#finding more and more that i LOVE red compositions

[ladypepperofdavenshire-archives]

Got an idea for a composition from a wine label I saw at work, so here’s some ✨symbolism✨ with Judd

[lewdlepoodle69]

Elster with a metaphor problem. (A metaphor for what? It is lost to me...)

I feel like I'm getting better with achieving what I have in mind when I start a drawing, and this is one of those so I don't really feel like there's much to say. Though this was definitely a more ambitious composition than what I'm used to I suppose. I can see technical improvement in a lot places but some things look wonky to me for reasons I am yet to understand (it's perspective stuff, ugh)

I love environments that are lit with sickly green fluorescence, and I’ve done something with a similar colour scheme in the past that I still love, and I wanted to explore that again. I could've left out the red in the foreground to emphasise that, but It's Signalis, I'm obligated to put ominous red light in somewhere. I also had the idea of overlaying a sketch of Elster at some point but the composition just wouldn't allow it, but it looks really good so I have included it.

I'm definitely finished with this, but I don't know how I feel about it yet. I can recognise that it turned out good technically but feel like I lost the sense of emotion at some point. I'm sure I'll find it later. I'm sure the me who started the sketch would be proud of how it turned out. I am going to now read some books and let it be and we shall see how I feel later.

[pretty-little-mind33]

Dave Lizewski x fem!reader

Summary: You and Dave lose your virginity to each other.

Genre: SMUT (nsfm)

Warnings: virgin!reader, virgin!dave, dave and reader are in college, swearing, beast/nipple play, fingering, oral sex (f receiving), praise, protected sex, penetrative sex

~ this was requested by multiple anons! enjoy! ~

DAVE LIZEWSKI MASTERLIST

You can't help staring at Dave from where you lay on his bed. He's sitting at his desk, his back hunched and his eyes focused on his laptop screen as he finishes his Composition Lit paper.

You press your pencil further in your mouth, nibbling on the eraser as you're mesmerized by how his hands glide across the keyboard.

God, his hands.

You know if you stare any longer you'll drool all over your notebook so you force yourself to look down at your writing and continue what you came here to do—which is study.

"Finally," Dave mumbles after a while as he pushes himself away from his desk, his head tilting back and his curls falling away from his face. "That took forever," he whines and pushes up his glasses, turning to look at you from beneath his lashes.

Your stomach sinks so deliciously and your cheeks warm up.

You're so screwed.

You turn back to your work but you can feel him watching you. You hear the squeaky wheels of his chair as he wheels over to his bed and looks over your shoulder at your notebook.

"Want some help? I'm not that great at Calculus but," he chuckles nervously, "I can try and help you if you'd like?"

You look up, sitting up and pushing hair out of your face to look at your lovely boyfriend properly. He looks so cute staring at you like he is now, with his hair falling messily around his face and those big blue eyes his staring at you from behind his glasses like you're the most precious thing in the world. Your heart instantly melts. 

"Sure, I have to do this—" You show him the problem and he moves closer. Ultimately, Dave decides he should sit next to you on the bed so he can see the notes better and your stomach feels all warm and fluttery when your knees eventually touch.

After a while, you're feeling too warm so you turn and pull off your sweatshirt, exposing the skin of your arms and stomach as your tank top lifts.

You can feel Dave's gaze on your stomach and you hide a smile. You face him again, having purposefully not worn a bra this morning and you flash him an innocent smile. Dave's eyes are locked onto your breasts and the way your nipples pebble under the white material. 

"Wanna ditch math and touch my tits instead?" you ask a little bluntly and Dave's mouth almost falls open as a deep crimson blush adorns his cheeks. You push your notebook down on the floor and take Dave's shirt, pulling him in to press your lips on his. 

He responds almost immediately, his hands finding your back and then your hair as he kisses you and your breasts press against his chest. Your mind feels hazy as you continue exploring his lips.

You have no clue how you've become so brazen with your desires but as you kiss him, you take Dave's hand and bring it up your stomach and then guide it around to one of your breasts. 

Dave gasps and pulls his hand away, his eyes widening. You hadn't done more than kiss in the past and it was very obvious from the way he was blushing that he hadn't done much more than that with anyone.

You move to press his hand harder on your breast and smile up at him. "You okay, Davey?" you ask sweetly.

He looks like he's stopped working and no words are even forming in his mind, never mind leaving his mouth. He just nods, his cheeks a flaming red as his glasses fall lower onto his nose. His arm is tense and his hand isn't moving. You tilt your head and scoot closer to him. 

You press your lips to his again, "It's okay, I want you to touch me," you whisper, giving him the verbal consent he clearly needs. You feel him squeeze your flesh, relaxing into the kiss a little. 

Clumsily, you straddle his hips as your kiss becomes more wanton, more needy. You wrap your arms around him, his glasses hitting your nose so he takes them off and sets them on his desk.

He moans breathlessly when you capture his lips again and kiss him hungrily, your hands finding his cheeks as you dig your nails into his skin. "I like the sounds you make," you whisper in his ear, kissing behind his earlobe for a second and then moving down his jaw.

"Yeah?" Dave asks in his usual whiny voice, his eyes lidded when he pulls away and looks at you for reassurance. 

"Mmhm," you nod and kiss him again, grinding against him as you use his surprisingly broad shoulders to steady yourself. You kiss him again, moaning into his mouth as his hands roam all over your curves. "Dave," you whimper into his ear and look at him, "Do you have a condom?" 

His eyes go wide and his hands shake nervously as he looks around his room, "U-um yeah, i-in the drawer—but Y/n I- I've never," he stumbles with his words, avoiding your gaze as his foot twitches a little. 

You caress a hand down his cheek and look at him reassuringly. "Me neither," you say, kissing his lips, "We can do this together, m'kay? It's normal that you're nervous, I'm nervous too," you smile and look down at him when you feel his boner pressing into your thigh. "But um, Dave, I really don't wanna be on top for my first time—"

Dave's eyes widen and he puts a hand on your back, scrambling to flip you over. "No, no of course," he mumbles as he moves you to position your bodies so he's sitting in between your thighs, your hair splayed on the pillow.

Dave must not realize how strong he is because as he positions you, you feel like a doll in his grip and it's the hottest thing you've ever experienced.

"Is this better?" he asks, hovering over you and reaching inside the drawer of his desk to fish out a condom he'd kept for future usage. You nod, eyes wide with lust and stomach in knots. You sit up and shed your tank top so you're only in your shorts and panties. You lay down and see that his eyes are transfixed on your nipples again. 

"Davey," you whine and pout at him, "your turn," you gesture to his chest and he jumps a little, awkwardly nodding and taking off his shirt. Fuck, he has abs. "Okay, now kiss me," you whimper and he leans down to kiss you, using an arm over your head to steady you. You wrap your legs around him, your core pressed against his cock. 

He feels much bigger than you'd anticipated. 

You kiss for a while until Dave's hands find your breasts again and he rubs your nipples. You groan against him. You're so horny. He feels this too and lowers his pants as he positions himself. You hold his arm, "Wait, condom, and you have to open me up first," you remind him—especially now that you know he's not exactly small.

Embarrassing graces his features. "Right, sorry, honey," he whispers and sits back on his heels. He looks down at you nervously, not entirely sure what he should do. You glance at him and take his hand, bringing it to glide over your pussy. His fingers find your folds and you moan. Dave loves the sound because he explores you again. He's being extremely attentive to what you need from him.  

You tense when he pushes a finger inside you and he looks at you, eyes round, "You okay?" he whispers and when you nod, he continues to touch you. You stifle your moans, squirming as your juices help the awkward feeling. You've never been much into penetration when you masturbate, so this is slightly foreign still.

You can see that Dave is humping the bed, his hips grinding into the mattress as he bites down on his lip to muffle his moans. He looks up at you, removing his hand as his eyes become glossy and needy as he asks for permission. Permission to use his mouth.   

You nod and his lips attach yourself to your pussy. What he lacks in experience, he truly makes up for in enthusiasm because you're a moaning mess, pulling at his curls and clenching your hands in the sheets. 

Just as you feel yourself reach your peak, you groan and pull him away as you tug on his hair. You look into his blue eyes, now glossy with need. "Need you, now." You pause. "Please," you whine, your hands grasping at Dave's arms. 

He doesn't need to be asked twice as he moves up, pulling on the condom from his drawer. His breath is shaky as he positions himself against you again. You look him in the eyes, wrapping your legs around him as you nod.

He pushes in, groaning, and you clutch at his shoulders as you sigh. It feels weird and it hurts a little but Dave is gentle as he pants, "Are you okay?" You nod. 

Very quickly, once Dave finds a rhythm, the pain turns into pleasure and his weight presses against you, his breath in your ear as he thrusts into you over and over, your nails digging into his shoulder blades as you groan.

"I-I fuck– I l-love you," he groans, his hips hitting yours and you nod, lost in pleasure. 

"Mmh- Dave," you whine as he very quickly (and with help from how well he'd opened you up with his fingers and tongue) makes you come around him and moan into his neck, his curls tickling your skin. 

"Shit," Dave groans, not lasting very long as he spills inside the condom and his arms give way. You groan as his forehead hits your chin and Dave's eyes widen.

He pulls himself up and out of you, panicking now. "Shit, shit, baby, did I hurt you?" he asks and carefully cups your chin in his hand. 

You stare at him, chest heaving, and you laugh. Dave's concern shifts and he leans his forehead onto yours, catching his breath. "I'm sorry," he says, kissing your chin, smiling, and then he kisses your lips. You can tell he's also apologizing by default in case his performance was less than satisfactory.  

You return his kiss and wrap your arms around his neck, your nipples skimming his bare chest as you lean into him. "It's okay. You did well. It was really good. I love you," you whisper honestly, your voice fluttering and the praise fills your boyfriend's chest with pride and love.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," you grin, "Now c'mon, let's shower."

[melancholyhigh]

ARTWORK

ft. leon x artist!reader

synopsis. you're an artist, and leon's your muse.

content. 1.5k words. fluff, smut. nude painting, leon's pov, needy leon, praise kink, masturbation, handjob.

note. this was j supposed to be fluff but i got ahead of myself.

masterlist. i love your guy's feedback :3

“Paint me like one of your French girls.”

You laugh at Leon’s statement. He’s perched on the small, green couch in your home art studio, wearing nothing but his pink, fluffy robe as you prepare your oil paints. 

“You’re my first French girl, Leon.”

–-

You had suggested painting him nude while you were both in bed, lazing around. You’re in each other’s hold, Leon’s arms around your waist and face on your chest when he asks about any new projects you had in mind. 

He loves hearing about what art piece you were doing or planned to do. It was how you expressed yourself, whether there was a deeper meaning or none at all. He found it beautiful. Every work you do it had a bit of your personality in it. He could tell your work from thousands by the intricate details they carry. 

When you told Leon you wanted to paint him, he wasn’t too surprised. You mentioned he was your favourite thing to draw or think of when you had art block. The admission had left him sputtering, his face red as he tried to get his words out.

On the third date, you showed him your sketchbook, pages littered with drawings and portraits of him. Some were quick sketches, while other’s looked like you took time to get every detail of him. 

You’re always on my mind, Leon. You had confessed. Was it a little creepy? At that moment, flipping through the drawings of him, the attention to detail they held, he’d say it was romantic.

People have always said he was pretty as a picture, yet you’re the only one that makes his heart beat faster and his tummy fill with butterflies when you say he’s the type of gorgeous you’d find in a painting. 

“A nude painting,” you specify. It was as if you told Leon he was the object of your affection for the first time again. His head buries into your chest, trying to hide his flushed face. You smile at his sudden bashfulness. 

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, baby.” You run your fingers through his soft hair. “I want to try something new, but it’s okay. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“‘S fine, angel. But can’t you use a picture?”

“Where’s the fun in that, pretty boy.”

He groans, muffled by your shirt, and you giggle. 

He loves to please you — in more ways than one — and nothing compares to the smile that graces your face, so he agrees. It’s not like Leon’s uncomfortable with you looking at him bare and vulnerable. There were other problems he was worried would interrupt your craftwork. 

–-

Leon leans back into the couch, doing just as you instructed. His bare back hits the soft cushioning, and it’s surprisingly comfortable. 

His robe is off, on the floor next to your easel. He rests his chin on his hand, supported on the arm of the couch.

He’s nervous. You said it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but this almost feels more intimate than being intertwined with you in bed.

Maybe it’s the gaze you hold when you’re analysing him, grasping the compositions and layering basic shapes onto the canvas. 

He can’t help but think of when you told him he’s your favourite canvas to mark up. Sucking the reddish marks into his skin which turn the prettiest shade of purple, as you like to put it. Or when you said the colour on his cheek was your favourite shade of pink.

You always did like to rile him up, muttering the filthiest things to him in the most mundane setting, just like right now. 

“Spread your legs wider, Leon.” You mumble in a casual tone as if you don’t know the implications of your own words. You’re so engrossed with getting your work right you probably don’t.

It’s so fucking sexy seeing you in your element. Your brows pinched together, and your face serious with concentration. 

He obediently listens to you, parting his legs wide, and the problem he wishes wouldn’t happen is currently hardening between his thighs. You don’t notice, mixing paints to ensure it's the correct shade. 

You’re probably 30 minutes into painting, and he’s already hard. You said you’d take a while to finish, and he could tap out whenever he wants to, but he doesn’t want to disappoint. 

Finally, you’re looking up from the canvas and towards Leon. Your brows quirked up in surprise when trying to examine his features, studying the curve of his nose and the sharpness of his jawline to imitate on the canvas. His face is pink, the shade you know and adore so much. 

Your eyes trail down his body, his dick fully erect, slapping against his stomach. Your gaze is on his face again with a smirk on your lips.

He knows, you know, he’s rock-hard simply from the glances you take at him and the words you mutter. His lashes flutter, and he moves his hand to cover his face while the other is shamefully obscuring his cock.

“Be a good boy, and don’t move, Leon. I want to make sure everything looks good.” You say, and he thinks you aren’t going to acknowledge his 7-inch problem.  

“Oh, and make sure your pretty dick is hard for me, okay, baby?” You go back to your painting, trying to hide your smug expression.  

His adam’s apple bobs as he swallows his nerves, but he relents, going into position, not before giving his cock a firm squeeze. 

“Don’t cum too, okay? I want to be the one making you cry.”

A few hours pass, and Leon is on the verge of tears. He listened to what you said, only providing himself with enough stimulation to keep his cock hard but not enough to tip him over the edge into bliss. 

Precum leaks from the head down to the shaft. His dick is red and spent. He wants nothing more than for you to stop painting and make him cum.

“I’m almost done. You’ve been such a good boy for me, baby.” 

Your words are almost enough to make him spill his cum over the expensive fabric of your eccentric couch. 

You’re adding the finishing touches to the painting with each stroke, making sure you get the placement of each mole or freckle correct and each vein of his cock following to the tip right. 

You swear he belongs in a museum. No art can replicate how beautiful he truly is.

“I’m done.” You sigh, moving to get up to rid your skin of paint. 

After rinsing yourself off the paint, you make your way to Leon. You get comfortable in a seat on the couch right next to him. He’s breathing heavily in anticipation, looking up at you through his long lashes. Pretty, pink lips parted as pretty gasps left him. 

You cup his face, pressing your lips to his. The kiss is soft as you move your lips slowly in unison. He breathes out your name when you pull away. One of your hands moves to his throat, softly squeezing. Leon whimpers, his hands moving to hold your waist.

“Good job, baby. You didn’t cum once. I know it hurts, but I'm going to make you feel better,” you whisper, softly kissing his flushed forehead. 

Your hand moves to his pulsing cock, and gives it a soft squeeze, relishing the whine Leon lets out. Your touch sends goosebumps along his skin, and he plants his head into the crook of your neck. 

His hips eagerly buck into your hold. He’s practically sobbing into your neck, his soft hair tickling the underside of your jaw. You rest your chin on top of his head, smelling the fragrance of his shampoo. 

You thumb the slit on the tip of his cock, using his precum as a lubricant to start moving your hand back and forth on his shaft. 

You start at a slow pace. You don’t want Leon cumming quickly, wanting to enjoy every cry and whimper. 

The soft shlick noise of you jerking Leon’s cock fills the room with his desperate cries. He pulls back away from the crook of your neck, tears flowing down his blushing face.

“Please, please, please, g– go faster, angel. I’ve been such a good boy for you. Let me cum, please.”  He pleads, looking at you with those puppy dog eyes. His hips rutted frantically into your palm. How could you deny your boy?

“Okay, pretty baby. Cum for me.” You say softly, picking up the pace of jerking him off.

He whimpers loudly, thighs quivering lightly as his orgasm crashes and hot spurts of his cum spill onto your hand. He’s panting, dazed with lust and staring at you with what seems like hearts in his eyes. 

“T- thank you, thank you, s’much.” Leon gasps like a broken record, and you think he’s fucked himself dumb with your hand.

You peck his lips, effectively shutting him up.

“Let’s get you cleaned up so I can show you my favourite artwork yet.”

[wombywoo]

Ok! I've finally decided to put together a (somewhat) comprehensive tutorial on my latest art~

Please enjoy this little step-by-step 💁‍♀️

First things first--references!

Now I'm not saying you have to go overboard, but I always find that this is a crucial starting point in any art piece I intend on making. Especially if you're a detail freak like me and want to make it as realistic as possible 🙃

As such, your web browser should look like this at any given point:

Since this is a historical piece, it means hours upon hours of meaningless research just to see what color the socks are, but...again. that isn't, strictly, necessary 😅

Once I've compiled all my lovely ref pics, I usually dump them into a big-ass collage ⬇️

(I will end up not using half of these, alas :'D)

Another reference search for background material, and getting to showcase our models of choice for this occasion~

When picking a reference for an actor or model, the main thing I keep in mind (besides prettiness 🤭) is lighting and orientation. Because I already kinda know what pose I'm gonna go with for this piece, I can look for specific angles that might fit the criteria. I should mention that I am a reference hound, and my current COD actor ref folder looks like this:

Also keep in mind, if you're using a ref that you need to flip, make sure you adjust accordingly. This especially applies to clothing, as certain things like pants zippers and belt buckles can be quite specific ☝️

Now that we've spent countless hours googling, it's time to start with a rough sketch:

It doesn't have to be pretty, folks, just a basic guideline of where you want the figures to be.

The next step is to define it more, and I know this looks like that 'how to draw an owl' meme, but I promise--getting from the loose sketch above to below is not that difficult.

Things to keep in mind are--don't go too in-depth with the details, because things are still subject to change at this point. In terms of making a suitable anatomically-correct sketch, I would suggest lots of studying. This doesn't even have to be things like figure drawing, I genuinely look at people around me for inspiration all the time. Familiarize yourself with the human form, and things like weight, proportions, posing will seem a little more feasible.

It's also important at this stage to consider your composition. Remember to flip the canvas frequently to make sure you're not leaning to one side too often. I'm sure something can be said for the spiral fibonacci stuff, which I don't really try to do on purpose, but I think keeping things like symmetry and balance in mind is a good start ✌️

Next step is just blocking in the figures. Standard. No fuss 👍

Now onto the background!

It's frankly hilarious how many people thought I was *hand-drawing* these maps and stuff 😂😂 I cannot even begin to comprehend how insanely difficult that would be. So yeah, we're just taking the lazy copy and paste way out 🤙

I almost always prepare my backgrounds first, and this is mostly to get a general color scheme off the bat. For collage work, it's really just a matter of trial and error, sticking this here, slapping this there, etc. I like to futz around with different overlay options until I've found a nice arrangement. Advice for this is just--go nuts 🤷‍♀️

Next, I add a few color adjustments. I tend to make at least 2 colors pop in an art piece, and low and behold, they usually tend to be red and blue ❤️💙There's something about warm/cool vibes, idk man..

Now we move on to coloring the figures. This is just a basic block and fill, not really defining any of the details yet.

Next, we add some cursory values. Sloppy airbrush works fine, it'll look better soon I promise 🙏

And now--rendering!

I know a lot of beginner artists are intimidated by rendering, and I can totally understand why. It's just one of those things you have to commit to 💪

I've decided to show a brief process of rendering our dear Johnny's face here:

Starting off, I usually rely on the trusty airbrush just to get some color values going. Note--I've kept my sketch layer on top, but feel free to turn it on and off as you work, so as to not be too bound to the sketch. For now, it's just a guideline.

This next stage may look like a huge jump, but it's really just adding more to the foundation. I try to think of it like putting on make-up in a way~ Adding contours, accentuating highlights. This is also where I start adding in more saturation, especially around areas such as ears, nose and lips. Still a bit fuzzy at this point, but that's why we keep adding to it 💪

A boy has appeared! See--now I've removed most of the line layer, and it holds up on its own. I'll admit that in order to achieve this realistic style, you'll need lots and lots of practice and skill, which shouldn't be discouraging! Just motivate yourself with the prospect of getting to look at pretty men for countless hours 🙆‍♀️

I'll probably do a more in-depth explanation about rendering at some point, but let's keep this rolling~

Moving forward is just a process of adding to the figures bit by bit. I do lean towards filling in each section from top to bottom, but you can feel free to pop around to certain parts that appeal to you more. I almost always do the faces first though, because if they end up sucking, I feel less guilty about scrapping it 😂 But no--I think he's pretty enough to proceed 😚

They're coming together now 🙆‍♀️ Another helpful tip--make sure you reuse color. By that, I mean--try to incorporate various colors throughout your piece, using the eyedropper tool to keep a consistent palette. I try to put in bits of red and blue where I can

Here they are fully rendered! Notice I've made a few subtle changes from the sketch, like adjusting the belt buckles because I made a mistake 😬 Hence why you shouldn't put too much stock in your initial sketch~

The next step is more of a stylistic choice, but I usually go over everything with an outline, typically in a bright color like green. Occasionally, I can just use my initial line layer, but for this, I've made a brand new, cleaner line 👍

And the final step is adjusting the color and adding some text:

Tada!! It's done!

All in all, this took me the better part of a week, but I have a lot of free time, so yeah ✌️

I hope you appreciated that little walkthrough~ I know people have been asking me how I do my art, but the truth is--I usually have no clue how to explain myself 😅 So have this half-assed tutorial~

As a bonus, here is a cute (cursed) image of Johnny without his mustache:

A baby, a literal infant child !!! who put this wee bairn on the front lines ??! 😭

Anyway! peace out ✌️

[mooomuzan]

— drinks or coffee? ; jjk men & bllk men ; first date hc

rooftop dinner ( gojo & kaiser )

they would take you to the fanciest rooftop dinner imaginable, the kind where the menu doesn't even have prices. "Don't worry, babe, it's all on me," they'd say with a grin, ordering the most expensive champagne just to impress you.

spending half the night teasing you, leaning in too close and smirking every time you get flustered. But when the conversation deepens, he surprises you with his insight and how intently he listens to you, even leaning forward slightly as if hanging onto your every word.

as the evening ends, they make sure to call a car for you, but not before gently brushing a strand of hair behind your ear and murmuring, "I had fun tonight. Let's do this again."

tucked-away coffee shop ( megumi & rin )

would take you somewhere quiet, like a late-night park stroll or a hidden coffee shop, both avoiding loud crowds like the plague. Trying to act cool and uninterested but side-eyeing you the entire time, making sure you're enjoying yourself.

awkward at first, hands shoved deep into their pockets as they avoid meeting your gaze, still noticing the little things about you, like how your eyes light up at certain pastries or the careful decoration or how you instinctively fix your hair when you're nervous.

by the end of the date, they'd walk you home in silence, the cool air filled with unspoken tension. When you thank them, they just nod, but the slight redness on their ears would give them away.

arcade ( yuji & isagi )

they'd love the idea of an arcade date, practically bouncing with excitement as they lead you inside. "Let's try everything!" they say, grabbing your hand and dragging you to the nearest game. While Isagi would be a mix of competitive and adorably nervous, especially when you beat him at a few games, Yuji would be hilariously bad at most of the games but doesn't care, laughing along with you and celebrating every small win like it's the greatest thing ever.

they insist on winning you a prize from the claw machine, muttering, "Okay, one more try," about ten times before finally handing you the plushie with a triumphant grin.

by end of the date, their cheeks would be flushed from laughing so much, and as they walk you home, they keep glancing at you like they can't believe you're real.

netflix and chill ( toji & nagi )

now there would be a shift in dynamics here! while Nagi would be too lazy for anything fancy outside, inviting you to his place to chill and play video games, Toji would just enjoy the casualty of staying in, wine and takeout.

of course, Nagi would be surprisingly good at making you laugh with his dry, offhanded comments about the game, and he doesn't even complain when you beat him. Toji, on the other hand, would be casual and teasing, but there's a warmth to the way he makes sure you're comfortable, throwing a blanket over you when you get cold without saying a word.

as the date winds down, they'd lean back on the couch, watching you with a small smile and muttering, "You're not half bad, y'know." For them, that's practically a confession. (bonus points for Nagi being casually touchy but never crossing boundaries.)

art museum ( nanami & sae )

for them, a quiet art museum date is ideal. They'd walk beside you in contemplative silence. When you linger too long at a particularly confusing abstract piece, they'd raise an eyebrow, saying "I suppose art is subjective," with a small smirk, letting you enjoy it without judgment.

their answers to questions about the art are minimal and to the point, like "It's fine" or "The composition's balanced." You find it frustrating but charming in a way.

before you leave, Sae'd hand you a small print of your favorite piece of art, his usual nonchalant attitude masking the thoughtfulness behind the gesture. "I notice things," he says with a shrug, but the subtle warmth in his eyes betrays him, while Nanami would let you browse the gift shop but insists on paying for whatever you choose, slipping the cashier the money before you can protest. When you thank him, he responds, "It's nothing," but you can see the soft smile hiding behind his usually calm exterior.

[eaudera]

eaudera's detailed tutorial for skin rendering

okay loves i've put together a tutorial in text form detailing my step by step process of shading darker skin + the brushes and techniques I use and why I use them. you will be following along as we shade a piece together, you can find the lineart to the piece here. *turn off your true tone and night shift displays for the most objective viewing.

i wrote a lot on the preview pictures, if you find spelling errors (which you def will) or are unable to read my handwriting, you'll find the typed out version of the writing in the alt text feature.

disclaimer: i'm not an art professor nor am i academically/classically trained in art. a lot of the verbiage and techniques i'm using to teach you all here are from my current self taught and observed understanding of art, light, and anatomy

support me: kofi / ig / twt / commissions

firstly, here are my two staple brushes. you can find the second brush here, i modified it by making it larger.

the lineart brush is very good for easy sketching and simultaneously cleaning up that sketch to produce the final lineart you'll be using in your piece. the diffusion from the erased parts/the diffusion created by lowering the pressure of your pen creates a light graphite effect which i enjoy! give it a shot.

you'll notice quickly that there are lighter strokes throughout this lineart, these are simply acting as rendering guides for me in order to remember certain placements. i erase/draw over these lines a lot.

i initially learned to shade skin on a completely grey background with very slight orange undertones, and for a while this was very helpful in providing the most objective view of the base colors you're using (objective as in free of being effected by colors of different values). as you might know, using a white background for dark skin will seemingly darken the value and dim the vibrancy of your base colors, and using a black background will do the opposite. if you're using a darker skin tone, you want your canvas shade to be of a value that is proportional to your skin tone to avoid the same problems created by colors with too light or dark of a value. now if you're using a screened device to draw, you have the extra burden of screen reflections/wavering color output on different screens, so you're never really sure if the exact color you're using will be consistent across the board. priming your canvas with neutral colors will help with that. whereas priming with more vibrant colors will slightly change the undertone of your skintone (especially if you're using a low opacity brush), but it makes for a funner canvas and more creativity with your color palette imo. if you're a beginner i recommend you stay below the wavy line to avoid too light of a canvas shade.

for these same reasons i avoid keeping my lineart jet black. when you lay down the base colors under a black lineart it can look very unfavorable.

here are some skin tone variants that i tend to use the most, peep how i never wander off too far to the left of the spectrum where the reds are. i definitely favor red-oranges as compared to green-oranges for my skin tones, however, because i stay primarily on the left side of the color spectrum for my rendering, red can quickly become too much too fast. so i make sure to use a skin tone that can work very well with green-orange shadows. for this specific piece i will use the third shade (#2d1606).

heres where the gouache brush comes in handy. i use it very loosely to "prime" the canvas almost. if you've ever done oil painting you'll realize very few artists draw directly onto a completely white canvas, though i've already primed my canvas essentially by changing the background color, i loosely shade over it with the skin tone color using the gouache brush. i find this gives me a better grasp on the composition of the piece due to increased harmony between the canvas and the skin color. it also looks really cool to me and resembles a real canvas almost.

as stated before, priming your canvas with neutral colors (grey) can help give you a more consistent view of your base colors, when you get the hang of understanding the colors you most often use (i.e, how they interact with other colors), you can start using more vibrant and fun colors to color your canvas with! the gouache brush changes opacity depending on the pressure exerted by the pen, if you zoom in you'll notice patchy areas where the canvas color bleeds through the layer more prominently than it does in other areas. for some people this might throw off the consistency of the shadows, but you should be fine as long as you're using a consistently opaque brush (which we will be doing)

i know i recommended beginners use a grey canvas like i did, but since this tutorial is using my techniques i figured i'd also teach you guys how to use variantly opaque brushes to your advantage. we will be drawing on the pink canvas from here on out.

a reference is so helpful, i still rely on references to guide my shadows/lights. i'm past the point of relying on references for exact coordinates for rendering or lineart, but they are still incredibly helpful. in most references of darker skintones you come across, color dropping directly from the picture will give you very grey colors! we want to prioritize vibrancy in this case, so attempt to formulate your own colors or colordrop and increase the vibrancy :)! keep in mind i'm now using the lineart brush to shade. the diffuse/soft corners of this brush allows fewer pixels to be scattered wherever you lessen the pressure, this is perfect for color dropping medium colors to blend two colors together. you'll see how i blend colors later on.

as mentioned previously, red can become too much too fast- so i avoid monochrome rendering as much as possible by using shadows of different undertones. my most frequent combination is using a red-orange skin tone and then using a green-orange shadow.

the value spectrum will be your best friend in mixing values and undertones, i use it all the time to formulate the best less saturated darker shadow that is proportional (not too dark, not too grey) to my skintone value. if the shadow is too green simply increase the magenta, if you're looking for a "reflective" shadow, increase the blue.

when i begin shading, i always slide the curser to a truer orange color on the spectrum and increase the saturation (slide towards the right) while i decrease the brightness (slide down). heres how it looks when i'm jumping between shadows and highlights while trying to keep my colors proportional (but not identical) to whats happening in the reference ^. i most often times will rely on the value tool, however.

you will notice that a lot of darker skin tones have patches of orange vibrancy, these areas are most common on the nose and cheeks. this is only a detail to pay attention to if you're going for more of a realism rendering style :)

now onto how i prefer to bridge/blend colors together by utilizing the blend tool.

i do not like simply blurring colors in order to blend colors together, it can lead to overblending which can make your portrait look heavily gaussian blurred (think 2010 deviantart art... yea that). the brilliant thing about procreate is you can utilize brushes really efficiently, which include changing the brushes you use for blending. so in reality, artists who use the blending tool on its own can still have portraits that don't look it! there also exists plenty of brushes that have properties allowing it to blend into its surrounding colors are you draw. but in my case, the above photo is 99% of the times how i will bridge two colors together. doing this allows me to keep pretty consistent brushstrokes across the whole portrait, which i enjoy. it also gives me better control of the shapes i use in my rendering, an aspect that is pretty easy to lose when you're using the blending tool directly and solely.

in case the blending process is a bit hard too see, heres that same process recreated with different more visible colors:

now once you've placed your shadows where they generally tend to be (according to the reference photo), let's make those shapes a bit more specific and pick up on smaller details to make your rendering look more complete.

your base colors will never be as dark or as light as you need them to be when you begin rendering, making sure you have a decent contrast between your lightsource highlights and the shadows is key to capturing the essence of a light being cast on your character. it's much easier to keep building upon your shadows before rendering the highlights, i laid down the highlights only to create a guide/help me map my shadows better. do not darken the entirety of the areas affected by shadow, you'll find that shadows are rarely ever the same value, it's a gradual process affected by things like position, height, etc. so make sure the darkest of your shadow colors are preserved only in areas where the shadows are the or should be the darkest.

you'll notice i labeled some areas as "detail", adding very specific shadow placements is a detail. in the reference, the model has a pretty prominent brow bone, creating a shadow over where his eyelid creases just above his lash line, paying attention to feature details like this help enhance the rendering and its realism.

now that i've mapped my shadows i'm going to move onto to rendering my highlights and the region of the face where the lightsource is most prominent.

i described shadows as a gradual process earlier, this is because of the lightsource. light tends to spread when its further from the affected surface, creating a larger area affected by the light. of course, this varies depending on how intense and how close/far the light source is. in this case, the light is being casted above him further to the other side of his face, but again, remember that the face is not 2d and more prominent areas are affected more by light. it's due to this that there still exists a, albeit very minimal, shadow beneath his cheekbone. i exaggerate the shadow here for stylistic purposes, but it also helps in keeping me uphold that contrast between the highlight and shadow once again. so i refrain from blending the light into this area like i did in other areas.

midtones are the areas most unaffected by the light source, they're neither shadows nor highlights. and because light spreads, it is brighter in certain areas and darker in others. it is most easiest to blend the darker ends of the highights into the midtones of your portrait. you can emulate this by once again using your blend tool. blend the outer areas of the light and colordrop this color and use it as the darker light more proportional to the midtones. note that before i add even lighter shades to the areas where light is most concentrated, i blend what highlight placements i currently have there.

we're going to switch gears now and focus on the reflective shadow occurring on the darker half of his face.

this shadow is a reflection from the lighter background the model is up against, the light being casted above him is allowing for some bounce back from his surroundings, leading to very faint light visible in areas primarily affected by shadows. hence why i'm referring to these colors as "reflective shadows".

in this case, the reflective shadows are blue, or appear to our eyes as blue. on darker skin, "true" blues (blue-purple) are not often times present. what is present rather, is a very grey tone with cool undertones/a grey tone on the blue side of the spectrum, which creates a blue that is much more proportional to the value of the skintone than a true blue. in this case i used a deeper grey on the pink color spectrum, which is more purple. this was intentional, and was done in order to create some sort of color harmony between the contrasted deep oranges im using for the bordering shadows and the blue-grey i'm attempting to emulate.

while i utilize this blue-grey, out've a purely stylistic choice, i still introduce true blues to my rendering. in fact i love using blue/purple reflective shadows in my art, it creates a stunning and colorful render. in this case, i used the blue-grey as a stepping stool to introduce that trueer blue more naturally. you'll see this happening in the second picture above, where i used a slightly more vibrant and slightly more brighter blue, and used it on areas where this reflection was more prominent (and therefore brighter).

you'll notice how the shadows that border on these reflective colors are less saturated and darker than the shadows on his chin. introduce a darker and less saturated (more green) shadow to that area on his cheek and the darkest shadow of this photo, the sunken area near his nose bridge and inner eye corner. i emphasize this line in the lineart so you can follow this shadow more accurately:

this is also a detail in my opinion and can make your portrait more realistic if you include.

we're going to pivot to his neck area before continuing. you'll find the area of his neck with the most light is also the least vibrant, i laid down a grey base color to emphasize this detail in the portrait. afterwards i added key details. i wanted to stay at least somewhat true to the color dynamics occurring in the reference hence why i used the grey, but i'm not a very big fan of using blatant grey directly on the skin, so i made it more blue.

moving forward, the outer eye and the nose can be some of the most "detail focused" areas of the face when it comes to rendering. due to their more "bulbous" anatomy, light tends to curve around them in more complex ways than the flatter parameters of the face.

when it comes to the many creases that surround the eye, the skin folding over itself creates a very thin shadow from between the folds. the key to rendering this crease is to concentrate the blending to a very small scale, do not overblend the area because the hill created by the crease very easily captures light, creating an area where the shadow and highlight meet in very close proximity. slight blending is needed for this area, you can deepen the shadows in both horizontal corners of the eye for more accuracy. the midsection of the total eye area (eyeball and socket) tends to capture the most light, remember this is due to how bulbous rounder shapes tend to capture light from whichever direction its coming from.

this is of course the case for the nose as well. highlights are typically placed as a dot on the outermost part of the nose by artists, but highlights also spread on either side of the tip of the nose. the nose tends to collect a lot of oil, creating a sort of sheen on the upper parts of the nostril. when rendering a portrait where the position of the head is more cast to the side, the highlight of the nose changes from the bulb of the nose, to the upper nostril. in this case, the highlight spreads, causing a "half tone", or the remnants of the light on the bulb of the nose. this is the easiest place to blend highlights and shadows together. now for the shadow detailing on the nose, i'm actually drawing on top of the lineart on a separate layer. which i'll go into detail about in the next part. you want to focus the shadow on where your lineart is, the outermost part of the nose.

now were going to really detail your portrait by introducing a new layer, the detail layer! this isn't technically apart of the skin rendering, so i'm gonna keep it very brief. this is the layer you're going to render the lips, eyeballs, and eyebrows. more specifically, the purpose of this layer is to reduce the reliance on lineart. in terms of order, it goes above the lineart layer. we're going to soften and even erase the lineart in certain aspects. i use bolder/thicker lines when creating my lineart, but this can become a nuisance/hinderance when rendering.

starting out with the lips:

people w brown skin tend to have two toned lips, with the top lip resembling the same skin tone as the face and the bottom lip being redder/pinker and lighter than the upper lip. in my case, i prefer a more vibrant red for the bottom lip. once i lay down these base colors, i begin shading on the second layer.

i personally enjoy the look of a poutier lip shape, this includes emphasizing the middles of the lips as opposed to the ends. i've highlighted the shapes that this lip shape often entails. the small circles on the corner of the lip line are just pockets that occur when the mouth is closed and become emphasized by the fat around the mouth. the parameters of the lip lines do not often meet these round corners, theres often times a "double lip line", that exists around these areas. i love including that in the art, its very easy to emphasize by simply drawing a highlight from the corner of the lips along the curvature of the bottom lip towards the middle.

shadow mapping on the lips tend to go: highlight, shadow, highlight, shadow. the top lip going inward creates a highlight on the most outward part: the top of the lip. and the bottom lip curving outward thus creates a shadow on the bottom of the lip.

when it comes to the eyeball, i don't draw the white parts as solid white, nor do i make them too bright most of the time. they're most often times an orange grey, i also dont spread this color out if you can notice the uncolored white part of the eye. i do this intentionally to keep some of the shadows that are naturally present on the eye. very specifically right where the upper eyelid sits on the eyeball, it tends to create a small shadow that follows the curvature of the eye. this shadow is crucial, if you can see the first and second picture do not have this shadow, making the iris look more exposed and the eye appears to be held wider.

when it comes to the iris, i do very little. if i'm drawing a dark colored eye i will cover the entire iris brown, before darkening it with an almost black color. i leave the brown sides of the iris exposed to aid in bridging the values between the whiter parts of the eye and the very dark iris. this blended ring also appears on all eyes in real life. lastly, dark eyes tend to show light reflections much easier than lighter eyes. these reflections can be any color in art, in this case i kept it blue-green. i bend these reflections around where the pupil would most likely be depending on the drawing.

next, the eyebrow. i find it tedious to draw individual eyebrow strands when it comes to rendering, i actually prefer to blend the parameters of the eyebrows to create cohesiveness. sparse and fine eyebrow hairs are penetrated by light and shadows more than what you'd find on the scalp. it's harder to see light on someones scalp due to the bulk of hair crowding the scalp, whereas as its easier to see such light on the eyebrow. to introduce this concept to my art, i will initially draw the entire shape of the brow. then when rendering, i erase the parameters, leaving the darkest part of the brow. then i blend. the lower brow bone will be blended the least, whereas the area of the eyebrow connected to the T zone will be the most blended thanks to the shadow following the nose bridge. the far end of the brow by the hairline tends to be the lightest given the light source.

and lastly, i loosely draw a white border around the portrait for stylistic purposes. then i combine the layers (group together your layers, then duplicate and compress the duplicate group so that you still retain your individual layers) to edit. i typically add noise and play with the curve setting. and heres the finished image:

i hope you enjoyed!!

[blackkatdraws2]

3rd Batch: The Citizens!

[Blank Scripts AU (non-canonical)]

There exists a more peaceful world outside the Parable. Where all the common folks go about their lives.

A group of workers enters the welcoming bakeshop of Red Ribbon operated by a sweet, hardworking family. They take a quick visit together for bread and cake to munch, simple warm food for lunch.

BATCH LIST:

- [1st Batch: The Inhabitants] - [2nd Batch: The Janitors] - [3rd Batch: The Citizens] - [4th Batch: The Guardians]

↓ [Thoughts and Credits below] ↓

-----------⟡

The second illustration is complete! More coming soon!

Slowly fighting art block!! Thankfully it only lasted for 2 and a half weeks. I don't know what I would have done if it extended for a month or more, haha.

These are the citizens! After looking at all these characters, the info given to me shared the same features of these characters existing as normal people or outside of the Parable!!

I didn't put any of my own characters in this illustration. I was planning to but I wasn't capable enough to think of a more clever composition to show all 9 characters [the extra 1 being my own.] So only 8 characters for this one.

Lex by @corelex

Ah yes, the original. Lex was the first to draw about her self-insert, Sies, into the Blank Scripts AU. This character and artist has done a lot in influencing me to interact with other artists with OCs and self-inserts who also wanted to join in on Blank Scripts! Thank you, Lex. I appreciate you and Sies lots and lots. (❁´◡`❁)

Melanie by @insomniphic

OUR PAPARAZZI GIRL!! She loves taking secret pictures of drama and spice in the Narrator's [Black's] company and talks a lot about them too! I absolutely love her teehee

Steve by @xandyprojects

Here comes the chef! The idea of a cook who works for the Parable and feeding both staff and monsters is such a cute idea hehehw. He looks a bit intimidating in appearance but he's a sweetheart when he just wants to feed someone. [Just don't waste food please]

Xavier by @4thwallbreakerdraws

The man, the guy, the legend himself! He's an absolute asshole and I LOVE him. Despite his superficial exterior, he's a very complex and deep character with all his interesting lore! He's been an absolute delight to have around.

Rei by @mei-meidraws

He's a sweetheart and he deserves the world awuhaw I hope he gets to be as creatively free as much as he wants to be. He's just a swell guy in general.

Anala by @hyydrochloricacidd

I kept my promise! Anala is in this illustration!! I couldn't find a scenario to draw both of them last time so I took this opportunity to draw her in this one instead. Also, it just fits the lore of Anala trying to find her sister but she's still in the outside world, you know?

Joshua and lola Edna by @meiitenn

Guh... Joshua.. Our little cringe man, our conspiracy theorist, our meow meow... Oh no, I hope nothing bad happens to him ahahahaw I hope nothing bad happens to him. Right, Mei?

[clemelntine]

A lot of the cute dates from ep 11 were just re-dos of their first meetings/moments from before they started dating

As Kant and Bison talk about their wedding night (it's more just them mentioning it), the red lights around them and central composition of the shot mirror the first night they spend together at the hotel. Its an interesting reference to where they started as they dream of where they are going.

Fadel and Style's little water fight after cleaning each other is also a nice contrast with the market scene where Fadel is trying to chase Style away and embarrass him by making him wet. It shows how Fadel now no longer finds Style annoying but instead likes his teasing and is comfortable enough to tease him back and laugh about it together. As well as that, this time, they both end up wet; they are on equal ground.

Fadel and Style go to the loss support group room again where, this time, Style is there to actually listen to Fadel and give him support, instead of teasing him and making fun of his situation. They change this room into a place of comfort and replace the bad memories Fadel might have of it.

Fadel and Style go from one of their first meetings where Fadel takes of his heart burger pin in an angry and almost possessive manner, to what must feel like it could be one of their last meetings where Fadel puts the pin on Styles shirt this time with love and showing possession not of the pin but of Style; who he loves so much he trusts him with the things he holds dear.

There was also Style and Fadel returning to Styles garage (with Fadels Jeep in it), them returning back to the burgershop, Bison and Kant going back to the tattoo studio to finally give Bison a tattoo like he asked. But I felt like those were too obvious, as well as being locations that were used a lot in the rest of the show. Them being there isn't a specialty that much anymore, yknow.

There is probably more, but these specifically really stood out to me.

[themostdearofspaghettis]

Hiya! Based on your tags you have listened to A Lot of audio drama and I'm always looking for some expertise to help with my decisions making process sooo- What's your Top 5? The MUST listen to list iyo? (and a bit of why if you're so inclined)

Boy I sure do listen to A Lot of audio drama. Here’s my top five!! (Ranked in overall composition terms, not necessarily on How Much I Love the Characters or Plot— let me know if you want plot description???? I’m mostly ranking from an overall level rn).

1. The Silt Verses. 5/5 stars. Beautifully written, excellently executed. The characters and plots are all immersive and all realistic. Sound design on point (especially later). It’s the only podcast that has a 5/5 rating for me. I’m a huge fan of both character building and lore, and these feature heavily in this story. Jon and Muna produce wonderful work, and I sincerely think that whatever their next project looks like, though it will be different from TSV and their previous project I am in Eskew, it will be no less thoughtful or well-executed.

2. Red Valley. 4.5/5 stars. Speaking of character-centric work, this podcast is hugely character focused. Atmospheric, dealing with many of the ethical qualms The Silt Verses does in a wildly different way. More humorous than horror, no less bleak at times.

3. Old Gods of Appalachia. 4.5/5 stars. Huge fan of the deep work Steve and Cam do here on creating a rich narrative that has a cavern of family history and lore. I really enjoy the folklore of this area, and I really enjoy the anthology aspect of this show that slowly weaves together to create a delicate web as the podcast goes on.

4. Midnight Burger. 4.5/5 stars. Funny, humorous on purpose, which makes it a standout on this list because most of them are more serious horror centric ones. Character focused, but also so so clever, Joe creates just a caring environment for his fans and for the characters. It celebrates the weird, celebrates the combination of fiction and physics and comedy and philosophy. Hopeful, human, lovely.

5. The only other 4.5s on my list that I have to make a combo of, I’m sorry I’m not sticking to the technical limit of five!

-Malevolent: Produced, written, and acted by one man, contains some of my favorite tropes and makes Lovecraft fun for me.

-The Magnus Archives (not Protocol): You can’t avoid TMA on tumblr audio drama spaces, so I’m sure its presence is unsurprising. At the time I listened, it was my first exposure to anthology work in an audio drama medium. If I listened to it now, who knows! But I had to stay true to my rankings.

-Ghost Wax: Hugely original concept written by passionate and creative creators. Anthology once again, with more complex lore and thoughtful composition.

-SCP: Find Us Alive: I think the character work draws me most strongly to this show.

Honorable mentions: Ethics Town and Camlann.

[fandomnerd9602]

Square Dance: Ladies Chain

Part Two of Square Dance Series

Country!Wanda x Male Reader

You didn’t expect to fall in love so fast on a week long trip, much less fall in love with your best friend’s beautiful southern accented, country girl of a sister. The first night at the homestead was a little awkward to say the least.

Well at least at first. Piet couldn’t really look at you or Wanda that night. He just mumbled something about of all the chances…his best friend dancing with his sister, and then he went into his room. Wanda couldn’t help but giggle a little as you and her made your way to your respective rooms.

Wanda stopped in the doorframe of the master bedroom, her eyes full of mischief and adoration.

“You really are quite a dancer, city boy.” She made sure her accent leaked thru on every syllable. You could already feel your knees getting weak.

“You’re not so bad yourself. Good night.” You say gently.

“Night (Y/N). It was lovely meetin ya” and with that she walked in and closed the door. A small smile made its way across your face and you went into your own room.

You came downstairs the next day to find Piet waiting at the kitchen table, nursing a cup of coffee. "Hey" he offers you a slight smile, "if you're wondering where your little songbird is, she's out with the horses"

"Look Piet" you try to articulate, "I-I can find other lodging. I don't wanna-"

Piet cuts you off with a wave of his hand, "My sis is a big girl now. She can make her own choices...if she was gonna end up with someone I knew, I'd rather it be you." He offers you a toast of his coffee cup and a friendly wink, "you're one of the good ones"

"Thanks" he give him a little smile before grabbing your own cup of coffee.

You went out to the homestead stable and found Wanda strumming on her guitar. Her brownish-red horse next to her, it's tail swishing as if in line with the melody on the guitar.

(Crazier - Taylor Swift)

You lift my feet off the ground You spin me around You make me crazier, crazier Feels like I'm falling and I I'm lost in your eyes You make me crazier, crazier, crazier

You found yourself lost in the little melody as she continued strumming. Her eyes were shut tight, lost in the composition. It made her look all the more heavenly in your eyes. She was driven by a passion for her music, her songs.

I watched from a distance as you Made life your own Every sky was your own kind of blue And I wanted to know how that would feel And you made it so real You showed me something that I couldn't see You opened my eyes and you made me believe

You lift my feet off the ground You spin me around You make me crazier, crazier Feels like I'm falling and I I'm lost in your eyes You make me crazier, crazier, crazier, oh-oh

She brought her little jam session to an end and it was only then that she realized you were there with her.

"Sorry" she apologized, "pardon my enthusiasm"

"I love your enthusiasm" you sit down next to her. "I wish I was brave enough to do the things you do."

"Aw shoot" she giggled, trying to hide her face from you, "you're gonna make me blush"

"Why haven't you tried going to like...Nashville?"

She lets out a long, sorrowful breath, "I did. They didn't want me there so I-I came back. Sometimes the big leagues don't like small town country girls"

"But you shouldn't give up on it. You're great" you tried to build her up, "If one door closes, you find a window to jump thru"

"Now you're sounding like Piet after Crystal's Pa found him in her room again" she laughs, her infectious laugh caused you to join her for a laugh too.

Wanda rises from her spot, patting the hay and dirt off her perfectly formed butt, "You looking for a ride, city boy?"

"I-I'm sorry?"

"On a horse" she lets out another little laugh, "come on. Let's take a ride together"

The better part of the afternoon was spent riding horses with Wanda. Piet joined you an hour or so later.

The next two days were spent settling into a nice little groove with the Maximoffs. Piet showed you the ropes of living on the homestead while Wanda showed you small town comforts and how to enjoy them. She always took your hand and led you somewhere. Something about small town life just appealed to you. It was far away from the hustle and bustle, it allowed you to slow down and appreciate life for what it could be.

And then came Thursday night. Wanda put down a flier for Ladies Chain Night at the watering hole. "It's ladies choice night and I choose you to come with me" she flashed you a smile.

"You better go" Piet tells you, "Crystal's dragging me to the same night and I need someone to talk to"

"Oh hush you" Wanda exclaimed, lightly smacking her brother.

Wanda couldn't be more excited as she led you into the watering hole. Her band, Good Witch Scarlett was playing softly. You could see her pal Nattie give her a little wink as Wanda led you to the dance floor.

"Alright, this one's an old favorite of a friend of ours" Nattie said, "we hope you like it too."

(You're the Only One - Dolly Parton)

I found out the hard way And I'm never gonna break your heart I know, too late And I don't wanna break your heart Guess I had to go away just to find What I left behind

You're the only one, you're the only one Take me back to where we started from And let's make it now like we made it then This old heart ain't gonna break your heart again

Wanda and you danced to the music. Her eyes, those doe-like orbs that you could never get tired of, just stared into yours. She playfully took your hat and dipped it a little over your eyes.

"You keep looking at me like that and I know I'm gonna be a goner," she warned you with a little chuckle.

"Too late for me" you say back with a chuckle. She simple leaned against your chest. She sighed, just lost in the beat of the song and the lulling sound of your heartbeat.

Nights I lay in bed And your covers wouldn't warm my feet And mornin' found me bitter or a bit too sweet Oh, baby, I had to go away just to run back and say

You're the only one, you're the only one Take me back to where we started from Can we make it now like we made it then? This old heart ain't gonna break your heart again

She lifted her head and looked into your eyes again. "I lied" she whispered.

"Huh?"

"I'm already a goner too, city boy" she looked to your lips. "kiss me"

"yes ma'am" you smiled before taking her chin gently with your free hand and leaned in to kiss her. Maybe there was something in the air, but the moment your lips touched hers, you swear that there was electricity between the two of you.

"Aw shoot" she giggled, "I ain't never letting you go now"

"Your brother's gonna have to lasso me to keep me apart from you" you answered back with a chuckle.

"My lasso's out in the truck" Piet cut in before his gal immediately pulled him away from you and Wanda.

Something felt so right about this moment with Wanda. But yet the truth hit you like a ton of bricks. You only had three days left on your vacation with the Maximoffs.

To Be Continued...

Tags: @lifespectator @ma1egamer @jacenradio7 @aloneodi @holiday-house-of-m @deafeningsharkslimeempath @konstantin609 @family-house-of-m @kingofthelizardpeople @pinklawyerwinnerzonk @multi-fandom-enjoyer @supercorpdanbeau @scarletquake-n7 @revanshand @russianredassassin @sapphic-s1mp

[pit-and-the-pen]

At Least I Keep His Eyes in My Life

Day 2 of @erisweekofficial: Childhood/legacy - You and Eris weren’t meant to be, but the red hair definitely doesn’t come from your family…..

(Also, I’m picturing Asher around like 4-5 years old, i know very little about kids this age so sorry if it seems all over the place)

Warnings: Slightly sexual content, emotional infidelity, cheating, childbirth

WC: 5.7k

divider by the lovely @tsunami-of-tears (find the post here)

You were giggling like you were a teenager again. Sneaking out in the dead of night, cloak pulled tight against your head to block out the sparse light from the lanterns on the street. The temple was within your sight now and your heart was beating into your throat. You could very well get killed for what you were about to do but it would be worth it. 

The door was slightly opened, leaving you the opportunity to slip in without making a sound. The tiny light seeping through a door in the back led you to where you needed to go. 

The room was small, the fire keeping out the chill of the winter night. Those amber eyes filled with a softness reserved only for you as you walked into the room. Your smile was so wide that it made your jaw hurt, but nothing could wipe it from your face. Not when you finally dropped your cloak and saw the tears well in Eris’ eyes. The emerald dress you had worn on your first date all those years ago had you blushing as you remembered how it felt for his lips to be on yours for the first time.

You had never been happier in all your life than when the priestess joined your hands with that red ribbon. When you felt the pattern burn into your finger, right where your ring would sit once Eris was High Lord. Promises of your life together flowed from your lips like honey wine. Sweet and warm in the small space. Eris took your face between his hands like you were the most delicate flower in the world, his lips tasting like the tart red wine you two shared with each other. When you looked into his eyes, you saw your whole life. Your past together, your present joy, and all the love the future promised to bring you. 

That night was the best of your life. Eris whispering every promise on your skin as you too celebrated in your own way. Wrapped in each other until it was impossible to tell where you ended and he started. But the morning came too fast. The sun wiping away the joy as you realized you would have to go back to court and pretend that you didn’t know every piece of Eris’ soul. The scent shield hiding all evidence that you were Eris’ and he was yours. You parted with a long kiss that was tinged with sadness. But also the reminder that you would see him again once the sun set. The only time you were free to love him unashamedly. 

------

You should have known the mother was being far too kind to you. You should be grateful that you ever got to pretend that Eris was yours. Be grateful for that one little moment of happiness you had been granted. It was more than you ever deserved in this life. 

Eris had been walking with you through the long hallways of the Autumn court palace. Your laughter flitting through the empty space, carrying through the halls like a symphony that was all of Eris’ composition. 

But something suddenly felt very wrong. Eris had gone wholly still next to you, his joke dying on his tongue. You looked at him and could only watch in horror as you followed his eye line. He dropped your hand quickly, letting it hang limply by your side devoid of his calming warmth. It was like you could see that golden thread as it stretched across the room. Tying Eris not to you, but to some other lady of the court. Her eyes were wide as saw the same string that tied her to Eris, to your husband, at the same time he did. Your heart shattered on the floor as the female in front of you all but squealed with joy. There was not a touch of warmth coming off of Eris right now. Too frozen to go after the girl that was inevitably running to tell her friends what had just happened. You wanted to run after her, to beg her to be silent but your begging would only prompt her to tell more people. So you only stood in the wallway, watching as every thought of your future came shattering down around you. 

Your own mating bond snapped not long after. Only adding to the agony that seemed to follow your every breath. Throwing the final handful of dirt on the possibility of any future with Eris in it. You had been visiting the day court for a personal matter. Seeing an old friend's new babe. The feeling of love that the couple shared pushed you towards one of the many bars in day. 

You never assumed you would have a mate. The thought of ever loving someone the way you loved Eris, of being tied to someone like that was utterly ridiculous. 

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

Eris and you had snuck away for the second time in as many days. With his mating ceremony rapidly approaching, there was less and less time for the two of you to be together alone. He traced over the spot on your finger where your marriage ceremony mark was, the one that proved to you exactly where his heart laid.

“We should just run away. Leave all of this.” Eris muttered, eyes locked on those swirling patterns.

“He would find you and you know it.”

You didn’t have to say who. Eris’ father, while slightly disappointed about the outcome of the mating bond, was just happy it was within the nobility of Autumn. 

“No one could change how I feel about you. Mating bond or not, it will always be you. I need you to remember that.”

—————-

It had been five years since you found your mate. He was sweet. Sweeter than you could have hoped for, but it wasn’t the love match you had dreamed up when you were little. He knew you had a hard time returning his affections. Didn’t complain when you only shared a bed with him for sleep after the mating frenzy was over. A fact he didn’t hold against you. You were from autumn. Bred to be the partner of a certain would-be high lord. It had been a disappointment to everyone when Eris’ bond snapped for someone else. It was far more than a disappointment to you. Heartbreaking. Earth shattering. An utter upheaval of your entire life. Only solidified when you bonded with Sol. The mother thought that you weren’t good enough for Eris. 

——

Childbirth was one of the most painful things you had ever experienced. Sol sat through all of it with you. Sat through the screaming and you clutching his hand so tightly that you felt the bones move. You would apologize if it wasn’t taking every ounce of your focus to remember to push. 

“Just one more big one. I can see the head.” And you wanted to cry. Maybe you were crying but you found it in yourself to bear down for one last push. There was silence in the room for a heartbeat before a perfectly healthy wail pierced the air. Your head fell back on the pillow at the sound, breathing for the first time in what felt like hours. 

You heard faint whispers coming from the healers in between your legs. But you were too exhausted to truly care what they were saying. Just relieved for it to be all over, for the babe that you were now cradling in your arms. Still covered in afterbirth, you had decided that nothing in the world had ever been as beautiful as your son. Your heart warmed as you saw those amber eyes staring back at you. Amber eyes. The thought was enough to send a cold chill over your whole body. As you looked into those eyes that absolutely did not belong to you, or your mate. Your hands shook as you peeled back the blanket enough to spot the matching mahogany curls, however sparse, there was no denying the color. Your throat felt stiff, breathing became difficult. You felt Sol move to your side, feeling your flood of emotions through the bond. 

“Darling, it’s only normal to feel overwhelmed, you just-” His words cut off with a ragged breath as he saw the same thing you did. The silence filled the room as he must have been doing the same mental math you were. You felt the rush of his emotions down the bond. Shock, betrayal. And then something unexpected, acceptance. 

“He is beautiful.” Was all he said. 

“Sol-” He held up a hand to cut off the apology on your tongue. Because that’s what you should be doing. You should be groveling at his feet, begging for forgiveness. He could kill you right on the spot as well as your babe. The babe that was undeniably not his. That looked so much like the newly crowned High Lord, it burned the edge of the scar in  your heart that had only just begun to heal. How could you ever forget him now? This child was supposed to be the start of your new life. The proof that you needed to tell yourself that Sol was the one that you were supposed to end up with. This future was no longer supposed to be yours. The future that you dreamed of in that small run down temple. That was a life that had been erased from your story. 

“What should we name him?” Was all Sol said as he looked down at the child. 

“Asher.” You didn’t hesitate. Sol didn’t even blink at the autumn court name. He only nodded and placed a small kiss on your forehead. 

You were about to say something else when the babe in your arms began to fuss and you quickly pushed him into your chest, instantly soothing him as he began to nurse. This many emotions should be impossible to feel all at once. You should feel mortified. You should be ashamed but some mascostic part of you was overjoyed. You could keep some part of the love of your life with you. While you might never be able to see what Eris would be as a father, you would get to see just exactly what his son would be like. And you could only clutch your babe further to your chest as you mourned the future that the mother destined had not been you before in the same breath, you thanked the mother for her small mercies. 

———

You never thought you would be back in the Autumn court. Having moved to Day with your mate, you left without a second thought. But standing amongst the rich colors and ripe scent of your home court, you realized how much you had missed it. As you walked down the street, holding your son tight to your chest, your mate's hand in the other, your mind started to wonder. You and Eris used to run up and down these streets. There was so much light in them now. Boarded up windows now overflowing with flowers and flickering lights from fireplaces. This was nothing like the court you had fled from. Eris had changed so much in only a handful of years, just like he said he would. “I’ll make this a court something you would be proud of, something deserving of your beauty” Eris had whispered against your skin the night before it all went to hell, the night you had conceived the small child currently pulling on your hair. 

“Behave.” You said, a hint of a smile pulling at your lips as Asher giggled at you, pressing his face against your neck. The motion tugged on the edges of the thick hat that was covering his head. Sol didn’t hesitate to right it, placing a quick kiss to your cheek to cover the motion. It was chilly enough that the hat would have been necessary anyway, especially since the day court tended to be on the warmer side. 

Your bags were brought up to your room in the palace the moment you arrived, which had prompted your idea of showing Sol around the streets you had once been so familiar with. A small part of your heart ached when you saw the new shops and heard the shouts of children. Sounds that once would have caused sharp commands of keeping quiet, sounds that would have caused fear of drawing the wrong attention. If this was so unfamiliar, a part of you wondered what else had changed. Would you even recognize the high lord you were attending the party of?

The thoughts bounced around in your head, uncomfortable. You had almost thought of denying the invitation when it arrived, held it over the flames with every intention of dropping it in but it felt like the coward's option. Sol was expected to go to events such as this as part of his duties as one of the many researchers for the day court. Knowledge collectors that would frequent other courts, trading for any information to add to the sprawling libraries of the court. Your mate had told you plenty of times that he would understand if you didn’t want to come, your son was young enough that wherever you went, he would come as well. You brushed it off, but now standing in the cobblestone streets, you were kicking yourself for not accepting his offer. 

After your stroll in the city, it was time to start getting ready for dinner. Much to your surprise there was a gown already laid out on the bed. Your chest felt tight as you stared at the dark green fabric. You shook your head to hold back the tears that were threatening to ruin your makeup. The fabric felt familiar on your skin. Sol said nothing about the gown that you most certainly didn’t pack, only offered his hand out. “You look radiant.” He brought your hand up to his lips when you placed yours against his. You could only smile up at him, hoping he couldn’t feel the tremble of your fingers. 

The walk to the dining room was something that you could have done in your sleep. But, just like the city outside, the palace was so different that it had you doubting your steps. Although, it seemed your memory hadn't failed you because soon you were greeted with those carved doors that swirled like the leaves in an autumn storm.

You had pleaded with your mother to let you skip the dinner. You had heard the whisperings of how cruel the high lord and his sons were. Honestly, you were scared of meeting them. Meeting him. Your betrothed. The words felt weird in your brain. You knew very well what that would mean and it didn’t all sound appealing. Your mother was having none of your whining, forcing the laces on your corset tighter still. The air rushed out of your lungs at the harsh pull, your hand on your bedpost was the only thing that stopped you from crashing back into her. She led you, snapping at you to calm the trembling in your hands. “You do not show weakness.” was the mantra she lived by. Power hungry since her birth, you were a way to gain power and you knew that from a young age. The doors of the dining room entered before you, interrupting the patterns you were following with your eyes in an attempt to calm yourself down. It was clear you had stumbled upon an argument, the high lord's face was tenser than you had seen it previously. He was staring daggers at what you could only assume was one of his sons, if the red hair was any indication.

Your eyes followed his and you fought the shock off of your face. Saying he was handsome was an understatement. Even through his anger he was gorgeous. Curly red hair was pulled back from his face, stray pieces framing his face. The deep emerald shirt he wore made the smattering of freckles on his face almost glow in contrast. When his amber eyes turned to you, you quickly looked to the ground. Embarrassed you had been caught staring so intently. 

Your mother introduced you quickly. The high lord stood in front of you, appraising you. A hand reached out to grab a lock of your hair and every part of you went deathly still. You fought the flinch as he stepped away from you. “You’ll do. Now, I would like to introduce my son. Your future husband, Eris.” Against your will, you smiled warmly at him as the handsome male rose to his feet. He grabbed your hand and placed a light kiss to your knuckles before he guided you to your seat beside him.

——

You didn’t have to search for him. You knew you would have found him in any room, no matter the crowd. You felt your breath hitch in your throat as you were suddenly unable to look away from the high lord in front of you. It was so much harder than you had thought it would have been. Seeing him, that crown on his head. That was when a motion by his side caught your attention, brought you back to the present. His mate was beautiful, hair perfectly curled, sweeping down across her shoulders. A nasty part of you thought how washed out the maroon dress made her. It didn’t go with her light green eyes, her fair blonde hair. You pushed down the cruel thoughts and focused on the pressure of Sol’s hand on yours. Eris only gave you a beaming smile before you turned your head away from him. The only seats open were closer to his end of the table and you quickly sat yourself down. Placing your hand in Sols

Everyone in court was here. The difference of the loud room was enough to make a smile touch your face. There were even some familiar faces, children you had been raised up with. Friends that had witnessed all of the drama that unfolded. 

Dinner passed without event. Small talk became louder as more bottles of wine were shared. Sol had taken up a conversation with one of the lords that managed the farms for the autumn court healers. You did your best to join the conversation when you could add something, making a point to ignore the eyes burning a hole into the side of your head. His presence was nearly suffocating, it weighted the air, nearly choking you with the smell of him. Mercifully you made it out of dinner without having to talk to him. Sol didn’t question when you dismissed yourself the moment after dessert was served. You went to collect Asher from the room full of children, making sure his hat was still firmly seated on his head. You pulled it off when you got to your room, picking out his clothes for bed before you let him get changed. After you pulled him tight against your chest and told him one of his favorite bedtime stories and watched him drift off to sleep. 

-----

You turned around a corner, not so much running but walking fast to try to get to your hiding spot in time. Asher had demanded the two of you play hide and seek after waking up early. You were more than happy to oblige the demand, telling him to count. To his credit, he had done a great job with the first few numbers. But quickly got side tracked and you heard the loud “Ready or not” echo through the halls and had to put a hand over your mouth to stifle your laughter. 

You almost stumbled back when you crashed into a firm chest. A hand wrapped around your waist to steady you and you didn’t have to look up to know exactly who it was. You tried to step back. Tried to ignore the shot of electricity that raced through you at the touch. 

“Eris.” You politely said. You tried to step around him but he moved with you. Perfectly mirroring your movement. 

“I didn’t get to speak to you last night.” His voice was like a balm to you, even now. Your ears seemed to perk up at the sign, instantly searching for it even when he had stopped talking. 

“It didn’t feel..appropriate.” 

“Why wouldn’t it? We were friends our whole childhood. There's nothing wrong with friends catching up.” 

“Because we were..” You couldn’t form the words. 

“More than friends?” 

“Yes, Eris.” You sighed heavily. You didn’t want to be having this conversation in the middle of the palace. “Now please. I-”

He wrapped a soft hand around your arm and pulled you behind one of the pillars in the hallway. 

“Tell me you still feel it. That pull towards each other?” He whispered, his face suddenly so close to yours that you could count his freckles. 

Eris pulled you tight against him. Every inch of him pressing against you. Your heartbeat sped up despite yourself. “This is a horrible idea.” You spoke the words but made no effort to move, instead you leaned into the heat of him. Drinking in the stolen moments. His hand lightly brushed your chin and you allowed him to guide your head up, your lips were inches away from each other. Eris’ eyes were trained on your lips and every ounce of strength left your body at the hunger you saw in them. He moved slowly, giving you time to pull away. And you wish you could have, wish you could have done anything except press closer to him. When your lips connected it was like he had bathed you in his fire. It was heaven and hell all at once. You sucked down greedy lungfuls of his intoxicating scent, the clove and cinnamon smell you could recognize anywhere. His lips were soft and demanding. Tongue forcing your mouth open, stroking the inside of your mouth in a way that your hands reach for any part of him. His own hands had rested on the small of your back, clutching you to him. Neither of you moved to take the kiss further. It seemed to go on forever but it still wasn’t enough when you pulled away, panting for air. His hands only tightened on you when you tried to step away. 

“Eris-” 

“Mommy! I found you!” Both of you jumped apart.You swore you felt your heart stop. You had completely forgotten how you had ended up in the hallway in the first place, too overwhelmed with Eris’ presence. You could only stare in horror as Eris stared at the small child standing before the two of you. Eris knew you had a child, had sent you presents the weeks after to congratulate you and Sol. You forced a smile onto your face and swept your son off of his feet. 

“Of course you did, my smart boy. Come on, I’ll let you hide this time.” You pulled your son tighter to you, shifting his weight to a hip. He was almost getting too big to comfortably carry. 

“How high should I count?.” You asked, smiling down at him. 

“A thousand.” He didn’t hesitate.

“A thousand?!” You pitched your voice up, letting him know your surprise. 

“Yep. A thousand.” 

“Well then you better get to hiding, I’ll be counting forever.” 

“Will you play with us?” Asher asked, looking at Eris fully now. You struggled against the squirming child in your arms. 

“I would lo-”

“Asher. I’m sure the high lord is very busy. Far too busy to play with us.”

“But-” Your son started to protest. 

“Your mother is right. I forgot I had a meeting, but how about this, I’ll have the cooks bring up a treat to make up for my absence.” His eyes flickered to yours on the last word. “And it will allow me time to talk to your mother.”

Asher lost interest after hearing he would have a special treat, always code for something sweet. His eyes were round as saucers. 

“Thank you!” He said before he turned his focus back to you. “Did you hear that mommy, I’m going to get a treat.” 

“Well then we should start our next game now. It might take me until then to find you in this place.” 

His giggled filled the air at the idea. You placed a kiss on his cheek before you set him down on his feet. He didn’t hesitate before he ran off in the opposite direction, legs wobbling slightly at his speed. 

The silence hung heavy in the air. 

“Y/n-”

“I have to go.” You turned quickly, feeling Eris’ hand on your arm. You quickly removed it and started in the direction Asher had run off to. You couldn’t find the strength to look back and see whatever emotion was swirling in Eris’ eyes. Refused to listen to the questions that were written all over his face and went to go find your son. 

It had been easy to find him. You knew every inch of this palace like the back of your hand, and had already found all the good hide and seek spots during your years spent helping Eris look for his brothers. 

Sol was already in your room when you brought your bleary eyed son into the room. He was still taking naps during the day, despite how much he would fight against them. Shame suddenly creeped into you as you recalled the events from earlier. You were half expecting him to scream and yell at you, like Eris’ hand prints were burned into your skin and he would be able to tell. 

“Eris came by earlier.” Your heart dropped, he knew and you haven't been the one to tell him. “He was asking a lot of questions about Asher.” 

“Oh.” Was all you said as you placed your son down on his bed. 

“I told him if he wanted answers, he should talk to you. To which he said, he tried and you had all but ran away.” There was no accusation in his words. Just like normal for him. He was more kind than you ever deserved. 

You sighed as you softly closed the door to Asher's attached room. 

“I didn’t expect it to happen like that.” You knew you needed to tell him what had happened before that. “Eris and I-”

“Whatever happened, happened. I expected something.” He sighed. “How are you feeling, I know you were trying to avoid this.” 

You approached your mate, you gently placed a hand on his cheek. 

“I don’t know how you put up with me.” You felt the sting of tears prickle in the back of your teeth. “I don’t know what I expected. It’s not like he could stay locked in his room the whole time he was here. I just hoped that I could have controlled it, I was a little blind sided.”

“Whatever you choose to tell him, I’m beside you.” Sol looked so deep in your eyes it was like he could see through you. “No matter what you decide. I’m always here.” 

“I think I need to talk to him.” 

Sol only nodded. “I’ll be right here.” You placed a soft kiss on Sol’s lips. You truly didn’t deserve him. 

It wasn’t hard to find Eris. He only had a few spots he went when there was something troubling him. Just outside of the grounds of the palace, the tiny garden where you two had kissed for the first time. 

“Eris.” You started, suddenly not knowing what to say. He turned to face you and your heart lurched. He had been crying. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was soft, truly heartbroken. 

“What would it have accomplished? You have a mate, I have a mate”

“Did you know we haven’t been able to…” HIs voice trailed off before he started again. “Her sister has more kids then she knows what to do with and we just can’t. We assumed it was me.” 

You couldn’t find the words to answer, not knowing what to say. Hating the images that his words painted. Of course they would have tried. Sol and you had thought you had gotten insanely lucky. Besides the initial mating frenzy, you had never slept with him. You stayed in the same bed but when you tried to be intimate with your mate it usually led to you crying, wrapped in his arms. It hurt some selfish part of you to know that Eris didn’t seem to have the same issue. 

“y/-” His voice broke you out of your thoughts. 

“Don’t” Your voice broke, giving away the tears you were desperately fighting back. “What’s done is done. Don’t start this now.”

“I would have made you my High Lady. Did you ever question why she wasn't?”

“I didn’t think about you one way or another.” A lie. A lie that even though Eris could see right through, cut deep nonetheless.

“Not even when you look at our child?”

“My child, Eris, is none of your concern.” 

He flinched then, flinched like you had slapped him. 

“Does he know?” He wasn’t asking about your mate. 

“Of course not. And as long as I’m alive, he never will.” 

“No one has ever questioned?”

“No.”

“What happens when he starts showing the signs? The first son of a high lord will start showing powers sooner or later. Tell me, darling, has he started burning the curtains yet? Setting his clothes on fire?” You kept your face as neutral as possible. Revealing nothing. “He has. I was younger than him when I started presenting the signs. So, tell me again that you don’t think about me when you look at him. Tell me that some part of you doesn’t still love me and I will walk away right now.” 

“I don’t.”

“Don’t what?” He kept prying. Was trying to get those damning words out of her. 

“I don’t love you. I love my child. I love my mate.” 

You saw something in his face fall, a light in his eyes fade away. 

“And if any part of you loves me, you’ll leave us alone. I’ll deal with the inconveniences when they present themselves.” You spit out, forcing venom to lace the words. 

Eris reached for you, arms flying out to grab onto any part of the woman he still loved with all of his heart. But you were already walking away. Leaving those words hanging in the air, the threat in those words unmistakable. 

You prayed you were far enough away before the sobs racked through you. They were strong enough to knock your knees out from under you but you had to get back to your room. No one in the palace could see you fall apart like this. You managed to make it to your room, sliding along the wall, knees hugged tightly against your chest. Every part of your body locked when you felt a strong hand rubbing along your back. The smell was wrong. Not cinnamon and pine, but honeysuckle and citrus. Your mate. His presence should have comforted you, and you desperately wished it would. Sol knew when you looked up at him, tears glazing your eyes, knew that whatever conversation had just occurred that it broke you. Some little part of you that you had held onto all these years, Eris had broken it. You wanted to hide it, assure your mate that he was enough. That was what you had always told yourself, told him and he gladly accepted the lie every time. 

“You still love him.” Not a question. Not an accusation either. Spoken plainly like the truth it was. You nodded, sobbing so hard you retched.

“I want to go home.” You choked out, throat threatening to close. 

“This is your home.” You shook your head, the words bouncing around like angry wasps. 

“No. Not anymore.”

“Wherever he is, that will be your home.” There was no pain in his voice. Sol had always been too understanding, too gentle and kind. He knew from the moment he met you what Eris had meant to you. “I don’t deserve you. Either of you.” 

“It was never about deserving.” Sol was on the ground in front of you. Arms wrapped around you, absorbing each shudder of your body. “You will never love me the same way. But you love me in every way that matters. So if you want to go home, then we go home. If you want to stay here, then you stay here. We’ll figure out everything else as we go.” His words only made you cry harder. 

“Why do you not hate me? You’re my mate and here I am.”

“After all that you’ve sacrificed… Do you hate me?” He asked, some light teasing in his voice. You shook your head. 

“How could I?”

“Exactly. Now what do you want to do?”

“I want to go home. To our home. I want to forget about all of this.” You took a deep breath, breath hitching on every lungful. “I want to learn to love you. Love us.” you looked into his eyes, warm golden eyes that you had always ignored. Now you had never been so grateful for them, golden not amber. “If you would want that.” You added. Not daring to hope that he would

Sol smiled, a real smile that filled you with warmth from the bond. 

“I would like that very much.”

The pair of you just sat there. Holding each other and you said goodbye to that small part of your heart that you thought would never heal. Buried it. The ache let you know it would never be forgotten, that part of you that loved Eris so deeply it outlasted a mating bond. But you would keep a small part of him. Always. At least you could keep his eyes in your life. And wrapped in the arms of your mate, it would be enough. You would make it be enough.

[romchat]

In Blossom visual analysis (ep. 1-7): How to film a gothic romance

Although I'm not completely convinced about some of the writing choices of In Blossom, I absolutely LOVE the show's production design and cinematography. @mademoiselle-red wrote a great post about how main character Pan Yue fits the gothic romantic lead archetype, and those gothic elements are not only present in the script but also in the show's visual storytelling.

Lighting

A key element of gothic romance is its atmosphere of mystery and suspense.

Something I really like about In Blossom is that despite its dark subject matter, many of its scenes take place during the day. One of the show's main themes is that appearances can be misleading and the cinematography often plays with that notion by linking light to deception and darkness to truth. Note how many of the emotionally honest beats of Yang Caiwei and Pan Yue's relationship happen at night (e.g., their couple escapades at the Li Residence, Ghost Market, and Life and Death gambling house) while fakery, corruption, and evildoing happen in the day. It's with this subversion of our expectations for light that the show creates an unsettling atmosphere.

And these lighting choices also help set up Pan Yue as a classic gothic romance anti-hero, someone the female lead, Yang Caiwei, fears but still finds herself drawn to.

Look at how Pan Yue is lit when shot through Yang Caiwei's subjective point of view. The strong use of light creates a lot of contrast--through her eyes, he is a mixture of light and dark, his morality as inscrutable as his shadowy figure.

Camera Angles and Shot Sizes

The show's use of low angles and close-ups further reinforces the idea that Pan Yue is unpredictable and even dangerous.

In cinematography, low-angle shots tend to make the subject look more powerful and menacing, and the show uses this technique to great effect.

Even in the intimacy of close-up shots, we can sense the threat emanating from Pan Yue. He’s always shot just a smidgeon too close for comfort.

For example, look at how much Liu Xueyi's face fills the frame in an early "romantic" scene. The shot feels almost claustrophobic as if he's so single-minded about his goals that he has no choice but to dominate the frame (and Yang Caiwei). It's an unnerving moment despite the soft words coming out of his mouth.

Side Note: I live for Pan Yue's (vampiric) long shots. The production design team was smart for dressing the character in dark clothes with such a sleek cut and drape--he looks like a sexy bat.

The Nosferatu references in Yang Caiwei's tomb are also perfect.

Composition and Framing

And finally, like any good gothic romance, In Blossom illustrates how love can drive one to despair and even madness.

Because of this, my FAVORITE scene of the show has to be the introduction of Shangguan Zhi. Her obsessive pursuit of beauty in hopes of seducing Pan Yue has left her a shell of a human being, and the scene's composition perfectly encapsulates this with how it focuses on the elegant lines of her body--not her face or personhood.

Shangguan Zhi is trapped by her delusional fantasy of a life with Pan Yue--see how she's boxed in by the vertical lines of the screen panel she admires--and the show regularly uses architectural lines to show how her desperation has trapped Yang Caiwei as well.

[saey707]

Hey! i just found out about your blog and i love it, i like the way you write :D. Sooo can i request Jhin general dating headcanons ( i love him so much hehe)

Tysm! take care <3

✿ Prompt: What it's like to date Jhin ✿

♡ champion focus: jhin ♡ tw: none! ♡ Gender-neutral reader

Author's Note: Hi anon! Jhin is great ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა He is the entire reason I got back into League of Legends allll the way back in 2016 (Been a fan since 2013-2014~). (๑>؂•̀๑) I hope these headcanons make you smile as I try to get back into writing more regularly ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

Additional Note: I was heavily inspired to write Jhin and reader's relationship in this like Morticia and Gomez Addams! It seemed so fitting in my eyes for them to have a relationship like them (,,>﹏<,,)

Despite initially believing he was incapable of loving anyone or anything other than his craft, Jhin couldn't help but fall in love with you. I mean, what isn't there to love?

Once you got past Jhin's snide remarks and negative critique about everything you do, you were able to see that underneath the mask façade was nothing more than a shy and sweet gentleman.

What allows your relationship to thrive with Jhin is your shared trust, honesty, and generous affection you both provide for one another. You are supportive of him, as he is with you.

After a long day of performing, the first thing Jhin does is shower you with affection. The black leather of his mask is lifted past his lips, pressing kisses to each of your fingers, until they gently trail up your arms, soon meeting your lips in a passionate kiss.

"Look at you... I would die for you... I would kill for you. Either way, what bliss, my lotus flower?"

While his love language can be quite morbid at times, you know it is out of love. In fact, you find it to be quite romantic when Jhin talks of how you both will live and die together! Side by side, four feet under, in matching coffins... Your lifeless bodies rotting together. For all of eternity.

When it comes to acts of romance, Jhin is certain to gather you nothing short of a perfect bundle of ruby red roses.

Dancing has become a staple piece of your relationship with Jhin. Hand in hand, swaying in perfect unison across the stage, Jhin is always sure to lead step after step in your shared danse macabre.

"When was the last time we danced, little lotus?" "Oh Jhin... Hours."

And while you both have your occasional ups and downs, there is no keeping the two of you away from one another. Even when Jhin gets incredibly frustrated that you and he aren't seeing eye to eye, he wouldn't ever trade what the two of you have for even a perfect four-four composition. Because...

"To live without you, only that would be torture."

[bubblewrapsnek]

Phantomarine Reread: Chapter 1

For this chapter I don't have too much to elaborate on so it'll probably be mostly stuff I enjoy about it so uhh enjoy!

Let's begin:

The cover of the chapter is just very fun and good, I love how in a full page what acts as frame is the composition itself, using the rock as both a titlecard, flat space made to have Phae stand out in the centre thanks to less detail around her, and has a couple skeletons climbing on it too making it interacted with the enviorment too, it's just very good, plus lots of cute critters

Bonus, pretty lady with pretty dress

One sword lady just happy to be there, good for her!

Cheth working like a lamp, getting turned off as soon as Phae chickens out is a very good bit xD

Something I also enjoy a lot from this chapter is just how present those godly veins are

You can clearly see them flowing into everything Cheth uses, they work at being somewhat subtle to me, at a first read I just assumed they were for flare, it's a god in the sea hopping bodies, of course he has an aura, but going back they are very consistantly threads coursing through what he touches and moves, around him at all time, and it makes the reveal that those aren't something he causes, but those are HIM very fun to go back to

Also Cheth being so unserious even when angry, giving eyelashes to a t-rex HE CHOSE TO THROUGH A HISSY FIT WITH, THIS GOD CHOSE THE DINOSAUR FAMOUS FOR HAVING TENEE TINY ARMS TO PERK THEM UP AND SHOW ANNOYANCE, love that for them

Something else I want to point out is how Phae is never still, every panel she is moving, posing with dumb bravado sometimes downplaying it a bit, it keeps her expressive and alive even when the obvious main show is Cheth's flamboyance and shapeshifting circus play, and that in itself is also a very fun thing, in a revolving door of actors, the play doesn't loose itself, Cheth's emotions are readable, a character is expressed constantly and flows nicely into a variety of states, and for both of them, keeping this bravado will pay off later in the chapter VERY well

Great visual, the veins themselves working as the smoke, showing he is loosing patience, he is fuming while being underwater

Another bonus point: Extremely rare instance where I find M!Cheth looking hot in a sense of coolness instead of the usual lovely dork clown (he is hot in both ways but this is a different taste)

Plus

The facless crowd of red eyes not playing, smiling or fooling around anymore, they are finally dead set on her, she created a play for them and he provides the pressure of an audience, more than the panel before, with her literally being portrayed in front of the t-rex's mouth, this feels like the maw of the beast surrounding her, sizing her and ready to devour her, ready to have her be part of the facless crowd of observers, very spooky

And this feeling of the maw of the beast pays off, 'cause shit gets real very fast, Cheth doesn't take it lightly and goes for the throat with a question that not only he thinks she would never know, but that hurts so so much, (and also shows what is in his mind when dealing with royalty, not the attacks towards him directly, not the damage to him, but the countless children who have been deprived of a family due to all this). This works as a tone shift, the first, altho minor, payoff from the swagger set up early in the chapter, and this question hits you in the face hard and fast

Cheth's frame while asking this is almost as big as the burden of that knowledge, a question so heavy the panel under it is quite literally being smothered, Phae's face accomapanying the reader who didn't expect the shift

And this leads to another piece of characterization that will come back later, Cheth cares for children, this isn't just a question done to hurt her but it's something he cares for, and why do I say this? well it's something I read not only in what will be said later on in other chapters, but in Cheth's reaction when Phae actually can provide an answer

He is confused, but also looks genuinely worried about her, he is dumbfounded AND concerned for the woman who showed to care about something he thought she would have only superficial empathy towards, for the girl who just admitted to being herself a lost child in grief (little headcanon, the cat showing up is there to be ready to help in case it got too far)

Something else I want to make note of that I find very compelling:

The background, Phae answers and the background goes BLANK, until now it consistantly framed her in either blue or red, either in Cheth's play or taking a step back from it, but now, this is something that wasn't part of his tease, this wasn't something he thought would happen, Phae's care and grief quite literally breaks Cheth's overwhelming, presence here, it feels as if not only is he shocked, but he is giving her a brief moment to breath, letting her have some space for just a moment, I love it

And this also leads to a moment I find very interesting, and I would like to give my reading to

The way I read it as of the time of writing this, is that Cheth has a deep fondness towards humanity, the anathema comic shows a devotion to his love for the people he fares in the afterlife, for the children of man who have all but forsaken him, and here he is ANGRY, but why would he be angry that the king actually cared for said people? I can think of one reason: at this point he has been waiting for a sign for 5000 years, made to sit back and watch for ages the humanity he loves sending their man foolishly to die in a war against him in which he isn't even participating, and I think he might have internalized how the people he loves have accepted a doctrine against him so deeply that they deem the sacrifice of their lives and the suffering of their children as worth less than fighting him. But what does he learn now? that the king, the guide of this war, feels guilt over this, that the mean leading all those people to die had to find a way to cope with how terrible that weight is, that they haven't forgotten how precious the lives of his people are, AND YET HE KEEPS SENDING THEM TO DIE, EXACTLY LIKE THEY DID FOR THE PAST 5000 YEARS. This is beyond foolish, this is pure denial of knowing that what you are doing is terrible, and thinking you can offset it by being kind instead of working on the problem at the root of it, I too would be angry if the man leading those fathers and mothers to abandon their children tried to save his conscience by doing charity instead of preventing those deaths to begin with.

God this came out rant-y, and probably not perfectly worded

Moving on

Remember when I spoke about how the constant expressiveness and bravado of the characters is a great setup, well here we get to the first very big payoff in my opinion

Once again, Cheth's overwhelming red get's completely broken, stark white coral framing the object of something that deeply hits him and breaks his flow, he stops to a screeching halt for the first time, speechless and astounded. without all that overwhelming presence before, all that bravado, this loss of control would hit so much less and it doesn't stop here, no this is the first punch of a two hit combo, the proverbial quiet before the storm

And this also leads to another reversal in their constant duel present in this chapter, up to now all of this has been a back an forth, a dance where Phae responds in kind to Cheth's provocations, and here, she doesn't reflect an attack, but just like Cheth seeing her at a low before had him react with a look of pity, she responds here with the same concerned expression

Sadly, Cheth isn't in a place where vulnerabilty is something that can be helped with pity or comfort, not now

Now all he is, is a raging storm of emotions

And how does he get back control of the scene? he lashes out, he once again becomes overwhelming, the entire scene becomes a vortex of red and anguished faces, Phae's bright yellow gets tinted in a red glow, something deep within him has been touched

And MY GOD is the subsequent page a mic drop, the red slowly drifts to the bottom, her emotions are settling down, there is a moment of reflection and quiet, of many things she probably couldn't hope to think about for such a long time finally piecing together, and with those elements coming into place, here comes a new face that we will come to know along the way, not only is this a new face in the chapter, this is an expression of Cheth's state of mind in my opinion, as we will later learn that the sign he was waiting for, all he is doing and setting up, it was all in the name of a promise made to this face. at least, this is my read atm, we'll have to see how the story unfolds to see how well it fits

Have you ever seen a lady so beautiful you forgot you are dealing with Satan and decided to flirt? Phae sure has

And here we arrive at the reason I said Phae's tired reaction to the death of children was the "minor" payoff to the bravado shown

Cause damn here we get to the main show of her fall

But also, shock factor aside, I want to point out how this is the first truly mean spirited move Cheth has made thus far, the question of children came from a place of care, this is purely mean, nothing can come from being this petty and evil in action, it's almost parody of the demonic figure he gets painted as, almost...

Yeah you all probably know what I'm getting at, this is the first action she takes after learning of the bonefish, of the sign, and we later learn that she actively decided to play up the evil aspect Phae knows her as, painting herself as a disgusting villain because that was the role she thought would work, after all, would kindness and explaining have worked? she is basically programmed to hate them...

And with this Cheth has completely put the curtain back on, the second act of the play has started and they are both the director and the actors, the scene once more tinges itself in overwhelming red as they start their show

After this point the chapter is quite straightforward to me, tho it doesn't shy away from some very neat shots that end up being some of my favourites of the entire chapter

Like this one, it creates a very good feel of having Phae on the backfoot, the textbox itself works in presenting her driven in a corner, against a wall, even amidst a boundless ocean she has no escape, and Cheth taking center stage to the panel also works in establishing them once more in control

Meanwhile, I honestly can't even explain why I like this laugh so much, it's just so visceral, so played to an extreme, the sea itself is laughing, Cheth looks like he could fall over on their back from how the laugh is bending them, you the reader aren't safe from the thunderous laughter as the panel itself breaks down, becoming seafoam, you are seeing them explode over the question of Shoshanna's return and once again, Cheth is playing up a villain, we see later down the line how the argument of Shoshanna breaks them and tears them down, and here I think they are masking it, they play up their bravado to an higher degree than ever before, a villain so incredibly sure of themselves that they can stop and laugh so much they aren't even seeing you anymore, they are completely exposed, not a single shade has their eyes open to keep watch on you

What grief could ever deserve such a boisterous mask?

AND HE KEEPS GOING, HE KEEPS UPPING THE FACADE

He both becomes and rides a wave about to wash Phae away, he both is master of a distaster and the disaster itself, all this part feels like is him deciding to play the villain and putting on his best theatrics to deliver it, they become mean, deameaning, ruthless, the teases don't feel as fun anymore, Phae isn't in a place to make it a back and forth anymore

The chapter starts as an ebb and flow between our main characters, but by the end there is no more pushback, Cheth has become a flood and Phae has lost the ground she was so confidently standing on before

And she manages to get a hold for a last desperate second, she has been pushed so far back in a corner that she lashes out violently, but in the end, even this is futile, in the end...

The tidal wave has crushed her, and she can do nothing but break.

[mylonelylittlestar]

XAVIER: THE SUN

Xavier is the sun, but not in the way people think. People hear "sunshine character" and think of clear skies during spring. Of flowers and beaches and singing birds. But that's not Xavier. Xavier is the sun in a different way.

(This is all based on my own knowledge/memory of stars, and it's probably not perfectly accurate because I tend to forget things quickly. I'm also oversimplifying and heavily romanticizing this. This is not an academic paper. It's a silly little post about Love and Deepspace!)

The sun is an average size star compared to other stars in the universe. There are billions of smaller stars and billions of larger stars. Compared to stars like Rigel and Betelgeuse, the sun is just a speck of dust in space, and stars like Teegarden's Star and other red dwarfs are grains of sand compared to the sun. It's not particularly special in size.

It's classified as a yellow dwarf star. Yellow dwarf stars don't "go supernova". They don't turn into black holes or neutron stars. They are simply too small.

They burn out of their hydrogen supply over millions of years, collapse, then expand, turning into "red giants". They stay that way until they become unstable, shedding their outer layers in form of large clouds made up of dust and gas (called planetary nebula).

What is left afterwards is the core, a white dwarf. White dwarfs are very dense and do not produce heat. Instead they spend millions of years slowly cooling down. When they completely cool down they turn into black dwarfs, but we will never see one because the universe isn't old enough for a white dwarf to completely cool down and actually turn into one.

It's not special. Even its death will be slow and anticlimactic. It won't collapse into a supermassive black hole after a giant supernova. It will just fade away slowly and quietly after its life as a red giant is over.

What makes the sun special is not itself, but its perfect proximity to earth. The sun makes life here possible because its mass and distance to our home planet gave us a chance to exist and observe it. Nothing else. It is perfectly average in its size, luminosity, and mass.

The sun is also lonely. More than half of the stars that we have observed share a solar system with at least one other star. They orbit each other as they travel through the universe. We can also observe triple star systems (the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, is part of a triple star system as far as I remember), quadruple systems, and possibly even septuple star systems (Nu Scorpii and AR Cassiopeiae). I've even seen things about possible octuple and even nontuple star systems.

But the sun is alone. It has a lot of planets surrounding it, but no other stars accompany it. There's a chance that it has siblings though, stars that formed in the same nebulae/gas cloud, but we have trouble finding them because we don't even truly know in what nebulae the sun was "born" in.

We have theories, but it's hard to do anything except guess because our sun is quite old and therefore far away from its birthplace (which has probably stopped existing by now). We're looking for stars with similar compositions and ages as our sun, and we look at their orbits and compare them to the orbit of our sun to see if they could be related, all in hopes of finding out more about our star through them, but the search takes a lot of time. We might never find its siblings. Maybe they're just too far away. Or there are no siblings. Maybe the nebulae only gave birth to one star, our sun, and no others.

Maybe our sun was always destined to be alone, from the very beginning of its life to its end. And maybe Xavier is destined to be alone too.