#i mean at least i drew SOMETHING. i also used this as shading practice (obviously not shown)

[gompereatsall]

day six for juza celebration week is juza in a dress!! i drew him wearing rin's magic chef module since it was the first thing that came to mind. obviously, i quickly sketched this one and posted it since i don't have a lot of time to draw currently; if i did, i would've gone bigger. anyway, hope everyone enjoys juza in a dress day!!

[descendantsramblings]

Style Headcanons

So basically, I’m a big hater to the way the costume team worked on them. The whole “All Isle kids wear Leather” and “Auradon Kids always look like they’re on their first kid and on the way to the country club” thing drives me crazy. It sorta feels like they made costumes before giving them personalities (The leather on Carlos  and Evie feels like it clashes with their personalities. Lonnie’s dresses in the first movie doesn’t fit the personality we see, even though she didn’t have much of a personality until movie two. Audrey dressed like a thirty-four year old mother who just picked up her kid before going to the country club. Ben’s only good outfit was his swim trunks.) So here are some personal headcanons and pictures of what I imagine for them. (I started making them at 1am last night lol)

Villain Kids 

Evie

As someone raised to want to be a princess, she wants to dress like how she imagines a princess would.

She loves pastels and is no stranger to pairing pastel blue with a neutral red or bright white. 

The only pants she really wears are either athletic shorts or those little flowy elastic shorts, otherwise she’s all skirts.

She’s sorta a prep but not in the same way a character like Audrey would be. 

Evie has respect for most aesthetics, even though she doesn’t fully fit just one. However, she hates crocs and those little pastel shorts that white boys wear, she will announce it often.

Wouldn’t be caught dead in neon colors. 

owns a blue fur coat (it’s fake fur, obviously)

Carlos

Baby boy is a total softie

You know that one gay little sweater in movie one, that’s where they went right, more of that.

He’s into the soft boy aesthetic and only strays from it for formal wear

loves layering sweaters over button ups

Cuffed jeans, always because ya know, bisexual 

Owns a floral button up from Jay, normally he hates patterned button ups but it’s his favorite shirt. 

Loves striped sweaters, he owns about 6 variations of them in different colors (all include red, white, or black of course)

Jay 

In theory, Jay doesn’t really have one aesthetic, he’s willing to try on just about anything

Most of his clothing was bought by Evie or Carlos, especially his formal wear

The only clothes that Jay will buy for himself is athletic wear

He doesn’t really see the point of buy clothing that he can’t go straight to practice in. 

Still has the beanie,  but he owns one in just about every color to match it to his outfit.

Listen, we know Jay’s main color is yellow/gold, but why did we always see him with more red/blue in the movie? What type of snow white aesthetic were they trying to give him?

Jay owns a button up that he write on, he refuses to wear it actually buttoned though

Mal

She loves the grunge/alternative aesthetic, she thinks it makes her look more like she belongs to the Isle

She wouldn’t wear skirts until after she and Evie became friends, Evie bought her her first skirt (a purple plaid one) and she fell in love with it

Mal has a whole jewelry box of just chains, both necklaces and ones that attach to clothing 

Owns a pair of Demonia Swing-815 boots (black patent) and a pair of Demonia Camel-203 boots (holographic purple) 

100% owns one of those studded hot topic belts. 

Has a headband with little horns that symbolize her mother’s horns 

Instead of the leather half gloves from the movie, she has those little fishnet gloves and covers her hands in rings.

Uma

Her style is similar to Mal’s because if Mal is going to do something, Uma will do it better.

Uma only wore outfits that were super Fem and had skirts until Mal started doing it

Then it was Uma always wearing pants, because of her love for plaid skirts she owns a whole collection of plaid pants

the only jeans she owns are black or dark wash. 

Her first ever large purchase was a pair of Doc Marten 1460 Zip Tartan Lace up boots (they’re green, black, and blue plaid) 

She and Harry bought matching Doc Marten Jadon platforms (his are more shiny though)

Isn’t as into chains as Mal, more into chockers. 

Harry 

When the E-boy aesthetic came out, Harry was all over it 

Harry definitely has one of those chains with a little lock on it. 

I’d like to imagine he has baby gauges

the before mentioned platform doc martens, he definitely treats them like his baby

Even though Harry dresses like an e-boy,  he always has his pirate hat on

Definitely wears cloth masks as a fashion piece he actually would wear his in the pandemic though, unlike some people who wore them before but not for safety 

Harry is actually really good at graphic liner, he owns a gold, red, and white eyeliner to add color to the outfit if it’s mainly black

gold>silver 

Bought plaid pants because Uma did, he want’s to match with his captain

Gil 

As we know (maybe you don’t) it’s in the canon that Gil’s mother taught him to sew and he enjoys it. 

So Gil doesn't dress in one aesthetic or even close to being in one, he wants to try out everything, both making and wearing them.

He does stick to a monochrome color scheme though, mainly shades of brown with white or black thrown in. Sometimes he adds a little red or yellow though to “honor” Gaston

Most of his clothing is more comfortable than anything

Only owns three pairs of jeans, the rest are different types of pants (he loves corduroys) 

Owns a pants chain that harry bought him but he only really wears it when Harry and Uma are wearing one so he won’t feel left out on it. 

Dizzy 

Baby girl has seen the Isle steal the childhood innocence from people, she dresses in kidcore as a way to keep hers

Her outfits always has at least 4 different colors in it.

No stranger to neon colors, she has a pair of overalls that are neon rainbow and covered in gummy candy and she only wears them with a neon green tee, Evie and Carlos hate this outfits, Jay loves it because of the disappointment it brings to the two fashion fans 

Dizzy’s outfits in the movie were colorful obviously but they should have been just more over the top

She loves patterns and has no fear of pattern mixing

definitely owns some funky earrings, clay rings, and  statement necklaces

puts beads on her shoe laces, especially on her converse (they were white ones, she drew all over them) 

Auradon Kids 

Ben

Okay so Ben’s animated and movie outfits were bad, you can’t convince me of anything else

Why was Ben not dressed in the soft boy aesthetic? You’re trying to tell me that Belle’s son wouldn’t be a soft boy?

He has a jean jacket with his father’s beast symbol painted on the back

Absolutely loves graphic crewnecks, often layers them over collared shirts

He and Carlos go shopping together often in their free time

Lover of funky crew socks,  ones with paintings, patterns, logos, whatever. But his socks always match

After he and Mal started Dating, he bought a white jean jacket and let her paint it, he wears it all the time even though it didn’t match his original clothing, he bought more clothes in her color scheme to match it

He owns like 6 pairs of high top converse (light blue, yellow, white, navy, black, and Purple after getting the jacket back from Mal)

Chad

Listen, out of everyone he was the closest to how I imagined he should be, that being said, he had a little soft boy thing going on in some movies that I don’t think fit his personality

Polos and button ups are basically all he owns, but he does have some of those pastel simply southern esc graphic tees (Southern people probably know what I’m on about, all the guys who act like Chad at my school have like 5 of them each)

Owns 6 pairs of those horrid little southern boy pastel shorts in different shades of blue (plus 1 white pair)

Will not wear jeans, ever, the only pants he owns are khakis

All over the shirts that have logos embroidered into the shirt over the chest. 

Definitely gets asked if he’s on the way to golf/ the country club, the joke is that he is, he has to meet his father there after school

prep.jpg

Audrey 

Listen, I’m not an Audrey stan, but they did her so dirty in the first movie

She should have been the stereotypical mean girl outfit wise, I mean, mini skirts, all pastels

Owns a pink teddy coat, and a white one, she actually cares about if they get dirty though, takes good care of them

definitely has a collection of tennis skirts, pairs them with sweaters/crewnecks or blouses that have a slight puff to the sleeve

The type of girl to wear rufflely rompers on her birthday every year, pink, white, or baby blue obviously

loves those tiny shoulder bags

preppy and looks good in it. 

cropped polos and tube tops

Jane

This account is a Jane should have been cottage core/ fairy core fan page, her outfits were almost there, just not there, she’s literally a fairy but can’t use magic nor did they let her dress like one, I hate it here

Baby girl loves gingham and floral patterns, some of her dresses are a little more to her mother’s taste than hers (her mother bought them) but as long as it’s a pattern she likes she will wear it. 

Cardigans are her best friend, she owns one in multiple shades of pink and blue, plus a white one (all of her clothing fits a pastel pink/blue/white color scheme)

Babydoll dresses her a her favorite style of them (the one I put in the top right corner is what I imagine her birthday dress as) 

People try to mockingly ask if she’s on her way to a tea party/picnic (like they do with Chad and the country club) if the answer isn’t actually yes one of her friends still say yes, no one can be rude to her about it 

She owns a corset (Evie bought it for her, it made her nervous at first but she loves it) 

Owns kitten heels and flats mainly also two pairs of mary janes (in white and blue) 

has one of those little pearl purses that aren’t really useful but they’re cute 

Lonnie

Last but not least, our funky little lesbian (she is, Jay is just her emotional support queer man) Lonnie, she sticks to the teal, blue, and pink color scheme they gave her in movie one

She mainly wears sweats (or athletic clothing) otherwise it’s graphic tees tucked in (many of them are from the men’s section) 

Only wears sneakers, she has places to be but also collects them (also owns 1 pair of pink crocs, Evie tried to burn them)

Carlos and Ben talked her into wearing a collar shirt under a graphic tee once (they bought her a sleeveless button up which she hated at first) and now she does it anytime she wants to look like she put effort into her outfit. 

Wears a lot of necklaces and rings (she loves to layer necklaces, she thinks it makes her sweats look less boring) 

Uses a mini backpack instead of a purse, easier to carry more things.

Has two pairs of custom painted air forces. 

Hates wearing bracelets but always has to have a hair tie on her wrist so they don’t feel empty .

[love-and-monsters]

Emery the Incubus

Hope you’re all in the mood for a short, but sweet piece about two musicians. Also, my finals are coming up in the next two weeks, so I’m going to take a break from writing until it’s all over. I just need a little bit of extra time for school.

M Incubus X GN Reader, 2,793 words

You sat onstage. Your fingers trembled as they worked over the strings, your bow drawing out the notes in long, mournful chords. The song was not complicated, but it was your own, and that bit of nerves makes everything more difficult. When your fingers shake, it is hard to keep them on the right strings. The hand holding the bow was slightly numb and you hoped that you weren’t going to drop it onstage.

The song came to a crescendo, then down to a close. You took a deep breath, stood, and dipped your head in a bow.

Applause filtered up from the audience. You straightened back up, hoping that no one could see your knees shaking from a distance. You couldn’t make out anyone’s faces in the audience, couldn’t tell if they were politely disinterested or genuinely enthusiastic. With another deep breath, you straightened and walked offstage.

Your professor was waiting in the wings and he nodded at you as you moved backstage. “All right. Persimmon, you’re up. Head to the front of the stage. Can we get one of the stagehands to clear everything off?”

Slowly, you made your way all the way backstage, into the little room for performers, and sat down. Your knees refused to stop shaking.

There was only one other person in the backstage room. He did not help your nervousness. He was an incubus- you thought. You were pretty sure. Technically, he could be a tiefling. Both had large, curling horns, thin, often spine-tipped, tails, and larger-than-average canine teeth. Teiflings, though, often had red, blue, or purple skin, while the man in the room with you had deep tan skin. It didn’t mean he couldn’t be a tiefling, though- sometimes they had human-colored skin. What made you suspect that he was an incubus, though, was exactly how pretty he was.

There was something strong and sharp in his features, with an elegant profile and a perpetually thoughtful, half-lidded expression on his face. He was muscular and strong-looking, with long legs and his shiny, black hair was slightly curly and always tied off with a ribbon. It wasn’t just you that thought so. You had seen at last half the students in any class you had with him alternating between staring and desperately trying to look like they weren’t staring. An incubus couldn’t attract people who weren’t attracted to his gender, but anyone who was attracted to men, regardless of whether or not he was strictly their taste, would find themselves drawn to him.

Given exactly how much everyone seemed to fall over him seconds after meeting, you thought that incubus was a good guess for his species.

He fiddled with his bow, plucking a few strings on the violin he held under his chin. His musical skills were fine, if a little bit middling, but he also didn’t need great skill. He was only aiming for a minor in music, his major being taken up by biology.

“How did it go?” You jumped, slightly startled. He rarely spoke, even in class, and his voice tended to be rather quiet.

“It went fine,” you said and felt pleased that you hadn’t tripped over your own tongue. “Are you up next?”

He plucked a few more strings before retuning. “In two.” It was the single longest conversation you’d ever had with him, which wasn’t hard considering that the only competition was an exchange of apologies after you’d run into each other. He drew his bow across the strings, producing a low chord.

“You’re sharp.” The words came from your mouth before you even thought about them. It was practically a reflex. He looked at you. His eyes were a startling shade of purple, and the shock of realizing that prevented a hasty apology for your intrusion.

He stared at you for a moment, then looked back at his violin and twisted a peg. He drew his bow over the strings again, and looked at you in askance.

“Yeah, that’s better,” you said.

“How did you know that?” he asked.

“I have perfect pitch. And a cello and a violin aren’t that different.”

“Ah,” he said. He sank down into a chair and rested his violin on his lap. “I should have guessed.” He rested his hands over his violin, fiddling with his fingers. “I heard your performance.”

You nodded. “And?”

“It was good,” he said. “It was… beautiful.” He picked up his violin, examined it for a moment, placed it back in his lap. “You wrote it?”

“Two of the pieces are my own. The other three are just classical pieces I thought fit the theme.”

“They were all very good,” he said. You shrugged.

“I missed a note in my second piece.” You had also failed to crescendo the preferred amount in one of your own songs and the other had a bit of complicated playing at the end that you hadn’t been entirely been happy with, but hadn’t had the time to keep going over.

“Only one note?” He barked out an anxious laugh. “I’ll be lucky if I miss less than half of them.”

“I’ve heard you play before. You aren’t bad.” There were occasional class performances, and he’d managed to be perfectly adequate every time. He’d never managed anything overly tricky, but he’d also never bombed any pieces.

Persimmon left the stage. The incubus watched her as she passed and as the next performer took the stage. He played with his violin bow, tapping it lightly against his leg.

“I wish I was as good as you are,” he said. You glanced at him. He was staring at the ground, a tight smile on his face. “Then maybe I wouldn’t be so nervous to go onstage.”

“I still get stage fright. I thought I was going to drop my bow when I played tonight,” you told him. He looked faintly surprised.

“Really? But your playing is so beautiful…” He trailed off.

“It never feels good enough. And no matter how many times I practice, I could still miss a note or forget a section. And if I miss one note, I am much more likely to miss more. I am always nervous before I go onstage.”

His expression shifted. “You’d never know. You always look so calm.”

“Practice,” you said. “If it helps, you could probably get away with a charming enough smile. Looks are half the battle when you’re onstage.”

He laughed softly, though he still looked anxious. “Maybe. But I don’t think a nice smile is going to help the audience overlook it if I forget half the song.”

“Emery.” Your professor leaned through the doorway. “You’re on in two minutes.”

“Oh.” He stood up, tail twisting and flicking nervously around his legs. “I’ll... see you.”

He stepped through the doorway. After a moment of considering, you stood up and followed him.

There was a secluded spot in the wings where you could watch the stage. Already, a small group of people had gathered to look. You couldn’t quite see the stage from behind them, but you could hear everything. You closed your eyes and focused on the playing.

The first song was low and mournful, some kind of slow, sad song you didn’t recognize. It was technically well done, but you could almost hear the nervousness in his playing. The beat was just slightly too fast and you could tell his hands were shaking a little on the strings.

The next song was jauntier, more of a dancing tune. He seemed to be less nervous and the crowd took up a rousing clap along with the beat. One or two notes were slightly sour, but they were hard to pick up under the obvious joy of the crowd.

The third and final piece was back to the slower, more solemn theme of the original. It swelled and crested like a wave and made something stir in your chest. There were a few missed notes again, but the emotion of the piece got through. He’d obviously spent time practicing, and his heart was in the music. You decided he’d had no reason to be so nervous. It wasn’t the best playing, but it was certainly good.

Thunderous applause sounded as he exited the stage. You moved back into the back room and started putting your cello away.

Emery entered the room and promptly collapsed into a chair.

“There’s a flower in your hair,” you told him. He reached up distractedly and plucked it free.

“Someone threw a bouquet out of the audience,” he said, twirling the pink flower in his hair. “They’re cleaning the stage off.”

“It sounds like you have an admirer,” you said. He snorted.

“I have many admirers,” he said. Then he winced. “That sounds conceited. I don’t mean to be-”

“Because you’re an incubus,” you said, taking a chance and hoping you were getting his species right.

“Mm,” he said. “I have a myriad of people who would love to be around me because of what I am.” He sounded thoroughly bitter.

“There are worse things,” you said. Emery pulled a face, then sighed.

“I know. I must sound like a whiner.” He leaned back. “It’s gotten me quite far, you know. Or… it did?” He tilted his head, looking thoughtful. “I was an actor, briefly. And a model.”

“In anything I would know?” you asked. He snorted.

“Only if you watch a lot of commercials. Or read fashion magazines for children. I only did it until late high school, but I stopped when I decided to go to college.” He shrugged. “I’m glad I did it, though, if only because it lessened my need to take out student loans.”

“You didn’t like it?” you speculated.

“I was pretty neutral on it, actually. It wasn’t fun, but the money was good. There’s a big demand for incubi in modeling, even if I’m only three-quarters-”

“Really?” you said. He smiled toothily.

“Full incubi and succubi can turn it off,” he said. “Or, at the very least, target it. Shapeshift. I can’t.” He shrugged. “I just have an aura of… attraction. And, of course, the horns and the tail.”

“And the eyes,” you said. He looked at you, startled, then laughed.

“Those aren’t natural, actually. It was a spell they used on me in my modeling days. It went a little wrong- they set the duration for four years, rather than four hours.”

Your mouth opened. “How junior was the spellcaster?”

“It wasn’t her specialty. She was just there to supply makeup and contacts, but she asked me if I would prefer a more magical solution. I’m afraid I can have an allergic reaction to the colored ones, so I agreed. After about four hours, she realized her mistake, went over the spell again. She wasn’t competent enough to undo it, and I’ll admit I like it this way.” He slipped his violin into its case and buckled it closed. “Might even ask for a redo when it’s worn off.”

“I think it suits you,” you said. He nodded.

“I thought about changing my appearance recently,” he said. “But it doesn’t work.”

“You can’t change it?”

“Oh, I can. But my intention was to… dampen my aura? Stop the attraction, I suppose. It gets frustrating. People always look at me, always try to win my attention, I suppose. I can’t ever be… unnoticed.”

“Is that why you gave up acting?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. Well, that and the fact that I wasn’t terribly good at it. Why do you think I never moved beyond commercials?” You laughed and he continued, bolstered. “I don’t particularly want to be famous. I considered music, but you had a point, earlier. Onstage, people do care about the music, but also about the looks. Doing this professionally would just be another way to get eyes on me. Or praise I don’t deserve.” He frowned at the ground. “My applause was just as loud as yours.”

“That’s a strange thing to be upset about,” you said.

“Because they were clapping for me, not my playing. If they had been, your applause should have drowned out mine several times over.”

“Thank you,” you said, “but I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”

“It’s true. Your playing is impeccable.”

“We’ve already been over the fact that it was not,” you said.

“I’ve heard you play several times before. Maybe there was a wrong note, but it was wonderfully soulful.” He laughed. “I am convinced that when I hear you play, I can hear your heart.”

There was silence in the room, except for the distant sounds of the concert still going on. He ducked his head. “I’m sorry. I’m usually not that poetic. Um. This is embarrassing.”

“Actually, I think it’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me about my playing,” you said. He looked relieved.

“I… am not that good at playing,” he said. “And I certainly can’t write anything.”

“Coming from you, that’s quite a compliment.” He smiled, looking quite pleased. There was a glimmer of something in his eyes, but it was gone when his lids flickered closed for a moment.

“If you aren’t aiming to be a musician, then what does interest you?” you asked.

“I want to work with animals,” he said. “They’re not affected, you see. I have to work to earn their favor.” He smiled. “It took me three months to earn Baphomet’s affection. Oh, that’s my cat. Grouchy old thing.”

“You have a cat?” you said. “Don’t you live in the dorms?”

There was a moment of shame, the a spark of mischief entered his eyes. He lifted a finger to his lips. “Don’t tell. Please?”

“I promise I won’t,” you said, “as long as you promise to let me see him.”

His brows rose. “Are you trying to get me to take you back to my room?”

It was your turn to dissolve into stammering. He waved his hand to dismiss your worries. “I’m teasing. I’m sure Baphomet would be pleased to meet you. After a fashion, anyway.” He looked at you a moment, seemed to be gathering his courage for something. “Would you mind- and you certainly don’t have to if you don’t want to- but I was wondering…”

His courage failed. His tail flicked rapidly and he seemed to be struggling to speak. “I can’t answer until you’ve actually asked something,” you reminded him. That got a tight smile and he tried to speak again.

“Your music. I was wondering if I could hear some more of it?” He worried his lip and you wondered how his sharp teeth didn’t break the skin. “I know it might be personal, but I… It was beautiful and I’d like to hear it again.”

“I think I can arrange that,” you said. “But not all my pieces are as polished as those, so you might not be as pleased by them.”

“I’m sure I’ll be pleased with whatever you want to play,” he said. He shifted his legs, tail stilling with obvious effort. “And would you be willing to help me learn how to play better?”

“There are better people to teach you,” you said. He sighed and gave you a look under his lashes.

“Maybe I would prefer to spend time with you,” he said. You opened your mouth.

“Are you-” The words were stuttering. “You’re asking me out?”

“I’m trying to,” he said. “I haven’t been clear enough, have I? I’m not used to being the one doing the asking, I’m afraid. It’s a bit of a novelty, actually.” He gave a sort of half-shrug. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ve had an attraction for a while now, actually. From, uh. The first time I heard you play, actually.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “But I’m usually very cautious about asking people out. I know that some people thing incubi just use people for sex. And others… aren’t shy about doing it the other way around. So, I was waiting to make sure that you liked me back. For me, not for anything else. But you corrected me earlier. And you haven’t fallen over yourself with me either. So.” He coughed. “All this is a very long way of saying that I would like to go out with you. And I’m hoping you feel the same?”

He was just as handsome as before. But the only part of him you really noticed were his unnatural eyes. They were bright with affection.

[purplesurveys]

1183

survey by xflirtykaosx

Alphabetti Spaghetti (1/3)

And we will fall in love with shooting stars. - A

Have you ever seen an Aardvark? I don’t think so.

Were you ever abandoned in a public place as a child? Where? Abandoned is a pretty harsh word lol. My parents did like playing pranks on me and hide whenever I’d get distracted at the grocery or department store. They’d let me get nervous or even tear up for a bit until showing up again.

What accent do you have? I guess just your standard Filipino English accent that’s common among people who were able to take up English studies. I don’t really know how to describe it.

Is there someone in your family addicted to something? What is it? I don’t think so.

Have you ever been under general anaesthetic? What were you having done? I think so? When I had a tooth extraction done on me two years ago I was told I was going to be injected with anaesthesia, but I didn’t feel as if anything changed throughout the procedure. Either my dentist told me fake news lol or he’s just really good at his job for me to not notice anything.

How do you show the ones you love affection? It depends on the person. Around my friends, I know I’ve had taken a liking to them once I start getting especially talkative with them. For people I have even deeper relationships with, I like...buying them gifts, I guess. Getting them things that remind me of them. I would also bend over backwards to do nice deeds for them, like driving them to their destination even if I find it far.

Are you more passive or aggressive? I tend to be very passive aggressive in the way I deal with things.

Do you like the band Aha!? Not in particular.

Do you know anyone called Aidan? What are they like? Nope.

Ever heard of the band Ajax? No but I know that’s a brand of like cleaner or something. That’s close enough to ‘band’ haha.

Do you know anyone called Akash? I don’t either.

Do the sound of fire alarms scare you? They would obviously be scary if it rang for a real reason. Who wouldn’t freak out over a fire?

Do you live in America? If so, which state? If visited, where'd you go? No, and I’ve never visited either. I’d love to take a trip to cities like New York, New Orleans, Portland, and Chicago one of these days.

Have you ever had an ant infestation in your house? Only when there’s food left out accidentally.

Aora - did I spell that correctly? I don’t even know what you’re referring to, so I can’t tell you if you’ve spelled whatever it is right.

Do you have a preference in Apple? What type do you prefer? I don’t quite get this question - like a preference within Apple products? I mean, a phone and a laptop are essentials for me, and generally I do prefer having an iPhone and Macbook over other brands; but I can live without an iPad, an Apple Watch, iMac, Apple Pen, etc...if this is what you mean.

Are you an Aquarian? Is anyone in your family/your partner/best friend? ...You mean Aquarius? No. I don’t believe in astrology nor pay attention to zodiac signs either, so I wouldn’t be able to name Aquariuses that I know right off the bat.

Have you ever worn any type of armor? Which type? I don’t think I’ve ever had to, no.

Do you use the word ass a lot? Kinda, but it’s usually part of a longer word, i.e. asshole, asshat, deadass, etc.

Have you or your family had an attorney? What for? Not to my knowledge.

Is your car/family’s car an automatic gear or manual? Automatic.

Are you interested in aviation, piloting and aircrafts? Just the slightest bit. I would love to learn how to fly a plane, and I would be willing to pay for lessons. It’s just the type of activity that’s super hard to squeeze into an already-hectic schedule of mine.

What was the last award you recieved for? A academic distinction in college.

Axl Rose - like or dislike? Like, but I’m nowhere near a passionate fan. I just don’t have any reasons to actively dislike him.

Do you like air being spelt ayre or ayer in rap or hiphop or is it nasty? I don’t care.

Is the sky outside Azure? If not, what shade is it? No, it’s pitch black.

Belle amour (we've been here before). - B

Do you call anyone baby? Is it sweet or an overrated name for affection? Just my dogs. I find it sweet; it’s my preferred term of endearment if in a relationship.

Bby - does this shortened version bug you? No; my friends and I use this with each other.

Do you know what BC in terms of time stands for? Before Christ, but I prefer using BCE.

BDf - For or against? I don’t know what this is referring to.

Do you prefer beach breaks, city breaks or winter breaks? Why? Beach breaks. Winter break is an immediate cross-out since we don’t even have winter; and I already live and work in an urban area as it is. Beaches are my way to go if I want to escape life for a bit and completely unwind.

Do you spell out boyfriend properly or put bf in texts/online? I can use either depending on what I feel like typing out. It’s not that serious haha.

Do you know what bg is short for? Upon reading this question I immediately thought ‘background,’ but if this question had another meaning in mind I wouldn’t be aware of it.

Do you know anyone with the last name Bhays? No.

Have you ever been bird watching? What did you see? No, doesn’t sound like my kind of hobby.

Do you like Bjork? Not in particular, but just like the Axl Rose question I don’t have anything against her either.

What does this read: bk 2moz miss u lyk fk. Doesn't this text speak annoy? No one types like this anymore at least among people I know, but I imagine it would lowkey bother me a bit.

Do you like BMWs? They’re whatever. I don’t pay attention to cars much.

What is the nearest book to you called? How many times have you read it? There aren’t any books here up on the rooftop.

BnQ - gone there? What did you buy? Idk what that is.

Are you more brainy or brave? I wanna say brainy, if anything? I’m pretty jumpy lol.

Did you like the BSBs (Backstreet Boys) as a kid? How about now? No, I’m a little too young for that generation of artists and groups.

Burgers, Hot Dogs or Salads at a Barbecue? We don’t really practice ~barbecues~ here. But at Filipino parties I would usually flock to lumpia and fried chicken, hehe.

Do you have a Byro? No, because I also don’t know what that is.

Cold eyes and filthy lies all leave me petrified. - C

Do you have a Cactus (Cacti)? No, I don’t like plans.

Do you know what a CCTV is? Yes...?

How many CDs are in the room you are currently in? None where I am right now but I have all of Beyoncé’s albums save for Lemonade in my bedroom. I also have Paramore’s self-titled album and Hayley Williams’ Petals For Armor. My CD collection is about to experience a revival because of BTS, though. My plan to get all versions of all their albums is rock solid, lmao.

What's your favourite cereal brand? Cookie Crisps.

Do you like children's TV shows still? Which one(s)? I’ll revisit an episode or two of shows I watched as a kid at a given time for old times’ sake, but I don’t regularly watch children’s TV shows anymore. I haven’t for a very long time.

Cinnamon - Yum or Yuck? I’m actually kind of in the middle about it. I feel like too many desserts have been banking on cinnamon, so the taste of it can be a little tiring. It’s delicious if I haven’t had it for a while, though.

Do you know anyone with the initials and or name CJ? Quite the opposite; I know PLENTY of JCs, even my sister is one. I know one or two CJs but that’s it.

Have you ever met a self professed clairvoyant? What did they do/say? No.

Do you watch CNN News? What's your prefered news channel/show? I don’t tune into the channel but every once in a while I will encounter a CNN link on social media that I’d actually click on and read through. As for preferred news sources, I don’t have one as there are matters to criticize about 99% of them lol; but I am most likely to trust articles I from AP or Reuters. Just things you pick up as a journalism student. 

How many cousins do you have? I have 9 first cousins. I lose count by the time I try to go beyond that since I don’t even know all of my dad’s cousins, which makes it hard to track who my second cousins are.

Do you still draw with crayons? When was the last time you did? Drew what? I don’t remember anymore.

Do you know what a CSS feed is? What is it? I’m familiar with the term but never bothered to learn about what it is.

Do you like cycling/biking? What type of bike do you have? ...I don’t even know how to ride a bike.

Do you really like it, is it is it wicked. - D

What is the most dangerous animal you've petted/held? I can’t decide between snake or crocodile.

Do you like Death Metal? If so, which band(s)? I wouldn’t say I do.

Did you ever keep a diary/journal? I did a million attempts to keep a diary when I was younger, but I was never able to keep up with any of them and I ended up having 4598358395 notebooks with one or two entries each at most. Having a Tumblr page for surveys has so far been my most successful streak at keeping some type of journal.

Do you prefer small, medium, large or no dogs? I prefer all dogs.

Do you know what DP stands for in porn? Yes.

Have you ever dressed up as a celebrity for a party/Halloween? I went as my favorite female wrestler once. I wouldn’t strictly call her a celebrity, but she’s a very well-known personality in the wrestling industry so she’s popular in that right.

DS or Wii? Why? Wii. I was able to make more memories with it.

Does dust make you sneeze or cough? Sneeze, usually.

How many DVDs do you have all together? Idk, I don’t buy DVDs anymore.

Do you dye your hair regularly, sometimes or never? I’ve never done it.

Every love lies sometimes . . . - E

What's something you refuse to eat? Most fruits.

Don't you think the word ebb is so pretty? I’m neutral about it. I don’t use it a lot.

Do you like Chocolate Eclairs? I love eclairs in general haha. Chocolate eclairs in particular sound delicious.

Ever tried edible paper? Yeah, with the White Rabbit candy.

Eevee - pretty name or too Pokemon-y? Definitely very Pokemon-y. 

Do you sometimes mix up the spellings/meanings of affection and defection? Erm, no? They have completely different spellings and meanings, so I personally have never switched them up.

Do you have a big ego, low self esteem or somewhere in between? I think I’m somewhere in between. I’m insecure about some things about myself, but I don’t really put myself down 24/7. I feel like that would put such a strain on my mental health, which I certainly would never need.

What Element does your starsign fall under? I think earth? My co-workers were just discussing this last Friday, but I couldn’t really butt in since I can’t bring myself to care about astrology. I know they mentioned Taurus being an earth sign though.

Do you show your emotions easily and freely or hide them? Depends...I can do either depending on the situation.

What is your favourite form of entertainment? Korean reality shows are quickly becoming a favorite of mine at the moment. I also like compilation videos on YouTube.

What will they write on your epitaph? I’ve honestly hadn’t put much thought into this yet, and I don’t plan to anytime soon. It just seems like a super grave thing to think about lol.

Estimate/guess what number we are on now? Maybe 60s or 70s?

Do you know basic social etiquette? I mean etiquette will always differ per country or culture, so what is basic in other countries might not be here, and vice versa. I think it’s hard to measure.

Does your country use the Euro, Great British Pound, Dollar or other? Other.

Do you still get excited on Christmas Eve? Yes. Mostly for the free food and the opportunity to see relatives I really only ever see every December 24.

What animal/creature that is extinct do you wish wasn't? Those that went extinct from human activity.

What colour eyes do your parents have? Black/dark brown.

[kiranatrix]

Hi! Do you have a clue how much of the manga is handrawn and how much is "computer made" instead? Because I used to think that at least the characters were all personally handrawn in each panel by the author, but some evident mistakes made me rethink it... Like Ryuk's hand in a panel in chapter 14, and Ryuk flying in chapter 74. I mean, anyone can happen to draw something a bit ankward sometimes, but I seriously doubt someone handrawing could have drawn that... Thank you very much for your time

Hi again blue-night-shades, thanks for your question and for following up with the specific manga panels you thought seemed off (Chapter 14 on the left and Chapter 74 on the right).

So first off, essentially all of the manga is hand drawn, although not ALL of it was drawn by Obata. Most of the important stuff was done by him, like the main characters, the general layout/setup, and the pivotal scenes. He left it to his assistants to draw in the backgrounds and some of the more mundane details. But it’s rare that we get factual confirmation of which specific pages/panels assistants contributed less or more to. For example, here’s an interview where he states that he was requested to personally draw a car crash scene by his editors, after it had been drawn by his assistants and they didn’t like it. It’s flawless and highly detailed, as we’d expect from him (he said it took him a day). He also stated in that linked interview that he personally drew any scenes and backgrounds in the Shinigami Realm because he really wanted to do that.

For the goofy-looking hand from Chapter 14, I waffle on this but I think (1) Obata might have been in a rush since he has mentioned tight deadlines, (2) Obata just did a wacky job and figured it wasn’t a big deal, or (3) the hand was added in by assistants later to make Ryuk look more giggly/conspiratorial. The rest of Ryuk and Light’s face in that scene looks on-point and in Obata’s style, and if you took the hand out of the panel it would still make sense, but some ‘flavor’ is lost. It may have been an editorial decision or something added at the last minute, similar to how his editors revised the car crash scene. 

That said, Obata has implied that he doesn’t like how he draws hands and this panel was early in the manga (so less practice drawing Ryuk’s hand from new angles maybe). Even in the most recent live-draw of the 2019 one-shot, I personally saw him erase and redraw Near’s hand over and over, finally using his own hand as a reference. So, Obata’s got a thing about drawing hands, and we do occasionally see him make perspective or anatomical size mistakes like below:

As for the scene in Chapter 74, I would guess that an assistant drew that, but it’s also an awkward perspective. The Shinigami are small in that panel so Ryuk might have been drawn bulkier and without much detailed definition just to make it pop out more on the page. It’s also a panel where nothing super important is happening action-wise, they are just zoomin’. Maybe a little hit to the quality was tolerable, given its Shonen Jump-- a manga with a very rapid publication schedule. 

Finally, the reason I say that ESSENTIALLY all the manga was hand drawn is that I have seen at least one panel where it’s clear there’s a stock picture edited in. For the life of me I can’t find it now, but there’s a scene with Matsuda’s computer background which is an obviously pasted-in picture. This panel with Light and Takada in the hotel room probably has a stock picture of the Tokyo Tower in the background too.

Anyway, Obata is an artistic genius but he’s still human and has weaknesses and makes mistakes, especially so when he’s under tight timelines like for Shonen Jump. Add in the work of assistants and last-minute changes by the editors and it naturally leads to some mistakes in artistic continuity. 

[delimeful]

the shapes in the silence (3)

warnings: violence, mild injury, panic

Chapter 3

The trip passed in a haze, Virgil’s head spinning from trying to figure out what to do, and also a mild case of hyperventilation he was desperately trying to muffle. He was trapped between a rock and a hard place, and no matter what he chose, it would definitely end badly. 

Too soon, they were in front of the portal to the Imagination in Roman’s hall, and the creative side turned to face them. 

“Patton, from here I will take the dragon alone,” Roman said, cutting off all protest. “The tides of the Mindscape have been turbulent lately, and I do not want you to come to harm. I promise to keep this tiny beast safe and sound.”

Patton frowned, but eventually nodded at Roman’s stubborn stance. He turned Virgil to face him, eyes suspiciously wet. “Okay, be safe little guy. I hope I’ll see you again soon.” 

Virgil couldn’t help but agree with the thought as Roman wrapped his hands around him, tucking him carefully against his chest. His head throbbed slightly, and he couldn’t focus enough to protest as the creative side stepped through to the Imagination.

The first half hour of the trip was fairly uneventful, spent wandering among the shifting landscapes where Roman most frequently encountered dragons. Virgil even got to see what residents of the Imagination normally looked like before things took a turn for the worse.

Roman frowned, studying the trees around them carefully. Virgil could feel his hackles raise, the sense of them getting closer to his position. He growled low in his throat, beyond caring about what Roman would think. He would die either way, at least Roman would make it quick. 

Maybe not once he figured out who Virgil really was, though. 

As though summoned by his thoughts, he spotted the first shadowy figure darting through the trees with a multitude of spindly legs. He snarled out a warning, and Roman turned to face the shadow just in time. His face contorted with shock and then fury, but his grip on Virgil remained steady as he drew his sword and attacked. 

Two more approached, one after the other, and once Roman finished besting them, he let out a heavy breath, and set the dragon on the ground in the middle of their clearing. Virgil blinked at the careful motion. Had he… not figured it out? 

“Don’t worry, dragonling. I’ll keep you from harm.” 

Roman turned away as more approached, and Virgil felt his jaw drop slightly. He… he had no idea. He really was a clueless moron. Did he even know-

“Come out, Anxiety, you foul villain, and face me yourself!” Roman shouted, blade clashing against the dark hide of a beast with hundreds of eyes. “I know these monsters follow in your wake!”

Virgil shrank back slightly. Oh. He did know. He just couldn’t connect the dots. 

Virgil watched carefully as the prince destroyed specter after specter before they could get close, a strange feeling in the back of his throat. 

He was… really protecting him, able to slash through shades that would take Virgil ages and probably a panic attack or two to defeat. It was weird, even if he knew that it wasn’t really him Roman thought he was defending. 

A flash of movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he spotted a deep shadow creeping up in Roman’s blind spot. It probably wasn’t strong enough to do any real damage, Roman didn’t show a shred of fear while fighting, but... what if it did? The thought was enough to make him panic, and he lunged for the shadow, screeching out a warning.

He was faster in this form, but even so, he was tiny. There was only so much damage he could do. The shadow jerked back as he latched onto it, teeth sinking into the ephemeral flesh. He managed to rake his hind claws across the creatures chest once, twice, and then he was flung off, hitting the ground and rolling. 

He groaned from the sensation of something twisting in his back leg, but hurriedly pulled himself up anyways. It would be on him soon, and he twisted as something approached, teeth bared-

Roman. He was reaching out in concern, the shadow already banished, and even as he drew back Virgil closed his mouth with a clack, his ears lifting in relief. The prince stared at him with an odd expression for a moment, before a branch snapped behind him and Virgil croaked an unneeded warning. With barely a pause, he was off again, fighting like he was born for it. It was like watching a choreographed dance. 

Moments later, there was a slight pause in the endless attackers, and Roman whirled around, scooping up Virgil with a startled squawk, and booking it. The prince muttered literature-based obscenities under his breath as he hurried back to the closest portal, diving through and closing it after him.

“Are you injured?” Roman asked, before carefully checking him over. Virgil held himself very still, not flinching away even when pressure was applied to the injured leg.

Once reassured that Virgil was unharmed, the prince sighed in relief, leaning against the wall with his free arm. Virgil leaned over to check that the idiot didn’t have head trauma from throwing himself around like that. 

“I am quite alright, little dragon,” Roman assured him, before his brow creased. “But a certain emo is about to not be.”

By the time Virgil processed that Roman was talking about him, but not this him, they were halfway down Virgil’s hall, and he panicked.

He let out a shaky warble and clawed his way up Roman’s shoulders as though to repeat the move he’d done with Patton before, ignoring the twinge of pain from his bad leg. Roman was swift enough to catch him, lifting him off carefully with a surprising amount of concern.

“Easy, easy, Puff the Jumpy Dragon! What are you doing?” 

Virgil cast a glance at his door in the shadows at the end of the hall. He couldn’t let them try to barge in and find it empty. When he looked back at Roman, he found that the prince was following his gaze consideringly. His heart stuttered.

“Are you… frightened of Anxiety?” he asked, gaze weirdly soft. 

Virgil sent thanks to whoever was looking out for him by making Princey jump to the completely wrong conclusion. 

As though to test his theory, Roman took a step forwards, and Virgil immediately resumed his struggling. Yes, look at me, I’m terrified, don’t take me near the big bad Anxiety. 

 Roman nodded firmly. “Very well. I will confront him at a later hour then, don’t you worry.” His stomach twisted at the thought, but that was a problem for later Virgil. Roman turned back to the stairs. “For now, I’m sure Patton will be simply ecstatic to see you again.” 

Virgil drooped at the thought. That’s right. He was still trapped here, whether or not they made the connection to his actual self. 

Roman glanced at him with that strange look in his eyes again, and carried him downstairs, where Patton and Logan were waiting. Patton sat up straight at the sight of him, grin nearly blinding. “You guys are back!” 

Roman returned the smile in full force. “We are indeed!”

“Does this mean that our unexpected visitor is staying, then?” Logan asked, carefully slotting a bookmark into his novel. 

Roman adjusted his grip on Virgil for a second, thinking. “Our journey was interrupted by most foul specters, so I did not have time to search everywhere, but…” 

He set Virgil down on Patton’s lap. “For now, I think it would be best to keep him here.”  

Patton cheered softly, hand hovering over Virgil’s head. On instinct, he butted his face against the fingers, and then froze. Patton simply smiled and carefully pet him, like one would a cat. He felt shame well up in him; how could he be taking advantage of their ignorance for a few measly touches? He was practically deceiving them at this point.

He pulled away slightly, leaning down to gnaw at the band again. 

Roman cleared his throat, drawing the attention of all three in the room. He was looking at Virgil again, and his heart rate somehow rose further. “I’ve been meaning to ask, what is that device on his leg?”

“Ah, that would be my doing,” Logan said, perking up. “The band is a simple tracker, so that we can be rest assured that it will not run off without us knowing.”

“A tracker?” Patton echoed, confused and a little worried.

Virgil leaned away from the cuff, worried now that they’d be angry at him for trying to get it off so obviously. Roman frowned.

“While I understand you had good intentions, I believe I should clarify that dragons are not simple animals. They normally are vicious and cunning creatures, but,” Roman shot a curious look down at the dragon in question, “in this case, I believe this one is smart without the cruelty.”

Virgil stared, eyes wide. Logan leaned forward, interested. “Are you saying it- he is cognizant?” 

“Indeed, I am,” Roman confirmed. “He was a great help in warning me of enemies while in the Imagination, and he shows a range of emotions and understanding similar to us. As such, I don’t believe he would prefer to be... collared like a simple animal.” 

Virgil felt a surge of joy and disbelief. The last person he would have expected was giving him a chance to get out of this mess. 

Patton peered down at him with concerned eyes. “Aw, kiddo, is that true?” 

Virgil paused for a second, thinking. He couldn’t respond with a nod- that was too human and Roman was more perceptive than Virgil had given him credit for. He couldn’t act too different from what the creative side would expect from a dragon. Which was hard, seeing as he had only his own instincts to go off of. On the other hand, there was no way he would pass up the opportunity he had been offered to get this thing off.

In the end, he settled for biting at the cuff again, and then lifting it up towards Patton with a displeased whine. Patton turned to Logan, distressed, and the logical side raised a hand to stall the question before it was asked.

“Before you ask me to remove it, I would like to point out that it’s possible that he could become lost in the Mindscape. We know little to nothing about how well creatures from the Imagination will function here, since Roman did not conjure him directly. If that scenario came to pass, I imagine we would want to know where he had gone for his own safety.”

Patton hesitated, and Virgil narrowed his eyes at Logan. He was so close! It was his damn job to worry about everything that could go wrong, so why was Logan suddenly so concerned with it? He wouldn’t get lost in the Mindscape, he lived here!

A muffled laugh from Patton interrupted him, and he paused, realizing that he had been making angry chittering sounds as he not-so-mentally ranted at Logan. He’d gotten carried away. It was lucky that he could only ‘speak’ in a strange mix of growls and clicks in this form, or else the jig really would have been up.

“I think he’s made his stance clear on the matter,” Roman said, badly concealing his amusement. Patton was still giggling, trying to smooth down the raised scales along Virgil’s back, and he let himself settle, melting slightly under the touch. Pathetic.

“I… see,” Logan said, awkwardly. “In that case… maybe a compromise? I can adjust the function so that the tracker doesn’t activate unless a concerning amount of time has passed since we last saw him?”

“That… might work,” Roman said, turning to look at Virgil inquisitively. “What say you, Toothful?”  

Virgil absentmindedly kneaded the blanket on Patton’s legs as he considered. He really just wanted this thing off him, but if he said no, would they leave the tracker on him permanently? Monitor his every move? That was one of the worst possible outcomes. If he agreed to the compromise, he just might be able to get the tracker off when he was back to normal, and then it was just a matter of never going out of his room in the wrong form ever again.

“Please, kiddo?” Patton asked, giving him an imploring look. “I don’t want you to go missing because I wanted you to stay with us!” 

Even if he couldn’t get the tracker off right away… It wouldn’t be that awful, to spend more time with them. Curl up and sleep in the comforting presence of others… Even if he didn’t deserve it, he couldn’t deny the appeal of spending time with the other Sides without all the distrust.

Mind made up, he carefully climbed out of Patton’s lap, making his way over to the arm of the couch and then leaping the short distance between it and Logan’s armchair. He concealed a wince as his injury protested the movement. Once he was stable, he held the leg with the band out to Logan, careful to keep his eyes averted. 

“I take it you would prefer the adjustment?” Logan asked, and he chirruped lowly at him, pushing his leg out further. “Very well.” 

He reached his hand up and delicately held Virgil’s clawed paw between two fingers, leaning in to fiddle with the cuff with his other hand. He couldn’t help but shift a bit nervously, but he reminded himself that they didn’t know who he was. They weren’t going to hurt him unprovoked unless they found out. He had to stop acting so… well, anxious. 

“There,” Logan said, returning to his normal straight-backed posture. “Now, the tracker will only activate after five days have passed without contact with one of us.” 

Five days. He’d make it work. 

He trilled lowly in thanks, and then sat there on the armrest, studying the three of them as they launched into conversation, apparently picking a movie. It was… different, when it was just the three of them. Not as tense. He felt a pang of guilt again, this time for the stress he put on everyone. He was trying his hardest to make sure everything ran smoothly, but in the end, he was Anxiety. It only made sense that they were more comfortable without him. 

Like this, though… They were happy, even though he was here. Maybe it wouldn’t be awful to spend more time in this form. Maybe.

[kumawrites]

Love Tutorial (NOT CLICKBAIT)

Shinso x fem!Reader

A/N: hi lovelies i’m back with, you guessed it, more shinso!!! this fic is 100% self indulgent bc i absolutely love makeup lol. i’m trying out a bunch of different things in terms of formatting so like tell me if this section looks ugly LMAO. anyways pls enjoy !!

words: 3.8k

summary: You’re a popular Beauty Guru™ and Shinso is primarily a commentary channel. He follows one of your tutorials, only to be surprised by you talking about how fine he is.

—

“That will be all for this video, if you enjoyed it please show some love by clicking on the like button, and if you like me, subscribe! Like always, feel free to tag me if you recreate this look, I love seeing all of your posts! I’ll see you Earthlings later, bye!” With both hands waving and a bright smile, you successfully finished filming your outro that you have possibly said three hundred times.

Before you could even get a word out, Mina was screaming into the phone. “Y/N? OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD. YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS. I’M FREAKING OUT FOR YOU! AHHHH!” You winced, not expecting her to be that loud. Sure, you knew quite well that she could get loud, but that’s because she gets excited. So to be this noisy must mean something big is happening.

“Why, hello to you too Mina. How’s my day going? Good! Thank you for asking. I would ask how yours is going but from the sound of it, I’ll assume pretty good.” You snickered into the phone.

“Well, my dear Y/N, it’s about to be even better than just good!” Mina’s volume was significantly lower, but you could still tell just how excited she was.

“Oh really? What’s going to make my day better than? Wait let me guess, NikkiTutorials resigned and gave up her spot as the most iconic beauty guru and gave it to me?” You snorted. If only.

“No! It’s even better!” The pitch of Mina’s voice kept raising higher and higher.

“Okay, okay, spit it out Mina. You’re really making me curious and I don’t know if I should be worried or not.” You grabbed your glass of water from you table and took a sip. Gross, warm. But it was too much work to get a new glass so you began downing this one.

“SHINSO HITOSHI DID A REACTION VIDEO TO ONE OF YOUR TUTORIALS!” You choked on your water and half of it went down the wrong way. You began coughing and Mina, the little bitch, didn’t say anything while you were dying. You could imagine her just sitting there, waiting for you to respond after your coughing fit.

After getting it all out, you swallowed, eyes still wide. “Mina, you’re not joking right now, are you? Because if you are, I know where you live, and I won’t hesitate, bitch.”

“I’m not! I’m really not! Check his channel, he, like, just uploaded it!”

You grabbed your laptop and opened Google Chrome. “Call me back on FaceTime, rat.” You told Mina before hanging up on her. You typed YouTube into the search bar while Mina called you back. When you answered, you could see that she was also in her filming room.

Mina, like you, is a beauty YouTuber that is well known for her flawless skin, even though she has the simplest skincare routine you have ever seen. Her chipper personality also drew in a ton of fans towards her channel. The two of you had met through YouTube and were soon to find out that you lived in the same city. Your friendship really bloomed then, and you basically live at each other’s houses.

You got onto YouTube, and lo and behold, there it was. Obviously you were subscribed to Shinso’s channel, so the first video of pop up was his. It was titled “i learn how to become beautiful” and his thumbnail was him with his signature “kill me now” face on with some patchy, hot pink, glitter eyeshadow all over his eyelids. But also, you were there! You were in his thumbnail which could only mean one thing: this was real.

“HOLY SHIT MINA, I’M IN HIS THUMBNAIL.”

“I KNOW! NOW WATCH THE VIDEO! I HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET THOUGH SO TURN THE VOLUME UP.” She screeched and you did.

You clicked on the video and there he was, Shinso Hitoshi, looking as good as ever. His tired eyes that screamed “I could die at any given moment” and his messy hair that somehow defied physics. It has to be downright illegal to look that hot. Today he was sporting one of his merch items, a hoodie that had simple print on the front of it saying: I’m Shinso Over This. Of course you owned that very sweatshirt. You would never miss out on a chance to buy his merch.

“Hi. I’m back, unfortunately.” His tone was as dry as it always was. “I was harassed into doing this, go bully Denki on Twitter because this is all his fault. But today I’m going to be making myself beautiful with the help of Y/N. Okay, she’s not actually helping me, but I’m going to watch one of her tutorials.” Your heart pounded as he mentioned you. One of creators that you loved the most is going to follow one of your tutorials. You could die happy now.

“HE SAID YOUR NAME!” Mina shrieked from your phone and you nodded eagerly as you kept your eyes glued to the computer.

“I’m going to choose this one, “EASY Valentines Day Makeup Tutorial + Q&A!” because it says easy.” You watched as your face from the most recent Valentine’s Day popped up. In the intro, you had already filmed the tutorial part and were wearing the full face. It was a fairly easy look, to you at least.

You had done a simple glitter cut-crease, primarily using warm toned reds and pinks with some winged liner and false lashes for your eyes. Your face had some sharper contour and heavy blush that trailed from one cheek to another, using your nose like a bridge. And of course, you had used a super glittery highlighter that reflected with all of your studio lights. You had also used a maroon liquid lip.

“Greetings, Earthlings! It’s me, Y/N, and I’m here to do another tutorial! Today we’re going a Valentines Day themed full face, and I’m also going to be answering some love related questions you asked me on Twitter since it is Valentines Day after all. If you’d like to recreate this look, as always I listed all the products I’m going to use down in the description!” You pointed your fingers downwards. “Without further ado, let’s get started!”

Shinso paused your video and held up a Sephora bag. “I spent so much money on this stuff, and I’m never going to use it again.” He lazily drawled. The fact that he made eye bags hot was insanity. You wanted to cry for him because some of the products you used were unnecessarily expensive.

Shinso unpaused your video and you had begun priming your face. He dug around in the Sephora bag before pulling out the primer you were using. As he squirted some on his fingertips, he made an especially disgusted look as he felt the consistency of it. He watched as you spread it all over your face, and copied you.

“She didn’t lie when they said easy.” He mused. Mina and you both cackled through your phone. Primer was possibly the easiest step ever because it didn’t affect the way you looked whatsoever. “Uhh, okay now she’s putting on, uhhh, foundation?” He grabbed a bottle of foundation out of the bag along with a Beauty Blender. “The people at Sephora said this was my skin colour, so I’ll believe them.” Shinso shrugged and set the bottle down to get the Beauty Blender out of the box.

You began blending the foundation into your skin and Shinso did the same. “Alright! First question from Andrea! ‘Are you dating anyone right now?’ wow Andrea, you sure did get straight to the point. Unfortunately no, I’m not in a relationship right now.” You had finished your foundation and had moved on to concealing your under eyes.

Shinso hummed as he watched as you put a relatively small amount of concealer under your eyes and looked into the camera, somehow making his eye-bags even more prominent. “Look, I don’t know much about makeup, but I know I’m going to need more concealer than that. Also I’m surprised that they’re not dating anyone. She’s too good looking to be single.” So he unscrewed the concealer tube, and absolutely went to town. He put on so much concealer that you were almost concerned.

“Mina did you hear that?” You asked in a breathless tone.

“Sure did.”

You were already in awe that the great Shinso Hitoshi was even watching your video, but the fact that he called you good looking? Your heart was practically leaping out of your chest as you watched with wide eyes. Your biggest YouTube crush had called you attractive. What a good day.

In your tutorial, you had finishing blending the concealer in and was moving onto baking your under eyes. You dipped your Beauty Blender into the loose powder and stamped it down underneath your eyes. “Now I’m going to let that bake, so I’m going to go ahead and do my eyeshadow right now!” Shinso gave a confused look and paused the video. He applied the powder somehow everywhere but under his eyes. It was honestly impressive how bad he was at this.

“I’m baking? What am I baking?” He furrowed his eyebrows, clearly very confused.

“For my eye look, I’m going to start with this light pink shade called, ‘Love’. How fitting. I’m going to swipe that into my crease and I’ll follow that up with this more hot pink that will go all over my lid. Then, I’m going to deepen my crease with this almost maroon shade and then I’ll cut my crease using the concealer we used earlier and this flat brush.” Shinso looked like you had just grown two heads in front of him. He had no idea what you were doing to your face.

You watched as he messily some hot pink shade onto his lid, rapidly blinking the whole time, not used to someone so close to his eye. He was not going to like tight-lining. He eventually attempted to cut the crease and looked absolutely dead when it was completely too much of his lid.

“I want to die.” He muttered while looking at the camera. His eyes had somehow lost even more life than what he began with, which was, not much.

“Here’s another question that’s coming from Kelsey! She asks: ‘Who do you think the hottest YouTuber is? I personally really like Bakugo Katsuki!’ Oh I’d definitely have to say Shinso Hitoshi! That man is illegally fine.” What did you just say? Your eyes went wide as you listened to yourself. You had completely forgotten what questions you answered in this video, and now Shinso Hitoshi knows that you think he’s hot. But you didn’t stop there.

“One hundred percent, anyone could throw down with me on this one. Shinso Hitoshi is the hottest YouTuber out there. He could curb stomp me, kill my family, and rob me of all of my belongings and I’d still say thank you.” Why did you ever say that. Mina was absolutely losing it on her side, unbelieving that those words had even made it past editing on your part. Why would you even keep that in the video. You wanted to die.

Shinso on the other hand looked very amused, letting out a chuckle of his own. “Didn’t know I was so popular. I’m honestly kind of flattered. But I wouldn’t curb stomp her. Can’t mess up that pretty face.” This was the end of your career. You’re never going back online ever again.

The you doing the tutorial had just begun applying loose glitter onto your lid. “So after applying this glitter base, I’m going to pat this glitter in. If you drag it, it’ll get absolutely everywhere since this glitter is super chunky. So, just lightly pat it in like this.” Shinso did as you told and still managed to have glitter cascading down, covering his black hoodie.

You had moved onto eyeliner and he looked like he was actually going to die, right then and there. He watched you tight-line your eyes and didn’t even attempt it. After creating a wing that looked like it could fly off of his face any moment, Shinso attempted to put a pair of false lashes on. Somehow, they were stuck to his eyelid, rather than where his lashes were. He followed you as you brushed the bake off. You were then moving onto contour, where he managed to make it look like he had rolled in dirt. Apparently, he had no idea where to put contour on his face so he ended up putting it far too high.

The step you were on now involved putting copious amounts of blush on when you answered your next question. “Alright and this one is from Jennie! ‘If you could date anyone, who would it be?’ I guess I hinted at this earlier, but Shinso Hitoshi all the way. I just want to like, hold his hand. I know, scandalous. But really, my thirst for that man is actually unquenchable.” You said with a straight face as you took a sip of water and then winked to the camera.

“Hey Mina, when I die in the next few minutes, can you make sure to clear my search history. Actually, just wipe my whole computer clean.” You sighed as you buried your face into your hands. This was awful. Out of all the tutorials you had on your channel, Shinso Hitoshi just had to pick the one where you basically confess your undying love for him. Mina simply laughed, promising absolutely nothing. Traitor.

On the other hand, Shinso was grinning. It was one of those grins. One that you knew would never let you live this down, and he doesn’t even know you personally. “Seems that I’ve got a fan. I’d love to hold hands, Y/N, you just have to let me know.” His voice drawled, deep and raspy. It would be hotter if his face didn’t look like someone shook up a bag of crushed makeup and threw the contents at him. To be honest, he really just looked like a big train wreck. But, it was still hot, nonetheless.

He did eventually finish the look, setting it all using far too much setting spray. But instead of holding his usual stoic, tired look, he looked like he was planning something. The corners of Shinso’s mouth were still turned up in a sly smirk, and you had a feeling that something was going to happen. You might as well die before you find out to save yourself the embarrassment.

“Well, I can’t say I enjoyed putting on the makeup, but I did enjoy watching Y/N talk about me. Y/N, if you’re watching me, send me a message and we can collab. Or maybe hold hands.” His mouth opened up and his killing grin hit you. This is it. This is where you die. You were internally screaming at the top of your lungs. God, you hated how hot he was even though he looked like Boo Boo The Fool.

“DID YOU JUST HEAR WHAT HE SAID?” Mina screamed out loud for you. Oh god, you were absolutely mortified.

“Well, that’ll do it for this one, if you liked watching me ruin my face, I have more awful videos for you to watch. And even if you didn’t, it’s too late because you’ve already given me ad revenue. If I don’t post my next video soon, safely assume that I’ve died. I might see you next time, bye.” Shinso said his usual outro and you slumped back onto your chair. You looked at Mina on your phone who was grinning ear to ear. Oh no.

“Message him.”

“Absolutely not I would rather die, right here, right now than talk to Shinso Hitoshi about how I confessed my undying thirst for him. So, that means I’m going to die. I want a granite headstone.” You groaned as you stared up at the ceiling.

“You don’t even have to say anything about that though! Anyways, you probably should talk to him. You could just say that you enjoyed his video and thank him for what basically was, a free shoutout. I think it’d be wrong if you didn’t message him at all.” Mina suggested, and well, she wasn’t wrong. It’d be rude to just ignore the fact that Shinso has put hard work and money into making this video. The least you could do was say a simple thank you.

You groaned as you sat up, grabbing your phone from where it was leaned against. “God, I hate when you’re right. I’ll message him though. I’m going to go ahead and hang up then because I still have another video I want to shoot.”

“Yes of course! But make sure to send me screenshots, I NEED to know how this goes down! I’ll talk to you later!” And with that, the FaceTime call was ended. Now you had to will yourself into messaging Shinso and making it seem normal. You would just have to completely ignore all of the moments you called him hot, and hope that he doesn’t bring them up too.

You opened up Instagram and searched up his handle. You were really going to do this. It was now or never, and if you backed out and never messaged him, Mina would never let you live it down and would probably end up messaging him herself. So to avoid embarrassment that would be even worse than what has already been done, you had to message him.

“Hi! I saw your latest video and I wanted to say thank you so much for featuring my video! It really means a lot. Also, I hope you bought an oil based makeup remover, because that stuff is hard to get off. Especially the glitter!” That was appropriate and calm, wasn’t it? You hit send and hoped that he would stay on topic and not mention the fact that you completely exposed yourself.

You sat down your phone and groaned. What if he thought that you were really creepy and was just leading you on to eventually public ally humiliate and ruin you, ending your career as you know it? That was probably a bit extreme, and rationally you knew he would never do such a thing, but you were paranoid.

As you were drowning in your sorrows, a notification popped up on your phone. It was him. He replied so fast that you were taken aback.

“hey thanks. i’m glad you’re not mad that i used your video without permission lol. and no, i didn’t buy one bc no one told me to. but i did get the makeup off with a lot of scrubbing. i was serious about wanting to collab. would you want to do that?” Your face was burning at this point. Collabing with Shinso sounding like an actual dream.

“Absolutely! I would love to! And ouch, is your skin okay? Too much exfoliating can really irritate the skin!”

“yes, i’m okay. i didn’t scrub too much skin off. and great. you live in LA right?? i do too. we should work out a date sometime to talk. we could even hold hands if you wanted to lol.” Oh god, he went a did it. You wanted to scream.

“Ahaha, yes let’s do that! And sorry about all of the rambling about uhh, you. It must’ve felt weird.” Should your casket be wood? A polished, dark oak wood sounded nice. You would look lovely in that casket after you died of sheer embarrassment. But would it look fine alongside a granite headstone? Maybe it should be marble.

“not at all. i’m very flattered. but letting you know, don’t expect me to curb stomp you. i don’t think i’m strong enough to do that. but we can definitely go on a date, and maybe your thirst will go away.” This time, you actually did scream, straight into your pillow. This is the end of you.

You screenshotted the conversation so far and sent it to Mina. You did promise to keep her updated.

She responded, not even a minute later, with far too many emojis. The winky face, the side-looking eyes, and of course, the cowboy. Sometimes, just sometimes, you really hated Mina. But not really.

“WTF DO I RESPOND TO THAT HE LITERALLY JUST INSINUATED THAT HE'S GOING TO DO,,,, STUFF.” You hurriedly typed to Mina. You could imagine her right now, cackling as you watched you panic.

“Just call him hot and catch him off guard LOL. Or say like ur thirst can never be quenched.” You were about to do it. There wasn’t anything else that you could think to say to him that was normal sounding, so maybe this would work? Should your flowers be lilies? Or perhaps daisies would work. Something nice to remember you by. You don’t want your death to be too sad.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think my thirst can go away. It’s pretty intense.” You typed something real ballsy out, as you went to hit ‘select all’ to delete it, somehow, you had sent it to him instead. Amazing! You were going to have a stroke!

“oh? well, we’ll have to see about that, huh? anyways, here’s my number: xxx-xxx-xxxx. we can talk about our date later. i have to film another video to make sure people know i’m not dead. talk to you later, doll.”

Ah, the nail in the coffin. You really were dead now. You didn’t even get to plan what you were going to write on your gravestone.

You copied his number and put it into your contacts. Even though you were incredibly embarrassed about all of this, you were definitely going to use that later. Not only to plan a collaboration.

—

my amazing girlfriend does my makeup correctly (ft. Y/N)

[mysticsparklewings]

Ziggy Crossing

Still not quite sure I'm 100% back into the swing of things (posting regularly and being more present) yet, but time will tell. For now I'm testing the waters. Anyway. In the time I've been away, I ended up talking to some friends about (to the surprise of absolutely no one) Animal Crossing, and in that conversation, the idea of drawing my cat, Ziggy, as an Animal Crossing villager came up. I'd toyed with it before after seeing some other people draw their pets as villagers, and that conversation more or less sealed the deal for me to at least try it, even if my attempt didn't pan out and see the light of day. Obviously, things went pretty well because here I am posting this. The first step, as it is 90% of the time for me, was to come up with a sketch and go from there. I primarily used Olivia and Lolly [pre-existing Animal Crossing cat villagers] as my references--Olivia for the pose and eyes, Lolly for the stripes and some details regarding the ears and face--but I also checked certain things across the various cat villager models so that details could be consistent where they needed to be. I think if I missed the mark anywhere, it's probably in the proportions. Namely the size of the head and length of the body. But I think it's close enough that unless you compare it directly to Olivia's model that I referenced for the pose, the proportions aren't so off that it's distracting or off-putting. I did originally have trouble figuring out what pattern to put on her shirt though because the real Ziggy doesn't really have anything I could pull a pattern from. These days she does wear a white and silver collar, but that's not a whole lot to work with. So I left that alone while I pondered how I wanted to go about coloring the whole thing. My plan at the beginning was to use this sketch as a test piece for some acrylic paint markers I recently acquired (which you will be seeing me talk about in the future), but once the sketch was finished and I went back to check the colors I had (you know me; gotta have a swatch chart for everything), it was pretty obvious that if I want this to be my dear Ziggy and not just a random tabby cat, I needed to figure out a different coloring method. I could have just done regular acrylic paint, but that sounded like a chore and thus I was not interested. Same with gouache. Colored pencils were on the table, but the main problem I have with those is that they can be pretty slow and personally I think their texture really lends them better to replicating the 3DS/Animal Crossing: New Leaf style, as opposed to the look of New Horizons, and that's not what I was going for here. That left me with two main options: Watercolor, which was a hard pass for this kind of art (at least for Ziggy herself), and alcohol markers, which I did use quite a bit on the last Animal Crossing artwork I made, and they had worked out fairly well. Alcohol markers it was! Of course, even after that decision was made, there was the issue of how to handle the lines of the drawing. When I was planning on using the paint pens/acrylic markers/whatever, that seemed a lot simpler because, in theory, I could just use the same pen I wanted to color with to do the outlines and then fill them in. And because that would be using mostly opaque paint, if I needed to I could just cover up any overlap with relative ease. Alcohol markers don't play by the same rules though, so I had to re-think all that. In the end, I pulled out a pale warm gray Polychromos pencil close to the main color of alcohol marker that I had picked out that I figured would also be light enough to blend in everywhere else. That way I could have the defining lines that I needed without having to worry too much about them being visible in the final product. [For clarification: I picked a Polychromos because once sharpened they tend to hold a point longer and better than the other colored pencils at my disposal and I really needed to keep a sharp point as long as possible to do the lines here.] In retrospect, I do think it might have been to my benefit to pick out a pink for doing the inner ear lines, but the end result there isn't so awful that it single-handedly (paw-ed-ly?) ruins the drawing for me. It's just something to take note of for next time if there is a "next time." Once I had my lines (including doing the eyelashes and mouth with one of my usual black fineliners), the next challenge was the actual coloring. Mostly because I had to be very careful around the edges so that the marker ink didn't feather out too far (as alcohol markers do on any paper that isn't marketed as "bleed proof" because that's what bleed proof in paper actually means--not that it won't bleed through to the other side, though that is less common with that kind of paper, but that it won't "bleed" across the page), and I also had to be a little careful and choosy about how I did any blending or shading. Again, my blending and shading plan was going to be different had I used the acrylic markers. The main thing I ended up doing here was trying to find areas that needed to be layered so that the one-color shading could act as a line/barrier between sections. Best example: Where the ears meet the head, I shaded the bottom portion of the ears. You can also see this a little bit where Ziggy's tail meets her body and where the legs intersect at a few different points. By no means did this turn out perfectly, considering that I really wanted to stick to use as few colors as possible (which means pretty much all the shading is just layers of one color to darken it) which means there isn't as much distinction or variation as there could be. And I feel it necessary to note here that I was worried when I first finished the lines that the eyes looked wonky, but after coloring pretty much everything else in that concern dissolved because 1. It's harder to tell and 2. Even if they aren't exactly the same, it makes visual sense because it looks like her head is slightly turned, meaning the eyes wouldn't be identical anyway. Never underestimate the power of coloring your work in! Speaking of which, you might be wondering about her shirt by now. Well, after toying around with some ideas I got it in my head that a good way to tackle that problem might be with washi tape, as I've used it in this manner before and worked out pretty nicely. Even though it wasn't a lot to work with, I did like the idea of the base color for her top being white like the real Ziggy's collar, and that narrowed down my tape options considerably. Of the options I had that I thought would be suitable, I ended up having a choice between one with small rainbow-colored polka dots and the decidedly less vibrant small triangles that you see here. The polka dots seemed a little too peppy for Ziggy, so I went with the triangles. And this, I must say, is one of those artistic decisions that I feel even better about the longer that I see the end product.   The main issue I have with using washi tape, and thus why I don't use it in this way that often, is because cutting the washi tape to fit a specific shape is a process that doesn't get much easier even with practice.  And even if it did, that wouldn't eliminate the very real possibility of cutting or indenting the paper underneath while you're cutting the tape. Of which, I have not yet figured out how to totally avoid short of forming the washi tape on a separate piece of paper, cutting it there, and then moving it to the final piece. But that method comes with its own problems too, so... Still, I made the decision to go through with it here and just accept the rough edges/lack of precision and all that. Before I put the tape down though, I did do a little shading with some light gray markers that I was counting on showing through the tape to give it a little more dimension. Seeing it now, I do think I could've stood to go a little darker, but again this isn't something that totally ruins the end result for me. Just something worth noting. After all of the above, I was left with one lingering problem: The background. Which I've noticed seems to normally be a "problem" area for me in that I don't always have a solid idea for what to do with it. I did consider what exactly I wanted to do earlier on in the process, before I started on Ziggy on the final paper, even. Briefly, I thought I might cut her out and put her on a separate background as is sort of a go-to background method for me. Something just didn't feel right about doing that here though and it feels like I've done that a lot lately (you know, when I've not been drowning in mandalas for NaPoWriMo...). So it was at this early stage that I locked in the idea of adding in the background in later, probably doing something kind of loose to give a general idea that hopefully wouldn't take too much time or effort. We've already established that I wasn't super keen on the idea of using acrylic paints or gouache for this drawing, and that remained true for the background too. Although, I don't really like using alcohol markers for backgrounds either because it can be tricky to keep things smooth and consistent. That left me with colored pencils and watercolor. Colored pencils are usually hard pass for backgrounds for me for a number of reasons. So! Watercolor, hmm... I drew Ziggy here on my darling Strathmore 400 series mixed media paper because I love how it handles markers and it has enough weight and texture to it that it handles a lot of my other go-to options with little fuss. Watercolor is really the only thing I have trouble using on it, the main problem being that sometimes (not always) the paint doesn't like to blend out super smoothly and certain watercolor techniques don't work the same on it. This doesn't mean it's useless for watercolor (at least not for me), that just means I have to be more careful about how I choose to work with watercolor on it. In this case, the blending issues lined up with the idea I had of letting the background have more texture since Ziggy came out a lot smoother by the very nature of alcohol markers. Somewhere in all this, the idea struck me to use my Gelatos to leave behind some crayon-like texture. That idea seemed fitting to me since Animal Crossing is a fairly light-hearted and child-friendly game, themes that crayons go along with. The gelatos are water-soluble but not every color dissolves completely when activated with water. This should be pretty evident here because I didn't try to hide it. I wanted quick and easy, and without a doubt just letting the texture do whatever it wants is the quick n' easiest method to use with the gelatos. Once I'd done a bit of back and forth with two greens and two blues to give me the solid suggestions of a sky and ground, it still felt like it was missing something. Ultimately, it seemed like a good idea to me to try and mimic the triangle pattern/texture that New Horizons features. (In past games you could get squares or circles for a grass pattern at random.) And while I as per usual I had to think on how to go about this, in the end, the best solution I could come up with turned out to be drawing the triangles in with alcohol markers. Truly, I'm surprised to be reporting this because I fully expected the creamy nature of the gelatos to make using alcohol markers on top feel disguising and unproductive. But not so! At least not with the limited gelato use here. The creamier areas do soften the color of the marker, but I think that worked to my advantage. Although, I did end up using a little bit of my yellow Moonlight gel pen because I felt like I needed some yellow triangles for balance and I knew transparent yellow markers wouldn't do what I wanted. But that brings us to the final product. I'm happy with it. And I do really like how the grass ties in with Ziggy's green eyes. It's just a nice little touch of visual cohesion in my book. As I always say, I'm sure it's not perfect and there are some missteps here and there or things that could be improved. Nevertheless, it was a fun experiment and serves as good encouragement for me to continue playing with the lineless look, among other things. I do have to note though that it feels super weird to just leave the eyes like this with no indication of shine on them! I made the choice not to since it's not a common trait with the official character models (at least not for eyes in this same style) but part of me still feels like it's incomplete. As I've said before recently and I'll probably say again, I can't promise I'll be getting back to a regular upload schedule now, but it's on my mind. I want to get to that point soon. I do have the acrylic markers I mentioned to talk about and another supply in the mail, and some other art in my backlog. So if you can be patient with me a while longer, there will be more from me to look forward to. In the meantime, please be kind to yourself and others. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram 

[deejadabbles]

Not Quite Unrequited Yami x Reader Chapter 1

One: So Unrequited

 One //// Two //// Three //// Four //// Five //// Six //// Seven

Summary: Yami would do what ever it took to keep his friendship with you intact, even if it meant putting on a smile and pushing his love for you aside. You knew Yugi loved Anzu, but getting over your feelings for him was hard, especially when time made feelings for another best friend arise.

AU where Duel Monsters is just a (vastly popular) card game and Yami and Yugi are twins.

A.N: Sooo I’ve already posted this on my AO3 and other accounts, but I figured I might as well post it here to spread the Yu-gi-oh x Reader love, seeing as how there’s very little of it here on tumblr. Hope someone likes it!

It started off slow. The way others describe these sort of things, that’s a typical start. Feeling a pang in your chest when his eyes lit up at anything or nothing in particular. A flutter in your stomach as he leaned in close to you or looped his arm through yours. Your heart clenching in the sweetest way at the sight of that adorable- that incredibly precious smile.

With symptoms such as these, it did not take long for you to realize that you were in love with Yugi Mutou. Who could blame you? He was kindness, loyalty and strength incarnate. A gentle soul who would sacrifice anything for a friend, give anyone a second chance with a smile on his lips and shoulder all hardship with a determined glint in his amethyst eyes. He was amazing, he often failed to realize it, but he was.

You hid your love. Pretended your heart wasn’t racing when you sat squished between him and Yami on their couch playing video games. Shoved down the urge to brush your fingers against his as you walked to school with him and Anzu. Bit back your overzealous declarations of agreement whenever Jonouchi had to assure Yugi that he was the coolest guy.

At first it was simply because you weren’t sure if it was the best move, to confess your love and ask him to be yours. But soon enough you started pushing your love into a dark deep hole because a certain realization hit you. Because just as slowly as you had noticed these feelings of love, you started seeing signs of something that would break your heart.

An ache in your chest when his eyes stayed transfixed on a certain someone and them alone. A sudden drop in your stomach when you saw him reach out, not quite touch, but obviously long to touch someone else. The horrible stab in your heart as he smiled, completely utterly smitten with a supportive, sweet, amazing friend, who wasn’t you.

You were in love with Yugi, but he was in love with Anzu. Could you blame him? She was confident, caring and beautiful. She, just like Yugi and Yami had been your friend since grade school. Just like Yugi you knew her inside and out, and no, you could not blame Yugi for falling for her.

Even knowing this, your love for him persisted. Perhaps you even held out hope for him to start looking at you that way when Anzu continued to remain oblivious to his affection. But mostly, you just needed that last nail in the coffin, that final, definite assurance that he did not and would not love you that way, before you could move on.

So you turned to Yami. The brother who knew Yugi better than Yugi himself, his twin, his closest confidant and partner in all things. Yami had a heart that cared deeply about the well being of his friends as well as his brother, but he was also a straightforward, practical soul who would never spout empty words just to comfort. He was the only one you could confide in when it came to such a tailored topic.

He sat patiently on the bench in the park you had asked him to meet you in, those ever calm eyes so like Yugi’s but still his own trained on your nervous form. You fiddled with the hem of your shirt, trying to remember the exact way you had practiced all this in your head.

Finally that deep voice reached out, tone set to calm and soothe. “Whatever it is, I promise you can tell me.”

And with that you found the even footing you needed. “I know” you drew in a deep breath “I know this is going to seem out of the blue but…you know Yugi better than anyone and I need some…advice? Insight? I guess you’d call it that. Yami I-” A pause, then another deep breath “Yami, I’m in love with Yugi.”

Though you were not looking at him you could practically hear his eyes widening in shock. Well, at least you had been proficient in hiding your feelings from everyone. You went on quickly, needing to get your whole reasoning for this talk out before he assumed the wrong thing.

“I’ve felt that way for awhile but…but I’m certain that he’s in love with Anzu. I haven’t said anything because I’m worried it will ruin our friendship and that’s the last thing I want, you know how much you two mean to me… But I’m still having trouble moving on or even sorting out my feelings because- I don’t know, maybe I’m hoping that he feels the same way about me? But… if he really does love Anzu, I don’t want to get in the way of that. So, I need you to tell me, do you think there’s any chance he has feelings for me? Or does he only have eyes for Anzu?”

There was a long silence, and when you finally looked up to meet Yami’s gaze he still had a muted version of shock written on his face, as though the surprise was wearing away as he thought. Worried that he was upset by what you were asking you kept talking.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m asking you to talk about stuff Yugi may have confided in you, but you don’t have to tell me details! Please, Yami, I’m only asking because I want to keep my friendship with him intact. I’m so scared that if I just tell him how I feel that I’ll ruin everything…”

Yami closed his eyes then, perhaps regaining his composure, perhaps sorting out the best answer, likely both. After a few long moments that were close to painful, he looked you in the eyes and you saw hues of sympathy in their violet depths.

“You’re right, Yugi…he’s loved Anzu for years now, I suppose it’s been even more obvious recently, he’s been getting more and more bold around her. And” he let out a small sigh “I’m sorry. He cares for you and even loves you but- but not in the way you love him. Not in the way you’re hoping he would. And he’s never said anything to me to suggest that would ever change.”

And there it was. The hammer hit home hard, though the softest of strikes still would have shattered your heart. You felt tears climbing up your throat with the sour taste of disappointment, but you gulped them back down. Don’t you dare cry, not here, not in front of Yami. He didn’t deserve to have you break down in his lap, and you owed it to yourself not to fall apart with everyone watching, in a park on a sunny day of all places.

“O-okay. Okay. I understand. I just needed to know so that I can move on. I’m h-happy, if Anzu loves Yugi too then they’ll be amazing for each other.”

“You aren’t angry at her.”

His words weren’t a question; they weren’t even a statement really. Something in his tone said that the words were just a confirmation to something he had already told himself. But needing to latch onto anything he said to keep from sobbing you answered it anyway.

“No, of course I’m not. Anzu’s like a sister to me and she cares about Yugi as much as I do. All I want is for them to be happy, that’s why I came here in the first place.” The tears had clawed their way up your throat and glossed your eyes, filling and threatening to spill, but you continued to hold them back. “If they end up together, they’ll make each other happy, I know it. And-and as lo-long as they’re happy I’ll s-support them.”

You damned the two traitorous tears that slipped out, but there were only two and a deep intake of breath ensured the others would stay put.  You turned to look at Yami again with a watery smile, to assure him that under the heartache you would be okay. Then you saw his expression and…what was it? You had never seen the look on his face before. You had known this man for years and felt you could read him well, but he had always been so guarded, all your life so distant in a way that was uniquely his. He loved his friends dearly, almost as much as his twin, and would always be there for you all. No matter if it was to scare off a bully or help fight one; confide in or ask advice of, he was always there. But still, he was so reserved when it came to his own feelings, wants, and- well everything. You might have recognized the look on someone else, but on Yami? You were at a loss and soon enough he shook his head and set his expression back to its usual state, something a shade off of stoicism.

“You are an amazing friend” closing his eyes Yami reached out and laid his hand on yours, a simple offer of comfort. “Thank you for being Yugi’s friend, you are a… a treasure to both of us. Please remember that.” He waited a bit and when you never replied he opened his eye and looked you over “I’m not sure if you would rather be alone right now, to collect your thoughts and feelings but…but if you don’t want to be alone right now, we could walk for awhile? We could even get some ice cream, my treat.”

That sweetest of gestures made a laugh bubble in your throat. Not a forced one to alleviate his worry, but a genuine laugh. Though it only lasted a moment it was a welcomed second’s long salve to your broken heart. There would be time to curl up in bed and soak your pillow in tears, time to wallow in your grief while listening to a ‘broken hearts choice’ playlist. In this moment however, a distraction sounded wonderful, and hey, ice cream was a staple of broken hearts. Really though, you just appreciated Yami’s caring offer.

“Ice cream sounds wonderful. …And, Yami? Thank you.”

.

The look that was so unreadable on the young man, was a potent mixture of surprise, realization and desire. A very specific desire. Seeing you cry over your love for Yugi but still lament about putting your heart aside in order to make those you loved happy, and mean it with every ounce of your soul…It had made feelings stir in his own heart. Feelings that had budded long ago, but had been packed away deep down because dating and romance was simply something Yami was not wanting to focus on in his youth. But this encounter, the showing of your heart that was simply too kind and too big to be allowed- your willingness to be broken for the sake of another, the feelings were unearthed during it all.

And the moment he saw your tears? Desire had hit so soon after realization that they became one and in that moment he wanted nothing more than to pull you into his arms, kiss your cheeks, wipe the tears away and just show you all the secret affection he had for you, buried inside his heart.

Yami was in love with you. Perhaps he had always known it, somewhere in the back of his mind. Even after shoving away that initial bud of love that had started in him so long ago, it was obviously not buried deep enough. There were signs of it he had ignored over the years. A warmth building in his chest as you snuggled in between him and Yugi during your many video game sessions. A delightful lightness in his stomach when he got to steal a few moments alone with you before your walks to school because he got ready early just to steal them. A vise-like grip around his heart when he saw classmates trying to flirt with you and might just possibly catch your interest over him. Small things that now seemed like the brightest of beacons advertising his love, beacons he prayed you did not pick up on yourself.

Then came the crushing realization that you wouldn’t have noticed, because your heart was too full of love for his brother. Yugi loved Anzu, you loved Yugi, and Yami loved you. What a mess. What an absolute mess.

Yami refused to complicate things further, he walked with you and insisted on getting a double scoop of your favored ice cream, all the while shooing away his need for you. He didn’t rebury his love, no, that was impossible now, but he hid it and pushed it aside for your sake. The last thing your broken heart needed was his own confession to complicate things.

That night he did not sleep much, too many thoughts and memories of his growing love occupying his mind. It was the same all of the next day, and the day after that and Yugi noticed right away. When his younger brother asked what was wrong Yami knew he couldn’t hide it, not from Yugi. So he confessed, he told him that he was in love with you and as expected Yugi was elated. “I knew it! You two would be so great together! You want to bounce ideas for first dates off me? We could plan something super cool and romantic-” Yami felt a bit guilty when he had to dash Yugi’s hopes of seeing his best friend and brother together. He told the simple truth, that he would not be planning a first date or some amazing confession, because you were getting over someone else. Of course he refused to say who you were getting over, just that you had come to him for advice and were trying to move on from an unrequited love. Just as he himself had to now.

Ever the optimist, Yugi tried to say that you just needed time to get over this mystery man and when you finally had, he could come in and ‘sweep you off your feet’, but Yami only shook his head. He was going to take a leaf out of your book. He was not going to risk ruining a friendship with a love confession, even after you had moved on. Maybe someday, if you started to show interest in him, if he saw hints that the older Mutou boy could have a chance at captivating your heart.

Even then he was not hopeful. He tried to see that he and Yugi shared some better personality points, but people often saw Yami as cold and distant, arrogant and egotistical- some even saw him as somewhat cruel at times. He couldn’t blame them, given how he was when he was younger. And while he knew you saw the best in most people and certainly saw the best in him, he was not confident it was enough to capture your affection. Not when your type was obviously people who embodied all things good and bright.

His love could never be buried again, not now. And so, while you worked on mending your broken heart and moving on from a love that would  never be returned; Yami worked on finding a balance between loving you and being content with never being loved by you. Two loves unrequited.

[pinktatertots99]

solitaire - amnesia fic

dipping my toes into another new thing. since a certain SOMEONE got me into this anime and made me trash for it I should definitely try writing it. and to start off is a good ol bit of facts for this:

I've only seen the anime so this fic takes place like after episode 13 (the ova) where I got most of my facts from it. so uh, eheh, sorry for the inconsistences the games might've had. so in this the guys are all there including ukyo and orion's still around.

also inconsistences in characters it is a first time writing them. so sorry eheh.

heroine is still referred to as nameless throughout the fic like usual. or least she's not referred to a name at all.

italics signal heroine's responses to orion

bold italics signal's ukyo's other personality.

this is a polyship fic however it's with the character heroine and not a self insert. so uh sorry bout that eheh. you can try interpreting it as such though.

I also left some of the polyship open to some of the relationships. not all of them but some just because to leave it open.

the guys all know bout uki’s ‘other personality’

also this is a bigass polyship fic (all the guys and heroine and all the guys with eachother) cause WHAT'DYA MEAN THERE'S NO CONTENT FOR THIS?!

"and so then you put it down and then grab the card. not before but AFTER the next person's turn."

"...there's six of us though ikki how am I gonna stay on track?"

ikki raised a brow at ukyo. "because you'll be the only one with four and not five cards you dummy." he joked petting his head as kent laid one of his cards down.

"shin. your turn." he gestured as the raven leaned over to grab his card. "yeah yeah I got the gist."

she watched as they all played. it was her first game too. solitaire was the name. the goal being to empty a stack of cards you had on the side and once you got rid of all of them you won.

"hey." she looked to her side seeing shin. "it's your turn."

"oh. right. thank you." she mumbled. grabbing a card from their larger deck she looked over her cards and the three aces. placing a two, five and queen card on the aces she then placed one down on one of the four lines of cards she had. gaining a few whistles from the others.

"nice play." toma commented petting her head as he drew three cards. the game went on like this for a while, it was honestly pretty nice being one of the rare times they weren't teasing eachother. despite the relationship there was always some teasing but it felt at home sometimes. course quieter moments were just as nice to her.

...well for least a while.

ukyo whined as his face flushed a shade of pink during his turn. dropping a card on his decks. "ah, crap."

"aww too bad you could've played that card on your deck before doing that~." ikki teased.

"mmmm it doesn't help you poking my leg with your foot!" ukyo whined as ikki chuckled. "I can't help it the faces you make are adorable~."

"yeah well enjoy em somewhere else." shin said. "don't be a cheat."

"despite the looks of it I highly doubt ikkyu would use that to a cheating advantage." kent stated as he looked over his cards. "knowing him long enough ikkyu's too smart to cheat and would find no results in it. if anything the only reason he's doing that is to be a tease."

"and you love it~." the bluehead responded. "or least till you grew used to it."

"with how much you did it it's likely I've grown immune to your tactics."

"well not all of them obviously~. I can still get you flustered~."

kent gave an unamused glance as he continued analyzing his set. ikki smirked as he continued lightly footing with ukyo, causing the green haired newbie to blush and naturally kick out almost hitting toma.

"hey watch it!" he snapped getting a nervous response from the other. "he keeps doing it though!"

"hey ikki if ya wanna bed with someone so badly why don't you play for it huh?" shin asked jokingly, gaining ikki's eyes sparkling widely. "my what a terrific idea my little shin!" he exclaimed as everyone looked on in disbelief. "that's one bet I wouldn't mind doing at all~."

"I didn't mean- I wasn't-...fuck."

"you really should've expected that." kent said bluntly as he placed one of his eight's on one of the aces they had out. "ikkyu's the type where he'll play to win some reward."

"mmhmm! and I'm intent on such~." he smirked, leaning down into his chair. "your taking so long on your turn ya stuck kento?~"

the blonde's watermelon colored eyes widened as he looked down, seeing the other's foot come up high to his lap. with no hesitation he took his deck in one hand and pulled ikki's foot by the other, the jerk causing him to fall onto the floor and everyone to laugh lightly at him.

"HEY! YOUR NOT SUPPOSED TO TREAT A GENTLEMAN LIKE THAT!"

"concentrate back on the game."

"HMPH! you'll be hearing from my attorney Mr. couch!"

she giggled lightly at this show as the game continued on. "gee that's a weird game." she heard as she turned her eyes to see orion next to her. "what kinda game involves hitting people with your feet? doesn't sound very fun."

"hehe. i'll tell you when your older."

"awww. alright. maybe I should practice my kicking though for this." he talked to himself as she looked back at the others. shin had just finished his turn she noticed as she looked to the large deck and picked a card. her brow arched at it confused.

"ikki keep your damn feet to yourself!"

"aww and what're you gonna do bout it my little shin?~"

"break one if you keep going."

"uhm..." all 5 looked back at her instantly as she spoke up. "I...don't know what to do with this card."

toma leaned in a bit. "which one is it?"

taking the card out of her deck she showed them a singular jester card. "oh yeah." shin perked up. "that's the jester card."

it felt like a chime went through her and a certain green haired gent on the other side of the table at that. toma continued. "right. you use them for any number, kings, queens, and jacks. but not aces."

kent adjusted his glasses. "in general it's a rather valuable card so keep it till you believe it the right time to use it."

she looked at the card and to the other side of the table seeing ukyo's eyes glossed and blushing hard. the others following her line of vision. suddenly ukyo felt kent's hand patting his head albeit a bit roughly but sweet as well.

"you guys trying to make me flustered today?" he asked almost seriously.

"well you do make a cute face." ikki commented.

"still such language like geez it's like your intentionally trying all of you."

the others chuckled lightly as heroine looked to her cards. looking at her deck then back at the four sets of halfway completed aces. she looked back to her queen of spades, king of clover, jack of diamond, ten of hearts and jester card and back up at her boys trying to calm down a flustered uki and getting into some other friendly picking on.

one by one she chose them and put them on them, and then some from her deck of cards to the side, and others from the four lines of cards she had down already. one by one until her stack was empty.

"oh hey your deck is all empty!" orion exclaimed. "...heeeey, that means-"

"oh." the other five looked back at her then at her set eyes in shock. "...guess I'm done."

"...you...won?" ikki mumbled out as they all sat there.

"heh, talk bout beginners luck good job!" toma congratulated petting her head. shin sat back with a sigh. "well that took forever but we're finally done."

ikki sighed with a different meaning. "awww well guess my bet's not gonna go off after all."

"I didn't even get that many cards off mine!" uki complained lightly. "hmmmph show me your ways hun."

kent pulled the cards he could reach back to himself as he looked at her. "it's definitely not common for first timers to win their first game but it is rather impressive."

she blushed a bit at some of the compliments.

"soooo how bout a round two?" ikki suggested. shin quickly pulling out of his chair. "nope. I know that sound. that's the 'I'm gonna bet for something sex related' sound."

"you know too much." ikki replied.

"I can go another." kent stated.

"of course. as expected from the challenge acceptor you are." taking a portion of cards ikki started shuffling them as he gave kent that knowing stare, kent staring back sharply.

toma sighed as he pushed away from the table. "well I'm not tempted to bet on anything. probably a good thing it's that and not money, considering a certain someone." he gestured towards ukyo gaining a glare from him. "hey c'mon don't start that."

"well I'm just saying it's better betting on benefits then-" he then gained a hit from the other's hat. "hey!"

"brought it unto yourself ya mangy brat."

everyone suddenly stared shocked and surprised till they saw the familiar bags under ukyo's eyes and dilated pupils with that knowing smirk. it was him. it didn't last long as he was suddenly hit with something and almost fell out of his chair. "OW! WHAT THE HELL?!"

"oh. sorry. was aiming for the mouth." shin replied holding a slingshot and a familiar prescription bottle on the table.

"WELL EITHER AIM BETTER OR RELAX WILL YA?!" he snapped. "geez your lucky that crybaby likes you all so much or so help me."

"also helps that you do too, right?" she commented, causing him to falter back with a surprised reaction and...was that blush? adorning his cheeks as he laid his elbow on the table and chin in his hand. "...whatever."

"so what's making you stay besides me missing your mouth when aiming?"

"heard there was a round two and, well, that string bean's play was so horrible to watch I decided to chime in and show him how it's really done."

"well a third party welcome aboard." ikki announced as he started setting up a third set of sixteen card deck for the other. "anyone else?"

"maybe you should go again?" orion asked her. "you kicked butt last game!"

"yeah I guess."

"sides we haven't played against him yet. might be interesting."

"hmmm..." she pondered to herself. "...okay. but your not gonna try and make me cheat alright?"

"aww alright alright."

"i'll go."

they looked at her surprised. "oh ho the reigning champ wanting in on this?~" ikki cooed setting up a fourth deck. "well alright but your in on this bet so be prepared for it~."

"and me and shin'll bet on whose winning!" toma bounded suddenly putting an arm over an un-interested shin. "who says I'm in on this?"

"well your not playing and besides I need a co-speaker for this game. I thought it'd sound fun shin-y~."

"if I do then promise you'll never call me that again."

"deal! and to make it interesting whoever we bet on we go first with."

ikki perked a brow. "oh?~ well i'll assure you betting on the winner'll lead to a lovely night~."

"then I'm betting on you hun!" toma replied putting an arm over her shoulder. the other three gawked but kept quiet.

"guess it was too much to think of betting on someone else." shin commented as he pointed to ukyo. "i'll bet on you then."

"heh, you won't be disappointed~."

"then lets get started and end this quickly." kent stated laying out four sets of cards with five for each set, three being taken by the other three as they started off a round two~.

[that-curly-haired-lesbian]

Could you do a queer analysis of Getaway Car? I'm curious about your opinion. For me it's the most difficult to interpret from reputation. Some think it's swiftgron, other that it's about CH/TS. I think it's about bearding in general. The 1st part about CH/TS "worst of crimes" = the longest beard. But then it sounds like 2014 kaylor (not bearding) and kissgate "It was the great escape, the prison break The light of freedom on my face But you weren’t thinkin’ And I was just drinkin'" Thank you!

Hi everyone and happySunday!

Out of all the songson Reputation Getaway Car is one ofthe most popular, but as anon says it seems to be the one we as a fandom havethe most difficulty agreeing on what or who it’s actually about.

Some are thinking Dianna andSwiftgron, while others, like anon here are thinking bearding (andoften specifically CH or TH)

Personally I tend tofall into the Swiftgron camp, I think the song is about the ending of Taylorand Dianna’s relationship and how close they came to actually picking eachother over their careers (aka escaping the industry, with its systematichomophobia and bearding practices.) Here’s a Swiftgron master post for ahelpful timeline that brings up/explains stuff about the relationship I maymention in the analysis below.

Since it is one ofthe most complex and narratively interesting songs on the newest album it hasbeen heavily analyzed already (the analyses linked above are both excellent andprovided a lot of inspiration for this analysis) but I decided to put it on mylist anyway. I hope I can give you a satisfying and while perhaps not all thatrefreshing, at the very least interesting take on the lyrics.

Before we actuallystart looking at them I’d like to share some of my general thoughts on the song.

We all know Taylor isa brilliant singer and a wonderful songwriter, but what first drew me, a loverof stories to her music was the fact that first and foremost Taylor is astoryteller. From start to finish GetawayCar is a story and a complex one in ways that we’ll get into as thisanalysis progresses.

Taylor has picked (apossibly crime-fueled) road trip sort of theme (no, not THAT road trip) for thestory she wants to tell.

On the surface thesong chronicles the fate of two lovers on some sort of crime spree, or at leaston a road trip escaping their everyday lives in order to be together far awayfrom it all…Sounds familiar as far as lesbian fiction goes, wouldn’t you say?Someone knows their queer pop culture, nice one, Tay!

Unlike the semi-happyending of Carol or the sad andupsetting one of lesbian Bonnie and Clyde(or you know, straight Bonnie and Clyde too, actually) though, it doesn’tend with one of them dying.

Instead it all endswith one of them betraying the other and escaping with their stolen goodsleaving their partner to take the fall and presumably be arrested.

It is fairly easy toconclude that this plot is not to be taken as autobiographical, obviouslyTaylor didn’t rob a bank with a past lover, but she might’ve done somethingthat betrayed said lover’s trust and when writing a song about the incident sheused this escaping-the-law-thing as a metaphor for what actually happened inher own relationship. I think you’re all with me so far, but how do we connectthe story being told here to Swiftgron? Well, let’s look at it and see.

Oh, but also, beforeI forget, my usual disclaimers:

This is just mespeculating, I could be extremely wrong and everyone is free to speculate asmuch as they want on what this lyrical masterpiece is about.

Lyrics cred goes toAZLyrics yet again.

Now let’s start theactual analysis!

–

No, nothing good starts in a getaway car…

–

It’s been reported that Dianna actually proposed toTaylor as a sort of last, desperate attempt to save their relationship. After gettingback together yet again and enduring months and months of back and forth Diannasupposedly threw the idea of marriage out there and Taylor, forced to berealistic about her career and her life in general had to say no, thus endingthe relationship. I assume though, that Taylor didn’t say no immediately, atfirst she considered what would happen if she said yes.

Well, for starters it’d be the end of all the bearding,she could escape that part of her life if she actually came out, but it alsomost likely meant that she’d have to give up her career (at least mainstream,big-time success…cuz ew, homophobia.)

She considered it however, for a moment she consideredgetting into that getaway car Dianna was providing and just drive away from itall, all the fame and the fake PR games (LuckyOne vibes, anyone?) in order to be with her girlfriend, but then sheactually truly started thinking about it and realized that for this to workthey’d have to pull off something akin to a freaking heist.

Their coming out process would be complicated andwould most likely hurt both of their images considerably + both of theirmanagements at the time seems to have been pretty pro-closet, so coming outwould be challenge and a risky one at that.

If they’d actually be able to pull that off their marriage(and by association the rest of their lives together) would start in the dustof their public come out and all the drama that’d come with that.

Taylor fearedtheir (already rocky) relationship wasn’t strong enough to survive the public’sreaction to them coming out and getting married. In addition to that theirmarriage would’ve been born out of frustration, they’d both just about had itwith the closeting process and the PR games in their respective industries and+ they wanted to save their relationship which was rapidly falling apart,perhaps not only due to both of thembeing forcibly closeted, but I’m sure that didn’t…you know, help.

A marriage built from a combination of thosecircumstances doesn’t strike me as one that will last and Taylor seems to havecome to the same conclusion. (A reoccurring theme in her songs for Dianna is agut feeling or a knowledge that no matter how much they want to, they won’tlast forever) so she decides that they shouldn’t get married, shouldn’t try toescape their miserable, straight-passing PR lives this way because the marriagethat would come from that wouldn’t be a strong and enduring one.

After all nothing good starts in a getaway car, orfrom a need escape something (bearding) while holding onto something else (afailing relationship) that very clearly won’t last.

Criminals trying to escape the law will get caughtsooner or later and two closeted women won’t be able to be together without PRdrama if they don’t come out. In both cases it is pointless to try and escapethe inevitable (capture by police, or putting the crime metaphor aside,eventual outing) and if they do manage to put these things off it’s onlytemporary and not the foundation for something lasting or good.

–

It was the best of times, the worst of crimes

–

Generally Taylor seemed quite happy in herrelationship with Dianna, but their relationship was also torrid and prettydramatic and in Wonderland shedescribes it as “Never worse, but neverbetter” and what’s happening here seems to be similar. Taylor is happy andin love, having the best time, but just being happy and in love with another woman is basicallyconsidered a crime in her line of work. Homosexuality is insanely taboo in theentertainment industry, as a celebrity it seems to be just about the worstthing you can do (unless you’re already out at the start of your career andthus marketed as a gaysinger/actor/performer.)

So while Taylor was happy and in love she was alsoaware that the general public would judge her harshly if they found out she’sgay, in their eyes that’d be a betrayal of trust since she’d “lied” to themabout being straight, she might as well have murdered a man (aka committed acrime) as far as the hets are concerned.

Also as we knowin many parts of the world being gay IS in fact a literal crime, it’s evenconsidered so bad you could get death penalty for it in multiple countries.While that’s (thankfully) not the case in the U.S “the worst of crimes” seems afitting way to describe that atrocity that’s a reality for many LGBT+ peopleelsewhere. I hate this world with a burning passion!

…Okaaaaay,let’s not talk about that anymore… 🤮🤮🤮

–

I struck a match and blew your mind

But I didn’t mean it

And you didn’t see it

–

Matches are a recurring motif in many Taylor songs (atthe top of my head I can think of PictureTo Burn and Dear John) and mostoften they seem to signify ending a relationship or getting over someone.

Here they seem to allude to Taylor trying and failingto convince a proposing Dianna (and herself) that she couldn’t say yes and thatthey’d have to break up.

Dianna had been so desperate to save theirrelationship and so convinced Taylor felt the same desperation and thereforewould say yes that she wasn’t ready to get any other answer. When Taylorstarted explaining why saying yes wasn’t realistic (or “struck the match” aka essentially broke up) it blew Dianna’s mind,it wasn’t at all the response she’d expected as she’d convinced herself thatgetting married was the logical next step since they didn’t want to lose eachother.

Taylor wanted to be able to say yes, she wanted tobelieve their dysfunctional relationship could still be saved. So when sheresponded to the proposal she didn’t want to believe what she heard herself say,it’s not what she wanted to say (“I didn’t mean it”) and Dianna refusedto admit Tay was right. (“You didn’t seeit” “it” being the truth of their doomed love.) They were both clinging to an already lost hope, much like twodelusional criminals thinking they will be able to escape police forever.

–

The ties were black, the lies were white

In shades of gray and candlelight

–

Black ties makes one think of formal events orcorporate business dealings, kind of like how Taylor’s hetero relationships arenothing but business and how they  tellwhite little lies in order to sell the hetero story like the business deal itis. (“they” in this context being Team Taylor, but also Dianna’s team sincethey seem to employ much of the same techniques to keep the girls closeted, orat least they did before Taylor got rid of her old publicist and hired Tree.)

The mentions of black and white also makes me think ofhow all Taylor’s bearding relationships seem almost painfully simplistic, theyare either in love or they aren’t, it’s all the tired fairy-tale view of lovewith the prince and princess (code word for “straight woman” in much of Taylor’smusic, remember?) It’s all very black and white, much like black ties and whitelies. This PR-version of love is put in opposition to Taylor’s actual (gay)love life where everything is more complicated and realistic. For example twopeople who still love each other might have to break up, because their lovesimply isn’t enough to keep them together anymore. In other words, in this realversion of Taylor Swift’s love life everything doesn’t always work out so Disney-like, it’s often more complicated(and less straight) than the black and white narrative of her public lovelife.  (“Shades of grey”) but stillromantic most of the time (“candle light.”)

“Shades of grey” could of course also be a referenceto the Fifty Shades Of Grey series ofbooks/movies, a primary example of something that a vast majority of peopleseem to consider romantic when it actually is quite abusive and gross (x)rather like the structures keeping someone in a straight PR-relationship thatfronts a false sense of perfect and desirable romance while the reality of thatrelationship is something else entirely. 🤔

Yes, I do know Taylor wrote a song for one of the 50 Shades movies so maybe she likes themand does consider them romantic (or it was just an attempt to make her publicpersona edgier in preparation for Reputationand the “death of the old Taylor”) but as a self-proclaimed feminist (and avery smart woman) I have a hard time believing the abusive, patriarchal andheteronormative implications of those books/films got past Taylor.

In my opinion she might’ve drawn a pretty cleverparallel between the romanticized but clearly problematic relationship depictedin Fifty Shades   and the romanticizing of her own publicrelationships that are as shallow and void of any deeper substance as thewriting and story in those novels. This is very clearly a reach and I don’t pretend toknow anything of Taylor’s taste in literature, but I thought it was kind offunny to be honest. 😂

–

Iwanted to leave him

I needed a reason

–

Who is this “him”? Well, it could either be her beard(most likely Harry Styles if this was back in the Swiftgron days) or thebearding/entertainment industry as a whole. It seems that by the time she metDianna Taylor was tired of hiding and bearding and by now it seems she mostcertainly is. In previous analyses we’ve touched on the idea that many gaycelebrities are forced to choose between a fulfilling personal life and asuccessful career and this song isn’t the first time Taylor’s flirted with theidea of picking the former. (Lucky One)However, at that point in her career she felt she couldn’t just up and leavewithout giving her fans and explanation and coming out and getting married to awoman seemed reason enough. She wants out of the bearding system, so thereforeit’s tempting to say yes to the proposal even though she knows it most likelywon’t work out.

–

X marks the spot, where we fell apart

–

This is probably just a reference to one of Taylor’sfavorite songs by Hilary Duff, BreatheIn, Breathe out (x) but it could alsobe a reference to bearding being what made Swiftgron fall apart.

Often in bearding and PR relationship contracts areinvolved (See: Blank Space) and mostoften legal documents such as contracts are signed with a person’s signature,but sometimes they are signed with simple x’s.Admittedly that’s most often when a party is unable to provide their written signaturefor one reason or another, but this may be the safest way to hint atcontract-signing in the song without flat-out saying it. With this in mind Taylorcould be saying that putting an x on(or signing) all of those contracts and agreeing to “play straight” as much asboth women were doing put a strain on their relationship and led to its demise.

–

He poisoned the well, I was lying to myself

–

To “poison the well” means to discredit someone’sargument or point. Once again “he” makes an appearance and like I said I think“he” represents the bearding practice as a whole, or possibly the girls’publicists or PR teams. Their previous history with bearding andstraight-passing had poisoned the well in the sense that they’d make coming outa challenge. Everyone assumes both girls to be straight so were they tosuddenly claim to be gay everyone would try to disprove this with references totheir previous history with dating and they’d have no way to dismiss thiswithout admitting to bearding which would frankly probably be a PR disaster.Taylor’s saying that if she tried to convince herself that they could getmarried and then come out without major complications she was lying to herself,she wouldn’t be able to leave “him” as easily as Dianna was trying to convinceher and deep down Taylor knew this even if she didn’t want to believe it.Simply put, Taylor was lying to herself by thinking coming out would bepossible, let alone easy.  

–

I knew it from the first old fashioned, we were cursed

–

So, an old fashioned is a kind of drink and maybe thatdrink holds a special meaning in relation to Taylor and Dianna’s relationship?Obviously I wouldn’t know, instead I’m thinking that it might be yet anotherreference to bearding.

After all that’s pretty much a tale as old as time,it’s been going on in Hollywood since day one, quite old fashioned if you askme. Perhaps Taylor is saying she knew as soon as she started bearding that herreal relationships would be hard to make work while pretending to be hetero. Iimagine her and Dianna’s relationship were no different given that both womenare quite famous for bearding.

This could’ve been a factor in Taylor’s aforementionedgut feeling that they wouldn’t last, if we’re to trust I Knew You Were Trouble she had that feeling of eventual doom even inthe early days of their relationship and the fact that they both bearded a lotmight have been a contributing factor to this.

–

We never had a shotgun shot in the dark

–

This is clearly a reference to the wedding they neverhad. A “shotgun wedding” is a hasty and rushed one. A wedding that’s takingplace as a last effort to save a failing relationship through one lastdesperate, but still grand, romantic gesture seems pretty rushed and hasty tome, rather like the wedding Swiftgron would’ve had if Taylor had agreed to theproposal. *heartbreak*

–

You were driving the getaway car

We were flying, but we’d never get far

–

Through proposing Dianna provided a escape frombearding for both herself and Taylor, a getaway car if you will. Whileconsidering this possible plan of escape both girls could taste the freedomthey’d been denied for so long by being forced to stay in the closet. They werehappy and excited (“flying”)  that they’dfound a way to both save their relationship AND get out of tedious glass closetroutines, but pretty soon they (or at least Taylor) realized the plan wouldn’twork, their getaway car (or marriage) wouldn’t get far.

–

Don’t pretend it’s such a mystery

Think about the place where you first met me

–

Dianna shouldn’t be shocked Taylor isn’t ready to comeout the singer reasons, after all they first met while they were both deeply inthe closet. I mean this line might hold a more obvious significance to Taylorand Dianna as they alone know the details of their meet-cute, but all I canthink about is that the place they first met technically was the closet.Neither of them should be surprised (or “act like it’s such a mystery”) thatthe other won’t come out, after all they knew what they were getting themselvesinto when they first met as they were aware the other was very closeted.

–

We’re riding in a getaway car

There were sirens in the beat of your heart

–

If we’re going with the story of the outlaws on therun the sirens are quite obviously the police chasing them, the cops are closingin on them, threatening to end their little crime-spree fantasy. In the contextof the song’s queer meaning however it might mean something entirely different.In Greek mythology a siren is a sea creature, a beautiful woman who luressailors to their deaths in the ocean by seducing the men with their beauty. Sothe sirens beauty and grace tricked the men into doing something unwise ordangerous, huh? Sounds like a beautiful woman luring Taylor Swift away from hercareer with promises of happily ever after and beautiful words she wants tohear…Of course Taylor couldn’t be like “you’re a siren, luring me into yourgetaway car” so she had to use the Bonnie and Clyde narrative so that we’dthink about a police siren, not like, a freaking mermaid seducing our singerinto their getaway vehicle. 😂

–

Should’ve known I’d be the first to leave

Think about the place where you first met me

In a getaway car

No, they never get far

No, nothing good starts in a getaway car

–

Yet again Taylor’s saying Dianna shouldn’t besurprised Taylor won’t come out and at the first sign of breaking the glasscloset Taylor would leave.  Why? Well,before I suggested the getaway car might be a metaphor for Swiftgron’spotential marriage and how it “wouldn’t get far” the use of that metaphor herethough suggests to me that the getaway car is in fact their entirerelationship. They got into this relationship because they wanted to live theirtruths, at least privately, they wanted to have someone to come home to whenthe bearding was over for the day, they wanted true love, not just thefabricated bearding kind. Their relationship was a way to escape from theirhetero narrative, a getaway car. Keeping a relationship working while havingfake relationship with third-parties must be hard though and that’s why gayrelationships seldom work out for closeted celebs (at least in Taylor’sexperience it would seem) the attempt to escape their straight narratives neverget far. Furthermore having to live and love in secrecy doesn’t give therelationship a stable foundation, nothing good starts with an attempt to fleefrom something else.

Wow, Getaway Caris quite the bleak look at the price of fame for someone in the closet,isn’t it? 💔

–

It was the great escape, the prison break

The light of freedom on my face

But you weren’t thinking

And I was just drinking

–

Their marriage was supposed to be the great escape,their chance to break out of the prison that bearding, straight-passing andpublicity had kept them in for so long. Damn, in even considering the mere possibilityof saying yes to such a ludicrous plan Taylor could see the light of thefreedom she hadn’t had in so many years, she could see the life outside of thecloset. Then she’s forced to admit Dianna is not looking at their situationrealistically (she’s “not thinking”.)

While the next line seems to suggest Taylor has somesort of drinking problem I think what it’s really saying is that she’s actingas if she was drunk. For a second while considering saying yes to Dianna’sproposal Taylor isn’t thinking logically, instead she wants to believe in theidea that love conquers everything and that they’ll be able to work out thedetails of their coming out as they go along. This isn’t realistic either andshe’s acting like someone who’s drunk by not caring about the fact that heractions will have consequences.

Another interesting interpretation is to consider thepreviously mentioned old fashioned, like I said before it’s a kind of drink sowe can assume that maybe that’s what Taylor’s drinking here. If we go with whatwe concluded before though the old fashioned isn’t a drink here at all, but thevery practice of bearding, so can we then assume Taylor “drinking” symbolizes herbearding?

Maybe. As Dianna was increasingly losing her grip on realitywhen it came to her relationship with Taylor (by starting to actually think adrama-free come out to be possible) the latter went through a quite intensestunting period to try and combat increasing gay rumors. (Most likely on ordersfrom the spiraling pre-Tree Team Taylor.)

In other words Taylor and Dianna were  on completely opposite sides of the comingout process and thus the freedom they were dreaming about just wasn’t realisticat that point which is what caused the relationship to end.

–

Well he was running after us, I was screaming ‘Go gogo!’

But with three of us, honey, it’s a side show

And a circus ain’t a love story

And now we’re both sorry (we’re both sorry)

–

As the girls try to escape the closet their historywith bearding haunts them and they both soon realize it’s impossible to deletetheir collective bearding history from the public consciousness. If they comeout as gay their male exes are gonna be questioned about their sexuality,Taylor and Dianna coming out in the way the want to will unravel so much withinthe industry that it’s frankly not possible. They can’t outrun their pastbearding no matter how fast they go.

Even if they do get married or continue theirrelationship they will have to keep bearding as they can’t come out publicly. Therewill never be just the two of them in the relationship, it will all always be aPR circus and that isn’t a worthy love story.

They both realize this is the truth of the matter andas sorry as they both are (note theoverlapping female vocals on that line) the relationship will simply have toend.

–

 X marks the spot, where we fell apart

He poisoned the well, every man for himself

I knew it from the first old fashioned, we were cursed

It hit you like a shotgun shot to the heart.

–

Two lines are new here and therefore they are primarilythe interesting ones.

He poisoned the well, every manfor himself

Taylor has realized she’ll have to be the one to leaveas Dianna is still in denial about the fact that they can’t come out. Taylorknows they won’t be able to escape their “straight” past, any claim they canmake regarding their own sexuality has been ruined by past associations withmen, she knows she’ll have to leave Dianna to realize this on her own (“everyman for himself”) as trying to talk to her only leads back to neither wantingthe relationship to be over and thus concocting unrealistic dreams on how theycould make it work against all odds.

It hit you like a shotgun shot tothe heart.

When the truth finally hit Dianna Taylor had alreadyleft and her ex was alone to deal with the pain of the realization that gettingout from the bearding shadow is going to be harder than she wanted to think. Thisundoubtedly felt like a shot to the heart for both Taylor upon having to leaveand Dianna upon finally realizing exactly whyTaylor left.

–

(Chorus)

–

 We were jet set Bonnie and Clyde

Until I switched to the other side

It’s no surprise, I turned you in

‘Cause us traitors never win

–

The duo who seem to have inspired the song areactually mentioned by name, quite a long shot from Romeo and Juliet, wouldn’t yousay?

Anyway, Taylor’s saying that her and Dianna were ateam until Taylor decided to pick her career over her girlfriend, this shouldbe unsurprising she muses, as she has (presumably) done so at least oncebefore.

Taylor callsherself a traitor here, interesting.

I recentlywatched HBO’s The Handmaid’s Tale wheregay women are referred to as “gender traitors” this also happens in the book (oneof my favorites) from 1985 by Margaret Atwood on which that show is based. Inaddition to that the term comes up as referring to people (most often women)who act in a way that is atypical or “unbeneficial” to their gender (aka feministsand lesbians) in my course lit for my gender and sexuality in literaturecourse.

 I don’t think that’s what Taylor is saying here (unless she likes thatbook too *fingers crossed*) I just thought that was an interesting sidenote asthe “never win” line following that could thus be interpreted as a reference tohow minorities (lesbians for example) are often screwed over by society and “never win”.

What she says I think is that people who pick theircareer over their love life won’t end up being happy, or “winning” at life inthe long-run.

–

I’m in a getaway car

I left you in the motel bar

I put the money in a bag and stole the keys

That was the last time you ever saw me

–

By using imagery that invoke the outlaws storylineTaylor is acknowledging her own betrayal she’s saying “sorry, but you should’veguessed this is what I’m like” she wouldn’t risk her career and they both should’verealized sooner.

–

(Chorus)

–

 I was riding in a getaway car

I was crying in a getaway car

I was dying in a getaway car

Said 'goodbye’ in a getaway car

–

Taylor may have fronted with “you should’ve seen thiscoming, Di” but really she was upset with herself, she didn’t wanna do this,but she saw no other way out. She was afraid of losing everything she’s workedfor by coming out so instead she took the safe route and broke the relationshipoff. 💔💔

–

Hope you all enjoyed thatread and feel free to tell me what you think the song is saying, it’s solyrically complex and interesting 😊

If you guys want meto anlyze more Taylor songs or if you have any questions for me, feel free toshoot me an ask 😊

The next song on thelist is Enchanted 🌈🌈🌈

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, EMILY! You’ve been accepted for the role of MIRANDA. Admin Em: Emily, it was your parallel of Maeve and Joan of Arc and their martyrdom that convinced me that you really do understand Maeve, inside and out! From her love and light to her unwavering belief in a peace between the two warring territories, and this line-- “Her flaws are something she is blind to, both in her very nature and perhaps by choice in some small way, even if that choice is a bit unintentional,” we’re all so deeply enamored with your Maeve and her beautiful voice and can’t wait to see her on the dash! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

Out of Character Alias | Emily Age | 24 Preferred Pronouns | She/her/hers Activity Level | So I am very busy - with work, applying to graduate school, and other such things. However, when I really adore a character I find it hard to stay away, so I’ll be on at least three nights a week, plus at least one weekend day/night. I also promise to ask for hiatuses as they are needed. Timezone | EST

Current/Past RP Accounts | both past - http://marvelousevelyn.tumblr.comand https://camelliafairchild.tumblr.com/

In Character Character | Miranda // Maeve Petre What drew you to this character? | I’m very drawn to morally grey characters, and I am also very drawn to characters who are very good, without question. Maeve obviously falls more into the latter, and there is something so incredibly beautiful about who she is, what she believes in, and her utter devotion to fight for it.

It is funny to me, because of Shakespeare’s non-history plays, The Tempest is one I am not as familiar with as others, but I have had a fondness for Miranda’s character for a long while, so I will be fascinated to play her out and see how she changes and how she holds true to herself amidst the horrors in the city.

When she hardens, it is not in the way that some expect - she hardens in her desires, not in her sense of being.

I think that even though she is very good, and very innocent, she has the possibility to still have great development, and I would love to be able to help develop her. She is so innocent and is to the point of being naive, and I wish to explore that - she is kind and gentle, but also flawed, and flawed in ways that she would not/does not/cannot quite see, at least now.

Her flaws are something she is blind to, both in her very nature and perhaps by choice in some small way, even if that choice is a bit unintentional.

“Miranda” means “worthy of admiration; wonderful", and Maeve means “the cause of great joy” (at least these are two meanings I found). There is certainly similarities to be found between these names, but I find the subtle differences - how Miranda in some ways feels more as though it has to be earned, and Maeve is something she can just be is a bit of an interesting concept. Something I might like to explore, as I find the power of names incredibly interesting. Maeve was/is her parents’ greatest joy, and now that she is part of the Capulets she has a name that gives her things to live up to - both for herself and in the eyes for others. She is content with what she is doing, but she still sees herself being looked down upon. How will those two things come together? Will they come together? Only time will be able to tell.

I have to say, as someone who likes history, I have also seen her in some ways as a Joan of Arc archetype - although less likely to up and literally ride into battle, she has some similarities, and I certainly can see her as a bit of a saint/martyr type in a number of ways.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

I. I would like for her to find out about how her mother died - I hope it is okay (and that I did not somehow miss something?) to assume it was the Montagues, because I could see that as being the reasoning behind how her father was involved with the Capulets, but I would like to expand on this, and should she ever find out about the circumstances of her mother’s death, how that might affect her view on things. I wonder if it will make her more keen on joining the Capulets more fully - because she is part of them, but she is part because of her father, and has not thrown herself into it because that can limit her ability to do peace - but should the Montagues be the cause of her mother’s death, I could see someone maybe using that to push her into being more of a solider of the Capulets.

However, it could also push her desire for neutrality more - if a feud killed her mother, wouldn’t neutrality be a more desirable option? It would make it so that she would not have to worry about people killing simply because of the other’s associations.

II. I do really wish to do things with her father - I realize he may not be brought into the RP, so even if through a self-para, or through interactions with others who are more well acquainted with the side of him Maeve was unaware of, would be fascinating. She joined with the Capulets to understand him, and yet she still sees hope, she still sees a wish to make everything better - she still hasn’t quite grasped the way that turned Philip into the hardened man whose hands have been covered far more than once with another’s blood. If he’s not brought into the RP, and even more if he is, I would really like to explore how they work together - because they’ve been a father and daughter pair for as long as Maeve can remember, but the context in which they live now is so entirely different…

III. How will her friendship with Santino affect things? Although of course some Montagues and Capulets speak, it is not nearly as common for true friendships to form. How did it blossom? This both has to do with past and future, which I sincerely hope is okay to talk about, but I think that it is crucial in her development, even if when she first met Santino she was not aware of his allegiances. Given how unaware she was of everything, I see this  as quite feasible. When she first met him, she thought he was another kindred soul, and she was not deterred when she found out about him being one of the Montagues - because, perhaps, if she can find kind souls amongst both sides, that will make her goals of peace all the easier.

IV. I am absolutely and entirely here for any interactions with those within the Capulets who oppose her wishes, and also for her finding those she has more in common with than she initially might have expected. I realize this is very vague, but I am also interested to see what her reactions would be if she had more in common with someone more violent than she is, and how that’d play out?

V. She is… very kind, very much seeing the good in most anyone. Quite clearly, this is something that will allow her to fairly easily run into issue. There’s already the chance of it being an issue with regard to her and Santino and how both sides might see that friendship, but there is more to explore. There is the issue of people taking advantage of her desire to see good, to do the opposite of what Rafaella has done and to not push her away and try to make her see the horrors and to fight - but instead, to take her and use her refusal to see anything but beauty in the world and mold that to their liking.

VI. She’s a solider, and soldiers get assignments. Perhaps she somehow gets a violent assignment - probably not from Everett, just because he and she are similar souls (as she would say, too) - but someone else. She is fiercely loyal, and though it would conflict with her desire for bettering the world, she would not want to disappoint someone, especially if she admired them. So how will that affect things? Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Yes, I do. Not right away of course, but should a situation call for it, I am. Angst fuels the RP world, does it not? :) In Depth In-Character Interview:

Papa might not want her to be meeting someone for an interview, but if it allows her voice to be heard, Maeve is more than happy to agree, to go and spread her message. She holds onto her mug of tea, the smell and warmth of cinnamon making its way into her nose.

The first question is to be expected, though she finds herself grateful for it nonetheless. "What is your favorite place in Verona?”

There is a pause, as Maeve considers her options, weighing them - of course she could say her childhood bedroom, one she found comfort in, with posters and carefully cared-for plants, and books neatly arranged on her shelves. But after a moment, she gives a nod - “The Castelvecchio Bridge. I enjoy watching the water from it, and although I am well aware such a memory should not exist, I have vague memories of being held against my mother’s chest as she walked along it, just before sunset, trying to calm me before I slept.” She brushes a curl of her hair out from her face and grins. “How could anybody not adore the bridge?” There is the hint of a would-be wink, her eyes practically squinting shut as she grins. “It is quite hard to resist, and furthermore quite difficult to miss, should anyone come to visit our dear Verona.” She takes a sip of her tea, and nods - the hint that she is ready, without speaking such.

"What does your typical day look like?”

A nod, a laugh. “I wake up - quite often with the sun, and I like to pull my window shades open and keep all the lights off in my room, and then I make myself a cup of tea sweetened with honey,” she gives a nod and gestures towards the teacup that sits in between the two of them, "and I sit at my dining room table and read, before I go off to explore.” She brushes a finger against her nose. “I am in search of a job at present, but that should all come soon, and once I find one, I will surely go there with a bag slung over my shoulder with a book inside, filled with dried flowers.” She knits her brows together. “I also cook dinners for Papa, because someone must help to keep him alive, regardless of everything that has happened.” She bites her lip. “It is what I have done for as long as I can remember, I see no reason as to why I ought to stop.” She waves the interviewer on, “Please, continue.” Please do not ask me why there would be even the barest of considerations that I should change how I have behaved around Papa. I never shall. Never. I do not think.

The interviewer clears his throat, although there is something in his eyes that hints that he might wish to return to her answers in greater depth. "What has been your biggest mistake thus far?” The grin is not wicked now, not exactly, and Maeve remains unaware, instead offering a quick and light shrug. “I am not certain.” Too much trust?  Though that thought leaves practically before it can be fully established. Because her trust is beautiful, it is part of what makes her who she is. “For I believe everything allows one to grow, and though I have made stumbles, calling my life’s path a mistake at any turn seems perhaps far too harsh. I am only sorry I do not have a greater answer, perhaps I can come and find you once I have more time to think on this.”

“What has been the most difficult task asked of you?”

She takes in a breath of air, not wanting to make eye contact. Because difficult is not so often a word that graces her tongue. It may be naive, and there are certainly those who would call it so, but it is her truth. “It is not - was not - exactly a task,” she drums her fingertips against her thigh, but accepting - becoming aware - of exactly what it is that Papa does -“ She presses her fingertips into her thigh for a moment, letting her breath catch. “Nothing can quite compare to that, although it has certainly given me a greater resolve to do better by this whole city.”

Perhaps it sufficed well enough for now, because the interviewer took down a few scribbles onto his notepad, before glancing back up. “What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?”

This one is easy. The answer flows from her pink-tinted lips. “I think that I will be the one to cause its end.” Her wide eyes look up. “Because peace is natural, and if flowers can grown amidst concrete, then peace can overcome war.” There is the glimmer of a smile that crosses her lips, turned up at the edges, though if one is to observe closely, they will notice that it is her eyes which truly glimmer at the idea. “Perhaps that is too self-centered an idea, but it is my belief. My thoughts are that it is not needed, and that it will burn to the ground, and we will rebuild and have peace, finally.” She gives a firm nod, and the curls of her hair bounce softly.

——

Extras:

Pinterest Board: Found here!

HEADCANONS:

I. She is allergic to dairy and to peanuts. She found out when she was only about two years old, and was rushed to the hospital. She manages it just fine now, but it is one thing that she does remain cautious about.

II. She loves flowers, and has many plants all over her home and takes incredible care to tend to each of them each day. Her favorite flowers are daffodils (which mean things such as new beginnings - with daffodils, she has a small pot growing), daisies, and violets. She is 100% the sort to have made flower chains/pressed flowers/etc for those she cares about.

III. The first knife she trained with was one from her own kitchen - the same one that she cut up vegetables for soups - because it was a reminder of home, another reminder (not that she should need one) of why she had taken up this cause. To help better her family, to help fix the wrongs of the city.

IV. She wears subtle perfumes every day. Maeve is not one to focus on much make-up, besides some lipbalm or gloss, but she does enjoy perfumes, and has a few bottles (tbd which) that she will rotate.

V. She speaks English, Spanish, and Italian. Although born and raised in Verona, speaking Spanish is something important to her, and she will slip into it with certain terms/phrases because it is a comfort to her.

Mini playlist:

The Power of Love - Gabrielle Aplin

Hallelujah - Kate Voegele cover

Yellow Flicker Beat - Lorde

To Be Human - Sia ft. Labrinth

Now is Not the Time - CHVRCHES

[aly-the-writer]

Jedi Soup

Ao3 | More Tusin Shade

Prompt: OC introducing their romantic interest to a food specific to their home planet for Tusin/Theron as requested by DarthYaoi.

Tusin ran a hand back through his hair, nodding absently as he listened to Lana catching him up to speed on what had been going on during his away mission.

He’d gotten off the shuttle expecting Theron to be there – Theron was always the one who met him when he returned to base. Not normally alone but he was always there. Still Lana hadn’t said something was wrong…

“He’s fine,” the blond commented, at last realizing why the other Sith hadn’t paid attention to her. “Just a cold, Commander. The infirmary gave him a shot, if he rests then he will be better in a day or two.”

She watched as the gold eyes studied her, they were at the turn that the Commander would have to take to get to his room or the lift to the residential level. She’d seen that look before – both Theron and Tusin wore it when they were struggling with their desire to be with the other and their workaholic tendencies.

“I think he ended up in your quarters after Master Silver threatened to find an ‘alternative means’ of making sure he rested as required,” Lana added.

The grin – quickly hidden – was the only sign of amusement that came from the thought of the Barsen’thor of all people threatening violence on another.

“Then you don’t need me for anything tonight?”

There was a small mountain of paperwork and reports to finalize the details on but they could all be put off for at least one night. Still she dragged out answering, as if having to contemplate, until the Pureblood’s eyebrow protrusions had lifted up like wings – they always made his expressions over emphasized to the point where incredulity looked slightly ridiculous on his face.

“Nothing for tonight, Commander,” she relented at last. “Take care you don’t get sick, I can’t run this Alliance by myself.”

“Wait, so that’s not what you’re doing already?” he joked, beginning to walk down the hall.

She waved him off and headed towards the lift to go to her own private quarters. She had a nice bottle of wine she’d been saving for a quiet evening.

Tusin, meanwhile, let himself into his quarters as quietly as he could. The room was mostly dark, the blankets huddled into pile on the center of the bed while Theron was still asleep, his arms wrapped tightly around and his face tucked against the pillow that Tusin usually used. He looked entirely worn out even asleep, his mouth open so he could try to breath with his breath snuffled from the congested sinuses. The brown hair pressed completely flat without any of the usual styling done to it.

He knew Theron would never appreciate the thought but Tusin thought he looked rather cute. He leaned over and kissed the other man’s temple.

Gold-hazel eyes blinked blurrily up at him. “When’d you get back?” his voice a little hoarse as he sat up.

“Just now,” he smiled softly. “I understand you’ve been exhausting our Jedi’s inexhaustible well of patience. Have you eaten at all?” he said, picking up the bottle of pills on the table that Theron went to reach for to read the label.

“Not been hungry,” the spy muttered, flopping back onto the pillows as he watched Tusin – wondering for a moment if the Sith Lord planned on chasing him back to his own room. He was gross and miserable three days into the cold – definitely not something anyone would want to deal with after just returning from wading through a factory of Skytroopers with Havoc Squad.

“You need to eat - especially since all you do is survive off caff and prepackaged food usually. Besides, this says you need to take it with warm food. When’s your next dose supposed to be?”

“Like your diet’s any better,” Theron muttered sitting up a little to squint at the chronometer (though he could’ve just as easily checked the time with his implants), “Hour, hour-half.”

“Anything you want?”

“Nothing.”

“Alright. Go back to sleep for a bit longer, love,” he stroked Theron’s hair, secretly admiring the texture of it sans hair-product beneath his fingers.

Once the spy had muttered a half-hearted protest and retreated back into his cocoon of blankets Tusin got up, slipping from his rooms in thought. Theron was correct, Tusin’s diet was rarely any better. Ration bars or eating at the cantina was fairly common when he remembered to take a break long enough to eat.

Still he needed to find something that Theron would probably eat without much protest – maybe something that reminded him of childhood? He’d been raised by Jedi and there was at least one Jedi that cooked around the base.

Jedi Knight Dak Izma – the man who had struck the blow that freed the Sith Empire from the Emperor’s control – was a short, friendly blond Zabrak with bright green eyes that drew plenty of attention. He was also friendly enough with Theron that he might agree to help out

The residential levels had several communal kitchens, and it was easy to find the one that they’d occupied. The Jedi he was looking for was wrapped up in his husband’s arms, getting a kiss. The Mirialan agent who’d once been called Cipher Nine but now went by Aydin Olasee was the first to notice and smiled at him over the shorter man’s head as he straightened.

“Commander, what can we do for you?” the clipped Kaasi accent was the one most common among Imperial Intelligence operatives (and it occurred to Tusin then that perhaps they were all trained to use it) that was obviously false in Aydin as he opted to use different accents to suit his mood.

“Actually I was wondering if Dak knew how to make Jedi so- uh, rootleaf stew.”

‘Jedi Soup’ was the name that Imperials gave the very plain though healthy meal.

“Rootleaf stew?” Dak echoed, exchanging a look with Aydin. “I mean, yeah, I can make it. Just didn’t think it was something anyone ate if they didn’t grow up in the Order.”

“Theron still down for the count?” the spy asked. Theron was a favorite target of his practical jokes – a bit of rivalry left over from when they’d been the best spies on their respective sides of the war.

“Yes, and he doesn’t seem to be hungry. I thought that something he grew up on with would help and I know he was raised by Jedi…”

Aydin winced and looked at Dak, almost pleadingly.

The Zabrak met his gaze apologetically, “Alright, I’ll make some.”

Aydin groaned, pretending to clasp his chest and stagger against the counter, “My nerf burgers.”

“I’ll make them for you tomorrow,” the Jedi smiled over, watching his boyfriend’s dramatic ‘death’ as he crumpled to the floor.

“Liiiiessssss,” the Mirialan hissed dramatically before falling still.

Tusin hid a smile behind his hand, Aydin was one of the more troublesome members of the Alliance. Primarily because his fondness for practical jokes meant everyone from Lana to Aric Jorgan was ready to shoot the man (with the exception of the Jedi he was married to) but he was still one of the best agents they had on staff.

Dak meanwhile had opened the refrigerator unit that was labeled ‘Izma & Green Bean’.

“Does it taste that bad?” Tusin asked the agent who was climbing back to his feet following his performance.

“Yes.”

“No it doesn’t,” Dak said, sorting out his ingredients. “It’s very simple, too simple for Aydin’s tastes.”

Despite his disagreement regarding the meal choice for that night the Mirialan was on his feet helping in an easy rhythm with the other man – washing and cutting ingredients or measuring things out at the Zabrak’s request. For his part Dak moved around the kitchen with a sort of confidence that the Jedi usually lacked when off the battlefield, only he wasn’t usually smiling broadly or comparing vegetables to his husband’s skin tone when he fought.

Tusin took a seat to watch the pair – wondering if he should offer to help considering it was a request for his lover that they were making. Cooking was an art form that he’d never quite gotten the hold of – though the Pureblood admired anyone who managed it and even with the laughter and joking (or maybe because of it) this particular couple made it look a bit like a dance.

It wouldn’t take the ability to read their connection through the Force to see that the two were close – let alone to see how obviously in love the pair was. How had they managed to keep it unknown for as long as they had managed?

“How does the Hero of Tython end up married to the Imperial Ghost, anyways?” he asked curiously.

“You meet all sorts in cantinas in Nar Shaddaa,” Dak laughed softly glancing over. “Terrible pick-ups, cheap drinks, and bad decisions pretty much sums us up back then.”

“You’re forgetting that we’re devastatingly handsome as well as being complete messes,” Aydin smirked, leaning down to peck Dak’s lips before going to run the dishes they were done with through the wash

Theron cracked an eye open as the door to the room opened again. He hadn’t heard Tusin leave, but he was exhausted and it was embarrassingly difficult to fall asleep without the other man in the bed. Although, he felt that he might be granted some forgiveness considering that anyone would fret over their lover being on a battlefield.

It’d been easier to sleep knowing that Tusin was back on the base, safe and sound.

Balanced on one hand the Sith Pureblood carried in a tray laden with bowls, mug and silverware, which he set on one of the tables in the room, shoving some of his papers and datapads back into a pile to clear the space to do so.

The smell of food – something familiar – reached Theron’s nose from where he was watching the scene from his blanket cave and made his stomach grumble loudly.

“Wasat?” he asked, starting to sit up but still mostly muffled by bedding.

It sort of smelled like rootleaf but no way Tusin would make that – actually there was no way the Sith would make anything. The Commander was a disaster in the kitchen and Lana had explicitly forbidden him from attempting to cook again.

“I didn’t make it,” the alien promised, offering him a bowl. “I may owe Agent Olasee an apology, he seemed to be rather saddened by the loss of his nerf-burgers.”

Theron grinned despite himself – Aydin suffering in petty ways always made him smile.  “I’m sure all this,” he waved his hand at his face. “Is somehow his fault anyways.”

“Doubtful,” Tusin mused, setting a mug at Theron’s elbow. Tea of some sort, a deep crimson-black color to it, probably something the Sith had brewed him. Before sitting down with his own bowl and mug. “But he certainly owes you for some of the other things he’s done.”

“Won’t disagree there. Where does he even find time to compose poetry anyways?” he muttered, tasting the bowl’s contents. Dak’s version of the recipe had a Dantooine flare, probably using iriaz broth as a base instead of mushrooms like Master Zho had used. Still it was delicious – and the familiar taste through the deadened taste-buds that came with sickness was a comfort.

“I assumed that he pulled it off the Holonet,” Tusin was prodding his bowl carefully examining the ingredients that had gone into the stew.

“It’s good,” Theron pointed his spoon at the Sith’s bowl. “And no, he writes them. I know he composes terrible poetry for Dak when they practice.”

“I don’t know if I should be impressed or terrified,” the Sith mused before finally tasting the meal. It actually was good. As simple a flavor as promised, which would have likely made it easier to convince a variety of younglings across species to eat it with little fuss. Though he could see someone who preferred lots of flavor in everything – like Aydin did – would dislike the dish.

He blinked up noticing that Theron was staring at him.

“Something wrong?”

“Nope,” he smiled – stuffy and still feeling achy and miserable, but he had someone who had gone out of his way to care about that. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Theron. Now eat so you can take your medicine,” the Sith smiled back affectionately.

[dravencroft]

for the ask meme: 2, 6, 10 (music ftw ofc), 17, 18, 20 & 23. sorry if thats too many

2. Is there a different type of thing that you would like to learn to create?

I would really like to learn to draw in different styles - for example the black and white style with thick lines of classic comic books, or lineless paintings, or a more realistic style… But if we’re talking about a different medium, I would really like to learn how to animate. Nothing special, maybe just little gifs with small movements, but it has always fascinated me. Animators are the true magicians to me.

6. What are some of your favorite characters to draw/write/etc?

This probably sounds weird, but I really like to draw other people’s OCs - especially if they are my friends and I know their characters well. For example I love drawing my friends’ Vampire: The Masquerade, Cyberpunk or D&D characters much more than I enjoy drawing my own OCs. I don’t know why… I guess it’s because I get to draw someone else’s design, which is obviously much better than drawing my own because I can’t design characters to save my life, and at the same time I get to make another person happy with a small present. I like it when people are happy I drew something for them. It makes me feel important, in a way, like it finally gave a meaning to what I do. I especially enjoy when my friends simply give me a vague description of their character and I get to draw them as I want and in the end they tell me it’s exactly like they pictured them, or even better than their initial idea… It makes me feel proud of myself.

10. Do you listen to music while you work? If so, any favorite types?

I always listen to music while drawing! At first I found it distracting, but now I can’t draw without music. I usually simply listen to the albums I like the most (always full albums, never single songs), choosing them depending on my mood. I almost never choose the music basing on what I’m drawing, I don’t find it necessary to match the subject with the soundtrack. In these last few months I have also begun to listen to podcasts while drawing (like Critical Role), but I tend to get a bit tired after a couple of hours because listening to people talking in English for so long requires quite a bit of an effort from my poor foreign brain ahahahah.

17. How do you deal with getting stuck?

I learnt that it happens. It’s a normal thing. I always get a little stuck whenever I finish a big drawing, it’s like I used all my energy for it and I feel like I will never be able to draw something like that anymore… So I just take a short break, even just half a day, and when I draw again I choose very simple subjects or very small sketches and I start from there. I don’t force myself to finish them if I don’t feel like it, and even if they don’t look good I like them anyway. Because I know that I will feel like drawing something big again eventually, I just need to be patient and to stop being hard on myself. I’m still working on that last part but it’s better than it used to be. 

18. Are there any trends, styles, or forms that you’d like to try? (Alternatively, are there any that you don’t want to try?)

As I said before, I would like to teach myself some new styles. I want to simplify my current style (not that it’s that complex, but I believe it’s quite detailed?) and learn how to do thicker lines, like in comic books. I also want to learn a simpler colouring style, like cell shading. I can’t cell shade to save my life but I think it would save me a lot of time, since painting takes so damn long. I guess I just need to practice, but I’m lazy. 

20. What’s something that people might not know about your work, that you wish they did know?

Just… how LONG it takes me to finish a single work. I’m so SLOW. But seriously, slow-slow-slow. A normal drawing usually takes me 8-15 hours to finish, even a simple one - and the big ones take 20+ hours. I know it’s crazy, I just can’t be faster, I tried but it doesn’t work. I need a lot of time. So I feel like some people kinda dismiss all the time and effort I put into drawing because they think I can sketch, ink and colour a full piece in like less than three hours… But I can barely finish a simple sketch in three hours. When I start colouring something and I whine because “this is going to take ages”, there’s always someone who says “nah you’ll finish it soon, as usual!”. That’s because I spend four hours in a row in front of my computer for three days, colouring all those ribbons and bows. It takes a LOT of time. I don’t even know if it’s worth it but I can’t do much else…

23. Are there any quotes that you find especially helpful/encouraging/meaningful?

One quote I always repeat to myself is “finished, not perfect”. It doesn’t need to be perfect, I simply need to finish it - and I get to decide when it’s finished, so it’s fine. It’s okay if I messed things up, at least I finished the piece. It’s okay if after posting a drawing I noticed all those mistakes, at least I have come to a point in which I can notice what’s wrong. The next work will be better. By finishing things, I learn more. If I just dropped everything, I wouldn’t learn anything at all. Even if it doesn’t look good enough, I’ll still finish it and even post it. 

[theprettysettersclub]

Angelic

read chapter four on ao3 here first: ao3 tumblr prev: ao3 tumblr

Summary: Angels don’t defy orders. It’s unheard of. Angels who defy get Banished, it’s just how it is. Oikawa decided to openly disobey an order, so he expected to get Banished. Now he just wants to find the Demons that were the reason for his Banishment.

they all finally meet in this chapter woo

this part was inspired by this and this

Iwaizumi woke up pleasantly warm. He wanted to stay asleep, but he knew he would have to get up at some point and the shades were open just enough to let the sunlight fall right on his face.

He groaned and blinked his eyes open, nearly falling off the bed when he saw an unfamiliar face next to his. A naked stranger, or at least shirtless, lay sleeping next to him. Iwaiuzmi’s eyes drifted to an uncovered shoulder covered in black marks. Closer inspection revealed that they were runes. Iwaizumi could make out ‘conceal’ and ‘angel’ and that was all he needed before he was scrambling as quietly as he could out of bed. He only stopped to grab pants and his phone before hurrying out of the room.

He closed the door and cast the strongest locking spell he could on it. After a moment of thought, he also cast a spell to neutralize magic.

He dialed his phone and paced anxiously as it rang. Matsukawa didn’t answer on the first try so Iwaizumi tried calling Hanamaki instead.

“Iwa you know it’s seven thirty, right?” Hanamaki answered the phone, obviously having just woken up.

Iwaizumi stopped moving and looked at the clock. “I do now.”

“What are you even doing up this early?” Hanamaki groaned.

“So I took someone home when we went out drinking, right?”

“Yeah he was like the hottest guy there ‘sides me ‘n’ Issei. Why?”

“Did anything about him seem out of the ordinary?”

“Other than his godly good looks?”

Iwaizumi coughed. “You may want to rethink the word godly.”

“What-?”

“Try angelic.”

There was silence on the other line. Hanamaki took a deep breath. “Tell me you’re just hella gay and not implying what I think you’re implying.”

Iwaizumi laughed awkwardly. “What can I say, opposites attract.”

“That is really not a good excuse for sleeping with an angel!”

“Okay, yes, I know, but what do I do now? He’s locked in my room and he’s gotta wake up at some point what then?” Iwaizumi asked, starting to pace nervously again.

“I’ll be over as soon as I wake up Issei.”

“Just hurry.”

“Like five or ten minutes. Don’t get into any trouble.” Hanamaki said and hung up. Iwaizumi paced around for a few more minutes before starting a pot of coffee for when Hanamaki and Matsukawa came because Mattsun could be insufferable if he didn't get any.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the bedroom door handle rattle. The sound stopped, then started again, more insistent. There was a loud thud followed by muffled swearing. After the second thud, Iwaizumi finally remembered the angel’s name was Oikawa.

“Iwa-chan,” his voice was slightly muffled by the door, but that did nothing to conceal the icy coldness of his words. “I'd recommend letting me out now.”

Against his better judgement, Iwaizumi replied. “Really? I was thinking you'd be fine with being stuck in there.”

“Very funny. Now let me out before I break down the door.”

Iwaizumi hurried to reinforce the door with another spell before Oikawa broke it down. “Fine, go ahead and try,” he taunted after he was sure Oikawa wouldn't be going through the door no matter what.

“I'm not an idiot, Iwa-chan, I know when someone's cast a spell.”

Iwaizumi could practically hear the eye roll. “You seem pretty idiotic to me.”

Oikawa was quiet after that. Iwaizumi hoped he had just given up, but he knew he wasn't nearly that lucky. “My, my, you sure have a lot of Godzilla figurines, don't you,” he said as though he were talking to himself, but it was loud enough that it was obviously directed at Iwaizumi. “They look pretty expensive. Sure would be a shame if… something… were to happen to them while I'm in here all alone. Wouldn't it be so unfortunate if they all just… went missing? Oh or what if they broke?”

Iwaizumi hesitated. He should not. Definitely should not. And yet. He sighed as he undid the spells and barged into the room. “Those are one of a kind you asshole, don't fucking think about touching them,” he growled. He came face to face with a surprised Oikawa, bag slung over one shoulder but still not wearing a shirt.

“I… didn't expect that to work,” he stuttered out, still loosely holding onto one of Iwaizumi’s figurines. Iwaizumi moved quickly to catch it when Oikawa threw it at him and roughly pushed past him. He set it back in its place carefully before running after Oikawa.

His mind just barely registered the scars on Oikawa’s back as where his wings should be as he tackled him. They both went down hard.

“You’re a Fallen Angel?”

Oikawa didn't give him an answer, instead he kicked him hard enough to send Iwaizumi flying into the wall. He groaned and picked himself up off the floor, aiming a binding spell at him. Oikawa dodged and the spell fizzled out. He slipped the bracelet off his wrist and Iwaizumi watched it morph into a blade.

“Demon, right?”

It was Iwaizumi’s turn to not respond and instead rush at Oikawa, more cautious now that he had a weapon. He managed to get one good hit in, knocking Oikawa onto his back. A cry of pain left his mouth as his back collided with the floor.

So newly fallen then.

He didn't have time to dwell on the thought because Oikawa was coming at him again, blade in hand. He only just had time to summon his own weapon before Oikawa’s would have run him through. Oikawa’s left hand moved towards his bag and in the split second that Iwaizumi’s attention was diverted, he moved to attack again.

A pair of arms wrapping around him was probably the only thing that kept him from seriously injuring Iwaizumi. “Thought Taka told you not to get into trouble,” Matsukawa drawled. Oikawa was swearing enough to impress even Iwaizumi as he struggled.

Hanamaki drew a symbol in the air near Oikawa and whispered into his ear, “Relax, stop struggling.”

Immediately Oikawa’s body went limp and the blade clattered to the floor. His glare was as fierce as ever though. “Let go of me,” he growled. It would have been intimidating if it weren't for the fact that he couldn't control any of his limbs.

“I could, but then you'd just fall on the floor and I'd have to pick you up again.”

“Fine. What do you want.”

“Well, Mattsun and I would appreciate if you'd stop attacking our friend,” Hanamaki started, picking up the blade and walking around to face Oikawa.

“He attacked me first! And he locked me in his room!” Oikawa protested. “I was just defending myself.”

“I'm inclined to not believe you, seeing as you were about to kill Iwa.”

“I wasn’t gonna kill him.” Hanamaki gave him a look. “Probably.”

Iwaizumi sighed and stepped forward. “Why are you here?”

“Well, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa sounded like he was talking to a child, “if I remember correctly, you were the one that invited me here.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hanamaki trying not to laugh. He was technically successful, but it was extremely obvious he was about to. Iwaizumi sighed and really wished Oikawa couldn’t talk.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“It’s the truth, though. I’m only here because you invited me,” Oikawa said. “I’m pretty sure it’s viewed as bad manners to attack your one night stand,” he added after a moment of thought.

Iwaizumi struggled not to punch him. “Does it look like I care?”

“Why do you think I’d tell you anything? Like seriously, how dumb can you get?” Oikawa taunted. “Tell me one good reason I would-”

Oikawa’s head jerked to the side when Iwaizumi slapped him. Even then, Oikawa’s smug smile never faltered. “I, personally, would recommend you stop talking about anything except the answer to my question. I’m getting a little tired of all your talking and I’m sure Makki and Mattsun are too.”

“Maybe I’d be more inclined to answer questions if you asked nicely. Or if you would have your friend let go of me.”

Iwaizumi cast a binding and magic repression spell on Oikawa, securing his arms behind his back. Hanamaki undid his previous spell and Matsukawa set him down again.

“There. Now are you gonna answer?”

“I said ask nicely.”

“Oh great and powerful Fallen one, why have you decided to grace us with your presence?” Matsukawa asked, voice practically dripping with sarcasm, finally coming around to face Oikawa. There was a bit of silvery blood smeared on the front of his shirt from where Oikawa’s scars must not have been as healed as he thought.

Hanamaki snickered. “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?”

“It ripped my wings out. So yes. It did hurt,” Oikawa responded coldly.

“What did you even do to fall?” Hanamaki asked.

“Your name’s Makki, right?” Hanamaki nodded. “Short for Hanamaki? Hanamaki Takahiro?”

“How’d you-?”

“That must mean you’re Matsukawa Issei,” Oikawa continued, turning to him. “In that case, it’s because of you two that I’m here.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Hanamaki growled. “How is it our fault? And how do you know our names?”

Oikawa smiled. He may be tied up, but he definitely had the advantage at the moment. “I know your names because it’s your fault.”

“What did we even do?”

“I have an entire list.” Oikawa pointedly looked towards Iwaizumi and added, “But my hands seem to be a bit tied at the moment and I can’t get to it.” Matsukawa made a move for his bag, but Oikawa twisted away. “You won’t find anything in there, I guarantee it.”

“What makes you so sure?” Matsukawa asked. “If I won’t find anything, then why not let me look.”

“Fine,” Oikawa smirked. “Go ahead. I wouldn’t if I were you.”

Matsukawa opened the bag and was instantly assaulted with glitter. He coughed as some of it got in his lungs. “Honestly, what the fuck.”

“Can’t say I didn’t warn you,” Oikawa said with a smile. He couldn’t actually look at Matsukawa because he didn’t want to start laughing. “I’m the only one that can get those files out of my bag and I can’t do it with my hands tied.”

Hanamaki leaned over to whisper something to Iwaizumi. He glared back but sighed in what Oikawa assumed was resignation.

“Fine.”

Oikawa could feel the binding spell fade. He brought his hands around to stretch, enjoying how irritated Iwaizumi was getting while he took his time. The files were apparently buried farther into the bag than he thought and he had to stick his entire arm into the bag to reach. Matsukawa took them from him and he and Hanamaki started reading through them, faces paling once they read further on.

“Are these real?” Hanamaki spoke first, voice just barely wavering, but Oikawa could pick up on it. He nodded. “You were gonna wipe out an entire city just because of us?”

Oikawa crossed his arms. “Obviously not me. If I were going to, you’d be dead and I wouldn’t have been Banished. Lucky for you, I didn’t and I was the only Angel capable of something of that magnitude.”

“So basically the Angels want us specifically dead?” Matsukawa asked. Oikawa nodded. “What about Iwaizumi?”

“Hey, don’t bring me into this! If I’m not on the hit list don’t put me there.”

“I only heard about you two because they wanted me to kill you. I don’t know much more than what’s in those files,” Oikawa answered, mostly ignoring Iwaizumi. “I never got one on him, but that doesn’t mean much.”

“How old are these?” Hanamaki asked.

Oikawa thought for a moment before responding, “A few months old.”

“So basically what you’re saying is…” Hanamaki trailed off.

“Your lives are still in danger,” Oikawa confirmed.

[ferrero13]

That Which We Call a Naruto (10/11)

Fic summary

The road to becoming a good Hokage is a long and tedious one. As it turns out, it’s also incredibly confusing — there is no shortage of people who can’t keep track of who he is.

Or, 10 people who didn’t recognise who Naruto was, and one person who did.

Read on AO3

Chapter 10: Retired Kunoichi

In which a jounin-sensei realises that the retired kunoichi with kids in the Chuunin Exam is neither retired nor a kunoichi.

He met her on a swing.

Well. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he met her while she was on a swing and he was on his way to a briefing for foreign jounin-sensei before the Chuunin Exam officially commenced. She was gazing at the doors of Konoha’s Ninja Academy, hair a long, yellow banner behind her, and Sajou was immediately smitten.

“Are you waiting for somebody?” Sajou asked as a conversation starter. He hoped she wasn’t.

She didn’t startle at his sudden appearance, which meant that she probably had some ninja training and had sensed him coming. But there was no hitai-ate in sight—off duty, maybe, or even retired? “Not really. I just enjoy sitting here,” she said, smiling up at him. She must have seen his hitai-ate, because she asked, “Are you here for the Chuunin Exam?”

“I’m a jounin-sensei,” he said, puffing his chest out a little. A little bragging couldn’t hurt, right? Women liked capable men, right?

She grinned, and Sajou fell a little bit in love with how devious her smile was. “Good luck. This batch of Konoha genin is very good. They’re much better than I was, at any rate.”

“I’m sure you were excellent,” Sajou offered. He was trying not to simper, he really was, but he had a bad habit of turning off all higher brain functions when faced with such beauty.

The snort that she surprised him with shouldn’t have been be that attractive. “I was horrible—my jounin-sensei would’ve told you that. I got better, obviously, but fat load of good that did me,” she said. “I never officially made chuunin, but I’m already permanently on the wrong side of the Mission Desk now.”

“Just because you’re not on field duty doesn’t mean that your job isn’t important,” Sajou said. He ventured to place a hand on her shoulder in a show of support, but she twisted out of his reach.

Her laughter was unexpectedly thick, nothing like the light, tinkling sounds most women made. As she got up, she said, “Isn’t there somewhere you should be getting to, jounin-sensei?”

He sighed. “Regretfully. I’ll see you around?”

“I think we’ll be seeing each other quite a bit in the coming month.” With one last smile, wide and unabashed and vibrant, she flickered away.

He hadn’t told her about the briefing, but it pleased him disproportionately to know that she wasn’t just beautiful but also well informed and observant, even if she was still a genin. Whistling, he made his way into the Academy. It wouldn’t do to keep the Hokage and the other jounin-sensei waiting no matter how much he wanted to bask in his newfound love.

---

“How’s your team doing?”

Sajou startled. Tearing his eyes away from the screens in the observation room, he saw that she had managed to get behind him without him noticing. That hadn’t happened to him in a really long time—it really spoke volumes about how anxious he was.

“Not bad, but not as well as I’d hoped. The next round will be tough even if they pass this one. You’re right about how good the Konoha genin are.”

She flipped her hair. “Of course I am. Those are my kids.”

Sajou’s neck protested at how quickly he snapped his head around to look at her. “All fifteen of them?”

“No, of course not,” she said, laughing her hearty laugh that made her chest heave in a way that Sajou had to fight not to stare at. “Just three, naturally. Well, actually, you weren’t entirely wrong. I guess you could say that they’re all mine…” she continued saying, but Sajou was having some difficulty paying attention to anything.

She had children. Why hadn’t he thought of that before? It wouldn’t be unusual for a woman like her to be attached, and the fact that she’d retired from active duty despite looking healthy and hale meant that something other than an injury had taken her off the field. Which implied that she had children because, after death, it was the most common cause of kunoichi retirement.

Which further implied that she had a husband and was likely much older than she looked.

Great. Just great.

He turned back to the screens only to see his team arguing over the edibility of a brightly coloured mushroom that was clearly poisonous. Fantastic. His team was doing just as well as his love life.

---

Nearly a month later, Sajou found her looking for a seat in the arena minutes before the first match was scheduled to begin. He waved her over to the empty one next to him. Although she’d said that they’d be seeing a lot of each other over the course of the Chuunin Exam back whey they’d first met at the swing, he’d probably seen less of her than he had of the Hokage. Finally seeing her again, and in such a crowded space too, was a pleasant surprise.

“Thanks. If I’d known that it would be this difficult to find a seat I’d have come earlier. The turnout’s so much bigger than I expected,” she grumbled. “Your kid’s up first, right? The Yase girl, with blue hair?”

“Is that what she’s known as amongst Konoha ninja? The girl with blue hair?” Perhaps Sajou should have had her dye her hair some inconspicuous shade of brown to avoid being so easily recognisable. The luxury of looking distinctive belonged only to those who were good enough to handle almost any enemy that spotted them, and right now Yase was nowhere near that level.

She shrugged. “At least it’s just her hair. Mine has skin so pale it shines blue under the right light, and that’s after I tried everything to get him to tan.”

Sajou picked the boy out easily from the line-up. “Red hair, red clothes, scrolls spilling out of every pocket?” He didn’t look a lot like her. Sajou quashed the thought that the boy probably took after his father, which was a shame given how beautiful his mother’s tan skin was.

“That’s him. You’ll want to watch out for his seals. Oka’s better than most chuunin and that’s not even taking into account how quickly he draws them while using taijutsu. With some experience, he could probably take on an entire four-man cell with only a brush and something flat to draw on. He fights right after Yase.”

“Against Suna’s Fueno Azuhi? That girl literally spits fire. Is this place even fireproof?” Sajou looked doubtfully at the wooden benches and beams of the arena, and then at the forests a distance away that surrounded Konoha.

“You’re in a ninja village, in Fire Country. If something isn’t fireproof, it will be after the first time it goes up in flames. Oh, look, Yase is getting ready. Can I expect a very thorough commentary about her every move?”

Sajou snorted. “You’re in a ninja village, talking to someone who belongs to another ninja village. What makes you think I’ll tell you anything?”

She shrugged. “I have a pretty face. It was worth a shot.”

It was somewhat terrifying how right she was. Sajou suddenly felt very worried for his village’s secrets, but it wasn’t strong enough to keep him away from her magnetic presence.

---

The last match of the day was drawing to a close. Sajou was ready to crawl into a hole and drink his misery away after being on the receiving end of her proudly bragging about her three children, all of whom looked nothing like her or each other at all. Her husband had better love her a lot, or Sajou wouldn’t hesitate to steal her from under his nose.

“How did the kids do?”

Sajou startled. What was with Konoha ninja and creeping up on him undetected? Was he losing his touch or was there something in the water here? He turned around. The man had dark eyes and even darker hair, and something about the way he looked was familiar, like Sajou had seen him before only in passing but should recognise him anyway.

“You were watching. How do you think they did?”

“Not horribly, but Kai could definitely have done better.”

“I thought so too. He should’ve made chuunin a long time ago if the team hadn’t always been in the wrong place at the wrong time and missed all those exams before.” She leaned back into the man, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. There was tenderness in her eyes that Sajou dearly wished she would show him instead.

“This must be the father,” Sajou said, for lack of anything else to say.

“What?” she said, startled. “Whose father?”

Sajou’s brows drew together in confusion. “Your children’s? Oka and Nari and Kai’s?

She stared at him for a second that seemed to stretch into an eternity. “I’m not a mother, Sajou-sensei,” she finally said.

“But—”

The man snorted, interrupting Sajou’s growing bewilderment. “Why am I not surprised?”

She glared at him, retorting, “Hey, just because I—”

“Sensei!” somebody yelled, high and loud, and Sajou prayed for his ears. “Sensei! How did I do? Did you see that? I took down that Kumo-nin with the jutsu Sakura-san taught me!”

“Shut up Nari, no one wants to hear about your lame sleeping jutsu. Sensei, my seal was awesome, right? I still have all of Fueno’s shuriken and kunai in my scrolls. We can train with them next time!”

“Both of you, stop that. Sensei, I was the one who found you, not that it was difficult at all since you changed practically nothing. It was harder when you looked exactly like yourself. I won, so teach me a new technique.”

She raised a hand and all three of her children fell silent immediately. Sajou himself had never even dreamed of commanding half of the respect that she did from his genin. “Nari, good job. Sakura will be glad to hear that. Oka, please return Fueno’s weapons. Those are custom-made and I don’t want to start a fifth war over some genin’s expensive shuriken. Kai, following Sasuke is cheating and you know that. But I’ll teach you anyway since you’re the only one who didn’t look directly at the Kage box.”

Kai shrugged. “I’m just making use of all available resources. It just so happened that Sasuke-san didn’t mind leading me straight to you, so why should I expend more effort than I have to?”

She glared at the man behind her, whose missing arm Sajou was only now noticing. “You just defeated the purpose of this exercise, bastard. It was going to be their graduation test.”

“That’s what the Chuunin Exam is for. And it was a ridiculously simple task anyway, idiot,” Uchiha said, and Sajou nearly gasped. The audacity! How could a man say that to such a wonderful woman? “They could’ve done this three years ago.”

“I had a weak genjutsu and compulsion jutsu applied and my chakra signature was scrambled—it wasn’t going to be that simple. You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

Uchiha snorted. “You’re just going to join me anyway, so what’s the point.”

“Can you not talk about this here? There are things that we really don’t need to know about,” Oka said. His face was an improbable shade of green that clashed horridly with his red hair and nearly blue skin.

“You’re fifteen and you have a girlfriend. That’s more than I ever had when I was your age.”

Oka grimaced. “That’s because all your life you only ever had eyes for Sasuke-san, but he was too busy getting revenge or whatever to notice you mooning over him. And now that I’ve said that, excuse me while I go to wash my mouth and scrub my mind.”

At some point along this incredibly enlightening conversation, everything had slotted into place with a satisfying finality in Sajou’s brain. This woman was Uchiha’s wife and the jounin-sensei of these completely dissimilar genin. He wasn’t aware that Uchiha was married, but then, unless one was very, very foolish, nobody really lingered on Uchiha’s page in bingo books.

Sajou was deeply regretting telling his team everything about the yellow-haired woman now, because they’d made him swear to ask her out by the end of the Chuunin Exam or they’d bleed his wallet dry. But Sajou really, really didn’t want to get on the wrong side of somebody with a Sharingan, even if she was the most compelling woman he had ever crossed paths with.

“Sensei, aren’t you going to drop the henge? You can’t make the closing speech looking like that,” Nari said.

“He has the Hokage’s mandate. He can do anything he wants,” Kai retorted.

“But that doesn’t mean he should—Shikamaru-san will really strangle him this time. As much as I want to see him willingly move a finger for once, Uzushio won’t be happy if sensei stepped down so soon after he promised to help them rebuild.”

“They’re right, dead last. You look ridiculous anyway,” Uchiha said, plucking at long yellow hair with mild disdain.

She slipped her hand into Uchiha’s and pulled him down by the neck until they were eye-to-eye. “Are you saying that I’m not attractive like this?”

Uchiha snorted. “I’m saying that I don’t want to wake up next to a stranger.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me this week. Love you too,” she said, grinning. Then she turned to Sajou, face smoothing into a pleasantly neutral expression. “Sorry it’s kind of sudden, but I have to go. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay here in Konohagakure.”

There wasn’t much Sajou could do but nod dumbly as she bade him goodbye and walked off with Uchiha and her genin.

And a second after that, there wasn’t much he could do but gape when her narrow back widened and a cloak unfurled around it. Uchiha passed a bright red hat over, and in an instant Sajou could finally put a name to the person he’d been thinking of for the last couple of months.

…his genin were going to be so rich.