#for some reason the first page is in rows of top to bottom??? and the second is left to right

[meadow-roses]

This is set around 15 years after "Dauntless" ends, Felix suddenly finds himself hundreds of years in the future on an alien planet. With no money, no idea where he is or how he got here, and no idea where his wife and kids are, Felix gets a job on a cargo ship headed to Earth in exchange for passage.

[lucrezianoin]

"Say please" Astarion's reaction - Goblin party vs Tiefling party (well done vs good boy)

Here we go, I need to analyze the party proposal from Astarion. So, if you do not get Astarion to proposition before the party he will do so at the party (if you have high enough approval). But the way he does it is OH SO different, and I think it might gives some clues on him and in general how he regards Tav/Dark Urge (which I will call Tav from now on).

Look, I played as female one and male the other, I don't think that gender is the reason for any difference here.

First of all, how to get to the party:

Goblin party: it is the evil choice. Not only you kill refugees, but you also ally yourself with the Absolute (which is the thing you are trying to hide from and attacked you). Your companions will react like this is the evil choice (Gale will threaten to leave, Wyll and Karlach leave, Lae'zel cares little, Shadowheart pretends not to care but she drinks herself into a stupor, and Astarion well, I will talk about it in this post)

The tiefling party: It is the good choice. Even the atmosphere of the party is better, there is music, dancing etc. You defeat the goblins, you save the day.

So, to start, to make sure I take everything in consideration, these were my approval scores with Astarion: 41 (identified by the game as High) at the goblin party (evil choice) vs 38 (medium) at the tiefling party (good choice).

OKAY HERE WE GO. So at the party, the scene will be different. I will post screenshots too, but if you want to see these two scenes back to back: first is the "evil one", and the second one is the "good one":

I will focus on three things:

The "say please" moment + "what"

the fact that you can tell him good boy in the good run, but not in the evil one (and how he reacts)

The general way Astarion acts

"SAY PLEASE" -> good boy vs well done

So in the above video you can check "say please" for evil choice at 2:01, and for good choice at 0:22.

So in the evil version we flirt and then when we refuse to go to bed with him (everything is so much more direct), we can ask "Say please". His reaction is a short, almost annoyed "What." The intonation sounds so flat, indignant.

In the good version, his flirting is much more subtle (as in, Tav is not completely on the same page), his "What?" definitely has a not of surprise and is much softer. I cannot tell if it is a good surprise or a bad one, but the general sense of it is more sensual?

The note from the devs is that he never had to be in this position (asking someone please for sex) so he is surprised. Interestingly, this note does not exist for the goblin party, only for the tiefling one.

Just look at his face:

He does seem more collected in the second one, maybe like he is keeping his flirty mask more secure on himself. There is definitely a smile, but with him it is hard to get if it is his mask, or him being positively surprised. BUT what we can say is that the mask slip in the first version, and he is much more annoyed.

I also noticed that the way he is animated to say PLEASE IS DIFFERENT. Top row: evil choice vs bottom row good choice

The first pic of both rows is his face immediately after the roll, when he starts to say please, one is definitely... not super happy about it, the other seems surprised. But the ending result is similar... still, the evil choice one has him in a much more seductive movement, that thing he does where he lowers his head and looks up so his eyes are half lidded? He does that a lot in act 1 seduction, where he is trying to sell you the fantasy.

The note from the dev was "through gritted teeth" so I do not think he is happy in any of the two choices.

Now, in reply to his please, you also have different options, which for me are the most interesting one:

(also in general the good version has more close ups to the characters faces for some reason)

In the evil one you can tell him "Well done! I will see you tonight" and in the good one you can tell him "Good boy! Let's get together tonight".

I THINK this is the focal point of why that "please" scene is so different. In the evil playthrough he saw you killing innocents, having little to no empathy, siding with, well, basically the villains. Your "say please" is more likely to come from a position of needing power over him than a fun flirting line. You literally slaughtered children, and now you are telling him to "Say please". He also could be surprised because he thought he was more of an equal to you? And the "well done" sounds very military-like. Yes, you did, just like I told you to, now get on with it.

In the good playthrough, instead, you have saved innocents, he even calls himself a hero and he is surprised to be on the hero side. Up till now, you have mostly done a very good deed out of the kindness of your heart. Asking him to "say please" would be cruel unless it is... kinky? FLIRTING? I think because of who Tav is the choice to ask him has to end up in the playful seduction category instead of the "I want you to grovel" category. His reaction is maybe surprised because that is unexpected, to hear you ask that after you have been so kind, but it is still firmly in the realm of sexy times. You don't tell him "well done", you tell him "GOOD BOY". That is definitely in the realm of sexy times much much more, and kinda gives a different sense to the scene.

Just look at the difference between these two faces!! It is the same line, but in one case he is a bit closed off, in the other his face is so much more open. I can almost read... hope?? Because you are a good person?

General attitude

The thing is, it could also just mean that he is THAT good. I still think the "what" is a slip of his mask, but in general the way he acts could be just tailored for who you want and who you are. So of course, if you are good and kind you would probably be manipulated more easily by puppy easy and open looks, so the second option would work better on that Tav.

Or simply, he is already changing?? He is seeing that there is a different way to live and not being killed.

In general, the way he flirts with Tav is also quite different:

In one case (first one, evil) he is more direct. He is not beating around the bush, he asks you what happens next and you can literally tell him "well, I will sleep with you".

In the good version, he is much more elaborate, and even your choice to ask him to sleep together is much less direct ("quality time").

In general, I think what DorianDarkstar @doriandarkstar (twitter account) (WHO HAS SO MANY GOOD INSIGHTS ON ASTARION and is often subjected to my endless posts) said in reply to me mentioning the scene makes the most sense:

Also, I just wanted to add the two Tav faces:

No idea if this is just a difference of drow vs tiefling, but my drow (evil choices) is much more annoyed and confrontational!

[hellaverseconfessions1369420]

Long confession ahead, apologies in advance.

Look, I don't get heated about shipping. I like what I like, and I look at things I like. If I don't like whatever someone is posting, I'll filter the tags, and if they aren't using the tags appropriately, I will block them. It's fairly easy for me to avoid ships I personally dislike most of the time. I do all of the things I'm supposed to, and yet I'm still having this problem.

There is one singular ship on God's green earth that kills all of my enjoyment for both of the characters involved, and it is radioapple. I have never felt such strong emotions about any other ship before in any of the fandoms I'm part of. It's fucking everywhere. I genuinely cannot use this website if I want to see Lucifer or Alastor fanart/fanfic, and I'm not moving sites.

But God. I'm so fucking sick and tired of seeing "this post contains filtered content: #radioapple." When S1 first came out, I counted 37 blocked posts in a row on top of #Alastor on one given day. I had to scroll through 37 blocked fucking posts before I found ONE that wasn't about fucking radioapple. And that isn't counting all the OTHER Alastor ships, because of course that's all anyone gives a shit about anymore.

I'm on mobile, so I can't use browser extensions to make Tumblr's filtering system actually do what I want it to (delete every radioapple post, forever). I also don't feel like buying a laptop for fucking Tumblr. I've been getting back into HH after falling out of it for a while for related reasons, and I forgot how much angrier and more unhappy I am coming out of #Alastor or (to a lesser extent) #Lucifer than when I went in. Which is super awesome considering they're my two faves.

I wish I was kidding when I say I have actually cried real tears more than once over this. I'm aroace, and I thought maybe for once I'd get to feel at least a little bit included and represented in fandom as a whole. I thought having a canon aroace character would be that for me, at least one tag I could semi-comfortably browse and feel like I'm actually part of shit and not a spectator for once, but obviously not. I don't even get to look at fanart of a character I enjoy without being constantly reminded of how different and alone I am, even when that character is different in exactly the same way as me. Even characters like Alastor that are written to be like me aren't written for me. Because why would anyone create anything for someone like me to enjoy when they could instead jam a little more sex and romance in there?

I once scrolled through #Alastor blocking all the radioapple posters for so long that I reached the bottom of the page. Tumblr would not show me any more posts and I had to reload it. I blocked 209 different blogs, and it barely made a dent. 209. I can't curate my way out of this. I genuinely think I just don't get to like those characters anymore, and it fucking sucks. I want my deer man back.

TL;DR: I cannot enjoy these characters I deeply relate to with how prevalent and fucking inescapable this one ship is, and I'm not sure how to fix it. Frankly I'm not sure it's fixable, but I would love it if this wasn't something else I just don't get to have like everyone else. Someone tell me what to do about this. I want to have fun too.

I understand why you would think that. I’m probably aroaceflux and I can see some alastor in me (aroacewise, not serial killer wise) and why you wouldn’t want to see the ships you don’t like. Unfortunately that’s how many fandoms work, they’ll just keep shipping.

to be honest, I don’t know what to say, but thanks for the confession and I hope things get better for you

[chvoswxtch]

hi court! this is daisyxchains. i’ve actually never sent a proper request before so apologies if this is a mess, but when i saw your requests were open i couldn’t pass it up. you’re an amazing writer in all the ways—dialogue, description, prose, characterization, etc.

anyway i’m a raging homosexual, and i feel particularly starved of karen page smut. i would say follow your heart, because i’m not particularly picky, but if you want some more specific motivation i’m also the anon who sent something forever ago along the lines of “her dressing you up, putting a pretty toy in you, and making you sit and wait while she works at her desk”

i can just imagine reader being the Worst while karen’s trying to work—begging for attention, talking her ear off until karen gives in (well sort of gives in, she’s gonna make you work for it)

those are my feral thoughts if you wish to pursue them. either way, thank you for all the amazing content you continue to provide the community <3

you know, i'm something of a raging homosexual myself (I hope you read that in willem dafoe's voice)

I want you to know the reason I took so long to write this was bc I had to keep taking breaks to calm myself down bc you have no idea how badly I want to be brat tamed by karen page 🫠

I don't know if this is what you were looking for but I made the executive decision that it was what you needed so pls sit back, relax, and enjoy <3

warning: gay as hell, dom karen, use of toys, explicit sexual content (minors dni) word count: 1.7k

behave.

The sound of a soft whimper cutting through the silent office made Karen’s bright blue eyes snap up from her computer screen and caused her taupe brows to pinch together. The second she caught sight of you, her previous confusion regarding the noise melted, and a wicked smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. You had managed to be so quiet for the past fifteen minutes that she had almost forgotten you were even there.

Leaning back in her chair, her tongue darted out to wet her lips, and she cocked her head to the side slightly while her eyes hungrily roamed over your vulnerable figure.

“You alright over there, pretty girl?”

Your eyes were screwed shut, and your top teeth had sunk so far down into your bottom lip it was a wonder you hadn’t broken the skin and drawn blood. A subtle nod of your head was all you could manage, but that wasn’t enough for Karen.

“Look at me when I speak to you.”

The harsh edge to her voice was laced with warning, and your eyes suddenly flew open. The instant obedience caused Karen’s lips to split into a wide tooth bearing grin. This was the most compliant, and quiet, that you had ever been.

“That’s better.”

Karen let out a soft sigh as her tongue glided along her top row of teeth, letting her attention focus solely on you for the first time all night. She had an important deadline to meet at the Bulletin, and she had to turn in her first draft to Ellison in the morning, but you had been acting like a needy brat the entire time she had been trying to work at home. Walking around the living room naked, kissing Karen’s neck while she was trying to write, even going as far as touching yourself on the other side of the couch while she was on the phone. You had been relentless, and Karen finally snapped.

She dragged you to her office at the Bulletin and forced you to sit in a chair in the corner, securing your wrists to the arms of the chair with leather cuffs and tying your ankles to the legs of the chair with two pairs of your own panties, keeping you spread wide open. She’d had you put on a lingerie top she had gotten you for Valentine’s Day that was blush pink, completely see through, and decorated with lace rose appliques. It was a size small on purpose, and she enjoyed the way your breasts were spilling out of the cups, and how she could see your hardened nipples peeking through the thin sheer fabric. 

Karen hadn’t allowed you to wear panties. She wanted to be able to see your pussy without anything in the way. There was a dainty silver chain around your neck, a diamond encrusted “K” initial settling between your collarbones; a visual reminder that you were hers. On your feet were sparkly silver platform pumps, secured with a strap around your ankles. They were the shoes you always wore when you really wanted Karen’s attention, and the closest thing you gave her to a warning about how bratty you intended to get that evening.

But Karen’s favorite part of the outfit she had picked for you was the toy that was currently nestled in your dripping wet cunt. The bottom half of the toy inside you was a little vibrating bullet and the top half was a red rose that suctioned on your clit. The speeds and intensity were controlled by a remote currently sitting on Karen’s desk.

The rules were simple. The more you acted out while Karen was trying to work, the harder she would punish you. You were to keep quiet and still, and if you could manage to do that while Karen finished her draft of her article, she would let you come. She had been edging you for the past hour and a half. It took you at least half an hour just to finally start playing by her rules. You had been begging and whining, bargaining and hurling empty threats, and at one point Karen had almost gagged you with your own panties. 

Right now the speed and intensity were set right in the middle. Not fast enough to make you cum, but not slow enough to make it easy for you to endure the delectable torment. Karen’s eyes were drawn to your soaked pussy. She could see you subtly grinding your hips upwards, the way your thighs trembled, how your wetness had leaked onto the seat beneath creating a tiny little puddle. You looked so…inviting.

When she looked at you, Karen noticed that your own eyes were wandering over her body with ravenous hunger. The deep v cut of her emerald green blouse showcased her cleavage, and there was even a tiny peek of the black lacy bra she wore that made you let out a soft whimper. Her dark blue jeans clung to her thighs like a second skin, and the way Karen sat with her legs spread slightly made you want to be on your knees between them, or on her lap riding her. You’d settle for anything you could get.

“I’m impressed, baby. You’re doing well. Being so good for me. Good girls get rewarded, don’t they?”

Nodding your head eagerly, you stared into Karen’s eyes, noticing their bright blue shade had darkened into almost a midnight blue. It sent a shiver down your spine. A dark chuckle left her lips as she suddenly stood up from her chair.

“You can talk, pretty girl. Tell me, do you think you deserve a reward?”

Your lips parted, but you weren’t sure how to answer. It felt like a trick question. The vibrations echoing inside your pussy and the faint suction stimulation on your clit was maddening. You couldn’t hardly form a coherent thought. You were so aroused, it was almost painful. For over an hour, Karen had been driving you towards the brink of an orgasm, just to rip you away from the tide at the last second. Your chest was rising and falling rapidly, your breaths quick and shallow, and your mind completely clouded with lust.

“Are you finished?”

The desperation saturating your shaky voice surprised the both of you, and Karen found it amusing. She took a few slow steps towards you, slipping her hands into her denim pockets while stopping just a few feet away from you. Just close enough for you to smell the spicy warmth of her familiar perfume.

“Not yet.”

A delicate whimper left your lips at her disappointing response, and you felt a pit of despair sinking in your lower belly. Karen arched one of her taupe brows at the noise you made, but waited to see how you would respond. Gritting your teeth, you gripped onto the arms of the chair, feeling your stomach muscles clenching tightly. You let out a shaky exhale, looking up at Karen with anguish shimmering in your eyes.

“Then no.”

Karen was surprised by your answer. You had always been a sassy, demanding little thing. But maybe you had learned how to behave after all. Glancing over her shoulder at her computer, Karen found herself at a crossroads. Her article was essentially complete, and the temptation to take you home and fuck you senseless was hard to resist. She was wet herself just from the sight of you, and she was curious to see how far she could take this new found obedience of yours. 

Turning her attention back to you, she took a few steps closer, staring at you as if you were a lamb headed straight for the slaughter.

“You need to come so badly, don’t you pretty girl?”

Reaching one of her hands out, she lightly caressed your cheek with her knuckles, and you let out a soft moan in response. It was intoxicating seeing how you reacted to the faintest of touches in this state.

“Yes.”

The sound of your voice was so desolate, so incredibly breathless and raw. It sounded like you were on the verge of tears.

“Oh, babygirl. You’re so pretty like this. Look at you, making such a mess. If I let you come, will you promise to keep behaving when we get home, and keep listening?”

“Yes…yes, God yes. Anything…I’ll do anything. Please Kar-”

“Shh shh shh, relax baby. I believe you.”

Karen pressed her index finger against your soft lips to shush you. Kneeling down in front of you, she slipped the drenched toy out of your cunt and pulled the rose away from your swollen clit, causing you to let out a sharp cry at the loss of stimulation. She didn’t bother untying you before diving in to devour your glistening pussy. 

A loud moan tore through your chest and echoed around the otherwise silent office. Karen easily slipped two of her fingers into your sopping cunt, fucking you relentlessly with them while alternating between sucking on your overly sensitive clit and flicking her tongue over it rapidly. After being edged for over an hour, Karen easily had you gushing on her tongue and fingers in a matter of minutes, and it was one of the most powerful orgasms you ever had. 

Your abdominal muscles contracted sharply while your thighs trembled violently, and despite your pleas for mercy, Karen wouldn’t stop. Her tongue collected every drop of what she had wrung from you, and she grinned against your pussy hearing your helpless whimpers of overstimulation. The high she felt from having this kind of power over you was more potent than anything she had ever felt. When she finally sat up on her knees and licked her lips, Karen wrapped her hand around your throat, and she leaned in to drag her tongue along your bottom lip, feeling the thrum of your heartbeat against her fingers.

“I hope you’re not tired, pretty girl. Because you and I are gonna have a lot of fun when we get home.”

tags: @ninejlovebot @firesunflamed @oscarisaacsleftknee @ameliaswife @kmc1989 @mentallyunstablebish

[beesmygod]

"A GHOST STORY" IS A WEBCOMIC I MAKE THAT I WILL BE RE-POSTING, GRADUALLY.

the top row is from 2013, the bottom row is from the 2018 re-draw. the second row was made in 2019. this was another page where the original had too much information on it and it had to be split into two pages.

we finally hit a page i can look at and go "yeah i was cooking when i re-did this". it is vastly improved over the original in all ways. the art is still rudimentary and does not do anything exciting or unexpected, but the writing is far better and way more "human" than it was previously. the re-draw/re-write successfully conveys a conversation between these two characters as i know them today. maxine is stubborn and self-assured even when she's going to die. jack is passive to the point of being unhelpful and cowardly, even when he's going to die. they are both so stupid.

i miss writing them in the same room together. it's been so long. but it's for plot reasons. they will re-united and be dumber than ever. anyway, this is the stuff i feel more confident about presenting to people as "my work". it's still deeply imperfect and awkward but in ways that feel unique to me as a result of trying really hard to make something good. it sucks, but sucks in a way that i have been cultivating and fine-tuning over the course of several years. it demonstrates improvement, and goddamn if that isn't all i want more than anything else.

in the original page, jack and maxine have a panel where they're doing different poses that pants does in the webcomic "jerkcity" (now called some other shit i don't remember or care to look up. rands you're a bitch dude), which is made in the software "microsoft comic chat", which uses illustrations provided by comic artist jim woodring.

---

♥ read the comic: A Ghost Story ♥ support the comic for as little as $1 a month on Patreon ♥ donate on kofi ♥ pay what you want for the re-draw of the first chapter on itch.io

you can block the tag "#AGS repost" to keep this off your dash

[lucascsinclairs]

I got an ask about my gif making process, and my reply started getting way too long so I figured I'd make an updated gif tutorial/a rundown of what my giffing process looks like today. I hope this is helpful!

The anon mentioned how they really want to start making gif posts but they don't know how to, and I really was in that same spot three years ago, seeing all the pretty gifs people were making and wanting to do the same thing but just not knowing how.

I taught myself to make gifs from many different tutorials I found on here, and now years later my method is a mix-match of all of them. In this post I’ll go through my personal process but first I will link some great resource blogs that have more in-depth tutorials and resources on all different aspects of gif-making.

Both @usergif and @completeresources have great organized tutorial pages that I check all the time for different techniques. They’re so helpful! For beginners I’d recommend *these * *tutorials* for example.

For a walkthrough of my giffing process, keep reading!

First steps

Alright, let's start with the basics: I make my gifs on Photoshop and I currently have the 2023 version, so keep that in mind when looking at the screenshots I included, since there can me small differences between versions.

There are really two main ways to start out the giffing process on Photoshop. You can take consequent screenshots of the scene you want to gif and then use ‘Scripts’ and ‘Load Files into Stack’ to load them into Photoshop. I used to use this method before, and my previous giffing tutorial explains all the steps for it, as do the gif tutorials I linked. 

But these days I use the other method, which involves making a shorter clip of the scene you want to gif and then using 'File' > ‘Import’ > ‘Video Frames to Layers’ to import the clip into Photoshop.

The difference between the two methods isn’t really that big, just up to personal preference and what fits your workflow best. I think the reason why I switched over was just cause I found it annoying dealing with all the screenshots.

My current process starts with opening a clip I want to gif with ‘Video Frames to Layers’. In the window that opens, I use the little arrows to select the exact shot I want to use. Here it's good to include a couple frames from before and after the exact shot you want to gif. That way you can make sure to get the whole shot included.

When the frames load up, this is what my set up view looks like. It might look different depending on the version of Photoshop, and also depending on your personal customizations, but this is what my workspace looks like. In order to get this view, make sure you have 'Timeline' selected from the 'Window' menu from the top bar.  

Real quick to help make the tutorial more clear even if you’re not that familiar with Photoshop yet, the three main views I’ll be talking about are the frames, the layers and then the adjustments. Frames are the little film-reel-looking horizontal row on the bottom, and the layers are the vertical stacked row on the right. I have the adjustments on the right above the layers.

To start off, we’ll be working with frames. Since I selected some extra buffer frames from the clip in the import phase, now I'll first delete those frames that I don’t need by selecting a frame and then clicking the little trash can icon under the row of frames. When you are left with the shots you want to use, go to the menu of the three little lines on the top right of the frames view and pick ‘Select All Frames’.

Now that they’re all selected, you can set the frame delay. This basically just means how “quick” your gif will be. There are different preferences to this, but generally you’d want to pick a delay from 0.05 to maybe 0.1 for really short gifs that you need to be slower. My go-to is a frame delay of 0.07.

Whichever number you go with, you’ll chance it by clicking the tiny downward arrow on one of the frames (with all the frames selected). From the window, pick ‘Other’ and then type in your number.

Resizing and cropping

After this it’s time to resize and crop your gif. Here there are again some different methods you can use, in my previous tutorial I used the Crop tool and then resized the image. But these days I do this in a different way. Again, what way you use is all up to preference.

So what I do is make sure that all the frames are selected, and then from the menu I pick ‘Copy Frames’. After copying the frames, I make a whole new file from ‘File’ and ‘New’. This will be the canvas where I’ll make the final product of the gif, making it the exact size I want the gif to be. I prefer this method because with it you can alter the cropped area easier to see what looks best. Also this way if you’ve initially loaded a lot of unnecessary frames that you deleted previously, this way only the layers that are left transfer over and it’s less bloated in the layers panel.

In the "New Document' window pick your gif size (keep in mind the Tumblr dimensions of 540 pixels wide for big, all-across gifs, and 268 pixels wide for side-by-side gifs). With today’s gif I went with the dimensions of 540x450.

When the new file opens up, select ‘Create Video Timeline’, then from the bottom left corner click ‘Convert to Frame Animation’ and then from the three-line menu select ‘Paste Frames’. After your frames load in, you can delete the first blank frame.

Now you will resize and crop your gif. Make sure to select all frames again and then press CTRL/Command + T to activate the Transform tool. Use the guide lines that appeared to drag and resize the gif to fit your canvas. Play the gif by clicking the play button under the frame row to test how it moves within the canvas and move it around until it looks right. You can also go and change the canvas size from ‘Image’ and ‘Canvas Size’ if you want to.

At this point my gif looks like this:

When you’re happy with the cropping, it’s time to start adjusting the gif!

Lighting

For coloring and lighting the gif, we’ll move over to the right to the Layers panel. Make sure you have the top layer selected. We will be using Adjustment Layers to change the appearance of the gif, and they will change the layers below them, so this way we make sure the changes apply to all layers. 

There really are so many ways you can edit and adjust your gifs, these are just the methods I use the most. So, open up the Adjustments view and let’s get started!

(side note: Lighting dark scenes is a whole different topic, so for this basic tutorial I picked a well-lit shot so we won’t have to worry about all of that when lighting it.)

I usually start with the Curves layer. Pick the bottom eyedropper tool on the left, with the white tip. With this, click on the brightest part of the gif to set the white point. This is especially useful with gifs that have some kind of a color tint (for example the green hue in the Hawkins Lab flashback scenes). By picking the white point, it will adjust not only the lighting but also the hues of the gif.

After picking the initial white point, you can go in and adjust. From the RGB dropdown menu, pick the individual color channel (Red, Green, Blue) and drag and adjust the curve until the colors and lighting look good to you. Here again, it’s all up to your personal preference. I personally prefer coloring that is more on the warmer side, so in this phase I usually strengthen the reds in the gif and tone down the greens. Remember, this is just the first phase of coloring, it doesn’t have to look perfect right away. 

Next, go back to Adjustments and make another Curves layer on top of the first one. This time pick the top eyedropper tool with the black tip. Then click on the darkest part of the gif to set the black point. I don’t always do this, especially with dark scenes, but in neutral lighting like this, it can help with the contrast and make the coloring more vivid. Here you can once again adjust the RGB curves individually until you’re happy with the result. Oh but don’t think we’re done with the Curves layers just yet! After the white point and black point layers, I usually open a third Curves adjustment layer for lighting the gif. Here I usually stick to the overall curve, not going into the individual color channel ones. I drag and adjust the curve to make the lighting of the gif look good. And here’s what my gif looks like with all the Curves layers:

The brightness is starting to look pretty good now, but I’ll just add a couple more adjustment layers that I usually use. Again, this is just my process, all the layers aren't always essential and their usefulness really varies depending on the specific shot you’re working with. My advice, especially when starting out with adjustment layers, is to try out different adjustments to see what they do and how they make the gif look. If it looks bad, no worries, just CTRL/Command+Z it away!

So at this point I usually apply a Levels layer to brighten a little and then to deepen the shadows a bit to up the contrast. Then a Brightness/Contrast layer and maybe an Exposure layer to help do the same thing. I find that by using the different tools and making small adjustments in each one, it makes the lighting look nice. After these layers, here’s what the gif looks like:

Coloring

Now it’s time for the actual coloring! My favorite part! There are a billion different ways to color a gif and a billion different styles to go for. Here I’ll be doing a pretty neutral, natural coloring, but I also love my exaggerated, color-themed sets. Let me know if you’d like to hear my tips for those in another post!

With my workflow, I usually begin coloring with a Selective Color adjustment layer. And on there, I tend to always go straight for the Yellow view. There my go-to is to drag down the Cyan slider, since like I mentioned, I usually go for a warm-toned look. Here again my advice is to just mess around with the different sliders, see what they do, test them out to find a coloring you like. You can do the same thing with the Hue and Saturation layer, picking different colors in the gif and adjusting them to how you want them to look. The shot we’re working with doesn’t need a ton of color manipulation, so I won’t be doing too much with these layers, but they allow you to make some really cool colorful stuff! 

The Color Balance adjustment is up next, and it’s great at unifying the colors and also making the color shades look nicer after lighting. Especially with dark gifs, brightening a scene can make the darks look a bit muddy, so editing the Shadows of Color Balance can help with that. 

And lastly when I’m done with all the coloring layers, I apply a Vibrance layer on top, usually to up the Vibrance and Saturation, since I love my bright saturated colors. This shot is pretty bright on its own so I won’t have to tweak it a lot. 

Once I’ve got all the adjustment layers in place, I’ll usually group all of them together. You can do this by selecting all the adjustment layers and then pressing CTRL/Command+G to put them into a group folder. I like to have it organized like that and it also makes it easier to look between the original gif and the adjusted one by toggling the little eye icon on the left of the folder. This way you can check if there’s something you still want to change, or if you want to tone down some adjustments. With today’s gif I went and lightened the shadows a little. But after that I was happy with the coloring, and the gif looked like this:

Sharpening

It’s almost time to export the final product! But before that I'll sharpen the gif. I know many people like to sharpen their gifs before coloring them, that’s a pretty common way to do it. This is just the order I learned to do this in. I think it’s fun to sharpen last so that it’s kind of like a final polish to the gif! 

To prep the gif for sharpening, go to the bottom left of the frames and select ‘Convert to video timeline’. Now go back to the right and select all the layers in the layers view, the adjustment layers and all. Then with all of them selected, right-click to open a menu and from it, pick ‘Convert to Smart Object’. Now your layers are all in one object.

From the top row menu, pick ‘Filter’ then ‘Sharpen’ and ‘Smart Sharpen’. In the window that opens, pick these settings:

Then repeat the same thing, with the Smart Object still selected but now apply these settings:

(I have made these steps into an action, so I can do it with a simple click)

Exporting

With the sharpening done, our gif is ready!

To export it, go to ‘File’ and ‘Export’ and ‘Save for Web (Legacy).

A window opens up showing you the export settings. The first thing I do in this window is check the size of the gif, which can be found in the bottom left under the preview image. The Tumblr gif size limit is 10MB, so you need to stay below that. If the gif is bigger, I go back and make it shorter by deleting frames from the start or end of the gif. There are other ways to reduce the file size, but this is usually what I do. With today’s gif the size is around 5MB so we’re all good!

If you want to preview the gif in a moving form, click ‘Preview’ from under the file size, and it will open in your browser.

On the right of the preview image in the Export window you can see a bunch of different settings. In the screenshot you can see the settings I use, you can test them out and then tweak them to your liking. I usually keep them the same, though sometimes if there’s some pixelation in areas of the gif I test switching out ‘Adaptive’ to ‘Selective’ or ‘Diffusion’ to ‘Pattern’. But these are the settings I use in 99% of my gifs, and what I have found give the nicest end result for me.

When you’re all set with the settings you can save your gif into its folder and then you’re all done!

So there we have it! A basic rundown of my giffing process. I tried to keep it as clear and informative as possible, but I know I can get rambly so I hope this was helpful! For more details and tips, please refer to the tutorials I linked. There really are so many useful tutorials on here to learn from.

Lastly I'll add that making gifs is a creative art form and a skill like any other. You aren't going to be perfect at it on your first try, it takes practice and trial and error. When I look back on my first gifs I can see a hundred things that I would fix now that I have more experience. And the same will for sure be the case if I look at my current posts a couple years from now.

Figuring things out, learning what you like to gif and developing your style is what I find the most fun about the whole gif making process. I've been making them for three years now and I can say that I've developed a style that feels my own. And I swear, every time I see someone leave a tag to my post saying that they like my coloring and the style of my gifs, it always makes me so happy.

If you're thinking of starting to make gifs, I say go for it, give it a go, and have fun with it! 💛

[poirott]

this ^

Hello! Right? The editor is a mess, settings aren't user friendly, it takes 3 clicks to do the simplest tasks like uploading a gif or image from the harddrive. There's apparently a character limit for the caption area, there's not enough room for colorized text html because the code eats up too much space.

Gifs and images, once you upload them, are difficult to move around. Trying to "pull" and "push" a gif into a desired slot (left, right, top, bottom) has been so frustrating and far more difficult than such a task should be. It's like gifs are weighted down by rocks and won't slip into the correct slot. You have to re-do the order over and over again because they never appear in the slot they're supposed to. And sometimes the draft saves itself but other times it forgets the new steps you've made to the post and everything is lost again. You have to refresh the drafts page to see if the post is actually saved!

Then once you set up your gifs in the correct order, feeling like you've accomplished a Herculean task, and you re-edit text in the caption as a last tweak or something, ALL the gifs are in disarray for some reason and need to be re-arranged manually every single time you edit the text. It makes no sense. The code for the caption and the gifs shouldn't affect each other.

It takes me ages to post a simple photo set or a gif set with a caption. The code for the caption is long and overstuffed, further taking away room for colorized text that needs a lot more characters of code.

My temporary solution (that I'm still practicing through trial and error) is to get all the gifs/photos ready first, switch to html view and write the caption and color text as the very last step. This way, in theory, I only have to re-arrange every gif one more time, instead of several times, which is hard because it's my habit to tweak and re-tweak the text caption to my liking. Otherwise if I re-edit the text 10 times, the gifs are also messed up and in the wrong order 10 times. It still takes me several takes to re-arrange and edit because something always needs to be tweaked. It's like the new tumblr editor only saves the gifs/photos uploaded to a post, but not their order. The worst part is, it forgets I placed smaller 268px gifs side by side in a row, not in a column/top to bottom like one would large 540px gifs. Baffling.

The more stuff I find that's not working with the editor, the more frustrating sharing content becomes. Gif makers and other creators are gonna stop posting to tumblr if, on top of spending hours or days or WEEKS on gif sets (elaborate gif sets take a lot of time, energy and creativity), they also have to battle a stubborn, awkward editor that requires another 100 steps before the post is saved correctly for publishing!

Tumblr should have kept the legacy editor as a 2nd option for people who like the old version, and everything would have been fine. :(

[n41r]

Sorting My "Love and Berry" Cards Collection

So few days ago, for no damn reason, I suddenly remembers about my old obsession for "Love and Berry" and "Kitten Dance Channel"

I decided to open them and sort my cards collection out at that night

I'm only going to write about my Love and Berry cards tho, my collection for Kitten Dance Channel is not that impressive, since the game's machine kind of disappeared and I got busy with school at that year-

...I would love to be able to play either of this game again, tho I love them

TLDR; I have lots of cards, which some are bootlegs (but usable on the machine) and some are official Also, showcase of some of my favorite cards

So, let's start this long ass story

This album is already filled to the brim- I have more cards than it can hold, and kept the rest of the cards inside a plastic bag-

Which... is actually a good thing, because without young Ris knowing, this album is made of fucking PVC So most of the cards that are stored inside the album have become roughs and dusty-

But, it didn't really saddens, contrary to expectations

Why?

Because most of the cards inside the album are bootleg cards-

Okay okay, hear me out- I don't know how it is outside of Indonesia, but in this country, we have some vendors who used to sell Love and Berry bootleg cards in boxes for about Rp 20k - 50k (I don't remember the exact price anymore)

But funnily enough, even tho those cards are not official ones from the machine, you can use them on the machine-

I am not lying- There are some bootleg cards that can't be used on the machine out there, but the ones that I have here are usable and very precious to me-

Anyway, back to sorting-

The sorting started with dividing the cards' types and whether it was an official cards or not With the bootleg cards on the top row, the official ones on the middle, and another version of the bootleg ones on the last row

As you can see, my bootleg cards are a lotsa- As I have said before, I have unhealthy obsession with cards And even tho I never went out of my way to try to collect a complete volume like a mad man, this collection have a pretty concerning numbers-

((Please ignore my horrendous English, I was hungry and out of focus when writing this-))

As written on the photo, I have a total of 165 cards, in which 128 cards are bootleg, and 37 are official cards from the machine

Also, I'm planning on buying sleeves for the official cards, that's why I wrote down the size of the card- I'll probably put them alongside my Oreca Battle card pages, because why not? Both are my precious collection after all

And now, I hope I won't end up looking like bragging, but I want to proudly present some of my favorite cards from my collection,

First of all, the card I always use when playing,

The Magical Clock

This card add few more seconds at the dressing up part, which really help because my album is full, and it's kind of hard trying to scan through my collection because the lucky color is always random-

Here you'll notice I have two version of the card And it's because the yellow one is the bootleg one, while the pink one is from the machine-

And now, from the bootleg cards section,

Cherry Sweetheart and Lemon-Lime Twist

And side-by-side nonetheless~ These two are the costume that Love and Berry used in some of their official art~ I also have their corresponding footwear, but I kind of lazy to pull em out of the sleeve to photo-

Lace Lilac and Green Little Fairy

These two dresses inspires some of my OCs outfit, so they hold a precious spot in my heart~

Especially Lace Lilac, because my favorite stage ingame is the one with Blue Danube It was my favorite stage because,

Dresses and fancy gowns~

The arcade is noisy as heck and I remember Blue Danube by heart, so I always get perfect score at this stage-

And now, from the official cards section,

On the bottom row, we have lotsa of purple adjacent cards, because it was my favorite color at the time- I especially loved the Comfy Sweater one, because it's so cute- I also have a platform shoes card that goes very well with this card

And on the upper row... I included these cards because they felt extra special Why? Because this set of outfit is worn by Berry on the back of Ver. 15 cards!

I never get Love's outfit tho, but I do have her shoes Pretty funny, huh? I have a complete set for Berry's outfit, but only have Love's shoes-

And to end this card showcase,

Fitted Tee Girl

The outfit that Love wore on so many official arts for the game!!! Never get the shoes or any of Berry's outfit tho, but I'm so happy to have this one card~

And that's the end of it! I don't know if the machine for this game still exit within my country or not, but if by any miracle I would have an encounter with it, I would love to immortalize the memory, whether by recording or just photos

[skinsort]

Well I have no chill and spent like 6 hours on this today in lieu of anything useful. Basically I wanted to play around with transparency, gradients, and blurs, and much more abstractly a feeling of being kind of shoved through the skin a little bit with the italics and the off center layout. Most of that time was messing with extremely minute styling details. On the one hand I should probably fkin quit it with that, but on the other hand with something as abstract as the idea I had for this, spotchecking the feel as accurately as I can feels important. That feeling of driving through the skin is proving harder to make consistent, but I'm enjoying it all the same. I feel good about the hero and the navigation (aside from restyling John's dropdowns), they're responsive all the way through, but I have a ways to go yet on the categories and the forums obviously. I'm not sure I like them, but I think I have to finish the forum row first to see if the vision is good or just silly. If I don't like it, I know what the fallback is going to be at least (blur gradients, so many overlapping gradients).

If you code, I only really did one thing that might be new, and included the code for that below the cut.

The only real problem I solved so far was how to make the blur gradient spread across the entirety of the page, not just the view. I wanted the hero to be very clear, and everything behind the forums and stats to be blurry af so I can overlay text on them reasonably. Here's a little code snippet if you want to do a gradient similar that traverses the whole page (and not just the view height!). Put this in some script tags on your board wrappers. This basically listens to the page loading, or if someone resizes the screen, and then sets the height of the element that has the gradient on it- in this case blur-gradient. window.addEventListener('resize', setBlurHeight); $(document).ready(setBlurHeight)

function setBlurHeight() { const siteHeight = $(document).height(); $(".blur-gradient").css("height", siteHeight); } And here's the blur-gradient css:

.blur-gradient { backdrop-filter: blur(20px); -webkit-mask: linear-gradient(180deg, transparent, black 50%); position: absolute; z-index: -2; width: 100%; top: 0; bottom: 0; } blur-gradient itself is just an empty div with that class. It obviously doesn't have to be a blur gradient- you should be able to use this for any effect which you want to extend the whole vertical range of the page.

[xacheri]

Brower Electric - Commit #3 - Service Information Tree

This commit used a Bootstrap 5 Grid to build an information tree for the site.

On Desktop:

On Mobile:

In Between:

The HTML:

First, I set up a container div with a width of 90vw and 5% on each side. This keeps everything in the middle and at least 90% of the width is used.

The Bootstrap 5 Grid system is a framework for flex-boxes. Basically, they set up the rows and columns classes for me, with pretty extensive responsiveness and including table/grid-like tools that let you adjust the size of the cols without sweating.

By default our cols are not flex containers, so we added d-flex and related attributes so that we can position the column content using flexbox tools.

The middle row flex-wraps in reverse so that even though it's positioned opposite the others on desktop, when wrapped, it reverses itself back to a sensible position.

The reason that I have both an image and a surrounding wrapper is so that I can flex position the image to keep it in line with the rest of the page. The border is applied to the image directly though.

The middle cols contain the lines. This was the biggest challenge. The lines are contained in a positioned (relative) wrapper stretched to fit the div. Because the wrapper is positioned but not flex, I can use absolute positioning for my line spans. This is desirable because flex positioning, which I generally like better, does not let you overlap your elements as easily. Took me more than an hour to figure out this solution.

The vertical line is 350% height in the top div, but not present in the middle div. This is to work around the row padding and stretch across all rows. The last div has a 100% height vertical line to help hide make sure the line does not cut short as the page flexes. This took me like 10 minutes to come up with but it was a satisfying fix. Maybe writing the div outside of the rows and positioning it in regard to the whole section of the page could be better though.

The CSS:

The CSS is comparatively simple since Bootstrap lets me do a large amount of the styling on the HTML doc.

Every row child has a top and bottom padding, additionally they position themselves across the row with equal space in between.

The linewrapper stretches to fit it's div with width and height at 100%. Because it's relatively positioned, I can play with absolutely positioned elements on the inside.

The vertline, as mentioned earlier, has 350% height, no width. a 6px black border and is absolutely positioned 50% from the left border of it's wrapper.

the hlines are similar. Absolutely positioned 50% to the left or right of the wrapper, with a 3px solid black border. The width of the line is 60% so it goes through and under the image. The treeimageWrapper has a z-index of 4 so that the lines go under it.

The treeimage has a 3px black border.

I added one media query to the tree images to make sure they are at least 30% of the viewport in terms of width on desktop. Without this, you get some baby-sized images.

Conclusion:

I think that learning to develop is a lot like learning to play chess. When you practice chess, you get better in two ways: 1) You get used to stretching your brain in the chess direction and 2) You have at least some memory of how you have solved similar problems in the past.

It took me a few hours to write, what I realize now that I review it, is a small amount of code. I'd say more than 50% of the code I write, I delete and rewrite before I actually solve the problem. I think that as I solve more problems like this, my memory of their eccentricities will strengthen and I will be able to write quick solutions because, well, I've already solved it.

You can visit the site's github repository here: https://github.com/Xacheri/BrowerElectric

[caffeine-n-words]

Sarra Cannon's HB90 Bootcamp

Image: 2023 Quarter 1 vision board. Background: Asexual flag. Top left to bottom right: (1) A person writing in a journal with their laptop in front of them, (2) upside-down picture of a hand heart against a sunset, (3) a person relaxing with a cup of coffee, (4) a piece of paper torn away to reveal the word “plot,” (5) Q1 Focus!, (6) A book with light and letters coming out from between the pages, (7) a book with two pages curved over to make a heart, (8) a mysterious shadowed figure against a greenish light, (9) a girl in a white shirt with red stripes standing back-to-back with a girl in a black-and-white striped shirt.

You can read this article on Substack!

Hello, all!

So, recently I decided to take a one week intensive course called the HB90 Bootcamp, which is run by Sarra Cannon of HeartBreathings. I’ve followed Sarra on YouTube for a few years now; she’s a very successful indie author, and someone I look up to. This bootcamp teaches her HB90 system, and a lot of other authors have sworn this has been extremely helpful for them, for a variety of reasons.

So what is the HB90 system? It’s a system of goal setting and planning. It uses Sarra’s planner system, which has been developed over years of her own experimentation, combined with a kanban board for visual representation of the things you’re working on. You then set your goals for the upcoming quarter (no more than three), break the goals down into projects needed to accomplish them, and break the projects down into individual tasks.

The class itself teaches you how to do these things, and also how to set up the planner (like how to map your available time and estimate how much you think you’ll need to complete a task and/or project, so you can estimate how long you’ll need for the goal), and how to set up your kanban board.

Was this class useful to me? I feel like it was. It definitely forced me to take my lofty writing and authorial goals and make them into something concrete. I had to state what I wanted, and make an actual plan to accomplish it—something more solid than “write a book, find an editor and cover artist, hit publish.” In fact, I set three goals—one for my future as an author, one for my fanfiction (because I need to write that, it helps me decompress and it’s fun), and a personal life goal. Most of my time is going into the first goal, but having the other two let me schedule in time for mental health and personal improvement as well.

Do I think it would be helpful for other people? Overall, yes. A lot of the material is geared towards authors and writing, because Sarra is an author, but I think it would also be helpful for everyone else. A word of caution, though, when it comes to scheduling time—it asks you to be brutally honest about your available time, and you make a chart of every activity you do. This can be overwhelming if you’re not prepared. I have anxiety, and for me, once I saw the visual representation of my schedule, I almost had a shut down at how packed it looked. Mostly because of work hours.

That said, my schedule is based off my current work schedule, and once holidays are over my work hours should drop back some. It’s also an “idealized” schedule—my work days change week-to-week, so (for example) I probably won’t have two days off in a row, but that’s how I blocked it out. I’ll have to adjust the actual plan on a weekly basis. These realizations are honestly what kept me from shutting down and deciding I can’t do what the class asks. If thinking about the sheer amount of work you have to causes any kind of similar reaction, this may not be the class for you. At the very least, you’ll need to make some adjustments to it.

Is the class effective? It definitely has been for making the actual plan, but when it comes to the execution…I guess I won’t be able to tell until the end of the quarter. I’ll definitely do a follow-up post then, let you all know how the overall plan went, and some updates throughout Q1 to let you all know how things are progressing!

[wetbloodworm]

okay commentary

first pic is rescueverse kids (OCs that largely originated as aph characters that have been rescued from their starting canon and transformed into OCs, plus the fully original characters that exist in the same universe), both mine and some friend OCs. i’m missing some parents that have solid designs, i’m still debating on including them in the main page. technically i’m also missing luka but he just has anya’s color palette and i never draw him it’s fine. tommy’s not here either but i’ve drawn him once. i’m also missing a LOT of friend kids, which just means i need to bully my friends more to give me palettes

god i just realized i’m missing kyle’s bandage or scar. i’m a failure. but i’ve grabbed my tablet and put it away like twenty times today i’m not doing it again. maybe later.

second are my DND OCs. clearly not all of them, but like i may never draw heather or clove again while these kids will definitely show up more in my art. not just player characters in here because charlie’s there. i’m also including clothes here because these kids generally have set outfits in my mind where it matters less for my other OCs. split bodies are for changelings and their default mask (charlie also has the bonus sunny mask off to the side). the ones that are naked here have stuff going on under their clothes i wanted to notate. syrus i feel may have more scales than that but i’ve only ever drawn them on the arms and up.

fun fact for OCs that have a DND au version, like asya and charlie! i keep their original eye color in the design somehow even if they don’t have the traditional white-sclera colored-iris design. my changelings all have their usual eyes in their preferred masks (mostly, charlie’s missing the gold ring, which might not stay that way) and ivan’s eyes are a solid color but are his usual purple. changeling!sergey’s irises match his usual irises, while changeling!charlie’s sclera match their usual irises. i didn’t keep changeling!asya’s usual color in her natural form because she was my first changeling and i hadn’t come up with that pattern yet, and i’ve drawn her so many times that i’m reluctant to make a change now. but we’ll see.

third are the self-insert-adjacent OCs. top row is DND AU, middle row is default designs, bottom row is misc. sunny is charlie’s crimesona (disguise) in GTA AU, and also one of their other masks in DND AU. and then i’m there! haven’t drawn myself with the gold rings because i forgot they were there until recently tbh.

just a design note; charlie, parker, and rhys are all natural brunets that dye their hair. their eyebrows are their natural color, for reference. in DND AU though charlie doesn’t have to dye their hair, and parker and rhys just have naturally black and pink hair respectively.

technically i could’ve only had dnd charlie here and left the other sheet as PCs only, but i didn’t. and it’s not consistent because parker and rhys aren’t on the DND sheet. i don’t have a reason. someday i might edit these one way or the other to make them more consistent.

again, DND AU kids keep their usual eye color. aasimar!parker’s sclera are the usual iris color, and yuan-ti!rhys’ irises are the usual color.

i unfortunately don’t have a way with this style to differentiate white-sclera colored-iris eyes, solid-colored eyes, colored-sclera colored-iris eyes, and white-sclera colored-iris plus central-heterochromia eyes. i could just include the white sclera on all those who have that and that’d fix the problem but that’s... work.......

anyway, last sheet. those are my other OCs! absoLUTELY not all of them because i have over a hundred but i’ve got to start somewhere. so far it’s worked out so that the first row is AIverse, second row is PBJverse, and third partial row is TRverse, but that’s not going to last as i add more. it’s just six to a row and whatever happens happens.

color palettes! these are the reference sheets i use to grab colors when i’m drawing OCs. they’re very simple because they’re meant to be purely for colors, where i’ll grab other pics if i need more detailed reference. i do have a couple details on these, like piercings, but that’s about it. piercings are mostly in yellow to stand out though the actual color varies and isn’t necessarily concrete. it’s only important in DND, where if the jewellery is black it’s Trans Your Gender jewellery.

commentary will be added in a reblog in a few minutes so that i can update the base post w/o worrying about updating notes

[47crayons]

so, you want to write a musician?

about me: i play viola and have experience in symphony orchestras, string orchestras, string quartets (+ a few other small ensembles), and solo performances. i've done some light composition, and have friends/family who play other instruments. while my musical history is extensive, by no means do i know everything or speak for everyone.

this guide will focus on classical music/how to portray classical musicians and things that aren't as easily researched.

quick overview of instruments in a typical symphony orchestra

upper strings (violin, viola), lower strings (cello, (double) bass; i've seen viola included here too, but it's more commonly classified as upper strings)

strings also technically includes harp and piano

woodwinds (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon)

depending on instrumentation, they may also have piccolo, english horn, bass clarinet, contrabassoon

saxophones are not traditionally in symphony orchestras due to it being a relative newer instrument! but this is changing because more contemporary composes are including sax parts

brass (trumpet, trombone, bass trombone, tuba, euphonium)

percussion (depends heavily on instrumentation, but common instruments are bass drum, timpani, snare, crash cymbal, xylophone, marimba)

some things you should research

where the hands are supposed to go!! i'd recommend you look at pictures of professionals in orchestra settings (ny phil, cso, berlin phil are all top tier). some musicians *coughs at yoyo ma* have less than perfect posture when they're performing solos (for the same reasons famous authors can break "rules")

necessary equipment including reeds, rockstops, different kinds of sticks/mallets, rosin, mouth pieces for whatever instrument you're writing

common misconceptions

loose/photocopied sheet music is not aesthetic—it's annoying and impossible to keep organized. folders and binders are fairly common especially when managing multiple ensembles.

original copies are often expensive and required to perform a piece (legally) for profit or otherwise (though i know a few people who have bent this rule)

not all performers are good composers (i myself have very little formal music theory training), but many composers have performance histories.

not all musicians can sing.

perfect pitch is both a blessing and a curse. notes can be slightly lower/higher but in tune with the context of the piece, which drives people with perfect pitch insane.

having perfect pitch does not guarantee someone will be a prodigy, and people don't need perfect pitch to be a talented musician.

drama in ensembles does exist, but it rarely gets in the way of rehearsal. same thing goes for good friends: if your characters have even a shred of common sense, they aren't going to be talking/messing around during rehearsal.

instruments (especially good ones) are extremely expensive. people very rarely store instruments on the wall or other displays for fear of falling.

instruments are very picky and require tuning every time. every time! it doesn't take long anyway. temperature and humidity can and will make instruments go out of tune or damage your instrument if not properly stored.

some people listen exclusively to classical music, but in my experience, that's definitely not the majority

like with anything, most musicians struggle with self doubt at one point or another.

musician culture

getting excited when we hear a piece we recognize

getting frustrated because we can't remember the name of the piece (after all, no lyrics to search)

being horrified when a non-musician actor is playing a musician. yes, we notice. yes, it's obvious.

if people are joking, it's likely to be about: violas (a quick search for "viola jokes" will tell you all you need to know) or trumpets (a reputation for being overly loud, playing and not)

putting stickers (places they toured, their orchestra, or just purely decorative) on cases is common, but not for everyone. same goes for pictures (of family, past concerts, or anything) on the inside.

scrambling for a pencil when the conductor says to mark something. pencils are a musicians best friend :D

asking (and forgetting) how to split double stops/two parts at the same time. sometimes one stand partner will play the top while the other plays the bottom, and sometimes this is split stand by stand.

this has NEVER resulted in a sexual top/bottom joke. please just. don't. also no g string jokes. it's just unrealistic.

awaiting the obligatory "it's one week before our concert, and you sound like this?!" lecture

not talking about music 100% of the time!!! they have lives outside of music (most of them, at least /j). especially to close friends, music is probably not going to be a conversation topic unless something is out of the ordinary (high stress, something funny from rehearsal, etc.)

bragging/talking about how often they practice is generally not welcomed. great, but other people don't need to hear it!

stages are hot and bright. there's no way a performer can see someone in the audience with the possible exception of the first row.

practicing

three words for you: love. hate. relationship.

slow practice (like really slow lots of people recommend half speed; good for focusing on the right notes, tone, phrasing, smooth transitions)

metronome practice (while playing, it's not annoying at all! it's helpful and requires a lot of focus; when NOT playing, it's annoying and loud because it needs to be heard over the playing)

drone practice (having a machine/website/another person play one note in the background; good for tuning and scales)

and too many more for me to detail

auditions

ensembles may have entrance auditions to determine who gets in and seating auditions to determine placement within the section.

adrenaline does not make us play better; it just makes us make mistakes. and then thinking about those mistakes causes more mistakes.

some instruments, especially those with less repertoire, have common excerpts that come up frequently (i can think of one in particular that i've played for three separate auditions this year).

stopping/starting over is not recommended ever, but if you do, it has to be 10x better. most audition judges aren't looking for perfection!! they want to see how your character can keep going after messing up.

sight reading (being given new music, having ~30 seconds to look at it, being asked to play) is never perfect. i don't care how talented your character is; if they think they nailed it, they aren't experienced enough to see all the phrasing/dynamics that they didn't incorporate. no one gets sight reading perfect!!!

perhaps most importantly, musicians are not all the same! they enjoy it for a number of different reasons and have diverse and interesting lives outside of music!!! more information about specific instrument groups under the cut :)

strings

callouses. with the exception of pianists, most string players (and especially professional ones) have callouses where they press down/pluck the strings. i also have one on my right thumb where i hold my bow. cellists and bassists might have them on their left thumb from playing higher notes in thumb position.

hickeys are also fairly common, though only some people get them. upper strings will get these by under their left jaw. cellists may have one from the wooden body resting on their sternum. some people (including hilary hahn and many many others) use a cloth for comfort and to prevent hickeys.

few people want a hickey, but it might suit a character who is constantly trying to prove themselves.

our fingers do not "glide" anywhere. you can get cuts/"string-burns" from pressing down too hard when shifting. cuts like those are the only reason someone's fingers will bleed, and it's rarer than you think.

upper strings are more prone to back/neck problems from the way they hold their instruments on one side. see also: shoulder pain.

finger cramps happen. they aren't too common, but most if not all strings have experienced at least one.

pianos require tuning every few years or else the chords will be out of tune. few pianists can tune their own instrument because of how complicated it is.

piano parts/accompaniments will have so. many. pages. a page turner may sit on the right of the pianist to turn the page.

woodwinds & brass

spit. so much spit. some instruments clean afterwards with a cloth; others have a spit valve which is as gross as it sounds.

proper embouchure, or how a musician uses the muscles in their face/lips, is tiring, and people actually get strong cheek muscles. they can also easily turn red, but it varies based on a person's facial complexion. see also: good lung capacity.

flute and piccolo are not dainty. piccolo requires as much air as a tuba. an old teacher of mine almost passed out playing piccolo when she was in college.

flutes and piccolos are high, but often not shrill depending on the level of the ensemble.

reeds last a few weeks (less if your character plays for hours a day) and can be expensive to buy.

keys and valves can get sticky especially on older instruments which can result in the wrong note or bad tone.

saxes, clarinets, flutes are more likely to "honk" on low notes.

oboes are more likely to feel "wispy" on high notes.

articulation comes from the tongue, especially for brass instruments, and conductors may ask for "tah" "pah" or "wah" sounds depending on the style of the piece.

percussion

callouses from the friction between hands and sticks/mallets.

there are so many types of sticks and mallets!!! make sure to take a look at what materials are good for what instruments/sounds.

cymbals, triangle, and bass drum are not easy to play, even though they look simple.

percussionists with the exception of timpani may play more than one instrument during a piece, and they're constantly moving around in the back during their rests.

percussion instruments are too expensive for most people to have everything they ever play. practice pads are very common in place of these instruments.

ability to play one instrument doesn't translate to different instruments. for example, many percussionists don't have experience playing set/drum set.

some of the things detailed here are heavily glossed over, so if you have any questions, i'd always be happy to talk about it with you; i may not have answers, but i will try to help as best i can!!!

since you read this far, have my favorite viola joke.

what's the difference between a violist and a large pizza?

a large pizza can feed a family of four :)

tagging some people who showed interest: @writing-is-a-martial-art @ashen-crest @kg-willie @owilder

[tu-sugar-mami]

You're an exchange student part 2:

You can read the first part here

You sit awkwardly on a gigantic chair while holding a lukewarm, barely touched cup of tea with both of your hands. Your back is straight and your shoulders are tense. You're starting to feel a bit sore after being still for a long time but you can't bring yourself to move.

After the incident with the first cultist —or what you still think is a cultist, the redhead girl— the tall lady took away your bug repelent and lighter along with your backpack, putting them on the top row of a nearby shelf where she was sure your little hands wouldn't reach.

If you're honest, you're not sure how you ended up sitting in the chair in front of the gigantic fireplace with many heavy comforters on you providing much needed warmth, feeling like an unexpected but not unwelcomed guest instead of the next sacrifice, but truly you're not complaining. This is thousand times better than to die outside from the cold.

As you sit there innocently waiting for the next important thing to happen, you can see that the two young women who arrived after you are exchanging a few words with Miss Tall Lady while taking off their coats to reveal several layers of winter clothes underneath. It's strange to you, but you pay it no mind. Every person takes different to the cold, after all.

The tall lady starts pacing back and forth in front of you heatedly talking, glancing at you once or twicce, and it's not hard for you to notice the strain and exasperation in her tone. Whatever she's saying sounds serious, but you can only make out a few words like 'offering' 'wrong' and 'mistake'.

Not knowing what to respond your find yourself distracted by the decor. Your eyes roaming every detail of the chiseled fireplace, taking in the most fine of the details. Then, is the stairwell that catches you attention and you can't help but to think it would be a great place to slide on a cardboard box.

"Are you listening to me?" A commanding voice and a snap of fingers brings your wandering mind down from the clouds and your neck snaps to face the woman. Her eyes are a beautiful golden, and you can't believe you didn't notice before.

"Your eyes are mesemerizing..." You say in your language, breathless, the words slipping past your lips almost as in a trance. Your gaze goes a bit down and your fingers twitch with a sudden desire to run them over those blood-red lips and feel for yourself if they are as soft as they look.

Miss Tall Lady looks thrown off by the foreign accent in your voice. It's definitely one she hadn't have the pleasure of hearing before and somehow makes her pause. Her mind might be playing tricks on her but why did whatever you said felt like some kind of compliment?

"Mother?" One of the young women from before asks tentatively. You don't know if you're right but you think the girls are the woman's daughters.

"Take this one to the library. I will follow shortly." Miss Tall Lady says before hurriedly walking away, though without losing her lady-like grace. Your eyes follow an hypnothic sway of hips going up the stairs before you sense a hand being extended towards you, expecting.

"Teacup, please." A blonde, very polite-looking young lady says. You jump a bit in your seat and inevitably blush, thinking for a moment you were caught in your respecful percieving, but to your relief the woman in front of you didn't seem to notice that.

"Uh..." You're not sure what Miss Blonde wants, but judging by the look she's giving you, you suppose she wants to greet you formally, so you do what any other civilized person would do. "Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you, miss." You say as you properly position the teacup in your left hand and with your right you shake hers. She's taken aback, but after a second of hesitation a smile breaks and graces her face.

A pair of loud laughs sound from behind the blonde. The young woman with the dark hair approaches you both from the side with an amused grin. "I like this one, Bels."

"An odd one indeed." Miss Blonde replies.

The last one of the unusual trio approaches on the other side of the blonde, the redhead you knocked out earlier. She looks at you intently. "Just so you know, no one besides mother sends me to sleep without consecuenses, little one." and punctuates her statement with a boop to your nose.

"Yes, yes, you'll get your revenge later, Daniela. Let's not keep Mother waiting." You're hoisted up by the hand. The warm comforters falling off your back and piling on the big chair, instantly making you shiver with the lack of heat. The three women walk away and you have no other option than to follow them.

The door is opened and inside you find yourelf gaping at the amount of books stacked on the big shelves. You can count with one hand the times you've been in a house that has its own library, but this one by far takes the cake. "Can i grab a book?" You ask to Miss Dark Hair, pointing to one of the nearestt bookshelves while giving your trademark Puppy Eyes.

"What? You want to read?"

"Book." You say, pointing again insistently to the bottom row of antique books.

"Sure, go have your fun while Mother arrives." Miss Blonde nods and you waste no time to grab the fattest, heaviest book of them all and sit on the floor with your legs crossed, only to sigh in dissapointment as the book is in a language you yet again can't understand. But as you flip the pages you can see that it has very depicting images of old eras that you find fascinating.

You don't notice the time passing as you 'read' undisturbingly, until a big hand is placed on your shoulder and you almost jump out of yor skin, closing the book with a snap, effectively losing the page where the images told you the process to make soap.

"Someone's been studying, i see." The Tall Lady from before stands before you in all her height and you cand help but to rake your gaze all over that goddess until you reach her eyes, not without your flushed face at the end. "So, i brought you here for a reason." She says while her hand motions you to stand. "Here at the Dimitrescu Castle we are in possesion of many doors to knowledge, which does include many books that offer some insight about other countries along with their tongues." You're nodding along whatever she's saying, not a single word ringing a bell in your understanding but to you it would be impolite to leave her hanging. Tall Lady stops in her tracks, in front of a very dusty bookshelf with even older books. Her hand goes from side to side selecting several books which she then hands to you.

You eye the books curiously and you notice that they're a vast collections of translating dictionaries, all varying in length and language. You kneel and start looking through them, being mindful of the most antique and delicate ones. You spot a thin one but with a very familiar dialect and you look up to give Tall Lady a toothy smile. "This one is! Uh... Wait, let's see." You open the book and look through the content searching for words. You stand and motion the lady to lean a bit and start pointing words.

'Student.'

'Cold.'

'Lost'

'Thankful."

As you keep making sense with the few words you're provided, the expression on the lady's face changes to a one of understanding and pity. She pulls out a very fancy-looking pair of glasses out from who knows where and takes the book from your hands, flipping through it's pages, looking for words of her own.

'Stay.'

'Dinner.'

'Sleep.'

'Rest.'

She points word by word and you get the hint. You nod eagerly and smile. Tall Lady smiles back at you and for a second there you feel your heart paralize. You could have sworn you saw a pair of unusually long canines on that pearly white smile. But surely you're just tired, right?

"Daniela, please take our guest to one of the spare rooms." The lady says gesturing to the red-haired young woman.

"Yes, Mother." And the next thing you know your being lead by the arm out of the room.

Once you're gone the tall lady's whole demeanor changes to one of anger and she let's out a frustrated sigh. "The nerve of those villagers. To send a foreigner as the monthly offering! No wonder why the man-thing you brought was insisting it was a mistake."

"They're not respecting the deal, Mother. Should i make them understand who they're dealing with?"

The Tall Lady's pointer finger rests on her lips as she thinks. "No. I'd like to have a word with the leader." She put the book on a the nearrest table with a bit too much force, snapping the poor table in half. "Bela, bring him to me."

---------

Part two is up. Less comedy, more plot. This isn't planned to be long so maybe this will only have one or two more chapters.

@thejennystuttle

[beesmygod]

"A GHOST STORY" IS A WEBCOMIC I MAKE THAT I WILL BE RE-POSTING, GRADUALLY.

the top row is from 2013, the bottom row is from the 2018 re-draw. however, we are now well into 2021 with the re-draw. it turns out the previous pages were 2020 and not 2019. as you can see there were massive gaps in the creation process as a result of needing to prioritize and maintain the comic's 2x a week schedule. its ok, my art got better in between time gaps.

and thank god for it. still some weird ass choices in the re-draw when it comes to lighting, framing, etc. but the new pages are VERY reasonable and the art is able to share space with the speech bubbles instead of having big speech bubbles and tiny figures. the page was split much more evenly with the action flowing more naturally and "breaking" at more natural places.

i like jack's shrug face. i like that they clearly have their backs against the door now throughout the whole thing (mostly) after jack joins in instead of just posing them however i wanted without consideration for the fact that something is banging down the door. there are jokes but they're contrived in the way that most comic dialog is contrived. i think the new pages really work, as opposed to the old ones.

i remember feeling a lot more confident about the way i was re-interpreting pages by this point in the re-draw process. i think it shows. thank god i feel better about this i was so worried i was going to be in artistic hell the entire time i was forcing myself through this re-post process. but its okay?? ish.

i do wish the re-draw was the version of my comic people read en masse because i simply think its better but that's life i guess. i would like a way to allow people to read it for free since trying to sell it flopped really hard. again, that's life. it's data i'm still trying to interpret lol.

---

♥ read the comic: A Ghost Story ♥ support the comic for as little as $1 a month on Patreon ♥ donate on kofi ♥ pay what you want for the re-draw of the first chapter on itch.io

you can block the tag "#AGS repost" to keep this off your dash

[apinktrashworld]

The Camp

masterlist

Jungkook x reader | angst,  fluff | friends to lovers au

wordcount: 2.4k

You and a few friends are going to a camp for a month, you find yourself growing closer to Jungkook though he’s your best friends ex.

For a long time, you and your friends had signed up for a camp to help volunteer. Works that needed help such as the environment, the old and homeless, hospitals and different orphanages etc. The list went on of what you could do to help. Wanting to help out as much as you can, you signed up for every possible thing on the list. The camp was set for a month. You scanned the brochure the camp had given out, you saw food was provided and the food schedule was written on the next page. There were pictures that showed people working and smiling, scanning every smile you could see you hoped to feel the same and to have a constant smile on your face throughout the camp. You had always cared about stuff like this and you wanted to help out as much as you could. You wanted to make a difference in the world and make it a better place. 

When you had told your four friends about the camp they looked like they were about to laugh, not quite thinking you’re being serious. You just stared at them waiting for them to finish so you could explain your reasons. As you did, they seemed to get more and more interested and wanted to come along with you. Now it was your time to laugh. Knowing them, they didn’t want to leave our little small town for an entire month to do volunteer work when you finally were free from school. You stopped laughing and stared at them with a smile on your face, meeting eyes with Taehyung looking dead serious. When no one said anything you made the biggest grin ever, in which they all returned. You yelled out how excited you were for this and they all started jumping and screaming with you, hugging and dancing in excitement.

That was two weeks ago, and now you had finally arrived at the camp. You and your friends stepped off the bus with your luggage and stood in a row, staring ahead. You felt ready for what was to come and looking to your side, you saw Jungkook, Jimin and your best friend, Irene gathering their luggage. Jungkook and Irene used to date a few months ago but stayed on good terms in order to keep the group together. You especially were thankful for that since you had grown so close with Jungkook and not wanting to choose between your best friend and Jungkook. 

The boys knew each other since childbirth and had stuck together ever since. Jungkook and Irene met through a mutual friend and grew close. As time went on, Irene dragged you with her to meet her new friends and Jungkook did the same with Jimin and Taehyung and just like that you hung out everyday. You thought you had found the best group you could ever find and would constantly thank them in your head. They made you happy and you could trust them with all your secrets. The more time the group spent together, the more did Jungkook and Irene take interest in one another and the two eventually started to hang out alone. One thing turned into another and suddenly they were a couple. You could tell how much Jungkook liked Irene and you were all for it, shipping them like crazy. Then Irene got in one's head and started telling you how Jimin had started to like you and tried to set up the two of you. It worked. Before you had never seen Jimin more as a friend but ever since your friend pointed out his interest in you, you suddenly noticed those quick glances he threw at you from time to time and his attempt in trying to flirt with you. Suddenly, you found yourself to like Jimin back, although not being as obvious as he was, you did not dare a single look towards him, being too afraid to meet his eyes and him seeing you blush. You did not dare talking to him more than a few words and a few attempts of flirting (though the flirting did not land whatsoever) in fear that your voice would shake or stutter. Irene noticed this too and practically forced you to talk to Jimin. You two agreed on a date and you shared a kiss or two, however the romance died pretty quickly after that, still, you care deeply for each other. Irene and Jungkook dated for three months before they broke up, Irene made the decision. She felt as if she wasn’t in a relationship with Jungkook alone and instead felt like she dated the whole group. When she told you this, you felt extremely guilty, you felt as if you were to blame for the relationship not working out. Irene is not one to open up about her feelings and prefers to keep them to herself in order to remain strong. Although Irene didn’t show her heartbreak, Jungkook however, got heartbroken. He loved Irene, and sometimes you think he still does. Wanting to help, your own heart breaking upon the sight of him, you tried showing him that you’re there for him. He refused to meet up with the group and started drinking up his feelings. This went on for a month. Irene broke him out of his bubble, talking out and listening to him, both crying and hugging and agreed to remain friends. It was hard for both of them at first, but soon it grew easier for the entire group.

Now, three months later, we’re here, standing with our hands full, Taehyung’s struggling to hold onto his bags but insisting he should take some of yours too because “a fine dame like you shouldn’t carry such heavy stuff”. Looking away from Taehyung, looking straight ahead to see where you’ll spend your life this month. Seeing people walking and laughing as they talk. Some are picking up trash and others are carrying boxes from a place to another. A huge smile spread across your face as you take the place in, you were happy you were to do this. Gathering your luggage you call for the others to get going. You all started walking towards the huge building that most likely was the barracks and the reception. It was a big white building with what seemed to be three floors. Walking up the stairs to the entrance you hear as the rest of the group are struggling to walk. Going in, you are welcomed to a group of men smiling and greeting you all. They’re wearing blue t-shirts with a text on the chest that says “Helping Hands”.

“Hi, welcome to Helping Hands!” one of the boys said with a big smile on his face, handing out four identical brochures as you had looked at before. Taking them, you hand out each of the brochures to your friends. “I suppose you are checking in?”

You nodded at his question. “Yes, it’s me, Taehyung, Jimin, Jungkook and Irene, we’re signed up for a month here” you say with an uncontrollable smile. You feel the rest of your group's eyes on you as they silently laugh at your excitement. 

“Alright, I just need all of you to sign this paper and then I will show you to your rooms” the boy informed you, gesturing to you to follow him. He stopped by a desk and placed papers with a lot of text on it. Quickly scanning through it, you signed it and handed the pen to Irene. You all signed the papers and moved on to get your rooms sorted out. Walking through a long white corridor with several doors on each side, you thought to yourself that it looked like some kind of mental hospital due to the empty walls. Not thinking too much of it, you walk through the corridor. The man stopped by one of the doors to your right and gestured for you and Irene to go inside. Inside you saw three other girls standing by each bed.

“This is your room girls, the boy’s room will be a few doors down the hallway.” the guide said and continued his walking.

The boys looked at each other then at you and Irene, thinking all of you were going to share a room. You simply shrugged your shoulders at them before turning around, catching a glimpse of Taehyung and Jimin who are both watching the girls behind you. When you turned around you saw the girls blushing and smiling. One of the girls snapping out of it, stepped forward and greeted you. Her name was Jiwoo and has a smile as an angel. Her hair was long and brown that framed her face in a way you never succeeded with, dark brown eyes which almost looked black and a voice which could make birds sing along with her. She was absolutely stunning. Jiwoo then introduced the two blushing girls behind her, Sun-hee and Mee-yon. All of them are beautiful and you found it hard to look away, your chin almost dropping at their beauty. Irene got you back to reality and introduced you to the girls. 

Getting to know each other, you learned you were all the same age and had a lot in common. You and Mee-yon especially loved taking trips and finding new places, Irene and Jiwoo got along due to them having the same major. You were really thankful for getting roommates such as them rather than girls who won’t share a single glance with you. You and Irene chose the bunk beds closest to the door, you being on the bottom bunk and Irene on the top.

A few minutes later, there were a few knocks on the door, opening up you see it’s the boys, all of them trying to squeeze through the door to look inside. Almost falling in, they stumble on their feet, smiling. Jimin and Jungkook turn to you and Irene while Taehyung gets busy trying to get acquainted with your roommates.

“Why did you get a much nicer room than we got?” Jimin whined as he turned to investigate your room again. “You even have flowers!” he exclaimed, pointing at the vase full of flowers on the table in the middle room.

“You should see ours…” Jungkook finishes as he looks down at you. Looking up at him and letting out a little chuckle. Not breaking eye contact, you quickly turn to Jimin who’s still scanning every inch of the room. “How are your roommates?” you ask, shifting your eyes between Jimin and Taehyung. Taehyung’s smoothly flirting with all three of the girls without them noticing. Jimin sits down on your bed, getting at home immediately. “It was empty when we arrived, have yet to meet them.” he says.

Looking out the window you see the sun is shining. Now that you’re here you’d like to get to know the place. So you suggest that you all take a stroll around the camp, in which Irene says she wants to do that later since she wants to sleep, Jiwoo, Sun-hee and Mee-yon agree with her, claiming they want to unpack their belongings. That brings you to Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook, looking eager at each of them as they look back at you. “I’m down.” Taehyung shrugs and Jimin and Jungkook nod towards you.

Walking outside, the sun hits your skin. You’re wearing a white crop top with blue jean shorts that go down to your knees. Feeling the breeze pass through your legs you take some steps until you were stood on the grass. Turning around, you see three boys fanning their hands on their face, all three of them wearing black sweaters and hoodies with jeans. Sighing, you silently judge them for wearing such warm clothes in this weather and predict all the complaints that will come.

After the walk, you return to your room. You had met a few new people that joined your stroll and showed you around, telling you how stuff works around here and so on, hearing heavy breathing and small complaints about the weather here and there from the boys. They can only blame themselves for that. It had now become dark outside and a little cooler so you wanted to fetch a sweater. While back at your room, Irene and your roommates were sitting on opposite beds playing cards and talking. You greeted them and told them you were going out to the beach with the beach and asked if they wanted to come along. They said yes and now you all headed towards the boys room. Knocking at the door and opening it the same second, you were greeted with the boys along with two new unfamiliar faces. They all turned their heads towards you. You apologized for stepping in since you thought only Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook were inside. The two new people just smiled looking at the group of girls which just entered their room. “No worries love, I’m Hoseok and this is Namjoon” one of the men said and pointed at his friends next to him. Not gonna lie, they both looked rather attractive and fun to be around so you asked them if they wanted to come along to the beach. When you did, Jungkook, and Jimin snapped their heads towards you with a stern look on their faces. Confused, you looked away from them and met eyes with Hoseok and Namjoon, seeing their pretty smiles. “We’d love to,” Hoseok said, seeming thankful for your invite. Returning the smiles with an even greater smile. Then you headed out, all of them grabbing a sweater to drag on, the boys oddly quiet while Hoseok and Namjoon tried getting to know you and the girls.

Arriving at the beach, you all sat down on the sand, kicking off your shoes in order to bury your feet in the cool sand. Namjoon and Hoseok sit on either side of you, perhaps a little too close but you didn’t mind. You talked about your life and they did the same. Leaning back on your arms, you look straight out into the water. Seeing Taehyung teasing Jiwoo and Mee-yon by splashing water on them, hearing them laugh made you chuckle to yourself. Jungkook and Jimin sat in front of you whispering to each other, every now and then glancing back towards you. It didn’t seem like Jungkook and Jimin liked their roommates very much, you had yet to figure that out but for now you just wanted to enjoy the moment and look ahead of what was to come this month.