything of it until you had swiped through your “for you” page, liking anything that made you laugh and find momentary serotonin in the humor. as you were about to skip past one, you noticed the username

kaz-PIKO: like this and i’ll message them~ ☆

message who? you restarted the tik tok only to see kazunari was in his usual training outfit, the yellow and black tracksuit and gold headband as he sat in front of the practice room mirror with his phone recording his reflection

(you noticed it matched the outfit in his instablam post that advertised the mankai tik tok account a week ago)

reading the text that occassionally came in on screen, you held your breath as you made the connections

kazunari pointed to a corner where the colored text appeared: “i have this best friend i lost contact with...” next, a cut to black when he covered the camera with his hand. then, a quick transition of all the photos you had ever taken with him with your face covered with a sticker

(you didn’t think he’d keep them in his phone after what had happened)

“i miss them, they were everything to me.”

(he was everything to you before, too)

“i noticed they followed me recently, should i dm them?” the video cut back to kazunari who shrugged and it ended there

you released a deep breath, pausing your daily afternoon scroll to fully comprehend the situation

of course kazunari noticed. he was too perceptive for his own good, he could never forget a face, or username, for the life of him

but was this... a sign? a call out from the universe to have closure from such a long friendship that defined your youth?

you didn’t bother opening the comments, you didn’t need anything convincing you otherwise. you moved on, ignoring kazunari’s latest tik tok even though it stayed on your mind all day. you couldn’t think of anything else

never in a million years did you expect to find yourself back as your high school self, hopelessly wishing you could be worthy of your childhood best friend. this time, you were just a little bit older

kazunari took his ten minute break after helping summer troupe with moving stage props, sighing as he refreshed his tik tok account again. the views kept going up, yet, no like from your account

all he needed was a like from you, some signal you were ready to talk again, and he’d message you right away

but until then, kazunari pocketed his phone and distracted himself with a loud cheer for the snacks director brought to the stage. he would have to patiently wait for you to see

another few days pass before kazunari is doing the same exact thing as you—scrolling through tik tok and sending them to active groupchats and other friends

then, it happened

going viral online wasn’t anything new, but not to this level

thousands of comments made kazunari’s phone ping like crazy, everyone insisting on knowing who the person was in his latest tik tok. it seemed like the algorithim grabbed his video and sent it to every person’s fyp, because suddenly all the spotlight was on him to go send a message

at first, kazunari was overjoyed with this new level of attention. how cool! that just meant more instablam likes~ he hoped his art posts would receive the same recognition, so he scrolled through his comments only to see the most liked comment

wait, isn’t this [insert your @] from high school?

oh my god

your phone was going off consistently, the tik tok notification soind buzzing on your bed. you sleepily woke up from a short nap to hundreds of people mentioning you. oh no... what had you done now?

you opened the tag. it was the same kazunari tik tok you made a point to avoid before. but now, it came back, louder than ever

kazunari was generally tik tik popular, but not this famous! you checked the comments and noticed your friend had started this chain of tagging. of course they did, you rolled over to try your best and muffle your scream in your pillow

if you didn’t like his post now... there would be no more chances to ever speak to him again

lifting your head to stare at the screen in front of you, you had never thrown your phone at the end of your bed so fast after double tapping

(kazunari almost missed it, but when your username flashed across the top of his screen, he simply switched apps to go into his finsta to scream)

(whoiskazu: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH THEY LIKED MY TIK TOK I HAVE TO DM THEM WHAT DO I SAY JSJFJSJCJD HELP?!?!@!:!,!,’&@:@;’???)

(nottenma: please be a normal human ,,,)

(princemukkun: you got this, kazu! i support you!)

(misankaku: 🔺🔺🔺 say that)

(yukiruri: SHUT UP I CAN HEAR YOU FROM ACROSS THE DORMS)

(whoiskazu: no ❤️)

after lots of encouragement from the only two summer troupe members who supported him, misumi & muku, kazunari calmed down to stare at the open chat log. all he had to do was say something, anything, and things would go from there

but sometimes, a picture spoke a thousand words

ping! kaz–PIKO followed you!

kaz–PIKO sent you a message:

when you opened the dm after pacing nervously in your room for a good minute or so, you subconsciously let out a sigh of relief and couldn’t help but laugh

of course, only kazunari would send you a meme of a bunch of pink hearts

it was like time never passed between you two. one meme led to another anecdote of gen z humor and before you knew it, it was like you guys were friends again

things were always easier over text, however, so when kazunari suggested you both meet up, you stopped typing and reread the text over again

kaz–PIKO: i’d love to hang out with you!!! ☆ when are you free~? :D

your anxieties were relieved for a moment once he double–texted a cute pleading sticker. it was so like him that you actually considered seeing him even if it had been years since the last time you both parted ways

it was too late to back out now, you both knew you missed each other and were better people now. university maturity was just a simply different time and place in a teen’s life compared to figuring everything out in high school

on the other side of the screen, kazunari couldn’t help but feel a little nervous on what he said. he was always too forward in wanting to interact with people, but maybe this was pushing it

he didn’t exactly forget you were the one who ended the friendship. but, so much time had passed it was better left unsaid. he forgave you a long time ago; you both had emotionally become new people with healthier habits and more refined personalities. what was there to hold a grudge about? (or at least, so he thought)

kazunari was just worried you didn’t feel the same way and he was opening an opportunity for you to hurt him again

“this is so not cool!” kazunari huffed, having a pillow thrown at his head after he stumbled back. it felt like deja vu, why was he always the victim of yuki’s aim?!

“yo, friendly mcextrovert, you forget we actually have work?” yuki rudely reminded him, but had a hint of concern in his narrowed eyes. the two creative geniuses of mankai were huddled around kazunari’s laptop to finish designing the posters. obviously, with fashion extroidinaire yuki’s input on color (yet, kazunari was most definitely focused on other things besides digital editing)

“ah, sorry~” kazunari weakly laughed, the look in his eyes not quite right. yuki hummed, unconvinced, before turning back to the screen with spare glances at kazunari’s slouched frame. the two of them continued to work in uncomfortable silence before yuki sighed, pushing the laptop further away while rubbing his forehead

“ok, ok, i give in. what’s got you so down?”

kazunari raised his eyebrows in surprise before quickly putting on his usual front, grinning as he flashed a cute peace sign. “nothing~ you’re seeing things, yukki–chan!”

yuki smacked his hand down with a very obvious eye roll, ignoring kazunari’s dramatic complaints about his unnecessary use of force (“ow! so not nice, yukki–chan!” “can you shut up for one second?!” “no, i cannot~”)

“i’m seeing you’re stressing about something and it’s interfering with our work. so, spill.” yuki pretended like the facade was all for work, but when he completely turned his body so he was facing kazunari, closing the laptop in the process and making sure there were no distractions in the process, kazunari genuinely smiled

“awww, is yukki–chan worried about his bff~? you love me—” “i’ll end you right here and now if you don’t start talking.”

silence, then the realization, oh, he wasn’t joking. so, kazunari rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward attempt at a laugh as he glazed over the details of his latest problem. yuki listened attentively, not making a single sound as he decided to rest his hands in his lap

“okay.” yuki finally said and kazunari did a double take. “okay?” kazunari almost couldn’t believe it. it literally took all his strength to be emotionally vulnerable for once, and this was the response? kazunari blinked before yuki patted his shoulder, though he moved exactly like a robot who never functioned around humans before

“how do you feel now?”

kazunari thought about it some more, reaching out for his sketchbook before yuki blocked his hand. “you know, you can’t keep distracting yourself from your feelings. it’s okay to be, not happy, all the time.”

kazunari stopped and slouched further into his frame, trying his best to avoid the effect of the call out. ouch, by the way

it’s not that big of a deal, kazunari thought as he fidgeted with the zipper of his jacket. the sound was very prominent in the quiet room now, but yuki patiently waited for an answer

“i’m... scared, i guess? people, people always leave me. i couldn’t be the right person for them last time, what if i’m not a good friend?” kazunari rambled for once, a weight getting lifted off his shoulders when he verbally expressed the number one fear haunting him. yuki nodded, clearly about to disagree before he sympathetically pulled kazunari into an one–armed hug. kazunari returned it, avoiding eye contact as he stared at paint stains on his shoes

“it’s okay to be your true self. mankai likes you for who you are, right? especially, summer. we’re friends.” yuki explained, and kazunari let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. maybe that’s all he needed to hear, because he leaned his head on yuki’s with a desperate attempt to not cry all over his friend

“you can cry.”

and kazunari finally faced the pain and trauma that came with a best friend leaving, closing his eyes and trying to stifle his own cries. yuki didn’t say anything again, just rubbed kazunari’s back as consolation as kazunari hid his face away from sight

“i, i just wanted to know what i did wrong. why am i never good enough? why can’t anyone ever stay? why is it my fault?” kazunari sobbed, curling into himself as he failed to maintain his usual composure. yuki continued offering silent motivation, knowing all kazunari needed was someone who listened and understood

“i... i will never be better. i’ll never be someone’s first choice, my efforts will never be enough. i want to be worthy of love.” kazunari mumbled, settling down as he realized the severity of the situation. it was the first time he cried so honestly to someone, he was about to pull away before yuki looked into his eyes with a soft smile

“you are, very much so. you deserve validation, happiness, and anything in between. your past isn’t your fault, kazu. what someone did to you was out of your control, it’s not an indication of what you’re worth.”

kazunari nodded, finding comfort in the words since they came from yuki. yuki stood up after a while and offered his hand, to which kazunari accepted and mumbled an embarrassed apology for being so out of character. yuki just lightly punched his arm, a new understanding between them

“i like you for who you are, never change, kazunari.”

(a hour later, you got a notification kazunari posted a new tik tok. it was with mankai’s fashion designer, yuki, this time, who were both wearing cat ears. it must’ve been an old costume as they did a “fit check”. yuki never looked amused in kazunari’s videos, but he seemed closer to him this time around. you wondered why. at least, they were both happy)

(when you agreed to meet up, kazunari exhaled and dropped back into bed. holding the phone above his face, kazunari rapidly typed back an adorable sticker before throwing his phone aside)

(muku picked his head up from a manga, coming over to snuggle into kazunari’s side without another word. kazunari hugged him back, burying his face in muku’s chest with a smile. he loved his friends so much)

(ping! another tik tok, this time kazunari and muku were reenacting a manga scene from some popular series with the audio from the actual anime)

“are you okay?” tenma’s protective leadership qualities kicked in, moving to stand beside his troupe member with a concerned expression. kazunari nodded, but his hands were shaking in his jean pockets and he kept scuffing the heel of his shoes against the pavement

today was the day. you and kazunari were reuniting after an especially messy friendship break up. the last time he ever saw you was when you walked the stage at his high school graduation, now, here he was, craning his head to look for your familiar face

the rest of summer troupe came for moral support, because that’s just who they were. kazunari let yuki explain the predicament when they all found kazunari pacing the main living room earlier, and they were certain the power of friendship would save the day

(maybe, coming in with very exaggerated disguises were a bit too overboard, though. seriously? a group of four wearing tinted sunglasses and all black in the summer caught more attention than necessary)

nevertheless, you and kazunari agreed on a local café nearby. he wondered if you remembered you two frequented this joint all the time in high school, for everything from late night cram sessions to needing a pick me up for working hard on extracurricular activities. he hadn’t gone in a long, long time. everything reminded kazunari of you, causing him to order your usual impulsively without thinking if it—you, changed

sliding into a free table by the window, kazunari held up a small wave to the highly suspicious group at the opposite end of the café as they all finger–gunned back. really... anyone could recognize their unusual bright hair from a mile away

(tenma didn’t even change it, he had the iconic sumeragi orange on full display and attracted hushed whispers immediately)

kazunari perked his head up if the door bell rang but fell dejectedly whenever it wasn’t you. anxiously tapping his foot, kazunari fiddled with his stud earring as he barely drank his over the top coffee. it had too much sugar, maybe that’s why he’s so jumpy

checking his phone, kazunari frowned. you were a bit late... though, you always did that back then. relieved, kazunari thought, maybe you didn’t change that much

missing the bell by the entrance, kazunari was too busy scrolling through his feed before he felt a tap on his shoulder. assuming it was a barista, kazunari lifted his head with a bright smile before it morphed into an expression of shock

it was you

and, you were barely recognizable

it shouldn’t have hurted him as much as it did, but kazunari stood up and opened his arms with a big smile. “hey~! thanks for coming, missed ya!” was his voice too high? too excited? he always worried about those types of things around you, but he just realized that now

(he was so caught up in meeting you again, he missed the mutters of summer. they were looking you up and down, already getting a bad feeling as they devised a plan to get kazunari out whenever it seemed uncomfortable)

“hi, kazunari.” you said, awkwardly going in for a hug before settling across from him. kazunari sat back down and pushed a cup towards you, smiling to the point where his cheeks hurt

“you still like this, right?” kazunari laughed but he felt like there were no air in his lungs. a part of him accepted a long time ago he’d never see you again, so this felt like reopening old wounds he neglected to care for

“ahaha... no, not really. don’t worry, it’s still decent!” you fumbled on your words, taking a sip of the drink only to reveal a slight grimance. kazunari nodded, a flustered blush across his face as he swore within his head. you didn’t like that order anymore? you loved it back in high school...

“haha... cool...” kazunari trailed off and it was uncomfortably silent despite the lively atmostphere of the popular café. it had definitely become busier since both your high school days, that’s for sure. maybe, that was a blessing and curse at the same time

tenma was about to stand up and pull kazunari aside, acting like it was an emergency, before misumi grabbed him with surprising strength. about to retaliate, tenma just fell silent when muku shook his head with a pointed look towards your table

kazunari swirled the metal straw in his order, watching the movement of the foam with unnatural quietness. it bothered him, not being able to talk comfortably as an extrovert, so he started speaking when he noticed you wouldn’t start the conversation

“so... how have you been?”

“good, good. you?”

“great! thanks for asking.”

“yeah...”

silence, again. this was becoming unbearable. kazunari sharply exhaled through his nose before pushing aside his drink, sitting up to cross his arms on the table with a serious look

“talk to me. we haven’t seen each other in years, but we are—were best friends. what’s up?” kazunari stated, hurriedly correcting himself when he caught your wide eyes. you seemed to contemplate it for a moment before agreeing, mimicking his posture with new confidence

“it’s... strange, seeing you again. i feel like i barely know who you are now.” you explained slowly and kazunari nodded, also feeling the same way as he rested his cheek against his palm. this was going to be a hard, but long overdue, conversation

who knows? maybe, it’d heal that dramatic part of your coming of age childhoods that you both needed

“same. so much has changed ever since we, you know.” kazunari replied and it was about to be awkward again before you responded, scratching your head with a distant look

“yeah... i’m sorry, for leaving you.”

“why did you?”

kazunari’s words were automatic, coming from a part of him that always wondered this when things got rough. when it was too quiet at night and he laid awake staring at his bedroom ceiling, he questioned why he wasn’t the best friend you wanted. or, when he drove by your old school, he often thought why weren’t all the good memories enough to make you stay?

whoever said friendship break ups were more painful than romantic ones, was right

(being abandoned by someone who knew him more than kazunari knew himself was... a turning point in his life)

you reeled back from the surprise, spluttering as you tried to form a coherent sentence. kazunari passed you a napkin, to which you took gratefully. it was supposed to be natural, everyone said that, but this conversation took effort to maintain

“you’re right, i owe you an explanation.” you mumbled, the question catching you off guard. kazunari waited, like he always did, before you continued, your voice clear despite the busy ambience. all noise faded into the background as kazunari listened to the words he wished high school him could’ve heard before

“we... we just were in different parts of our life. you are, to this day, the life of the party. the bold, loud, energetic student who’s outgoing, charismatic, and always saying something. i’m... not.”

(when kazunari was about to interrupt, you held up your hand and he sat back, realizing yeah—he did like talking way too much)

“it was hard... being known as ‘kazunari’s best friend’ and nothing more. you’re bigger than life, kazunari, i’m not like that. and, that’s okay, at least for me.”

“i just... i had to be my own person. spread my wings, be independent, you know? you didn’t hold me back, but i needed time to be myself and stand alone.”

you looked relieved, like this was something you held back for years. kazunari was floored, he honestly didn’t expect this. he truly wasn’t aware you felt overshadowed since he took all the attention away from you. a deep sense of shame washed over kazunari when he realized how lonely it must’ve felt

“when you left, i questioned everything. whether the friendship was real or not... or what i did wrong. i wish you told me before, but i, i understand.” kazunari forced out and it wasn’t a lie. he did understand, the fear of being forgotten and mislabeled. your reasoning was completely valid, it was for self growth and confidence (something he still needed to work on)

“i’m sorry for doing that to you. i never intended to, but i know impact matters most. i’m sorry you felt overshadowed, you were always my number one.” kazunari said and you reached over to take his hand, albeit awkwardly. it was comforting as you smiled with tears in your eyes

“i know, you were my first choice, too. i’m glad i was your best friend, i miss you and i love you so much.”

“i miss and love you, too, bff.”

(it was something both of you needed to hear, and the childhood versions of yourselves felt like they could move on. this, this was closure)

when you two catched up on university and everything else, kazunari pulled out his phone (which he hadn’t checked in hours after texting summer to go back to the dorms). holding it up in the air with a mischevious wink, you and kazunari both knew where this was going

“wanna make a tik tok?”

kaz–PIKO: always friends ♡

(it was labeled as a part two to his original post about missing his best friend. you and kazunari pretended to do the ‘electric love kissing’ challenge, before the audio cut to ‘sike!’. kazunari ran over to his phone to end the video, both your laughing faces in the last frame)

(it blew up, again. as expected of popular tik tok king kazunari)

regardless of the comments and likes, kazunari was right—you two would always be friends. it didn’t have to be more than that, this was for the best, and that’s okay

[ks-caster]

Beth Liveblogs Black Widow

Bought that premium access on Disney+ so I can have the privilege of pausing for snacks and using subtitles as needed - so let’s go! 

Beth’s Spoiler-Free Review: Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the movie - the plot was compelling, the characters were likable, and the stunts were really excellent. I felt like hair and makeup dropped the ball on realism multiple times which I was sad about, because how she looks seems to be pretty important to Nat so I expected it to be done well in her movie. 

I did not like the way they framed the tail end (denouement - obviously because this movie is mid-series we know how it ends to an extent) - I felt like the connect-up to Infinity War was lackluster, especially compared to how enjoyable and dynamic the rest of the film was.

Spoilery live-reactions are under the cut. Click at own risk! Feel free to rebagel with your own impressions, thoughts, jokes and rebuttals!

The movie begins with a young Nat with blue dyed hair and visible roots, showing her natural red. Do you know how hard it is to get natural red out of hair, enough to make it blue and not green? And I’m supposed to believe that a middle-school age girl in 1995 Ohio had access to these chemicals? I’ll give her the white hair in IW/Endgame because she’s an adult with a lot of experience as a spy altering her appearance. But as a child? In the 90s? While her family is apparently in hiding? Sus.

The scene with Alexei laying on the on the wing while Nat learns to fly? AMAZING stunts. Amazing. AND someone in an action movie is finally smart enough to shoot the tires.

Nice skills on young Nat, getting the gun. Since we know from Endgame that Nat’s father is named Ivan, we know that Alexei isn’t really her dad. She also refers to presumably the red room as going “back.” Was she lent out to these agents to legitimize their family?

-0-

Nice knife moves, Yelena - I love the hand switch.

Ooooh so she was being mind controlled and the red stuff freed her? Interesting.

-0-

Nat is in Norway - visit Thor! He’d love to have you. (I’m mixing up my timeline, aren’t I?)

Supplies Dude whose name I didn’t catch refers to the Avengers breakup as a divorce - I kinda love it. It’s accurate!

BUDAPEST omg are we finally going to get the story?? Are we??

Box dye? I’m supposed to believe she got all that red out of her hair with flippin’ Loreal? Really? And that toner isn’t even the color she ultimately went - it’s too yellow. Sus.

-0-

Oop, looks like Nat got caught up in Yelena’s desertion.

Do not give Nat your metal frisbee, robocop - she’s been around Steve long enough that she knows how to use it.

I laughed out loud when she did the string him up thing with the cables - literal spider move, I love it!

Mystery box is empty - classic bait and switch.

-0-

BUDAPEST - WE ARE IN BUDAPEST - IT’S HAPPENING PEOPLE

Nat closing the door behind her is a small thing but I appreciate it - no sneaking up behind her.

When Yelena throws Nat in the kitchen and her feet hit the door and she spins before she hits the ground? That was a helluva stunt.

Oooooh honey. No body left to check is ALWAYS movie code for they lived.

Dreykov’s daughter? Another hint from Avengers 2012? C’mon, movie.

Riding the chimney down? Another incredible stunt. 

Dreykov can scan his soldiers’ bodies and terminate them if they’re too damaged to keep fighting? Big yikes. With Nat where she is character development wise, the stakes are now much higher because if she injures an opponent they may be killed remotely.

“Do you want me to chase him down and un-steal it?”

The car door under the bike was an excellent stunt - as was the car going into the subway. Though I’ve never seen a subway entrance big enough to admit a car.

Who hasn’t wanted to slide down the middle to avoid the crowded escalators lol.

Yelena making fun of Nat’s sexy poses I am LIVING omg.

Running water for wounds. RUNNING WATER. NOT ALCOHOL. The vodka goes on the INSIDE for the pain - the running water cleans the OUTSIDE. If there’s a convenience store then there’s a bathroom, with running water. Cleansing with something like alcohol is a LAST RESORT and you do not look like you’re at that point resource-wise. I thought these ladies were supposed to be highly trained in all of the things?

“Could be fun though.” “I saw where he put the keys” “Top drawer green cabinet.” I love their chaos.

Yelena’s vest and its pockets and the resulting conversation are positively majestic.

“You are sensitive.” “You’re a very annoying person.”

-0-

Do! Not! Move! Around! Like! That! While! Getting! A! Tattoo!!!! That poor artist was trying his best and Alexei just...

Ooooh was Red Guardian like Captain Russia? Interesting.

“Just don’t make a scene.” “You made a scene didn’t you.”

David Harbor running up that wall and then wiping out after the guard shocks him... I really loved that stunt, especially since they don’t show him being all super cut - he’s a big guy! He’s allowed to have fat over his muscles and still be a strong dude! I love it.

“Such a poser.” Girl, you need to meet Loki - he does a lot of hair flips too lol.

The sibling energy between the girls during the rescue!!!

“Whooooooa... this would be a cool way to die.” Yelena, I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you but get your head in the game girl.

Poor Alexei - he never gets to do the dramatic escape from *inside* of the aircraft.

Hang on, no ovaries? So all of these women are now in immediate, surgically-induced menopause? The uterus part makes sense if the intent was to prevent them from getting pregnant if they have sex during a mission, but, what, they gotta be on estrogen supplements for the rest of their lives? That’s just really poor planning. Like it was hilarious the way Yelena went into the biology of it to make Alexei uncomfortable, but that really doesn’t make sense to do to your superhero kids. It’s just bad science.

Love that Yelena keeps her vest even after she changes into her matching white flight suit. That vest better make it to the end of the movie.

-0-

“Honey, we’re home.” I 100% expected her to shoot him on sight tbh. it would have been funny.

Alexei squeezing into the uniform is such a post-pandemic feel. Also all of the fancy braids at that table; I see where Natasha got her propensity for them.

Animal cruelty warning, ugh. Poor piggy Alexei.

Oooh the photo album and Natasha remembered staging the pictures; they’re emotional for her but in a different way.

I wonder if robocop’s shield is actually Alexei’s.

The singing between Alexei and Yelena was a really beautiful moment because it was neither auto-tuned-good nor hilariously bad - it felt really real, especially the way Yelena’s so choked up she can barely make sounds come out.

Uh-oh, mama has one of those monitor your vitals and kill your ass suits. The suits I understand - the eyeliner though... when and why did she do her makeup?? That’s not really the thing that comes to mind for me when I’m getting ready to do something athletic, like say kidnapping my supersoldier fake family.

“This is a much less cool way to die.” Also WTF why would they do that. Wouldn’t it be easier to get the information out of her while her brain is still attached to, y’know, her mouth??

CLEVER CLEVER CLEVER they switched outfits and faces ooooooh like mother like daughter.

The door opening as Alexei is leaning against it dramatically bahahahaha

I love the plan. I’m thoroughly weirded out that Melina has a red wig just lying around that perfectly immitates Natasha though. 

“Yelena, it’s mama. You have a two-inch blade in your belt.”

Oh. My. God.

Antonia.

A pheromone lock preventing them from hurting them if they’re close enough to smell him - I like it. It’s clever and new.

Bahahaha poser! You posed I saw you! Still love the vest.

Natasha is really good at manipulating people’s emotions to get what she wants - I mean, scary good. So if she’s provoking Dreykov into beating her up, there’s a reason. 

“Using the only resource the world has too much of - girls.” Kill him. 

-0-

When I say I whooped out loud... SEVERING THE NERVE. Thank you for your cooperation. YAAAAAAS QUEEN.

-0-

“Slight change of plans - we are going into a controlled crash.” The way she said that was just so mom-like omg!

-0-

The grenade as a delivery system was super smart - but yikes what if she’d mistimed it and blew Natasha up? Also, after the beating she took and how hard she had to wack her own face into the desk to sever her olfactory nerve and the amout of blood we saw her leave behind from doing that, her face should be a LOT more messed up, come on makeup department.

“Get as far away from here as possible.” And then keep going because General I-Collect-Supersoldiers-Like-Stamps Ross is about to turn up at your location looking for trouble and he’d snap you ladies up like there’s a fire sale and you’re going out of stock.

This crash doesn’t look all that controlled, Melina. I’m starting to suspect that most of the widows won’t live long enough to make their own decisions...

All of the aerial stunts were amaaaaaazing - the way Nat slowed herself by sliding down the panels so Antonia could catch up with her and she could deploy her parachute... 

The vest survived the movie!!!

Fuuuuuck Ross is showing up and he sucks and I hate him and I’m super worried that he’s gonna take the vest from Nat if he takes her into custody. Please don’t let her lose the vest. 

Okay, there is now zero reason for Nat to stay behind. They have an aircraft. She had plenty of time to just board it and leave?

-0-

Okay okay okay Ross did not get her and did not take the vest. But am I supposed to believe she bleached her hair, toned it blonde, and then re-bleached and re-toned it to silver? Who does that? That would be terrible for her hair. Her scalp would be burned all to hell from the amount of chemicals needed to not only get all that red out but THEN get the blonde toner out. Y’know what color silver toner is? Blue/purple. Y’know what happens when you mix that with yellow? Green. And not a nice green either (I speak from experience). No. Her hair at the end of the movie? Cancelled. 

-0-

SHE GOT THE DOG!!!

Oh, ouch. Big ouch. I hurt like a lot now. This is so not an okay way to end the -

...

Countess I-Forgot-Your-Name-Already?

Oh no. Oh no. That’s worse. That’s a lot worse. We are now setting up the Hawkeye series and I while I’m horrified that this was how they ended the film, I gotta say that’s going to make for some wonderful angst in that series on both Clint and Yelena’s parts and I am here for it!

OVERALL IMPRESSION

I really, really enjoyed this movie, I thought the story was compelling, the stunts were really excellent, and I liked the character dynamics and the twist

I did not like the ending - it just sort of fell off quickly and didn’t feel satisfying after an otherwise really fun movie. I also take issue with the hair and makeup as shown among the characters, as seen in my several rants to that effect.

I would have liked to have seen a few more childhood/training flashbacks, and absolutely would have loved a cameo from Jeremy Renner (not just his voice) and to see him and Nat meeting and him giving her the whole dad speech that he does so well - bonus points if she could have then quoted him to Yelena or Antonia, showing the way that multiple people had a formative effect on her (an answer to the “The Avengers aren’t really your family either” comment).

[boratanical]

graphics guide

a guide filled with basic info, tips, and answers to common questions that i hope helps people who want to start making graphics

*this was made based on my experiences of making graphics and is what i thought was important to cover but everyone has different ways and approaches so dont feel the need to follow everything on here

what is a graphic?

a graphic (also known as ‘gfx’) is a image edit that incorporates various elements (textures, filters, text, etc) in order to visualize a idea or to create a aesthetic composition 

unlike making gifs, there is no right or proper way to make a graphic so dont get too caught up in the idea that a graphic should look a certain way - just stick with your style and what you think looks good 

anatomy

image/subject

usually the main focus of the whole graphic

you should always try to use a sharp hd picture - getting it from the original source is always the best option 

make sure the source of the picture allows editing - pictures from public sources like a company or the news can be edited while fansite pics and scans need to have permission asked (and if they give you permission make sure you link them when you post your graphic!)

coloring 

often referred as ‘psd’ because that is the format they are in (i.e. pink psd pack)

comprise of multiple layers that can alter the images look 

a lot of people make their own colorings since the outcome of the look also depends on the image’s original coloring 

textures

smaller cut out images that are often used to decorate the graphic

can also refer to a image that can be use as a background of a graphic

can be found in the form of a png (copy + paste into graphic) or a brush (”painted” on to the graphic) 

avoid using any textures that does not state the original poster made them - you could unintentionally be using someone’s work that was not made to be used [read more about it here + resources that you can actually use]

text

text can be used to tell information or just for decoration

try to choose fonts and colors that are legible

faq 

what software can i use to make graphics

most people use some version of photoshop (i currently use photoshop cc 2018) and a lot people have it cracked but if you cant afford photoshop, find a cracked version or a patcher (i used adobe zii 3.0.4 for mac), or are uncomfortable with getting a cracked version then there are other softwares that are just as good!

i can only vouch for gimp since i used it when i first started making gfxs. it is very similar to photoshop and shares most of the same tools and has a similar look to photoshop. it is also probably the most popular photoshop alternative and would totally recommend it if you cant get photoshop!

[visit + download gimp here]

where do you get your pictures from

official sources such as teasers companies release, photos released by press, photos from idol’s instagram - basically photos that are made for the public to see are whats best to use for a gfx. you should download the photos straight from the source so you get it at its highest quality 

some phrases you can use to search for pictures on google: - [group name] photoshoot - [idol name] press  - [group name] showcase  - [idol name] teaser

remember the more specific you are in your search the better! also when you search through google make sure you check your source!

avoid getting photos from reposting websites like we heart it and pinterest  avoid using fansite pictures and scans unless you are granted permission

i don’t know where to start/i’m overwhelmed and i don’t know what to do/ where should i begin

figure out what you want to make or a theme you want to follow - do you want to make a simple graphic or a infographic? do you want it to center around a certain theme like a comeback or a photoshoot? once you determine what you want to do it becomes easier getting ideas and finding stuff you will need for the gfx

example thought process: “i want to make a loona graphic” →  do you want it to be the whole group or a certain member or unit? will it just be a simple gfx or a AU gfx or based on a event that the group is doing? “i’ve decided on doing a kim lip one” → do you want it to have a certain theme like kim lip smiling or kim lip with blonde hair? is there a certain frame of time in which you want the graphic to represent like during eclipse era or hi high era?  “i want it to be from max and match era with her teasers” → from here you can start finding pictures to use and thinking of colors and textures that would fit your theme

where do you get ideas/inspiration from

i mean it’s different for everyone but for me i literally just think of stuff and i’m like wow i want to make that happen asdfsdfj but mostly when i see pictures or watch something thats where i suddenly get a idea 

but tumblr is full of graphic makers!!! ive seen so many amazing graphics from various fandoms like kpop, anime, marvel, etc. 

some amazing graphic editors i know myself include: primirene, ireone, nctjaemin, celo-mar, 1hyungseo, jeongahn, haechxnie, sonxiumin, syua, lulumelody, dinomite, lovelyeo, joohys, whatchatalkabout, yveu, maerinah, mihyon, lorbits, cherryjennie, thatporcelain, monoka, ifbin, 7ww

some other places you can look at are behance (dont go on behance if you have a cracked ver of ps - it might trigger a ingenue software alert that is a huge pain to deal with), pinterest, deviantart, dribble, and probably any social media platform if you just look up #graphicdesign

remember if you take inspiration from someone’s work then you should cite them in your caption - if you are afraid that you might’ve accidentally copied someone when you were trying to take inspiration from them its best to either try to remake the gfx again or just to ask the creator permission if its fine if certain details are similar/same

my stuff sucks how do i get better

literally just keep on making stuff aka practice. you can’t improve if you don’t bother putting effort. 

ways i’ve forced myself into practicing making gfxs is by: 1) starting a gfxs series - its self paced and is based on what you want to make (i.e. introducing my biases gfx series, my favorite outfits gfx series, etc) 2) taking in requests - people who would request from you probably like your stuff so its a win win situation (i.e. send me a idol + era, send me your bias + palette, send me a group and i’ll make a gfx of my fav member, etc)

tips

only sharpen your pictures after you are done resizing them, if you sharpen and then resize it might result in a more blurry or grainy picture 

always save your graphic every 5-10 mins in case photoshop crashes 

 have two copies of your image cutout: one will be the original and the other one will be the one you edit with - in case you mess up like over erasing or over sharpening your image you have a back up you can use

stick with a color palette so you don’t get overwhelmed when having to color everything and it makes all the graphic panels you have look more cohesive 

on photoshop you can favorite fonts!!! take advantage of it!!! your computer has a lot of fonts saved on it and it takes forever to look through a whole list of fonts so by favoring fonts you can see all of the fonts that you like to use for graphics

combine a png pack to one psd → when you open a png pack you will probably get a lot of png files and it gets annoying having a lot of tabs open in photoshop when most of them are just textures so by putting all of those pngs into one psd you can cut down the files you open and can easily see all of your options 

make folders dedicated to colorings and textures that way you can easily access them instead of looking through your computer for a certain file

name your layers... i dont do it because its easy for me to tell what layer is what but when you are working with a lot of layers its best just to name them it’ll make life easier

lock your main image/subject so that when you play with texts’ and textures’ location you don’t accidentally move your main image

use curves to help get a photo back to its original coloring! like if you have a photo that has a weird filter on it just use curves and it’ll help the picture look more natural! [tutorial]

try warping your text to make it stand out more! you can access it by pressing the icon on the top text bar that has a T with a curved line under it. i use flag and wave the most

alter a particular color by using a selective color layer

rather than changing the actual color of an image/texture you can: create new layer → select the image/texture and color it on the new layer instead of on top of the image/texture → change the opacity or the mode of the layer so that the color is put on the image/texture while keeping its detailing and not affecting the actual image/texture

resources

colorings: can be found on deviantart or tumblr just look up ‘psd coloring’ or ‘[color] psd’ 

textures: can be found on deviantart (check to see if its og content or stolen) simply just search what you are trying to find or ‘png pack’ or ‘texture pack’ common textures you can try to find: vintage flowers, memphis shapes, organic shapes, doodles other wesbites: pngtree, creative market, lost and taken, spoongraphics

fonts: if you are looking for a certain font then you can just do a google search but if you are browsing then dafont and font squirrel are really good websites too some of my favorite fonts: abril fatface, agfatumc, antonellie calligraphy, arcadeclassic, bebas neue, century gothic, couture, daily news 1915, dark larch, hondurhas, kotori rose, krinkles, risingstar, sant joan despi, studly, zing rust

color palettes: i made one myself which you can find here, color hunt, and honestly a quick google search will give you tons of options

if you have any questions, other stuff you want me to cover, or want to add more resources and tips then please dm or send an ask! i hope this helps!

[lorablackmane]

I tried to design a new outfit for each member of the coven. I messed up on the drawings I did of them actually wearing the clothing, but I wanted to still add to at least show what I tried to do for the challenge. Fun fact: the symbols you see on the main pieces of jewelry of the trio (Joy’s and Faith’s necklaces, the one Faith isn’t wearing, and Hope’s bracelet) are the alchemical symbols. Joy’s is mind since she seems to be the leader, Faith’s is soul since faith is sometimes called the soul of a religion (and she fights that soulless doppelganger on her route), and Hope is body. 

Other design details under the cut.

Hope: her design takes inspiration from priest clothing (the high collar the little shaw like thing, the dark colors). Because of that and the game’s simple designs, however I wanted to splash some life into it hence the vine like pattern on the leggings (I think that’s what they’re called? Also the areas that have that pattern would be made out of lacy material)

Fun Fact: Hope’s design is not only the only one whose symbol is used as a bracelet, but it is also the only one that has only one accessory.

Joy: Joy’s is the only one that actually takes modern inspiration. I noticed that every design for Joy always has a sort of lacy material and as I was trying to figure out what to do for her I remembered an old shirt my sister really enjoyed which is where the idea for the holes on the shoulders is from. Her earrings are actually a reference to her alchemical symbol which means both mind and mercury, which has a atomic number of 80.

Faith: her original design reminded me of a lawyer or business woman. So I looked at old suits for inspiration. This design combines elements for two different suits I found from the 20′s (I’ll edit this later with a photo of the page they’re on). Originally, I thought of giving her a little reference to a series almost all of us know (hence the necklace the model’s actually wearing); but after remembering that they’re constantly hunting monsters, demons, and other scary creatures I thought it would be cooler to use alchemic symbols. Fun fact: her laces design is based off of one of the heritage lanterns in Houston.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Tagged by: @wilhelminafujita and @batgirl-87! Thanks, both of you!

Tagging: I was tagged by both of the people I would’ve tagged for HPHM, so I challenge anyone to do this, for any OC (or fan character in any fandom) they have if they want to! You might be surprised by how well it turns out. I sure was!

Original Template: (x)

I guess as a bit of a prelude I’m going to mention that I wanted to incorporate Jacob and Seren’s Siren heritage and their Animagus forms in equal measures, but I didn’t want them to just... have the same stuff in different colors, so I divided them up so that both get decent references to them.

Seren Aisling Dwyn

Hair: A darker brown than her dad’s, but lighter than her mom’s. Wavy when long, which translates to spikes that flare out and do whatever they want when short

Complexion: Pale as hell. “How are you not a vampire?” pale. No freckles, just Pale™

Wardrobe: I can only really describe her normal style as casual, comfortable, and shades of pop punk. Tends towards short-sleeved shirts with jackets on top. Has a mild thing for vests. If it’s simple to put on and comfortable, she’s wearing it. Doesn’t really try to coordinate nice outfits, but since all of her clothes tend towards “blues” and “neutrals,” they generally turn out fine. Her work clothes as an adult are more “goth and feathers” than anything

Element: Water. Besides the fact that she’s part-Siren, water is an element known for great change and adaptability. It can be a calm pool, unbreakable ice, or a storm and waves more dangerous than anything. I thought it fit her pretty well. Seren is usually pretty composed and accommodating, but is capable of becoming stubborn as ice or dangerously wild as a storm when pushed to it. There’s also water’s healing connotations, befitting someone who constantly goes out of her way to help others

Season: Winter. It’s a very quiet season. Understated, but like water it can be completely unforgiving if you find yourself on the wrong side of it. It’s a season of rest and sleep, which is the thing Seren probably looks forward to most about finding Jacob. And, most importantly, it always follows right behind Autumn, and finishes up the transitional work it started

Animal: Raven. It’s her Animagus form. A bird that’s far too clever for its own good. A scavenger that can take whatever it’s given and use it to survive. In some cultures it’s a trickster that doesn’t care for conventions. In most cultures it’s associated with death and ill-omens, befitting a girl who’s believed by many to be cursed, with danger following her every step. In Celtic mythology, ravens are a symbol of warfare and fate in battle, and Seren is very dangerous in combat. Ravens also tend to travel in pairs, so no one would bat an eye when she travels with Jacob (assuming they find each other)

Accessory: It’d be a mistake to not include Seren’s iconic scallop shell locket, inside of which is an enchanted photo of herself and Jacob from their childhood. She always wears it to keep him close to her heart. The scallop shell is because they grew up right next to the sea (and from a meta perspective, it’s a hint to their Siren heritage)

Texture: Feathers. She’s a bird. And also really likes birds (especially Augureys). They’re also soft to the touch, but much stronger than they appear. While most feathers can repel water, if the oil on them runs out they can get clogged up with it. Seren tries to just let problems go, but they always end up wearing her down and sticking to her

Home: I didn’t go with a specific home or anything, more just her kind of decorating style. She really likes having plants around and the fresher air they bring. She has a lot of things that she won’t get rid of, but it’s all organized and arranged with purpose. A big fan of having light-up objects in her room. Her sheets are chosen due to their Softness Quotient™ and I promise you that there’s a ridiculously thick pillow top on that mattress. Her interior decorating sense is where her Hufflepuff nature really shines through

Jacob Caradoc Dwyn

Hair: Got his mom’s dark brown, almost black, hair color, but the patented Dwyn unruly curls. He tends to keep it shorter in the back, but not short enough to be an undercut, and longer in the front

Complexion: Pale™. “Hello, Jacob, have you heard of this wonderful new invention? It’s called the sun”

Wardrobe: I was very tempted to go with his mid-Vault Hunting “couldn’t even be bothered to put his pants on the correct way” attire, but decided to just go with his general fashion sense. Like Seren, his casual wear mostly consists of things he finds comfortable, though he does put more effort into looking cool than she does. Hence, a leather jacket. Probably elaborate leather boots that take an eternity to put on. Would totally wear tighter shirts to show off his physique. The “goth and feathers” work clothes were 80% his idea

Element: Wind. A reference to his Animagus form being a bird, but also very suited to his personality. It does what it wants, when it wants. It can be fickle, much like how Jacob’s mind is always wandering around from place to place. Generally unassuming, but it’s easy to get swept up in its whirlwind of chaos when it really gets going. In some cultures it’s used as a symbol of discovery and uncovering the truth, much like the great detective he wants to be would do. And, like Jacob, wind can be there one moment and gone without a sound the next

Season: Autumn. It’s a season of constant, deliberate steps taken in preparation for one, ultimate goal, much like Jacob’s single-minded pursuit of his ambitions. It could be said that Autumn sets a lot of things up that it will never finish, since all of its preparations only get their payoff in Winter. Though, you could argue that whatever it does, it does so that Winter can do what it needs to do properly. And I couldn’t pass over the death connotations of the season since Jacob is, well... Jacob

Animal: Raven. It’s his Animagus form, just like his sister. And for the same reasons, too. He’s far too clever for his own good, and ridiculously resourceful. He’s much more of a trickster than Seren, and every bit as much of a bad omen to others, but he isn’t nearly as creative in a fight as she is. Trouble has always followed him around, and death has come to at least one person he was close to

Accessory: His partner to Seren’s locket is a pocket watch with a frame inside that has the same picture in it as her locket does. The watch is to keep him on task in class, where he could easily get distracted by the actual research that he’d prefer to be pursuing (but from a meta perspective it’s a symbol of his impatience). It only works because he’s constantly opening it to look at the picture inside. He’ll keep it in his breast pocket if he has one, to keep Seren close to his heart. If he doesn’t have it in his breast pocket, it’s in his jacket pocket

Texture: Fish scales, in reference to the fact that he’s part-Siren. They’re also just as tough as the feathers I picked for Seren, but scales can be smooth or rough depending on which way you touch them, just like Jacob will return the kindness or aggression of others depending on how they treat him. Water runs right off of them. Jacob is far better at shrugging his problems off than Seren is

Home: Like Seren, I went with something that symbolizes his decorating style more than any specific home he’s lived in. He likes low lighting, and everything is a mess literally always. I can guarantee you that there’s no such thing as an empty space in Jacob’s room. He’ll find something to put in there. Generally it’s a photo, one of the books he’s reading for research at the time, or a souvenir that he picked up from travel. It is his goal to travel the world, after all. In the same vein, his walls tend to be covered in photographs that he took. He had a pin board, but all of the space on it got used up so fast that he moved to just putting pictures on the bare walls. Now it’s basically pointless, but he’ll never take it down

I know that typically people just use a font similar to their character’s handwriting, but I wanted Jacob’s signature to really show off the fact that his handwriting is a nigh-unreadable disaster, so I made both of their signatures myself. I signed their full names above just so that people could get a feel for their handwriting style, but personally I’d say that neither of them typically sign their full name unless it’s on legal documentation. Normally both of them sign things (First Initial) Dwyn. So their actual signatures tend to be more like this:

[sleepymarmot]

A couple of months ago, after finishing COUNTER/Weight, I spent about a week in a total hangover, relistening to scenes and having feelings. I took some notes, but procrastinated posting them, and then finally got distracted. But, a) I hate leaving things I intended for tumblr unposted, even if they have value only for me, and b) I also hate posting things out of order, and there's a big TM liveblog incoming. So, here's a bunch of really random thoughts about C/w from past me.

The gnosis virus did go nowhere huh. I was hopeful for a minute when one of the finale intros mentioned it, but that was it. What was the purpose of that arc even. [Note from present me: Lol. At least I feel better about this one!]

Oh, and the patch AuDy left never reappeared either. And the idea from the faction game that Aria's images owned by EarthHome/Petrichor transmit Rigour code… That's the flip side of the coin. On the one hand, it's really cool to see the creative process – on the other, it sometimes feels like you're listening to people write a script for the tv show, but only get to see a half of the finished product. It's fascinating to see the universe grow organically and the players to come up with new ideas and get excited about them – but that means numerous retcons, some of them not even presented as such, because the creators forgot what the previous revision was or didn't thought it was important. It's a unique feature of the medium that player choice directs the narrative and it's not bound by railroading – but that means some roads lead nowhere, and some branches dry and fall off.

It's a bit harder to make peace with something that could have easily been developed more within the existing plot of the show. How come there's a player character whose consciousness consists of three different people in various combinations, but nobody seems to be curious how that works? No PC or NPC ever asked “Which one of you is speaking right now?” or something. The final episodes made a lot of things clearer, but it still felt too little, too late. Hard not to be reminded of that gripe about certain two characters sharing one character sheet one of whom was left underdeveloped and half-forgotten… Both are very ambitious concepts that require a double amount of work from the player, so I feel bad complaining they weren't realized to full potential, but…

Speaking of L&D… I still want to know how the hell did that one engineer all by herself design 4 gods, one of which became a basis for technology that was advanced even for the civilizations 80,000 years later? This woman singlehandedly surpassed any technological achievement of humanity before and after. Who Is She

I saw a “Wake me up: before you go go / when september ends / wake me up inside” meme and thought “heh, this sounds relevant, which member of the Chime is which?” and it already made me sad, but then I realized that I'd never actually heard the september song and looked it up and. The lyrics fit so well. What the fuck. It's an old song everyone keeps joking about. Why is it appropriate for a legitimate fanmix. What. I guess the word “September” will never be the same again for me.

I looked up the rules for Firebrands, the game used for the finale. Oh my, challenges for the dance minigame are so overtly romantic when you see them in a list together! Imagine this cast of characters having to answer to “do you place your hand upon my elbow, shoulder, waist, or hip?” lmao. Also I didn't realize “May I?” was part of the rules for “stealing time together”. (And I found out there's a party version of that minigame with bug-themed challenges. I might have dug too deep…) "Tactical skirmish" is a really fascinating concept, I've never seen such a masochistic combat system! Really faces the player with the violence they're inflicting: sure, you can always fight on, but are you ready to live with what you'll have to do? But for it to work fully, you need a lot of non-expendable NPCs on both sides. The one with the most likeable team wins! (Like Mako did.)

I'm relistening to Three Conversations and it's pretty interesting that Ibex has a bunch perfectly lifelike android bodies, right? There is no such technology seen anywhere else. Did Righteousness develop and privatize that? Are they so complex that only a Divine would have enough computing power to successfully mimic organic life? Can Aria convince Righteousness to help her perform on stage without leaving her duties? Also, like with AuDy, I wonder how Ibex & Righteousness' consciousness works. Is it a single mind, spread across every body he has, or even anything Righteousness is running on, having a bunch of different conversations at once if he needs to? Or is the original Ibex just gone, and what's left is a personality imprint hanging on to the connection to his still living body, imitating his former self like the automated recording Cass saw wore his face? In other words, has Ibex completely fused with Righteousness, or assimilated and destroyed by it? Does he not exist anymore as an independent singular being, or does he not exist at all? Most info indicates the former, but there was also “You’re not in there anymore” “No”.

If Orth and Jace are anime fans with their Kingdom Come and Panther, then Ibex is the guy who's way too into dinosaurs or paleontology. It's as if the heads of various confessions were called Triceratops, Stegosaurus etc. and only one of them knows wtf that means, and also he compares his Divine to… Were there scavenging dinosaurs? I'm looking at an article that suggests T. Rex might have been a scavenger, so yeah he would compare Righteousness to a goddamn T. Rex.

Hey what do you think is the most thematically aproppriate part of the Hieron anime for Orth to watch alone at night during the Kingdom game. What's the best thematic parallel for when he turns off the episode and thinks he made a mistake. Do you think that he once, after a long day and a long month and maybe a long year of feeling helpless and doomed, sits down for a distraction but ends up sobbing “How could they let this happen to Mother Glory”

On Joypark, there are definitely statues of Eidolons, ancient and holy, that were repainted and repurposed as Hieron deities. Imagine a giant Greek or Roman style marble statue of Apote – and it’s painted over as Samot, with an anime face and in really bright plain colors like these “reconstructions of original coloring” that actually only use base colors so they look like cheap action figures.

I was reading Austin's top ten games of 2016 list on Waypoint and he gave first place to The Sprawl! Aww!

The Downloads folder in my phone gallery is funny bc it mostly consists of every freely available f@tt map and also that one photo of Tristan Walker (because I tried to redraw it, very unsuccessfully). I go check a map and every time am met by Ibex just. staring at me. It's unsettling

Some of the many options for how Apostolosian gender could have been presented:

Apostolosians prefer to be addressed by the most neutral available human pronoun, represented as "they" in English, because the human languages don't have anything close enough

Apostolosian pronouns are represented in English by a set of real-life common pronouns and neopronouns

There's a list of Apostolosian pronouns and they're just used in English verbatim (Really impractical because the players need a cheat sheet, but the most fair)

Humans apply human genders to Apostolosians. Apostolosians may be offended, may find it convenient, or something else

As Austin said in the post-mortem, the Eidolon system is not gender. It's represented in English by titles/honorifics/etc

Any of the above, and the creators are aware of the difference between personal pronouns, grammatical gender, and social gender

And that’s not even touching the core problem of what the concept of gender in a futuristic, techonologically advanced society would look like. Yes, I'm complaining about this for the third time but I'm just. So tired of native English speakers' takes on gendered language. They could have made Apostolosian gender look like anything and they made it look like that fucking mess... God, I really hope TM is good enough to make me forget and forgive the experience of listening to “he... sorry, they” for 100 hours. [Note from present me: Well… mostly]

Here’s my take on this: eidolons in Apostolosian language are absurdly broad noun classes with associated classifiers (which fits both the idea that they’re gender but not actually, and that each of them is a patron to several unrelated aspects of life) Apostolosian: the word “(Apo)thesa” is used to refer to people who follow the corresponding eidolon, as well as for counting buildings, heavy machinery, military units, specific strategies and tactics, log entries, historical documents and chronicles, history textbooks and monographs, and eras :) Human: what the fuck

Very critical, imaginative worldbuilding in which 80,000+ years into the future humanity somehow has 21st century gender and 21st century capitalism! TBH, I find any sci-fi set in the far future inherently silly – we can’t really imagine the future technogy and its effect on society. But it feels like C/w barely even tried, and to hear it boast about “critical worldbuilding” is kinda strange. I assumed that meant they build the world critically, not that they recreate modern society or some aspect of it and criticize that! It’s just another Star Trek then! And it was already clear right during the setup when they said “We don’t want Star Trek aliens” and immediately created Apostolosians.

I haven't seen a single piece of fanart with Taako and Mako. Come on, does nobody want to see these two next to each other! Especially considering the outfits artists like to put Taako in!

I really don't understand how and why people do fandom activities on Twitter and Discord where the creators also have accounts. It gives me so much secondhand embarrassment. I can barely peek at Twitter posts before running away. Old-fashioned opinion apparently but I strongly believe the main fandom space and the interaction-with-original-creators space should be separate. I need a space where I can voice my opinions, especially negative ones, with complete freedom. I need to be able to say exactly what's on my mind. But I wouldn't want any of the people on the podcast to read something unfiltered like my complaints above. Being in the same space as the source content creators obliges any decent person to be diplomatic and constructive. And the creators, in turn, need a space where they don't come across complete randos yelling at them about something they said in a podcast three years ago. I'm already feeling uncomfortable because hearing to strangers pour their hearts out for hundreds of hours gives me way too much insight on who they are as people. Of course, nothing’s stopping them from lurking on Tumblr or AO3 and even reading this very post, but a platform where they have official accounts is still a different thing! I even feel uncomfortable talking about the podcast creators using their first names so much. To my ear, referring to a total stranger by first name, especially if it's a shortened form, sounds so rude! I'm not their friend, I don't have that right! But, of course, writing something like “Mr Walker” in my liveblogs would have been even weirder, nobody does that...

Is it a common experience to not even think about fanfiction after listening to Hieron, but going straight to AO3 after C/w? I feel like since Hieron is still a work in progress, writing/reading about it is stepping on the GM&players' toes, and C/w is finished so it's like they gave us the keys to the playground, it's the fandom's turn now. This story has so much blanks and they must be filled! In one of the early episodes they joked that something cute they said would encourage people to ship Mako/Cass and I was like "Bold of you to assume they aren't already" and, indeed, I was right and it's the most popular C/w ship on AO3. Too bad I’m so indifferent to it…

It’s a shame we never had a full scene with Ariadne or even learned what they were up to during the finale.

I still don't understand how Ibex went from “evil CEO” to “leader of a proletarian revolution”, these sound like completely opposite concepts to me

I probably have talked about this too much and have pretty much given up on ever getting a clear picture due to all of these reimaginings but… Righteousness and Voice… Ibex takes Righteousness out of Mako but he still has Voice, that was pretty much openly stated, correct? So how does that work? I’m guessing Righteousness is hidden somewhere in Voice’s code. But if so:

Did Maryland know? On the one hand, she’s too competent not to. On the other, why would she ever allow or accept that?

How did Righteousness not get corrupted by Rigour too? Maybe it did, but broke off the connection with the rest of itself to contain the damage? Or maybe, on the contrary, it kept in contact and was sending intel to Ibex the whole time? But in that case he would have provided more help in the finale.

[vanillatwilight17]

A New Beginning (Chapter 3)

Disclaimer: Still don’t own anything so don’t sue me.

A/N: I have received some amazing reviews and comments from you guys! Keep them coming they really bring inspiration and make me want to get the next chapter out to you guys even faster! I’m trying to make this as real as I can and really get a look into what their day to day lives would be like.

Chapter 3: Operation Big Brother

It had been over a week since Emma and Hook had found out about her pregnancy and they still hadn't told anyone. If it had been up to Killian he would have gone running down Main Street shouting the good news out to everyone as soon as they had left the doctor. Emma could tell that he was getting frustrated keeping in a secret he was so happy about. It was Saturday afternoon and Henry had suggested eating lunch in the backyard so Emma and Hook were setting up on their back patio.

“Come on Emma this is perfect! A nice lunch together outside on this beautiful day, what a better time to tell him!” Killian pushed.

“Shhh Killian, he has ears like a rabbit, he hears everything.” Emma said, looking over her shoulder to make sure her son was still inside grabbing silverware.

“Honestly love this isn’t like this is something that you can just keep hidden. Are you embarrassed or unhappy about having a baby together?” He asked her.

“It’s not that at all! Look I promise we can talk about this tonight but for right now just please shush!” Emma whispered as Henry came walking out.

“We didn’t have any plastic forks and stuff so I grabbed our regular ones.” Henry said placing them on the table and sitting down to eat.

“That’s fine kid, that’s what dishwashers are for anyway.” Emma said, sitting down while her and Killian and a glaring contest.

“Everything alright?” Henry asked. Killian went to answer him but Emma shot him a death glare she hoped Henry didn’t notice and he quickly changed his mind.

“Yea, everything’s fine kid, we were just discussing what we should do for the fourth of July this year.” Emma said hoping to change the subject quickly.

“I think we should have a cookout for everyone and then go watch the fireworks from the Jolly Roger!” Henry said getting extremely excited. Emma was thankful that the topic had been changed. She wasn’t going to be able to keep this from him much longer, Henry was far too intuitive a kid for that. Aside from making Killian grumpy, if she wanted to get to the chance to tell him like she wanted to and make it special she needed to do it soon.

Later that night, Henry was contentedly playing video games and Killian caught her attention and motioned with his head from him to join her on the back porch. She glanced back at Henry, so lost in his game she knew there was no chance he would eavesdrop and followed her husband outside. He was sitting on the porch swing and patted the seat next to him for her to join. She sat down and stretched her legs across his lap.

“Beautiful night, if I didn’t think I would throw up as soon as I hit the deck I would suggest a midnight sail on the Jolly Roger.” Emma said

“Why are you so afraid to tell the lad he’s going to be a big brother?”

“I’m not afraid to tell him.” She said, staring up towards to the moon.

“Then why are you forcing me to keep this secret in?” He asked reaching for her hand. Whatever it was that was keeping her from sharing this news he desperately wanted to help.

“I want him to know first, I feel like I owe him that. I’m honestly not afraid to tell him, I want to tell him every time he walks through the door, hell I want to run in there and rip that controller out of his hands and tell him right now.”

“Then what’s holding you back love?”

“I’m afraid of how he’s going to react.” Killian cocked his head to the side and gave her a puzzled look.

“Emma, it’s Henry. He’s going to be over the moon at the thought of having a little sibling he can read all those stories to and teach to sword fight. You don’t have anything to worry about there.”

“It’s not that, I’m worried that…I don’t want….” She was struggling to find the words to explain this right. Killian squeezed her hand encouraging her to go on. “When I found out my mom was pregnant with my brother I was happy for her, I knew she had wanted another baby because she never got to raise me and she waned those experiences. I was glad she was getting that chance but at the same time I felt like I was nothing and I wasn’t enough. I was…jealous that some kid was going to get to have all the things I was denied with her and my dad. This is going to be no different for Henry. I gave him up when he was born and we didn’t have those first years together and I’m worried he’s going to feel the same way.” Emma started to cry but she felt better getting it off her chest.

“Come here love.” Killian pulled her close to him and kissed the top of her head wiping tears away. “I never knew you had those feelings about your brother.”

“I certainly wasn’t going to tell my parents and ruin their happiness with it. I’m over it now, that was before I had fully accepted my childhood and I was still angry at them for giving me up and not coming up with another way. I love my brother don’t get me wrong, it was stupid and I’m sure being worried it will happen to Henry is stupid.” She said.

“It’s not stupid at all love. It was a perfectly natural response to the situation, siblings experience jealousy over one another regardless of if they are a few years apart or twenty. It’s like some unwritten code of siblinghood. I felt the same way about my younger brother Liam when I found out about him. I couldn’t understand why he got to have a life with my father that I was denied by no choice of my own. I would love to tell you that Henry is above all that and it won’t happen but I’m sure it will. What is unique here is that both you and I have experienced this before and we can help him through it.” Emma smiled at her husband.

“I hadn’t thought about it like that and I didn’t even stop to think that you had possibly felt the same way. I’m sorry I should have come to you sooner with all of this. That’s why I want telling him to be special. Both of us had this new sibling dumped on us as a total surprise, I want him to be included every step of the way.”

“Then that is what we shall do but for that to work we are actually going to have to tell him!” Killian said jokingly putting his forehead to his wife’s. “Do you have any ideas on how you want to do it?”

“I have been kinda thinking something over in my mind, it’s gonna take some planning to pull if off and you will like this part, we will have to tell someone else about little one here.” Emma said putting her hands on her stomach.

“Don’t mess with me here woman!” Killian said feigning shock.

“I’m not! I swear!”

“Alright let’s hear this plan of yours love!”

“Ok I’m calling it…Operation Big Brother!” Killian smiled at the reference to his stepson.

“I love it already.” The couple spent the rest of the night planning their big reveal.

Killian took Henry sailing early Sunday morning so Emma could get Operation Big Brother up and running. The first thing she did was call Ashley who had taken up a side job of photography. She swore her friend to secrecy and let her into their secret and within fifteen minutes had a family photo shoot scheduled for that evening during sunset. The next thing she did was run to the local craft store and pick up the supplies she needed to create a prop for their photos. Barely finishing before the boys got home Emma jumped through the shower and dug through their closets to find nice color coordinated outfits. Luckily Killian and Henry showered faster than the speed of light and she was able to get them all out the door on time.

“Where are we going that we need to look nice?” Henry asked as they climbed into the bug.

“We haven’t taken any proper family photos and I thought it would be a fun activity to do together! Ashley is taking them for us in their back yard.” Emma said struggling every second to not tell him. Killian reached over and grabbed Emma’s hand, she looked over and saw he had a smile from ear to ear. When they got there Ashley ran up to Emma all giddy and gave her a huge hug.

“I know! Don’t spoil the surprise though!” Emma said trying to calm her friend’s enthusiasm. They took several shots of just the three of them and then Emma decided it was time for the big reveal.

“Hang on I have something I want to go grab for the rest of the pictures!” Emma said going to the car to grab her project she had worked on all day.

“What’s that Mom?” Henry asked and Emma walked up carrying a series of poster boards that have been strung together to create a book.

“A little something I’ve been working on. I thought it would be fun to remember all the operations we have been through together.” Emma turned the book around and handed it to Henry. Emma had designed the front of the book to look exactly like Henry’s story book.

“Here let’s stand over here together and go through it and Ashley is gonna take some candid pictures of us. I want you to read through them as we go. It will be like a trip down memory lane.” Emma and Killian stood on one side of the book and Henry on the other and they started flipping through the pages. One the right side of the book which Henry was holding was the date of a milestone in their lives and on the left that Emma and Killian were holding was the name of the milestone.

“April 2014…Operation Cobra.” Henry read aloud, “Look it’s the walkie talkies that we used to talk on.” Henry said pointing to a picture of the radios. “This was our very first adventure together.” Henry said. The family continued on going through different operations, Cobra part 2, Scorpion, Light Swan, and laughed remembering their crazy adventures. After Operation Best Man and Cuckoo’s Nest Henry noticed there were a few more pages.

“Hey these are the last two operations we had. What’s left?” He asked.

“You are just going to have to turn the page and find out.” Emma said glancing over at Ashley who gave her the thumbs up signaling that she was ready to capture the big moment. Henry turned the page and Emma held her breath.

“Coming February 2018….Operation Big….Brother.” Henry stumbled over the last words and reread them to himself seemingly to make sure he was reading it right. Emma and Killian exchanged nervous glances waiting his response.

“Operation Big Brother…Mom are you?”

“We’re gonna have a baby kid! You’re going to be a big brother!” Emma said excitedly still unable to judge her son’s reaction. Before doubt had a chance to fill her mind Henry threw down the book and threw his arms around his mother.

“I’m gonna be a big brother! Oh My God my mom is having a baby!” Henry screamed happily at Ashley who was trying to capture every moment.

“Congratulations guys! When did you find out?” Henry said hugging his mom then his stepdad.

“About a week ago. I wanted to tell you right away but your Mum here had to have it be perfect.” Killian said hugging him back.

“And aren’t you glad I did? Now we have this all captured on film!” Emma said. They took a few more pictures together after the reveal and thanked Ashley for all her help before headed out.

“I’ll have these to you guys in a couple of days! They came out great! Thanks for letting me be a part of this with you!” She said as they were getting into the car.

“No thank you!” Emma said hugging her friend. “This was really perfect and I can’t wait to see the pictures.

"Does anybody else know yet?” Henry asked as they were driving home from Ashley’s house.

“No kid we wanted you to be the first to know.” Emma said.

“How are we gonna tell Grandma and Grandpa?” Henry asked.

“Do you have any ideas?” Emma asked glancing back at her son in the rear view mirror happy to see him smiling.

“I’ll get on it. Operation Grand Reveal is in the works!”

Later that night Emma went into Henry’s room to tell him goodnight and laid down on his bed next to him.

“Ok so the cameras are gone you can be totally honest are you happy about this?”

“What kind of a question is that of course I’m happy about this!”

“I just wanted to make sure is all. It’s a big change that coming our way and I want you to know that you are my first priority here.”

“I know that Mom. I figured once you and Killian got really serious that I wouldn’t have you all to myself forever.”

“So you knew this was coming?”

“Not exactly but I figured you guys would have kids at some point. It’s the natural course in life. You meet the right person, you fall in love, get married, buy a nice house, get a golden retriever, and have a kid. Any good author knows that’s the formula for a good story.” Henry said resting his head on his mom’s shoulder.

“If that’s the story of my life you didn’t tell it right you forgot the part about you.”

“I wasn’t exactly part of the cookie cutter formula.” Henry said.

“I don’t like cookie cutter. You know this kid isn’t gonna replace you right?” Emma asked putting her hand on her stomach.

“I know that Mom,” Henry said.

“The reason it took me so long to tell you is I remember when your uncle was born it was super hard on me to realize that he was going to get to have the life I always wanted with my parents that I was robbed of. I don’t want that for you.”

“I don’t see it that way at all. You gave me up to give me my best chance, when you had me you weren’t in a position to give me that. That’s how I ended up with two amazing moms. Now you are in a position to do that and I want you to get to have those experiences you couldn’t with me. What we have is special and nothing is gonna change that and I promise to be the best big brother I can be!” Henry said. Emma was full on crying at this point.

“Mom are you…crying?” Henry asked.

“It’s these pregnancy hormones I cried when the poptarts were done this morning so obviously you saying something that amazing is just going to absolutely ruin me.” Emma said as they both started to laugh.

“I’m not worried about our relationship at all but I am worried about mine and Hook’s.” Emma sat up and turned to face her son. This was not the direction she saw this conversation going.

“Killian loves you like you’re his Henry, why would you be worried about that?”

“Because this baby will actually be his and you can say all day that doesn’t make a difference but it does. I feel different connections with you than I do with Regina, it’s just biological factors. At the end of the day this kid is gonna be his blood and I feel like I’m gonna be the stepson whose in the way.”

“Oh no hey kid absolutely not. I can promise you that is not going to be an issue at all. Regina’s love for you is no different than my love for you, we are both your mother and we both love you unconditionally. Killian loves you the same way he will love the baby.”

“You say that now but just wait until it’s born. I hope you’re right but we’ll. All the same I’m super happy for you Mom! I’ll get working on operation Grand Reveal and tell you what I come up with. Goodnight, I love you.”

“I love you too Kid.” Emma said kissing Henry on the head.

“I love you too little dude.” Henry said placing his hand on his mom’s stomach. “Before you say anything dude encompasses all genders.”

“Goodnight Henry, don’t stay up too late.” Emma said ruffling his hair before heading to her own bedroom where she Killian was waiting for her in bed.

“How did it go?”

“You were right. He’s not worried about the baby impacting our relationship at all.” Emma said.

“See love I told you he wouldn’t react badly.”

“No, he’s worried about what it’s going to do to his relationship with you.” Emma said causing Killian to sit straight up in bed.

“What? What do you mean?”

“He thinks that since this baby will biologically be related to you, you will love it more than him and he will get pushed aside.”

“That is preposterous! I love that boy as if he were my own, I would give up my life for him and nothing is going to change that!”

“I know that Killian and I told him that but he doesn’t see it that way right now. He needs to hear it from you.” Emma kissed her husband and went to get ready for bed when she came back she found him lost in thought as she snuggled up next to him.

“Hey, you ok?”

“Yea, I just have to think of a way to show the boy that he has nothing to fear in regards to our relationship.”

“You will figure out something, I know it. He just needs to see that he has a place in your hear that can’t be taken away.” Killian’s eyes lit up at that and he looked down at Emma smiling.

“I think I have just the thing love,” Killian set off telling her his plan and they both fell asleep shortly after with their hands resting protectively on Emma’s stomach.

A/N: Next chapter will be mostly Killian and Henry fluff and possibly operation reveal I’m not certain yet. It might also take me a few days to get it out to you but don’t worry it will be up and running as soon as possible! Keep reviewing and letting me know what you think/don’t like/want to see etc.

[nubnubblr]

Playing With Fire .6

LISA

We'd decided to stay the whole week instead of just the weekend, but week was over too fast. Kangsik stayed inside unless one of us, and by one of us I mean me, dragged him out to have some fun, and that happened more often than not, so it was expected that he was asleep in the passenger seat right now. Woo didn't come back most night, instead he would be wondering back in as I was heading out for my morning run, he would sleep until lunch and then by that time we were ready to go explore so he would get dressed and tag along until he found his next conquest, but that was Woo. Sundae and I spent most of the week wondering around, whether it was at the beach or the night market, just doing couple things, well after Kangsik decided to go home, which wasn't long after Woo would leave us to go play with which ever girl decided to be part of the not so exclusive club I like to refer to as The Woo Girls.

In all, the week flew by but it was a good week and after the first day, almost completely drama free. There was a mishap with a police officer but Woo managed to fix that with a few words, honestly we were just lucky he was a rookie and not an experiences officer. The only other down side to the week was my lip got slightly infected, which is a whole lot of fun.

We were on our way home now, well we were almost home, maybe 15 minutes or so away, everyone was asleep except Me and Woo, I'd probably be asleep too except every time I doze off my mother calls, so I figured I may as well just stay awake and converse with Woo.

My phone started buzzing in my hand again, I sighed and went to decline, again, until I read LesbiChesty.

"Hey," I answered.

"Hey hoe, what's up?"

"We're on our way home,"

"Oh good, so you're not doing anything important?"

"Keeping Woo awake so we don't die," I shrugged.

"Like he even knows what sleep is," she mumbled.

"How is that boyfriend of yours?" I smirked.

"That's why I called,"

"Did you break up?" I frowned.

"Don't I sound too happy to be going through a break up?"

"Not if he's not your boyfriend,"

"Not everyone has a relationship like yours, you know?" I could basically see her roll her eyes at me.

"Jealous?"

"Not particularly, if I had a growth that big I'd been seeking medical help," she retorted.

"Someone is extra bitchy today,"

"I'm this bitchy everyday, "

"So the reason you called?"

"Can't I call you without a reason?"

"You're the one who said you had a reason," I frowned.

"Oh, right. I don't know what's wrong with me today," she sighed.

"When was the last time you got laid?"

"Ah, Tuesday?" she said, but it was phrased as a question.

"You have to think about it? What type of boy toy is he?"

"He's been busy with classes and I was kind of out of service this week,"

"Well that's why you're bitchy,"

"I'm fine now," she sighed.

"Then go get laid,"

"I knew I should have just text you," she sighed.

"Why didn't you?"

"I was bored, I though you might be entertaining, I should known better,"

"Awe, I'm hurt,"

"You've been in the car too long," she huffed at me.

"Are you going to tell my the reason you called or are you going to keep whining like a preteen?"

"How dare you,"

"Well if you weren't acting like one I wouldn't have said anything,"

"So, the model for Han's life drawing class quit last minute and he asked if I'd be the replacement," she trailed off.

"And?"

"And I need you opinion on my outfit,"

"Okay, so send me a photo?" I stated as Woo pulled the car into the driveway.

"I'll text it too you,"

"Why didn't you just do that in the first place?"

"I was bored and you're fun to bicker with,"

"Right back at you, when are you suppose to be doing this?"

"Tomorrow,"

"Well you better get off the phone so you can send me a photo,"

"Right, I'll text you in a minute,"

I hung the phone up and gently shook Sundae who was still asleep, his head resting on my shoulder. He stirred, taking a deep breath in he peered at me through his dark eyelashes, his exhale turned into a yawn as he sat up and stretched.

"Are we home?" he frowned looking out the window.

"We are,"

"Can you take this inside? I'll help the boys with the rest of it," he handed me his backpack which usually contained nothing but snacks and his drawing supplies.

"Sure," I nodded as he opened his door getting out, he turned around and offered me his hand which I took allowing him to assist me in getting out of the car.

"Keys," I called to Woo who threw the keys in my direction.

I caught them with ease as I swung the bag carefully over my shoulder before making my aay up to the front door. I unlocked the wooden door, pushing it open and sliding the door stop in front of it so the boys could just walk right in. I dropped the keys on the kitchen bench before making my way  up the stairs to mine and Sundaes room where I put his backpack on our bed as my phone buzzed in my pocket.

(1) New Message(s) From LesbiChesty flashed across my screen.

I opened the message and clicked on the photos, I was expecting a tight fitting low cut shirt with high waisted shorts or a short skirt, maybe even a fitted dress. But instead I got photos of Rose wearing nothing but underwear, three photos of her in just different colored underwear; red, green, and black. A text came through after the photos;

Rose: Did I mention it was a nude life model? I negotiated with them to wear underwear. Which color? I was thinking maybe the red, do you think that gives off the wrong impression?

Lisa: You're standing there in your underwear, I'm not sure your underwear is going to influence their opinion.

Rose: Maybe, but what color should I wear?

I made my way out of the room as Woo was coming up the stairs. Carrying his bags down to his room. I thought it over for a second then decided it wouldn't be a bad idea.

"Hey, can I get your opinion on something?"

"Sure,"

"A friend of mine can't decide what color to wear, what do you think a guy would like more?" I asked opening the photos.

"I don't think he's going to be paying much attention to the color of the underwear with a rack like that, he's going to be too busy trying to get into those rather than worrying about the color,"

"You think she has a nice rack?" I smirked.

"Definitely, what's her face look like?"

"Just pick a color," I rolled my eyes.

"Personally, I like the red," he stated tapping away at the screen.

"Thanks," I took my phone from him as his phone buzzed in his pocket.

"Thank you," he smirked.

"Do you not get enough girls?"

"Boobs like that need to be appreciated," he shrugged walking off.

Rose: Hello?

Lisa: Woo liked the red ones ;)

Rose: You showed Woo? What'd he say?

Lisa: That he like the red ones and you have a nice rack. He sent himself the photo and stated your boobs should be appreciated.

Rose: Woo had a naked photo of me?

Lisa: Yeah, do you want me to delete it from his phone?

"Lalice?" Sundae called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Coming,"

Rose: No, it's fine, let him enjoy them

Lisa: Wont you're 'boyfriend' have a problem with another guy having naked pictures of you?

I made my way down the stairs to Sundae who had an apprehensive expression. I frowned at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Your parents are here," he said carefully.

"What?" I swear my heart stopped beating.

"They just pulled in the driveway," he looked at me with a worried expression.

"What else is wrong?"

"Your lip still hasn't gone away," he frowned sucking on his own lip.

"Crap," I sighed.

"Do you want me to tell them you're in the shower?"

"They'll just stay and she'll get more irritated having to wait around," I shook my head.

He offered me his hand for support which I gladly took, he directed me out the door and down the driveway to where my parents were standing speaking brightly with Kangsik.

"LaLa!" Gummy let go of our mother hand and sprinted up to me, wrapping his arms around my legs. He was a little short for his age, but he was confident he would have a growth spurt soon, probably because Sundae said so.

"Hey you," I ruffled his hair.

"We have somewhere important to be after this, could you re-frame from messing up your brothers hair please?" her tone was bright as if it were a friendly request, but her face told a different story.

"Come on, why don't we go see what Woo's up too?" Kangsik offered, he thought about it for a minute before letting go of my leg and following Kangsik inside.

"What brings you here Mother?" I asked as formally as I could as my phone buzzed in my hand.

"You weren't answering your phone, I can see it works perfectly fine," she gave me a disproving look.

"I had it on charge in the bedroom, I didn't hear it ring," I lied.

"What happened to your lip?" my father frowned, Sundae looked down as if it were his fault.

"I was messing around and fell," I shrugged.

"Of course you did," she rolled her eyes.

"Would you like to come in?" I ignored her comment.

"No, we have important places to be, we already came out of our way to be here," she stated in the same tone she use when she was annoyed at me, which was pretty much every time she spoke to me, or looked at me, honestly I think my existence in general irritated her.

"Can I at least offer you something to drink?" I bit back a sarcastic comment.

"Do I just speak to hear my own voice?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Well if you're not here for a visit mother, why did you drive so far out of your way? Clearly your time is too precious to waste on your only daughter, so what may I help you with?"

"Lalice," Sundae mumbled next to me, loud enough so only I heard him.

"Don't start with your attitude, I'm not in the mood for your dramatics today," she sighed rolling her eyes at me.

SUNDAE

"What brings you out here mother?" she backed down.

She'd never admit it but Lisa was somewhat scared over her mother, and for good reason. She had a nasty habit of treating Lisa horribly when no one else was around, but once people where within hearing distance, she was sweet and caring, or at least that's the way she sounded, it was still clear when she was annoyed at Lisa.

Lisa learnt the hard was not to push her mother too far, her mother isn't above slapping Lisa, of course she would never do that in front of anyone, not even me. Lisa doesn't even know that I know, I walked into the room as it happened, it took all of my will not to continue into the room, I left and waited for Lisa to say something to me about it, but she didn't. I'm not sure either one of them knows just how much it effects Lisa, she still tried to please her mother but nothing seems to be good enough.

LISA

"The new exhibition will be opening in a few days, and there will be an unveiling party, I would like you to attend,"

"Of course Mother,"

"Your dress is in the car, do not ruin it," her expression was as hard as stone and the tone of her voice was even harder.

"I will be presentable," I nodded.

"And on your best behavior, I will not tolerate any of the usual antics you seem to enjoy putting me through at these events,"

"I wouldn't even dream of it," I bit the inside of my cheek.

"Get your dress then go get your brother, we have other places to be," she stated. I didn't bother responding, I just made my way to the back door where a black dress bag hung from the back of the passengers seat.

"Don't forget the shoes," she barely even glanced over her shoulder.

"Because I need more pares of shoes I'll never wear again," I muttered under my breath, apparently not as quietly as I'd though. She looked back at me with an exasperated expression.

I sighed picking up the shoe box after I'd swung the dress bag over my shoulder and made my way inside. Sundae stayed out to keep my parents company I suppose, they did love him, definitely more than they did me, honestly I'm sure my mother has told him he could do better than me.

I made my way upstairs, dumping the dress and shoe box on the end of mine and Sundae's bed before going downstairs to get Gummy who was in the living room climbing Woo like a tree. He beamed when he saw me and abandon Woo like he wasn't there.

"La La,"

"Come on, it's time to go," I held my hand out for him.

He picked his blanket up of the floor and took my hand but didn't take a step, he just stood there staring at me with an adorable pout.

"What's the matter?"

"Can't I stay here and play?"

"Not today, but'll I'll come visit you soon,"

"Promise?"

"Mmhm," I nodded.

"Will you bring Sundae too?"

"Of course,"

"I guess we can go then," he sighed leading the way out the front door.

We walked down the driveway to the car where our Mother was waiting impatiently giving me a disapproving look. I bit my tongue, Gummy let go of my hand to run over to Sundae and hug his legs.

"Bye little man," Sundae smiled down and Gummy fixing the little boys hair.

"Come on, in the car," she spoke to him sweetly.

"Can I please have a sleep over tonight?" Gummy pouted at her.

"No honey, we have some stuff to,"

"Maybe next time, let's get you in the car," Sundae lifted Gummy off the ground and carried him to the back seat where he helped strap him in safely.

"Did you put him up to that?" she gave me a cold look.

"No, he asked me if he could play for a little while and I told him no,"

"Sure you did," she rolled her eyes at me.

"What day is the unveiling Mother?" I let out a sigh.

"Sundae already has all the information," she stated getting in the passengers seat.

"Because his parents tell him things," I murmured earning a glare.

"Drive safely," I smiled over at me father who returned the smile with a nod.

"Good advice, I'm sure your father would have driven like a lunatic had you not said that,"

"Sarcasm is unbecoming Mother," she just gave me a irritated look.

"We'll see you at the unveiling Sundae," she smiled brightly at him before rolling her window up.

"Make sure you're not late okay?" my father pulled me into a side hug kissing my temple.

Sundae came to stand by my side as my parents pulled out of the driveway. He wrapped an arm around my waisted.

"Do you think he could crash the car and only have her suffer injuries?" I asked as the car drove away.

"You don't mean that," he kissed the top of my head.

"Besides, Gummy is sat behind her so he would be at risk,"

"Maybe I can drop something in her drink at the unveiling," I thought out loud.

SUNDAE

I sighed down at her, I didn't understand why her mother was so cruel to her and nice to everyone else, literally everyone else, including total strangers. But her own daughter she treats like, well I'm not sure their is a word for it. It made no sense, Lisa was smart and caring, and amazingly talented at dancing, why they forced her to do Business as her major is beyond me, although her mother has never seen her dance, not that it would make a difference.

"I think all the joking about covering up a murder has gotten to your head, let's go inside," hand still around her waist I turned her around and directed her inside.

"It wasn't a joke, between the five of us, we could definitely cover it up," she stated seriously.

"You're just mad, you couldn't kill your mother,"

"Stupid," she mumbled.

"Come on, let's get your mind off your mother," I smirked at her taking her hand and pulling her up the stairs.

"I like the way you think,"

WOO

Lisa followed Sundae up the stairs and they retreated to their room closing the door behind them. Kangsik had already began study hibernation in his room, he claimed he was behind because he was consistently pulled away from his studies. Truth be known, he was at least three months ahead of everyone else in his classes with his reading material.

I picked up the last of my bags, I'd done a bit of shopping in Busan, mainly clothes. I dropped one bag next to the washing machine, then took the other upstairs to my room. I pulled out a clean set of clothes and made my way to the shower.

I felt very drained and usually a shower refreshes me. I'd gotten home before everyone else woke up this morning and hadn't bothered sleeping, then I drove the whole way home. Not that that bothered me, I'd offered, I was just feeling a bit exhausted right now.

I sent my dad a quick text asking if he was free for lunch before jumping in the shower.

KANGSIK

I was relieved that everyone else was off doing their own thing and I finally got to just be on my own to get some studying done. I unpacked my bags then made myself comfortable at my desk turning to the page I was up too.

I let out a long sigh when my phone started buzzing next to my text book. I would have ignored it if it wasn't my mother.

"Hello Mother,"

"Hello, how is my son?"

"Good, how are you?"

"I'm okay, have you talked to your sister lately? She hasn't answered my calls the past few days," she asked concerned.

"I talked to her a few days ago, she might be busy studying, she's only got a few months left of her school year,"

"I suppose,"she hummed.

"I'll try and call her if you like,"

"No that's alright, do you have any idea what I should get her for her birthday,"

"Honestly, it's been so long since I've seen her I have no idea. It's probably be better to ask Lisa what she want's,"

"Hmm, alright. If you talk to your sister can you ask her to give me a call or to answer her phone,"

"Of course,"

"Thank you,"

I hung the phone up and put it back next to my text book, I started reading through the paragraph I was up too and ended up reading the same sentence about five times. I don't think I'd actually talked to Rose since she went out with her boyfriend to see their friends band play, and I couldn't remember if Lisa had talked to her since. Letting out a sigh I picked my phone back up and dialed Rose's number.

ROSE

I was laying across the bottom of my bed with my head hanging over the edge reading a book, I'd gotten to the good part when my phone started buzzing on my desk, it wasn't Lisa's ring tone so I ignored it and went back to reading.

"Your face has gone red," Ramen stated as he walked in.

"I'm comfortable,"

"You're going to get a headache," he pushed my shoulders back so my head was on the bed properly.

"You're a headache," I sighed as my phone began to ring again.

"Your phone's giving me a headache,"

"Then remove yourself from my bedroom," I shrugged sitting up and crossing my legs.

"Why don't you just answer it?"

"I'm studying," I waved my book around a little.

"Have you still not told them?" he frowned at me.

"Can I help you with something?" I bookmarked my spot before closing the book.

"I'm bored, let's go out,"

"It's hot,"

"I got that from the way you're not dressed," I nodded down at my matching bra and panty set.

"We'll got to the beach," he added.

"That means I have to get dressed,"

"You're going to have to do that anyway, the other guys are going to be home soon,"

"Why?" I groaned dragging myself off the bed.

"Because they live here,"

"Fine, give me five," I sighed.

"And no Han, watching you two attempt to relationship is disgusting," he pulled his bitch-face.

WOO

I pulled the car into the car park near the small restaurant. My dad was waiting at the front door for me, a bright smile spread across his face and he pulled me into a tight hug when I reached him.

"How have you been, I feel like I haven't seen you in months,"

"You seen me like a week and a half ago," I smiled shaking my head.

"Oh, you're right," he nodded.

"Let's go in," I draped an arm over his shoulder directing him inside.

"How's work?" I asked once we were seated.

"Oh you know, sciencey," he shrugged.

"I think science tends to be a little like that," I nodded handing him a menu.

"Who would have thought, what have you been up to since we last seen each other?"

"We went down to Busan for the week,"

"A little R&R before school goes back?"

"That was the plan," I nodded as the waitress came over to take our order.

"How was it?" he asked after ordering.

"Great, for the most part. The day we drove down there we had a few problems and there was one incident with an officer but nothing serious,"

"An officer?" he raised an eyebrow.

"We got into a bit of an argument at a restaurant with a small group of guys that were pretty drunk, the owner called the police and by the point they got there we were sort of at a stand off, I'm not entirely sure you swung first but it ended with Lisa accidentally punching the officer in the face,"

"Then what happened next?" he asked genuinely curious.

"I managed to convince him not to report it,"

"How?"

"He was a junior officer, there was no way he'd been on the job for more than a few months, so I just asked him if he really wanted to write a report and document the fact he got a black eye from a girl half the size of him,"

"That's my kid," he held his fist out for me to bump with my own, as the waitress came back with out order.

"Oh I got you something,"

"Really?" he asked as he placed the meat on the grill.

"It's nothing big or anything, I just saw it and though it would suit you, and it's completely respectable so you can wear it around at work," I smirked opening my back pack and pulling the black bag out.

"This is perfect," he laughed pulling the multi colored propeller hat from the bag, he took the plain grey snap back from his head and replace it with his gift.

"It definitely suits you," I smiled, he put the grey snap back in his side bag. He had no problem wearing something like a propeller hat in public and I guarantee he would wear it back to work, which happened to be a highly distinguished research facility.

"What's this?" he asked pulling out a dream catcher.

"Oh, I though it was something mum would like, and I had to buy it,"

"I'm sure she will, I'll hang it in our room for her,"

"You haven't been to see her in a while, you should got see her," he stated.

"I'll go from here to see her," I nodded.