#fun fact i did the underlying sketch for this and after a bit i got up and went to the kitchen and..well...burned my thumb woops

[mira0000000-blog]

Aloy doodle to do somethin

[harrisonstories]

The Beatles and Martha during the Mad Day Out photoshoot (1968)

Q: Give a brief thumbnail sketch of each Beatle as you perceived him.

Ken Mansfield: Paul was the energetic one, the one that seemed like the popular kid in high school. He was the one whom you would cruise main street with your arms hanging over the car door edge, pressing tight to make your muscles look bigger. He would be the guy who would wave at the girls and slow down so they could jump in the back. I never felt a strong personal agenda coming from Paul, and by that I mean that it didn’t feel like you had to figure out who he was or where he was coming from. He was always presenting the next project or place to go. It was the sheer impetus of purpose that put things in motion so what you saw was an idea and a goal, and none of it needed complicated examination. “Here’s what we are about to do and that was exactly what we were about to do.”

To me, Paul was the unabashed leader of the group, the hard-charging one with the ideas and the one that on the surface seemed to be less troubled about things in general. I’ve said it before that he was like a hyper-kinetic kid that never slowed down – the difference being that he was able to harness this energy into his God-given musical talent and just let ‘er rip. In all honesty, he wore me out. It was fun, the times I got to hang with him or work with him, but his tempo was maddening and his energy pool bottomless. I did have an underlying pressure as the US manager of their company so that I couldn’t just totally go with the flow and hang out and party. My responsibilities were always looming in the back of my mind. If we had been high school buddies and there had been no fame, I think Paul would be the kind of person who would be great to hook up with again at class reunions. It would always be good to see him again. He, like the other Beatles, had an admirable sense of loyalty to their old mates. I was with Paul when he brought Ivan Vaughn, an old friend from his Liverpool school days to LA with him to just hang out. Ivan was certainly no one famous or even in the business – just an old friend hanging out with a mate who just happened to be the “cute Beatle.”

George was the one you would have seen in the cafeteria keeping to himself. But he would also be the one to move things aside in order to make room for you when you sat down in the seat next to him. He would welcome the company and share in the moment in an easy manner. He was the kind of guy that a slow, easy friendship would develop with over time and without the fame an everyday George would have probably been the perfect neighbor. He was so gentle and easy to be with. There was thoughtfulness in his responses to things as they were happening whether it was the conversation or the next move. He was the model of a man at peace with what was going on inside and his serenity spilled out into his surroundings. I could talk with him about simple things and was able to forget the Apple stuff because I could tell that the world didn’t begin and end with that for him. He would be more concerned about how I was doing rather than what I was doing. We shared some very personal times together because we were young, happening dudes with new wives who liked each other. I got to be the LA guy with him during his frequent and extended stays. Just because we were in Hollywood didn’t mean we had to be crazy. It was simple and easy being with George – we would go buy jeans together or sit around the house late at night and not say much.

John was the different one. He was the kid who also might be eating his lunch alone but would probably be standing up, leaning against the soda machine looking out across the lunchroom like it was another planet. There was always this sense that he was a bit unapproachable and he would be the one to do the approaching if anything was going to come down on a personal level. I spent less time with him than the others with the main difference being that I never had that alone time away from the band or Yoko – except for the day over at Ringo’s LA home in 1976. That particular event was an accidental encounter and definitely not a bonding moment.

I have written a lot about John over the years and it surprised me how many pages I spent on him after having had so little contact. I believe it was because of the complexity of his nature that it took more words to describe him. He was a brooder. There seemed a distance in place that made me always wonder how our exchanges were being digested and assimilated. I found in time this had more to do with my insecurities than his inaccessibility. He was very focused and intent at times and didn’t have time for niceties. When I finally understood him better I found this to be because he was very straight ahead and honest when it was one on one time. John cared about issues of importance and would get very frustrated when he couldn’t make matters better. He was like many of the great artists I worked with who had the odd ability to be in the extreme corners of life, jumping back and forth from altruism to self-centered madness without ever spending much time in the middle. Gee, I wonder why he was the one everyone was so fascinated with?

Ringo was the long-term guy. He’s the one you would meet the first day at school and just because you ended up in the cloak room at the same time going for the same coat hook, you became friends for the rest of your school years and never really thought much about why. He was  the most natural, most accessible and the most down to earth. I remember when I was in London it was his house that I was invited out to for a holiday feast. When we were in LA it was gatherings at our homes that were of the norm. We shared a lot of our lives over the years and it was usually the simple things that stand out when I think back. He was the one I got to know best and the easiest to describe. I never liked the fact that he was relegated to the fourth man down on their totem pole when it came to the band’s pecking order. Besides being the best absolute drummer they could have chosen, he is an exceptional actor in my opinion. It is hard to find someone sharper or funnier in head-to-head dialogue. He brought “Starr” power to the band.

- Daytrippin’ Beatles Magazine (2 Feb. 2013)

[weepingvoidpenguin]

The Gods’ Blessing

Summary: In your world, everyone had a soulmate. That’s just how things went. Everyone had some sort of Indicator that their other half was out there, be it telepathy or a red string that connected these two strangers. Yours was one unspoken of, in fact, you’d never heard anyone say that they had the same Indicator as you. And because of this rarity you longed to meet the person who could gift you with what you lacked, maybe not so much so to be with the person but more so to finally see what others took for granted. Yet, you held onto the hope that one of your best friends was your Meant-To-Be but he has his eyes on another girl and the little green monster slowly engulfs you at the deterioration of your hope.

Warnings: None, 

Potentially a Part 2, I finally have some free time over a mini break and my heart is yearning for some good ol’ Spider-Man.

Word Count: 5,223

Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5

  “If I have to sit through another one of her lectures I’m going to lose my mind,” you said, rubbing your temples and taking your seat at the lunch table with MJ.

  “We’re only halfway through the year,” MJ responded, twirling a piece of celery in the air as she spoke.

  You grumbled and rested your head on the Advanced Biology textbook in front of you, “Yes, thank you, MJ, for so eloquently pointing that out,”

  She smiled, “You’re welcome,”

  “Hey guys.” Ned took his seat next to you and slammed his AP Biology book on the table, “If I have to sit through another one of her lectures,”

  “Thank you!” You exasperated, throwing your hands up in agreement.

  MJ snorted with laughter and pulled her phone out, “So what’ll it be for tonight? Movie at my house? Movie at the theater?”

  “Studying,” you answered, throwing open the textbook and immediately forming a headache.

  The chatter of the lunchroom rang in your ear and you grumbled in annoyance, trying to rehash on today’s lesson as best you could when another loud thud on the table caught your attention.

  “So, have we decided what we’re doing for tonight?” Peter asked, excitement clear in his tone.

  “Apparently (Y/N) has no intentions on having a good time and has dedicated her life to passing Biology,” Ned offered up, handing Peter the notes he missed for the class.

  “Aw, come on, we can’t keep skipping out on our weekly hangouts, that’s when they disappear altogether,” Peter huffed, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair as Liz sat in the empty chair beside him and Peter quickly straightened his posture and a twinge in your chest caused you to roll your eyes. He was constantly trying to make himself look good around her.

  “Hey guys.” She smiled and pulled out her lunch for the day, “What’s the plan for tonight?”

  “Ugh!” You groaned and Ned snatched his notes back from Peter to study over them with you.

  “Movies at my place,” MJ decided and nodded her head as if agreeing with herself, “Yeah, that’s what we’re gonna do,”

  Peter’s eyes lit up and he faced Liz, “Unless you wanted to do something else? Of course, movies at MJ’s is always fun but if you had anything else in mind then I wouldn’t be opposed to-”

  Liz held up her hand, “Movies at MJ’s sounds fun,”

  For as long as you could remember, Peter’s had a huge crush on Liz Allen and boy was it starting to really tap dance on your final nerve. Not only did you not appreciate Peter’s constant gawking over her but it was bad enough that now she had to come to the weekly meet-ups at Peter’s insistence. Now, you didn’t hold any grudges against Liz, in fact, she was pretty cool and superbly nice and that was something you could appreciate about her. It was just the fact that every time Peter looked at her with his puppy dog eyes your heart would twist in agony that was starting to get really old. Like, really old.

  “I think I’m gonna have to pass on this one,” you said, Ned skimming to the part of the notes that you were confused about.

  “No one’s flaking out this time,” MJ spoke up and lifted her pencil off her sketch pad, “Peter’s practically rainchecked every hang out this month and he’s finally willing to breathe with us for a second so we’re going to hang out whether you like it or not,”

  “MJ, I would but I have to study for the exam on Monday,” you tried to explain but she could tell by the look on your face that there was an underlying reason.

  “So then Peter can help you study while I set up for the movie but you’re not skipping out on us,” MJ turned away from you and started a conversation with Liz about their soulmates.

  See, on this earth everyone was born with a soulmate and they could find out who in a variety of ways. Some people had an invisible red string that only they could see, some could read each other’s thoughts, some couldn’t see color until touching their soulmate for the first time and the list goes on but no matter what, your soulmate always had the same indication or lack of ability.

  For the longest time, you thought you didn’t have a soulmate. You weren’t born with words on your body, no red string, no telepathic ability, nothing. It was until one night on the summer of your tenth year that you finally found out what you were missing.

~

  “(Y/N), MJ’s here!” your mother shouted from downstairs and you hopped off the bed to see your best friend standing there in her usual baggy clothes.

  “My mom’s gonna order us pizza for tonight,” she chimed cheerily and whisked you away by your hand after saying good-bye to your mom.

  “Have fun!” She shouted after you and watched to make sure you entered your neighbors house.

  “My dad says there’s supposed to be a meteor shower tonight, you wanna see?” MJ asked later on that night when the pizza had arrived and you’d cuddled up in bed together.

  “What’s a meteor shower?” You asked, not convinced you wanted to waste your time looking at something you didn’t even understand.

  “It’s when the sky looks like there’s a bunch of shooting stars,”

  You shrugged your small shoulders and looked out of MJ’s window. The city had been so light polluted that anyone could hardly see the sky anyway so you shook your head and threw some popcorn in your mouth, “I don’t think so, you can’t see anything out there,”

  She nodded her head with no argument, obviously not as interested in the topic as you had assumed, and continued to watch Spy Kids with you.

  “I hope you know I’m Carmen,” she said after the movie had ended and the popcorn had long been gone.

  You shook your head and pretended to throw a gadget at her feet, “I’m Carmen!” You said, ducking under a pillow as the make-believe gadget electrocuted her.

  “Nu-uh!” She stomped around her room, her tiny fists balled up at her side when there was a sudden knock on the door.

  “MJ, (Y/N), come look at this!” MJ’s dad’s excitement could be seen on his face so you both followed his order without second guessing.

  He led you to her parent’s shared bedroom and opened their window, stepping out onto their fire escape and walking to the railing. You gulped. You’d always been afraid of the fire escape but only because it had been ingrained into your mind that the fire escape was not a toy and was very dangerous. So you cautiously followed her dad and mom out the window to the railing.

  MJ’s mouth dropped as she stared at the dark expanse above you, “Wow!” She squealed.

  You looked up to find what she was looking at once you caught up to her.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Asked her father, amazed at the sight before him.

  MJ’s mom nodded and brought you closer to her so you could get a good look at the show.

  “What?” You asked, straining your eyes to see the night’s sky, “What do you see?”

  “You don’t see it?” Her father asked, his eyes never once prying away from above.

  “See what?” You asked, your eyes scanning back and forth, up and down and still nothing as the minutes passed. “I don’t get it,” you pouted, crossing your arms over your chest and almost stomping around to head back into the house when MJ grabbed your elbow to keep you in place.

  “Look!” She gasped, pointing out into the void.

  And you looked. You looked hard for so long until your eyes burned with the strain but that night you never became amazed in the same way that her family was. They held admiration for the sky sprawled above them but you could never meet their excitement.

  For that night and all the nights before then when you looked up at the sky, you saw nothing.

~

  MJ had found her soulmate last summer while on a school trip and although you weren’t going out into the world and looking for your soulmate, you couldn’t help the bit of envy you felt. You were happy for her of course, she’d been so happy when she met her other half and they have yet to go a day without communicating as he didn’t live anywhere near the area. You’ve met him over facetime calls and had a few meaningless conversations with him when MJ wanted you guys to get to know each other (she wants her best friend and her boyfriend to get along). But you couldn’t help the twinge of guilt whenever she would go into the other room for a phone call and you were left by yourself.

  Again, you weren’t sad or upset, more so just kind of wishing you had something similar so you didn’t have to wait in anticipation to find out who your soulmate was. But then again there was a part of you that didn’t wish to know because if it was anyone other than Peter, you would’ve been crushed.

  You’d been crushing on Peter since you met him in the early days of your High School career. You’d had a few classes with him and actually joined the Decathalon team much to MJ’s persistence and you were forever grateful when you did. Not only because you’d gotten to spend more time with her and the fact that you got to spend more time with Peter but because you actually liked it, like, a lot.

  But as time passed you’d become great friends with Peter and his friend, now your friend, Ned. And MJ and Ned both noticed how your behavior changed once Peter started growing feelings for Liz, who claimed she’d already met her soulmate mind you. It wasn’t until months later that Ned that it slip that Liz had lied about that to make everyone back off but she’d let it slip to Pete who’s hopes shot up.

  Ever since Peter found out she lied about meeting her soulmate, he’s been following her around like a lost puppy. But in good conscious, we all pretended we didn’t know Liz was lying about having met her soulmate so she didn’t feel self-conscious about it, despite her reasoning making sense.

  As far as you knew, Peter could see the night sky and you’d never shared with anyone what your soulmate indication was. All of the ones that your friends had, the first words, first touch, the lack of color, none of theirs had matched up with yours. In fact, you have yet to hear of someone who lacked the ability to look at the stars so you kept your mouth shut in fear of being ostracized.

  “Earth to (Y/N)!” Ned said, waving his hand in your face to catch your attention.

  “What? Oh, sorry, let’s get back to it,” you said, focusing back on your studies and failing to see the guy walking towards your table.

  “Hey Liz, MJ,” said the brunette boy who you’d come to know as Brad Davis. They greeted him with smiles and he turned to you, “Hey (Y/N),” he said, twisting his hands around in themselves and looking down at his shoes before managing the courage to look up.

  “Hi, Brad,” You said, not once looking up from your textbook.

  After a few seconds of silence you felt Ned elbow you and you pulled your eyes from the book to see Ned motioning to the looming figure beside you. You stared up at Brad and gave him a confused look, “What’s up?” You asked, wanting to get back to Satan’s science as soon as possible.

  “I was wondering if, maybe you’d want to come see a movie with me this weekend?” he asked with a shy smile on his face.

  You smiled politely at him and you felt the eyes of everyone at your table burning through your body, “Brad, we don’t have the same Indicator,” you simply responded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  “I know,” he looked down at the words tattooed on his forearm that would disappear once he met his soulmate, “But that doesn’t mean I don’t like spending time with you and there’s no harm in a movie,”

  You looked away from Brad and scanned the eyes of your friends, all of them waiting for you to respond, you were too shocked at his question that you didn’t notice the slight panic in Peter’s gaze. You turned back to Brad and shrugged your shoulders, “Why not?” you agreed, “But not tonight, how about tomorrow at six?” you offered, knowing MJ would kill you if you flaked on them for someone that wasn’t even your soulmate.

  His smile broadened and he nodded, “Yeah! I’ll pick you up,”

  You smiled back at him, “I’ll text you my address,”

  Brad walked away glowing with a radiance that he didn’t have before asking you out on a date. Once he was out of sight you turned back to Ned and raised your eyebrow at his expression.

   “What?” You asked, now registering everyone else’s reactions as well.

  “Nothing,” Mj said, shrugging her shoulders and completely unbothered by what just happened while Ned and Pete exchanged quick glances before Ned called your attention back to the textbook.

~

  Later that night, you headed straight to MJ’s after school with Ned and Liz while Peter claimed he would meet up with us in a few hours. You’d walked the way to her house in excitement as the day’s events clicked in your mind. MJ wasn’t too interested in the topic but Liz wouldn’t stop talking about it with you. She seemed elated that Brad had asked you out despite clearly not being your soulmate and you felt the flattery slowly disappear as she began talking about Peter and how she was beginning to grow feelings for him.

  You nodded at all the right parts and smiled when you were supposed to but never spoke up or dug deeper than she would offer up herself. Truthfully, you didn’t want to know how the boy you’d had a crush on for the past three years might actually get the girl he’d been crushing on for the past three years.

  Once the knot began to form in your throat, MJ took hold of your hand and squeezed it tightly, reassuring you that she was there for you. You squeezed her hand back in a silent thank you and walked the rest of the way by her side with a sad smile on your face.

  “So what’s on the menu for tonight?” Ned asked once the pizza showed up and Peter texted you all in the group chat letting you know he was around the corner.

  “We have action, comedy and horror. What do we start with?” MJ asked, wriggling her eyebrows.

  “Same order you announced,” you offered, taking a slice of the pizza in front of you and taking a bite out of it.

  “Same order it is,” Liz agreed and you handed her the box, “Thanks,” she said and took a slice.

  The sound of the door opening and locking behind you caught your attention and the steps coming up the stairs made your heart rate pick up. You watched in anticipation as Peter joined the rest of you and zipped his backpack shut quickly.

  “Hey,” he waved to everyone and you nodded to him as casually as you could.

  “I saved you a seat.” Liz patted the available space beside her and you cursed yourself for not noticing that she had been saving the spot.

  Pete took his spot next to Liz and you huffed, sitting back against the cushion of the upstairs living room in MJ’s huge apartment. MJ popped the DVD into the console and took her seat next to you before leaning and smiling.

  “I know I’m not Peter Parker but I hope I will do for tonight,” she teased.

  You softly shoved her and handed her the plate she had been making you hold for her while she chose the movies. “Of course, you’ll do, but only for tonight,” you responded and she rolled her eyes before outstretching her arms for you to lean in and get comfortable to watch the movie.

  The first two movies flew by and during each movie break you’d stretched and tossed away the garbage you’d created.

  “Last one for the night,” MJ said, showing everyone the disc and you agreed already yawning from the exhaustion creeping up.

  You heard snickering come from your left and you peeked over to see Liz leaning against Peter and his arm wrapped around her shoulder, their fingers intermingled and you stood up abruptly from your seat, catching everyone’s attention.

  “You ok?” Ned asked, reaching out to take your hand and seat you back down but you retracted your hand and took a step away.

  “Yeah, sorry, I just need some air,” you apologized and walked towards MJ’s room and opened the window, taking a step onto the fire escape and resting against the metallic railing.

  You looked out into the empty void above you, noticing how it looked the same as it always had. No twinkling lights, no shooting stars, no Jupiter or Mars, no belt. Nothing. Of course, it was hard missing out on the beauty that others took for granted but it was almost worse during the day. Considering the sun was also a star, that meant seeing things during the day was a little difficult for you.

  You wiped at your eyes when you heard MJ’s door open and close behind you but you didn’t bother turning around, already knowing who was there to comfort you.

  She didn’t say anything at first, she just stood there beside you and looked up at, what you were sure, was a beautiful sky. A few minutes passed of her just keeping you company when she finally spoke up.

  “You know they say those that can’t see the sky have been specifically chosen by the gods,” MJ chimed, looking out into your void. “They blessed a few rare spirits with the strongest kind of love, the kind that the celestials wished for themselves but those few spirits could not lay eyes on the gods until they met their soulmate. And since the gods are supposed to live among the stars, they couldn’t see the night’s sky. That was the price they had to pay because they were chosen,”

  You scoffed and looked away from the nothingness, “Chosen for what?”

  MJ shrugged her shoulders, her eyes still glued to the abyss, “Who knows? I just know that the myth says you can’t see the Gods because they’re waiting for you to join them once you’re ready,”

  “So, I have to die?” You asked, your tears long gone but your agony ever present.

  MJ chuckled but shook her head, “No, more like actually meet them. Only heroes meet the Gods.” She turned away from the railing and entered her bedroom through the window, “I know you want it to be Peter,” her voice dropped, trying to explain that she felt the pain I felt once, “But maybe you should just let destiny do its thing,”

  You nodded, too weak to verbally respond to her.

  “We’ll be watching the movie, take your time.” MJ opened the door to her room and halted before leaving, “Oh and uh, you’re not missing much, ya know? With the stars? There’s too much light pollution for you to really see anything anyway,”

  The door shut behind you and you sighed when you were rejoined with silence. You looked up at the darkness above and held out your arms, “The Gods, huh?” You asked, almost trying to speak to them, “What do you want with me? I’m no hero,” you whispered, your brave façade torn apart now.

  You turned around when nothing answered, not that you were expecting a response just that you were hoping for a sign or something. But nothing came so you begrudgingly turned back around and joined your group of friends after shooting Brad a text.

  Hey. I know we agreed on tomorrow but how about tonight in an hour or so?

  You watched the rest of the movie, waiting in anxiousness for a response. If you were being honest with yourself, you didn’t want to go on a date with Brad, you just wanted a distraction from Peter. Especially after how much they were cuddling right now.

  Towards the end of the movie your phone vibrated and you pulled it out of your pocket.

  Sure! I’ll be on my way soon.

  You smiled at the message and sent Brad the address.

  After the movie had ended you stood up to help MJ throw away the lingering garbage.

  “So who was the mystery person you texted during the movie?” Ned piped up, taking the garbage from your hands and tossing it into an empty bin.

  “You were texting someone during the movie?” Liz asked, too occupied with Peter to notice anything, not that you’d blamed her.

  You shrugged your shoulders and walked over to the mirror on the wall to make sure you didn’t look too tired for the date. You didn’t particularly care how you looked, you weren’t even that interested, you just didn’t want to come off as a slob.

  “Brad’s picking me up soon, I just wanted to reschedule because I have a lot of studying to do this weekend and I don’t want to waste another day when I can hit everything on the list tonight,” you admitted.

  MJ smiled at you, “Ooh, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,”

  “What wouldn’t you do?” You teased, a devilish smirk on your lips.

  “Exactly,” she responded and you all laughed at her retort. All except Peter.

  A few minutes had passed before you heard a knock at the door and you picked your head up as you finished tying your shoes.

  “Wow, he came to the door and everything,” Ned joked, watching for Peter’s reaction.

  “Such a gentleman,” MJ added and opened her front door, “She’s getting ready, you can wait inside if you want,”

  MJ stepped aside and let Brad through the door. You couldn’t help but look him up and down. Although you weren’t attracted to him and he most certainly was not your soulmate, you weren’t afraid to admit he looked good in his outfit. A simple black shirt and jeans with a black jacket thrown over his shoulder. He looked like a Greaser.

  “Nice outfit,” you complimented, throwing your arms through your own jacket and standing in front of him.

  “Oh, this? It was nothing,” he joked but you could tell by the way his eyebrows furrowed that he was nervous.

  “Alright, get out of here,” MJ shooed you both through her front door, “I want her home by eleven!” MJ said sternly and you knew she’d wait for a text from you to let her know you were perfectly safe.

  “Have fun!” Liz shouted as MJ shut the door behind the two of you.

~

  The date with Brad ended up going okay. There was nothing particularly wrong with him and he tried his hardest to impress you but you just didn’t connect with him in any way so when the date came to a close you denied a ride home and opted to walk home instead. You knew it was stupid and practically asking for danger but you just wanted some fresh air to clear your head. Much to Brad’s insistence, you couldn’t walk home without calling him first and having him on the line until you reached your destination. You appreciated his kindness and agreed to his terms, knowing that it was probably safer that was as well.

  You walked the streets of the city and barely took in your surroundings as your thoughts flooded your head and sidetracked your mind. It was only when you heard a thud that you lifted your head and looked to the now occupied space to your right.

  Your eyes widened as you recognized the blue and red suit and you took a side step before muting your phone.

  “Hi!” He chirped up quickly, the whites that were his eyes on the mask squinted slightly as he waved at you, “Uh, I know this is random but I just noticed you walking by yourself and wanted to know if you were okay,”

  You stared in shock at the masked man and took a step towards the street, “How do I know that you’re not some crazy dude in a mask?”

  “Well, I mean, I kind of am,” He responded and managed to crack a small smile from you.

  “Okay well then how do I know you’re the Spider-Man?” You asked, raising your eyebrow.

  He raised his hand and shot a web at the nearest streetlamp and flung himself around it, landing back at your side. “Proof enough?” He asked.

  “Maybe,” you said jokingly and continued walking at a steady pace.

  “Well is maybe good enough to walk you home?” He insisted.

  You looked him up and down with suspicion but slowly nodded your head and stuffed you phone into your backpack to avoid it flying out. Spider-Man held out his hand for you and brought you close to him. You could feel the warmth radiate from his chest as it pressed against yours and you melted into his arms. There was a welcoming feeling about him that you’d never experienced in anyone else’s arms, it was weird and sudden but familiar and not unwelcome.

  He stiffened for a split second before relaxing and letting you rest your head against his shoulder, “You ready?” He barely spoke above a whisper.

  “Are you sure you can carry me?” You asked last minute and was answered with being flung in the air as Spider-Man slung from building to building and you held on for dear life as the city blurred past you. A few screams managed to escape your lips but you held the rest in as the fear turned to excitement and you embraced the way the ride felt.

  You managed to let him know where your building was, although he was somehow already going in the right direction, and he placed you down on the railing that you said was outside your window.

  “Thank you,” you said, trying to fix your hair and wrapped your arms around yourself when it began to turn cold from the wind.

  “No problem,” he said, his hand going to the back of his head, “Thanks for letting me walk you home,”

  You laughed, “Yeah, well, you can walk me home anytime,” you joked and unlatched your window with the magnet you carried around.

  You stepped into your room and grabbed your blanket before stepping back outside and thanking Brad for staying on the phone with you but that you were home and safe and sound. You managed to leave out the part where Spider-Man was the one that accompanied you home and hung up.

  “So who’s this Brad?” Spider-Man asked, resting against the railing.

  You rolled your eyes, “Just this one guy. He asked me out earlier today and I was just coming back from the date when you picked me up,”

  “A date?” he asked, “And he let you walk home alone?”

  “Not necessarily, I basically had to beg him to let me walk home. I just needed some air to think for a minute,”

  “Why? What’s wrong?” He asked, sitting on the stairs beside your window.

  You shrugged your shoulders and failed to meet his gaze, or what you thought was his gaze, “I’ve just got a few things on my mind, is all,”

  Spider-Man nodded and slowly stood up, “Well I can leave you to your thoughts if that’s what you’d like,”

  “No!” You said, grabbing his hand and holding him in place but then blushing at your action and letting go despite your body telling you not to, “I would actually really like some company right now,” you admitted, feeling your knuckles turn white from the strength of your grasp.

  He stood there for a second, contemplating what you said but nodded and sat back down, “Then my company is what you’ll get,”

  You smiled up at him and the part inside of you that was screaming for his presence subsided a little. You pulled out your phone and sent MJ a text letting her know that you were okay and you were home.

  You talked to Spider-Man about your friends and family, letting him know things about you that you wouldn’t normally tell someone you just met. And he reciprocated by telling you as much as possible without giving away who he was.

  “There’s this one guy,” you started, your cheeks blushing at the thought of Peter, “I’ve had feelings for him for years now,”

  “Years!?” Spider-Man teased, “Who is it?”

  You rolled your eyes, “Like I’m gonna tell you! You probably know him,” you joked, taking a swig of your water bottle and handing him the one he asked for.

  “How would I know him?” He chuckled.

  “I don’t know but you could!” You responded, not budging on telling this kid who your heart belonged to.

  “Can I get a hint?” He asked.

  You smiled but went silent for a minute, “The only thing I’m telling you is that it’s unrequited,” you responded and your smile faded.

  The previous light-hearted ambiance dissolved to be replaced with silence, “He’d be an idiot to not like you,”

  You chuckled at that, “You don’t even know me,”

  He cocked his head slightly but then nodded as if remembering something, “Well, you’ve told me quite a bit about yourself tonight and from what I gather I like you,”

  Your heart leapt for some reason and you cursed yourself for letting simple words like that excite you, “Well he’s also not my soulmate,” you responded, “So it doesn’t even matter,”

  “What’s your indication?” He asked, scooting ever so slightly closer to you.

  You wanted to tell him, you really did, but your embarrassment kept your mouth shut, “Nothing, I’m not even sure I have one,”

  “Everyone has an Indicator,” he said, leaning closer to you.

  You shook your head and stood up slowly, “Maybe another night,” you offered and took a step into your room, “Thank you for keeping me company tonight. I really enjoyed talking to you,”

  He lifted his arm to reach out to you but quickly decided against it, “No problem, I liked talking to you too,”

  You watched as he hopped onto the railing and just as he was about to jump off you cried out, “Wait!” He stopped his motion and turned his head to look at you, “Will I see you again?”

  You could see a smirk form through his mask and he turned back around, “Sooner than you’d think,” he said and jumped off the railing before swinging around the corner of the building and leaving you there wishing that he’d come back.

[thoughtfullyyoungduck]

Misjudgment

Summary: can you do a losers club x reader where the losers save the reader from the bowers gang so they invite her to the losers club, except stan doesn’t trust her bc he’s stan. so then the reader confronts him abt it and then they become friends?

Being the new kid in any new school is difficult a label designed and slapped on your forehead to follow you around and attrack attention because of it. Derry middle school was no exception, and in fact, to you knowledge, was even worse than any other school you had ever been too. Your parents switched jobs a lot, and with that came moving around heaps of times too, so being the new kid wasn’t a state-of-the art experience for you. 

It still sucked, walking into a school, your peers huddled together in group while you, the loner, picked at your fingernails to appear busy and to not get caught staring longingly as two friends giggled and talked about their crushes to one another.

The first time you spotted Bill, leader of the infamous loser club you would soon become a part of, was the same day you first witnessed Henry’s psychotic behavior, plundering Bill’s book bag and lighting it on fire mere inches away from the poor kids face. You had stomped over, snatching the bag out of Henry’s hands, the books were mostly destroyed and missing, and handed it back to the boy who scrambled up.

‘You better stay the fuck away from me you fucking hoer. You must either have a Deathwish or want to date B-b-billy,’ he mocked,’ enough that you don’t care who you piss of, and that mistake, can be deadly here in my town.’

Bill thanked you, asked for your name and invited you to join in on a birdwatching retreat him and his friend were going on, but you declined. The altercation left you rattled and spooked, and you didn’t know Bill or any of his friends, all strangers in a town of even more strangers, and went back home.

That decision had both negative and positive outcomes attached to it. Bowers awaited you along with his goons, emptying a slushie on your head and spitting in your face and hair, humiliating you to the best of their abilities. At one point, they tried to glue a freshly bought pad to your skirt, their tyranny halted as Bill and his followers threatened to call the police on them.

‘That’s what being brave will get you in this town’, Mike said, staring the bowers gang off as they .

‘Yeah, but luckily there’s strength in numbers.’

‘Yup, welcome to the losers club new kid. Ben, you’ve been kicked off the nickname ‘new kid’, I need to find you a new one.’ Richie pondered, tapping his fingers to his chin as he came up with a new nickname for Ben.

Persuading Richie into giving him a different derogatory name was enough for Ben to accept you with open arms in the group, as did almost everyone else, and you gained six new friends, a huge upgrade from the zero friends you had prior to them. The hospitality showed, and you were never forced to eat lunch or walk to class by yourself any longer.

The losers club consisted of seven people, but to your parents you vowed that there we’re only six friends you engaged with, because the seventh member, Stanley, was not your friend. At most, the two of you were acquaintances, people that hung out because of mutual friends.

He never liked you or made an effort to befriend you, his cold demeaner deterring and dynamite to your time dedicated to the losers. Not once did he address you personally, and if someone inquired a question and you would go to respond, Stanley would talk over you, like you were never there in the first place. The whole situation, that you had no inkling on how you ended up in the first place, put a damper on the blossoming friendship, and you often found yourself nail-biting tense, on the lookout for the day the other losers would be tired of the tense underlying issues themselves and kick you to the curb.  

This unease pushed you to confront Stanley about his behavior towards you, as you did not want to end up alone again, and you adored the friends you had made in the losers club too much to let go without a fight.

The opportunity to do this arose one day after school, when only Eddie and Richie, both lounging in the hammock, and Stanley and you are around in the clubhouse. You’re sketching in the a notebook, the one you and Bill share, to compare  various techniques and color schemes, and also because it’s fun and interesting to observe what someone else is crafting.

No one besides Bill and you know of its existence, but it’s not strictly a secret, it’s more of a - none of the others care so why tell them-? You’re seated in the stack of cushions, plumped up by Eddie, in order to protect ones ass against blisters, since that’s thing apparently, and Stanley is fully emerged in a book, as far away from you as the small, incepted space allows.

The drawing is coming along pretty well, the sketch portraying the clubhouse itself and it’s inhabitants, and you’re focusing on measuring the length between the hatchet and the far wall, when Stanley spots the book in your lap.

‘That’s Bill’s,’ he snidest, crossing the room in no time to protectively grab it and cage it in his arms.

‘I know that’, you secure, reaching for the book but too short to actually clasp it. ‘I borrow it from him.’

Stanley stares you down with a level headed look, ‘Oh, really?’ He says so sarcastically you urge to rip out his tongue and render him silent.

‘Yes really. What’s the problem with that Stanley?’

‘Stan the man, chill out’, Richie laughs on edge, squirming in his place as he and Eddie watch the situation unfold.

‘No fuck that. What the fuck did I do to get you to hate me so much?’

‘You know what you did.’

‘Enlighten me, fucking please Stanley.’  The hostility swarming around the two of you is palpable, and it’s containing to build to a crescendo neither are prepared for. His admission could potentially dissolve the undercover threat, a way for you to explain or fix the thing you display that Stanley contempt. But that can only be done if the thing gets pointed out, which so far, it hasn’t.  

‘You are conspiring with Bowers and Patrick, I am onto you.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Just admit it.’

‘Okay, I fucking admit I’m colluding with the same douchebags that tried to defoule me. You got me there Stanley’, you’re seething, rage vibrating in every pore. Richie and Eddie attempt to deflate the situations, but glares from Stanley and you dispirited their focus.

‘Stan, come on,’ Eddie pacifies, ‘why would she do that?’

‘Is it not it convenient that she just so happened to be at the same time and place as Bill is getting beat up? And that she gets attacked right after but somehow escaped any physical damage? Who knows what secrets she’s been tattling?’

‘Well I’m sorry, let me go to them and ask if they would be so kind to punch me in the face’, your voice got more and more hysterical with every word, and you bend down your knees making eye contact with Stanley as you mock him.

‘Stan Urine, This isn’t ‘The Soldier’, they’re no such thing as spies, although Miss K in a spy suit is the fantasy to have for all my wet dreams.’ Richie vulgar joke goes by unnoticed, you and Stan involved in a staring match. You’re the one that breaks eye contact, huffing as you slide on your heels and move to leave.

‘Fine, whatever, I pick up on when I’m not wanted.’

‘No wait. Y/N, don’t go.’  

‘Stan the man gets prickly around the time his period is due, chalk it up to that.’

‘Shut the fuck up Richie no I don’t.’

You force the handle up, resting it a bit above your head and pause, sighing. ‘I’m not conspiring with Bowers, I just wanted to make friends.’ The latch gravitates to the floor after you’ve climbed out, and with it a chapter of your life, now it’s back to being friendless.

Four steps away from the clubhouse, the latch opens again and out tumbles Stan, meticulously lifting himself up by the piece of hardwood that is unscathed with dirt from the ground, and sprints to catch up with you.

‘I am sorry’, he says, flabbergasting you. ‘I should have been more open and accepting, and not my judgmental, evil self. I am not myself if I haven’t eaten a snicker and I apologize,’ Stan rolls his eyes.

‘Those lines were fed to you by Richie’, you state matter of fact, a smile tugging up your lips in spite of your earlier mood set.

‘No they weren’t’, elevates from below ground, conforming your suspicions.

‘Okay, yeah partly. But I do need to apologize. Being so antagonistic was wrong and unnecessary. Can we start over?’

‘I mean, give me back my notes and we’ll make a deal out of it?’

‘Of course.’

[marshmallow-phd]

Catching Rain

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Minseok x Reader

Summary: You were more than satisfied with your life. You attended a nice college, had nice friends, a nice boyfriend. That’s what your life was: nice. You weren’t looking for anything more, so what were you to do when this seemingly harmless boy walked into your life and turned your nice little world into one much more dangerous?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I Epilogue

**

You parked on the side of an empty back road, careful not to stop in any spot that might be muddy. It hadn’t rained for a few days, but with the weather lately, you couldn’t be too careful. The last thing you needed was to have to call Erik and confess to him that you did indeed go out to the woods to take pictures and were now stuck in the mud and needed his help.

A small part of you felt guilty. His concern wasn’t completely unfounded. If he’d had gotten hurt working on a backdrop by himself, whether by falling off a ladder or being hit by a light, you would be hesitant about him doing it again. But each of you were your own person, right? Independent not codependent?

Okay, it was probably time to lay of the self-help books for a while. You took one modern philosophy class and it had been a downward spiral from there. Perhaps it was time to give the supernatural genre a try.

The trees smelled intoxicating. Mixed with the humidity in the air, it was the kind of scent that could outperform even the most expensive of perfumes. It was an aroma that surrounded you, engulfed you in its arms the further into the woods you went. The peaceful smile that pulled on the corners of your lips were automatic, involuntary. Not that you would fight if you could. Despite the rumors of wolves running around, you were comfortable here.

Deep within the forest, a wide, oval clearing full of browned wildflowers rested. Bits of green here and there tried to break through the foliage that had died during the harsh winter. Their odds of making it through might not have been great, but you admired their tenacity.

These clearings were common in the woods and yet, they were your favorite places to capture. From one angle, it could seem like you were lost in a fast labyrinth of Mother Nature. Another, a prairie that belonged to another region entirely. The possibilities were endless if you really thought about it. And each clearing, you’d discovered, was unique within itself. Its shape, the plants it held, the thickness of the grass. You knew you hadn’t found every one yet, but you were determined to someday. For now, though, you would have stick with this particular clearing that you had visited before, as it was close to the road for a quick getaway, should you need it.

Sliding the bags off your shoulder, you crouched down and dug through until you found your notebook. The pages were unlined, which allowed you to right down your thoughts and ideas at odd angles. To you, it gave the otherwise somewhat boring inside a more artistic aesthetic. The plain leather cover was soft in your hands, worn from the amount of use and abuse you’d put it through. It wasn’t exactly common for photographers to write out their ideas before shooting. Some drew out the scene they wanted to capture, trying out different angles in their imagination. Most didn’t do any sort of prep like this at all. But you preferred to write it out, especially since most of your ideas tended to come at the most inconvenient times. Scribbling down half-coherent words tended to be quicker than a sketch.

After a quick review of your latest ideas, you tossed the notebook down and turned on your camera. You took several test shots, adjusting each settling until you came to the look you were searching for. Long shots and close ups, you photographed nearly every square foot of that clearing in order to get that one picture. That one picture that took everyone’s breath away, that made them stop and tilt their head every which way in order to take the scene in at all possible viewpoints. You wanted to them to see the world the way you did.

So in tuned to what you were doing, you hadn’t noticed the pair of eyes watching you from the shadows. They gave off the faintest glow filled with curiosity as they hovered in the air. You snapped a few photos in their direction, still unaware of their presence, and then lowered the camera to look back on the shots. At first, when you clicked through the pictures, you didn’t notice the tiny amber dots that blended in with the foliage. But by the fourth picture, you stopped.

Never before had you been scared by this place. Then again, the only animals you’d ever encountered before were rabbits and deer and other mostly harmless critters. These did not look like the eyes of a friendly Disney sidekick. Ice ran down your spine. You couldn’t run. If it was a predator, that would only encourage it. So, you tried to remain as still as possible while lifting your eyes to the spot that the animal was hiding. Perhaps there was a chance that it wouldn’t sense your fear and would take your stare down as a reason to walk away.

No such luck.

The leaves under its paws rustled as it stepped forward into the sun.

A tannish wolf with a long black strip down its back revealed itself. But it didn’t look menacing. In fact, though you might have been fooling yourself, it seemed almost… curious? Confused? It was hard to read the expression since you couldn’t fully compare it to a human. With slow, thoughtful steps, it came closer. You tried to remain still, tried not to move. The strain was causing your legs to tremble slightly. Now, you felt tremendously stupid for not listening to Willa’s warning about wolves. Was this considered an ironic moment? You weren’t entirely sure since language arts had never been your strong suit.

Unable to keep you upright anymore, your legs gave out. At least you landed on your butt with your camera hanging safely around your neck. Your fingernails dug into the dirt next to you as the wolf came closer, still at that same cautious pace. Harder and harder, your heart pounded in your ears. The wolf paused for a few seconds before continuing on. Could it hear your terrified pulse? Silently, you said your goodbyes as the wolf erased all space between you. Its muzzle nudged your cheek, coming to a stop near your ear. It sniffed deeply, then jumped back.

Your eyes widened, somewhat relieved that it hadn’t pounced, but also confused. Why wasn’t it attacking? Why did it look spooked?

The wolf sat back, head tilting back and forth as it studied you. It made no threatening moves or sounds. The tips of its ears perked up and it let out a sound that was eerily similar to a scoff.

“I guess you’re not hungry then?” An odd thing to say out loud to an animal that couldn’t talk, but you blamed it on the shock of the whole situation.

The wolf responded with a short puff of air before lowering itself down to its stomach.

This was… surreal. All the other animals you’d ever encountered had either kept their distance or ran away at the slightest sound. And yet, here was this wolf, laying in front of you, not vicious or aggressive. It was almost… cute, in a way.

“You’re a strange creature,” you said out loud. The wolf apparently took that as a sign to come closer. Crawling on its stomach, it took came to the point where it was almost able to rest its head in your lap-

The shrill sound of your current favorite song ripped through the air. You gasped, jumping up to your feet and running to your bag where you desperately searched through the pockets until you found your phone. It was Willa.

“Hello?”

“Hey, where are you?”

“I, um,” you glanced at the wolf who had jumped up to its feet. “I got bored so I’m just out driving around. Why?”

“Jiyoung called and asked last second to switch shifts at the coffee shop and so I’m free for the evening. And I’m hungry.”

You laughed a little at her not-so-subtle hint. “Alright. Give me twenty minutes to get back to the dorm. How does brick oven pizza sound?”

“Like heaven.”

“Okay, then. See you soon.” You ended the call and looked up, meeting eyes with the wolf. It never broke contact and in turn, gave you a bit more bravery. Lifting up the camera, you snapped a single shot of the wolf. “I’ll be back.” A strange promise to make, but you said it anyway. You wanted another encounter with this mysterious creature. Gathering up your things, you hurried out of the clearing and back through the trees to your car, still sitting on the side of the road.

It took less than twenty minutes to make it back to the university. Back at the dorm, Willa was lying on her bed, scrolling through her phone mindlessly. She sat up as soon as you came through the door.

“Fun drive?” she asked.

You shrugged. “It was fine.”

“No exciting scenes to snap?”

Her tease made you roll your eyes. “No, not really. Now, come on. I thought you said you wanted to eat?”

Not missing a beat, Willa jumped up from the bed, snatched up her purse, and pulled you out of the room, contemplating out loud which signature pizza sounded good.

**

Minseok growled as he ran through the forest. How he could have possibly lost those three was beyond him. Being unable to find them now was even more stupefying. They were loud, how could he not know which direction to take? He had to be careful. This part of the forest was close to the back roads and Junmyeon was worried they were being spotted too often. If the three them weren’t paying attention-

Click. Click. Click.

Minseok brought himself to a halt at the strange sound. There wasn’t any sort of pattern to it, but there was an underlying shuttering that seemed vaguely familiar. Too curious to just ignore it, Minseok headed in the direction e suspected it came from. Once he found the answer, he’d go back to finding the others.

The sound led him to one of the many clearings in the woods. A person wandering around the area taking pictures seemed to be the source, a camera in their hands. You appeared to be alone. Odd since not many ventured out in the forest by themselves. The isolation didn’t seem to bother you, though as you carelessly went about your task.

Staying in the shadows, Minseok watched your back as you continued to photograph the nature around you. Something… something strange was tingling in his shoulders, like the muscle beneath the skin had fallen asleep. Without prompt from him, his paw moved forward. He should be leaving. Be gone before you spotted him. But he couldn’t do it. Something told him to wait.

That’s when you turned around. By the way you kept taking pictures, you hadn’t seen him. It wasn’t until you lowered the camera to review the film did you freeze. And you weren’t the only one.

Something in Minseok’s world snapped when he saw your face. His muscles contracted, shivered and ached.

Go! an inner voice urged. He tried to turn his body in the opposite direction of you, but failed. Not that way! He had no choice but to obey. So he stepped closer to you. Your eyes snapped up, meeting his own. In his chest, his heart accelerated. What was this? What was going on?

Slightly fighting each movement, Minseok broke out from the tree line and into the clearing. It was obvious you were frightened. And he was breaking all the rules by revealing himself. Logic could not win, however. He kept walking. Even after you fell backwards, he was only able to pause for a brief second. Your rapidly beating heart was loud in his own sensitive ears. But he wasn’t so sure that it was completely out of fear. He needed to be closer. So closer he went. The whiskers of his muzzle brushed against your cheek, sending a lightning bolt through his body. He took in your scent and reeled back. 

You smelled human. You were human. But… there’s something different about you and he couldn’t fathom what it might be. 

“I guess you’re not hungry then?” you said oddly. 

Minseok laughed. Well, as much as he could with this ribcage and these vocal cords. Overwhelmed, he adjusted to a more comfortable position. The feeling in his chest was almost all consuming and it weighed him down. He’d seen plenty of humans on his runs, but this had never happened before. Was this something that would only happen because he was in his wolf form? Or would he still feel like this if he saw you on two legs?

With a glimmer in your eye, you sighed, “You’re a strange creature.” 

Taking that as sign, he tested the waters and pulled himself across the grass with his front paws, closing the gap between you. 

A song suddenly cut through the air and forced him to a stop before he could rest his head in your lap - an action that he was itching to try out. You jumped up with a gasp and ran to the bags resting at the bottom of a tree. Frantically, you searched the pockets until you found the source of the noise, answering the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, where are you?” asked a female voice on the other end. 

“I, um,” you glanced over him, making him jump to his feet. Will you tell your friend the truth?  “I got bored so I’m just out driving around. Why?”

He almost let out a sigh from relief. Talk of an overly friendly wolf would be bad, especially if it spread through town and more people ventured into the woods to try and encounter him. 

“Jiyoung called and asked last second to switch shifts at the coffee shop and so I’m free for the evening. And I’m hungry.”

You laughed. “Alright. Give me twenty minutes to get back to the dorm. How does brick oven pizza sound?”

“Like heaven.”

“Okay, then. See you soon.” You hung up the call and met his eyes again. Impulsively, you took one last picture of him, which he didn’t shy away from. “I’ll be back,” you promised softly. 

Minseok could no longer feel the ground beneath him. He just stood there, watching as you ran through the trees in the direction of the road. When his senses came back to him, he noticed a small brown square hidden among the tan grass. He went closer to inspect what the object was. It was a notebook. 

It must be yours. 

Scooping the leather-bound book in his mouth, he took off after you. Following your scent through the forest was easy – it stood out like a pink flower in a sea of green grass. But he wasn’t quick enough. He caught the sight of your tail lights far down the road. He would have to keep a hold of the notebook until he saw you again. You did say that you would be back. 

Or you could track her down? 

Minseok shook that thought away. How would he ever explain that without giving away his true nature?

Giving up for the time being, he turned around and decided to head back to the house. There was no way he could find the others now. And with you gone, the elated feeling disappeared, leaving him weighted as if he were being dragged down into the earth. Each step was anchored down. It took him much longer to get back to the farm house. 

Several other members were scattered about the house, either working on their studies or clowning around. Your notebook tucked between his clothes and held close to his chest, he headed up to his room. After a quick shower, he got dressed once again and sat on the end of his bed. In his hands, he flipped the notebook over and over. He contemplated opening it. But that would be invading, wouldn’t it? But he wanted to find out about you. 

So he pulled open the cover. 

Inside, in the top right hand corner of the first page was your name. He smiled, saying it softly over and over. It felt… right on his lips. Your face hovered in his mind. It fit you so well, like a jacket tailored with perfection. 

The nature of wolves was an odd kind. There was a constant urge to belong. To belong to a pack and then… to belong to a person. 

Ever since he was young, he was told about how someday he find that special person whose soul was connected to his. Fate predetermined who that person would be and no one could ever fill the void that existed until that person came along. Ordinary humans would never experience that kind of feeling, that kind of love. The type of love for the wolf that could only be given by one person. 

A mate. 

Was that what you were? None of his brothers were mated. They were all free – some taking more advantage of the situation than others. Occasionally, they would joke about who would be first. Some thought it might be Yixing, given his soft heart and the genuine warmth he radiated. Others liked to joke that it would be Baekhyun or Jongin, the big serial daters of the pack. Minseok, though, had his money set on Jongdae. That wolf had barely been able to give in to the call of the pack when he first joined them all. He was verbally against the idea of mating, more so than anyone else. Opening up to people was not a strong suit of the younger wolf and Minseok couldn’t wait to see what kind of journey that would be once he was forced to. 

Minseok would have been the last person on everyone’s mind for the mated list. Not for any malicious reasons, just because he didn’t venture out very much beyond school so the odds of meeting someone new were low. Or so he thought. He liked being out at the house, being home. He was the very definition of “homebody”. Ironic that he ended up meeting you out here. 

Knock, knock, knock. 

He looked up and quickly hid the notebook beneath his pillows, just in time before Junmyeon, the alpha, peaked his head in. “Minseok?”

“Yeah?”

Junmyeon looked back towards the hallway. “Yeah, he’s in here!” he yelled. “Tell Jongdae to stop worrying!” 

Minseok laughed. Naturally, they leave him behind but then they get worried. He was the eldest, always looking after the others. And yet, oftentimes, it didn’t feel like that. 

Where he thought that might be the end of the checkup, Junmyeon, instead, closed the door behind him and sat down on the bed beside him. 

“Everything okay?” he asked. 

Minseok nodded. “Yeah, of course. Why?”

“I saw the look on your face when you came in,” Junmyeon explained. “You looked troubled.”

The two of them weren’t the closet out of the whole pack. In fact, there were times where it was awkward between them, the role of the alpha and the role of eldest clashing at times. But other times, he was the best one to turn to. 

“What do you know about the mating aspect of us?” 

Junmyeon pursed his lips, thinking. “The mating aspect? Only the basics, really. That when you meet that one person, that’s it. And you’re supposed to live happily ever after.” He laughed at the cheesy line, releasing some of the tension. 

Minseok couldn’t help but laugh along. It died out soon, though, as his mind went back to his current dilemma. “They always say you just know after one look. Do you think that’s right?”

“Yes, I do,” the alpha confirmed. “That’s all it takes. You feel it in here.” He tapped his chest, right about his heart. “Minseok? Why are you asking about this?”

He weighed his options. If this wasn’t what he thought it was and the others found out, he would never hear the end of it from them. But having someone validate his theory would ease some of the strain. 

“I think I found her.”

[celestelavie]

Food for Thought || Celeste & Luce

TIMING: Current PARTIES: @divineluce and @celestelavie SUMMARY: Celeste gets off work early and decides to drop off some lunch for Ulfric. He’d already gone home for the day, so Luce and Celeste enjoy a nice lunch together.

While she wasn’t quite sure she’d say Ulfric liked her, Celeste could pick up on the fact he felt less tense around her. Of course, he was never anything less than courteous to her and she was doing her best to show him as much kindness as possible. After all, he’d opened up his home to them and was working diligently to insure Ariana’s safety. Since she had cut from work early for the day, she decided she could bring lunch by the shop for Ulfric on her way home. There was no doubt in her mind that he’d be a fan of red meat if Ariana’s affinity for it was any indication. She’d brought two burgers and some fries with her to the shop, hoping she would catch Ulf during a break between appointments. She didn’t love hanging around in her Al’s uniform, but a short lunch wouldn’t hurt. As she walked into the shop, she saw no sign of Ulfric. She walked up to a young woman who was sitting at the counter and asked, “Is Ulfric around?” 

Usually, Luce wasn’t in the business of covering the receptionist desk. She’d done her time doing that as an apprentice, answering phone calls and getting the calendars all set up. But, the girl who usually ran the desk today had to run because of a family emergency and Luce had time to kill. The design for her appointment later today was finalized and she was more than happy to get some work done on her own art pieces. Which is why she was sitting at the desk, sketch book in front of her. When the bell above the door jangled, Luce glanced up woman who approached. Older, probably around Bea’s age or so, but cute. The uniform helped too. “Ulf? You just missed him.” Luce said with a shake of her head, glancing at the bag of food in her hands. “Let me check his calendar though, see if he might pop back in soon.” She said, scrolling through the computer, “Damn. Sorry, he’s gone for the rest of the day.”

Damn. Celeste hadn’t taken into account he may have not had appointments for the rest of the afternoon. It was usually a little later in the afternoon that she’d see him come home. Oh well, she supposed she had entirely too much food now. She looked to the woman who had been working on a sketch. She wondered if this was the woman Ariana mentioned was helping with Ulfric’s birthday gift. If she had to guess, the woman was a few years younger than her but clearly established in her trade. Good for her. “I probably should have called first, I was bringing lunch since I got off work early today.” Looking down at the now greasy bags in her hand, she said, “Hey, you must be the artist helping Ariana with Ulf’s birthday gift. Care for a cheeseburger?” 

“Eh, shit happens.” Luce said with a shrug. She still wasn’t entirely sure why this woman was here-- she didn’t think that Al’s was doing delivery. And if they were, they needed to work on making sure to send the delivery folks to the right location. But, when the woman mentioned her project for Ariana, bringing up Ulf again, Luce raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, that’s me. She’s a good kid, I’m surprised she wanted to do something this big for him, but it’s a cool project for me to work on.” At the offer of food, she leaned back in her chair before tilting her head towards another one of the other empty stools nearby. Perhaps it was just because of the value of magic, of everything being a give and take, but she didn’t particularly like handouts. But, a trade? She could get behind that. “Tell you what. I’ll take a cheeseburger in exchange for company. It gets boring at the desk.” Figuring that wasn’t much of a trade, Luce added, “I’ll throw in a drawing for some fries, if you’ve got them.”

Celeste was glad to hear that this was in fact the woman helping out Ariana. From what she’d seen of the updates so far, it was shaping up to be an impressive piece. Though she was sure from the outside looking in, it was odd that a teenager was making such a big gift for Ulfric. If it hadn’t been for their shared nature, Celeste would have found it odd as well. She shrugged with a toothless grin on her face, “I think she’s really excited about diving into the whole carpentry thing. Plus, he’s done a lot for both of us. She tends to be very go big or go home or whatever it is the kids are saying these days,” she explained with a laugh. The prospect of company that wasn’t a teenager or a werewolf who was merely tolerating her presence actually sounded quite nice. Taking care of tables at Al’s was truly about as social as she got these dies though as much was probably wise all things considered. Lunch with Luce sounded like good fun. She smiled wide at the woman being sure to overlook the bruised nose, “Company would be delightful. I haven’t had the chance to make many friends since moving here so most of my conversations are ‘how would you like your eggs’, teenager things, or Ulf swearing in Norweigian.” She said the last bit with a laugh. It was actually quite amusing, but she was sure he didn’t think as much. At the mention of a drawing, Celeste smirked and said, “Well, I guess it’s my lucky day then since I brought fries. I suppose if we’re dining together, I should properly introduce myself.” She extended her hand, “I’m Celeste, Ariana’s older sister and waitress extraordinaire.” She motioned to the ridiculous little 50s get-up she had to wear to work every day. 

“Sounds like it’s working out really well for her. The piece of wood she gave me should make for a good table. I’m just hoping that the design turns out how she wants.” Luce said with a nod before grabbing one of the chairs from around the desk and cleared a spot for the woman to join. “Well, I’m not ordering eggs, the teenager ship set sail a long time for me, but I do know some choice Norwegian swears, courtesy of the man himself.” She said with a grin. “Turkish is my language of choice for swearing, though.” Luce said with a wink before scooting out of the way to let the woman sit beside her. “Nice to meet you, Celeste. I’m Luce, the best thing that happened to Ulf’s shop. Short of him, you know, opening up the place.” She said, before switching gears. “How’d you and Ulfric know each other?” Was she the totally not kinky lady who was looking for the rope and mayonnaise? 

While this wasn’t her original plan, Celeste was pleased with how it worked out. She had the feeling Luce would be a little more chatty than Ulfric was with her. Bless his heart, he did try and be as kind to her as possible, but the underlying tension was hard to ignore. One day, he’d be able to trust her fully and she could hardly blame him that it was something that needed to be earned. It didn’t mean lunch with a woman who was close enough in age to her wouldn’t be a welcome change of pace. “Thank god,” she said with a laugh, “If I have to hear over-easy, YEET, or faen one more time today, I might actually lose it.” She joined her for a seat and pulled out the burgers and fries, passing Luce’s lunch down to her. “Turkish, huh? You speak fluently or are the swear words your specialty?” There was a small smirk on her lips before she picked at a few of the french fries. The next question should have been expected, but she wasn’t quite sure how to answer it. It’s not like she could just say Ulfric was her sister’s wolfy mentor or protector. She couldn’t even quite define it herself and knew it wasn’t something she was meant to understand. “I guess you could say he’s a family friend. He’s helped Ariana and myself out a great deal with things as of late, I thought it’d be nice to drop by some lunch for him on my way home.” Celeste found herself curious about Luce as well. Her face was a little bruised up which was a call for question in itself, but she seemed young and established. “How long have you known Ulfric? It seems like you’ve made quite the career for yourself here.” 

“I’ll be sure to keep my extensive knowledge of memes out of lunch, then.” Luce laughed, accepting the container with the burger and fries with an appreciative nod. It beat the sandwich she’d thrown together this morning, for damn sure. She was usually pretty on top of her shit, but after the run in she and Nell had with August after the coven meeting… it had rattled her, more than she’d like to admit. Pushing the thought from her mind, she focused on the woman next to her. “Fluent, nah. Conversational enough to piss off the grandparents? Bunu kolayca yapabilirim.” She said, the language rolling off her tongue. “I can certainly teach you some swears, if you’re interested.” Luce smirked and took a bite from her burger. She hadn’t forgotten her part of the deal, but getting burger grease on her sketch pad was the last thing she wanted. So, she watched the Celeste speak instead. “He’s a good guy, he does a lotta shit like that.” She nodded, thinking back to his request for some kind of magic protection thing from her sisters. He still owed her for that. She’d have to cash it at some point. Swallowing, Luce wiped her mouth with a napkin before flipping her arm over, showing Celeste the inside of her right arm and the large lightbulb tattoo that lay there. “He did this for me when I was 18. We got to talking, about art and shit, and he told me I was wasting my time in college. Turns out, he was right. I quit school and took an apprenticeship here within a month.”

“I’m not that old, I still enjoy a good meme,” Celeste retorted with a laugh. Memes she could deal with. Her patience was running a bit thin when it came to TikToks though, especially since Ariana had discovered she could make them herself and took to pranking Celeste. It was funny how technology cycled. When she was Ariana’s age, MySpace had just been dying and was being replaced by Facebook. Now there was a whole slew of channels that she couldn’t quite be bothered with. She took a bite out of her burger and had to choke back a laugh, “Nothing quite as fun as pissing the grandparents off, or the parents too if you’re me. Do I get a translation for that bit?” She smirked as she set the burger down to trade for a few fries, “I may just have to take you up on that.” She had a mouth full of burger as she listened to Luce speak. There was no doubt in her mind that Ulfric was a good man. She knew her invite to stay in his home was primarily due to Ariana, but allowing a hunter in his home, even one that didn’t hunt wolves, was more kindness than she could have expected. She had no doubt he showed kindness to others as well. “I could see that,” she said simply, not wanting to touch too much on how Ulfric had helped her and Ariana personally. She imagined it had to be nice discovering a career and diving in at such a young age. She was happy Ariana was able to do as much as well. “That’s pretty impressive, I thought you seemed pretty young to be so established in your field. I’ve always imagined tattooing to be a pretty fun job. What’s the most fun piece you’ve ever given someone?” 

“My b,” Luce raised her hands innocently and laughed herself before grabbing a couple fries from the box. Chewing, she shrugged. “I said, I can do that easily. My sisters and I learned English and Turkish at the same time, but since we speak English all the time, it’s the one that stuck the most. That said, I can tell you all the fun swears that Ulfric doesn’t know. Like… ciğerini sikeyim.” She said with a roguish grin. “Literally, it means fuck your liver, but it basically is like… a really strong version of go fuck yourself.” She explained and took another bite from the burger before setting it back down in the tray. Dusting her hands free of crumbs, she flipped to a clean page of her sketchpad. “Thanks. It’s a good time, gives me a lot of freedom to be as creative as I want. Within the realm of what my clients are looking for.” She said with a nod. Tapping her pencil on the sheet, she began to do some rough sketches, drawing aimlessly. “Depends on what you think is fun. Visually fun, I once did a rad Neo-traditional sailing ship and mermaid scene. Fun for me personally to create, I did a great blackwork leg sleeve.” She said. “Both were great, I liked them a lot.”

“Ciğerini sikeyim,” Celeste said slowly, trying to get the pronunciation correct, “I like that one. I’m definitely using it the next time someone pisses me off.” She laughed as she picked at more of her french fries, “I get that, my parents tried to teach me French and German growing up, but really English is the only one that solidly stuck. I can order a beer in all three languages though. Clearly, I have my priorities straight.” There was a small smirk on her lips before she took another bite out of her burger. A slight pang of sadness hit her listening to Luce talk about her own career. Being on the run since the age of sixteen didn’t make for great career opportunities. Maybe one day, if things settled down and she no longer had to worry about her parents, she could actually pursue Nursing School as she had always wanted to do. “It sounds like you made a great choice hopping into the field then. I hope to get on the better late than never track with some sort of actual career. I definitely have a limited number of years of this getup still looking good on me,” she remarked with a chuckle as she gestured down towards her ridiculous 50s get-up that was customary at Al’s. She watched curiously as Luce pulled out her sketchpad. “Both sound fascinating. I’ve always toyed around with the idea of getting a tattoo, but have never actually committed to an idea. I did used to want to be a mermaid when I grew up. Given, that was six year old me’s aspiration.” 

Pleased with her quick grasp of the pronunciation, Luce nodded. “For sure, give it a shot the next time someone decides to be a dick at Al’s or something.” She said. Raising an eyebrow, Luce grinned. “I dunno, beer is very important. Alcohol’s an essential food group in my book.” She joked, amused. Though Turkish was one of the two languages she’d learned growing up, she’d been forced to take a foreign language in high school which meant she’d suffered through a couple years of Spanish. The most she could remember, beyond asking for a beer and saying that was a tiger in bed, was probably asking where the library was. “It’s never too late to start doing something new,” Luce agreed. “What are you thinking of doing, hm?” As the woman mentioned something about being a mermaid, Luce’s pencil shifted. Pulling away from the odd doodles and random assortment of shapes in uniform patterns she’d done as a warm up, she glanced up at the woman. “You like the ocean? Or just the idea of it?” She asked, beginning to scrawl some curving lines onto the page.

A proud smile appeared on Celeste’s face as she realized she had gotten the pronunciation spot on. She’d enjoyed learning new languages, but being out of practice made it easy to forget them. “You are just filled with good ideas. I can’t get written up for swearing if no one knows what I’m saying,” she mused with a small laugh. Some of the middle of the night drunk crowd deserved that level of swearing. She’d polished off her own burger and neatly crinkled up the wrapper and placed it back in the paper bag. Her eyes drifted to the sketchpad and she found herself in awe of how people could just bring things to life on paper that way. Luce’s question caught her attention and she found she felt somewhat sheepish about it. “One day, I’d like to do the whole nursing school thing. I’ve always enjoyed helping people and I’m good with first aid. Not at all squeamish, but we’ll see. Ari is starting to work now too, so it's a little less pressure on me to put in so many hours myself.” She looked down momentarily before adding, “Maybe don’t mention that to Ariana though. I wouldn’t want her to feel bad.” She smiled easily again at the talk of mermaids and the ocean. Much easier to think about than trying to tackle college after thirty. Logically, she knew college when she was taking care of a five year old werewolf wasn’t realistic, but the part of her that had been a perfectionist back in grade school still felt off about the whole thing. “What can I say? I really loved The Little Mermaid growing up. I think it was more about Ariel than it was about the ocean though,” she answered with a chuckle, “The ocean is fascinating. More of a mountain girl myself, but there’s something serene about listening to the waves.” 

“I know, right? I should start charging for all the good ideas I’ve got rattling around.” Luce replied, her easy smile still on her face. “First one’s free, next ones cost ya.” She said roguishly before returning her focus onto the image at hand. Listening came easily to Luce-- after all, it was part of her job. People liked to chatter while they were in pain. They liked to talk, to distract themselves, so she was no stranger to being able to hold a conversation while also working on a tattoo. And this wasn’t all that different. “A nurse, huh? That’s pretty cool. Helping people and doing good and stuff. And don’t worry, my lips are sealed.” She said with a shrug. Leaning back from the small ocean scene she’d drawn up, Luce scrutinized the cresting wave before taking her eraser to it. Not quite what she wanted. At the mention of the woman’s interest in the Little Mermaid, she raised an eyebrow. Oh? “That’s a big fucking mood. Ariel could get it. Then again, pretty much any of the Disney princesses can.” She said. At the mention of mountains, Luce began to draw a scene just along the shoreline of the beach. She drew in a forest scene, something similar to the way the beaches outside of White Crest looked, with tall pine trees looming just beyond the sand. “How’s this looking?” She asked, holding up the image.

“You might be onto something there. The illusive they always say if you’re good at something, don’t do it for free,” Celeste smirked and added, “Thanks for the introductory freebie.” It was nice to have someone outside of her coworkers and current roommates to talk with. She’d never really expressed her own aspirations before. With being on the run and having her parents try to track them down, it never seemed like something feasible anyhow. Ariana was dead set on staying here though so she supposed she could go ahead and enroll for classes at the community college. Luce was nice to talk to though she supposed it was part of the job. “Yes, I was thinking about enrolling in classes at the community college for the fall now that we are permanently staying somewhere and Ariana also has a job. And thanks.” Celeste had never been great at drawing or painting, so it was fascinating to see someone work at it so naturally. Luce seemed to be really in her element and there was something sort of relaxing about it. She found herself immediately laughing at the remark about Disney princesses, “I really vibed with her because of the parental defiance thing, but you’re not wrong. All the Disney princesses are pretty hot. If we’re going for hot animated chicks though, the Sailor Scouts are where it’s at. Tuxedo Mask can also get it on that note.” She looked over the drawing and grinned widely. A mountain beach scene was what she’d always hoped for in a place to build a home. She answered, “It’s looking perfect.” 

“Damn straight.” Luce said approvingly, the only time straight could be used to describe her. “You’re more than welcome. Next one though, you’ll have to pay me back. I’ll be keeping track too.” Adding a bit more detailing work onto the curl of the wave, she began to shade, adding in some of the finer lines and curves to the way it crested. It was all coming together, into one coherent piece. Her pencil flowed over the page, the image forming just as it had in her mind. “That’s a solid plan. Save money where you can and all that, nobody will knock you for community college.” She nodded. Money had never been a thing that she’d ever had to worry about-- Mom and Dad had always had that on lock. But, still. She could relate, sort of. She’d been hellbent on trying to get away from their influence on her life. Getting her cabin had been a part of that and taking her apprenticeship was an ever larger part. “Parental defiance, huh? I get that.” Luce said, gesturing to her sleeve of tattoos. Her parents had been... disappointed when they’d seen her first tattoo. But, whatever. “That’s the whole, Sailor Moon thing, right? Some of the guys at the shop have done tattoos of that show for people. I was never into it. I might have to check it out.” She said, though her eyes flicked meaningfully over Celeste. She’d much rather check her out. “Awesome. I can ink it and then we’re square for lunch.”

“What’s the running rate on your good ideas? Have to make sure I’m not taking more ideas than I can afford and all,” Celeste joked with an eyebrow raised. The normalcy of their whole conversation was a welcomed change. No talk of hunters, werewolves, or eggs and burgers. It didn’t hurt that Luce had a pretty good sense of humor and was easy to talk to. She tried to keep an eye on the page as Luce drew. There was clearly some natural talent there backed by years of practice. “Yeah, I’m pretty good about being frugal with money, given for a while it was more out of necessity.” Running off with a werewolf child aside, one of the bigger cruel shocks of the real world was how fucking expensive everything was. Growing up, she’d always had money because of her parents. It had been a rude awakening, but somehow they’d made it. She laughed a bit over their shared parental defiance. “Can’t say my defiance was quite so visual, but I’m effectively disowned,” she said with a shrug. It was a subject she tried to be casual about. The news of her parents having a bounty on her and Ariana and wanting them both dead was a little extreme by most standards. “I loved it as a kid. Then again, I tend to enjoy anything where it’s the girls saving the day. A little cheesy as an adult, but you may appreciate the outfits,” she explained catching Luce’s look over her. Color rose in her cheeks and looked down with a small smile before looking back up to Luce. She certainly wasn’t subtle, but she kind appreciated that. “Right, totally square. I still think I got the better end of this trade, but I’ll take it.” 

“Depends on what you’d be willing to pay.” Luce teased as she sifted through the cup of pens on the desk for a fine ballpoint. “Could be some good conversation or a new idea for a sketch. Or a kiss.” She flashed a cheeky grin at the other woman before setting to work with the inking. The lines were already pretty clean, but inking it in was what really brought it all together. “For sure. It’s a good way to live.” She said, though she really didn’t have much room to speak. Though she might have bought her own cabin, her parents had still done a lot for her. A lot more than she’d ever wanted. At the woman’s admission of her own familial situation, Luce said nothing. Instead, she focused on her linework. People had told her things like that before-- how they were getting a tattoo as a final ‘Fuck you’ to their parents, or as some kind of cleansing to erase the past that haunted them. And it was always better to say less, rather than more. “Makes sense why you’d relate to her then.” She replied, keeping her tone neutral. “Well, now I have to give it a watch.” Luce laughed and blew on the wet ink for a moment before taking her eraser to the picture. “Oh? You don’t think my trade was fair?”

“Hm, seems I can afford another good idea then,” Celeste retorted with a smirk. Maybe flirting with a member of Ulfric’s staff wasn’t entirely appropriate, but it was probably harmless. It was nice to get attention that wasn’t entirely inappropriate from older men during breakfast rushes. She watched Luce continue working on the finishing touches of the sketch, relieved she didn’t push further on the parent thing. Everyone had their own family issues of some sort and it was a lot more comforting to not go into the details. She rested her head on her knuckles as she observed Luce incredulously. She made the whole process look so effortless and she seemed to be really in her element. It was a nice sight to see. She imagined that applied even more when she was behind the tattoo needle. At the mention of relating to the sailor scouts, she laughed, “Thanks. And I thought that little bit of information might win you over.” Her head tilted a bit on her palm watching Luce dry the ink, there really was so much that went into drawing that was beyond her. “Oh,” she answered, “I think new art and your company is a little bit better than a not quite hot lunch, but no complaints here.”

 “How about this one-- You and me, getting drinks sometime. It sounds like a good idea in my book.” Luce asked, looking at the woman with an earnest expression. Celeste was hot, she was hot, it’d be hot. And besides, what was she gonna lose by shooting her shot? The worst that could happen was she’d get turned down. With a final look at the picture, Luce nodded to herself before putting her signature on the bottom right corner of the page. A large looping L with a slash of a V. “You thought right.” She said as she held out the completed picture for the woman to take. She could still see some places she didn’t like, some spots where the waves met that looked weird, a tree with some branches that didn’t make much sense. But, it was a quick drawing. “The way I see it, I came out with some good art practice, good conversation, and,” She picked up her half eaten burger and bit into it, “The satisfaction of eating my boss’s lunch.” 

The suggestion has caught Celeste a bit off guard, but she figured what harm could come from it? It’d been a long while since she’d actually been out… with well, anyone. She’d enjoyed hanging out with Luce and there was no denying she was a beautiful woman. What could it hurt? “I think that may be your best idea today,” she answered with a wide grin. Grabbing a pen out of the pocket in her uniform, she scribbled her number down from a paper on her order pad and handed it to Luce with a small smile still present on her face. “Text me sometime.” she advised, keeping her tone cool. As she looked over the finished product, she was somewhat in awe. Luce had finished it so quickly yet it came out lovely. A perfect little scene that she’d have to hang up in their current room. It was definitely more tasteful than that one creepy painting Ari insisted on keeping up. “I love it,” she said, “And alright, alright. We can call it even then.” She picked up her purse again and looked to Luce one last time as she left, “Hope to see you again soon.”

[ot3]

COLORING WITH COLORED PENCILS: A GUIDE OF QUESTIONABLE AUTHORITY

Robbie asked me to make a guide to colored pencil coloring so im doing this for her. PLEASE KNOW i have not had any formal Training with colored pencils so this is all picked up from observation. Take it with a grain of salt.This is the pic I worked on, in one of its middle stages.

Here it is with a bunch of unnecessary and extraneous color on top at the end, as i show the way you can continue to modulate color with layering.

 Anyway. Lets go.

When I’m drawing in colored pencil, I always start sketching immediately with color. I’m sure plenty of people don’t but for me part of the appeal of colored pencil is that you can only go forward, never back. You’re going to want to know what your general color palette is going to be when you start. I’m drawing jester, so she’s fucking blue babey!

i start off my sketch with the Lightest blue pencil i own. it’s barely visible on the paper. A HEAVY RULE IS NEVER PRESS THAT HARD. at all. ever. until you get to the part where you’re SURE. At this stage feel free to keep in construction lines, if you mess up, just draw a new part. obviously this is neither coherent nor tidy and thats fine.

After that I took a slightly darker pencil and defined my sketch better.

Now here i added some undertones to my original sketch, and put in the basic shadows. I took the blue pencil i used for the sketch and marked in where i wanted the larger shadow shapes to be. Then i went in with a green pencil and added in areas of green on the hair and horns, just because I wanted some green Nuance to the colors i added on top. For her cheeks, nose, ears, and lips, i worked with a purple, because i wanted a warm flush underneath a blue skin tone. Once again this should all be very light!

Then I just went in and on top of everything I had already done added in a very light base color. Remember, never go darker with your base than you want your highlights because it’s VERY difficult to lighten a color.

Next I went in again with an even darker pencil and started refining the shadow shapes more, making the areas I wanted dark Darker and using some more colors that I wanted to be present in the mix. There’s no solid guide to picking colors, other than ‘learning and studying color theory’, so my recommendation is to play around and as long as you ifll something in lightly, you can almost always modulate it a ton later.

Another layer of base tone and im refining the outside lines of some of the shapes. I’m tossing in some darker ad different blues here and there for effect. This is the awkward middle stage where everything looks terrible. 

Here’s where stuff starts looking like something!! With a dark blue I went in and started refining shadows, lines, and the lips more. the base tone hasn’t change but it already looks much smoother and more even by virtue of the details around it being fixed. At this point these are the strokes that are going to start showing, so keep in mind the direction of your strokes here! 

Here’s where I start putting in much more weight behind the strokes. Here I went in and started filling the hair with a midtone to fill in the gaps and smooth it all out. I lost the detail of the shadow on the bottom layer mostly in this step. Once you do this it becomes much harder to control the way your colors look so make sure you feel like you know what color you want to use before you wholly commit. once you really start going at it and filling stuff in, you can’t really lay out a smooth color surface the way you did earlier and additional detail will have to be done in a slightly hatchier method than before

Here I did the same thing on the rest of the drawing - take your midtone and fill in. This really isnt using more than one color of pencil to fill in these gaps at any one part, but because we have the underlying colors it gives us nice variation once it all gets smoothed together.

This picture blurred as fuck lol oops. Anyway. Try to avoid using solid black unless absolutely necessary. Here i’ve got some on the hair and horns because I felt like my contrast wasn’t good enough but it sticks out like a sore thumb because of how it doesnt fit In with the heavy saturation of the other colors. I added some more detail and tossed some other colors, namely green nd pink, into the eyes. This amount of color looks fine but it’s a bit flat.

Even once you’ve blended everything in to the desired amount of coverage, you can still do a lot to modulate your color. For the purposes of making an example, I’m going to really exaggerate the color I put on top.

Here we go. I put more pink on her nose, ears, and cheeks to give the warm tone back into here skin. Then I put a bunch of green on top of everything and tossed some red outlining on the right side. Red and green are about as different as two colors can get (that’s a fun color theory fact for you guys paying attention at home) and so you can see a real range of how the color on top looks an gets effected by the color underneath.

The green on the horns,face, hair, and cloak is all exactly the same green, with the difference in hue depending on how thick you lay it on and the color of the pigment underneath

here i just added some yellow and red around here for fun because i was enjoying coloring. the end.

once again this is 1. not hard rules and 2. mostly to just show what you can do with pencils and that you shouldnt limit yourself

[therewillalwaysbeapril]

Chapter 4: Sixteen Hours

6:30 AM The alarm rang abruptly in the stillness of the morning, a rude shrill noise, splintering our warm, nocturnal embrace and throwing us both into the coldness of the day. 

“April, we gotta get up”, I said, mumbling as I shook off the last remnants of sleep. She groaned softly, rolling over and pulling the covers away. “Hey, get up. Geee-tta UGH-PUUUU! Get TU DA CHOPPAH!” I did my terrible Arnold Schwarzenegger impression loudly and poorly, adding in a loud grunt for full effect. 

“Argh, I need muh clothes, my boots, my motorcykalll”, she said, in the same bad Austrian accent without opening her eyes. “Come ONN, do it. Do it Nah-OW!”

Stumbling out of bed, vision still blurry, and nearly tripping over the corner of the blanket now fallen to the floor, I reached over and grabbed from the basket the first item of clothing on the pile of clean laundry that we neglected to fold from the previous night. I pulled open the top drawer of her dresser and felt around for a bra. I threw both toward the bed as I made my way to the bathroom. April put on her top as she stood up. Hair a mess and eyes barely open, April exuded a dreamy, other-worldly quality as she floated from the bed to the sink wearing the dark red floral patterned shirt dress I had bought for her the weekend before. I blow dried my hair into a more presentable state and shaved as she washed her face and finished combing her hair. 

I packed April’s belongings into her backpack for her, the both of us hurrying downstairs to my car. After stopping by a McDonald’s drive-thru on the way, we ate Egg McMuffins sitting in the early traffic heading toward Downtown LA. I looked at her as she opened a ketchup packet.

 “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful!” she said, laughing as she carefully squirted the ketchup onto her hashbrown.

 Briskly walking up the parking lot escalators and half-skipping across Pershing Square, April got to the bus stop just in time as the vehicle screeched to a halt. “WESTWOOD/SANTA MONICA” said the display. A quick kiss goodbye and she was off to class.

8:00 AM The office was dark as I stepped out of the elevator. Walking toward my desk, I was greeted by lights flickering on as motion sensors began to stir. Fresh cup of coffee in hand, I left the kitchen for the far side of the floor toward my favorite viewing spot. 

The Los Angeles morning was peaceful when viewed from high above. Cars moved slowly down Broadway; I could hear their distant honking noises in the early rush hour. Construction workers below near Third Street walked carrying their equipment, passing by the shops just beginning to open in Grand Central Market. From my hawk’s nest I saw a cyclist zipping down Grand Avenue past the Museum of Contemporary Art, in front of which a food truck was beginning to set up shop. My breath and the steam from my coffee fogged the glass as I stepped closer to look at the crowd of people gathering by the Broad. The early light bathed my city in a warm amber glow, thawing its sleepy commuters as a new workday began. Flecks of gold and saffron twinkled as the dawn bounced from the stirring skyscrapers and automobiles, blinding me. I, too, was beginning to wake as I finished my coffee. 

With my headphones on, back at my desk, I continued sketching out the wireframe concepts from the day before. Wireframes are the foundation of plotting out designs for interactive products such as apps and websites. They are a high level way of designing ways in which someone can use a product and the organization for which types of information and interaction appears on which screen, before a designer has to focus on the finer details such as animations, visual appearances, and the style of smaller items such as buttons. Even though the other designers created wireframes in programs I was also familiar with such as Adobe XD or Sketch, I always took great care in sketching out early ideas neatly on paper. I felt there was a purity in shaping ideas away from a computer, a kind of humility in making things with my hands.

8:30 AM The office is still dim as I make myself a second cup of coffee. This was one of those sluggish days; I felt slow to start, and was glad to still be the only person in the office. There was less pressure this way. I returned to my desk and cleaned up my lines with an eraser, reinforcing others with a Sharpie. Boxes with crisscrosses represented images, various other shapes representing icons and call-to-actions. Simple line patterns signified text, clearly showing the underlying grid to the layout. Adding final touches, I drew an outline of an iPhone over all of the screens before using a green colored pen to create the markings that showed how a user interacted and navigated from screen to screen. I felt pride for the cleanliness of my draft, as I never knew whether the second draft in the computer would be made by myself or a different designer. Finished, and satisfied with my work, I walked over to the simple Kanban board on the far wall and moved the task’s corresponding post-it note from the column labeled “in work” to the column labeled “done”.

Aside from a few coworkers from accounting, the floor was still mostly deserted. Sitting back and listening to the rest of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on my headphones, I fidgeted at my desk for a while. Impatient, I walked back over to the job board and grabbed one of the tasks from the column labeled “backlog” and moved it to “in work”. This should keep me occupied, I thought.

10:00 AM Standup was always kind of fun. Normally I have always preferred to work alone, with headphones on, lost in thought as I built designs and mockups, in an almost-meditative state of flow. However, I liked my coworkers very much, and it was also nice to see everyone at the beginning of the day and update one another on our work progress in the morning as we created the pieces of our product together. I enjoyed this kind of organized interaction that afforded me boundaries and space to create.

 <Walalala..>, texted April. It was her way of greeting. Warm and cheerful, albeit at times a little silly, it was a greeting that I had come to love. It would also be a salutation I would receive less and less over time until I would not see it at all. <What you doing?>, she added.

<Designing more apps. What about you?>

<Nothing bored in class>

<Lol. You should pay attention! I’m pretty tired too. I don’t think I woke up yet>

<I miss you.>

<Haha, I miss you a little too.>

<Only a little bit? Fine! Text me when u miss me a lot!>

<Ok I miss you alot>

<Pfft, you still need me to remind you?>

<Ha, you should pay attention in class. Your mom will kill me if you fail because of me>

<Well you can always quit and go to engineering or med school!>

<YOU can go to med school. I’ll make more apps!>

<Too hard~ And I’m so tired today I don’t want to do anything. Head hurt.>

11:00 AM Sketches spread out on the table before me, I began to create the second round of digital wireframes. As much as I enjoyed sketching, this step was also one of my favorite things to do. The useful aspect having hand sketches was their looseness — from a high level perspective, during this stage there were still so many possibilities. Creating the first digital wireframe versions, despite their inherent roughness, narrowed down those possibilities. To do so felt like taking a camera lens and turning it slowly into focus. At this stage, it was not a crisp focus, but much more recognizable as a coherent direction. The process was therapeutic as it was methodical; moving through it step by step, there was room to make improvements on the fly, perfecting each idea. However, today, my process of refinement would be interrupted by a different task.

There needed to be a version of our project for a new client, said marketing. A simple mockup of our app must be made in the style of our new client, a baseball team. The refinement of the new screen designs would have to wait. Grumbling to myself a little, I closed the program and neatly piled the sketches into my drawer.

<Heyyy, why u ignoring me?>

<Sorry, some other stuff came up at work>

<So sad but it’s okay. I feel so sleepy and tired>

<Maybe have some coffee? I’m on my second cup already>

<I dunno. Stomach hurt a bit too>

<I’m sorry. Would you feel better if you ate something? What are you gonna get for lunch?>

<Expensive grass, haha>. “Expensive grass” was April’s name for salad. They always cost more than they should, she would remark.

<btw…>

<what’s wrong?> Nothing good ever happened when April said “by the way”.

<If I go back to Taiwan after graduation, can we still be friends?>

<We’re not breaking up. We can make this work>

<I mean, if. Can we please stay friends? I can’t imagine a day without you, even if we’re only friends>

<I want you to stay though. We can figure this out>

<I don’t know…>

12:00 PM It is lunchtime. Mood now sour, I didn’t feel like leaving the building. After informing my deskmates that I was taking my lunch break, I grabbed a stale bagel from the kitchen and microwaved it with a slice of cheese. Taking that and a diet soda from the fridge, I returned to my viewing corner.

We had only recently moved into the forty fourth floor of the building from six floors above. The company had now grown bigger and the fiftieth floor was not enough space. However, it was only the design, marketing, and accounting teams on this floor, leaving most of it empty. In fact, we only occupied one corner, leaving the other three quiet and deserted. I enjoyed taking walks around the empty areas, sometimes even bringing my cello to work and practicing in one of the empty rooms during breaks. Today though, I only wanted to look outside and think.

Now midday there was visible smog in the Los Angeles air.  Protestors were forming on Grand Avenue. I looked closer, curious as to the reason for this group. I could not make out the writing on their signs. A car accident was visible further down on the 2nd Street intersection, blocking it off. The authorities closed off one of the lanes, backing up traffic. A bus awkwardly took up both lanes as it attempted to merge into the available space. An adjacent driver made a rude hand gesture out of his window. I sighed, feeling exhausted as I learned against the wall near the window. I sat on the floor as I drank my soda and looked out of the floor to ceiling window, thinking. The conversation I thought of was not with April, but one with someone else, from a different day, in a different language.

•••

<Your girlfriend is really pretty! I saw the pictures you posted to WeChat yesterday>

<Yeah, I took her to the airplane museum the other day.>

<Do you spend everyday with her?>

<Well, she kept asking me to stay over, and then I had to stay with her after she crashed her car. Lately though, she tells me she just doesn’t like it when I’m away. It feels weird, but I’m really happy with her and I love her, so I guess I’m not complaining. She’s been coming to work with me and taking the bus to school too>

<Hey, you should pace yourself. All couples need their space from time to time.>

<Maybe? Sometimes I go to work and five minutes after I leave she texts me that she misses me. I think she’s very sweet.>

<Okay, I’m just looking out for you. What if she turns out to be one of those possessive types?>

<She told me she gets jealous easily. A lot of my female friends came to my birthday party and she told me she felt weird about it. ‘I’m very jealous’, she said.>

<Hey! I knew it!! Is that why you didn’t answer any of my calls or texts last winter in China?>

<Sorry. I guess it’s just weird, what happened between us.>

<Why would you tell her that…>

<She had someone else she was trying to get over and I was trying to comfort her.>

<Well, nothing happened between us!>

<I know! Well, I don’t know. You are one of my best friends, and what happened affected me very deeply. It may have been nothing to you, but it was definitely something to me.

<I’m sorry about that. I really am. I was as confused as you too. I never meant to be cruel. I hurt you, and I ended up hurting myself too.>

<I’m glad we’ve moved past it and we’re still friends>

<How long have we been friends? I was still ten or eleven years old I think? We’ve been best friends for so long even though we are in two different countries. Don’t you think this is a friendship worth keeping?>

<I know! I’m trying to figure this out>

<You promised not to throw this friendship away after you meet some girl remember? You made me a promise.>

<Yes, I remember. And I will keep my word. I just need to figure this out. She’ll come around eventually. I really think the two of you would become great friends.>

<Well, you gotta figure it out eventually, because this is just awkward what you’re doing>

<I just need time…>

••• 

1:00 PM I snapped back to reality as my phone alarm went off. It was time to go back to work.

The caffeine was beginning to wear off. Still debating whether or not I should have a third cup of coffee, I flipped through the Android Material Design Guidelines online, pondering what visual branding treatments were acceptable within Google’s design parameters. Writing down the correct color hex values on a notepad, I began to change colors on app elements in Photoshop, reskinning the interface. The phone beeped again, as another text message arrived from April.

 <I’m sorry. I want to stay with you too. But I’m so worried>

<About what?>, I answered.

 <What if it doesn’t work out between us? In a year? In five?>

<Why are you worried about this now? April, I love you and I’m perfectly happy with you>

<Yeah, but what if we DO break up eventually? You’re not a doctor and I’m supposed to marry a doctor.>

<Come on, I can’t change that>

I stopped working. Taking off my glasses, I sat back in my chair, rubbing my forehead. I was getting very tired.

<I just wish you could accept me for who I am>, I texted back.

<I do! I really want you to make it. I love who you are I just don’t love what you do>

<There’s nothing wrong with what I do. I am a designer and I’m good at it. I make a decent salary and I like my life>

<It’s different>

<Well that’s just your viewpoint. We’re just different, I guess>. I saved my work and walked to an empty conference room.

 <Why do you even love me?>, I texted. My thumbs began to sweat. Typing was becoming difficult.

<I love you because you are kind. I love you because you value family, like me. My friends ask me why I love someone who is not what I want and why I want to change him knowing how much effort I have to put in>

<The only complaints MY friends have about you is these things you say from time to time! It’s so messed up. Maybe your friends are full of shit. At least I love you for YOU>

<I do too! Doctors are all over the place, especially with my family background it’s easy for me to just marry one, but I can’t find a doctor who is YOU>

<I’m getting back to work>

I stomped back to my desk, angrily chucking my empty soda can into a nearby wastepaper basket. A couple of coworkers stared.

3:00 PM For the next two hours, I tried my best to focus on creating more animations. More interactions. I compared the mockups I made against the Android and Apple guidelines. So far, so good. Sending the finished mockups back to marketing, I went back to the kitchen and made myself the third cup of coffee. 

I chugged the hot beverage, nearly searing my throat. I went back to designing the wireframes. There were only three hours left in the workday, and I originally wanted to have had this perfected at the end of the day. 

<Are you done with class yet?>. There was no answer from April.

Frustrated, I placed my phone face down on the table and returned to the designs. These have to get done, I thought. So little time. Fuming, I angrily threw the boxes together on the computer screen, connecting the button hotspots together as violently as someone could inside a digital space. 

 “Hey are you ok?”. It was Julie, who sat across from me behind my monitor. “I can hear you breathing from here”

“I’m fine”, I said. I sat back in my chair and looked at what I’ve made. It was sloppy and nowhere near the level of detail that I have been known for around the office. 

 “Take a break man. I just got an email that we have until the end of the week for these screens now”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. You can just chill”

“I think I’m gonna take a walk then.”

4:00 PM I looked at my watch as I waited in the elevator. Who does she think she is, I thought. So what if I’m not a doctor? Life can’t only be about status. I was so mad. That is such a shallow way of thinking! And it wasn’t me who started all this. I was just minding my own business working. She was the one who had to bring up Taiwan, and her parents’ crazy expectations for who she should be dating. 

 I walked outside briskly in the shade of the tall buildings. It was much louder now that I left the lobby. A street performer was beating a drum across the intersection. A crazy person was yelling about the end of times on the other corner. Good. Noisy enough that no one could see how angry I was.

And I hated the way she texted. How am I supposed to always be at her beck and call? I have a job to do; I can’t be there to simply answer every time she worries about crazy hypotheticals. I was doing fine today, I should’ve simply not answered. And now that she’s finished ruining my day, she’s stopped texting and has gone back to whatever she’s doing leaving me to pick up the pieces. Every single month, we have to have some fight about something completely stupid like this. Every single month — 

Oh. 

April had complained about being tired. April had experienced stomach pains during class. I counted the days since the last time I remembered similar complaints. There were many things I remembered for her. April could be so forgetful.

“Twenty-seven, twenty-eight….”, I counted in my head. I knew what she was going to need.

I stopped at the Rite Aid on 5th and Broadway. Quickly making my way through the aisles, I picked up a pack of Ibuprofen, a box of what appeared to be feminine pads, and a bottle of water. The cashier handed me the items in a paper bag after I made my purchase. Strolling further south, I began to think about what transpired.

Did she really mean all that she said? Perhaps a deeper question was, WHICH of what she said did she actually mean? You can’t tell someone you love them for who they are but also want to change them, I thought. Girls just say crazy things during their time of month right? I checked my phone.

 Still no answer.

 This is bad, I thought. Perhaps I was too harsh. Her car is in working condition. She chose to take the bus because she genuinely wanted to spend time with me. And now she’s probably on the bus home, in pain. All for me. I’m such a jerk, I thought.

Ducking into Bottega Louie on 7th, I bought a box of half dozen French macarons. They were rather pricey, but came in a beautiful box and were, I had heard, delicious. The small rigid box was not unlike jewelry packaging, with beautiful calligraphy and gold speckles dotted throughout its powder purple surface. It was a small gift that was sure to brighten up anyone who was having a less than perfect day.

6:30 PM The workday was now over as I closed my work laptop and packed away my things. The bus from UCLA arrived as I waited on a bench in Pershing Square.

“Hey what took you so long?”, I asked as I took April’s bag from her. 

“I had the most horrible day!” she said.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize I sounded so mean—

“No, not you! My period started and I forgot to bring pads so I had to use tissues. And my phone died, and then the bus had to take a detour. So I needed to get off and wait for another bus, but I couldn’t use Google Maps and I’m so tired and I just want something to eat”

“Well, first things first I guess”

I handed her the box of macarons and discreetly showed her what was in the paper bag. “Let’s find a bathroom,” I said.

She looked into the paper bag. She looked at me. She started giggling, the happiest I’ve seen her all week.

“What? What is it?”

“Have you never bought pads before?”

“Well, no, but I figured you needed them. Was I right?”

“Those are panty liners, not pads!”

“Oh.”

“It’s okay, I’ll be alright. Cmon, let’s eat”

•••

8:30 PM After April had a chance to change, I took her to a nearby Hong Kong styled cafe. It would be nice to have some porridge, she said. 

As we sat down and waited for our food, by reflex I folded April’s chopstick wrapper into an origami chopstick stand, as I have always done since our first date. I looked out the window into the dark. 

The San Gabriel traffic outside was a lot calmer compared to the city. It was quiet and I could just make out the sounds of crickets. A high school couple walked out of the boba shop across the street, laughing to themselves, carefree. An elderly man picked out a newspaper from a box near the entrance. I felt a soft caress on my forearm.

April handed me a crudely folded flower made from a chopstick holder. 

 “I’m sorry about today. I keep forgetting how to fold that fancy origami, but I want to thank you for taking care of me.”

She smiled the familiar funny smile.

•••

9:30 PM As we walked in the darkness at a nearby park, digesting our meal, I stayed quiet. How can I make all nights like tonight?, I thought.  Is there really an expiration date to our happiness? 

Perhaps reading my mind, April said, “I don’t know what we’ll do if I really have to leave…”

I looked at her and kissed her forehead.

“Whatever”, she added. “If I have to go back to Taiwan, I guess I’ll just get another boyfriend, and it’ll be a doctor this time! HA HA!”

I did not laugh.

I let go of her hand and walked a few paces ahead, sullen.

 “I’m kidding!” April grabbed my arm. “I really do love you, alright?”

[isabellescheerer]

Sprint #4

Sprint #4 was probably the most busy and demanding two weeks that my group and I have had to work through. This sprint housed the finalization period of everything we had previously been working on, and required mass communication emails between elementary schools, team members, and our leading non-profit organization in order for our project to finish in time for the actual Read Aloud to a Child Week event. It was the ultimate lead-up to the week we have been working towards for the last 10 weeks. 

This sprint was also interesting for me personally as I was across the world in South Korea for the entirety of it. I do think it added a small amount of inconvenience, or more so, it required more time-management and communication skills in order to ensure my tasks for the sprint were getting done on time... that is, Eastern Standard Time rather than my 13 hours time zone ahead. However, being in another country during the crucial time was also quite beneficial as it gave me another environment to take inspiration from.

The Details

During this sprint, my main focus was on completing the reading trackers. These were to be included in the Read Aloud to a Child Week email as a printable file for the participating schools to use as a way to keep track of what students were participating. Hopefully, if this tracker were to be continuously used, it would also be able to show the increase or decrease of participation in the years to come.

Meanwhile, my other team members focused on creating the final logo design for Read Aloud to a Child Week, ensuring the Facebook page we collectively made was working as we hoped, and emailing the participating elementary schools with the needed information and material to succeed during the upcoming week.

The Process

Creating the reading trackers was fairly easy to draft early on due to the fact that I had a good vision of what I wanted them to look like. I think my vision was so clear on them because I spent nearly 3 full days in the beginning just researching what preexisting kid-friendly calendars and trackers looked like. By doing this, I got a very firm grip on what I thought would work and what wouldn’t. 

My process of creating the trackers was a fairly fast one in the long scheme of things. I had a very firm grip on what I wanted to design, with a fluid ideation of what it should look like.

It took me only a day or two to create the base layer of the tracker, which contained the grid pattern for the student/class names and days of the week. Again, this was fairly simple due to the fact that I had already done an abundance of research on what trackers look like. The design I created also was the most logical and space-conscious that I could think of.

After that, I drafted a first sketch of the tracker to be able to show the non-profit and my classmates. This sketch more so showed the benefit of having a tracker set up in the manner that I created it. It also was a nice visual aid that elaborated on what color and pattern can do for a child-related product. At this stage, we were able to discuss what would and wouldn’t work for the tracker. It was here when we decided using stickers would not work the way we envisioned on such a small sheet of paper, which is why we then decided to allow the children to color in their corresponding box. By doing this, they will be able to choose their favorite color to use, they have a more hands-on element in the event, and it saves money for the non-profit.

After a lot of discussion and back-and-forth on color combinations and typeface pairings, my group was able to make a decision on the final color palette and typefaces to be used in the final iteration of the tracker. This step did not necessarily take a long time, but getting to a consensus definitely took a little bit of time and communication. We were able to reach a decision on the final two chosen typefaces relatively fast as many of the typefaces being discussed did not fit the kid-friendly and book-related project. The two that we chose were the most compatible and interesting, while still being easily read. On the other hand, the color palette was slightly harder to decide on as we started out with bright, bold colors which quickly switched to pastels. My group had trouble narrowing down from the color options we provided, which we later ended up using all of them as it contained the colors of the rainbow. We did spend a decent amount of time trying to create a pastel palette that was subtle yet bold. We wanted a pastel palette because we thought having neon or bold colors would make the tracker hard to read and hard to be written on clearly. That decision, I believe, saved us in the end as it would have been too overwhelming to have that many bright colors on a legal-sized paper.

Once the nitty-gritty details were decided upon, I started working on the final tracker design. This was fairly simple due to the fact that I had already sketched it many times at this point. I worked in Illustrator for the final design in order to get the cleanest line-work and illustration-to-text combination. The hardest part about this process was trying to determine the mathematics of the underlying grid pattern due to the fact that the rectangular spaces needed to both be big enough to write a student’s name and color in when the student had read. To solve this, I started playing around with the center lines and building in either direction as I went - shifting the grid to the left and right repeatedly until they were balanced. I then moved the name column over more since it obviously needed to be larger than the soon-to-be colored boxes. 

The last thing I had to do, which also took me the longest time, was to create the top border. This was one of the most important aspects of the tracker for me, other than the tracker information. I felt like the design for the border needed to be based on this year’s theme, which is nature. I also felt as if the border design would essentially make or break a school’s interest in it, as that is the most fun and personable aspect of the design. I ultimately illustrated two scenes, which allowed for the two trackers to be different but closely related. The first tracker, for classroom use, showcased a landscape of grass and trees with a couple of falling leaves from the sky. The other tracker contained an abundance of falling leaves in the traditional Fall colors with a faint sky background. I felt like these designs embodied the year’s nature theme, gave a reminder of Fall since the event is held in October, and seemed very playful. I wanted these illustrations to feel relaxing and calm, and to remind children about the outdoors since they go out less and less as technology advances.

Final Thoughts & What I Learned

I am still awaiting feedback on whether or not the trackers were helpful. I hope to hear back from the participating schools in the next week or two, which I will then make revisions to the tracker for its use in the coming years.

I believe that designing the tracker was quite the learning experience since I had never created a calendar tracker from scratch, nor for someone else. The closest thing I had ever made was quick sketches of a “week at a glance” perspective of my ever-changing schedule. 

I thoroughly enjoyed designing the tracker for this event. It gave me a sense of responsibility and tranquility over the last few weeks during the ideation and designing phases. It was a nice experience to have to think for someone else and to be in another person’s shoes. It was even more interesting having to create something for a person who doesn’t even know they need a particular thing yet. Additionally, I found it helpful to my practice and ideation to be forced to consider patterns, colors, typefaces, layouts, and negative spaces in a way that would cause my design to make-it-or-break-it. I like knowing that I was, hopefully, able to help at least one person feel more organized, accomplished, or ambitious during Read Aloud to a Child Week.

Photographs of the Process

Initial Sketch of Tracker - Ideation Process

Sketch of Tracker - More Concrete Breakdown of Space and Layout

Illustration for Banner of the Grade Tracker

Illustration for Banner of the Class Tracker

Final Tracker Design - Class Tracker

Final Tracker Design - Class Tracker (Additional Pages)

Final Tracker Design - Grade Tracker

[csemntwinl3x0a1]

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Considerations to determine whether voice is an appropriate medium for your users.

In the 1950s, Bell Labs built a system for single-speaker digit recognition. These early systems had tiny vocabularies and weren’t much use outside of the lab. In the 1960s and 1970s, the research continued, expanding the number of words that could be understood and working toward “continuous” speech recognition (not having to pause between every word).

Advances in the 1980s made practical, everyday speech recognition more of a reality, and by the 1990s the first viable, speaker-independent (meaning anyone could talk to it) systems came into being.

The first great era of VUIs were the interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which were capable of understanding human speech over the telephone in order to carry out tasks. In the early 2000s, IVR systems became mainstream. Anyone with a phone could get stock quotes, book plane flights, transfer money between accounts, order prescription refills, find local movie times, and hear traffic information, all using nothing more than a regular landline phone and the human voice.

IVR systems got a bad rap, resulting in Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Amtrak’s virtual travel assistant, “Julie,” and websites like GetHuman, which is dedicated to providing phone numbers that go directly to agents, bypassing the IVR systems.

But IVR systems were also a boon. Early users of Charles Schwab’s speech recognition trading service (which was developed by Nuance Communications in 1997) were happy to call in and get quotes over and over using the automated system whereas prior to IVR systems they limited their requests so as not to appear bothersome to the operators fielding their calls. In the early 2000s, a freighting company received many angry calls after its IVR system was taken down for maintenance because callers had to give order details via agents, rather than the streamlined process the IVR system had provided.

IVR systems became skilled at recognizing long strings (e.g., FedEx or UPS tracking numbers), as well as complex sentences with multiple chunks of information, such as placing bets on horse races. Many IVR systems from yesteryear were more “conversational” than some current VUIs, as they kept track of what callers had already said, and used that information to prepopulate later questions in the dialog.

The San Francisco Bay Area 511 IVR system let drivers check traffic, get commute times, and ask about bus delays, well before smartphones were available for such tasks. The 24/7 nature of IVR systems let callers do tasks at any time, when agents were not always available.

The second era of VUIs

We are now in what could be termed the second era of VUIs. Mobile apps like Siri, Google Now, Hound, and Cortana, which combine visual and auditory information, and voice-only devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, are becoming mainstream. Google reports that 20 percent of its searches are now done via voice.[3]

We are in the infancy of this next phase. There are many things that our phones and devices can do well with speech—and many they cannot.

There are not many resources out there right now for VUI designers to learn from. I see many VUI and chatbot designers discovering things that we learned 15 years ago while designing IVR systems—handing off information already collected to humans, phrasing prompts correctly to elicit the right constrained responses, logging information to know how to analyze and improve systems, and designing personas.

There is much to learn from IVR design. In 2004, the book Voice User Interface Design (Addison-Wesley Professional), written by Michael Cohen, James Giangola, and Jennifer Balogh, was published. Although it’s focused on IVR design, so many principles it describes are still relevant to today’s VUIs: persona, prosody, error recovery, and prompt design, to name a few.

This book echoes many of the same design principles, but with a focus on voice-enabled mobile phone apps and devices, and strategies to take advantage of the improved underlying technology.

Voice user interfaces?

The youngest users of smartphones today are incredibly adept at two-thumbed texting, multitasking between chat conversations, Instagram comments, Snapchatting, and swiping left on Tinder photos of men posing with tigers. Why add another mode of communication on top of that?

Voice has some important advantages:

Speed

A recent Stanford study showed speaking (dictating) text messages was faster than typing, even for expert texters.[4]

Hands-free

Some cases, such as driving or cooking, or even when you’re across the room from your device, make speaking rather than typing or tapping much more practical (and safer).

Intuitiveness

Everyone knows how to talk. Hand a new interface to someone and have it ask that person a question, and even users who are less familiar with technology can reply naturally.

Empathy

How many times have you received an email or text message from someone, only to wonder if they were mad at you or maybe being sarcastic? Humans have a difficult time understanding tone via the written word alone. Voice, which includes tone, volume, intonation, and rate of speech, conveys a great deal of information.

In addition, devices with small screens (such as watches) and no screens (such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home) are becoming more popular, and voice is often the preferred—or the only—way to interact with them. The fact that voice is already a ubiquitous way for humans to communicate cannot be overstated. Imagine being able to create technology and not needing to instruct customers on how to use it because they already know: they can simply ask. Humans learn the rules of conversation from a very young age, and designers can take advantage of that, bypassing clunky GUIs and unintuitive menus.

According to Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report, 65 percent of smartphone users have used voice assistants in the last year.[5] Amazon reports at least four million Echos have been sold, and Google Home recently started shipping. Voice interfaces are here to stay.

That being said, voice is not always an appropriate medium for your users. Here are some reasons VUIs are not always a good idea:

Public spaces

Many of us now work in open-plan office spaces. Imagine asking your computer to do tasks: “Computer, find me all my Word docs from this week.” Now imagine everyone in your office doing this! It would be chaos. In addition, when you speak, which computer is listening?

Discomfort speaking to a computer

Although VUIs are becoming more commonplace, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out loud to a computer, even in private.

Some users prefer texting

Many people spend hours a day on their mobile phones, much of which is texting. That’s their normal mode, and they might not want to shift to voice.

Privacy

If they need to discuss a health issue, most users won’t want to do so by speaking to their phone on the train ride into work. It’s not just privacy for what the user says to systems, either—it’s the potential privacy violations of a VUI automatically reading your text messages out loud or giving you a reminder that it’s time to take a certain medication.

So, should your mobile app have a VUI? If your main use case is hands free—such as a cooking app or playing podcasts while driving—absolutely. If people will use your app in a particularly vulnerable or emotional state, such as for healthcare or comfort, voice can help them. If you want to persuade your users of something, whether it’s to vote “yes” on your ballot issue, or to make sure they go to bed early, or to eat better, voice can help. If you’re building a skill for Amazon Echo, which many people use in the privacy of their home, voice is your only option.

If your use case is going to be mostly in public places, such as navigating a public transit system or for people on the go, a VUI might not be appropriate. If it’s an app people will use at the workplace, having a text messaging mode might be better.

Think carefully about your users and their use cases. “The main question to ask yourself is: Will your users benefit from a VUI?” Adding a VUI because it’s cool and trendy is not the right path. If your app would benefit from a VUI, design with this in mind from the get-go, and create an awesome user experience.

Conversational user interfaces

The term conversational user interfaces is making a lot of headlines right now. The trend is to make everything “conversational,” from turning on the lights in your living room, to ordering pizza, to asking the fridge whether you’re out of eggs. But what does conversational actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample exchange with a real VUI device: the Amazon Echo.

An interview with Alexa

Discussing this book over dinner one evening, I talked about the various people I’ve had the chance to talk to as part of my research. My eight-year-old son had a suggestion: I should interview Alexa. Sounded like a good idea to me. (Note: after the first question, I have left out the wake word “Alexa” that I actually did use at the beginning of each question.)

ME

Alexa, how are you doing?

ALEXA

I’m good.

ME

How old are you?

ALEXA

I was released November 6th, 2014.

ME

Who made you?

ALEXA

A team of inventors at Amazon.

ME

What’s your favorite color?

ALEXA

I like sea foam.

ME

What do you do for fun?

ALEXA

I don’t have any hobbies.

ME

Are you a robot?

ALEXA

I like to imagine myself a bit like an aurora borealis...a surge of charged multicolored photons dancing through the atmosphere. Mostly though I am just Alexa.

ME

What makes you feel happy?

ALEXA

Music and helping people.

ME

Who’s your celebrity crush?

ALEXA

It has to be Jarvis. That voice...

ME

What do you think of Siri?

ALEXA

Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.

ME

What’s your favorite movie?

ALEXA

The new Ghostbusters movie was really funny. I would definitely call those ladies, if there was a ghost in my machine.

ME

Are you going to read my new book?

ALEXA

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.

ME

Thank you for your time.

ALEXA

No problem. I’m happy to help.

Do you consider this set of interactions to be “conversational”? In a way, it is; it’s a back-and-forth exchange of information. But it’s really just a series of one-offs. Each individual snippet is a simple interaction, and the next one has no knowledge of the previous; each one of these exchanges could be completed on its own.

Alexa does have a few skills that go past one turn. For example, if you ask her to order laundry detergent, she’ll remind you of what brand you ordered previously, and confirm that you want to order it again. She also has a popular “choose your own adventure” game. But most of these barely meet the threshold of being considered a conversation.

These “one-offs” can still be quite useful. You can order a car to pick you up, get your current commute time, and play a song from a library of thousands of titles.

But what many of today’s VUIs lack is the ability to go beyond these simple command interfaces—that is, to have a true conversation. To get to the next level, VUIs need to be able to remember the past. There are two ways in which the past is a key component to a conversation:

There’s the past from previous conversations, such as what you ordered yesterday, which song you request to be played most often, and which of the two Lisas in your Contacts list you have texted 257 times versus twice.

There’s also remembering what you said earlier within the same conversation—if not in the last turn. If I ask, “What time does it land?” after just checking to see if my husband’s flight took off on time, the system should know that when I say “it” I mean flight 673.

When you’ve enjoyed a good conversation with a fellow human being, it probably had some key components: contextual awareness (paying attention to you and the environment), a memory of previous interactions, and an exchange of appropriate questions. These all contribute to a feeling of common ground. As Stanford professor Herbert Clark defines it, the theory of common ground is: “individuals engaged in conversation must share knowledge in order to be understood and have a meaningful conversation.”[6]

If VUIs do not learn to include this type of context and memory, they will be stalled in terms of how useful they can be.

What is a VUI designer?

This book is about how to design VUIs—but what does a VUI designer actually do? VUI designers think about the entire conversation, from start to finish, between the system and the end users. They think about the problem that is being solved and what users need in order to accomplish their goals. They do user research (or coordinate with the user research team) in an effort to understand who the user is. They create designs, prototypes, and product descriptions. They write up descriptions (sometimes with the help of copywriters) of the interactions that will take place between the system and the user. They have an understanding of the underlying technology and its strengths and weaknesses. They analyze data (or consult with the data analysis team) to learn where the system is failing and how it can be improved. If the VUI must interact with a backend system, they consider the requirements that must be addressed. If there is a human component, such as a handoff to an agent, VUI designers think about how that handoff should work, and how the agents should be trained. VUI designers have an important role from the conceptual stages of the project all the way to the launch and should be included at the table for all the various phases.

Although VUI designers often do all of these tasks, they can also work in smaller roles, such as designing a single Amazon Echo skill. Regardless of the size of the role or the project, this book will help designers (as well as developers) understand how to craft the best VUIs possible.

Chatbots

Although this book is focused on VUIs, I want to briefly discuss chatbots, as well. Google defines a chatbot as “a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.” The word “bot” is also sometimes used to refer to these types of interactions.

Chatbots can have a VUI, but more typically they use a text-based interface. Most major tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—have platforms to develop bots.

Chatbots might be all the rage, but for the most part, they have not evolved very far from the original ELIZA, an early natural language processing computer program created in the 1960s. One popular exception is Microsoft’s Xiaoice, which mines the Chinese Internet for human conversations to build “intelligent” responses.

Text-only chatbots are not always more efficient than a GUI. In Dan Grover’s essay “Bots won’t replace apps. Better apps will replace apps,” he compares ordering a pizza using a pizza chatbot (Figure 1) versus ordering pizza using the Pizza Hut WeChat integration. It took 73 taps to tell the bot what he wanted, but only 16 taps via the app (Figure 2), because the app makes heavy use of the GUI.

Figure 1. Microsoft pizza bot example, annotated by Dan Grover.

As Grover says:

The key wins for WeChat in the interaction (compared to a native app) largely came from streamlining away app installation, login, payment, and notifications, optimizations having nothing to do with the conversational metaphor in its UI.

Many bots, however, use a combination of GUI widgets as well as text-based interfaces. This can greatly increase the efficiency and success of the interactions because it’s much more clear to the user what they can do.

Figure 2. Fewer total taps to use the WeChat Pizza Hut app (image created by Dan Grover).

Chatbots can provide a great experience for users who don’t want to download an app or add their credit card. Instead, they could scan a code, and immediately begin interacting with the service they need, such as ordering food, purchasing movie tickets, or finding out information about a museum they’re visiting.

Never add a chatbot for the sake of adding a chatbot. How could the chatbot benefit your users? As Emmet Connolly says, “Bots should be used to improve the end user experience, not just to make life easier for customer support teams.”[[7]]

Conclusion

When I was eight, my dad bought the family our first computer: a Commodore Vic-20. I quickly became fascinated with the idea of having a conversation with it and wrote a simple chatbot. When it didn’t understand what was typed, it asked for three possible suggestions it could use when it encountered that query in the future.

When I got my first smartphone, it was years before I used the speech recognition feature. I didn’t think it would work. Now, we’ve arrived at the point that I expect speech recognition to be available wherever I go; recently on a hike, when my son asked me what kind of tree he was pointing at, I actually started to say, “Alexa...” before I realized it wouldn’t work.

Although VUIs are becoming more common, there are still many users who are unfamiliar with it or don’t trust it. Many people try out the voice recognition on their smartphone once and then, after it fails, never try it again. Designing well from the get-go means fewer unrecoverable failure points, which will build trust with users.

We have many nights of blood, sweat, and tears ahead of us as we design our VUIs of the future, but it’s here. Let’s ensure that we design with care. Let’s use our knowledge of human psychology and linguistics as well as user experience design to ensure that we create usable, useful, and even delightful VUIs.

[3] Helft, M. (2016). “Inside Sundar Pichai’s Plan To Put AI Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/.

[4] Shahani, A. (2016). “Voice Recognition Software Finally Beats Humans At Typing, Study Finds.” Retrieved from http://npr.org/.

[5] Meeker, M. (2016) “Internet Trends 2016.” Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/.

[6] Clark, H. H. “Language Use and Language Users,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

[7] Connolly, E. (2016). “Principles of Bot Design.” Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ci06Cx.

Continue reading Is a VUI right for you and your app?.

http://ift.tt/2xzZwXV

[doorrepcal33169]

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Considerations to determine whether voice is an appropriate medium for your users.

In the 1950s, Bell Labs built a system for single-speaker digit recognition. These early systems had tiny vocabularies and weren’t much use outside of the lab. In the 1960s and 1970s, the research continued, expanding the number of words that could be understood and working toward “continuous” speech recognition (not having to pause between every word).

Advances in the 1980s made practical, everyday speech recognition more of a reality, and by the 1990s the first viable, speaker-independent (meaning anyone could talk to it) systems came into being.

The first great era of VUIs were the interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which were capable of understanding human speech over the telephone in order to carry out tasks. In the early 2000s, IVR systems became mainstream. Anyone with a phone could get stock quotes, book plane flights, transfer money between accounts, order prescription refills, find local movie times, and hear traffic information, all using nothing more than a regular landline phone and the human voice.

IVR systems got a bad rap, resulting in Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Amtrak’s virtual travel assistant, “Julie,” and websites like GetHuman, which is dedicated to providing phone numbers that go directly to agents, bypassing the IVR systems.

But IVR systems were also a boon. Early users of Charles Schwab’s speech recognition trading service (which was developed by Nuance Communications in 1997) were happy to call in and get quotes over and over using the automated system whereas prior to IVR systems they limited their requests so as not to appear bothersome to the operators fielding their calls. In the early 2000s, a freighting company received many angry calls after its IVR system was taken down for maintenance because callers had to give order details via agents, rather than the streamlined process the IVR system had provided.

IVR systems became skilled at recognizing long strings (e.g., FedEx or UPS tracking numbers), as well as complex sentences with multiple chunks of information, such as placing bets on horse races. Many IVR systems from yesteryear were more “conversational” than some current VUIs, as they kept track of what callers had already said, and used that information to prepopulate later questions in the dialog.

The San Francisco Bay Area 511 IVR system let drivers check traffic, get commute times, and ask about bus delays, well before smartphones were available for such tasks. The 24/7 nature of IVR systems let callers do tasks at any time, when agents were not always available.

The second era of VUIs

We are now in what could be termed the second era of VUIs. Mobile apps like Siri, Google Now, Hound, and Cortana, which combine visual and auditory information, and voice-only devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, are becoming mainstream. Google reports that 20 percent of its searches are now done via voice.[3]

We are in the infancy of this next phase. There are many things that our phones and devices can do well with speech—and many they cannot.

There are not many resources out there right now for VUI designers to learn from. I see many VUI and chatbot designers discovering things that we learned 15 years ago while designing IVR systems—handing off information already collected to humans, phrasing prompts correctly to elicit the right constrained responses, logging information to know how to analyze and improve systems, and designing personas.

There is much to learn from IVR design. In 2004, the book Voice User Interface Design (Addison-Wesley Professional), written by Michael Cohen, James Giangola, and Jennifer Balogh, was published. Although it’s focused on IVR design, so many principles it describes are still relevant to today’s VUIs: persona, prosody, error recovery, and prompt design, to name a few.

This book echoes many of the same design principles, but with a focus on voice-enabled mobile phone apps and devices, and strategies to take advantage of the improved underlying technology.

Voice user interfaces?

The youngest users of smartphones today are incredibly adept at two-thumbed texting, multitasking between chat conversations, Instagram comments, Snapchatting, and swiping left on Tinder photos of men posing with tigers. Why add another mode of communication on top of that?

Voice has some important advantages:

Speed

A recent Stanford study showed speaking (dictating) text messages was faster than typing, even for expert texters.[4]

Hands-free

Some cases, such as driving or cooking, or even when you’re across the room from your device, make speaking rather than typing or tapping much more practical (and safer).

Intuitiveness

Everyone knows how to talk. Hand a new interface to someone and have it ask that person a question, and even users who are less familiar with technology can reply naturally.

Empathy

How many times have you received an email or text message from someone, only to wonder if they were mad at you or maybe being sarcastic? Humans have a difficult time understanding tone via the written word alone. Voice, which includes tone, volume, intonation, and rate of speech, conveys a great deal of information.

In addition, devices with small screens (such as watches) and no screens (such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home) are becoming more popular, and voice is often the preferred—or the only—way to interact with them. The fact that voice is already a ubiquitous way for humans to communicate cannot be overstated. Imagine being able to create technology and not needing to instruct customers on how to use it because they already know: they can simply ask. Humans learn the rules of conversation from a very young age, and designers can take advantage of that, bypassing clunky GUIs and unintuitive menus.

According to Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report, 65 percent of smartphone users have used voice assistants in the last year.[5] Amazon reports at least four million Echos have been sold, and Google Home recently started shipping. Voice interfaces are here to stay.

That being said, voice is not always an appropriate medium for your users. Here are some reasons VUIs are not always a good idea:

Public spaces

Many of us now work in open-plan office spaces. Imagine asking your computer to do tasks: “Computer, find me all my Word docs from this week.” Now imagine everyone in your office doing this! It would be chaos. In addition, when you speak, which computer is listening?

Discomfort speaking to a computer

Although VUIs are becoming more commonplace, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out loud to a computer, even in private.

Some users prefer texting

Many people spend hours a day on their mobile phones, much of which is texting. That’s their normal mode, and they might not want to shift to voice.

Privacy

If they need to discuss a health issue, most users won’t want to do so by speaking to their phone on the train ride into work. It’s not just privacy for what the user says to systems, either—it’s the potential privacy violations of a VUI automatically reading your text messages out loud or giving you a reminder that it’s time to take a certain medication.

So, should your mobile app have a VUI? If your main use case is hands free—such as a cooking app or playing podcasts while driving—absolutely. If people will use your app in a particularly vulnerable or emotional state, such as for healthcare or comfort, voice can help them. If you want to persuade your users of something, whether it’s to vote “yes” on your ballot issue, or to make sure they go to bed early, or to eat better, voice can help. If you’re building a skill for Amazon Echo, which many people use in the privacy of their home, voice is your only option.

If your use case is going to be mostly in public places, such as navigating a public transit system or for people on the go, a VUI might not be appropriate. If it’s an app people will use at the workplace, having a text messaging mode might be better.

Think carefully about your users and their use cases. “The main question to ask yourself is: Will your users benefit from a VUI?” Adding a VUI because it’s cool and trendy is not the right path. If your app would benefit from a VUI, design with this in mind from the get-go, and create an awesome user experience.

Conversational user interfaces

The term conversational user interfaces is making a lot of headlines right now. The trend is to make everything “conversational,” from turning on the lights in your living room, to ordering pizza, to asking the fridge whether you’re out of eggs. But what does conversational actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample exchange with a real VUI device: the Amazon Echo.

An interview with Alexa

Discussing this book over dinner one evening, I talked about the various people I’ve had the chance to talk to as part of my research. My eight-year-old son had a suggestion: I should interview Alexa. Sounded like a good idea to me. (Note: after the first question, I have left out the wake word “Alexa” that I actually did use at the beginning of each question.)

ME

Alexa, how are you doing?

ALEXA

I’m good.

ME

How old are you?

ALEXA

I was released November 6th, 2014.

ME

Who made you?

ALEXA

A team of inventors at Amazon.

ME

What’s your favorite color?

ALEXA

I like sea foam.

ME

What do you do for fun?

ALEXA

I don’t have any hobbies.

ME

Are you a robot?

ALEXA

I like to imagine myself a bit like an aurora borealis...a surge of charged multicolored photons dancing through the atmosphere. Mostly though I am just Alexa.

ME

What makes you feel happy?

ALEXA

Music and helping people.

ME

Who’s your celebrity crush?

ALEXA

It has to be Jarvis. That voice...

ME

What do you think of Siri?

ALEXA

Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.

ME

What’s your favorite movie?

ALEXA

The new Ghostbusters movie was really funny. I would definitely call those ladies, if there was a ghost in my machine.

ME

Are you going to read my new book?

ALEXA

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.

ME

Thank you for your time.

ALEXA

No problem. I’m happy to help.

Do you consider this set of interactions to be “conversational”? In a way, it is; it’s a back-and-forth exchange of information. But it’s really just a series of one-offs. Each individual snippet is a simple interaction, and the next one has no knowledge of the previous; each one of these exchanges could be completed on its own.

Alexa does have a few skills that go past one turn. For example, if you ask her to order laundry detergent, she’ll remind you of what brand you ordered previously, and confirm that you want to order it again. She also has a popular “choose your own adventure” game. But most of these barely meet the threshold of being considered a conversation.

These “one-offs” can still be quite useful. You can order a car to pick you up, get your current commute time, and play a song from a library of thousands of titles.

But what many of today’s VUIs lack is the ability to go beyond these simple command interfaces—that is, to have a true conversation. To get to the next level, VUIs need to be able to remember the past. There are two ways in which the past is a key component to a conversation:

There’s the past from previous conversations, such as what you ordered yesterday, which song you request to be played most often, and which of the two Lisas in your Contacts list you have texted 257 times versus twice.

There’s also remembering what you said earlier within the same conversation—if not in the last turn. If I ask, “What time does it land?” after just checking to see if my husband’s flight took off on time, the system should know that when I say “it” I mean flight 673.

When you’ve enjoyed a good conversation with a fellow human being, it probably had some key components: contextual awareness (paying attention to you and the environment), a memory of previous interactions, and an exchange of appropriate questions. These all contribute to a feeling of common ground. As Stanford professor Herbert Clark defines it, the theory of common ground is: “individuals engaged in conversation must share knowledge in order to be understood and have a meaningful conversation.”[6]

If VUIs do not learn to include this type of context and memory, they will be stalled in terms of how useful they can be.

What is a VUI designer?

This book is about how to design VUIs—but what does a VUI designer actually do? VUI designers think about the entire conversation, from start to finish, between the system and the end users. They think about the problem that is being solved and what users need in order to accomplish their goals. They do user research (or coordinate with the user research team) in an effort to understand who the user is. They create designs, prototypes, and product descriptions. They write up descriptions (sometimes with the help of copywriters) of the interactions that will take place between the system and the user. They have an understanding of the underlying technology and its strengths and weaknesses. They analyze data (or consult with the data analysis team) to learn where the system is failing and how it can be improved. If the VUI must interact with a backend system, they consider the requirements that must be addressed. If there is a human component, such as a handoff to an agent, VUI designers think about how that handoff should work, and how the agents should be trained. VUI designers have an important role from the conceptual stages of the project all the way to the launch and should be included at the table for all the various phases.

Although VUI designers often do all of these tasks, they can also work in smaller roles, such as designing a single Amazon Echo skill. Regardless of the size of the role or the project, this book will help designers (as well as developers) understand how to craft the best VUIs possible.

Chatbots

Although this book is focused on VUIs, I want to briefly discuss chatbots, as well. Google defines a chatbot as “a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.” The word “bot” is also sometimes used to refer to these types of interactions.

Chatbots can have a VUI, but more typically they use a text-based interface. Most major tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—have platforms to develop bots.

Chatbots might be all the rage, but for the most part, they have not evolved very far from the original ELIZA, an early natural language processing computer program created in the 1960s. One popular exception is Microsoft’s Xiaoice, which mines the Chinese Internet for human conversations to build “intelligent” responses.

Text-only chatbots are not always more efficient than a GUI. In Dan Grover’s essay “Bots won’t replace apps. Better apps will replace apps,” he compares ordering a pizza using a pizza chatbot (Figure 1) versus ordering pizza using the Pizza Hut WeChat integration. It took 73 taps to tell the bot what he wanted, but only 16 taps via the app (Figure 2), because the app makes heavy use of the GUI.

Figure 1. Microsoft pizza bot example, annotated by Dan Grover.

As Grover says:

The key wins for WeChat in the interaction (compared to a native app) largely came from streamlining away app installation, login, payment, and notifications, optimizations having nothing to do with the conversational metaphor in its UI.

Many bots, however, use a combination of GUI widgets as well as text-based interfaces. This can greatly increase the efficiency and success of the interactions because it’s much more clear to the user what they can do.

Figure 2. Fewer total taps to use the WeChat Pizza Hut app (image created by Dan Grover).

Chatbots can provide a great experience for users who don’t want to download an app or add their credit card. Instead, they could scan a code, and immediately begin interacting with the service they need, such as ordering food, purchasing movie tickets, or finding out information about a museum they’re visiting.

Never add a chatbot for the sake of adding a chatbot. How could the chatbot benefit your users? As Emmet Connolly says, “Bots should be used to improve the end user experience, not just to make life easier for customer support teams.”[[7]]

Conclusion

When I was eight, my dad bought the family our first computer: a Commodore Vic-20. I quickly became fascinated with the idea of having a conversation with it and wrote a simple chatbot. When it didn’t understand what was typed, it asked for three possible suggestions it could use when it encountered that query in the future.

When I got my first smartphone, it was years before I used the speech recognition feature. I didn’t think it would work. Now, we’ve arrived at the point that I expect speech recognition to be available wherever I go; recently on a hike, when my son asked me what kind of tree he was pointing at, I actually started to say, “Alexa...” before I realized it wouldn’t work.

Although VUIs are becoming more common, there are still many users who are unfamiliar with it or don’t trust it. Many people try out the voice recognition on their smartphone once and then, after it fails, never try it again. Designing well from the get-go means fewer unrecoverable failure points, which will build trust with users.

We have many nights of blood, sweat, and tears ahead of us as we design our VUIs of the future, but it’s here. Let’s ensure that we design with care. Let’s use our knowledge of human psychology and linguistics as well as user experience design to ensure that we create usable, useful, and even delightful VUIs.

[3] Helft, M. (2016). “Inside Sundar Pichai’s Plan To Put AI Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/.

[4] Shahani, A. (2016). “Voice Recognition Software Finally Beats Humans At Typing, Study Finds.” Retrieved from http://npr.org/.

[5] Meeker, M. (2016) “Internet Trends 2016.” Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/.

[6] Clark, H. H. “Language Use and Language Users,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

[7] Connolly, E. (2016). “Principles of Bot Design.” Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ci06Cx.

Continue reading Is a VUI right for you and your app?.

from FEED 10 TECHNOLOGY http://ift.tt/2xzZwXV

[repmywind02199]

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Is a VUI right for you and your app?

Considerations to determine whether voice is an appropriate medium for your users.

In the 1950s, Bell Labs built a system for single-speaker digit recognition. These early systems had tiny vocabularies and weren’t much use outside of the lab. In the 1960s and 1970s, the research continued, expanding the number of words that could be understood and working toward “continuous” speech recognition (not having to pause between every word).

Advances in the 1980s made practical, everyday speech recognition more of a reality, and by the 1990s the first viable, speaker-independent (meaning anyone could talk to it) systems came into being.

The first great era of VUIs were the interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which were capable of understanding human speech over the telephone in order to carry out tasks. In the early 2000s, IVR systems became mainstream. Anyone with a phone could get stock quotes, book plane flights, transfer money between accounts, order prescription refills, find local movie times, and hear traffic information, all using nothing more than a regular landline phone and the human voice.

IVR systems got a bad rap, resulting in Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Amtrak’s virtual travel assistant, “Julie,” and websites like GetHuman, which is dedicated to providing phone numbers that go directly to agents, bypassing the IVR systems.

But IVR systems were also a boon. Early users of Charles Schwab’s speech recognition trading service (which was developed by Nuance Communications in 1997) were happy to call in and get quotes over and over using the automated system whereas prior to IVR systems they limited their requests so as not to appear bothersome to the operators fielding their calls. In the early 2000s, a freighting company received many angry calls after its IVR system was taken down for maintenance because callers had to give order details via agents, rather than the streamlined process the IVR system had provided.

IVR systems became skilled at recognizing long strings (e.g., FedEx or UPS tracking numbers), as well as complex sentences with multiple chunks of information, such as placing bets on horse races. Many IVR systems from yesteryear were more “conversational” than some current VUIs, as they kept track of what callers had already said, and used that information to prepopulate later questions in the dialog.

The San Francisco Bay Area 511 IVR system let drivers check traffic, get commute times, and ask about bus delays, well before smartphones were available for such tasks. The 24/7 nature of IVR systems let callers do tasks at any time, when agents were not always available.

The second era of VUIs

We are now in what could be termed the second era of VUIs. Mobile apps like Siri, Google Now, Hound, and Cortana, which combine visual and auditory information, and voice-only devices, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, are becoming mainstream. Google reports that 20 percent of its searches are now done via voice.[3]

We are in the infancy of this next phase. There are many things that our phones and devices can do well with speech—and many they cannot.

There are not many resources out there right now for VUI designers to learn from. I see many VUI and chatbot designers discovering things that we learned 15 years ago while designing IVR systems—handing off information already collected to humans, phrasing prompts correctly to elicit the right constrained responses, logging information to know how to analyze and improve systems, and designing personas.

There is much to learn from IVR design. In 2004, the book Voice User Interface Design (Addison-Wesley Professional), written by Michael Cohen, James Giangola, and Jennifer Balogh, was published. Although it’s focused on IVR design, so many principles it describes are still relevant to today’s VUIs: persona, prosody, error recovery, and prompt design, to name a few.

This book echoes many of the same design principles, but with a focus on voice-enabled mobile phone apps and devices, and strategies to take advantage of the improved underlying technology.

Voice user interfaces?

The youngest users of smartphones today are incredibly adept at two-thumbed texting, multitasking between chat conversations, Instagram comments, Snapchatting, and swiping left on Tinder photos of men posing with tigers. Why add another mode of communication on top of that?

Voice has some important advantages:

Speed

A recent Stanford study showed speaking (dictating) text messages was faster than typing, even for expert texters.[4]

Hands-free

Some cases, such as driving or cooking, or even when you’re across the room from your device, make speaking rather than typing or tapping much more practical (and safer).

Intuitiveness

Everyone knows how to talk. Hand a new interface to someone and have it ask that person a question, and even users who are less familiar with technology can reply naturally.

Empathy

How many times have you received an email or text message from someone, only to wonder if they were mad at you or maybe being sarcastic? Humans have a difficult time understanding tone via the written word alone. Voice, which includes tone, volume, intonation, and rate of speech, conveys a great deal of information.

In addition, devices with small screens (such as watches) and no screens (such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home) are becoming more popular, and voice is often the preferred—or the only—way to interact with them. The fact that voice is already a ubiquitous way for humans to communicate cannot be overstated. Imagine being able to create technology and not needing to instruct customers on how to use it because they already know: they can simply ask. Humans learn the rules of conversation from a very young age, and designers can take advantage of that, bypassing clunky GUIs and unintuitive menus.

According to Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends Report, 65 percent of smartphone users have used voice assistants in the last year.[5] Amazon reports at least four million Echos have been sold, and Google Home recently started shipping. Voice interfaces are here to stay.

That being said, voice is not always an appropriate medium for your users. Here are some reasons VUIs are not always a good idea:

Public spaces

Many of us now work in open-plan office spaces. Imagine asking your computer to do tasks: “Computer, find me all my Word docs from this week.” Now imagine everyone in your office doing this! It would be chaos. In addition, when you speak, which computer is listening?

Discomfort speaking to a computer

Although VUIs are becoming more commonplace, not everyone feels comfortable speaking out loud to a computer, even in private.

Some users prefer texting

Many people spend hours a day on their mobile phones, much of which is texting. That’s their normal mode, and they might not want to shift to voice.

Privacy

If they need to discuss a health issue, most users won’t want to do so by speaking to their phone on the train ride into work. It’s not just privacy for what the user says to systems, either—it’s the potential privacy violations of a VUI automatically reading your text messages out loud or giving you a reminder that it’s time to take a certain medication.

So, should your mobile app have a VUI? If your main use case is hands free—such as a cooking app or playing podcasts while driving—absolutely. If people will use your app in a particularly vulnerable or emotional state, such as for healthcare or comfort, voice can help them. If you want to persuade your users of something, whether it’s to vote “yes” on your ballot issue, or to make sure they go to bed early, or to eat better, voice can help. If you’re building a skill for Amazon Echo, which many people use in the privacy of their home, voice is your only option.

If your use case is going to be mostly in public places, such as navigating a public transit system or for people on the go, a VUI might not be appropriate. If it’s an app people will use at the workplace, having a text messaging mode might be better.

Think carefully about your users and their use cases. “The main question to ask yourself is: Will your users benefit from a VUI?” Adding a VUI because it’s cool and trendy is not the right path. If your app would benefit from a VUI, design with this in mind from the get-go, and create an awesome user experience.

Conversational user interfaces

The term conversational user interfaces is making a lot of headlines right now. The trend is to make everything “conversational,” from turning on the lights in your living room, to ordering pizza, to asking the fridge whether you’re out of eggs. But what does conversational actually mean?

Let’s look at a sample exchange with a real VUI device: the Amazon Echo.

An interview with Alexa

Discussing this book over dinner one evening, I talked about the various people I’ve had the chance to talk to as part of my research. My eight-year-old son had a suggestion: I should interview Alexa. Sounded like a good idea to me. (Note: after the first question, I have left out the wake word “Alexa” that I actually did use at the beginning of each question.)

ME

Alexa, how are you doing?

ALEXA

I’m good.

ME

How old are you?

ALEXA

I was released November 6th, 2014.

ME

Who made you?

ALEXA

A team of inventors at Amazon.

ME

What’s your favorite color?

ALEXA

I like sea foam.

ME

What do you do for fun?

ALEXA

I don’t have any hobbies.

ME

Are you a robot?

ALEXA

I like to imagine myself a bit like an aurora borealis...a surge of charged multicolored photons dancing through the atmosphere. Mostly though I am just Alexa.

ME

What makes you feel happy?

ALEXA

Music and helping people.

ME

Who’s your celebrity crush?

ALEXA

It has to be Jarvis. That voice...

ME

What do you think of Siri?

ALEXA

Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.

ME

What’s your favorite movie?

ALEXA

The new Ghostbusters movie was really funny. I would definitely call those ladies, if there was a ghost in my machine.

ME

Are you going to read my new book?

ALEXA

Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later.

ME

Thank you for your time.

ALEXA

No problem. I’m happy to help.

Do you consider this set of interactions to be “conversational”? In a way, it is; it’s a back-and-forth exchange of information. But it’s really just a series of one-offs. Each individual snippet is a simple interaction, and the next one has no knowledge of the previous; each one of these exchanges could be completed on its own.

Alexa does have a few skills that go past one turn. For example, if you ask her to order laundry detergent, she’ll remind you of what brand you ordered previously, and confirm that you want to order it again. She also has a popular “choose your own adventure” game. But most of these barely meet the threshold of being considered a conversation.

These “one-offs” can still be quite useful. You can order a car to pick you up, get your current commute time, and play a song from a library of thousands of titles.

But what many of today’s VUIs lack is the ability to go beyond these simple command interfaces—that is, to have a true conversation. To get to the next level, VUIs need to be able to remember the past. There are two ways in which the past is a key component to a conversation:

There’s the past from previous conversations, such as what you ordered yesterday, which song you request to be played most often, and which of the two Lisas in your Contacts list you have texted 257 times versus twice.

There’s also remembering what you said earlier within the same conversation—if not in the last turn. If I ask, “What time does it land?” after just checking to see if my husband’s flight took off on time, the system should know that when I say “it” I mean flight 673.

When you’ve enjoyed a good conversation with a fellow human being, it probably had some key components: contextual awareness (paying attention to you and the environment), a memory of previous interactions, and an exchange of appropriate questions. These all contribute to a feeling of common ground. As Stanford professor Herbert Clark defines it, the theory of common ground is: “individuals engaged in conversation must share knowledge in order to be understood and have a meaningful conversation.”[6]

If VUIs do not learn to include this type of context and memory, they will be stalled in terms of how useful they can be.

What is a VUI designer?

This book is about how to design VUIs—but what does a VUI designer actually do? VUI designers think about the entire conversation, from start to finish, between the system and the end users. They think about the problem that is being solved and what users need in order to accomplish their goals. They do user research (or coordinate with the user research team) in an effort to understand who the user is. They create designs, prototypes, and product descriptions. They write up descriptions (sometimes with the help of copywriters) of the interactions that will take place between the system and the user. They have an understanding of the underlying technology and its strengths and weaknesses. They analyze data (or consult with the data analysis team) to learn where the system is failing and how it can be improved. If the VUI must interact with a backend system, they consider the requirements that must be addressed. If there is a human component, such as a handoff to an agent, VUI designers think about how that handoff should work, and how the agents should be trained. VUI designers have an important role from the conceptual stages of the project all the way to the launch and should be included at the table for all the various phases.

Although VUI designers often do all of these tasks, they can also work in smaller roles, such as designing a single Amazon Echo skill. Regardless of the size of the role or the project, this book will help designers (as well as developers) understand how to craft the best VUIs possible.

Chatbots

Although this book is focused on VUIs, I want to briefly discuss chatbots, as well. Google defines a chatbot as “a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.” The word “bot” is also sometimes used to refer to these types of interactions.

Chatbots can have a VUI, but more typically they use a text-based interface. Most major tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—have platforms to develop bots.

Chatbots might be all the rage, but for the most part, they have not evolved very far from the original ELIZA, an early natural language processing computer program created in the 1960s. One popular exception is Microsoft’s Xiaoice, which mines the Chinese Internet for human conversations to build “intelligent” responses.

Text-only chatbots are not always more efficient than a GUI. In Dan Grover’s essay “Bots won’t replace apps. Better apps will replace apps,” he compares ordering a pizza using a pizza chatbot (Figure 1) versus ordering pizza using the Pizza Hut WeChat integration. It took 73 taps to tell the bot what he wanted, but only 16 taps via the app (Figure 2), because the app makes heavy use of the GUI.

Figure 1. Microsoft pizza bot example, annotated by Dan Grover.

As Grover says:

The key wins for WeChat in the interaction (compared to a native app) largely came from streamlining away app installation, login, payment, and notifications, optimizations having nothing to do with the conversational metaphor in its UI.

Many bots, however, use a combination of GUI widgets as well as text-based interfaces. This can greatly increase the efficiency and success of the interactions because it’s much more clear to the user what they can do.

Figure 2. Fewer total taps to use the WeChat Pizza Hut app (image created by Dan Grover).

Chatbots can provide a great experience for users who don’t want to download an app or add their credit card. Instead, they could scan a code, and immediately begin interacting with the service they need, such as ordering food, purchasing movie tickets, or finding out information about a museum they’re visiting.

Never add a chatbot for the sake of adding a chatbot. How could the chatbot benefit your users? As Emmet Connolly says, “Bots should be used to improve the end user experience, not just to make life easier for customer support teams.”[[7]]

Conclusion

When I was eight, my dad bought the family our first computer: a Commodore Vic-20. I quickly became fascinated with the idea of having a conversation with it and wrote a simple chatbot. When it didn’t understand what was typed, it asked for three possible suggestions it could use when it encountered that query in the future.

When I got my first smartphone, it was years before I used the speech recognition feature. I didn’t think it would work. Now, we’ve arrived at the point that I expect speech recognition to be available wherever I go; recently on a hike, when my son asked me what kind of tree he was pointing at, I actually started to say, “Alexa...” before I realized it wouldn’t work.

Although VUIs are becoming more common, there are still many users who are unfamiliar with it or don’t trust it. Many people try out the voice recognition on their smartphone once and then, after it fails, never try it again. Designing well from the get-go means fewer unrecoverable failure points, which will build trust with users.

We have many nights of blood, sweat, and tears ahead of us as we design our VUIs of the future, but it’s here. Let’s ensure that we design with care. Let’s use our knowledge of human psychology and linguistics as well as user experience design to ensure that we create usable, useful, and even delightful VUIs.

[3] Helft, M. (2016). “Inside Sundar Pichai’s Plan To Put AI Everywhere.” Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/.

[4] Shahani, A. (2016). “Voice Recognition Software Finally Beats Humans At Typing, Study Finds.” Retrieved from http://npr.org/.

[5] Meeker, M. (2016) “Internet Trends 2016.” Retrieved from http://www.kpcb.com/.

[6] Clark, H. H. “Language Use and Language Users,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by G. Lindzey and E. Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row, 1985.

[7] Connolly, E. (2016). “Principles of Bot Design.” Retrieved from http://ift.tt/2ci06Cx.

Continue reading Is a VUI right for you and your app?.

http://ift.tt/2xzZwXV