#i pulled some weird layer shenanigans to get these colors

[starmonsterrr]

✶ snakey :}

very proud of the colors!!!

[eirist]

Little Bits and Pieces of Heaven

THE EGG HUNT SHENANIGANS

One-shot #: 25

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot scribble.

Rating: T (Just light flirting stuff)

Note: Light teasing. PWP. And pure insanity I tell you. Just ending my quarantine with another one-shot. Because who knows when I can write and upload one again.

Summary: "Found the bunny."      

With a cheerful and dazzling smile, Luffy—the captain of the infamous Straw Hat Pirates—held out his hands to show off the beautifully decorated basket to his crew members.

Sanji cocked an eyebrow at him. "Seriously?"

"Yes!” Luffy exclaimed. “We're gonna go hunt for eggs!" His already bright smile widened some more at the idea of an adventure.

This time it was Zoro’s turn to raise an eyebrow. "Wearing… that?" His lone eye scrutinized the rabbit costume the rubber man had on.

The younger boy nodded again, head bobbing up and down enthusiastically. “Usopp and Chopper are wearing the same!”

"Yes we are!" Usopp and Chopper yelled proudly, pumping their fists up in the air.

“…”

“What the hell is wrong with this island?" The cook muttered under his breath with a slight shake of his head.

“More like what the hell is wrong with them?” Zoro grunted, folding his arms across his chest as he nudged his head towards the three.

It was one of those rare days when he and the idiot swordsman weren’t snarling insults at each other because there is a more pressing and absurd matter to attend to...

…like Luffy, Usopp and Chopper in bunny suits, holding colorful baskets to join the island’s ‘egg hunt’.

“Fufufu…” Robin laughed softly from her deck chair where she was relaxing. “It’s the island’s tradition. They are celebrating what they call Easter.” She explained as she flipped a page of the book in her hand.  

“By looking for eggs?” Zoro inquired with a frown as the three bunnies started singing a song about egg hunting.

“Yes,” Robin nodded. “We just so happen to arrive here right in time for that celebration.”

“Weird.”

“No it’s not!” Usopp retorted looking aggravated at Zoro’s comment. “I recalled visiting an island once where hunting for eggs is considered a manly man’s sport! The one who finds the most wins the title of the most manliest man alive.”

“Suge Usopp!” Chopper gasped.

“That is right,” the sniper crossed his arms over his chest haughtily. “And guess who won the title five years in a row?”

“You, of course.” Both Zoro and Sanji drawled, with the same expression on their faces that clearly says… they’re not buying Usopp’s obviously untrue and exaggerated story.

Robin stifled her giggles behind her hand as Usopp yelled his retorts at the two. Both Luffy and Chopper were looking at him with their eyes sparkling from amazement.

“Whoa you’re awesome Usopp!” Luffy commented.

“You really are strong!” The reindeer gushed.

“I know right!” Usopp answered with an approving grin and a thumbs up.

“But I will defeat you today!” The captain declared. “I will be the one to win the title of the most manliest man alive.”

“And you’d do that…” Sanji said in an almost bored tone. “By finding… a lot of eggs?”

“Yes!”

Sanji sighed as he pulled out a packet of cigarettes from his pants.

“And you really need to wear… those costumes to hunt for them?” Zoro asked, still doubtful why they need to be in that.

“Yes!”

“It’s tradition Zoro,” Usopp stated matter-of-factly. “You can’t find the eggs if you’re not in a bunny costume! You’re so ignorant.”

“Temee…”

“Hey! Why don’t you join us too Zoro?” Luffy invited and Zoro almost blanched at that.

Almost.

"Yeah!” Chopper chirped in. “Join us! The more the merrier!"

“Nope. I’m good.” Zoro answered almost instantly. Like hell he would don that stupid costume and then hunt for stupid eggs.

Best to just leave them to their crazy shit.

“Have fun.” He waved them off.

Sanji let out a ‘tch’ before taking a drag from his cigarette. Things seemed to get weirder and weirder these past few days. But somehow the idea that he'll be free of the usual food stock raiders for the day feels too good to pass. "Alright then, run along rabbits. Go scour the island for eggs.”

“We will!” The trio chorused.

Sanji nodded at them. “And don't you dare create any messes for us to clean you hear?"

“Eeeh…” a voice from behind them suddenly said. “Don’t worry about it Sanji-kun."

And just like that the cook immediately swiveled around to face the newcomer.

"Nami-swaaan! Don't you look dazzling in that ensemble, my sweet!" He crooned as his eyes automatically turned to hearts, kneeling down on one knee in front of the navigator.

“Thank you!” Nami beamed at him and winked. The chef instantly fell down the lawn deck in a swoon, blabbering about her beauty. She was wearing an outfit just like the one she had on when they went after him in Whole Cake Island. Only this time the corset skirt is frillier and more colorful as the layers sported different shades of pastel spring palette.

The puffed sleeves of her blouse are pulled down her shoulders, revealing them and she had put on a rabbit ears headband on top of her head.

Zoro glared at the prone figure of the blond before shifting his attention to Nami. “You going with them?”

Nami nodded with a scheming grin. “Heard something about money prizes.”

“Of course you wouldn’t let that pass,” the green-haired man smirked. His lone eye trailed up and down her form as he studied her. “And you're supposed to be what? A rabbit as well?"

"Yes."

He jerked a thumb towards the three doofuses in their onesie costumes. "Why not wear the same as them?"

Nami narrowed her eyes at him as Sanji barked threats from where he was still lying down. Something about shutting his trap if he can’t say something nice to his precious Nami-san.

Zoro ignored him. Even as he started shouting insults that he is being the usual, unfashionable stupid marimo that he is.

"Because that is not cute." The map maker huffed, placing her hands on her hips.

"Looks ok on them." The grin that Zoro send her way was nasty.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder snootily. "Say one more word about what I'm wearing Zoro and I'll make sure your next sentence is, “Please don't charge me”."

"Right. Don't charge me… greedy witch," he said monotonously, deliberately omitting the word please and adding an insult as well.

She gave him the evil eye.

“Now go and run along with your rabbit friends."

"You can kiss your next island allowance goodbye Zoro," Nami said in an overly sweet tone as she smiled evilly. "I'll be splurging them for expensive lingerie later."

"OI!"

"Byeeee!" Nami immediately pranced away from him to escape; pushing Usopp, Luffy and Chopper towards the ship’s ladder so that they could embark. Sanji was automatically back on his feet and on her side to assist her while nose bleeding about lingerie and the orange-haired woman.

"Damn it Nami! You come back here!" Zoro was yelling as he stomped to follow her.

“Have fun!” Robin called out to them, eyes never leaving her book and creating duplicates of her hand at the railing to wave at them.

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

It was around lunch time when Nami entered the crow’s nest. The first thing her eyes landed upon was the figure of a sprawled Zoro, unsurprisingly asleep on the floor.

She approached the thunderously snoring swordsman and nudged his side with her foot.

“Hey,” she prodded him awake. “Hey Zoro, wake up!”

The snoring stopped. And there was a grunt. Then a tiger-like yawn, followed by another grunt.

Nami rolled her eyes at his response. “Zoro!”

“WHAT?!” Zoro answered irritably. He opened his eye and blinked up at her. “Hunt’s done?” He asked groggily before turning to his side so his back was now facing her, not even waiting for her answer.

A frown appeared on her lips. What a rude and lazy ass. She poked him on the back with her feet. He merely grunted again and ignored her.

“They’re still hunting,” she explained, looking down on his prone figure disapprovingly. She doubt if he was listening. Sometimes, you might as well talk to a rock than Roronoa Zoro.

“The game is happening on the whole island,” she continued. “I went back to get reinforcements. So wake up and come with me!”

“Will not. I’d rather sleep.”

Nami settled down on the nest’s floor just behind him. This time she was prodding him with her finger, making sure her nail was digging into his skin.

“Stop that.”

“I will not.”

“Why aren’t you looking as well?” He grumbled petulantly as she continued poking his back.

“That’s what my three rabbits are for! I’m just there to oversee and secure the money prize!”

“You can’t make me join you.”

And Nami leaned forward so her lips were almost touching his ear. “Really?”

“Whatever you’re planning. It won’t work.” He declared smugly, even as he kept his eye closed.

She laughed softly, letting her breath tickle his ear. “You’re no fun.” She shifted closer, bending over so she could drape her body on top of him.

“You know… I’m not planning anything.” She whispered, letting her lips lightly touch his ear. “I’m just here to offer a ten percent deduction to your current… debt amount.” She let her hand slide inside his t-shirt, past his haramaki to caress the well-defined muscles there.

“I already told you that’s not gonna work.” Zoro’s eye was now open and looking at her. A smirk was on his lips. “And I don’t recall borrowing money from you onna.”

“You don’t?” Nami gasped exaggeratedly. “What about that time in Vert Island? You owe me belis for the cottage rent.”

Zoro’s brow furrowed. “Thought that was your treat?”

She mock-pouted. “Oh Zoro. When are you gonna learn that there are no such things as free or treat when it comes to me?”

“You really are a wicked witch.” The green-haired man groused. “And after I made sure you thoroughly enjoyed your stay there.”

Nami snickered. Zoro noticed that the bunny ears on her head actually made her look more mischievous. “Nothing’s free nowadays Zoro,” she pointed out. “Favor for a favor. I pay; you work your ass off.”

He snorted. “Next time, I’m just lying down and letting you do all the work. Whether you pay or not.”

She threw back her head and laughed again. “Do the hunt and maybe I’ll humor you.” She bent over and placed teasing kisses along his jaw and neck.

“In your dreams.” He sneered and she felt his arm snaked around her, his hand squeezed the back of her thigh before it slid up to do the same on one plump cheek of her behind.

That made her bite her lip even as she complained. “Tch! You’re a hard man to bargain with.”

A shark-like grin appeared on Zoro’s face. “Yeah.” He playfully slapped her ass before giving it another squeeze. “Offer a better deal Nami.” He said teasingly against her ear this time before nipping at the skin below it as his hand continued caressing her backside.

“Mmm… well what do you—”

“WHAT THE HELL?”

They simultaneously turned their heads towards the voice.

Sanji was gaping at them from the nest’s entrance… his eyes wide as saucers. His face was so red. As red as the blood dripping down his nose as he took in the image of Nami's perfectly shaped-derriere and her lacy thong as her ridiculously short skirt and position put them on display….

… along with the shitty swordsman’s hand on it.

Silence reigned for a moment. Then…

“TAKE YOU GODDAMNED HANDS OFF HER AHO KENSHIN!”

“TAKE YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OFF HER ASS ERO COOK!”

“Temee…”

Both men growled the word at the same time as Nami disentangled herself from Zoro. She wasn’t even embarrassed at being caught. They weren’t actually keeping it from the crew after all.

But of course it would be better if Sanji was the last one to know.

Nami sighed heavily as she watched the two throwing death glares at each other.  

It's the beginning of chaos.

The two attacked each other almost immediately. Sanji had leapt inside the crow’s nest, flaming legs and all as Zoro avoided him and made a grab for his swords.

And manage to hit the cook straight in the face with the sheathed end of his red katana.

Her mouth fell open as the Sanji collapsed down the steel floor. But she knew of course this was far from over.

In one swift move a grinning Zoro carted her towards the nest’s entrance. He enjoyed that, she knew. In a matter of seconds they were down the metal ladder while Sanji recovered, fumed and yelled expletives at his rival.

Using one arm to hold on to the ladder’s rung as his other was wrapped around her waist, Zoro swung slightly for leverage.

Nami’s eyes widened when she realized what he’s about to do.

“Zoro! NOOOOO!!!”

She screamed bloody murder when he let go and made the high jump down onto the Sunny’s deck.

Nami’s heart leaped to her throat. That was probably the reason why her scream stopped coming out of her mouth. Halfway down the long drop she could swear she felt her soul left her as her mind went blank.

She's going to kill Zoro! Mark her words!

Somewhere above Sanji was still yelling threats and curses.

The swordsman landed on the deck as if it was just a natural thing to do.

Oh dear heavens. Roronoa Zoro will be paying for this stupid stunt of his for the rest of his life until his next and next and next!

“Zorooo!” Luffy greeted when he spotted the former pirate hunter on the deck. “Heey!” He bounded towards him, showing his now-filled with eggs basket. Chopper and Usopp were nowhere to be seen as the three most likely got separated. “Look, look I found a lot! Shishishi! I can’t wait to show it to Usopp. Whatcha got there?” He peered at the figure tucked under Zoro’s arm.

"Found the bunny." Zoro answered nonchalantly.

"Oh that’s great! Shishishi!" Luffy chortled. He peered down again at the navigator who is still hanging motionlessly on Zoro's arm.

"Ne, Zoro?"

"Huh?”

"Uhm... the bunny looks mad.”

"..."

“THUNDERBOLT TEMPO!”

[romssidewaystooth]

I just finished reading The Lives of Dax, so I guess here are my thoughts on each story (contains spoilers):

Ezri - Ezri talks to Vic about the circumstances of her joining, in which a changeling infiltrated the Destiny. An interesting back story for Ezri. Her initial feelings about joining ("sacrificing their individuality to a parasitic race of slugs") are pretty understandable, and only a slightly harsher version of the way I think I'd feel about it (I value the person I am, and don't think I'd particularly desire to be augmented with eight other minds). Nice to get a glimpse of Odo being protective of the symbiont and referring to Dax as a friend. I still don't quite understand how you can get lost in a holosuite, but I've accepted stranger premises.

Lela - As a newly elected and underestimated politician, Lela takes a risk trying to communicate with an unknown ship in orbit, against the wishes of the Trill government. I liked this one, although I don't have much to say about it. The isolationism and fear felt realistic. Because of the Facets episode, I kept picturing Kira/Nana Visitor as Lela, and it kind of fit pretty well.

Tobin - Romulans invade the ship and Tobin has to work with his Vulcan shipmate to stop them from stealing the warp technology and rescue the crew. This one won me over when he pulled out the card trick to throw off the Romulan. The early transporter technology was a fun surprise, and everyone should have a Vulcan BFF to engage in ship-saving shenanigans with. One of my favorites.

Emony - Leonard McCoy meets Emony at a gymnastics competition that his asshole roommate is competing in, and he flubs the date but "redeems" himself by saving a guy's life the next day. Awkward, honestly felt like an inexperienced fanfic author wrote it (notably, one-dimensional characters and the fanfic-typical overuse of character attributes in situations when names or pronouns would have sufficed). I did not particularly like the story, either. My opinion may be colored by the weird and (I felt) contrived transphobic turn it took, although I wasn't digging it before that, anyway. I can elaborate if anyone is interested, but let's just say I did not enjoy this.

Audrid - Audrid explains, in letter format, the circumstances of her husband's death after they encountered a parasitic creature living in a comet. This one was definitely the most engaging so far, I really appreciated it. Creepy, but intentionally so. The sci-fi horror story contained in it could have stood on its own, but the extra layer of framing it through its affect on her relationship with her child was a nice sort of twist, and made sense. Also, Captain Pike and his piercing blue eyes!

Torias - Torias prepares to test-pilot the first shuttle designed for warp 10 (no-salamanders version). Pretty good. He came across as a real person: a guy who loves his wife and wants the best for both of them, but who makes a hasty and dismissive decision. You already know how it's going to end, but the descriptions are still cool to read (and then sad). Also, Saavik!

Joran - Joran plots a series of murders while a joined Detective tries to hunt him down. I don't have much to say about this, I'm not a huge crime story lover. This is one of the few that's actually set on Trill, which is a nice change. The idea of the detective was kind of cool: a long history of investigating the very rare joined murderers (and then covering them up?), but I'm just not that interested in cops. Joran, as expected, was a pretentious prick, but that's fair.

Curzon - Young Benjamin Sisko works with Curzon as they navigate two mysteriously linked diplomatic situations, and also there's a sexualized performer everyone seems to wanna get with. Ok, so, WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT. THE FUCK. It is incredibly obvious that this was written by a misogynistic weaboo furry. BAFFLING line: "Nunneries were often places to drain off the excess female population, a form of birth control." Almost everything about this story was so weirdly unsettling. A recurrent fixation on sex roles and reproduction, references to racial stereotypes in contexts that felt inappropriate, and supposedly "mysterious" situations that the author gave me no sufficient reason to wonder about. Benjamin Sisko deserves better than to have his name associated with this story. The only positive thing I can say about it is that the idea of a living ship is cool, but it's also not the first time I've seen it done.

Jadzia - Jadzia has a mystery to solve when her sister is found with a symbiont and is unable to tell anyone where it came from. This was one of the better ones. Felt like it could have been an episode. A tiny bit hard to follow at times, but I managed to figure it out. I liked the sweet moments between Jadzia and her sister, especially the childhood memories. It almost got a little sappy at a few points, but I can deal with that. I always love me some Jadzia, and this portrayal of Sisko was far superior to the previous story (the bar was VERY LOW). There was a decent balance of dark/scary and sweet/happy. No huge complaints.

Other observations: Lots of Vulcans (ok with me)! Also lots of name-dropping. Most of the stories are heavy on human presence, which, to be fair, is kind of just how Star Trek in general is, but I'd like to see more stuff actually set on Trill. There's so much creative potential!

Favorites: Tobin and Audrid. Least favorite: Curzon.

[desperatefrenchwriter]

Sola Gratia (7/?)

Rating / Warnings : General audiences, no particular warnings.

Fandom : Bram Stoker’s Dracula, BBC’s Dracula, various Dracula and vampire lore.

Part 7/? (2219 words)

Author’s notes : Rated A for Angst

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

“Won’t you invite me in ?”

I slowly turned my head to face him, the tip of my nose touching his for a second.

“Do you think this is how it works ?”, I whispered. He inched back, probably picking up the anger I tried to conceal in the softness of my tone. “Do you think you, who has haunted my every nightmare, every dark corner, every space behind my back, for months-” I took a shaky breath. “Do you think you can invade a place I feel most safe in, threaten my dearest friend, threaten me, and hope a gift will make up for it ?”

I clenched my jaw. His expression, as he has leaned back into his seat, was unreadable.

“I have spent days in the hospital, terrified that you would find me and finish the job. And I couldn’t tell- I couldn’t tell anyone why I felt so unsafe because frankly, who would believe me ?”

Tears welled up in my eyes, still he said nothing. Had he spent so much time apart from any humans he forgot how to understand emotion ?

“I am terrified, right now, because I know you could… snap my neck, or bleed me dry, and I couldn’t- I couldn’t do anything about it !”

I started to cry silently, unable to stop the flow of tears running down my cheeks. He seemed almost paralyzed. I took the chance, and got out of the car, slamming the door behind me. Fumbling for my keys, my fingers were so shaky I dropped them. As I picked them up, I heard the other car door open, and froze, slowly turning back to face him. He circled around the car, but kept a distance between us.

“I cannot begin to imagine what you went through because of me.” He looked and sounded completely serious, which was a strange color on him. “There is nothing I can say that would be close to an acceptable apology, but I do want to make amends.”

He handed me the box, keys still on the lock. The chain glimmered under the streetlamp’s lights.

“I won’t invite you in”, I maintained.

“And I will not insist.”

I hesitated a little, and first pulled the key from the lock, slipped it into my pocket. As I took the box, my fingers brushed against his, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Are you cold ?”

                   I could have a fire lit, if you want.

“I’m fine”, I replied, once again having no time to protest as he put his jacket on my shoulders. “I’m literally ten feet from my door, Vlad-”

“Hah, she called me Vlad !” A semi-triumphant look plastered on his face.

“This doesn’t mean I trust you, or like you, for all that matter”, I snapped at him.

“And I will make my peace with that.” He put a hand over his heart. “For now.”

“You are insufferable. I’m going to bed.”

He still had a somewhat… sheepish look to him, head slightly tilted to the side, like a grounded puppy. Still. I couldn’t move past the flashes of teeth, blood and feral growls layering over his face. I suddenly had to inhale a sharp gust of air, and turned back, the box held against my chest by my injured hand, the other looking for my keys. I turned back, and climbed the short flight of stairs to the entrance of my building.

“Sleep well, Lady Cetero.”

Can’t promise anything. I buzzed myself in, and hurried to the stairs without a second look behind me, turning all light on as I went by. As I climbed the steps to the fourth and last floor, I felt like my heart was about to jump out of my chest. Not only because those stairs were a nightmare, though. On the doorstep, the meowing on the other side of the door had me smiling. That little monster was going to be unbearable.

Giving the usual kick to the door panel to get open, it creaked on its hinges, yet the incessant yelling of the hairball at my feet covered most of the noise.

“Hey, shut it, dumbass, you’ll wake the whole building”, I told him, locking the door behind me.

Following his little strut to the kitchen, I gave him his much expected dose of kibble.

“You fat idiot, you need a diet. I love you so much. Babie.”

He purred hysterically as he ate, and I kept on my incoherent baby talk for a while, mindlessly running my hands through his shaggy fur. God, what a day. I sat on the floor, removing my heels, and resisted the urge to throw them out of the window. Gift from Leah, gift from Leah, I muttered under my breath as I put them away in the hall closet.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dialed Leah’s number, who picked up before the first ring. I reassured her, told her I was home, safe, and tired. As soon as she started taking her usual gossip-y tone, asking about Vlad, I bid her good night, and hung up on her crystalline laugh.

I dragged my feet to my bedroom, throwing the jacket on my desk chair.  I grumbled as I tried to unzip my dress. God, who decided to make clothing you can’t take off by yourself ? Rich people, probably. Or people in a relationship. As I finally succeeded to pull the tab down, I heard knocking on my window. A panicked scream escaped my mouth as I noticed the dark silhouette standing on the emergency staircase, outside. Him, again. I sighed, and climbed over my bed to open the window a crack.

“What the hell do you want now ?”, I barked at him.

“You forgot your briefcase”, he told me, holding it up for me.

“Oh. Thanks.” I hesitated before opening the window wider. “This is not an invitation.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it”, he smiled as he passed me the worn leather bag. “Although, if you still need help with your dress-”

“Get out of my balcony.”

I could swear he winked before he disappeared. By that I mean, literally vanished. I leaned out of the window, and felt a soft stroke against my cheek, and a bat, flying off. Well. Something to add to the list. I closed the window, and sat back on my mattress. Sleeping was going to be a challenge, tonight.

~ - ~ - ~

The sound of my alarm dragged me from sleep. Buried in my thick duvet, head incased in my pillows, I groaned for a good minute before I found the energy to set my phone off. Outside, everything was still dark, which made getting up that much harder. Zardoz meowed in indignation when I had the nerve, the hubris to move him from my legs, where he’d spent the night.

My hand felt sore, and I figured I had to redo the bandages, if only to assess the damage. It wasn’t too bad, two cuts to my palm, and one across my thumb, the rest being small, superficial scrapes. I disinfected the whole, and carefully placed fresh bandages, making sure I’d be able to actually use my hand this time.

I dragged myself to the kitchen, and the sacrosanct bean juice machine. It did make disgusting coffee, but then again, I was very much used to it. As it rumbled, having the whole table vibrating, I served His Royal Majesty his morning dose. This time, I set it into a training ball, so that he’d have minimal exercise. God, I could barely picture the sorry state I’d found him in. A small, half dying kitten, at the corner of my building, now a year and a half ago. His harrowing mews of distress attracted me, and after a significant amount of vet bills, he was mine. Leah had the idea for his name, as we were in a weird movie binge-watch party, and Sean Connery’s red underwear made some lasting impression of us. By that, I mean she almost choked to death laughing.

Bringing my cup back to my bedroom, I threw some clothes on, and slipped my feet into my boots. Thursdays were usually not that busy for me, but my absence during the seminar meant I had to catch up on some classes, both to my dismay and that of my students. I finished my coffee with a wince. The things we do for energy. At least, wasn’t coke. I checked the contents of my briefcase, wrapped a scarf around my neck, and was out, but not before a final kiss on Zardoz’s belly, who endured with minimal complaints.

Greeting Mrs. Mills, checking her mailbox way too early as she always did, she asked if I had any breakfast, and cursed at me when I answered by the negative, as she always did. And as I always did, I wished her a good day, before storming out. I climbed down the stairs, checking my watch for the next train, and froze as soon as I raised my head back up.

“What the hell are you still doing here ?”, I exclaimed, my voice coming out a bit more squeaky than I would have liked.

“Good morning to you too”, the Count cheerfully replied, handing me a paper bag.

“What’s that ?”

“Oh, don’t sound so suspicious, it’s breakfast”, he sighed.

Squinting at him, I took the bag, and peeked inside. Warm, buttery looking croissants.

“I didn’t know what to pick, I went for ‘timeless classic’. Is that alright ?”

He seemed to genuinely care. I sighed.

“What isn’t alright is you standing at my front door at six thirty in the god forsaken morning. The croissants are fine.”

“Well, perfect then !”, he exclaimed. “Come on, I’ll drive.”

He opened the passenger door once again.

“What do you mean, you’ll drive ? I’m going to class. I don’t have time for whatever shenanigans you have planned.”

“I know, I’m driving you there.”

Knowing I wouldn’t win this argument, being still half asleep and on an empty stomach, I threw my head back, sighed, letting out a “FINE” that seemed to satisfy him, as I slipped into the car. He sat behind the wheel, my university’s address already in the GPS. Worried me a little. How much exactly did he know ? Was it all in my blood ? Gods, that would be very telling of my academic situation. I leaned back onto my seat, deciding that if I had to put up with him, I didn’t need to make conversation.

“Are you angry, for some reason ?” He really did seem puzzled.

“Dear Lord, you actually have no idea, do you ?”, I sighed.

“I thought it would be gallant.”

“In the twenty-first century, waiting for a woman you barely know, whom you tried to murder a few months ago, is considered a bit creepy, my guy.”

He remained silent, excluding an outraged mouthing of “my guy”, which almost sent me in a fit of laughter.

“Maybe you will have to ‘update’ me on your modern manners, then”, he proposed after a short silence.

“Yeah, maybe.”

What in the goddamn fuck was happening. Three days ago, I had nightmares about the guy, and he was now my glorified chauffeur. Well, not that it really did much for the lingering feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.

“So, did you just wait in front of the building, hoping I’d come out eventually ?”

He laughed. “Would you call me a stalker again if I did ?”

“Obviously.”

“Then no.”

I had to say, he was a little funny. Not that I would admit it under torture, but still. The sky started to take a pink color, lighting the few clouds in bright orange.

“You don’t burn in the sunlight. What’s up with that ?”, I asked.

“I don’t sparkle either, if you want to know.” He didn’t let me enough time to react to the terrible implications of that sentence. “Maybe it’s easier to believe you are only unsafe in the dark.”

I sat back, watching the first rays of sunlight come through the windshield, giving his eyes an almost silver color. I noticed a soft smile form on his lips. He wasn’t horrible to look at, when he wasn’t in a bloodthirsty frenzy. A sharp profile, that commended authority, high cheekbones, and a strong jaw. His hair was still long, in controlled, soft waves, mostly slicked back, except for a few strands, falling casually in front of his face.

“Lady Cetero, you will have me blushing soon”, he teased.

Ah. Fuck. “I don’t like you clean-shaven. It looks weird.”

He laughed, and I turned my eyes to the road, trying to ignore the rising heat to my face. Curse me for blushing so easily.

“I’ll let it grow back, then”, he told me, almost apologetic. Soft.

I shifted further into the leather seat, a smile forcing its way to my lips. “Hrm.”

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Taglist : @carydorse @angelicdestieldemon @bloodhon3yx @thewondernanazombie @battocar @moony691 @mjlock @thebeautyofdisorder

[neighborhoodmoonchild]

Music To My Ears (Jin x Siren!Reader)

Genre: Supernatural Au, College Au, Fluff, Angst

Warnings: Explicit language (just a bit), whole lotta angst, brief mentions of suicide, story also goes back and forth from Jin’s to Y/N’s POV, Fluuuufffff

Word Count: 9K, lets goooo

“What about Jiwoo?”

“No way.”

“There’s that girl from my psych class, Dae?” Jin scoffed and shook his head furiously.

“Anyone that shares a class with you Joon is a no-go. I want simple and easy, not a therapy session on why I’m ‘afraid’ of commitment.”

Joon shakes his head with a light chuckle, “Maybe you should be asking yourself that question.”

Jin laughs at his friend like he’s the funniest thing in the world, when Joon knows very well he’s not.

“Easy, I’m not afraid, I just don’t need a girlfriend right now. Monogamy is boring.”

Yoongi pulls his headphones off completely this time and turns to the two idiots taking up all the space on his bed, “Then why even bother with girls at all. Try flying solo for a while.”

That earns him a long, exaggerated eye roll.

“Because Yoongles, a man has needs.” If there was one quality Jin didn’t have, it was subtlety.

Being the most popular, handsome, and eligible guy on campus (self-coined, in case you couldn’t tell) was both a blessing and a curse. The pressure to pursue and please was insurmountable, and while Jin enjoyed a good challenge, he just wanted to relax and have some harmless fun while he could.

College wouldn’t last forever, and the endless pool of easy, available, no-strings-attached hook-ups died along with it, so Jin made it his mission to make the best of his last year here.

Only rule: girls in his dorm? OFF LIMITS. He made that mistake first year, and he still gets the stink eye from Yeri every time he goes to wash his clothes, and don’t even get him started on the various times the lights just “happened” to go out while he was taking a shower.

Everyone else is fair game and no repeats allowed. Some would call him a player, but he prefers opportunistic. I mean, campus is just serving him all of these gorgeous women on a silver platter, so what’s he supposed to do?

A painful groan breaks Jin from his thoughts, his attention flicking to the dark haired man now leaning so far back in his chair, it might just snap in half.

“Look, all I’m saying is that nothing good can come from your little ‘quest,’ ok?”

A snort from the eldest causes Yoongi to spin around and chuck his notebook at him, exasperation clear on his face.

“Except everything about it. No feelings, no mess, just fun.”

“Just because you don’t acknowledge the mess, doesn’t mean it’s not still there,” Yoongi counters, earning silence from his friends.

Jin ponders for a moment. Sure, sometimes he picked the wrong target and things got a little weird, but it couldn’t be that bad, right? It’s not like they didn’t know what they were getting into with him, he’s a pretty open book, ask anyone.

Then again, it’s not like he stuck around long enough to really gauge the outcomes, and to be honest, he doesn’t think he will be for a while. It may seem selfish, but come on, it’s not like any of these girls aren’t getting anything out of it, and he sees how some of them walk around all high and mighty afterwards. If anything, they’re using him just as much as he’s using them. Why not play the game if it’s a win-win?

The conversation on that dies out as quickly as it came, and after laughing about Joon’s mishap with his zipper in Physics for a solid 30 minutes, Yoongi gets fed up and kicks them out so he can finally study.

The walk back to his room is uneventful. His dorm is rather quiet at night, all the partying and adult shenanigans happens in Seo Hall or down the street at Phi Beta Nu. Jin loved a good kegger as much as the next guy, but the betas are just too stuck up their own asses you have to be fully inebriated to have any fun.

As he rounds the hall, he sees a slight steam sweep through the doorway to the communal bathrooms. If he were up to it, he totally would’ve messed with whoever was in their so late at night, but after the conversation with Yoongi and Joon, he couldn’t bother.

Usually his friends would be excited or at least fake being into his dumb conquests, but he could tell they were starting to worry about him. Jin wasn’t always like this, looking for easy and replaceable love, but after his girlfriend of almost 2 years broke up with him before they both started junior year, he just didn’t see the point in the long-term when it would all just fall apart in the end.

Jin was tired of putting in so much time and effort only to get slapped in the face and his heart ripped in two. No, the easiest way to protect your heart from breaking was to pretend you didn’t really have one, or at least use a fake while the real one is hidden away.

‘Love’ everyone but truly love no one.

Suddenly, he’s stopped just beyond the bathroom doorway, a sweet and soft voice dripping from the warm and damp air like fresh honey for only him to savor. It wasn’t uncommon for people to belt it out when they were alone in the shower, but this was something so uniquely and incredibly different, it pulled him in without any resistance.

Jin was not a pervert by any means, he’s always respectful and gentlemanly when it counted, and he knows it certainly doesn’t look that way as he carefully tiptoes through the doorway to find the source of the melody turning his insides to jelly and making his heart beat a little faster than normal.

Jin knew, he KNEW, this was a bad idea, but something inside him just told him to keep going. He could pinpoint the exact stall it was coming from, could almost see her outline through the curtain, when the singing stopped.

So lost in his haze, Jin didn’t even realize he knocked over an empty caddy by one of the stalls, causing a light bang, and indicating to the mystery girl that she was no longer alone.

Before he could process what was happening, Jin was out of the bathroom as fast as lightning, the sound of her curtain ripping open spurring his feet to move faster. He was out of there and hiding behind the corner like a crazy person, praying to God he wasn’t found out.

Jin had never ever done something like this before, and he was hoping the first time he messed up would not be the time he got caught.

The water now off, he could hear her footsteps as she slowly peeked out from the doorway, searching for the suspect. Jin’s heart beat so loud he was scared she’d find him by that alone.

It was quiet for a moment, and Jin let himself sneak a peek past the edge of the hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of this mystery girl. To his surprise, all he got was a flash of hair, the red color tinting her cheeks, and the fluffy pink of her robe as she quickly made her way down the hall towards her room.

He didn’t want to keep watching, anxious she’d feel his eyes and turn back and see him, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. Her stature, the curve of her body, the sway of her hair against her shoulders and back, it was so mesmerizing, and he could not for the life of him get her voice out of his head.

After she was locked away in her room, Jin began his retreat to his, only looking back once in the direction of her door.

‘No dorm mates, remember that,’ he repeated in his mind, over and over and over again. But no matter how hard he tried to hear that like a mantra in his mind, her voice was louder than any thought he could provide.

-

You were still a bit paranoid after last night. You lived in a dorm for heavens sake, and a coed one at that, of course other people would be in the bathroom. Usually, you waited late enough for everyone to be either gone partying, studying, or on the rare occasion, sleeping.

After all, you didn’t see anyone, it was probably just your brain making things up thanks to too many late nights binging horror flicks.

Still, you couldn’t help feeling wary. You rarely break your ‘no voice’ rule, but you just couldn’t help yourself sometimes. You missed letting the notes and melodies fall from your lips, no matter how dangerous it could be.

Late night showers with the water masking the sound became the only way you were able to take a break from playing mute. You didn’t like lying to people, but you just couldn’t risk it.

Not after what happened last time.

With your backpack strapped safely to your back and arms cradling your notebook, you cautiously made your way to class. You made it a habit of trying to avoid eye contact with everyone all together. Sometimes even a look could draw them in, so pushing everyone away was best.

Of course, this was nearly impossible to do as a student, but you learned ways to keep it at bay. Hide yourself in as many layers as you could, don’t wear anything eye-catching, keep your head down, and never stay too long.

You even requested a room to yourself, in fear a roommate would stir up unnecessary trouble, and you wanted to get through college as incident-free as possible after first year.

Of course, all of these precautions didn’t stop the trouble all together. When you first came to school, people, especially guys, were all over you. They’d cast the shy card, the innocent card, and when you wouldn’t fall into their traps, they’d casted you out all together.

The shy girl everyone wanted became the prude people avoided.

Albeit it was a bit lonely at times, you remembered that you weren’t here to make friends, you were here to get an education. On you couldn’t get where you were from, and one you had fought fiercely to obtain.

You weren’t going to let that be ripped away from you by a little bout of loneliness.

You made it to class with a few minutes to spare, your notebooks and pencils taking their places sprawled across your desk as you awaited instruction.

Class went by slower than usual, and you couldn’t help but feel like someone was watching you. You weren’t a stranger to wandering eyes, but they usually lost interest rather quickly. This time, however, you could tell every time they’d wander back to you, and you knew better than to indulge and find the culprit.

Instead you ignored it, trying hard to focus on the lesson, and then suddenly, class is over and you realized you missed the assignment.

After waiting a few minutes for people to clear out, you made your way down to the professor, one you’d met plenty of times before, and began to sign.

Learning sign language was a skill that helped tremendously. Suddenly, you went from racing to write your thoughts out on paper, to being able to have sort-of easy flowing conversations when needed. Most were more than happy to accommodate you, bringing in an interpreter and some even knew a few basic signs to talk with you. For the the less forgiving ones, you still carried around your pad and pen.

You asked him if he would repeat the assignment due for next week, hands a bit shaky. You weren’t the best, but it was understandable. He happily obliged, and you took down the information on your planner.

After thanking him, you turn to head out, when a pair of eyes meet yours.

-

Jin couldn’t even escape this girl in his dreams. Suddenly, her voice echoed through every cavity of his brain, the image of her hair flowing as she walked down the hall distracting him from his daily tasks.

Now he was on the verge of being late for class and he couldn’t help but blame the girl a bit. He knew he was just being petty, but how could someone like her have evaded him for so long? How had he not noticed her before?

He was a charmer, a magnet for girls like her, so how had she slipped right through his fingers? Jin admittedly was more interested in the mystery right now than the girl herself, but he seemed that they are one in the same. After all, he couldn’t really be interested in someone he had never met before. And he didn’t even know why he was so taken in the first place.

Jin now made it his new mission to find out who this girl was, whether she wanted to be  found or not. He needed answers; why was she up so late? Why did her voice effect him so? Why had he never seen her before now?

When he finally stumbled into Psych, he never expected he’d find his suspect so soon. Yet, there she was, a few rows ahead of him, hair pushed behind her ears, supplies all laid out before her, and he didn’t mean to, but all he can do is stare.

How fate had lined this up so perfectly for him and what he did to deserve it, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that now that he could see her properly, in the daylight and not hiding behind a corner, the beating of his heart sped up so fast he was sure he might have a heart attack right there.

After intensely staring at her for a few seconds, he could sense the change in her demeanor, knew she could tell he was staring. He tried multiple times to pay attention to the lecture, but he just couldn’t seem to hold his focus on anything accept her.

He desperately did not want to make her feel uncomfortable, yet he could tell that’s exactly what he was doing. He could slap himself for it, now she’d never give him the time of day.

Jin spent so much time going back and forth with himself over what to do, he didn’t realize class had already come to a stop and people were filing out. As he snapped himself out of it, stuffing his things back into his bag, he saw that girl get out of her seat.

The bounce of her hair when she walked towards the professor made his stomach do flips, but he pushed the feeling aside to be reasonable. Was she pretty? Yes. Was he attracted to her? As much as you can be to a stranger, he guesses.

He watched as she rose her hands, moving them quickly albeit shakily, and the professor responded to her, giving her the notes for the assignment, which she quickly jotted down.

Now, that was interesting. Why was she using her hands to communicate when she could’ve just spoken to the professor? Jin was even more intrigued than he was before.

Just as he was about to leave them to it, she turned around, instantly locking eyes with him. Jin wasn’t sure what to do. Does he say hi? Pretend it never happened and flee? But before he could choose an option, you were already on your way towards him.

-

You weren’t planning on confronting him, but he was conveniently still there, standing, staring.

You’d never seen this boy before, but then again, you never made it your mission to remember names and faces. After all, they would never be permanent.

This time, however, something stirred inside you. A feeling like fate, maybe, wanted you to take initiative just this once.

You couldn’t pinpoint what exactly in him drew you forward, to believe that this was all okay and that you weren’t making a big mistake again.

Maybe it was the way his warm brown eyes seemed to grow when you caught his gaze.

Perhaps it was his lopsided smile as he internally decided what to do.

Good looks were something that obviously came naturally to him, but it wasn’t that.

No, you could feel something different emanating from him.  

A hidden warmth so purely good you couldn’t help but let it pull you in, no matter how scarily quick it was causing all your protective walls to crumble to the ground.

Stopping just in front of him, you tilt your head a bit to the side, questioning.

He just stares for a moment, realizes what he’s doing, and quickly plays it off cool, his hand coming to scratch the back of his neck.

“Hi, um, my name’s Jin. Nice to meet you.” His hand shoots forward to grasp yours, fingers sliding against one another’s and then falls back to his side.

You take a minute to think. He probably doesn’t know sign language. Maybe I should get my pad out.

You reach in your bag for your paper, when he clears his throat.

“You can talk, right?” He asks, but his tone is edging more towards statement, like he already knows the answer.

You freeze. Lying to him felt wrong, more wrong than it did with everyone else, which was incredibly strange due to him being a complete stranger.

You retract your hands, and look back up at him, shaking your head no.

His expression turns to confusion, which you quickly mirror. It’s when he notices your face that he scrambles to explain.

“It’s just...” he takes a deep sigh, “I heard you. The other night.” He stops, looking into your eyes for understanding. You don’t get the hint, so he continues.

“I was walking back to my room last night, and I heard someone singing in the shower. Their voice was so beautiful. So I waited around a bit, and I saw you leave.”

You can feel the flush rise up through your cheeks, staining every inch of your face in utter embarrassment and fear.

How could you have been so stupid?

Shaking your head no so vigorously it might fall off, you quickly rush past him. You needed to get out of there. Create some distance; a LOT of distance. No way were you going to make the same mistake again.

Expecting him to just drop it, you’re surprised when his footsteps echo behind you.

“Wait, I didn’t mean to make you upset... I just-“ but before he could finish, you whip around, throwing your arms up, signaling him to stop.

You rip your pad and pen from your bag, and scribble out your frustration.

His eyes drop from yours to the pad in front of him.

“Just leave me alone. Please.”

You turn to leave, but he steps in front of you.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? Why can’t you just talk to me. I know you can.” He seemed almost upset with you. How could he be upset with you?!?

“None of your business. Goodbye.” You shove it in his face and once he’s flustered, you make your escape.

Making your way back to your dorm, fuming at the absolute audacity of this guy, you make a mental note to never trust yourself again when it comes to stupid feelings. I mean, how the hell you had felt any warmth in him was beyond you. How dare he act like he knows you. He doesn’t know a damn thing!

You were so caught up in mentally beating the shit out of this ‘Jin’ guy, you didn’t even notice him walk past you and go into his room just down the hallway.

-

“And then she just shoves her notebook in my face and walks off! What the hell?”

To say Jin is thoroughly aggravated would be an understatement.

He could deal with a girl just not being interested in him, whatever, but for a girl to make him feel stupid like that?

He wasn’t sure about a lot of things, but he was 100% sure that that girl was the one he heard singing in the bathroom the other night. He feels it in his bones.

“Well, you did basically accuse her of faking being mute or whatever.” Yoongi was only half painting attention to the conversation, once again mind clouded with all of the work he had to do. Jin could tell, but he was too frazzled to care.

Sure, he definitely could’ve handled the situation better, but everything about her made him nervous, and then she shuts him down, without so much as a second thought? She didn’t even know him for heavens sake, how could she treat him like he was just some douche?

“I didn’t mean to, I was trying to be nice, but she is just so frustrating. I didn’t demand she tell me her life story, I just know she can talk and I wanted to hear her voice again.” Yoongi ignored him, so Jin sighed as loud as he could and left the room.

As he was walking back to his room, he passed your door. He took a quick glance at the name sprawled across the little cut-out butterfly that the floor advisor made for all the tenants. Y/N.

Her negativity towards him should’ve deterred him, even stopped him all together. Oh, but that’s not how Jin works. Now he had even more of a reason to figure this Y/N out. He was going to get her to talk to him if it was the last thing he did.

In his room, he grabs his laptop and starts researching sign language. If she wants to play hard ball, I’ll learn the game.

Despite his love of simple and easy, Jin couldn’t resist this challenge, and he couldn’t help but feel like this was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

Forget one night stands, he wanted to, scarily enough, put in the work for this one. Something in his heart was telling him you’d be worth the effort.

He’d find a way to get to you, no matter how long or hard it’d be.

Jin understands having secrets and your right to keep them, but what could be so bad about a voice?

-

After as peaceful of a night’s sleep as you could get in a dorm, you had almost completely forgotten about the encounter with Jin yesterday. Keyword: almost.

It could’ve just been completely forgotten all together if he hadn’t been standing outside your door as soon as you walked out for class, an annoying smirk plastered to his smug little face.

You were startled, which only seemed to make his smile grow, as if annoying you made his entire day. The dynamic you two had developed over less than a full day of knowing each other was nothing short of absolutely insane. How could two complete strangers suddenly be so ‘comfortable’ around each other?

Obviously Jin was more comfortable with you than vice versa, considering he went from listening to you in the shower, to confronting you in class, to now waiting for you outside your room. Either this guy is incredibly bold or incredibly stupid.

One glance might see a friend waiting outside your dorm to walk you to class. Another might see a stalker waiting for their prey. You knew Jin was just curious, it wasn’t something you hadn’t encountered before, so you entertained the thought that he just might lie somewhere in between those two extremes just to humor yourself.

He approached you, carefully, his demeanor shifting, softening, like he didn’t want to press you. Maybe he just has one of those faces that always looks annoying for some reason.

You prepared yourself to walk away, to shake your head, give him the finger, stomp on his foot, you don’t know, just something, anything to get him off your back.

He would probably say something incredibly ignorant without meaning too and you’d have to take it in one ear and out the other without taking it to heart. After all, you didn’t want to fight with him. You didn’t really want anything to do with him considering your history and his revelation about a few nights before.

But as you lifted your hand to back him off, he started moving his hands in a fashion you had become familiar with. You watched the motion of his hands, the shapes he creates, the orientation of his palms, and realizes he’s trying to sign to me.

This kid. This fucking kid, who you just met yesterday, one you had definitely gotten off on the wrong foot with, spent his night, which could’ve been used to party, study, whatever. He spent it on learning some sign language. He spent all night practicing signs so he could talk to you.

Not sure whether you should be flattered or frustrated that he now could technically talk to you in a way you couldn’t just blatantly ignore, you stood, mouth gaped as he continued to move his hands over and over again.

It was sloppy, obviously, but the idea was there. He never took his eyes from you, waiting for you to understand and respond.

“I’m sorry,” he signs, “can we start over?” The look on his face closely resembles regret. He was actually apologizing. A college guy apologizing for acting like a jerk? Well, this was a first.

You wanted to forgive him right away. Honestly, he was just being normal. It’s not his fault you had a secret. You knew you overreacted, but you honestly wanted to throw him for a loop first. See if he could keep up with you, if it would be worthwhile to indulge in conversing and learning about one another, even though it broke all of your rules.

This was the first real contact you’d had in a long time, and you kind of missed it now that you’d had a taste.

You desperately want to break into a stupid grin, but remain stoic, which sends a rigid chill through Jin. He’s nervous you won’t accept his apology. That you’d hate him forever and he’d never get to know you, the real you.

“Why should I?” It takes him a minute and you repeating it once more for him to finally understand what you’re saying. He’s not surprised, after all, you don’t know him, he doesn’t know you, there is no basis of trust established, and all you had was his bad impression from yesterday to go on.

He thinks, mulling over in his head not only a proper response, but how to sign it well enough you’ll understand.

“I don’t know,” he thinks again, “just a feeling we could be friends.” He chuckles a bit at his awful signing, which he can tell is as bad as he thinks just by the confused way your eyes move following his hands and face.

It was honest. No bullshit. No lines. He was telling the truth, a truth you knew and felt on your own. Something drew you to him, you could feel it from the moment you locked eyes with him. After what happened the last time you let yourself get too close to someone, you were eager to push this feeling away to avoid repeating old mistakes.

Something about this one, though, felt different. It’s like he wasn’t seeing the side of you that lured people in. He was seeing the side of you that just wanted to be normal. The you that could put up a cool, collected front but easily break it down with your stubborn, childish, annoying side.

The you that was usually so well hidden from the outside world. Jin brought out the real you, the human in you.

It was too much to ask of a stranger, yet here he was, putting in the work and then some, just for the minuscule chance you might accept him, let him into your world.

He wasn’t looking for much, he just wanted to know you. You seemed like this perfect, put together girl that could have the world wrapped around your finger if you wanted. Yet you blockaded yourself from the joys and wonders of life, and he wanted desperately to understand why. Not for selfish purposes, but because he could see that you were forcing yourself to stand alone.

After all, he is the complete opposite. He has the world wrapped his finger and he knew it, exploiting it and taking all it offered him. Compliments, opportunities, lovers, they were his for the taking and he happily indulged. He couldn’t see how you could have the same opportunity and blatantly ignore it.

He could tell you weren’t happy just by looking in your eyes. The way you avoided him and others, how you went straight from class to your unshared room. How long had you cut yourself off from the rest of the world?

Jin wanted to understand the why so he could figure out if there was a way to change your mind. To show you that life had so much to offer, so many wonderful things, that you’d want to open up, experience life in a way that would leave every day feeling better than the last.

The last thing he thought you needed was a ‘knight in shining armor.’ No, you didn’t need help, he could tell you were strong, but he did think you could use a sidekick of sorts along the way. A friend, someone who indulges sometimes too much in the joys of life. Who better to show you just how fun life can be? Now all he needed was for you to be willing to let him.

Again, it was a lot for him to ask of you, a stranger, but he figured it was worth a shot. Worst case scenario, you’d tell him to bug off and never talk to him again, but you didn’t exactly talk to him much as it is, so there was nothing really to lose.

You, on the other hand, had a lot to lose.

Your first year, you had ignored the warnings of your family against going to university. You’d been homeschooled all your life to protect you, they had said. Turns out, they were actually protecting others from you.

You’d been starved of non familial human interaction, so when this kind-hearted guy paid attention to you, it made you feel special. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as you thought.

Back then you’d known little about controlling your abilities. When you spoke, it naturally affected some people more than others. This guy had been so far under your spell, it quickly edged on dangerous.

You’d tried to break things off as carefully as possible, spare him the hurt as best you could, but he wouldn’t, no, couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

It got worse, and suddenly you found yourself sitting in a police station being questioned about his suicide and you vowed never again.

Never again would you hurt someone like that; would not only put someone else through that, but yourself as well.

Pushing people away kept them safe. You were dangerous.

And all of a sudden, this goofy, broad-shouldered idiot with a dopey smile comes crashing into your life and you can’t help but feel like you won’t be able to shake him even if you tried.

As long as you kept quiet, you figured, what was the harm in letting him hang around?

You let out an exasperated sigh, one that catches Jin’s attention as he eagerly awaits for you to sign something, anything.

“Fine. Forgiven.” Light glimmers in his eyes as he flashes you a big grin, happy with the verdict.

“Friends?” He adds, extending a hand for you to shake. You stare at his fingers, hesitant and nervous that a touch could even be a trigger. You slowly take his hand, and after finding no problem, shake.

“Do I have a choice?” You sign, and take his loud laugh and head shake as a big fat no, not that you were surprised.

He follows just behind you as you walk to class in silence, but he starts to move his hands again, and as you look over, you see, “Cool, can I copy your Psych homework?”

Instant regret.

-

Did you see that right? No way, maybe you missed something. You signal him to sign again.

“Are you Friday homework busy?” He doesn’t seem to catch on that what he said made no freaking sense whatsoever, so you sign ‘again.’

Jin rolls his eyes, repeating his hand motions for the third time, and you still can’t figure out what the hell he’s on about.

It’s been a few months since you’d started ‘hanging out,’ though 99% of the time it was Jin just following you around, watching you do homework or other mundane things, and asking you to let him copy your assignments when he couldn’t be bothered to do them himself.

It was something hard to get used to at first, but soon you found yourself falling into a rhythm with him. Suddenly he was a natural part of your every day, something you quickly looked forward too even though you you would never tell him that.

So after being around him for so long, you knew he could sign better than that. Usually he’d catch himself, laugh off the embarrassment, and let you help him get it right.

This, needless to say, was highly unusual.

Jin, on the other hand, found your confusion hilarious. He didn’t give it away that he thought as much, because he was doing it on purpose after all.

After spending a few months with you, he’d noticed how quickly you placed him into your routine. As much as he enjoyed that, he wanted to change it up. He learned a lot about you, from the way you twirl your pencil when your bored, to the way you tuck your hair behind your ears when you’re embarrassed. Even your cute ugly laugh when he does something stupid.

He loved all those things, loved that you share them with him, but you were still hiding a part of yourself, and Jin was determined to find it and uncover it. He just wants you to be completely, wholly, and unapologetically you, because to him, nothing could be better.

To say he became quite infatuated with you with every new discovery would be an understatement. He felt like a lovesick puppy sometimes, and all he wanted was to hold you in his arms and tell you dumb jokes to make you smile.

Of course, you probably only thought of him as a friend, and Jin was totally fine with that. He was just happy that you’d accepted him at all, and he wasn’t about to ruin that over what was probably just a silly crush.

So, Jin had come up with this ‘clever’ plan to get you to actually talk to him. With everything he’s learned about you, he knew how impatient you could be, especially when frustrated.

If he signs so bad you can’t understand him, you’ll quickly get fed up and open your mouth, considering you’d caught yourself almost doing so numerous times before. While Jin was also very anxious about stirring up your wrath, he thought it would most likely be worth it in the long run if he could get you to speak.

And you were quickly falling into his trap.

How in the hell was he not seeing that his structure was making zero sense? You try to sign to him, tell him to knock it off, but he just looks at you confused. He knows these signs so why is he acting like he doesn’t understand you?

You could feel a few wandering eyes, knowing fully well that they were getting a laugh out of your charades session with Jin. You could feel the heat creep up your neck, and you wanted so badly to tell him to piss off, stop messing with you, to cuss him out.

You bit your tongue for as long as you could, but the dam finally collapsed, your fist flying into his shoulder.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Quite being an asshole!” You whisper shout at him, and the cheering erupts in Jin’s mind, confetti cannons bursting, a song of victory playing on loop.

He couldn’t help the smile that quickly took over his face, no matter how intense your death glare was. He wanted to lunge forward and hug you, for you to say something again.

He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he was dying to hear his name drip from your lips, no matter the context.

“Sorry, what was that?” He prodded, softly punching your shoulder back.

Rolling your eyes, you tense at the realization you just spoke out loud. What the hell were you thinking? That was just it, you weren’t.

Your hand flies to cover your mouth, not wanting to make eye contact with Jin. You didn’t know what to expect except the absolute worse, and when he rests his hand on your knee, you look up.

His expression is sympathetic, “You know, you don’t have to be scared to talk to me.” His voice is low as to not scare you.

You search his eyes for a telltale sign that he’s affected. Usually, their eyes turn a bit hazy, but his were clear as day.

Considering you’d just cut yourself off from people as best you could, you weren’t sure if there was a possibility there were people out there that couldn’t be affected. Obviously others like you weren’t, but you could tell when you were near another sea-born, almost like a telepathic bond you had with your kind.

Jin was an enigma to say the least.

The fear that coursed through your veins subsided a bit, and it was slowly replaced with a building excitement. You might have found someone, a human none the less, that you could finally speak to. Your time of solitude might have finally been over.

Jin was scared to say anything else. He thought maybe he’d pushed you to far, been unfair, and built a new barrier between the two of you. It was when he saw the smile crawl onto your face that he realized he might have just cracked you right open.

Seeing that smile, one full of potential and excitement he didn’t quite understand, was like caffeine to the butterflies in his stomach. His heart raced a mile a minute, a warmth coursing through his veins filling him with an energy he’d never known before.

Now this was something he could get used to.

What he wasn’t expecting was for you to lunge forward and wrap your arms tightly around his neck, taking him a second to pull himself from the shock to return the hug.

“You wanna go somewhere and talk?” He asks, and your eyes light up.

You pull him up from his seat in the library, heading towards the dorms nodding your head.

“By the way,” you start, Jin following close behind you. You turn your head to look over your shoulder at him, a smirk on your face, “I know you did that on purpose, Jin.”

He knows he should’ve been worried by the tone behind your words, but once his name left your lips, that was all he could focus on the whole walk to your room.

-

“Never? Like, never ever?” Jin’s face contorts in amused surprise. He’d been questioning you for the past hour about everything under the sun, from childhood pet trauma to inappropriate crushes.

You roll your eyes, though a giggle escapes your lips, “No, I’ve never ever thought of a teacher that way.” You hold his pillow tighter to your chest as he falls over the end of his bed, clearly exasperated and not believing you for a second.

“There’s no way. There are at least, like, 3 of your professors that are, objectively, sexy as hell and you’re telling me you’ve never thought about?”

You shake your head, “Nope, not once.” The laughter easily flows from your lips as he gets frustrated.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say.” He smirks at you, and you pretend to get defensive.

“What, and you have?” That sends him over the edge in giggles, rolling around the bed, causing the whole thing to shake, including you.

He lifts himself up and stares at you, “Of course! I’m a normal, healthy man aren’t I?” You’re not sure how to respond without laughing and making him question himself, so you just playfully smack his arm and agree.

“Fine, fine. I guess I’m just a weirdo then.”

“Amen to that!” He bounces, smirking at you, earning himself another slap. He fakes hurt and snatches the pillow from your arms, pouting.

“I may be a weirdo, but you’re just a big baby.” Your hand caresses through his brown locks, his eyes peeking from the edge of the pillow, the smile in them giving himself away.

Being able to talk to each other out loud opened many new doors for the two of you in the weeks that followed. It was exciting to get to know someone on an intimate level like this, without fear of it going south the way it had before.

It was, surprisingly, normal. The most normal you had felt in a long, long time.

Suddenly you had someone to share your thoughts and feelings with, even the most mundane of them. Friendship unlocked this whole new side of yourself you’d never experienced before.

Jin felt the same way. He didn’t realize how he was just blowing through life like it was nothing until he met you. Every minute was spent finding something new he cherished about you, instead of wasting it away with childish things like he had in the past.

He found new meaning in every day, spending more time living and having fun with you, rather than complaining about his trials and tribulations to Namjoon and Yoongi (which they were utterly grateful to you for).

You both had something to look forward to every day; each other.

In the beginning you thought you were total opposites bound for failure. Jin was this upbeat, extrovert with a wild side. You were the quiet, introvert scared of human interaction.

Turns out you both just needed a nudge to find there was more in common there than you thought.

You both could be loud, stubborn, silly, and an absolute mess.

Could be quiet, modest, and hide yourselves away.

Both could be intense and emotional, but there for the other no matter what.

Jin was the yin to your yang. You could be whatever the other needed at any specific moment in time.

You both didn’t want to admit it to each other quite yet, but he was your best friend, the only person you wanted and needed, and vice versa.

You’d never experienced love before, didn’t know what it felt like or what to expect, but you believed in your heart it had to be something like this.

As you get up off the bed to put your shoes on and head back to your room, his hand wraps gently around your wrist. It’s late, the light of the moon seeping through his blinds, and he can’t help but admire the way it lights up your face as you turn to look at him.

“Stay?” He asks, and you don’t even have to answer.

Cuddling up to each other under the multitude of blankets covering his bed, you can’t help but truly feel at peace for the first time in your life, with your head laying on his chest, the steady thrum of his heartbeat echoing through your ears as you both fall asleep.

-

You stayed in bed all day. Didn’t answer your phone when it went off, didn’t answer the door when he knocked, just stayed wrapped in your blanket, eyes focused on the clouds beyond your window.

It was the third anniversary of the incident. You didn’t know what else to call it. Black clouds hung over you, and the feeling like everything you had built with Jin would crumble the same way cast them harsher overhead.

You hadn’t even told him about it yet, amazed he had never once pushed you to do so either. Jin was curious by nature, but he knew some things about your past were off limits, and he respected that.

That didn’t stop him from worrying about the distance lately. You are his best friend, and you spent a majority of your time together. So when that came to an abrupt halt the day before, he desperately wanted to find out why so he could help pull you out it.

He missed you, and he hated knowing something was wrong that he couldn’t fix.

You were just about to pull yourself up to make a cup of tea when a loud series of knocks came from your door. You figured it was probably Jin again, but when they got harsher and faster, you decide to check just in case.

The mug you cradled in your hands fell to the floor, a light crash sounding out as it cracked into pieces.

“Shit.”

You picked them up as quickly as possible, tossing them to the trash and returning to the door.

A cold rush bled through your veins, a violent churn brewing in your stomach as you opened the door.

You didn’t even have time to prepare yourself before she was in your face, visibly distressed.

Her brown hair the same as it had been that day she locked eyes with you as you were escorted from the station, watching an officer hold her as back as she tried to go after you.

You thought she’d given up on crucifying you, or at least tried to. You never expected after three years for her to show up in person, eyes blazing in search of vengeance.

“I heard you’ve lured some new victim into your trap, where is he? Or have you already strung him up like you did Jay?” She spit, venom lacing every syllable.

You didn’t have much of a choice, so you moved away from her assault, giving her full access to search your room.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Look, Lia, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I’m sorry.” You keep your voice soft as not to stir the pot, but it doesn’t help. She’s visibly enraged and nothing was going to change that.

She pauses her search to rush you, get in your face, causing you to retreat, but she holds you in place like a rag doll.

“I won’t ever accept your apology. You killed my brother you bitch,” her grip on your arms tighten, causing you to wince.

“If you think, even for a second, that his death wasn’t all because of you, then you’re fucking thick. If it wasn’t for you, he’d still be here!” She choked, tears streaming down her face.

Paralyzed. You felt nothing, not the warm tears on your cheeks, the grip of her hand on your arm, the sharp sting as the other made contact with your face. Even as she left and a new figure entered your line of vision, you stood there; empty.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Jin wants to reach out for you, but is scared it might make things worse. It’s when you collapse in his arms he lets the breath he’d been holding in out, wrapping his arms around you, cradling you tight as you cry.

He’d never seen another person talk to you, let alone assault you like that girl just had. He was still processing everything that happened, and couldn’t help but wonder how far it would’ve gone if he hadn’t shown up.

A few minutes later, he’s holding you cuddled up in a blanket on your bed as the crying subsides.

Jin wants to ask what the hell happened, who that girl was, and why you just stood there and let her hurt you? There was no way in hell you could’ve done anything to deserve that outburst.

He peeks down at your tear stained face, red and wet snuggled into his chest. His heart felt like it was being crushed inside of him. Seeing you in such a state physically hurt him.

He hears you sniffle and looks down to see you peering up at him through wet lashes.

“I have to tell you something.”

-

Out of every possible thing you could’ve told him, this was not even in the realm of things he could’ve expected.

He was still trying to grasp the whole ‘siren’ thing, which should’ve sent him running for the hills, but the way you explained what happened with the guy first year, then the incident with his sister a few hours earlier, he didn’t think he could just walk away.

His mind and heart were in a battle, one choosing sanity and the other choosing you. The way you refused to look him in the eyes as you spilled your darkest secrets cast a heavy sadness onto him. He not only felt the pain from your words, but the pain you were feeling.

He knew he should’ve ran to comfort you, hold you, tell you it’d be alright and that it wasn’t your fault.

But a dark thought kept him rooted to his seat across the room from you.

What if it was?

He didn’t want to think this way, to believe that you could be behind something so horrible, but with the revelation of your ‘affliction’ his mind couldn’t help but wonder there.

You said it left people feeling like there was no other way. Like they were forced to pine for you, to long for you, until they couldn’t take it any more.

He’d heard stories of creatures from the sea that lured men to their deaths. Now he was face to face with one, and he was torn between the you he knew and the you he read about.

The horrid thought that everything he felt for you was all a trick made him sick to his stomach, and he couldn’t bring himself to look at you.

The last thing he wanted to do was hurt you, but once that thought took hold, he couldn’t break free from it.

He needed air, space, time to think.

All of this meant walking away from you.

A part of you knew it from the way his face dropped as you snuck a peek from the corner of your eye. It didn't stop the sinking feeling that you once again ruined everything.

You didn’t even bother looking at him as he left, missing the horrible attempt at a fake smile as he went, slightly shaking.

As Jin closed the door behind him, you both let a few tears free fall, crying for everything you had built together as it all came crashing down.

You didn’t care about Lia, the incident, anything. You just wished you’d never come here, met Jin, and hurt him. He deserved better than a monster.

And a monster is all you’d be.

-

“I’m just happy you’re finally coming home sweetheart. Your dad and I miss you.” A pathetic little smile formed on your lips, holding the phone with your shoulder as you finished packing the last things into your suitcase.

“I miss you guys too. See you in a few hours.” You set your phone down and cross the room to grab the book you’d been reading and shove it in your bag.

Christmas break finally arrived to relieve you of the dragging of classes and stuffy dorm. It’d been a while since you’d found time to go home, but you realized this was something you needed.

To get away.

It’d been over a month, and you quickly fell back into your old habits. Class, room, nothing in between. You dropped Psych, avoiding Jin at all costs, although he’d figured he’d done his best to avoid you as well.

The warmth that had taken up space in your previously empty life had fled as quickly as it came. You didn’t talk to anyone, you didn’t sign to anyone, you took on extra classes to finish early. You wanted to be done. You wanted to go home.

Luckily, you had the opportunity to take all online classes your last semester, so you would not be returning to the dorms in the spring. That chapter of your life was over, and even though you were sad to see it go, you knew there was nothing holding you here anymore.

The hassle of it all just wasn’t worth it.

Grabbing the few things you had left, the rest of which you had sold since you wouldn’t need it anymore, you made your way out of the room, locking it for the last time. Before you turned to head down the hallway, you took one last look down the hall to a familiar door.

You figured he’d probably already left for the holiday, since most of the dorms had. Not that it mattered, you wouldn’t speak to him and he wouldn’t speak to you.

Strangers once again.

The once resentment you harbored towards him for cutting you off without explanation was filled with sympathy. You couldn’t expect him to understand and accept you after everything that had happened. You wanted him to live a normal happy life, fall in love with a normal girl that would be good for him.

You couldn’t give him that and you had to accept that. In the end, you were happy with the time you did have together. He’d always be your best friend, no matter how much time and distance separated you.

You both harbored no ill feelings towards each other, it was just something that had to be done, something that was inevitable in your opinion. People like you and people like him just weren’t meant to be.

Grabbing the handle of your suitcase, you make your way down to the lobby to return your key and head to the train station before your train left.

Stepping out of the elevator, you see a familiar figure standing at the front desk, back towards you.

You could tell that brown hair from anywhere though, and you slowed your pace to give him enough time to leave.

Instead, he turns in your direction, a bag in one hand, an envelope in the other.

Your eyes meet, and you have half a mind to just keep walking, you could mail them the key once you were home.

He quickly blocks your path, however, eyes not leaving yours.

It’s awkward and intense and neither of you know what to say, or whether you should say anything at all. After a minute, Jin clears his throat, extending the envelope out to you.

You stare at it, and look back up at him as he shakes it, inviting you to take it.

“I wanted to leave you this before I went home, but since we’re here...” You take it from him, but as you are about to open it, he steps closer and lays his hand over yours.

He stares down at you, his expression soft, like it had been months before when he held you in his arms at night. You had missed that, so, so much.

“I-I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry,” he starts, a red tinge finding solace at the tips of his ears.

“I shouldn’t have left you like I did. I was just, scared. I didn’t know what to think about everything and I thought maybe I was being affected,” he cringes at that, voicing his thoughts of you possibly ‘controlling’ him made him feel like a dumbass, “I know, it was stupid and not fair at all. I just...” he pauses his rant, waiting for any hint of a reaction from you, but you stay silent, waiting for him to finish saying whatever was on his mind.

He takes in a deep breath, “I thought that everything I felt for you might not have been real. I got scared it was all in my head and I didn’t know what to do. But, I realized that everything about me and you was the only sure and real thing in my life. I missed the way you roll your eyes at me when I make dumb jokes, the way your noise crinkles up when your trying to understand something, the way you laugh obnoxiously when I do something stupid,” His hand moves forward to grasp yours as he continues his rant.

“I miss listening to you try to convince me that Spider-Man is the most earnest Avenger even though we both know he’s not,” that earns a crack of a grin despite the tears forming in your eyes. “I miss holding you close at night and hearing our heartbeats mix together in the open air as we fall asleep.”

Jin cups your cheek in his other hand, thumb sliding to wipe away a fallen tear. You lean into his hand, reminiscing in the feeling of his skin on yours.

“I miss you.” He says, his face inching closer to yours, your breaths mixing together between the two of you. You don’t know what to say, but luckily he takes initiative and slowly closes the gap between you.

A warmth envelopes both of you, spreading from your lips and seeping into every fiber of your bodies. The feeling of his lips against yours steals the air from your lungs and heightens every one of your senses. His hands find purchase on the small of your back, your arms curling around his neck to dispel any space between you.

The tension that releases from you is replaced with what you can only describe as pure love.

As you pull apart, Jin rests his forehead against yours, placing another kiss to your lips as you giggle.

“I’m sorry it took so long for me to figure out. I love you.” His smile spreads to yours and you rub the tips of your noses together.

“I love you too,” he leans in for another kiss, but you stop him, a smirk on your lips, “even though you most definitely are a dumb-ass.” He laughs, breathily and pulls you tighter to him.

“I deserve that. I’m your dumb-ass, though.”

You part ways to head home for break with the promise of seeing each other in a few days to spend Christmas together.

When you settled onto the train, you pulled the forgotten envelope from your coat pocket, taking the letter out that resided inside.

As the train began its journey, you read every word of the letter with warmth in your heart.

In detail, was every single thing about you he had fallen in love with.

He’d fallen in love with you; all of you.

And he’d never walk away again.

You’d never be alone again.

The End.

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

Hey Guys,

   First story is officially out! Hope I did you all and Mr. Worldwide Handsome justice. This ended up being longer than I originally anticipated, but I think it needed it to really set everything up. Also, if there are any typos or grammatical errors, feel free to let me know, I’m human, I make mistakes. Kicking off 7 Days of Halloween with a cute little Jin-ie love story, what could be better? I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Stay Spooky! More to come!

P.S. Sorry it’s a bit late, Tumblr is on the fritz and wouldn’t let me post it.

-Moonie🌙

[ofcloudsandstars]

IMBOLC was so MAGICAL!! Oh my goodness!!

It's a bit of a long story and I don't want to leave out too many details but I am so glad it all turned out more than ok!! I did not have enough time to put everything together easily and I had to whip up a ritual last minute and I was staying at a coworker’s BOUGIE apartment that is BEAUTIFUL and Ideal for an Imbolc setting (the color scheme is like all white, gray and cream with TALL ceilings, Huge french windows, fluffy white carpets, fireplaces I could put white pillar candles in, long sheer white curtains, you get the point lol) but literally I had a witch gathering party at his place while he was away and I had to make it look like nothing. ever. happened.. the next morning.

I bought these string candle-lights which everyone was laughing at how in theme it was but I strung some across window sills and over the fireplace that I've stuffed white pillar candles in. I stuck tea lights everywhere and found some silvery tealights at a corner shop that were "spa scented" which sounds weird but!! They smelled fantastic and made the space feel calmer. I topped those with sage leaves. I used vanilla incense sticks and this other scent called 'Divine' (that stamford masala incense brand you might see at every spiritual shop) that really elevated the space and made it feel calm and angelic. The whole apartment felt very angelic, light, white and fluffy. On their large screen TV I made a visual playlist on youtube of timelapse videos of nature thawing into spring and frost melting or flowers sprouting from the ground. I played a lot of winter meditative tracts and purifying binural beats.

I pulled strings to get out of work early so I could run to my coworkers place, feed his cats, and get to cooking!! I made a spread of cheese, (mostly brie), coconut cheese, cheese infused crackers and poppyseed crackers, black sable grapes and blueberries that I sprinkled silver bonbons in.

I prepared 3 tonics as a welcome drink that my witch friends could choose from to what potion will aid them for the seeds they are sowing and the cycles to come. They were syrups that were agave based and infused with herbs overnight. There was one for clarity to know what steps to take to achieve goals and that was an infusion of sage, juniper berries and rosemary. There was one for inspiration and sudden muse or creativity to help complete projects and that one was an infusion of valerian root, chamomile, blue poppyseeds and caraway seeds. (Seeds were also symbolic in this one lol), then lastly there was one for inner fire and a wake-up call to get the drive going to get tasks done. That was a black breakfast tea leaf with a sprinkle of pepper in it. They were mixed with Gin (gin being a juniper infusion actually has an interesting history with being used as a cleanser and medicine though its obviously not used that way anymore) and tonic so they were all really herbal and refreshing (non-alcoholic drinks were just gin-free) and they all had a pretty light golden clear color. The clarity one was the most popular though I wish I drank some of the wake-up call one myself.

For food I made baked macaroni and cheese with mozzarella, sharp cheddar, brie, sweet sauteed white onions, black pepper and truffle oil. The plant-based option was stuffed cabbage rolls made with this BEAUTIFUL cabbage I had no idea existed (it caught my eye in the store) called sweetheart cabbage. It was snow-white colored and each large leaf was somewhat heart-shaped. I stuffed it with a sauteed combo of white sweet onions, white mushrooms, chopped parsnips, cauliflower rice and coconut cheese. Lastly I made a salad of chopped fennel and the smaller leaves of the sweet heart cabbage and raw parsnips.

The whole table's food had a white and beige theme lol. We all caught up about our lives and ate food and coo-ed over the cats. When everyone arrived we got to the ritual which I dressed his coffee table in different tea lights and bigger candles. Since I am WIZENED from many previous disasters with candles on tables and witch shenanigans, I put SEVERAL covers on his glass coffee table which consisted of 1- bamboo mats, 2- a white blanket as table cloth (mostly for aesthetic) 3- a coat of aluminum foil 4- 2 layers of cream table cloths. Just to ensure nothing could damage his table.

I am not the biggest fan of leading ritual cause it feels uncomfortable to me to 'lead' everyone's energy but its nice cause this is the third sabbat in a row I've hosted and I guess my friends get the gist now so they all kind of contribute their own parts to it which is.. WHAT I WANTED IN THE FIRST PLACE lol. I take initiative to host sabbats or gatherings or create a community so sometimes people think I am a leader cause I am initiating something but honestly I just want to hold space for others. Anyway the ritual started off with us cleansing baggage from our previous cycle so we can move into the next one purified. I had a juniper bundle I bought in glastonbury that I smoke cleansed everyone with.

Then we spoke about what Imbolc meant for us and how its also reflective on the cycle of life and death when the spirit enters the womb and how seeds of life and hope are stirring. I asked them each to take a tea light and visualize it as a goal or project they wanted to accomplish for this year and to dress it in herbs and oils. I had sage for clarity, rosemary for abundance, blue poppy seeds for growth and inspiration, tea tree oil for protection etc and they could carve in symbols to their candle or whatever. When they were working on that I read everyone's spirit's incarnation crosses from their human design since I knew everyone's birth time lol. The incarnation cross uses some astrology to take into consideration the position of the planets during your third trimester when it’s believed that the spirit enters the body in the womb. It’s to illuminate what your spirit’s intention in this incarnation seeks to fulfill. 

Before we lit the candle my best witch friend took us on this AMAZING guided mediation that was so creative and visual and wonderful. We grounded ourselves but she took us on this story-telling guided meditation journey of us being deep in the earth and smelling the damp soil but having our goal be this light or seed within us that grows and expands until it pushes us up and out through the soil into the wintery forest air. I really felt like some reborn forest faerie sprite after that like she should record meditation podcasts.

We then lit our candles and we used the flame to light the biggest pillar candle as our combined hope and it lit ABLAZED. One of my friends couldn't get her candle to light and we did divination for her to find out what was blocking her and did a road opening spell for her so that she could overcome the obstacles.

After we wanted to do some candle scrying so another friend who does these amazing sound healing ceremonies (I went to glastonbury with her) lead the candle scrying and Y'all.. it was INSANE Like none of us were READY for the fucking adventure.. Basically we thought we'd all be staring into a candle in a trance quietly but it literally felt like something took hold of her like a greater spirit used her as a vessel and it was incredible. She told us all to hold hands and we closed our eyes and did some breathing. We all had to pulse each others hands and visualize a white thread locking us together for protection and creating a circle. She then called on to our higher guides to protect us and create this link to our higher spirits to open a channel so that we may see and allow the fire to guide us. She then was speaking so fast but also with such precision on how the light is opening a door and whatever we will see will help us unlock our true potential and see how we are the light etc for what felt like 6 minutes nonstop and it was so hard to stay on cause I had the WORST PAIN come up in the center of my back where my heart was and I was feeling like it was the culmination of energy being blocked (I have been doing sound healing there to help my heart energy but its been a rough journey), and the fire just felt like it could not channel through me cause of that blockage, but though the knot still hurts even as I type this, I could not break the circle lol. My best friend to my right was staring so intently I knew she was off like astral projecting into this fire, and as I would catch glimpses of others around me everyone was just like.. ON a Journey. I felt like it was like that scene in Harry Potter when they took the port key like we were all locked in and spiraling through time and space and I just had to wait until it was done. I looked at my friend to my right and she was beaming with TEARS covering her face, and my other friends looked windswept for some reason?? We were all like goddamn.. Everyone had Some Shit they've seen in the fire. Even if some of us didn't see something we saw a lot of colors which I mostly saw since I was really focused on the pain in my back. My friend leading the scrying said that the back area I pointed out was a channel that was blocked and is connected to my throat energy so once I fix that it can be aligned/opened but its like.. healing is so hard guys haha.

Anyway we grounded ourselves after the ritual with dessert! :) There was cheesecake (of course) I decorated with white chocolate star sprinkles and the same silver bonbon sprinkles and pavlova that could be topped with blueberries. I also had a cookie spread of butter cookies, white chocolate chip sugar cookies and white chocolate twix bars. The rest were mostly vegan desserts which were lovely. I bought coconut rice pudding but my other friends got vanilla cupcakes with thick white vegan buttercream, there was vanilla soy icecream that was really creamy and light and my aries witch friend I went to Berlin with made home made vegan tiramisu which was fantastic! She also bought red wine.

We spent the rest of the evening chatting, playing with the cats and laughing about whatever, my Aries witch friend was upset I made the dresscode all-white but she was wearing her 'artist' shirt she does painting in so she didn't care that she got tiramisu ALL OVER IT lol. (which we pointed out that no one else had stains on their white outfits but I mean she's an Aries what do you expect), and when we were all getting drunk and sleepy I asked my best witch friend if she wanted to tell a story and Oh My God she fucking DELIVERED

Basically she took us on this adventure retelling the story of Baba Yaga cause it was a tale that does also have to do with crone passing power to a maiden and a cycle re-continuing. Plus it's a midwinter tale involving fire and illumination. Anyway I used to think about how sad it was that back in the day people didn't have movies and had to like tell stories and shit but she was so good at telling this story I was like damn I get it now why people just used to sit around and tell stories together cause this shit is lit.

Before everyone left I forced people to take home food (I mean I had to get rid of all evidence of anything happening in my coworkers house) and I made everyone white paper lanterns with goodies inside and I stuck an electric tealight in it so it glows. I put a bathbomb in there, white chocolate, mint crumbles, buttermints for the non-vegans and tiny spell-jars filled with salt flakes.

When I was finally alone and had to do cleanup it took me nearly three hours but I was also drunk at that point lol. I now have left-over mac and cheese for days but gladly my aries witch friend is vegan and took the cabbage rolls with her and everyone helped take everything else.The cleaner came in the morning and essentially all evidence of anything ever occurring in that apartment was cleansed away...

I hope everyone else had a fantastic Imbolc!! It was on such a perfect moon phase too since it's the first quarter moon!!

[all-of-the-imagines-for-eve]

Red ~ Embry Call (Part 3)

A/n: Y’all still Alive? Good. You might not be after this.

Word Count: 4120

Losing him was blue like I'd never known; Missing him was dark gray all alone; Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met...

We walked for a long time, utter silence between us. It was heavy and thick, but not awkward. We left the beach altogether, moving to the street and then past, to the woods. We walked through the green a long while before I started getting nervous. Irrational fears began creeping in, eating away at my edges.

Was he going to kill me? Was he going to taunt me? Make fun of me? See how far he could push me until I snapped? Maybe he didn’t actually care about me or have his feelings back. Maybe this was a prank. Maybe that gang of his had turned him into a total ass. And a good liar. Maybe he was just seeing how far I would follow him before I realized he was pulling my leg. Maybe he was dragging me out far as I would let him before he took advantage of how vulnerable and exposed I was and took advantage of me and-

Okay there. I needed to calm down. 

I watched his arms swing, the steps he took. They seemed heavier, as he was more tired than I’d known him to be. He was never one to have the best sleeping schedule but it was regular and not too bad. Six hours every night, sometimes more. And... sometimes less. He seemed like he’d been getting a regular three or four these days. His shoulders sagged a bit. He was taller, more muscley. Maybe they’d had him getting up earlier and working out so he would be as fit as they needed for whatever shenanigans they got up to?

I imagined my Embry in a gang. Getting everybody to pull pranks or rough housing with the other boys. Sharing secrets and making friendships, his smile wide as his eyes found me with a soft smile on his face at the end of the day. I imagined him, without me by his side. Watching me from a distance, wanting me but for some reason never approaching me. I imagined him trying to be lose, good friends with people he didn’t know because for whatever reason he’d left all those close to him behind.

Yeah. It didn’t fit. He was awkward and often self conscious because he felt like he was really annoying, so though he was social and had quite a few acquaintances, he had two best friends and me. He kept his circle small and he liked it that way. The Four Musketeers. That way he could be as loud and immature and stupid and bothersome as he wanted and he knew that none of us would get genuinely, really bothered without telling him so.

Nothing made sense, and my curiosity finally became too much for me when I caught Embry’s arm. I immediately pulled back though, hissing as he turned to me with a surprised expression as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Embry, you’re hot!” He smirked and I glared. For a second we were ourselves again but then we quickly returned to the him and me we were now. “You know what I mean.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I guess here’s a good a place as any.” He huffed, nervousness rolling off of him in waves. He reached down and pulled his shirt off.

Spinning around, I covered my eyes. “WHOA!” My heart began racing wildly. “Embry put your shirt back on, NOW!”

Embry chuckled. “You’re acting as if you’ve never seen my shirtless before. I mean, you’ve seen me naked.”

To my horror, a burning blush was added to my fixation with his chest and how I didn’t truly realized how much muscle he’d gained until I could see every detail for myself. “Yeah, well...” I struggled, but just gave up and blurted, “That’s when we were having sex. We’re not having sex right now.”

Another chuckle and I wanted to slap him. “Y/n, turn around.”

“No,” I refused.

He sighed. “Y/n, please. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise, but I do have to show you something that you have to see for yourself for you to understand and believe me. Really understand and really believe me. Y/n please.” He was pleading, his voice full of worry and stress, and I couldn’t resist him. I turned, my hands dropping to my sides. The second I was looking, he took several steps back and then tensed.

And suddenly he was hunching, his body curling and rippling as he bent almost to breaking and then elongated, his bones themselves morphing into a new shape. It was horrible to watch as I worried he must be in an awful amount of pain, but before I could even finish the thought to call out for him or scream or race at him or anything, a wolf was standing where he had been and I had a whole new problem to worry.

My head was spinning wildly. A wolf? Embry... he was... a wolf? Wait what? My face was screwed up in confusion, and all I could think to feel was anger. But then it registered. Embry. Was a wolf. Oh my gosh! “Werewolf,” I whispered. He looked up at me, and the human like eyes of his threw me for a loop. I seemed to be working in slow motion, working through layers of honey to reach the conclusion I already had in my hands. “You’re a werewolf.”

Shook took over. Where fear or panic or anger would have taken place in other people’s places, all I felt was exploding curiosity. Energized and ecstatic. My body was itching as I moved closer to him, slowly but nowhere near as slow as I should have or would have approached a regular wolf. My hand moved through his fir after reaching out, my eyes widening as realizing finally hit me and pushed me through that finally string of shock.

I tackled him to the ground, straddling his side as I looked up him up close. He huffed in surprise, caught completely off guard as my hands wandered, touching his feet and then legs, side and fur and nose and ears. “Oh my gosh this is amazing. There are actual werewolves. You... you’re a werewolf. That is amazing! Absolutely splendid! This is why you left, of course. And.. the heat,” I realized, my hand resting between his ears as I paused, realizing. “Because you’re a wolf. Wolves, especially your size, radiate so much heat. That’s amazing!” Mindlessly, my hand began to move on his head, my fingers scratching.

He whined, relaxing under my touch. I realized what I was doing and did it harder, scratching behind his ear. After a second I added my other hand- one had for each of his ears. “Do you like that, boy?” I asked gently.

He suddenly pulled his head away, grunting annoyedly. I realized that I was analyzing him like he was a scientific discovery and petting him like he was a dog and I lost it. I rolled off of him onto my back and then onto my side, curling my knees into my chest as I busted up into body wracking laughter. “YOU LET ME PET YOU! YOU- YOU ENJOYED ME PETTING YOU!”

He groaned and I closed my eyes, tears falling down my face. After a second, he reached over and a human hand touched me. He wore only a shirt and shorts, his jeans and shoes from earlier discarded off to the side. I began to calm down as he looked at me, kind of worried. “Are you okay?” The ghost of a smile tugged at his lips- true to the nature of our relationship, one of us could not laugh so hard and so genuinely without calling a smile at the vert least to the other.

“I’m okay,” I confirmed, wiping my face of the tears and forcing myself to sit up as I caught my breath. “I’m sorry, I... Tht must have been a weird reaction.”

He grinned. “Definitely not one we’ve gotten before.”

After a pause, I looked at him with intrigue. He rose an eyebrow. “Do you turn on the full moon.” And so questions began.

“Only when we want to. Just like any other day.”

“Do you have an alpha/omega/beta system like in the stories?”

“Yep.”

“Who’s-“ I cut off, realizing. “Sam’s alpha?”

“Yep.”

“How often do you change?”

“Usually whenever we get upset or our heart race increases, but we can change whenever we want. Usually when there’s a threat or for practice or routes... At least once every other day, on average.”

“What determines your fur color?”

“I have... no idea.”

“How fast do you run?” I immediately followed up.

He smirked. “Faster than vampires.”

My eyes went wide and he paled as he realized his mistake. “Vampires?” I asked weakly. He nodded wordlessly, allowing me space to process and think. I nodded after a second. “Is that what you meant by threats I didn’t know of?” He nodded again. “Do you guys only fight vampires?”

He nodded. “That’s why we were created. Kill the vampires, protect the humans.”

That put me at ease. I trusted him to protect me, as much as I trusted him not to hurt m earlier when he was a wolf. I... I trusted him. I trusted Embry, with my life. Literally. Oh my gosh. “What are vampires like?” He explained the red versus gold eyes, telling me about the Cullens and then having to explain Bella and Edward. I was surprised to realize that things had gotten so far and once Embry explained the treaty, I was even more surprised that Sam was letting it happen. He told me about what did and didn’t work so far as lure that I knew. Garlic, no. Crosses, not to his knowledge. Rip them apart and burn the bodies; they glitter in the sun. Created to be alluring to humans, like sirens pulling sailors to their death. “Land sirens,” I mused. He smiled, nodding. We’d been going on forever and I thought I was out of questions and knew all there was to know... until something occurred to me. “Embry?”

“Yeah?” He asked. He had moved close and was playing with my fingers. I hadn’t pulled away- it felt too good.

A little nervous, I asked quietly, “Do wolves have mates? Because vampires have true mates and in the wild wolves have packs and mates and all that. Because, actual wolves don’t have caste systems with alpha and all that, they just have families. Did you know that the guy who came up with the Alpha theory actually proved that he was wrong and told people he was wrong but no one listened? Anyway my point is that they’re little families, with mates and cubs and loyalty like none of their. So... Does that translate over?”

Embry let me babble and talk on as if he was stalling, but when the time came he looked up at me, that nervousness back in his eyes and posture where he’d been so relaxed and content before. “Y/n, I... I have something to tell you.”

But moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head: burning red! Burning it was red!

My eyes traced lines in the dirt. “So you imprinted on me.” I hadn´t asked a question so he didn’t say anything. A moment stretched on and I felt my insides grow heavy inside of me, dragging and pulling and getting all tangled up. “And it’s painful for wolves to be away from their imprints, so Sam let you tell me.” Embry still kept quiet. I looked up. “Is there a way for you to undo it?”

His eyes flared with pain. “Do you want there to be?”

“It just feels... against your will. What if you hadn’t imprinted on me? What if you had imprinted on someone else_ Would your feelings for me just have been completely wiped away as if they never mattered? Years of love and familiarity and beating the odds, just... gone.” My stomach twisted tighter and I felt nauseated so I changed my train of thought. “What if your imprint is way younger? Or way older?”

That struck a cord - Embry flinched. “When we’re shifting regularly, we stop aging. Whenever we choose to shop shifting, we grow older. We learn to control our emotions and overtime, it gets harder to shift. And harder to control it once you do again. Like a muscle or a talent. If you don’t use it, you get rusty.”

“So you stop aging until they’re old enough?” I asked, trying to understand how people worked out these problems. I mean, it´s cool that they would do that for their imprint and that there was such a connection but it still didn´t feel right.

“Precisely,” he agreed. “If they’re older...” He shrugged, awkwardness evident in his features. “It sucks.”

My eyes widened as that sunk in. “That’s horrible! What if I decided to take another path? No future is certain, no decisions are permanent. Love even changes over time and you change with it or it fails. What if we go to different colleges? What if it gets too weird with the age gap that were eventually going to have? What if we change and aren’t compatible anymore? What if- what if I die? That’s so much pressure. I have to stay close and in good condition or you wither away into a depressed morning? Embry...”

He looked really upset, and I wondered where we would be if he hadn´t imprinted on me. I wondered where we would have been if we never met. Did the last years even matter if we would have ended in this same place anyway, twisted by fate and supernatural animalistic instinct and drive? I felt like I was breathing through a straw and he reached out, his hands flattening on my neck and the side of my face, his thumb caressing my jaw to soothe me. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered with a broken voice. “I know you hate being forced into things, and you really don’t HAVE to be with me. Please don’t be with me again if you really don’t want to, I’d rather anything than you forcing yourself to date me when you don’t want to. I’ll make friendship work, I promise.”

I grew sad. “Can you fall in love with anyone else? Ever?”

He frowned. “No.”

Pulling my face from his loving hold - unfortunately (I didn´t want to but I needed a clear mind and Embry´s touch gave me anything but, especially after so long when he touched me like that) - I sighed. “I do love you, Em. And... I do trust you. I just-“ I was going to forgive him right there and end the tension. In the end, it didn´t matter how we got here or what brought us together. As always, we prevailed despite everything being thrown at us. It wasn’t worth hurting him if I knew I was fine anyway. But then I thought of the months of his disappearing. Months avoiding me, convincing me that he didn’t care about me at all. And maybe I did want to forgive him, but not quite yet. “I need some time to think about all of this. Process. Okay?”

He nodded and we both stood. After a second I smiled, opening my arms and he moved into them, hugging me firmly but gently. It was wonderful. I breathed his scent in, listening to his heart beat as my ear pressed to his chest. “I love you,” he whispered.

I smiled. “I know.” I leaned away. “Walk me back to the beach?”

Embry stepped away, nodding and smiling sadly. It almost made me want to stop... We made our way back to where we came from originally, and I snagged my bike from the ground, waving at Embry before taking off toward my house.

In actuality, I knew I loved and trusted Embry and that´s all that matters. And maybe it was cruel or petty of me, but I wanted him just to squirm a little bit more. Know what it was like to have someone you love choose to not be with you. To doubt that you´ll be with the person you would give anything for, go anywhere for, be anyone for. I wanted him to fear, just for a little bit, that he wouldn´t have his promised happily ever after.

Laying in my bed, I put my phone face down and silenced. It had been an unspoken thing that I would text Embry I was safe when I got home. While we were together at least. Now, I´m sure he assumed but I hadn´t promised or established that I would continue the tradition, even though in any other circumstance I would have.

I felt a little mean, worrying him, but a part of me was still hurt and angry. If I couldn´t stand to cut things off permanently but I also couldn´t simply erase months of deep emotional pain, I saw this as a happy medium. Some classic, well planned, carried through revenge.

I loved the boy, but this almost felt good.

Was that cruel of me?

...Oops.

Oh losing him was blue like I'd never known; Missing him was dark gray all alone. Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met 'cause loving him was red! Yeah, yeah red! We're burning red!

It took him an entire week to lose his shit.

After being okay with missing him for so long and knowing I could go back anytime I wanted, it was surprisingly easy for me to be away from Embry. I missed him, my body itching to make up all the time we’d missed over the last few months, and I yearned to answer his texts and hang out with him and kiss him and hug him and UGH, but I had self control. I had learned it when all I’d wanted to do was go to Embry’s house, knock down his door, kiss him, and demand he stop whatever the hell he was doing... but I couldn’t, because he’d told me to never talk to him ever again.

After those six days, though, I lay awake at night thinking about Embry and remembering back to when we’d been together when a sharp and inconsistent tapping sounded on my window. Not tapping like fingers against the glad, but... I looked over, jumping when a pebble the size of my pinkie fingers came in contact with the glass. It was thin but still! I scrambled out of bed, moving to the window. I looked out and immediately saw Embry, who was pacing anxiously as he messed with the rock in his hands, breathing hard as he looked about ready to have a panic attack.

Because I lived in a one story house, I didn’t know why he didn’t just knock on my window, but maybe he was as much of a romantic as I remembered. I opened my window. “Em?”

He turned to me, relaxing at the sound of my voice as if it alone had flipped a switch in him. He itched to move to me, I could see it, and I smiled, moving aside too let him crawl in through my window. He didn’t hesitate even a split second, moving to go through before I was even out all of the way. Once he was in, I closed my window again. I turned to him and he looked at me. “Have you decided to avoid me then? Because I mean I definitely understand why but could you have at least told me? I’ve been wondering-“

“I don’t want to be with you, Embry,” I deadpanned. “I don’t want to talk to you ever again.” I wasn’t looking at him, the exact same a he had treated me when he told me. My voice was hard and rough and he took a step back. “I don’t want to ever see you again.”

He whimpered. “Y/n, please... it hurts to be away from you. Not just because of the wolf thing, but knowing that I can have you back. I asked Sam. He said it’s different than it was with Emily. Moving faster, affecting more severely. It’s me, Y/n. It’s ME that hurts to be away from you. ME that loves you. Let’s just be friends?”

Turning to him, I looked him in the eyes. His glasses over, watering, as he prepare for me to totally reject him. I could see the loss in his eyes without me having to the say the words, and I could see his heart break. That was when I dropped it all. I stopped immediately, the softness and warm coming back to my face. He was instantly confused. “Hurts, doesn’t it?”

His eyes widened and betrayal and a different kind of hurt filled his face. “Is this a joke to you?” He snapped. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me? For some petty kind of revenge? How old are you?!” I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest as my own anger exploded. “Don’t get angry at me, you have no right! You hurt me Y/n! For an entire week I suffered until it physically hurt with worry, getting sick to my stomach and having a panic attack! I had a panic attack! Sam finally told me to come here and tell you because he was worried about me. What the hell Y/n you had no right!”

“I had no right?” I sneered, venom dripping from my words.

His eyes narrowed. “You actually hurt me. You left me.”

My eyes watered. “It hurts, doesn’t it? Being left behind without an explanation or clue? To go from hot and in love to absolutely nothing? Hurts to worry and strain and hurt with no answers or clue. Sitting there to just WORRY. Bella Swan literally went comatose from it. I barely made it myself. I couldn’t even go to school for an entire week after you too me you never wanted to talk to me again. You didn’t even look at me, you just told me. No emotion, no recognition. Like I was nothing.”

He scrambled to defend himself but he was struggling as realization began to truly dawn on him. “I didn’t want to imprint on you! They said that I might, since we were like in love and stuff and I didn’t want to drag you into this world. I also didn’t want it to NOT be you. I was terrified, more than I was of imprinting on you, that I wouldn’t.”

Tears began falling down my face and his anger dissipated in favor of pain, worry, and guilt. “You promised you would never leave me, Em. That you would never hurt me. And then you left. And THEN you hurt me in every possible fucking way.” He looked away, his face contorting in severe pain. “I forgive you,” I whispered. “And my anger and immaturity got the best of me, I just... I wanted you to understand. Understand how much it hurt. I’m sorry, but... Em...” He looked at me again as my words were broken by my cries that had turned to sobs. “Please don’t do that again. Don’t hurt me again. I couldn’t survive it again.”

He rushed at me, pulling me into him and holding me tightly. “We’re even now,” he whispered. “You forgave me, so I can forgive you. We both fucked up, both with very good reasons for doing so.” He sighed. “I won’t ever hurt you again Y/n. Not like that. I promise for real this time. I won’t let anything come between us again.”

“What if you die?” I ask softly.

“That won’t be my fault,” he answers even more softly. “I promise I’ll try my hardest, though.”

I buried my face in his chest, clinging to his shirt. “I can be okay with that.”

We had a long way to go, but... maybe things could be okay now. We had each other, so there was always that.

-

Forever Tag List: @bitchyseawitch @chipster-21 @alexa-playafricabytoto

[mrrolandtfranco]

How To Make This Physical Map of Wyoming For Some Reason

This is a physical map of the beautiful US state of Wyoming.

And here is a quick cheat sheet of its elements:

Let’s take a closer look at this cartographic process in ArcGIS Pro, shalllllllll weeeeeee…

Imagery Layers

Just like an onion. The more layers there are, the more they’ll cry. Why are they crying, and who are they? We don’t have time to delve into the unknowably complex workings of the human heart. But we (I, anyway) definitely have time to delve into the knowably simple workings of this map.

This map begins, as do many of my weird concoctions, with a Firefly Imagery basemap. Just the basemap, though, no glowing stuff this time around. The Firefly Imagery basemap provides us with rich, desaturated, surface texture without all that bothersome hue. Great context.

In the Add Data dialog, there are lots of ways to bring content into your project. I suggest you explore what is available in the Living Atlas, a curated warehouse of great, hosted, content. I’ll make lavish use of it in this map. By choosing the Living Atlas source and searching for “Firefly” I find and add the Firefly Imagery service.

I love it.

But this is going to be a physical map, so while the Firefly Imagery provides a good textured tonal base, I want to add a cartographic Land Cover layer to paint back in some contrived hues.

When I give this layer a transparency of 65%, I get a merging of the Land Cover chroma with the Firefly texture.

The topographic relief of Wyoming is magnificent. I want to call attention to the beautiful, and variable, ruggedness of the state. So I pulled in a hillshade layer from the TopBathy set…

But the default grayscale appearance is of little use to me, so I play with colors and opacities in the Color Scheme Editor and get a color ramp that has fully transparent mid-tones so the underlying map doesn’t looked washed out; rather, it has been bumpified. More on that here.

Now it looks like this:

Yowza, those mountains are coming right at us! Now this looks like a map I could run my hand over. The bumpification hack is great, and it pairs especially well with the mist hack. Let’s pull in a simple Digital Elevation Model, also from the TopoBathy family of elevation data…

By default, it looks like the typical DEM ramp of black to white. But you can perform all sorts of color/opacity shenanigans to make it paint in a misty white only at the lowest elevations.

The result is an elevation layer that replicates a ghost-like mist that clings to lowlands and meanders up and through mountain valleys. High elevation mountains are revealed in crisp clarity as they rise above the wispy plains. This gives the map a painterly sense of forced reality. Find more self-indulgent examples here.

Vector Layers

Pretty fun right? Who’s got it better than us, seriously. So far this map is made up only of a Firefly Imagery basemap, and two deviously symbolized TopoBathy image services. Time to get all vectory on this map though.

I downloaded US Counties from the Census Bureau, and symbolized them with a thin white stroke and and underlying black gradient stroke to give a slight dropshadow effect. This inherent contrast helps them remain visible, albeit faint, over lighter and darker terrains. Plus I think it looks kind of nice. Learn more about using Symbol Layers to stack up visual layers in an item’s symbology here.

Resulting in this appropriately muted counties overlay…

Then I added lakes and rivers from the super helpful Natural Earth. Since the lakes are visible in the imagery and land cover, I gave them a null style (but still checked on) as a foothold for labels, later. Rivers are thin semitransparent blue strokes. Barely visible, really. Towns, also quite small and mostly added as a label foothold, came from a US DOT Open Data portal.

Next I added a states layer, also from Natural Earth. But in this case I only wanted to show the state of Wyoming, to set a visual focus for the map. How can you only show one state from within the states layer? A definition query! The visual query builder made it easy, even for a stooge like me. Definition queries quickly became a tireless ally of mine in this project. For what it’s worth, I also used them to show only larger-population towns in the step above.

The visual goal of this is to make the border of Wyoming look like a cool vignette, wrapping around the state and mega-framing the theme and content. I gave the symbology a few gradient strokes (make sure you give them negative offsets of half the line width, so they render inside the state (positive offset if you wanted them to render outside the state, like a dropshadow).

Ah, there’s Wyoming!

To further this goal of highlighting Wyoming, I added a second version of that states layer to serve as a sort of visual masking effect. But rather than showing only Wyoming in this case I chose to hide only Wyoming.

I gave these not-Wyoming states a semitransparent white symbology.

Which looks like this:

Now there can be no doubt. Wyoming, clearly the star of the show.

Labels

Adding labels to each of these layers is a blog post in itself. But I’ll just breeze through it with a couple of tips.

Embrace transparency. I’ve made all text semitransparent and their halo colors even more transparent. If a layer is less important, like counties, transparency can help reinforce that.

Contrast font color with halo color. I either used semitransparent gray fonts with semitransparent white halos or a semitransparent white font with a semitransparent black halo.

Use letter spacing with abandon. If you have crowded low-priority features, like towns, push the letter spacing tighter together. So long as they are readable, it’s cool. If you have a tier one feature, like the state name of Wyoming, go bonkers with letter spacing (and force all caps). In this example WYOMING has an eye-popping letter spacing of 1,600%.

Orient labels to curve along the graticule. It seems to give the labels a sense of belonging in the geographic context.

Well, there you have it. The steps of how to make this map. Maybe you don’t even want to make a map like this! But even still I think there are some helpful tidbits in here for all flavors of mapping adventures.

Show And Tell

I’ve heard Daniel Huffman, describe much more eloquently the creative, and technical, empowerment that comes with watching another map maker pull back the veil and show their process. But I have to rely on analogy. I am often fascinated by, and frankly intimidated by, many Vader-caliber maps that I see out in the wild, just swinging that lightsaber and breathing through a respirator like an unknowable machine. But when I’ve had the opportunity to chat with that maker, or watch them give a how-to talk, or read their blog post, I realize that any map is just a series of usually-doable steps, and underneath the helmet is a redeemed old gray dude with burned off eyebrows. The magic was in the steps up and putting them together just so. Anybody can do it.

Happy Mapping! John

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