#doodling on the phone is great; really let's you know you have No say over what happens so you just gotta let it do its own thing hfbsh

[stove-top96]

what if you did a valentine’s day one shot where the reader gets asked on a date and yandere batfam are not happy about it?

I LOVE your works so far!! I hope that you’re sleeping well and eating!! have a great day/night!!!💜💜💜

-🐈‍⬛

Please, Please, Please

Oneshot

Y Batfam x GN Reader

Featuring Platonic: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne

2.5K Words

Masterlist

You glance at the clock—15 minutes tell school is over. To pass the time you doodle on the corner of your notebook. Mr Miller's chemistry class was the worst. His monotone voice could lull anyone to sleep.

Your eyes drift to your desk mate, Parker. They seem just as bored as you, staring blankly out the window. Chemistry was the only class you had without Tim, which left you alone without anyone to talk to. Parker is nice, they’re the only friend you have that’s not already a part of Tim’s circle— If you could call them a friend.

They seemed to catch you staring because they started to scribble something in they’re notebook. A moment later they slid it over to you.

‘You understand any of this’ you smile and glance up at them. They had a cheeky grin. It was cute.

You shake your head and scribble something down. ‘Not a bit’.

They take the notebook back, Parker chuckles as they read your message, rolling their eyes.

“Guess we’re screwed than” they whisper.

You let out a small giggle “guess so”.

The bell rings before you and Parker can chat more. You’re quick to pack up your things, you wanna get home as soon as possible.

You sling your backpack over your shoulder but before you can head out the door Parker speaks up.

”Hey Y/n I got a question for you”

you pause before turning all your attention to them “yeah what’s up?”

”I was wondering…” their voice wavers and their cheeks go pink “well you know how Valentine’s Day is in a few days” Parker stumbles out, fingers tapping on the notebook. you nod.

”I was hoping… you and me could go out together, like on a date” their voice seemed to gain some confidence, and a boyish smile tugs on their lips.

You paused. You haven't really thought about going on a date with anyone, but the more you think about it why would you say no. Parker’s nice, funny, and they’re pretty cute.

You smile “Sure sounds like fun”.

Parker stares at you, wide eyed, like a deer in headlights. You take that as your cue to start heading out.

“Uhh. Yeah we’ll talk more tomorrow yeah?” They stammer.

“Yeah lets talk tomorrow” you call out from the other end of the classroom, before heading out the door.

Walking through the halls you check your phone. It’d been buzzing all class, it had to have been Dick.

<Dick>

Hey baby bird, how were your classes?

I’m in town today and we need to go out.

I Just asked Alfred I’m picking you up today!!

I’ll be waiting outside

Tim’s got a ride so don't worry about him

just you and me today!!

You scoff rolling your eyes. He easily could have sent these as one message, he just liked being annoying.

After putting your books away in your locker, you made your way to the parking lot. It’s packed with people and cars, but before you could spot him.

“Babybird I missed you so much!”

He yelled from across the parking lot, as he leaned against his car. You cringed as students stared at you and him. Could he get anymore embarrassing?

He ruffled your hair as you got into the passenger seat.

“C’mon let's go” he ushered you inside before, racing out of the parking lot.

“So I’m thinking we head to that new cafe you were talking about, and maybe stop by that old bookstore you like so much before we head home.” He keeps his eyes on the road.

“Yeah sounds like a plan” you smile.

He starts talking again, you tune him out. Your mind wanders back to when Parker asked you out. A giddy smile tugged at your lips. It made you feel all warm inside, this will be your first valentine’s on an actual date.

“You spacing out baby bird?” Dick raises a brow.

”sorry, sorry long day” you stammer. Dick makes a face, like he doesn’t quite believe you.

“sure.” His voice is a little irritated. Great, he's already starting to get pissy.

Your family’s always been weird about you. It's probably because you're not a vigilante but you can still take care of yourself.

It’s been getting worse as you get older, they just keep adding rules on top of rules. No going out past 7. No leaving anyone’s side at a gala. Always eat lunch with Tim’. Damian has way less rules than you do, and he doesn’t even follow them. It’s like they're scared to let you grow up.

Lately it’s been worse. Conversations stop once you enter a room. Touches lingering a little longer than normal. Eyes lingering for too long.

Whatever you’re used to their overprotectiveness.

It’s why you plan to keep your Valentine’s Day plans to yourself. You can just imagine everyone’s reactions. Dick will probably get super clingy. Tim will pull up their search history. Damian will go on a rant about how Parker doesn’t deserve you. Jason might corner them in some alley. and Cass will have that disappointed look on her face, the kind that makes you feel horrible.

Bruce might even ground you.

“Yeah” Dick’s grip tightened on the steering wheel tightens “no way” he mutters to himself.

Dicks muttering snaps you back to reality “what did you say?” You ask.

He forces a smile “Oh nothing baby bird, just excited”

You and Dick make it back after a few hours, and you’re exhausted. He took all across Gotham, trying to any and everything with you. It’s pretty obvious that he was trying to make up for lost time. He’s been in Blüdhaven more often.

by the time you step through the front door you want nothing more than to calloused into bed.

Instead you’re greeted by Damian. Judging from the scowl on his face he’s more pissed off than usual

Damian crossed his arms. ”You said you’d only take them out to eat.” He scoffed.

Dick slid off his shoes lazily , not even bothering to look up.”We were having too much fun and lost track of time.” Dick forced laughed.

Damian doesn’t move. ”You were gone for nearly 3 hours.” His voice is flat, clearly not buying the excuse.

“It’s my fault” you chime in, trying to diffuse the tension. Damian’s head turns toward you, his expression softens. “I asked Dick to drive me all over town” you smile, Dick ruffles your hair before heading down the hall. Damian doesn’t spare him a glance, his eyes locked in on you.

You start to make your way to your room, Damian follows— of course.

”you promised to be my model for my newest painting. When do you expect to make it up?” He asks. You hum “After dinner? You’ll still have a few hours until patrol”.

He pauses for a moment “I suppose that will work.” He says, the faintest smile forming on his lips.

You grip the handle of your bedroom door, praying you’ll get some alone time for once.

You don’t.

As you step inside Damian follows, his sharp gaze assessing the space. You sigh but don’t say anything.

Dinner should be ready in an hour, Damian’s not gonna leave anytime soon. might as well scroll through your phone in the meantime.

You and Damian head downstairs and as you make your way to your seat the conversation at the table does. everyone's eyes flicker towards you. You raise a brow but before you can say anything Alfred pipes up.

”I cooked your favourite tonight master y/n” he says, as if nothing is off.

You smile, shaking off the tension. “thank you Alfred”

As you go to take a bite you notice Jason’s gaze. it’s not his usual lazy smile. It’s sharper, more intense, watching. Did something happen? His anger is almost never directed towards you. Did Bruce say something?

Before your mind starts to wander your eyes glance towards Cass, she’s frowning like she’s almost disappointed in you but not quite.

“How was school today y/n?” Bruce’s voice cuts through the silence.

Everyone’s head turns to look at you. Waiting, as if they’re expecting something.

It’s fine you’re used to your family being weird like this.

You take a sip of your water ”it was fine” you force a casual tone. There is no way you can let them know about Parker.

Jason tilts his head “Nothing exciting happened?” He asked, studying your face.

You swallow “No not really.” You take another bite of your food, praying they don’t press the issue any further.

The family shares a look, silent but you noticed.

you pretend you didn’t.

Dick tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. But everyone seemed to be too lost in their thoughts to put in much effort.

The air remains heavy, the tension is palpable, and you feel everyone’s eyes on you.

It was the longest family dinner ever.

As the week drags on your family grows more intense.

It’s different this time.

They watch you closer, you never get any alone time. Even after spending more time with them than usual, they still expect something from you.

But what?

You don’t have time to think about that, todays the 14th, your first real valentine’s date. And you have everything planned.

At lunch you subtly drop a hint to Tim that you have this big chemistry project due tomorrow. Then after Lunch you’ll text Bruce and Alfred that you'll be home late, ‘working on it’. Bruce might check in with Tim, but Tim will confirm your story.

It’s practically fool proof.

Excitment courses through you all day. You have chemistry next, so you’ll be able to see Parker. You were just so excited— you deserved this.

At lunch Tim did not seem amused, in fact he looked quite pissed.

When you told him about your ‘Chemistry project’ he just forced a simile and nodded, he didn’t say anything for the rest of the period.

You didn’t pay him much mind though, you were to focused on your date.

As you walked through the halls to your chem class you kept glancing at your phone, waiting for Bruce’s response.

<y/n>

I have this super big chemistry project due tomorrow. My partner and I are gonna work on it together after school.

They’ll give me a ride back, don't worry.

<Bruce>

Ok, Tim will wait for you.

Shit.

what were you gonna do now? Tim was already onto you, there’s no way you’ll be able to go out now.

You’re so lost in thought that you don’t even notice Parker sitting down.

“Hey y/n you okay?”

You frown ”I don't think we’ll be able to go out today, my family is on my ass right now”

Why can’t you just have one nice thing, for once?

”oh” Parker pauses, they fiddle with their bag. Parker’s clearly upset about the situation as well. Then suddenly their face lights up.

Parker grins ”What if we go right now?” they exclaim. Quickly packing up their things.

You blink “What do you mean?”

“There’s only 10 minutes until class starts. We can leave right now and the teacher will never know” Excitement exudes from their voice.

Your heart pounds in your chest.

you’ve never even thought of skipping class before. You family would kill you.

But then again they’re the ones that never let you do anything. They control everything

So who cares what they do, you want to have fun.

A grin tugs on your lips. You scramble to pack up your stuff “sure lets do you”.

Parker gives that same childish smile from when they asked you out.

Despite the small voice telling you this is a bad idea, you felt excited, giddy.

you felt free.

You race to Parker’s car. A mix of adrenaline and excitement made you run faster than you ever have before.

Behind you, Parker struggled to up ”Jesus, Y/n— I’ve never seen you run so fast before” they gasped, hands on their knees trying to catch their breath.

You chuckle “sorry I got excited”

Parker shakes his head, same childish smile on their face as they unlock the car, before sitting on the driver’s side.

Before you get in you look back at the school. A shiver runs down your spine and a little voice whispers at you to turn back.

For a moment you pause. If you turn back now you wont be in any trouble.

You shake it off and hop into the seat.

+++

A cozy cafe would be the best choice. It’s close to the school you’ve been there a couple of times, and the food is really good.

As they pull into the parking lot you’re nervous. This is your first date, what is supposed to happen? What’s even the proper etiquette?

You shake your head and brush those thoughts away.

As you and Parker walk inside, you relax. The cafe is warm, with subtle pinks and blues on the wall. It smells like coffee and pastries. Parker picks a table near the back, and you settle down across from them.

Conversation between you two just seems to flow. You never realized how funny they are until today.

Any doubt you had washes away.

Once you’re finished giving the waitress your order, you take a sip of water enjoying Parker’s company. Then the bell to the door jingles.

You briefly glance up— just to see who’s there.

Bruce. Jason. Dick. Tim. Cass. Damian.

They stand in the doorway, eyes locked in on you. Their faces are unreadable.

your stomach drops.

You’re stuck. frozen like a deer in headlights, under the weight of their stare.

How did they know?

They make their way over to your table.

Bruce stops in front of you, towering over the table. “I’m disappointed y/n” his voice is monotone, but you can see the crinkle in his brows.

you just stare back at him. Too stunned to speak.

you try say something, anything. But the words die in your throat.

Dick grabs your arm, his grip is soft but firm. ushering you out of your seat.

Dick and Damian walk you out. You don’t resist, you couldn’t even if you wanted to.

Before you walk out the door you glance back.

Parker is surrounded.

Bruce says something too low for you to hear. Your chest sinks. You can only guess what they’re saying to them.

They look petrified.

It feels like an eternity before everyone else gets into the car.

“You’re grounded” Bruce states. A faint smile, barely there tugs at his lips.

You want to disappear forever.

Being grounded meant one thing.

You’ll never be alone again.

Tears start to slide down your checks, your voice wobbles ”I’m sorry— please don't ground me”

No one speaks.

No one listens.

You glance out the window, watching your freedom slip away.

I got my first request done!!!!!! As you can tell I need a lot of practice with writing short stories/oneshots. I suck at making things fast paced but I did my best. I hope you like it 🐈‍⬛ anon, tysm I had a lot of fun writing it. I also kept Parker GN so that way the reader can truly be any self insert. I’m working on CH. 03 of wicked Game rn so that’ll be what I post next. But if you have any ideas send a request I need more practice.

Also 215 followers! Thank you!!!

[keeps-ache]

doodles on a phone :D

[clockwayswrites]

The Haunting of Danny Fenton, p4

Masterpost late, tired, still emotional and physically fragile. please no editing <3

“—ir? Sir?”

Danny mumbled something incoherent that was supposed to be a response to that, or befuddlement about being called ‘sir’, or at least something better than ‘wadamehaaftz’. The bite of a tightening blood pressure cuff around his arm helped bring him a little be back to the world. He opened his eyes right into too bright light and winced back in reaction.

“Sir? Do you need us to call an ambulance?” the panicked looking barista asked. She was crouched down next to him where he lay on the floor.

Great, now he could never come back to this coffee shop. That was a damn shame, they had really good bagels.

“No,” Danny managed to make his mouth say. “Seizure. Newish thing for me. I’m fine—will be fine. Sorry.”

“Maybe you should stay laying down for a moment longer?” The barista suggested.

Danny hummed. “Don’t want to be a bother.”

“Dude,” someone said off to Danny’s right. He didn’t think it was worth the effort to turn his head and look, “you just had a seizure. You were screaming. Like, I think we’re all okay if you lay there. We can step around you.”

There were murmurers of agreement.

“Okay, yeah, you know what, great,” Danny said and summoned the willpower to lift his hand and give there room a thumbs up. He let it drop listlessly back down onto his chest.

At least the floor was cool against his back. And he did feel a bit better not trying to get up immediately. When he finally pulled himself back up into his chair, the nice barista brought him a glass of ice water with a straw. Danny drank every drop of the first glass and a refill until the paper of the stupid straw started to turn to mush between his lips.

Knowing that he wouldn’t be up for doing much especially that day, Danny got a bagel sandwich to go, left a generous tip, and fled the cafe with his proverbial tail between his legs.

Penny was was at the apartment. She shoved a still warm load of banana bread at Danny as she bitched about her latest failed relationship. Apparently her girlfriend had been hooking up with the bouncer at their favorite bar. Not that Penny would have minded if they had talked through it before hand and Penny was allowed to join every now and again.

Which, fair, the bouncer did have amazing arms.

When Penny’s phone rang, blaring a dated pop song, Danny was able to make his escape with the added load of his two liter water bottle and bag of little oranges. Or not oranges—clementines? Tangelos? Whatever, little oranges.

He set everything down on the end of his bed before flinging himself onto it.

Another seizure. A worse one.

But a clearer vision of the ghost than he’d ever had before.

Groaning, Danny dragged himself to hang over the edge of his bed so he could pull out one of the storage cubes from under it. After a bit of shuffling, he got the one he wanted out from the back: a long ignored stack of art supplies. Danny rummaged around in it for a pencil and eraser before he pulled the sketchbook out from the bottom. He flipped past old game ides and idle doodles to find a blank page and started to work.

There was so much of the ghost that he still couldn’t define, but the more he worked at the sketch of the ghost’s face, the more he started to narrow it down.

Danny stared down at the page.

Overworked eyes stared back.

Feeling frustrated at how close it was, Danny grabbed a blue marker from the page and filled in the eyes carefully. Then, with almost irritated strokes, Danny roughly messed in the strikingly orange hair.

Now his ghost started back.

“Hello there…"

[night-raven-tattler]

Love beyond spoken words - part 2

Summary: Everyone has a way of saying "I love you" without using those three words.

Characters: Jamil, Rook, Idia, Sebek × GN!Reader (separate, romantic)

Other parts of the series: Ace, Jack, Azul

Warnings: none

By opening the document, you agree to Mx Tattly's terms of source confidentiality.

-ˋˏ’✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Jamil was going through his personalised version of the stages of grief while stacking away the boxes of expensive fabric Kalim brought from Silk City that he promised to give to Professor Crewel

Without his knowledge, as always

But this time wasn't too bad, since you were there to help him with the boxes

And he quite enjoyed your company, so the opportunist in him simply refused to deny himself of you when you kindly offered to lend him a helping hand

He even offered you one of his hair ties when your hair kept falling on your face

You knew Jamil had a certain possesiveness over his personal belongings, so you couldn't help but feel a bit flustered at the offer

You still accepted the hair tie, however

After your finished putting the boxes away, Grim came into the room looking for you because the Headmage requested your help with some errand

And you didn't get the chance to hand Jamil his hair tie back

Jamil was surprised by how little it bothered him that his hair tie was with you; instead of being upset you took something from him like he expected he'd feel, he was somewhat glad you had something of his with you

...Maybe it was silly, it was just a hair tie after all

Yet, it almost made him feel like he was claiming you in some way-

A thought so embarassing he had to cover his whole face with his hoodie

He was walking in the hallways with Kalim as his Housewarden talked about The Great Seven know what, when Kalim suddenly stopped himself mid-rant and fished something out of his pocket

"I totally forgot! Reader bumped into me today and told me to give this to you!"

It was a small paper bag with a snake doodled on it

Jamil snatched it from Kalim, not wanting him to hold something from you any longer, and opened the bag

Inside he found a little note and two hair ties: the one he gave you, and another one that had a small charm with your favorite symbol on it

"I know you don't like when people use your things, so I wanted to give it back. I also gave you one of mine so take care of it!"

He didn't understand the logic behind you giving him your own hair tie, but he took the bag from you and hid it carefully in his pocket, where he occasionally let his hands rest throughout the day

Jamil was very curious about your little offering, so he asked you about it over text

"I wanted to offer it to you as an apology for holding onto your stuff for too long so you won't be mad at me."

Your goody-two-shoes silly logic made him chuckle

As he was about to playfully scold you for your thinking, he saw another chat bubble coming from you that made him drop his phone

"...besides, is it really that bad that I wanted you to have something of mine too?"

Cheeks burning with fluster, he texted you a quick goodnight before he put his phone onto his nightstand, face down so not even the inanimate object could see him like this

Jamil struggled with the idea of you wanting to leave your mark on him, the same selfish idea he carried in his heart

Yet, he didn't mind either of your selfishness

That's why you found Jamil's hair tie under your desk first thing in the morning, a small note attached to it

"If I will have to carry something that belongs to you with me, it wouldn't be fair if you didn't do the same."

『••✎••』

You were enjoying your break outside when you heard a sharp object hit the tree you were leaning against, and based on the piece of paper attached to it, someone special wanted to tell you something

"My love, a whisper

My arrow, a listener

A most blessed messenger

It'll seek your heart to alter

For your blush I'm after."

Your degree in the language of Rook Hunt told you several things: 1. He was on a mission to live up to his name and hunt for your heart... or something

And 2. He really liked his "arrow of love" metaphors

Rook also was likely very amused by how on the nose he was being by sending you love poems via arrow aimed at your surroundings

It happened often enough for you to become unable to differenciate between the quickening pace of your heart from the spook and the one from knowing your boyfriend wanted to remind you of his love for you

Rook had some questionable ways of making your heart skip a beat, and it was borderline annoying how good he was at getting what he wanted

Something about the message itself was a bit off to you

Wasn't counterproductive for a hunter to let its prey know that he was after it?

You never knew what Rook was about to do next, and your heartbeat quickened once again with anticipation for his next move

...which happened soon enough

If the Headmage knew of the arrow currently stuck to your door and damaging the school property, you'd be in trouble

You just wanted to rest peacefully after your classes, but it seemed like Rook had other plans

"My eyes give gentle kisses to your heart

I want to read you, I want to learn you

The world in your chest, your own flow of art

Painted in the loveliest of hues."

You looked around, suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling of being watched

At this point you were convinced he was toying with you, like a cat after it caught a mouse

But Rook had plans other than to harm you...

He enjoyed the chase, maybe a bit at the expense of your heart, which would jump out of your chest at every over the top declaration of love

You could think of only one way to somewhat get back at him

The vice housewarden was scribbling in his notebook at his desk when he heard footsteps nearing his room, followed by a knock at the door

He smiled and opened the door, revealing your flustered self, fidgeting with a piece of paper in your hands

"Roses are red

You look very merry

I'm not good at writing poems

So just kiss me already."

Rook's eyes widened for a few seconds before he burst into a delighter laughter as he wrapped his arms around you

You thought his over the top affection was what affected you the most, but you were so wrong

All along, it was the little things that made your heart explode

His laughter and the beating of your heart were the only melody echoing in your ears, while your face was being admired by Rook's lovesick eyes

"As you wish, mon amour."

『••✎••』

When you and Idia started dating, you knew he was a peculiar guy

He texted you "good morning" at 5 P.M., he liked to tease you about your grades and wishing the school system was digitalized so he could hack into the school and modify your grades, and he liked gifting you small, cute robots that he built during his sleepless nights

You were dedicated to peel off every layer of your angsty, dramatic, onion of a lover and try to understand his ways of showing he cares about you

Unfortunately, the first obstacle you had to face was his way of texting you

Idia was both a genius and a smartass: he liked sending you secret messages through emojis, but he'd never give you any hint to help you decode them

You rolled your eyes as his favorite combo of emojis popped onto your screen through the notification of your messaging app

"➡️👤🛠️👆💙➡️🤪"

You suspected he either liked testing your abilities to decypher his code, or he was to afraid to outright say what he felt

It's not like Idia was shy in his affections, as peculiar as they were

It was more like he was... hesitant

Afraid, even

"I will take that as a compliment"

You watched as the chat bubble appeared on your screen, carrying Idia's reply

"whehehe did you really look at a code with unknown meaning and assumed it was positive? lmaooooo"

Both of you knew he wouldn't do that

Not because he wasn't capable of it, but because Ortho would threaten to scratch up his P.E. gear again

"Not my fault you sent me code instead of telling me how pretty we both know you think I am"

"oooooo someone's confident 💘💘💘💘"

Well, at least that one was easy enough to decypher

The code Idia sent to you always came out of nowhere, like a sudden stream of thoughts that he couldn't keep to himself

It was sweet, really, and it wasn't like you disliked his little codes

Being a gamer at heart, Idia loved games, and they were an important part of him

If Idia needed some sort of puzzle to express himself, you decided to play along

You were determined to wait until Idia became able to tell you outright how he felt

Maybe one day

That's what Idia also told himself as he stared at the sentence he kept typing and deleting over and over in your conversation

"you make my heart go wild"

Maybe one day...

『••✎••』

"And, because of General Zephyrus, royal green has become a color in Briar Valley that represents sentiments of love and affection for your beloved. It was historically used in clothing during duels by the partner that was not participating..."

You had no idea what you did to receive a special history lesson from Professor Zigvolt himself, but you loved Sebek so you listened to him attentively

It was one of the rare occasions in which he was not talking about Malleus, and it was almost cute to see how worked up he got for topics outside of his guard duty

Not like he wasn't always cute

"Are you even listening, human?!"

...You were not stupid enough to admit you kind of spaced out a little

"Yeah, you were talking about, uh... Something about green clothes?"

Sebek raised his eyebrow and watched you suspiciously, while you were trying not to avoid his piercing gaze and tell on yourself

"... Well, yes. It was a tradition for unmarried partners to express their love through green accessories, such as scarves and..."

Even if he seemed upset on the surface, Sebek was more than eager to share part of his culture with you

The way he'd get so animated about his homeland, his liege, his passions...

You could watch him all day

Unfortunately, the bell indicating the end of your break had the both of you part ways

Before Sebek walked away, he reminded you of the equestrian club's upcoming show jumping competition against Royal Sword Academy

And before he could shily request your presence, you told him you'll be there, and sent his blushy self back to his classes

You didn't want to just be there and attend, however: you wanted to show your appreciation for Sebek

And you remembered his little rant about green accessories as showcases of love in Briar Valley

Which brought you to Sam's the next day, where you bumped into Lilia

Lucky for you, since you couldn't remember which shade of green was the one Sebek was talking about...

Your eyes fell upon a light green scarf, resembling the trademark Diasomnia green, and asked Lilia if this color was good to wear

Lilia's eyes widened before his face twisted into a mischievous grin before he agreed with your choice

So you wrapped it around your wrist the day of the competition and made sure it was as easy to spot as possible

Sebek was warming up with his horse when he spotted you in the growing crowd...

...And you watched him as he almost fell off his horse when he saw the scarf wrapped around the hand you were waving at him with

You watched how he debated between going to you and resuming his warmup for what felt like an eternity, but the beginning of the competition was announced so he settled on talking to you later

On his first break, he marched right to you, red as a tomato and vaguely resembling a broken traffic light

"HUMAN! I can't believe you would do this in such a public setting without telling me first! In Briar Valley it's custom for the knight to wrap the scarf around their desired partner after the duel to signal their engagement! Was my lecture not clear enough?!"

You were used to Sebek getting randomly agitated about stuff but-

-Wait.

"ENGAGEMENT?!"

Sebek turned even redder, something you thought was impossible

"YES?! Light green is a sign of engagement!"

You head was full of questions upon questions

Did you just publicly more or less propose to Sebek?

And he was mad because you didn't tell him beforehand, not because of the accidentally proposal itself?!

Now you wanted a horse to fall off of

[bamboobooshark]

YOUR WADE WILSON X READER STUFF IS SO PERFECT OMG IM EATING IT UP FRFR

WADE WILSON X READER

‧₊ ᵎᵎ 🍒 ⋅ ˚✮ DOODLES : 580 WRDS

<RATING: PG-13, SOME LANGUAGE>

A/N : HI ANON TYSM FOR THE COMPLIMENT!!! I really am greatful that you and many others have enjoyed my Wade content so much. Also, hey, so could you possibly guess what happens in this? Could youuuu? It’s about Wade being curious about your self-drawn “tattoos”. I swear it’ll make more sense when you read it!!!

You’re lounging around in your bed like you have been all day. Wade lies next to you while playing some random game on his phone. It’s pretty quiet; the only noises in the room are you and Wade’s breathing and his game. His breaths are more quick and sharp, while yours are shallow and slow. He groans loudly and whines as per usual. “I died again, babe! Can you believe it?” he asks dramatically as he puts his phone down on his nightstand. You crack a small smile that only convinces him to continue. He makes his way to lay his head on your stomach, never ceasing his whining. “Why don’t you care? Why won’t you coddle me like I deserve?” he pouts, putting on his usual act when he wants attention. Wade’s efforts succeed when you let out a soft chuckle and move your arm down to rub his textured chest gently. He lets out an unnecessarily loud sigh before letting his eyes gently close. “Better?” you ask with a smile. "Oh, you bet your ass this is better,” he confirms while leaning into you more by the second.

When Wade opens up his eyes, he stares at your arm in confusion, then up at you. He looks back and forth between them a few times before questioning you. “What’s up with the ink all over your arms, pumpkin? You mapping out some tattoos you wanna get?” You shrug in response. “I just got bored earlier. They’re nothing really,” you tell him sheepishly, slightly embarrassed that he’s so focused on them. His fingers gently trace the set marks on your skin with an intrigued look in his eyes. You feel your cheeks warm more; he’s rarely this careful and quiet with you. You’re so used to him squeezing, pinching, and sometimes gently biting you. His fingers continue to trace the lines as if he were drawing them himself. His hand moves to hold your forearm to get a better look at the doodles. He lets out a curious ‘hmm’ while squinting at your arm. “Oh,” he exclaims while smiling. “These would be really fun to color in,” he says in a tone that begs you to let him. You nod in agreement to his suggestion. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” you sigh to him, and he smiles so hard you see his teeth showing.

Wade stays intrigued for the next few hours with coloring on your stick, trying his best to stay inside the lines because, according to him, if you’re going to allow him to color your “sacred silken skin,” then he should at least try to make it look nice. He bites his bottom lip into his mouth and hums for a moment. “Why did you make this one so detailed?” he grunts. “I don’t know. I told you I was just bored. I didn’t expect to end up with you trying to color in every little doodle,” you chuckled while watching him work inside the lines. “You better make these easier to color next time you draw all over yourself,” he mumbles while pouting. “Do you ever stop complaining?” you ask him as a joke. He gasps and squeezes your forearm a bit. “Will you ever stop giving me reasons to complain?” he sasses back. You widen your eyes as you realize he makes a good argument. “Whatever,” you groan in response. He chuckles sweetly as he finishes coloring in the doodle he’d been fussing about, moving on to the next one.

[sturnioloarch1ves]

close calls pt 1

character desciption

The café was bustling with mid-morning energy: steaming lattes being handed over the counter, the low hum of conversation, and the occasional sharp clink of a spoon against porcelain. Jules stood at the pick-up counter, clutching her tote bag and nervously tapping her fingers against her phone. Today was her first day at her new job, and she was already in her head about it. Was the blazer too formal? Should she have worn flats instead of heels? Maybe the lipstick was too bold?

Stop it, Jules. You’ve got this. Deep breaths.

“Medium latte for Jules!” the barista called out.

Snapping out of her spiralling thoughts, Jules stepped forward, juggling her phone and bag as she reached for her cup. And that’s when it happened. Her elbow bumped against something—or rather, someone—and in an instant, the lid popped off, and the hot latte spilled across a stranger’s hoodie.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” Jules gasped, frantically grabbing napkins from the counter and dabbing at the spreading stain. She didn’t even look up, too mortified to face the victim of her clumsiness.

“Seriously?” came a low, unimpressed voice. “Are you even paying attention?”

Jules froze. The exasperation in his tone cut through her embarrassment. She looked up slowly and felt her stomach sink. The guy standing in front of her had sharp brown eyes, messy dark hair tucked under a baseball cap, and an expression that screamed annoyed beyond belief. He glanced down at his now-ruined hoodie, then back at her, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“Uh...” Jules stammered, her cheeks burning. “I’ll buy you another coffee?”

“Oh, great,” he said flatly, peeling off the stained hoodie to reveal a plain black T-shirt underneath. “Because that totally fixes the problem.”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Yeah, I’m sure you didn’t,” he cut her off, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He shoved the hoodie into his bag with a sharp movement. “Maybe next time, try looking where you’re going.”

Jules opened her mouth to respond, but he was already walking away, leaving her standing there with a handful of napkins and her dignity in tatters.

“Great start, Jules,” she muttered to herself.

By the time she arrived at the management office, Jules was practically vibrating with nerves. The receptionist had directed her to the conference room, where her new bosses—the infamous Sturniolo triplets—were waiting. Adjusting her blazer for the hundredth time, she took a steadying breath and pushed open the door.

The room was less intimidating than she’d expected, but only slightly. The triplets were scattered around the table, their casual energy filling the space. Matt was scrolling through his phone, Nick was doodling on a notepad, and Chris—

Her heart dropped.

Chris, the guy from the café, leaned back in his chair, arms crossed and an incredulous look plastered on his face. His eyes flicked to her, and the corner of his mouth twitched upward in a way that made her want to simultaneously scream and hide.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jules muttered under her breath.

Chris tilted his head, clearly relishing her discomfort. “Wow, Latte Girl. Didn’t think I’d see you again so soon.”

Matt looked up, his brows furrowed in confusion. “Wait, you two know each other?”

“Not really,” Jules said quickly, shooting Chris a pointed glare. “Just a minor... incident earlier.”

“Incident?” Nick chimed in, perking up. “What kind of incident?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Chris said, leaning forward with exaggerated nonchalance. “She just decided my hoodie would look better soaked in coffee.”

Jules’s face burned. “It was an accident.”

“Sure it was,” Chris replied, his tone razor-sharp. “Nothing says ‘I’ve got my life together’ like spilling coffee on a stranger and then doubling down on excuses.”

“Chris,” Matt said, his voice carrying a note of warning. “Let’s at least try to be professional.”

“Why start now?” Nick quipped, grinning as he leaned back in his chair. The brothers burst into laughter, and Jules fought the urge to sink into the floor. Instead, she pulled her laptop out of her bag and set it on the table. Then, noticing Jules’s expression, he straightened up and added quickly, “Hey, I’m kidding. Chris is just being Chris—don’t let him get to you.”

“I’m here to make your lives easier, believe it or not,” she said evenly, trying to keep her composure.

Chris raised an eyebrow, his expression skeptical. “Easier? Bold promise coming from someone who can’t even handle a coffee cup.”

Jules clenched her jaw, refusing to take the bait. “Jules Leblanc,” she said, addressing the room as professionally as she could manage. “I’m your new marketing coordinator. I’ll be handling brand partnerships.”

“Brand partnerships,” Chris echoed, as if tasting the words. “Translation: endless emails and meetings about things we don’t care about.”

Jules shot him a glare, but before she could respond, Matt stepped in. “We’re glad to have you, Jules. Don’t mind Chris—he’s just... like this.”

“Thanks for the clarification,” Jules said dryly, earning a snicker from Nick.

The meeting that followed was a chaotic mix of actual work and relentless teasing. Matt tried to keep things on track, but Nick kept throwing in jokes, and Chris seemed to make it his mission to poke at Jules whenever he got the chance. By the time it was over, she was exhausted and more than ready to leave.

“You seemed a little overwhelmed in there,” Nick teased as he walked past her, giving her a friendly nudge on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to us.”

“Somehow, I doubt that,” Jules replied under her breath.

As the others filed out, Jules lingered behind, gathering her things and mentally replaying every awkward moment from the past hour. Of course, Chris was the last to leave. He paused by the door, glancing back at her with a look that was equal parts smug and insufferable.

“You know,” he said casually, “if you were trying to leave a lasting first impression, mission accomplished.”

Jules looked up, sighing. “I’m sorry about the coffee, okay?”

“Don’t be,” he replied, his tone cutting. “At least now I know what to expect.”

And with that, he was gone, leaving Jules to wonder how on earth she was going to survive working with him—and his brothers.

comment for taglist ;) pt 2 coming tomorrow

[osleeplessflowero]

Late Night Walk

Oneshot Masterpost (for more Neighborhood AU!)

The sound of the air conditioner in your room seems to be all you can focus on, brows furrowed in frustration as you glare at the ceiling like it insulted your favorite guardian figure. You'd tried everything to prevent this, yet here you are..having another sleepless night, your thoughts racing around your head like cars on a track. Eventually your anger gets the better of you and you sit up, tossing your covers aside and grabbing a thin jacket from your closet on your way outside. You'll just wear yourself out, that'll do it.

The differently colored houses of your neighborhood greet you once you open the door, each one fitting a different duo of skeletal brothers from vastly different universes. Yours, Fell, Swap, Swapfell, Horror..the list goes on. Naturally, all the lights are off apart from the streetlights since it's insanely late. Nothing out of the ordinary there. However, there is still something, or rather someone standing on his front porch, who perks up when he sees you walk out and lock your door behind you.

You shoot him a wave and a smile as he stands, grabbing his skateboard from off the side of the porch and skating right across the street to reach you. Once he gets in your yard he stops, holding it under one of his arms as he finally manages to stand in front of you.

"hey, you. what'cha doin' up this late? that's my job, i'm the tired one." His voice is low and raspy as he jokes, earning a nudge from you as you check the time on your phone.

"I couldn't sleep. My brain's doing the thing again." You sigh, rubbing your tired eyes as he lets out a hum of understanding. "So, I figured I'd go out for a walk..didn't expect to see you out here. You wanna go with?"

You offer, silently hoping he'll say yes. The city can be dangerous at this hour if you run into the wrong crowds, and you didn't really want to test your encounter luck tonight.

"yeah, sure, why not? i've been up a while, stayed late at stretch's place to hang out. he fell asleep first, so he's gonna wake up with a face covered in marker doodles." You both start walking as he begins to talk, Rus putting his skateboard down to slowly roll beside you, making sure not to go too fast for you to keep up with.

You let out a laugh at the idea. "Dude, he's gonna kill you."

"he can try all he wants, but it didn't work the last five times." He grins smugly, earning an eye roll from you as you shake your head. These two have always been such troublemakers..they fit together like puzzle pieces despite how they look from an outsider's perspective.

"You're a mess."

"i know." He smiles, keeping his hands in his pockets as you both walk along the sidewalk. "but that's what makes me so great, right?"

"Something like that." You smile, looking up at the still-moonlit sky. He grins at the fact you didn't deny it, letting out a chuckle in reply.

"Well, I guess one good thing came out of my brain refusing to shut up." You look over at him, watching with an amused smile as he tilts his head in curiosity.

"yeah? what's that?"

"I get to hang out with one of my favorite guys." You smile fondly, catching him off guard. His cheekbones flush for a brief second before he shakes it off, nudging your shoulder.

"aww, i'm your favorite? how sweet." He drawls, earning a playful (and partially flushed) shove from you, almost knocking him off balance.

"I said "one of", chill."

"still a high honor." He holds up his phone, pausing a second to take a picture of the starry sky. You stop with him, watching him as he does so. He sticks his tongue out a little, the piercing there shining when the light hits it and his eyelights narrowing while he focuses, a small thing about him you hadn't really noticed before.

"gotta catch these views and keep 'em forever. plus it wouldn't hurt to post 'em on my main." He puts his phone down, skating again.

"How's commissions on your alt?"

"eh, it's alright. haven't got a ton yet but i'm sure someone'll want some art from me someday soon. i've been working on some stuff for the comic project, at least."

You perk up at that. "The one you and Stretch were talking about?"

"yeah, that's the one. we're pretty much just in the drawing board phase right now but you'll be the first to know when it's out. that's what you wanted, right?"

"Duh! Of course I do." You smile, already excited to see what the two boneheads come up with.

"well, i'll make sure to pester him about it so he remembers." He smiles, messing up your hair with a hand despite your protests and skating away when you reach over to grab him.

"Asshole."

"you love me." He grins.

"Debatable."

He gasps, putting a hand over his chest dramatically as he moves back over to you. "oh, how you wound me..i could just die right now, my heart could just explode!" He shuts his eyes, before cracking one open to see your face.

"You'll live, I promise." You smile, walking a little closer to him and shivering when you feel the nightly cold air. You wonder what it must be like as a skeleton, not being able to feel the weather out.. sure, the guys can feel hot and cold things when they touch them, but as for the wind? Nada. Must be a weird sensation.

He comes to a stop when you both reach the entrance to the city, holding out a hand for you to either take or refuse. You appreciate his silent offer, holding his hand to stay close as you both head further in. The city lights shine over the streets, neon signs advertising this and that anywhere you look. Colors bathe the normally gray atmosphere, filling it with life.

Your eyes drift over to the tall skeleton beside you, watching as he glances over every little thing and finding it hard to focus. He looks really nice under different kinds of lighting.. A lot of colors suit him in a weird way. His eyelights drift over to you when he notices you're staring, and you freeze. He looks briefly over your face, before giving you a smirk with lazy eyes.

Flushing, you quickly look away, feeling yourself die a little inside as he chuckles. A little tug on your hand brings you back to reality, and you look at him again. He points up ahead, and your gaze follows his finger to a corner store.

"it's still open, must be one of those twenty four hour ones. wanna go take a look?"

"I'm honestly surprised.. sure, why not? Maybe I can find some gifts."

He gasps.

"I'm not getting you one while you're with me. It ruins the fun."

"aww! c'mooon, just this once?" He blinks his eyes, acting almost like a puppy that wants a treat you just so happen to have in your hand.

"Nope, furget it."

"hah! nice." He chuckles, letting you lead him into the store. You both say a quick hello to the cashier, who simply nods in reply. You assume they don't really wanna be here right now, which would make sense. You know you wouldn't want to be stuck working here super late.

Dragging Rus' hand, you make your way over to the first aisle you see, looking for random things your neighbors might like. Naturally you'd want to go based off of their favorite colors.. Rus finds himself getting a bit distracted, looking above you at the taller rows. When he spots something silly looking, he reaches up an arm and pulls it down to show you, earning a laugh from both of you.

You can always find yourself having fun with Rus, no matter where you are. He's always messing around somehow. Upon first meeting him, Rus is a pretty quiet guy. He wouldn't speak unless spoken to, and when he and his brother had first moved in he stuck to his side like glue. But once he got to know you, it was like he became a whole other person.

You both perk up when you hear the Cashier shouting, turning to see what's going on. Leaning past the end of the aisle, you spot someone holding them at gunpoint with their face covered. Well, that's not good. Seems someone decided to rob the store super late for..whatever reason. Rus pulls you against his side in a protective manner as one of his eyelights flashes, indicating he's Checked the suspect. Furrowing his browbones, he turns your face so you look at him, whispering to you.

"wait here, i'm gonna handle this." He sounds serious, but..

"Dude, there is no way you're gonna confront some guy with a gun on your own. That's insane. Just wait for the police to show up-"

"the police aren't gonna get here in time, by then they'll be gone. i'll handle it. you can call 'em if you want, though. might help once i'm done."

"Done with what?" You look at him worriedly, and he gives you a reassuring smile before messing up your hair and walking past you. You reach out your hand to stop him but miss before you can grab his arm, watching as he steps forwards. You decide to call the police after all, speaking quietly.

"what's all this about?" He watches as the robber points his gun between him and the Cashier, who's currently shaking in their boots.

"Don't come any closer, or I'll shatter your souls!" He warns, hands slightly trembling as he aims his weapon at your friend.

"hey now, there's no need for that. just put the gun down and let's..talk for a bit, okay?" He holds up his hands dismissively, glancing over at the Cashier.

"I need this, so just stay out of it!" He fires the gun. You gasp as the operator on the phone is asking you for the location, looking over. Rus thankfully had managed to shortcut out of the way. Letting out a sigh of relief, you explain the situation to someone and wait.

"well, that was rude."

He holds up his hand, surrounding his opponent's soul with blue magic and slamming him down onto the ground. Once he's done that, he walks over and pulls off his mask, forming a cage of blue bones around him so he doesn't try anything funny.

"i wouldn't move, if i were you..it's dangerous."

He grins down at the now shaking man, before forcefully pulling the gun from his hands and sitting it on the other side of the cage where he can't reach it. You stand against the side of the aisle, mouth gaping as he walks back over.

"we're good now. just gotta wait for the police."

"Rus, respectfully, I think that was the hottest thing I've ever seen you do."

"what?-" He laughs in surprise, feeling his cheekbones flush with a pretty shade of purple. You smile at him, feeling heat rise to your cheeks as well.

After a few minutes of witty banter between the two of you, the police restrain the suspect. Since Rus managed to deal with him, you got to get a bunch of free stuff! So that was pretty sick. Despite how scary that was, at least you could get something out of it in the end.

Walking back towards your neighborhood, you find yourself holding Rus' hand the entire way there. He doesn't seem to mind it at all, skating at a pace you can keep up with.

"You're really cool, Rus. I can't believe you handled that so well." You turn to him, adjusting the bags in your opposite hand. He smiles at you, fangs shining a bit when the moonlight hits them.

"you pick up a thing or two when you live in an underground like mine. it was full of situations like that. i'm just glad nobody got hurt. ..well, he did, but for a good reason."

You let out a little laugh, continuing to move along the sidewalk.

"soooo.." He leans over a bit, smiling smugly. "did you grab a gift for me as well?"

You roll your eyes, stopping in place. He stops skating, holding the board in place.

"You know what? I did, actually."

"wait, seriously? i was just kidding, you didn't have to-"

You cut him off with a quick kiss to the cheek. He stares in stunned silence for a moment, as his face burns a bright shade of purple. So much so he's practically glowing in the dark.

"My hero." You grin, tugging him along again. He chuckles nervously as you both reach your respective homes, before bidding each other farewell.

Rus leans against the door, holding his hand over where you'd kissed him before burying his face into the neck of his sweater.

[randall-lloyd]

Warning: Rudy gets VERY sappy and a lot of people are abt to be tagged n told how radical they are IM SORRY THAT YOURE GETTING A STUPID NOTIF LIKE THIS

So the past.... Month. Has been very eventful. Coping with a rough break up, work being hard. I'm almost 21 I kinda figured it'd be rough being in my 20s. I really was expecting it to be the end of the world, but then I made a really good choice.

I joined a few discord servers over this month, and I can't begin to explain just how wonderful that's been for my mental health.

I've made so many new beautiful friends who just mean the world to me, and those new friends along with old friends and my beautiful angel wife who's stuck with me while we both heal, it's just nice.

I wanna say a few words [or a lot words. I'm a yapper] and I jus wanna really detail my appreciation for the following people.

@your-pal-smoochins, my perfect angel wife. You and I have had a lot of things against us. You've been such an amazing support system through these past couple years and I don't tell you enough just how much I love and appreciate everything you do for me. You lift me up when I really need it and I've never felt more loved than when you've been by my side. Thanks for being my rock, my sun moon and stars, and just thank you for being mine. You do so much more than you give yourself credit for, having escaped the situation you were in and going to college. You're so strong, and you're my beautiful angel forever.

@carbonateddelusion Rox! You were one of the first friends I made when everything got locked down and my first memory of you was drawing some of my guys. I dunno if you know but those gifts are still in my phone. I look at those and your newer stuff and I'm just beyond amazed at your progress. You've been a really amazing friend and I love you, man. You really rock, rox [yes that was on purpose]

@toondamien Damien!! one of my very first tumblr friends and the guy who lets me use his oc for my story stuff! You're a little older than me, and as such you've kinda been a role model to me. I still look up to you [metaphorically, hehe] and I'm glad you're my No. 1 DSAF mutual. You're great, dude.

@springlucked Spring. Though we only started talking recently, you are still someone I consider a dear friend. Your fics got me out of some really bad art blocks and my really low days. While Dearly Detested makes me cry and fills me with just the right amount of emotions to break a tree in half, you are so awesome. Your writing is so good and you're so humble when you get gift art from people regarding your fics. You are like a slightly bothersome little sister and for that I love you, ya lil punk.

@dexabite Dex Dane Dexabite Freakabite Miller Jekyll Jade [not real name. obviously] my sworn enemy /j. Your art rocks. Your art inspired a lot of my more detailed pieces and your character design stuff actually made me wanna branch out more not just with character design, but also poses and colors! You're an inspiration to this guy who mainly draws that dumb orange boy and ily /p

@igottoo MJ!! Like if I was a second person! You rock dude. Your art? slaps. Your animation? slaps. Your insane jokes? Slaps. you unintentionally gave me a pose reference that made me leap out of my comfort zone and yknow what? People loved it!! And thats because you're so cool! We scarily have a lot in common so the reasonable assumption is we are in fact the same guy [silly] but i love you to BITS /p. My lagomorphed brethren and the guy I'll be sending my Dave doodles to before showing the public. You're a bro, dawg. As the No. 1 Old Sport fan I'm VERY glad I'm best pals with THE No. 1 Dave Miller fan.

thank you all for being my friends. You guys make my heart full and make me wanna keep working towards being a good person

[softshrimpy]

How To Woo A Hot Principal

Step 10: Accusations and Heartache

Summary: Working at the Weathervane was exactly what you needed. The routine, the people, your co-workers. It certainly helped that a certain tall, blonde, fucking gorgeous woman happened to frequent the cafe. Now some may call hopelessly flirting with your customers inappropriate behavior.

But truly, when it came to Larissa Weems, who could blame you?

Two chapters in one day? A treat...a hurt-filled treat... BUT A TREAT. Also the icon @misssmephisto really just about wrote this chapter so pls give her all the love and thanks. She has the sexiest brain🦐✨

Tags: @variant-2402 @the-bagel24 @eveymay @kimiinou @muffintopxs @h-doodles @bbykens @lilfartbox1 @bigolgay @winterfireblond

(pls let me know if you want to be tagged/ I missed you!)

Chapter 9

Cross Posted on AO3 here

HTWAHP Masterlist

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Larissa had been working nonstop since the night of the Rave’n. Eugene had been admitted to the hospital shortly after Yoko had burst through the office doors. He was barely alive when they found him and had been stuck in a coma since. The doctors were able to stitch his wounds but whether he’d pull through was still unknown. You could tell she was stressed out, you honestly would’ve been way worse if you were in her situation.

You hadn’t seen her much in the last two days, she was almost always holed up in her office either on the phone, stuck in meetings or answering emails. You still brought her her morning coffee, but where before she would chat with you and give you a sweet little kiss, now she at best acknowledges you with an apologetic smile and more often was so busy she would barely notice you were there.

Her actions hurt more than you were willing to admit to yourself. You knew you weren’t the reason for her late nights and cold shoulder but a large nagging part of your brain couldn’t help but carry some guilt with your inability to help her.

But tonight would be different. After stewing in your emotions all morning, you decided on one way you could help. You left straight after your shift at the Weathervane to pick up ingredients and then rushed home to start cooking. You thought making her a nice, home-cooked dinner could help, she definitely needed a break and she probably hadn’t eaten very well in the last few days.

You managed to get everything ready in record time, packed it into a container and set off to Larissa’s. You knew she was stuck in a meeting until late tonight so you had plenty of time to get to her quarters and set everything up.

Everything was looking great. You had set up a cute little candle-lit dinner, complete with Larissa’s favourite wine and a fancy store-bought dessert. You somehow timed it so well that just as you were finishing up you heard Larissa enter her office. You check everything over once again and then peek your head through the door to her office.

She’s sitting at her desk, frowning at something on her laptop. She looks exhausted, more exhausted than you’ve ever seen her. Her shoulders are so tense they look like they may snap and the bags under her eyes darker than you’ve ever seen them. She definitely needs a break.

“Hey, fancy seeing you here.” You smile, stepping into the room.

“Hm? Oh hello, darling.” She says, barely glancing away from the screen.

“So uh, I know you’re busy and all but I thought maybe we could have a quick dinner? I’ve got everything ready and-“

“I can’t darling. This work really is urgent.” She interrupts.

“I-I know. It’s just, well we haven’t spent any time together recently and I’m sure you could use something to eat-“ you try.

She sighs, and you flinch at the sound.

“I-I just think you could use a break-“

“I don’t have time for that! These monster attacks are getting worse and the sheriff is breathing down my neck because he’s convinced it’s one of my students! So, no, I cannot waste my time on a silly little dinner.” She yells.

“I-I just…” you mumble, “I just wanted to help.”

“Well, you’re not helping! You can’t fix everything and your presence sure as hell hasn’t been making anything easier around here,” she continued, rubbing her eyes.

You took a step backwards, holding your breath for a moment and counting backwards in an effort to calm yourself. A trick you’d learned growing up after your parents had expressed their distaste for your anger one too many times.

“Larissa, I don’t understand. I thought-I’ve just been trying to make things easier for you. I never meant-“ You explained, trying t figure out what it was you had done.

Slamming her laptop shut, Larissa stood. She was deathly quiet before uttering the words “First, you distract me from my duties as Headmistress leading to not one but two separate attacks on my students whilst they were under my watch-“

“Larissa what-“ you stutter, retreating back towards the main office doors as her daunting figure draws closer.

“Secondly, you play this stupid game with my emotions blinding me to the truth of your actions. And then-“ she laughs “you try and distract me from the evidence with a silly dinner! I bet you’re just looking for an opportunity to see the evidence of your involvement and destroy this school from the inside out.”

You still at her words, your heart stopping in your chest. You don’t know where this is coming from and can feel yourself getting angrier. You glared up at her, clenching your shaking fists and promptly losing your shit.

“What the fuck Larissa?! You’re not making any fucking sense. I mean- What- why would I try to ‘destroy evidence’? And in what fucking universe am I involved in the attacks? I care about the kids here, I care about you! So, I don’t understand where you get off on taking everything I’ve done for you and turning it into some fucked up, cruel joke- but this is- Why the fuck would you think that??” you yell.

A beat passed, the two of you staring intently at each other.

“Why?” She questions, her voice neutral and calm. “Because you’re the Hyde. And it’s all part of your sick little game. I don’t know who your master is or if you’re the one in control but I don’t care. The nightmares of blood and destruction, the exhaustion, your funny little ‘medication’” her voice began to rise. “All clear signs, all of them. And you thought planting them as some innocent little suggestion would make me look past them but not anymore. I will never, ever allow you back into this school, on these grounds ever again, you vile beast.” Spitting the final word with disgust, Larissa turned, her heels clicking on the wooden floor as she returned to her desk.

“I’ll take your silence as an omission. Now get out, run back to your master Hyde, the sheriff will be here any moment.” She sneers, leaning back on her desk to glare at you.

Without realising it tears were running down your face, your whole body visibly shaking as you tried and begged yourself to hold it together.

“I didn’t-“ you sniffle, trying and failing miserably at holding in your tears. “I love you.”

Her face twitches at that, you can barely see through the pools in your eyes. She lifts her head, staring directly into your eyes, nothing but hatred and a deep sadness being held in her blue orbs.

“Get out.” She murmurs.

“But Larissa please I-“

“Just go!” She yells, slamming her hand on her desk.

You flinch at the noise before running from her office. Any tiny pieces of your heart that hadn’t shattered at the beginning of her rant are now very much in tiny shards. Your chest feels tight and you honestly have no idea where you’re going. You just know she doesn’t want you there, she thinks you’re some killer monster thing. She hates you.

You’re running as fast as you can, not even vaguely aware of your surroundings. You can feel branches scratch your face and the crunch of dying leaves beneath your feet, the smell of dirt and a storm yet to come surround you. Eventually you trip, falling to your knees in the middle of the woods outside Nevermore. Your entire body shakes as you sob, burying your face in your hands as you cry and cry and cry. Everything hurts. And nothing makes sense.

You just wanted to help, you wanted to make her happy.

Everything felt numb. The forest around you seemed to have stilled in your honour, exhausted and worn out from the winds that had been battering its leaves. It was dark and cold but you couldn’t bring yourself to move, simply stuck as time moved around you and the atmosphere of the woods consumed you.

You didn’t know how long it had been, not that you cared either. You’d left your phone on Larissa’s table ready to play some smooth, warming jazz by an artist you’d found called Miss D. She had the perfect voice, deep and romantic, exactly the tone you’d wanted to set for dinner. Your eyes burn at the thought, with no tears left to cry all that was created was a stinging pain.

As your brain accepted the soreness around your eyes, you slowly become aware of the way your hands and body ache after your run through the woods. It was too dark to see the true damage but you knew you’d be feeling the result for the next few days. The weight of everything sat on your chest, grief buried in your bones making your whole body feel heavy and immobile.

How could she think that of you?

Consumed in your thoughts, knees buried in the earth below you, you failed to hear your name being called. The voice grew more desperate, louder as you slowly turned your head in the direction of the disturbance.

Marylin? What’s she doing here? She shouldn’t be out here…didn’t all of the attacks happen in the woods? You really should warn her or something…

Your body didn’t seem to give a damn, aching inside and out, as you attempted to stand and make your way over to the fuzzy image of Marylin before you. If it weren’t for her boots and hair, you don’t think your brain would have seen her in the dark of the night.

You dug your fingernails into the trunk of a nearby tree, trying to use it as leverage to pull yourself up. The moon began to emerge from the clouds above casting an eerie shadow across the clearing around you.

Wait a second…why is Marylin moving so weirdly? She seems panicked, terrified even… Why is she waving at you like that?

Her fuzzy outline becomes clearer as the moonlight strikes her frame.

She looks like she’s shouting. What is she-?

Oh.

You felt it before you saw it. If you had been a bit more aware you’d have heard the loud snapping of twigs from behind you followed by a low growl. If only you’d been more aware you would have heard the ear-piercing cry of no leave her lips.

But you didn’t.

Your head lolled down, your eyes finally focusing. Five massive claws were buried through your stomach as a burning, blinding pain consumed your senses.

Well that certainly wasn’t good

You feel your body get lifted before being thrown across the clearing you had been in, slamming against a tree. You fall into a crumpled heap at the base of it, your body twisted at an unnatural angle. Someone was screaming, it almost shocks you when you realize it’s you. You can vaguely hear angry, panicked yelling somewhere around you, but things are blurring together quite rapidly.

You’re going to die.

You realize this as you lay there. Finally, your brain is shutting down. You chuckle morbidly at the thought, the sound more akin to a gurgle as warm blood spills out of your mouth like some fucked up comedic skit. Your fingers that once clung to the cold, living dirt now gently lay upon the warm wound that was going to end you.

As the darkness of the forest consumed your vision, you thought you’d started to hear Larissa, her delicate voice whispering words you couldn’t make out. Your fingers twitch as you remembered the soft fur of your family cat, her small paws making the dough on your stomach. People of your past swept across your vision as the buzz of Larissa’s voice permeated your brain.

And then there was silence. There was just you and the night sky.

Until a muddied red thing enters your vision.

Marylin is still here, she needs to run, she’s in danger, you should warn her…

Your eyes roll towards her, her face entering your vision as she leans over you. Her features are somehow both fuzzy and clear, making you want to close your eyes and rest for a bit. Her lips were moving, but you can’t make out a single word she could be saying. Her face leaves your vision, her red boots re-entering it. The colour reminds you of Larissa’s lipstick.

You hope she knows you love her.

[little-pocket-medic]

i’m in my room, absentmindedly doodling and thinking to myself.

it’s been a week or so on base since our sunrise hike together. i’ve been thinking long and hard about our little medic. it’s not like i have a choice- he occupies my mind every second i’m awake. he’s just so… i don’t even know. cute? certainly- he’s three inches tall. endearing? absolutely. attractive? yeah, definitely.

okay, jeez, fine…. i might have a little tiny crush on the little tiny medic.

i feel bad for him. it’s got to suck, being so tiny, unable to help in battle, feeling useless. i’m not sure how long he’s been like this, and god knows how long it’ll last. what if he stays this small forever? what if i can’t ever fully hug him, or kiss him… or anything more?

gosh, why am i thinking like i’m already dating the guy!? i haven’t even confessed to him for god’s sake!

i’ll go do that right now. yeah, that’s a great idea. just can’t chicken out. i got this. here goes.

but what if i get too nervous!?

i tap my pencil against my chin. i think i have an idea.

i walk to the infirmary on shaky legs. opening the door, i see medic standing on a nearby worktable tinkering with something. he’s holding a screwdriver as big as his body, wheezing a little as he tries to turn it. it’s clearly not going very well, and as much as he seems irritated at the effort, i can’t help but think he looks pretty fine while he’s doing it.

h- hey doc! need help?

he glances at me, looking somewhere between indignant that i implied he needs help and relief that he can stop straining his aching back. he grudgingly lets me take the tool, and i affectionately pet the top of his head with a fingertip. i don’t see him let others touch him often, and i’m pretty honored that he seems comfortable around me.

i help him screw the device together- it vaguely resembles a tiny version of engie’s teleporters- and set the screwdriver on the table beside him. he sits on it like it’s a log at a campfire.

listen, doc, i- uh- wanted to give ya this. open it after i go back to my room, okay?

i hand him a folded-up sheet of paper that looks like a scrap in my hands and a phone book in his. he doesn’t know it yet, but written on it in the smallest handwriting i could muster is:

hey doc.

i just wanted to say, well, i really like you. like, in a more-than-friends way. i wrote it in a note ‘cause i knew i’d either pass out on the floor or chicken out of telling you.

i know you ain’t had that much luck in the love department, so it’s fine with me if you say no. just thought i’d let you know, you’re super cool, and really handsome, and if you wanted to go on a date with me sometime, i think that’d be swell.

sincerely,

🫀anon

P.S. beer’s on me!

P.P.S. you can talk about birds all you want!

TW: Sexual topics talked about very lightly and in no detail. Medication also mentioned.

Medics mind wanders as he attempts to screw in something with a normal sized screwdriver.

His back ached. Normally he could take some sort of pain reliever, but at the size he was, those dosages would kill him. So he didn't have much of a choice.

Suffering from his medication withdrawal wasn't fun, either. Like many other of the mercs, Medic had to take things to help control his mood/emotions. Pyro with their hallucinations, Scout with his ADHD....

He shook his head. He didn't want to think right now. He didn't want to work right now. But he had to. So he did.

Scout makes his way into the Medbay. Medic grumbles. What does he need? He can't do much for him at the moment.

As he asks Medic if he needs help, he frowns. He's over twice his age. He didn't need help from-

He grunted. His back popped, and he dropped the screwdriver. When Scout reaches over to grab it, he doesn't stop him.

He's surprised by the small pet. He blushes a little, mostly out of embarrassment, and gives scout a confused look. He doesn't seem to notice however.

Scout had been more affectionate towards him recently. Is it because he was small? Easier to handle? He crossed his arms. He didn't like feeling weak.

Once Scout sets the screwdriver back down, Medic goes to sit on it. The sitting definitely helped his aching back, but he tried not to show it.

He wasn't old. Not yet anyway.

Medic gives a confused look as he's offered the small paper. He hums, giving a nod as Scout leaves.

He can only assume it has something to do with his hormone treatment. Scout always got nervous about that; like anyone there would judge him. Half the team was fruitier then a berry garden- and Medic himself was also trans- but he didn't comment on it. If it made him more comfortable, he supposed.

He carefully folded the note, holding it open in his small, gloved hands. As his eyes went back and forth on the words, a small blush grew on his face.

His immediate reaction was that Demoman owed him 100 dollars now. They'd made a bet on whether or not Scout had some fruit in him. Demoman was convinced he didnt- afterall he was always after Miss Pauling. But Medic knew. At least, officially now. (I mean, look at him. /silly)

The next feeling was confusion. Medic couldn't exactly have normal sex right now. If that's what Scout wanted, he should've waited until this whole ordeal was over. He would be fine with a hookup with any member of the team, really, Scout included.

Did he want...like... not sex? If that was the case, he was even more confused. The majority of the time, his relations were purely sexual. Medic had a hard time in the past with romance, and swore off it years ago (much to some of the teams dismay).

He set the paper down next to him and scratched his chin. The majority of the time, he had a plan for everything, or the way of coming up with one in an instant- but this?...

...he drew a blank.

Medic looked over to the door Scout walked out of. He needed a nap.

[verslxt]

radio shows ~ r. suna

“i currently have y/n miya, world renowned model. sister to msby jackal player atsumu miya. and dating ejp rajin player rintaro suna”.

you smiled at the introduction to yourself “i’m so glad you could have me on”

you knew atsumu made everyone listen to this. osamu probably had the tv on watching the livestream. and suna was most definitely listening to it.

“so do you know of anyone who is listening to the show currently” the interviewer asked

“uhm yes i do actually, and i have one correction to make to your introduction. i have my brothers listening. hi atsumu and osamu. and i have my fiancé suna listening”

suna had preposed to you at a family gathering at his families house. atsumu and osamu already knew but not everyone knew. you talked it over with suna if you could say you two were engaged or not and he said yes

“oh wow, how long have you two been dating?”

“well he was in 1st year of high school and i was still in junior high. when i finally got into high school he asked me out. to homecoming actually”

“how did he ask you out”

“a sign. oh my god this boy had everything planned out. i was a cheerleader for basketball during the time. so i helped the volleyball team by being their manager. atsumu made me to do it. i’m not that mad about it anymore because i met suna from it. he used our golden doodle to ask me out. i still remember what the sign said too ‘if my puppy dog eyes don’t work maybe nini’s will’. oh my god poor nini he put a sign on her that said ‘hoco with suna?’. i said yes because i loved nini. nini is now 6ft under”

you felt your phone buzz. you knew it was suna. you smiled a little bit

“your smile is so beautiful”

“thank you so much”

“we’re going to cut to a song. what do you think we should play, y/n”

“let’s play an inrarizaki favorite. ohmami by chase atlantic”

“with maggie lindemann or just normal?”

“normal”

you thought of suna saying ohmami. this boy loved the song. he loved doing some special activities during the song. you felt your phone buzz again

“bitch, i'm fuckin' styling yeah ooh-ooh-ooh, oh yeah whoa”

you picked up your phone

rinnie&lt;3🥰 your doing great baby 🫶🏽

y/n ❤️ thank you baby 🫶🏽

dumbass 1 😐 ohmami really?

fucking dumbass 🥱 yea, lost my virginity to it 😶

dumbass 1 😐 EWWWWW

fucking dumbass 🥱 YOU ASKED

the song ended and the interview picked back up

“i love that song so much”

“me too. now, do you and suna ever want kids”

you smiled. you and suna have been having this conversation since you two got together “yes we would. we only want 2 of them. and if i carry the twin gene then we may have to go through pregnancy once”.

“what’s your favorite song currently”

“i have a few actually! mine by 1nonly, r u mine by arctic monkeys, problems by mother mother and needed me by rihanna”

“y/n miya a mother mother fan?”

“oh and get scared”

suna taught you all those bands. other than a handful. suna really made you into who you are today

“can you do a perfect accent?”

you start in a perfect british accent “well funny you say that”. then you switch to an australian accent “i can do a kermit one too”. and that’s when you switch to kermit “well i say where is miss. piggy. i swear i lose that girl more than i lose my mind sometimes”.

you laugh, you knew atsumu never knew you could do those. so he’s probably surprised. you and osamu yell at each other in an australian accent. and then you and suna go around the house yelling in the house in the kermit accent

“do you know…the muffin man?”

“the muffin man?”

“ThE mUfFiN mAn”

the interviewer laughs “now we know ms. miya can do accents perfectly. now if you weren’t famous what would you be doing”

“ohhhh i would either be doing cheer for the msby jackals or be a massage therapist”

“what would you name your boat if you had one”

“oh goodness, now me and suna have been wanting a boat since like forever. and we decided we would name it the beayatch”

“what’s the dumbest thing you’ve gotten injured from doing?”

“how much time do we have. let’s see i got dropped by osamu and atsumu trying to do a cheer stunt. now based on their muscles at the time you would think they could hold me up right? wrong they dropped me so hard, i twisted my ankle and now i can move my knee cap anyway i want. another time i was cooking dinner and suna was in the mood if you know you know. and he sat me up on the counter and we kinda forgot to turn off the burner”

“how is it like dating suna”

“after noon naps. i get so greatful for them sometimes. uhm this boy can cook really good, he and his mom used to cook together all the time. so he picked up recipes from her. it’s really fun, i’m glad i get to marry him”

“awww, we’re going to go to a song but don’t leave yet we still have burning questions sent in from you guys! stay tuned. now what song should we play”

“oooo problems by mother mother”

“problems coming up”

you picked up your phone and texted suna

y/n ❤️ am i doing good

rinnie 🥰 your doing great baby

y/n ❤️ love you rinnie

rinnie 🥰 love you too

the interview picked back up. and she asked you the one question you were hoping she wouldn’t ask

“so there have been a few rumors of suna cheating, what have you two done about it?”

"“oh, now the pictures that were leaked of him cheating was when we were in high school. that was his girlfriend before me. and we do some checks on our phones, we just ask each other to see mine or his phone when we feel like they are acting weird, but one day he denied me to look and then he told me after he preposed why i wouldn’t let me look. it was because he was texting osamu about it, and he was acting weird because of that”

"oh, so he wasn't really cheating"

"no, he wasn't"

you knew suna would never cheat on you, he loves you way too much. and you love him way to much to cheat on him as well

"oh that's all the time we have with ms. miya"

"oh wow that passed by quickly"

~time skip~

"mhm you smell good" suna said shoving his face in your neck as you texted atsumu

"thank you rinnie"

"what do you want for dinner?"

"anything really, i don't care. as long as its not sushi, i'm pregnant"

suna picked you up so fast you dropped your phone back onto the couch, showing that you were talking to your mom and not actually atsumu.

"oh my god are you actually pregnant?"

"yes rinnie i was just telling my mom"

"i love you, i love you, i love you"

"i love you too rinnie"

[theghostbunnie]

How do you feel about Candy as a Character vs. The character you made? I’m honestly just interested in the character you have for Candy and her relationship with Nikki

HI THANK YOU FOR THE ASK, V GOOD ASK I'M HAPPY TO AWNSER

My version of Candy isn't actually supposed to contradict what we know of her already, more so really really build-off-from and completely take and run with what little we were given about her.

I'm fine with anyone's HCs I believe everyone should have fun and it doesn't have to match cannon! but in the same note if we're talkin' character analysis and not HCs they often don't even target what she did wrong and just go "whore." And. Uh. Yeah never been a fan of that.. Not a fan of how she was supposed to be a "golddigger joke" or something in the show either but ehh.

She's not a bad mother because she was on her phone or because she wears tank tops or because she has sex or anything else I've heard while being in this fandom dear GOD SKSKNDJN but this post will literally be 3x longer if I get into my takes on that so it's a different post if y'all want it one day.

Candy didn't remember something important, something traumatizing for Nikki and that's where her flaws lay. Their communication is lackluster. I think it makes her a flawed parent and a flawed person but it doesn't mean "she's scum of the earth condemn this woman to hell immediately," she still loves Nikki and shows she does in the same episode she tells her not to karate chop strangers and get them sued so she doesn't just let her do whatever. She refers to her as "my angel" and Nikki looks up at her when everyone is eating with this smile and they LOVE each other and raaahhh I love the sillies so much.... Cryinhng..

I've mentioned in my post about Neil's mother how I believe that the egg episode they're mirroring their own parents and Nikki being so worried about fucking up her egg and not knowing what to do and being unprepared and scared. I HC Candy had Nikki when she was like 20-21 and recently kicked out by her own mother and she had no support or knowledge of what to do or how to care for a baby and it was SO much trial and error but it bleeds into my HC about Nikki where she has all these big thoughts and emotions but gets regarded as simple minded by her peers because she can't find a way to express them verbally and comes off simple minded or stupid. This doesn't stop her from feeling complicated things it just stops her from being understood.

((literally the whole Christmas episode is her going "I love this thing so dang much!!! I can't tell you why though. I'll know it when I see it.?))

So when you have a unprepared parent who's working by trial and error and you can't verbalize to them the errors or make sense of your feelings that's where issues come in!!

Minor New episode spoilers: Nikki can't write eligibly when she writes letters to her mother. I think is some great potential to be visual storytelling about this if I ever could make a fic. Her handwriting is bad. She gets excited and doodles and scribbles. You can't make out what she's saying. Maybe her mother never even got to know about what happened in the flower scouts because she said it over letter.

Candy still sent her there and lied about it being adventure camp and I hc it was done not because she wants to force feminity on Nikki or anything (if that's the case Nikki would be dead like literally 💀 she needs dirt to live) but because she wanted her to make friends and since she had such a good time as some version of a scout herself she thought Nikki would too. She loves Nikki and supports her wolf-kinning and playing in the mud but of course is concerned she's estranging herself from other people by barking and biting them and sending her out into the woods she would've just continued to ignore people in favor of animals. Candy had a "it'll be good for her!" Type rationalization about lying.

Then next summer she wanted to make her happy and followed through with going to adventure camp for realsies and was scatterbrained about it and misremembered the previous year's sign up for that one.

A misunderstanding didn't hurt Nikki any less. You can have all the good intentions in the world and still screw up and accidentally hurt somebody you care about.

Personally I love depicting Candy as being really really affectionate with Nikki and she calls her not only "my angel" but variations of "baby/sweetie/hunny" and the biggest nickname she has for her is probably "sunshine"

Candy also can't cook lol she tries but it's the only thing in the world Nikki won't eat is her mom's cooking so Candy buys them TV dinners and premade stuff alot. They have "barbeque nights" where Candy brings home ribs and they watch TV together and live in this lil trailer home near a forest. (In the first trailer for camp camp we see Nikki using a slingshot on cans with flowers painted on them and I'm like yeah her back yard just goes directly into the woods I know it does)

I actually HC Candy's off and off boyfriend/husband Andrew is the one who'd force gender roles on Nikki if at all. Guy who jokes about "hookers and blow" ((Infront of his 9-10yo daughter)) with his friends yk that guy.

Please take these walls of text I've sent to a friend about Candy 🙏 also that's meant to say spots not sports 😔

Also I wanna mention Candy isn't even her actual name she got it during her time in the adult film industry (🌽) and it's actually Caroline. She doesn't really introduce herself as that anymore. Sex work in general is often an abusive industry and highly exploitive so she's got some baggage from her time there and falls in and out of being a stripper aswell and struggles to hold down a job that can support her and her daughter and it's part of multiple reasons why she keeps going back to her ex husband bc he's well-off. ((Cannonicaly bought her a car and lawyers))

She didn't even know for sure if Andrew was the father, some AUs I have he turned out to be the father in some he didn't, but she chose to tell him because he could give her daughter the best chance in life and support her education and allthat.

[honey-andmilktea]

✎ Neighbors: Chapter 3: Familiar Faces

🤎𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: OnlineInfluencers!BTS OT7 (Eventually) x Animator!Fem!OC!Reader, Model!Jimin x ProfessionalGamer!Jungkook, Model!Jimin x Animator!Fem!OC!Reader x ProfessionalGamer!Jungkook | 🌙𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Fluff, College AU, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, 3rd Person | 🖊️𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,025 Words | ✏️𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Chul’s classes and schedule along with building are heavily based off my own.~ Even though my building doesn’t have 3 floors it has 2~ | ❌𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: None(?)

🍁𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Jungkook and Chul meet again by pure chance. Their friendship is blooming with them getting a lot closer, Chul even getting to meet one of his close “friends”. Featuring a little of Jimin getting into trouble.~

👻𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐛𝐬: Omg I finally got to this! Woo! I hope yall like this ^^

🐻 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐁𝐓𝐒 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

“And so I pitched myself into my great lake of melancholy. Lord how deep it is! What a born melancholic I am!” — Virginia Woolf, ‘A Writer’s Diary’

‘Hey my class ended early! :D’

‘My room is 309, down the hall’

‘Come down when you’re done’

Chul smiled at the messages, sitting at her easel as her class took a break. The teacher had been going through what to expect in the class along with starting a PowerPoint on what they’ll be practicing for the first week. She ate her own snack that she brought because of long class hours, texting Jungkook back as she did.

‘Lucky! I have one more hour’

‘I’ll see you then’

Jungkook answers with an okay, deciding to stay in the room while waiting. Chul finishes her snack and goes back to her notes, doodling little flowers and characters along the edges of her paper. Once the Professor went over the assignment, she ended class early and Chul cheers to herself as she starts putting her items into her bag. She quickly texted Jungkook telling him that she was on her way and walked down the colorful hall of her art building. She looked at the room numbers until she saw ‘309’ and stopped, smiling wide as she walked into the empty classroom. She looked around, noticing Jungkook sitting on a stool at a table with someone sitting next to him. She tilted her head as she walked in noticing that they were both

looking down at something on Jungkook’s phone.

“Hey Kook!” She chirped excitedly making her presence known to the two men. Both look up, Kook giving her his signature cute bunny smile. She smiled back his smile too contagious to not. Before looking at the other man and wondering where she’s seen him before. He seemed to be having the same recollection. She opened her mouth to say a greeting to the man before he spoke before her.

“You’re the girl from the park! That’s where I’ve seen you.” He called out both Jungkook and Chul. He blushed embarrassed at his small outburst clearing his throat. “I’m sorry you just looked really familiar.” Chul takes a second to process before blushing embarrassed and

looking at him over once more. And yes, he was the beautiful man from the park,

knowing that fact made her face grow more red. She quickly bowed and started to apologize profusely. Jimin blinks surprised before a laugh starts to bubble out while Jungkook sat confused next to him. Chul went even more red, if possible, when she heard his beautiful laugh. She went back to standing straight, her hair slightly covering her face. ‘Why is everything he does so pretty?’ Jimin stopped laughing and let out a breath.

“I’m sorry, you’re just so cute.” Chul pouted a little at that shyly playing with her

sleeve. “You don’t need to apologize, I’m half to blame. I do hope you got a nice picture of me though.” He teased gently to Chul’s dismay. She whined a little, pushing her hair back, pursing her lips and looking away. ‘She’s cute.’ He thought with a small smile while Chul collected herself.

“I-I’ll delete the picture, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to take it.” Jimin waved her off

with a small hand wave and smile.

“It’s really okay honey.~ I just hope you got my good side.~” He eternally cooed as another pink hue came to her cheeks when he called her honey. He stuck his hand out for

her to shake. “I’m Jimin by the way. Park Jimin.” She blinked a little before shyly taking his hand.

“Lee Chul.” She introduced herself shyly. Jimin smiled and the two looked at each other for a bit. They seemed to be taking in each other’s features, making Jungkook look

at them completely confused and unsure of what was going on. He clears his

throat looking at the two as they jump a little forgetting that there was someone else in the room. Jimin smiled sheepishly at the younger.

“Sorry, got…distracted.” He mumbled softly while Chul looked down at her fingers shyly. 

“I could see that-.” Jungkook said sassily before shaking his head. “How do you guys know

each other anyway? You’re in different majors. Completely different-.” Jungkook

enquired as he looked between the two waiting for an answer. 

“Wait what major are you?”

“Cosmetic Science.” Chul blinked surprised and looked at him impressed.

“Woah! That sounds so fancy!” Jimin laughed, getting bashful at her praise, about to wave

her comments off before hearing Jungkook clear his throat again and looking at

him with raised brows. Jimin gave him an apologetic look before answering the

younger man.

“We met at the park earlier. She’s the girl I told you about.” Jungkook blinked in confusion before a grin started to spread on his face.

“Oh, so she’s the-.” His mouth was quickly covered by Jimin’s hand, said man, glaring at the younger who was just giggling under it before apologizing. Chul looked between the two, blinking confused as she scrunched her eyebrows together.

“What? The, what?” She tilted her head confused while Jungkook laughed and Jimin waved his hands with a pink hue on his cheeks. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Chul whined and started to protest, trying to get some kind of

information out of him. This lasted a couple more minutes, Jungkook laughing and Jimin shyly denying the girl any information on what Jungkook was going to say. After giving up Chul starts conversation on how their first days were going and what days they had classes and so on. At one point Chul went to tie up her hair, talking about some random topic and not noticing the two men looking at her and listened. They both were thinking the same thing, she looked so pretty. Jimin was the first to snap out of it though and gently hit Jungkook on the shoulder to snap him out of it. 

“Last semester wasn’t all that bad, so I do hope this one is the same. I hope I make more

friends.” They both tuned back into the conversation blinking a little to piece together what they could. “But I think it’s time for me to get going. My friend is waiting for me, and I hate making him wait.” She smiled at the two who smiled back instantly.

“Oh…” Jungkook pouted a little before checking the time and perking up surprised. “Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s definitely time for us to go too.” He smiled sadly, wishing they could hangout a bit longer. Jimin lightly nudged him before handing his phone to Chul, the contacts app open. 

“Here, put in your number. It’s not fair that Jungkook gets to talk to such a pretty girl,

and I don’t.” He teased gently, smiling more when he sees her blush appearing on her cheeks again. She gently takes it, putting in her number and hands it back shyly, smiling at him.

“There you go.” He smiles back looking at the contact and cooing inwardly at the cute

emojis she used. He sent her a message, so she had his number as well. Both men stood up and each took turns giving her a hug before they walked out of the room and went their separate ways. As she walked down the stairs, deeming it quicker than waiting for the elevator. She had already made Hongjoong wait too long, and she was definitely going to get an earful about

it. She texted Jimin while she went down, smiling at the new pretty friend she made. “No one’s going to believe me.” She mumbled to herself with a laugh as she got out. There she saw Hongjoong, leaning against his bike and waved happily at him. Hongjoong crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her. 

“Nice to see you-.” He said snarky while she rolled her eyes and hugged her best friend.

“Don’t be so cold.~” She whined a little, it being Hongjoong’s turn to roll his eyes and hug her back.

“You were with your new friend?” She nodded her head with a happy smile.

“He seems to make you really happy. Be careful, you’ve only known each other for a couple of days.” Chul shook her head with a little frown.

“He’s nice. And we’ve basically known each other for more than a week. I even met one of

his friends today! Plus, I can take care of myself. I know what I’m doing.” Hongjoong’s

eyebrows raised up, but he didn’t mention anything about it.

“I know you can, but I just worry about you. Now,” He tossed Chul her normal helmet.

“Get on, we're going to Sally’s.” Chul squealed happily at the prospect of going to

their favorite diner. Having gone to it since they were kids from Hongjoong’s first concert in Middle School to their High School Graduation. She hugged him happily before putting on the helmet and got on carefully with Joong’s help. Once they were there, they greeted everyone and went to their normal table before Chul started to go into detail of her day before Joong did the same. 

A nice ending to the day.

Jimin and Jungkook went to the elevator, Jimin texting Chul back with a smile before putting his phone away. Jungkook glances at him but doesn’t say anything, just smiling along knowing what he was thinking of. Once out of the building Jimin puts on a pair of sunglasses along with putting up his hoodie trying to hide his face as much as possible. Jungkook opted for his normal black facemask while putting his hoodie up as well. Once they felt that their faces were hidden well enough, they started walking to Jimin’s car. Jimin was happy that he was allowed to drive himself and not have some driver taking them around. They all wanted to enjoy their college experience as much as possible and as normal. They already had heavy schedules to follow, making having close connections hard. So having this sliver of normalcy was a breath of fresh air for all the boys. They have casual conversation when inside of Jimin’s car, mask and hoods down enjoying each other’s company. 

Jungkook held Jimin’s hand in his lap while the older man drove. “She doesn’t know what we do, does she?” Jungkook blinked, processing what he was asked before blushing a

little and shaking his head. 

“No…I kind of like the fact she doesn’t. At least if she does, she doesn’t show it.” Jimin

nodded his head agreeing.

“She’s a lot more sweet than you mentioned.” Jimin grinned a little. “I can see why you like her so much.” Jungkook went red, lightly slapping his arm when they got to a

red light.

“Says you! You stared at her for so long-. And you called her an ‘Angel’ when you first saw her, remember?” Jimin scoffed with his own blush spreading on his face which

caused Jungkook to laugh. Jimin rolled his eyes, scoffing again but smiling fondly at his boyfriend, loving whenever he laughed. They talk the rest of the way home, Jimin parking his car on the street, noticing that there was a car in the driveway. He cursed under his breath knowing whose car it was and whining to himself. Jungkook noticed the car and cringed a little knowing that Jimin was going to be chewed out by their Hyungs. Jungkook checked the time before tugging Jimin’s hand. “I have to stream soon.” Jimin sighed, wishing he could stay in

the car and let everything settle. They both got out of the car making their way inside barely making it in until seeing Yoongi standing halfway up the stairs, arms crossed and a knowing look on his face. 

Jimin sighed as Jungkook gave him a quick peck to the lips running up the stairs, stopping to give Yoongi his own kiss, before rushing to his room to set up for his

stream. Yoongi looked at Jimin who gave him puppy dog eyes, the older man shaking his head. “Not this time. Let’s go, Jin and Namjoon are waiting for you.” Groaning, the blonde followed behind, wondering what they’ll tell him he can’t do this time around.

Oh how he hated talks like these.

✎ @honey-andmilktea - 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭, 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭, 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞, 𝐞𝐭𝐜. [2024-2025]

✎ Thank you for reading! Since you've made it this far please consider reblogging, commenting or getting a coffee at the Coffee Corner! [Ko-fi]

✎ Taglist: @armysantiny, @faywithlove, @kpopadminnie, @iridescentxstars, @felicityroth

✎: @moonprismo, @mo0nbeams, @angelfuzzy2, @singukieee

[apollafire]

Chapter Two

Summary; Kate gets to know the guys in a more social setting, Peter and Ray make a proposition.

Warnings; alcohol consumption in a bar setting, Venkman being Venkman, science talk, annoyingly overbearing family members

Final Word Count; 1250

With the extra help, Kate got most of her office unpacked within the next hour or so, what was left she could just deal with herself later. It was mostly Ray who helped, Peter just kind of went through boxes and cracked jokes while Egon lingered near the bookshelf in what seemed to be a contemplative state. Carefully lowering a bell jar over some of her prime venus fly trap specimens, Kate spoke up, 

“How about I buy lunch for us? As a thank you for helping.” She turned to face the guys, hands on hips, “Pizza?” She grabbed her purse from the desk and went out to search for a phone she could order from before any of them could even respond. 

“You know what, fellas? We have to get her in on our research, I think she’d be a great asset.” Venkman said pointing towards the door after Kate left and was out of earshot.

“Peter, her line of work doesn’t even line up with ours, she’s here to teach… and you only want her around because she is a woman.” Egon spoke as he turned away from observing the books, facing his two colleagues. 

“We know she shares some of the same interests.” Ray said gesturing to the shelf that held the works of Aleister Crowley among other supernatural texts, “And if we ever have any actual run ins with ectoplasm, she could analyze it chemically, break it down to it’s finer proteins or something! Maybe she won’t want to collaborate full time but it sure wouldn’t hurt to ask her.”

“We don’t want to come on too strong, now. Let’s invite her to have some drinks with us at the bar later this week, we can spring it on her then.” Peter chimed in again, “Egon you should come too.”

“I don’t drink, you know that.”

“It wouldn’t hurt for you to come out with us and socialize with a lovely lady, alright? You can have all the water you want. You being there will even soften the deal. One look at you pal and she went all doe eyed.” Peter walked over and clapped a hand on his shoulder, earning a scoff from the taller scientist.

“Alright, I forgot to ask what kind you guys like, so I got two cheeses and a pepperoni.” Kate returned holding three stacked pizza boxes, “They refused to deliver to the basement so I had to wait around and wait for the kid outside.” Not even acknowledging the strange little huddle going on, she put the boxes down on her desk and set them next to each other.

“Say, hey Kate, Katieee. Can I call you Katie?” Peter said as he turned to address her.

“If you value your ability to have children in the future, no.”

“Okay, nevermind about that. How about you join us at the bar just off campus this Saturday? We can get to know you and you, us, away from all the workplace hustle and bustle.” 

“Saturday? Sounds good to me, I had plans I didn’t want to keep anyway.”

“And Peter Mitchell really transformed the way we look at things with his protonmotive force hypothesis of course, and people hated him for that for a while but now it’s been proven and it’s standard.” Coming to the end of a long winded tangent on why she chose biochemistry as a profession, Kate looked around the booth at the three men sitting with her, “Sorry, got a bit carried away.” 

“No! It’s really great stuff! We’d love to hear more.” Ray exclaimed over the sound of the bar, Egon nodding along to his words as he continued to look at the book he had in front of him. Although he had actually stopped reading when Kate started excitedly talking about her field.

“If we didn’t have other things to discuss, maybe another time Raymond.” Peter held a hand up and turned back to the woman across from him who was now nervously doodling on a napkin, “So, Dr. Harrison. We would like to ask you something.” Kate lifted her head and looked across at Peter and Ray suspiciously.

“This better not be some hazing thing…” She narrowed her eyes as she spoke, glancing at Egon who sat on the outer half of the bench next to her. She was pretty much boxed in. 

“No, this is purely us offering friendship and collaboration.” Ray said, taking charge of the conversation before Peter could mess it up, “We were wondering if, from time to time, you would like to join us in our paranormal research. When you have the time of course. It’s entirely up to you.”

“Personally I would like to run some theories on the chemical bonds of ectoplasm by you, get in your input and such.” Egon spoke up for the first time since they all met up at the bar almost two hours ago. 

“You know what? That sounds really cool, I’m in.” She said with an enthusiastic nod, “And you know where to find me during my office hours.” She laughed softly before looking at the time, “Shit, I should call my sister. I forgot to tell her I wasn’t coming. You don’t mind letting me out so I can go use the phone, do you?” She asked Egon who gave a small nod and moved to stand up from the booth, sitting back down once more as she walked away. 

“See? Now was that so hard?” Peter shook his head as he returned his attention to his beer, reaching over to grab the napkin she had been drawing on, “Now what do you think that is?” He turned upside down and back a couple of times. 

“That’s the human nervous system Venkman, she’s drawn it three and a half times since we sat down.” Egon turned back to his book.

"Huh, interesting."

“Irene, I’m sorry, okay? Plans came up out of the blue, work got busy and I forgot to call you sooner to let you know. It’s not like you don’t host dinner every Saturday, I’m only missing it once.” Kate ran a hand over her face as her sister berated her over the phone.

“Your sister has been in the kitchen all day making this roast, and now there’s too much food!” Her mother’s voice came over the line and she visibly cringed. 

“Well then, tell dad that he can have a third helping.” She stated, “And take me off speakerphone! You don’t need the kids to overhear the background noise of a bar!” 

“Oh that’s rich, spending your Saturday night at a bar with strange people rather than with your family, who care about you!” Her mother spoke up again.

“I’m with the guys from the next office over, they are not strangers, ma.”

“Oh, so strange men? Even better!” 

“They are respectable colleagues with PhDs just like me who actually hear what I care about. The second I start talking about the periodic table in front of any of you, you don’t even let me finish a word, let alone a whole sentence.” She huffed, “And hanging around in bars on a Saturday is something I should’ve done this whole time, not wasted them at dinners where all you talked about was how I’ve been wasting my time with school when I should’ve been looking for a husband. Now goodbye and have a wonderful evening.” She slammed the receiver back onto the hook and returned to the table.

[girlreviews]

Review #474: #1 Record, Big Star

“I never travel far, without a little Big Star”, is the saying that goes, or rather, the lyrics from The Replacement’s ode to Alex Chilton. It’s true though. Big Star are my favorite band. While I disagree pretty adamantly with the order, all three of their records are in the Rolling Stone’s Top 500. I find that immensely satisfying. One thing Rolling Stone and I agree on – apparently — is that Big Star are special. I could talk possibly forever about the Big Star story, but it’s a rare occasion that I happen upon anyone else who knows, cares, or is interested. Which is pretty much part and parcel of the story itself. It’s part of its charm in a way.

I learned about Big Star the way everyone does, or at least did. Someone put a song on a burned CD for me (previously it would have been a mixtape, but this was the early 2000s and this is what we did). It was that fuckin’ boy, okay? And it was around when we actually met. He was trying to impress. He made me this CD, it was plain white, and it had scrawled on it in his stupid fucking handwriting “Summer Promo” with some little patterns doodled around it. Thirteen was the third track and it instantly became my favorite. I fell in love with it, and with Big Star, and that was it. I remember almost all of the other tracks, they were mostly trash. He gave it to me before fucking off for several weeks over the summer – to Bible camp, ha – and the douchebag didn’t ever have enough money to keep his cell phone with credit to call or text. By the time he got back he already was like, “sorry, dumping you”, and so began the 3 to 4 years of hellish on-off controlling, jealous, rage abuse from a boy who didn’t want me, and constantly cheated on me, but couldn’t stand to see me move on or be near anyone else. Who am I kidding, he didn’t say sorry.

Some years in, he had moved away but this all continued. He was back in town – and we were together at this point – and days into his visit he hadn’t called, texted, nothing. He eventually showed up, only to inform me that he had tickets to see an artist that we both loved, Kathryn Williams, at a very local venue, and that he was taking another girl. My father had to physically restrain me. Later that evening, my boy best friend just so happened to call me and said he and his parents were going to that same show, had a spare ticket and would I like to go. I said yes. When I arrived, I sat several rows ahead of my “boyfriend”, and he saw that I was there with my friend, a boy, who in his opinion, I was not allowed to spend time with. Then. As if by magic. Kathryn Williams covered Thirteen. Beautifully. I really do remember that in that moment, knowing that I wasn’t ever going to ever be able to let myself tie songs I loved this much to people that hurt me on purpose if I wanted to continue loving them. I turned around and looked at him as if to say “you will never get this song from me”. I’d love to say that was the end of it all, but it wasn’t.

In the Street also lives within #1 Record, and during my teenage years, That 70’s Show was such a breath of fresh air. We all loved it. I had really fond memories of watching that show with my friends. I used to download it illegally and we would all watch it in my room around my computer. The theme tune was performed by Cheap Trick in the show, but I always loved that Alex Chilton and Chris Bell were in the opening credits, and as I understand it, it earned them money in syndication. However, Chris Bell was already dead, and Alex Chilton died with not a great deal to his name. So maybe it didn’t help. It’s probably the way that most folks know Big Star, even if they don’t know it. I’d encourage you to listen to their original version of In the Street. It’s fun, and honestly would have been a better fit for the show if you ask me. Also, it’s got so much cowbell it’s just silly. Sadly — sadly isn’t really the appropriate word here — That 70’s Show and the majority of its cast are now mired by the actions of convicted rapist and Scientologist Danny Masterson. Fond feelings are now replaced by anger and sadness for his victims and bitter disappointment in his castmates for continuing to support him and his church’s actions.

Skip forward a few years, and that boy is finally out of the picture, but a new nightmare begins. I’ve pointed to this in a few previous reviews. A job with a boss, and that boss is no good. We’re not going to get too far into that here. But there was this time, I was working my seventh day in a week a fourth week in a row (!) at a trade show. I forget why, but the subject of music came up, or I was listening to music on my break, or something like that, and this guy wanted to know what it was I was listening to. He was in his 40s and in a previous life, he had very briefly and with a great deal of mediocrity enjoyed some commercial success in a band. I’m being quite generous in saying that. He liked to overstate that success. A lot. Anyway. It comes up that I’m a fan of Big Star, and this garners his attention (more so than usual), and earns me some respect as a “real music fan”. I’m at work, I’m exhausted, I’m paid 8 pounds an hour, and this man was my ride to and from some hotel trade show at the Heathrow Airport. Finally, the day is over, and we’re leaving. On the way to what I think is home, he tells me that his wife is out of town, and his bandmates are in town, and that he isn’t going to take me home, he’s taking me to his house to hang out with his band. It may surprise you to learn that I, an 18 year old girl, did not want to hang out by myself with five 40-year-old men, only one of which I actually knew. The thing is, I actually didn’t have any choice. At all. This is one of those things where I most certainly look back and think “Jesus christ, that was fucked up”, and at the time I recognized my discomfort, but I didn’t have enough of a voice or know what to do about it. He was my boss.

So there I was, at his house, just kind of stuck. They all got fucking white girl wasted. And they had set up recording equipment – I assume their entire weekend plans were to fuck around and record music. Well. He made me sing. He made me sing Thirteen. He recorded it. They played. I was shaking. Mortified. Terrified. He wouldn’t let me leave until I did it. Then I was allowed to be sent home in a private car. I feel really sad for myself when I think about this. I’m not sure how not one of those men thought it was strange that I was there, or that my discomfort was so obvious, and that not one of them thought I should be at home. In hindsight I get the feeling my boss wasn’t someone people felt comfortable standing up to. That’s no excuse, in my opinion.

In weeks following, he showed me the mix he made of the recording, and I hated it. Hated. It. To be clear: I sang it beautifully. Every single one of those men was surprised by what came out of my mouth, and they all shut the fuck up for awhile, because I sang it beautifully and they weren’t expecting it. I hated it because of how it was created. I hated it because he bastardized it with a bunch of weird added effects and elongations that were insults to the original. From that day, until I left that job to go to university, I was encouraged to not bother with school and let him manage my music career, and my aspirations of college and helping people were “a stupid waste of time”. I thank myself every day that I had no desire to take him up on his ridiculous offer, and that saying no required no second thought. I can’t imagine what would have happened to me had I said yes, but I know that it would not have been good. That wasn’t the last of that guy, either, unfortunately, but I did go to school and I did graduate before he had the opportunity to fuck anything else up again.

Again, I revisited that notion of never letting anyone ruin a song or a band for me. But, in writing these reviews, I have come to realize that the memory being attached to a song or an artist has served a really valuable purpose for me. I know that this shit really happened, because the song/artist makes me think of this memory. That’s how I know. It’s validating and it’s helpful to actually catalogue all of this in this particular way. I can believe myself. If I ever didn’t before, I do now.

At the end of 2022, I was able to see Big Star (well “Big Star”), perform all of their catalog live, for the 50th anniversary of #1 Record. In Memphis. Mike Mills of R.E.M., Pat Sansone of Wilco, Jon Auer of the Posies, and Chris Stamey of the dBs, playing alongside original drummer and only surviving member, Jody Stephens. Over the years – whether in the UK or in the US, so many Big Star events had come and gone. Movie showings, one-off shows, tributes, whatever. And no matter what, somehow, something always stopped me from catching them. Not this one. No fucking way. I was really overwhelmed, and overcome, to think of all of the things that had to happen in my life since I first heard Thirteen on that burned CD under my loft bed in England to put me in Memphis, listening to these songs live, finally, in my Thirties, knowing those absolute assclowns that I’ve written about above are well behind me and can’t hurt me anymore.

[hisui-cotton]

Hello Hello! Today I’d like to talk about my experience in going to digital art as my primary workflow over the past 5 or 6 years and what I’ve kinda wanted to do for my art in the past and now in the future. Overall I wanted to share my thoughts on the two primary programs I use, how I critique myself and what I’ve learned about art on a personal level.

To preface, as this is a newer format, you expect a level of self-reflection in this that may seem odd! This is both a report to my own brain cave (in lore it's Ithod my "home planet") and a personal exploration of aspects of my life that have taken my interest. This is one of my big steps into finding what I enjoy creating as a VTuber. So please look forward to it as the future has more of this type of blogging but on a variety of topics I find interest in in addition to my Art posts!

Alright let’s start from the…beginning? One of the first times I got a genuine chance to use digital art was in 2013 on a Acer laptop and a tablet I can’t remember the brand of. I didn’t learn too much, I kind of just went for it. It’s hard to explain that I was not really looking at digital art as something I needed to relearn compared to traditional art, not to mention that I was still not improving my art in a….genuine way? I think I was just trying things out to explore how it works. The main problem was that I just didn’t know what I wanted to be using it for at the time. Like yes I wanted to draw but what did I want to be using digital art for that I could use traditional art to do? Overall I didn’t do a whole lot with that tablet other than play around with it but that was a good entry nonetheless.

Sometime after that in 2016/2018-ish I began to draw on my phone and I got a Windows Surface Pro. These were the two steps that really gave me perspective on some of the stuff I can do in digital Art compared to traditional, especially since I had also by that point learned way more about concepts in art and planning my work. This is really where I leaned into taking stuff I learned concept wise and played around with the ability of digital programs like layers, clipping, and being able too revert to old phases of the process without having to totally restart. I played around a lot with making sure I was atleast TRYING to get fullbody work in my compositions as I noticeably struggled with getting body gestures down. Everything felt stiff and I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of that while getting line art in. A lot of that went on to mean that I just did a lot of sketching, studies and generally drew things I felt I had a vague idea for. I typically didn’t go beyond the testing/planning either there because that wasn’t what I was really aiming to do. If I wasn’t thinking of an image beyond it’s initial idea then I had no need to try things beyond that. This wasn’t like a bad time for my art though. In the one year of drawing on a Surface Pro I went from basic fanart doodles to a fairly well developed digital style. I hadn’t even really looked back at the progress of that first year of drawing on the surface pro till now. In the year before I had been drawing fairy consistently on my phone but it was doing basic little portraits and stuff like that. If I had to say I learned one specific thing in the time I used the surface pro (which was for about 3 years) it’s likely that the screen/tablet type you use has a greater effect on how you draw that you may realize.

The ability to draw in my phone was great for at work during lunches or for jotting down sketch ideas which I could use/develop later if I wanted to. I very much loved this convivence because I didn’t want to risk taking my Surface Pro to work or something like that and then it breaking or getting stolen. So the phone usage was very nice especially in our modern era where a good mini-stylus or just the right free app is enough. Specifically I worked in Pixiv Sketch, and still do when I draw on my phone. It’s got a great basic variety of brushes and then a layer function with a decent amount of layer limits.

The Surface Pro’s ability to make the process feel smooth and clean even at various pen pressures was really interesting to realize after switching to an XP-Pen Tablet. It was also really nice to have something to just pull up a full drawing program but also be able to lay in my bed lmao. It may not have done much for my quality but it made me feel like drawing wasn’t something that I had to be up and ready to do if I just wanted to doodle. It also ran really well with decent memory space. This bring me to Paint Tool Sai, the program that I’ve been using for most of my digital art.

I bought Paint Tool Sai back on my Acer laptop. It was $75 at the time which was a lot for me but now looking back…I’ve had like a lifetime art program that can be used at a professional level. I remember recently watching one of the BTS of Genshin Impact and seeing Paint Tool Sai open in on one of their PCs was really refreshing lmao. It was the same hat meme. It was great. But also the fact that it’s made by one guy in Japan, who has been developing the 2.0 for the past few years is crazy because it’s honestly such a great program. I got the 2.0 upgrade for free as well which was even nicer in regards to the fact I only paid for it once also 10 years ago.

Because of it’s program nature with various brush folders and texture folders, it’d similar to Clip Studio in it’s customization for brush textures and settings. You can create your own textures, brushes and such and import them into the program. I find it’s overall feeling when drawing is really smooth even in a lot it’s brush settings. It’s got great reaction time and feels a lot like traditional art for that reason. Even with a really high Stabilization it’s reaction and accuracy to the line is really nice. The digital coloring on the other hand doesn’t really feel as good. I like to use the marker tool because I personally enjoy the look of washed colors so it isn’t too bad for me but when I need flat colors or blended rendering I tend to personally struggle with getting it done at a decent speed. But all the conveniences of the placement for in-program functions like new-layer, merge layer, copy/paste and blank layer are in the same place which I prefer over Clip Studio’s spread out options. It’s possible I can move them around more but the built in thought of the placement for a lot of things in Paint Tool Sai is a nice start for someone looking to just get started within digital art and needs a program with just enough stuff beyond the essentials to let you do really good quality work.

Now I’ve upgraded to a full PC, which I got in 2020. I use an Omen as I expected that if I wanted to use other art programs or draw on even bigger canvases that I should need a more robust system than what I used on the Surface Pro, but I didn’t need anything too crazy that would require a custom system. I also took this as a time to get a slightly larger tablet. Currently I use a XP-Pen tablet which is noticeably different to use than a surface pro. Since a surface Pro is also a laptop/tablet it had a smoother screen, untextured and such, where as the XP-Pen has a slight Matte to it. The XP-Pen also has a layered screen, where theres a slight slight space between where your pen is and the actual place it’s drawing at.

My use of Sai has gone down in the last month however as I finally began using Clip Studio. I admit that theres still something about the feel of the program I don’t like in comparison to Sai but it’s a better overall experience for making higher quality, more complete work at this time. Partially because I still haven’t figured out my art process. Clip Studio has made the convenience of coloring much more accessible to me on a variety of levels. It let’s me feel like I’m not overly perfectionist on my sketch process or lineart in comparison to just laying down a few colors because I don’t have confidence with them. Now even without confidence in my color choices or usage I at least feel like I’ve been able to fake it. In sai it was very dependent on you knowing what colors you wanted to use and what tool you’d use to lay them down. So far it doesn’t feel that way in Clip Studio. I can choose a basic brush and paint bucket and get color laid down in about 20 minutes if I wanted or take more time with a slightly varied brush and get that washed style I like while also being able to properly fill the spaces of the work.

Overall in my art process itself it’s been a lot faster as well than in Sai, perhaps because I’m still taking it slower with the express reason of really learning to use it for efficiency. My progression through the years has sort of allowed me to take that previous knowledge I’d gained and use it in what I do next which is generally what one does when making a change to their professional processes. A lot of doing things new successfully depends on how much you can make it work with what you already know.

Finally let’s talk about my art process itself, what my sort of mentality is behind it. A lot of what I do is based on “Oh I really want to see something like this!” or “That would be a fun/cool image” if I’m drawing for myself. I start with a thumbnail sketch, enlarge that and then do another more detailed sketch on top of that. Typically I haven’t done lineart in the past because it adds a lot of time to the process and I never feel like it looks good compared to sketch. Now that I have clip studio though and the coloring process can go a lot faster with better lineart, I’ve been trying to do a bit cleaner sketches or full lineart. Coloring usually is flat colors first, washed shading next and then multiple layer styles on top of that of highlights and shading. I usually do washed shading as a sort of “sketch” for the shades. Usually a rough colored drawing takes about 2 hours? Sometimes a bit more depending on how much I clean up the lines, sometimes less if I just slap on the colors and lines.

The things that I feel I need to work on the most are usually in regards to colors and composition. I tend to focus up my character compositions to fill the whole page either by intentionally drawing them large or by enlarging the sketches to fill the page size. But if it’s a composition that isn’t character focused or has some more environmental aspects then I tend to struggle. My color choices also are hard to do because I don’t usually consider them in my sketching phase. Since I usually go into pieces with an idea of what person, character or outfits I’m drawing then colors tend not to be something I think too much about. This is something I notice a lot in environmental drawings though because the colors get so clashed when actual lighting and such needs to be planned out against a certain layout. Which sucks because I absolutely LOVE vibrant coloring and such but I don’t know how to make that work with environment stuff yet.

A lot of what I want to draw, in both style and “substance”, is character driven. I like action that shows a lot of atmosphere or feels very in character. When a still image can feel like it captures the feeling of a moment or feels like it was made with a real idea in mind that means a lot to me, so that’s what I try to go in with when I’m drawing. For characters and such that can be a variety of things from just lounging around or hanging out to getting dressed-up or a variety of actions. It’s really fun to see so much more in the things that I like and to be able to share those things through art is wonderful.

To send you off I want to say that…I like being an artist. It’s so nice to know and learn a skill like art since it can be a sort of perspective into a person’s views. People’s ability to connect over concepts and such is so cool and I feel like even today when we have fine art, fanart and everything in-between that it really sets up the fun of creativity and community. Right now there’s an ongoing official art series of Miku and Pokemon drawn by various artists. Some people have begun taking that concept and drawing it themselves, putting their own spins on it in their version of the pokemon style and outfits. It’s so cool that looking through it all I can barely tell which ones are official and which are fan made. Like it’s a clear cut conversation where everyone can give it a shot with their own ideas and can still be talking about the same thing. I think that’s lovely.

For my art in the future, I want to be able to design and draw a buncha stuff. I really like stationary and want to make some stuff in the future for it. These report logs are one place I’ll be playing around with that to test it a bit so I’m excited to continue these. I also want to better my Background drawing because I really love the idea of being able to put characters in a location, somewhere I can imagine them being. I’ve gotten better at character interactions but I want to think about how much further that can go if I add an environment. For the future of my style…I don’t know! I like to have a very dreamy or washed style but also bold colors and expressive lines. But I’ll definitely be thinking about it even more in the future as I start developing a finished my process (getting fully rendered colors, lineart, etc.).