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kyidyl · 4 years ago

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Kyidyl Explains Bones - Part 4.1

(These are all under the KyidylBones tag.)

Sorry for the pause in this series....it’s difficult to produce these when I don’t have my meds and I ran out. But I refilled them, so now we continue!

Anyway, today we’re covering something that is, if possible, even more complex and thorny than sex determination: race determination.

Ethical Statement: Race is not a biological reality. Now, hear me out before you run away. Race isn’t a biological reality, but that doesn’t make it *not real*. Race absolutely is real and effects how society interacts with an individual. But between these two statements, which gives you more information about a person:

“I’m white.”

“I’m white and I live in 21st century America.”

The second, obviously. Because skin color tells us virtually nothing about an individual. Ethnicity - where they’re from, what social groups they might have interacted with, how society might have treated them, etc. - is a lot more valuable than knowing the color of their skin. HOWEVER. And this is a big however. However, in a modern person’s understanding there is a lot of crossover between race and ethnicity. And, in fact, as with sex, when a set of remains is being evaluated for identification we must at least attempt to identify the race because that’s how they’ll be categorized in the missing persons’ database. And identifying race in archaeological remains helps us track human social interaction and migration because ethnicity doesn’t really survive intact outside of grave goods (and those may or may not be present.). And, yes, if you’re wondering, DNA tests can confirm a lot of the data that we attempt to glean anatomically but for the most part we don’t have the money to do DNA tests on remains, or they don’t have anything surviving that has intact DNA (you can have a nearly complete set of remains and not have any DNA because damage to the outside surface of the bone and/or teeth causes damage to the DNA inside it and causes it to break down.).

So since race isn’t a biological reality but it is a social reality, it’s helpful to attempt to determine the race of the individual in question. And, obviously, that’s before you even take into account that people interbreed all the time. So how can we begin to do this with any degree of accuracy, since the classifications are social and not biological?

Short answer: we can’t, but we try anyway because of the reasons I mentioned above. And there’s something that I should have added to the post about sexing a skeleton but I didn’t because I’m human and I make mistakes sometimes: we don’t ever refer to a set of remains as definitively X sex or definitively X race (well, we do when we’re with other scientists who have an understanding of what I’m about to say for brevity’s sake.), we say “this individual has _____ features consistent with or indicative ______ race/sex.” Sometimes the features are very stereotypical and we’re fairly certain that they definitely are X race or sex, but other times they’re not. And the markers that we use are based on averages, so obviously within those averages there’s a huge amount of variation - that’s why we use so many different markers. So like with any science, it’s good to remember that there’s always room for change and that it’s all theories.

Also if you want to do some reading on it, you’ll see that these determinations are still hotly debated among anthropologists because we are well aware of how racist and shitty it all is and we hate that we have to engage in it but at the same time it’s important for the reasons I mentioned above, so we’re always trying to find new ways that are more accurate and less racist.

Categories

Essentially, we have a list of anatomical features that tend to be similar in geographic regions and we go through these features and grade them according to which race category we think they most closely match. There are three, sometimes four, categories:

Caucasoid/White/European depending on what reference you’re using.

Black/African (Outdated term: Negroid. We all hate it but it’s in the literature, especially older stuff, and if you do any reading you’ll run into it.)

Asian (Outdated term: mongoloid. Same as above.) - This includes Native Americans because their anatomy is so similar to Asians, especially eastern asians, that it’s well-nigh impossible to distinguish without a DNA test. Mostly we know based on the context the remains are found in.

Aboriginal - This is specifically for indigenous pacific groups, especially in Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand. In this lab we use the indigenous name.). They have some interesting anatomical differences that are only found in that area of the world. Obviously it’s not going to be as used in the rest of the world tho so it’s often not covered. Plus their biggest differences are brow bone size and tooth size so while it’s different it’s not AS different as the other three categories.

So as we go through the markers, we add them to these groups and then at the end average them out to see which one the remains most resemble.

The Anatomy

There are a lot of markers of race on remains, and more are being studied all the time, so I’m going to cover the most common ones in the interest of length. Also, pretty much all race markers are on the skull, so I’m not really going to get into the rest of the skeleton, even tho there ARE markers on the post-cranial (means exactly what you’d think: not skull.) skeleton. And like with physics ignoring friction for the sake of illustration, we’re going to ignore cultural changes to the bones ala the slavic squat and pathologies. We’re gonna start in on the bone pics in a hot second, so time for a cut.

I went back and forth on the most concise, easy to understand way of doing this and it took me a bit to figure it out, but I think it’s going to be like this: I’m going to tell you what we look for generally, and then give specific examples in each category as we go through race by race. So, there are a lot of things that can indicate race in a skeleton, but I’m only going to cover the easiest to digest. Understand though that there’s a lot of smaller indiciations. Like with sex, these are graded on a scale in relationship to how stereotypical they are of a given feature. And, unlike with sex, it’s much easier for the opinion and biases of the examiner to alter the results because a lot of these comes down to “what shape is this thing and which shape is it closest to”. This is, of course, subjective. The ones I’m going to cover are:

Eye orbit shape and sharpness.

Prognathism (the amount that the “muzzle” area of the face sticks out. Eg., how flat is or isn’t a face?)

Nasal shape

Nasal sill (this is the bit that sticks out at the bottom of your septum, and the “floor” of your nose/top of your maxilla in your nose.

Nasal bridge

Unique racial features.

First, I’m gonna use some screenies from my ipad to be very specific about the area of the skull I’m talking about here. These all were taken by me in essential skeleton and edited.

Eye orbit shape:

I think this one is one of the more accessible things to understand without a skull in your hand. If you think of the way that people look IRL, there are physical features that tend to be more common in various populations, and that translates to the skull (and in case you’re wondering: no, white is not treated as the baseline here, but you’ll see.). Here it’s the shape of the eye socket.

Eye socket sharpness:

When you hold a skull in your hand, if you run your finger over the part of the eye socket between the lines (really, the whole edge, but the effect is more pronounced at the bottom and on the lateral edges), it’s sharper on some races than on others. Again - this is a skeletal marker of physical features that you can see in a living person. I’m not going to point this out in the example skulls because you won’t be able to see or feel it in the images, but it’s a pretty easy to understand way of adding another racial marker to your tools.

Prognathism:

So the easiest way to understand this is twofold. First, how far does the chin stick out in relationship to the top of the nose? This shows how far the face protruded in life. Here you can see the angle is 88 (although honestly i’ve never known anyone to measure this - I’m using it to illustrate the point.), and I only know that because the ruler tool I used to draw the lines told me so, lol. The easiest way to see this is to look at the curve of the profile like I’ve illustrated with the green line.

Nasal Shape:

The shape of the nasal opening varies between racial groups. We look at the height and width from the places I’ve illustrated above. Sometimes we also look at the shape of the sort of upside down heart area I’ve outlined, because human variation means that you’ve gotta have a couple of ways of doing things.

The Nasal Sill gets two images cause it has two parts:

The top one has a landmark called the anterior nasal spine highlighted (honestly I think of it like the pointy nose thing). The degree to which it sticks out varies by race. It is part of the maxilla, and together with the two portions of the maxilla that i’ve circled forms the nasal sill. A lot of textbooks refer to the nasal sill as having a “height”. I found this confusing and I found the pictures confusing too, so I’m gonna try a different tactic with you guys. So first of all, you can feel some of these bones in your face. Pinch the bottom of your septum where it meets your upper lip and wiggle it. Feel how there’s a harder bit under the cartilage? That’s the pointy nose thing...er, nasal spine. Now - and this is a little gross but it’s ok I won’t tell anyone - if you feel down into the bottom of your nasal passages you can feel where this blends into your maxilla. The cartilage rises up and that forms your nasal passage. On a dead person, that cartilage isn’t there. So the hard bone that you feel there is all we have. Well, the angle at which that slopes deeper into the nasal passage varies by race (because nose shape varies by race). In some individuals, the anterior edge of that opening is sharp and lifted, forming a sort of dip in the area I’ve circled above. This is the nasal gutter. And if you google that, you will be hard-pressed to find anything that explains it with any clarity, especially because you don’t have a skull in your hand. But it’s one of those things that’s useful to know because it can be really distinct and easy to see the differences in.

The Nasal Bridge:

Because the shape of the nose changes the bones all around it, another indicator is what I’ve shown here. The angle of the curve of that red line, and the length of the blue line. That’s basically the length of the nasal bones. You can also tell with the shape of them, and the shape of the place where they connect to the frontal (the suture that connects them to the brow bone.), but I’m not going to cover that. We have enough nose things.

I’m going to cover unique features when I get into the examples of different races. You might be thinking that this is a lot of attention paid to the eyes and nose, and you’d be right, because although there are distinct differences in mouth shape and size they don’t translate to the bone. And, fun fact, the most accurate indicator of race is actually teeth - but we’ll cover that in the entry on teeth. But for now, I’m going to stop here and split that into its own post because this one is long and picture-heavy. So come back in a couple hours after I’ve finished and posted that one.

#KyidylBones #race #skeletal anatomy #forensics #science #anthropology #archaeology #archeology #bone #human bone #interesting things #skulls #humans

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lostnfinding · 4 years ago

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hi! i thought id do a little intro to me and my blog

please take a moment to read if you can :)

about me:

im astro/solstice/winter! you can call me sol if you want to. im nonbinary/genderfluid and currently use they/xe/it pronouns (tho im okay with any other neo pronouns, these are the ones i preffer). im pan oriented aroace. im 15, which means im a minor and you should treat me like one. also heres a list of labels i go by

i am extremely s*x averse and anything slightly s*xual makes me very uncomfortable at best. if you make any s*xual comment towards me you will be blocked.

i have ehlers danlos syndrome and pots, and mental illnesses, one of them possibly being DID/OSDD. im the host of a system, and from time to time youll see my headmates around.

i like history, musicals, cinema, music, books and animations. my favourite musical is watt, my favourite series are the owl house and shera, my favourite books are sick kids in love and aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe. my current favourite bands are sleeping at last and waterparks, and my favourite singers are dodie and cavetown.

i have a very song related memory and thinking, i associate things, memories, feelings and people with songs, so if we chatted for a bit ill probably end up associating you with a song. if you wanna know what it is just send me an ask!

im pagan, brazilian, white and im fluent in portuguese (native language) and english (second language)

i have a discord server! join if you want to, id love to have you there! but please be patient if all channels dont automatically show up, i have to verify you in order for that to happen.

my profile picture is a picrew that can be found here! amazing picrew, really recomend it, gave me a lot of gender euphoria. also it has cute animals so thats a plus, and pride flags! i always love pride flags in picrews

(i tend to ramble. a lot. sorry about that.)

dni:

anti blm, anti vax/anti mask, transmed/transcum, terfs, are/support p*dophiles/whatever theyre calling themselves today, lgbtqia+ phobic, anti mogai, anti neopronouns, pro life, exclusionist, climate change denier, prejudist agaisnt any religion, pro ana/ed, anti-anti, xenophobic, over 18 (unless i interact first), make content of/is/says anything on my triggers list (but the christian thing, i dont mind if youre christian just dont talk shit about other religions)

tag system:

posts that are okay to reblog unless stated otherwise in the tags: #astro rambles, #astros covers, #astros art, #theo writes

posts that you have to check the tags before rebloging: #astro rants

posts that are not okay to reblog unless stated otherwise in the tags: #*stress ball gets more stressed*, #astro vents

extra tags: #astro being soft n gay (usually my interactions with my qpp), #cute lil reptiles, #cute lil animals

extra info: i tag triggers "[trigger] tw"; my mutuals get their own tags based on their personality/inside jokes, if you want one, tell me; ask me to tag triggers if i forget to

my triggers:

(general tag is "geckos dni" or "dragon system don't look")

the phrases "you're faking it", "its all in your head", "its just anxiety", "you just have to have faith", "faith heals" and variations; someone being told they dont have an illness they do have; christianity/catholicism (especially saying theyre the "only right religion" or that they are persecuted); parent figts and divorce; money problems; any kind of abuse; nsfw and s#x; mentions of fathers/parents (specially if they are being bad parents); the song "every breath you take" by the police; the movie "the truman show"; conspiracy theories/mandela effect; bone marrow transplants; calling me (astro) a pet name when i dont let you, altho somethings/nicknames are okay; bitmojis; food/ed/weight/calories stuff; breaking promises, loud noises/yelling; being watched; having people we dont know/trust invading our space/privacy; "adults doing bad things"; repetitive pings; passive agressivness; maroon 5 songs from before 2016 (all but she will be loved and payphone); the words papai/papa/pai/variants; glasses with a half frame and strings holding it up; any mentions including jokes about dictatorships, specially taking peoples rights and people going missing; the A.I.5 and similar stuff; the military abusing power; elections being interrupted/blocked; nightmares/fantasy dreams (meeting fairies, flying, etc); being called s*xy or anything of sorts.

side blogs:

@maybeatiger - fandom blog

@theos-writing - writing blog

@our-welkin-world - system blog

@solsgalaxy - thoughts/aesthetic blog

#intro post #dont reblog #i was getting annoyed with my carrd so i decided to try this again :)

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herding-octokittens · 4 years ago

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Tumblr is being Tumblr (or maybe my computer is being weird) so I can’t do a fancy link, but here it is! Mechtober prompt 4: vampires! 13 days late!

ao3

Raphaella La Cognizi had spent millenia exploring what the universe had to offer. She had spent millenia traveling with her crew, her friends, to see as much as she could. She had spent millenia unearthing and discovering everything she could get her hands on. She had spent millenia on learning what others had deemed unknowable.

She was positive she knew more than anyone else could ever know, than anyone else would ever know. She was positive that even though she had so much more to find, she had already found more than anyone else.

It was three days until their next planetfall, and Raphaella had spent nearly a year of travel studying her newest fixation.

Most of what she knew was based on outdated information from Earth and a few vague references from nearby planets. Best as she could tell, the species in question was either entirely fictional, or very, very extinct. Any space faring technology they may have had was long since lost. They had likely traveled to at least two systems, as the old stories and histories were widespread yet consistent. Most interestingly, they appeared to be immortal, or at least extremely long lived. For all the people she had met who wished for and reached for immortality, none (save her friends) had actually ever achieved it. A species that was naturally that long lived was well worth her interest.

Given how much of the information came from well before her time and the other side of the universe, Raphaella had decided that inquiring into the others’ knowledge would be worth her while.

~~~

“So, what are your thoughts on vampires?” Raphaella thought the question was innocent enough.

As she was quick to discover, it wasn’t.

Jonny choked on his drink, quickly turning to the sink to avoid spitting everywhere. Nastya fell out of the vent she had been relaxing in with a startled yelp, crushing the Toy Soldier, who had been attempting to bake cookies. Tim had immediately looked up from his latest incendiary device, fixing Raphaella with a solid glare mixing hatred and incredulous surprise in equal parts. She was half convinced his eyes were about to burn holes through her skull. Ashes, who had been casually leaning against the bar, attempting to mix a drink that would actually kill them in one go, burst out in pained laughter as they slid to the floor.

“I take it they’re real, then.”

Ashes continued laughing as everyone else attempted to regain their bearings. Even the Toy Soldier seemed flustered.

“You’re asking-” They cut off with a choked giggle. “You’re asking if vampires-” Another giggle, this time less repressed. “You’re asking if vampires are real?” The incredulity in Ashes’s question made Raphaella recoil, wings rustling behind her.

“Well, yes. The lore on them is sparse, but I figured given how many alternate dimensions and time jumps-”

“Jonny, Nastya, she’s asking if vampires are real!” Ashes had turned to the First Mate. “You lot heard it too, right?”

Jonny tried to wheeze out a response, but his face had gone rather blue as he continued trying to cough up whatever it was he was still choking on. Nastya merely grunted in what may have been humor, still lying atop the Toy Soldier. Tim was the first to actually verbalize a response.

“I heard it too, Ashes,” he replied, voice stiffly neutral. After a brief moment of consideration, he turned a question to the Science Officer. “Why on Earth do you think we would know if vampires are real?”

This was too much for Nastya, who burst into tears of laughter. The Toy Soldier, who for all appearances had resigned itself to remaining crushed under Nastya, joined the laughter.

“I mean, you’ve all been alive and travelling for quite a bit longer than I have, and everything I’ve found points to the species being extinct but rather widespread, so I figured you might have encountered some in the past. Or the future. Or a parallel dimension. Whenever.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “So, are they real? Have you met any?”

Jonny chose that moment to finally choke to death, so her question was accentuated by a loud thump as his body fell limp. Ashes had managed to climb back up to lean on the bar, but was once again laughing too hard to be functional. Tim hadn’t taken his eyes off of Raphaella, but she thought he was beginning to crack a smile. Nastya and the Toy Soldier had begun extricating themselves, each covered in flour and egg. This process was made difficult by Nastya’s tendency to collapse every time she began to laugh again. The Toy Soldier, expression as unreadable as ever, appeared to be attempting to join in the humor.

Raphaella couldn’t tell if this was the whole peer pressure thing they’d been working on with it, or if it actually found the situation entertaining.

“I really can’t tell if that is a yes or a no, guys.”

“It’s a-” Tim’s careful neutrality gave way to a cough that was almost certainly stifling his own giggles. “It’s a-” Another cough. “Oh, God, I’m not gonna be able to say it with a straight face.” A coughing fit this time. Raphaella frowned.

“It’s a binary question. Vampires are real. Yes or no? This really shouldn’t be that difficult.”

“I know! I just still can’t get over the fact that you’re asking if vampires are real!” Ashes wheezed. Raphaella wasn’t sure how they could run out of oxygen, but they had made a pretty damn good effort at it. “Vampires! Of all the things!”

That was evidently enough to break Tim, who almost immediately fell off the couch he had been precariously balanced on. His bomb came with him, landing on his stomach with a satisfying thunk, cutting off his choked laughs.

“You all are the least helpful- you know what? I’ll go ask Ivy. Save myself the trouble of dealing with you lot.” Raphaella turned away from the rec room and began to stalk away.

Behind her, she heard the scrambling of four people and one thing frantically trying to get up and follow. She didn’t dignify them with an acknowledgement, until Tim appeared in her peripheral vision, bomb in hand.

“So… You’re gonna ask Ivy?” His mask of apathy was long since replaced with manic humor.

“Yes.”

“Can you wait for like, three minutes, while I go find Brian?” Raphaella turned to glare at Tim. “Please? He’ll want to be there.”

“No.” Raphaella turned back to face forwards, and picked up her pace.

“Ugh, fine. Be back in a bit,” Tim shouted from down another hall as he sprinted off. A few smothered giggles sounded from behind her from the four others in her wake.

“I really don’t get why this is such a funny question, and I really don’t like being played for a fool,” Raphaella stated, trying to gauge their responses. From the squelching sound, she would guess Nastya or Ashes had stabbed Jonny. A second squelching sound and sudden thump implied it was both of them, and that Jonny was currently dead. A muted conversation between Nastya and the Toy Soldier confirmed her thoughts. The conversation was followed by the sound of heavy running as they all attempted to catch back up to her, Jonny presumably flung over the Toy Soldier’s shoulder.

“If I’m being honest, I doubt Ivy will be able to answer you any better than us,” Nastya said, attempting conversation. Ashes snorted behind the two of them.

“Are you saying she won’t know, or that she won’t tell?” Raphaella cursed her curious nature. She had now failed twice at not talking to the others.

“Hmm, the second. She may not be as scientifically oriented as you, but she’s got an air-tight memory. I don’t think she’s ever forgotten anything. Ever. Not since-” Nastya cut off with a stifled cough. “Not since the doctor-” Nastya had to pause again, and Raphaella groaned. “Not since the doctor replaced her brain- Tim was right! I can’t do this with a straight face!” Nastya cried as she burst into laughter once again, falling back to laugh along with the Toy Soldier and Jonny, who appeared to have finally woken up.

“You can all go jump out the airlock,” Raphaella called over her shoulder as she made the last turn towards the library. “Just, fuck off into the void. You’d be just as helpful floating lifeless as you are right now.”

“I found him!” Any response from her followers was cut off by Tim’s triumphant shout, echoing down a corridor a few meters ahead. “I got Brian! And Marius. He just kinda tagged along. But Brian’s the important one. And I got him.” Tim exited the side passage just as Raphaella passed by. True to his word, Brian’s wrist was held tightly in his hand and Marius popped out a few seconds later, confusion etched into his features. “You haven’t asked Ivy yet, right?”

“Go die in a hole.”

“Charming as ever, Raphaella. And I’ll take that as a no.”

“You still haven’t told me what I’m doing here,” Brian groaned as Tim dragged him along. “We’re flying through enough gravitational variation right now that I really should be up on the bridge-”

“No, you’ll want to be here for this,” Nastya interjected. “It’s going to be worth it.”

Brian hummed noncommittally, but didn’t pull away from Tim’s grip. Raphaella rolled her eyes and continued stomping on towards the library.

As she finally, finally, reached the open door, Raphaella tried not to breathe a sigh of relief. Ivy would understand her curiosity. Ivy would be able to help her research. Her library was, after all, the largest and most complete in existence. Ivy would be able to answer her question.

“Ivy? Are you here?” she called out. “I need your help!”

“Raph? What’s the problem?” The archivist appeared from around a corner that none of the rest had even realized was a corner, causing at least two of them to jump. She paused, eyes scanning the entirety of the crew crammed into the small welcome area. “And why did you bring so many people?”

“I have a question. I have already asked Jonny, Nastya, Tim, Ashes, and the Toy Soldier, and they have been murderously unhelpful.”

“But not Marius or Brian.”

“Hmm, no. They weren’t in the room when I first broached the topic, and I have since been trying to ignore everyone because they are all being assholes.”

“Fair.”

“Thank you.”

“So,” Ivy hops up to sit on a small desk. “What’s your question?”

“Are vampires real?”

Ivy falls off the desk.

~~~

Raphaella swears to herself to never ask any of the rest of the Mechanisms anything ever again.

#the mechanisms #the mechs #raphaella la cognizi #jonny d'ville #nastya rasputina #ivy alexandria #gunpowder tim #drumbot brian #marius von raum #ashes o’reilly #the toy soldier #my fic #mechtober #mechtober2020 #vampires

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alistonjdrake · 5 years ago

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June’s World Building Cheat Sheet: Part Three - We Live in a Society

When I told my friends I was gonna make a fool of myself like this they asked me to talk about culture, holidays, religion, etc and much of this I hold under the same umbrella. Again, not a guide or a how-to but this is how ya boy does it.

Where to start?

The Modern World and Modern Culture

So let’s jump back to what I said about history before. I said that creating a history for your world can and should have an impact on how your characters relate to the world. I said that characters should live in the present and not just a reimagining of the past or just at the beginning of a story you already know the ending to. Cultures evolve and change over time. They have their own history and their defining principles might get a makeover with each era.

For example, back in my empire, a large portion of the upper classes have adopted a form of clothing that differs greatly from what is considered their traditional clothing, which is still worn by people who can’t afford the other one or who prefer to stay old school. They’ve just adopted a new religion within the last few generations, they only became an empire within the last 34 years, and in the same time frame have gone from a pretty closed and often forgotten country to a key player and worldly politics. All of which have changed certain aspects of the culture and a character’s experience of the culture.

I said my main thing when I build worlds is making sure they feel lived in. And really I think one of the easiest ways to do so is to make sure not everyone experiences their own culture the same away. So. A culture is condensed to like the shared “way of life” or art forms, traditions, etc of a people. It’s very easy to say all people of X Kingdom like to do the same things and eat the same things with no variation and for the most part that’ll be true but really, does everyone all have access to the same resources? Does one region of the same nation not have their own spin on a shared tradition? Do people not fill in the gaps with something new because they lack something that the majority has?

Any time I think about this I remember growing up I didn’t have a chimney and I was raised Christian, so we celebrated Christmas. Santa is supposed to come down a chimney. My mom didn’t want me to not believe in Santa but we didn’t have a chimney or a fireplace. So she told me, and my dumbass believed, that we wrapped empty boxes to put under the tree and then Santa climbed through the window and zapped our presents into said boxes with the same mystical powers used to travel around the world in one night. I never questioned this and color me shocked when someone told me this was not the case in their household.

Now, of course, in order for a culture to have adapted to the modern age or for particular groups of people who do not have access to the wider majority, it still needs to have core principles and shared aspects.

I myself am heavily inspired by reading by other cultures or when I’m world building, I try to think about how the environment would have influenced the people who first stamped down and said: “okay, this is a country now.” What doesn’t change no matter a person’s position in society, hometown, or history?

Which brings me to the quick way I usually start culture creation

What A Society Needs

I’ve looked at the environment. I decided I wanted these people to live right next to the coast in warm weather all year round, they have a hurricane problem in the summer, but the agriculture is rich and they really like fishing and there’s freshwater too. Cool. Basic needs covered. From that base then I start adding the things they may not need but definitely want or enjoy or would prioritize as a people. And honestly, sometimes shorting culture creation to “what do they prioritize?” is a good starting point. At least for me. The basics are enough to spark a lot of ideas like

War

Art

Trade

Commerce

An obsession for small dogs.

Religion Just one of these things as a core principle for a nation will likely trickle down into many aspects of their culture and the daily life of a person in that society.

I think I started to mention in my first post something about not needing to know all the background information. It’s 100% going to say more about your world and make it feel less textbook and built if instead of telling me where your characters get the materials for their clothing but why they wear it. Or why they choose to wear certain things when something else might make more logical sense but modern culture prefers fashion over practicality. And it’ll say enough about the world your character lives in already if they have the luxury of choosing looks over something practical.

I talk a lot about food in my books and not just because I wish I had been a chef but because food says a lot. Not just what they eat but how they eat. Is it normal to share meals? Are there certain ceremonies or rituals that come with certain eating habits? How are certain dishes prepared? And what dishes or ingredients are shared across the entirety of the culture and what will change with each town/region your character could visit? And how does what they eat also influence other aspects of their culture? I could likely go on for hours about how Escan’s eating habits have ingrained in them such a serious affair with dental hygiene much to the point it’s one of the things they brag about.

I will catch you on my next posts where I continue the culture topic with some stuff mentioned here but hey, this is getting long.

Tagging interested parties: @emofairykei @asablehart @space-cadead @mirror-of-too-many-books @shattered-starrs

#world building #worldbuilding #me foaming at the mouth trying not to go on a long rant about Argus being pescatarian #and going on and on about how so much of upper class Escana culture revolves around being digusted by the consumption of meat and being way #too into fish but then like half the country eats meat #I gotta make room to talk about politics somewhere #probably in one of the next culture posts #but I'll likely start with religion next

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aethelflaedladyofmercia · 5 years ago

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The Whole Truth - 2

(Full story available on AO3! If you want to be tagged as new chapters are posted, leave a comment “tag me” on this post!)

(Please note: Tumblr continues to make my Italics disappear. It’s very frustrating, so I apologize if the formatting makes anything confusing.)

Monday

1999

Aziraphale stared at the book on his desk. “What kind of curse?”

“Don’t know, not my department.” Gabriel smiled, excited, just a little distracted. It tugged at something in Aziraphale, made him want to prove he was worth the Archangel’s attention, too. “Michael’s soldiers seized it in a raid. Very dramatic stuff. Pity you weren’t able to make it.”

“Ah, yes, well…”

“Could have used another sword.” A nudge of the elbow, so hard Aziraphale staggered a little. “Those demons fought back hard.”

“Yes, terribly sorry. As I’d said there was this urgent business to attend to. Demonic possession. Entire family cursed. The house itself had become sentient. And. Carnivorous. I really had to deal with it all immediately.”

“Sounds frightening.”

“Oh, it was. Very frightening. And gory. And certainly not rated for general audiences.”

“What?”

“Nothing!” Aziraphale tugged on his waistcoat. The last thing he needed was for Gabriel to learn about movie night. Well. It was mid-ranked on the very long list of things Gabriel shouldn’t know. He hated lying to the Archangel, but no – things were better this way. “Regardless. You say these – these demons had this book in their possession?”

“Oh, yes. Not sure what they were planning to do with it, but it’s cursed. Very cursed.”

“Fascinating.” Aziraphale picked up a pen and used it to lift the cover, peering at the first page. He could just make out the writing. “It’s printed, not handwritten. Not Roman or Cyrillic alphabet.” He let the cover fall and started searching for a pair of gloves. “In fact, I don’t recognize the script at all. I’ll need a larger sample—”

Gabriel clapped his hands. “Good! Excellent, that’s just what I like to hear. Your obsession with material objects and human record keeping finally has a use. So glad we have an expert to consult on this.” Aziraphale hid a little smile at that. Expert. “See what you can find out by the end of the week.”

“End of the – you can’t be serious.” Aziraphale pulled his glasses off, waving them as politely as he could. “I mean, I’m sure you have your reasons, O holy Archangel, but deciphering an unknown text takes time. Not to mention identifying a curse—”

“We already have a team on that,” Gabriel interrupted, before Aziraphale could confess to knowing very little about demonic curses, apart from the sort Crowley shouted at other drivers.

“Oh. Jolly good.”

“Yes, they’ve told me the curse is so potent, any angel attempting to remove it would be immediately destroyed. Incinerated was the term they used.”

“Ah.” Aziraphale took a step away from the desk. “Well, I suppose that does change things.”

Gabriel shrugged. “As long as you don’t try to remove the curse yourself, you’re fine. Anyway, by Friday night, they’ll have worked out a proper disposal method. I proposed launching the book into the sun but apparently that would cause a, what did they call it, Superb Nova.”

“Oh dear.” Another step away. “You know, Gabriel, as…happy as I am that you wish to entrust this task to me, er, we are currently located in a major population center, and I don’t think—”

“Aziraphale,” Gabriel gave him that warm look, the one he saw so rarely, the one that made him feel included. “This raid was a big deal. I don’t want to start any rumors, but…it’s possible the demons were planning something. I would consider it a huge favor if you could just, I don’t know, poke around a bit? Find out what they wanted?”

“Well…as…as a favor…” There was a shiver of happiness running up his spine at that. Gabriel never asked for favors. “Yes, I think I can…learn a few things that might help you out. As long as it’s safe?”

“It’s fine!” Gabriel picked up the book and waved it around. “Perfectly harmless to angels; obviously, don’t let any humans near it. They might set something off. Probably blow up half the city!” He laughed, tossing the book. It hit the table with a crack, falling open to a random page.

“Oh, dear.” That hardly sounded safe. “What…if a demon tried? Er, someone come looking for his lost property, perhaps?”

“It would be very bad. No one touches this but you. Understand?”

Aziraphale nodded, feeling rather ill. He should say no, there were too many things that could go wrong.

His eyes drifted to the open book, the strange writing, a drawing of some horrifying creature. One word was a little larger than the rest and for a second, it looked familiar. He bent closer, almost instinctively. “This text…I almost think I’ve seen it before. No, it’s gone now, but perhaps…” He looked up in time to catch an eager gleam in Gabriel’s eyes. “Yes, I think…I can take a look. As…as a favor.”

“Excellent! That’s exactly the attitude I like to see. Now if you’ll excuse me, lots to do, places to be. I’ll follow up with you on Friday. Say, four o’clock?”

In a twinkling of light and a pop of air pressure, Aziraphale was alone with the book.

“He just – just left you with a cursed book?” Crowley paid the ice cream vendor and handed Aziraphale his cone.

“Yes. Is that so strange? I am an expert on Earth tomes, and languages, and treatises on magic.” He puffed his chest a little. “Why shouldn’t Heaven give me such a fascinating project?”

“Because they don’t care about any of that,” Crowley snapped flatly. “Besides, languages? I’ve heard you speak French.”

“I was having a bit of an off day,” Aziraphale pouted. “I shouldn’t be judged based on a single incident – what was it, two hundred and six years ago now? For all you know, I’ve been brushing up on my French ever since.” He licked the ice cream, smiling at the thick, creamy texture of it.

“Have you though?” Crowley sauntered alongside him, hands in his pockets, red hair slicked and gelled tight against his head.

“Well, no, but only because I’ve already read everything of interest in French.”

“Is that so?” Crowley smirked as if he was so clever. “Does this mean you finally got around to reading Proust?”

“Well. No. But neither have you.” Aziraphale took a quick bite of his ice cream before it could melt down his hand.

“Yeah, but I don’t live in a bookshop,” Crowley took a few steps ahead and started walking backwards, smirk evolving into a rather large grin. “So that makes me wonder who else you haven’t read. Dickens? Twain? Dostoyevsky? Is the Principality Aziraphale, in fact, a giant sham?”

The angel pursed his lips. “Any luck getting your car to play other music?”

Crowley’s face fell. “No,” he muttered, circling back to walk beside Aziraphale again. “At this point I’m really starting to get sick of Queen. Hope it doesn’t go on too much longer.”

Aziraphale stood before his desk, book lying innocuously on the blotter. He wore the thickest gloves he could find and – just to be safe – had rolled his sleeves up past the elbow. He still approached it with extreme caution.

One finger carefully tapped the spine, pulling away instantly.

No sparks. No chills. No cloud of demonic energy.

Just a perfectly ordinary book, really.

With feather-light touch, he brushed his fingers down the cover. Leather-bound, deep red-brown. Hopefully normal leather, but you never knew with demonic books, or for that matter certain obscure human texts. Sturdy and thick, the binding worn through in a few places just enough to indicate irregular use. No title, but gold pressed into the leather formed some sort of broad-leafed plant. Nothing he recognized.

Lifting the cover, he inspected the pages inside. Thick, rough paper – the edges a bit uneven and ragged in places. When he leaned close to inspect them, he detected the distinct dusty scent of old book, with just a hint of spice.

It seemed that Gabriel was correct. Nothing suggested the book was dangerous to touch.

Aziraphale set his armchair beside the desk and settled in for some proper investigation.

The first step of his process: Aziraphale turned to a page at random. He liked to think providence was guiding him to the first clues.

It looked much as that page he’d glimpsed during Gabriel’s visit, yet also entirely different. Small, curving letters – a bit like calligraphy, half unical, he thought, perhaps English or Irish – arrayed around complex illustrations of green plants on one side, and something that might have been an insect on the other. The artwork was immensely detailed, with subtle color variations, but resembled nothing he had ever seen.

The text was also strange, the longer he looked at it. He skimmed the page looking for patterns, groups of letters that appeared together more than once. Nothing. There were distinct words, all between four and seven characters, but each was unique. And the characters each looked sharp and clear and perfectly uniform in size, but there was variation, each uniquely formed, as if handwritten.

He turned the pages, sheet after sheet, looking for anything he recognized, leaning closer as he read. Sometimes a word would look almost familiar and then – no, it was gone.--

(The horror movie Aziraphale mentions is supposed to be “The Haunting” but I got it a bit confused with other movies from the late 90s. The mysterious writing and diagrams are loosely based on several mysterious texts, most notably the Voynich Manuscript.)

#good omens prime #good omens fanfiction #good omens #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #good omens fanfic #aziraphale and crowley #aziraphale loves crowley #crowley loves aziraphale #current wip #my writing #ao3fic #ao3 link #the whole truth

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thewriterslament · 6 years ago

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writing a resume from scratch

as with literally everything i write, this got really fucking long! like, wordcounter.net estimates this will take 7 minutes to read. so i’ve placed the bulk of this post under a read more

this is not a quick tips kind of post; this is a detailed breakdown of how to write a resume from scratch, with examples that are largely taken from my own resume. this is primarily a resource for people who don’t know where to start with writing a resume, not for people who just want resume hacks

i’m saying all this so i don’t get people in my inbox complaining about how long this is. writing a resume takes a lot of time and effort, and this post does not shy away from that

creating a resume will take you a while, especially if this is your first attempt. don’t be discouraged! take breaks, and don’t try to make the perfect resume on the first try. this tutorial is designed to be completed in rounds

it usually takes me a week to get a new master resume into working order

don’t worry about page length right now. you should make a multipage master resume that contains every relevant experience before making a 1-page resume. after you’ve made the master, you can build custom resumes from it for job applications

this post is best viewed on desktop, because i use nested bullets, and tumblr mobile hates those

let’s get into it!

step 1:

list out everything you’ve ever done that could feasibly count as a resume entry: extracurriculars, jobs, volunteer positions, research, organizations you were a part of (professional or casual), freelance work, long-term hobbies. i will refer to each different experience as an “entry”

for each entry, write where (city + state) and when (timespan) you did that thing

ex. tritones a cappella group, los angeles, ca, august 20xx - present

going forward, update this list as you join or complete new jobs/hobbies/whatever so that you don’t have to wrack your brain a year down the road wondering how long you held down that job or leadership role

step 2:

describe each entry

use bullet points to list out all the things you did within that role. start with the big picture, then move on to the small stuff

big picture: the goal of the role/organization/research, overarching and long-term projects, what results you were trying to achieve + why

ex. “studied the neuroanatomy and synaptopathy of the inner ear to determine the role of glutamate receptors in hearing loss”

small stuff: literal day-to-day tasks, every software and hardware you worked with, any particularly successful moments

basically, walk through a typical day or week in this role and list out every single thing you have to do, even the grunt work.

ex. “used redcap to administer neuropsychological batteries and collect biological data”

ex. “designed and implemented a novel article format that yielded a 10% increase in audience retention”

if you still have access to the original job posting or a corporate description of responsibilities for your role, pull that up and see how much you can paraphrase from it

no duty is too stupid rn. did you google weather forecasts for your boss every week? write it down. you can make it fancy or choose to delete it later

step 3:

fancify this shit

rewrite your bullet points from step 2 with better jargon. tell your employers what you did in a concise yet assertive manner

it helps to break down each point into its most basic components, which you can then generalize or rephrase

ex. “googled weather forecasts” might become “compiled weekly reports on changing data points to assess weather trends over time”

use action words. you can find resources all over the internet for this, but if you’re still struggling, shoot me an ask and i’ll link some of the resources i’ve used myself

caution: you don’t want to sound like you used a thesaurus on every word. make sure you aren’t obscuring the meaning of your bullet points. “googled weather forecasts” should not become “utilized online databases to assemble weekly communications on meteorological variations”

start thinking about how your responsibilities for each entry relate to a) what skills you want to showcase and b) what the employer wants from you. does the employer want you to demonstrate familiarity with online databases, or does the employer want you to demonstrate familiarity with weather forecasts? your bullet point for “googled the weather” will change depending on the answer to these questions

step 4:

look at the big picture

you probably have a metric buttload of bullet points for each entry. now you need to cut that down to what’s relevant. think about which bullets are most impressive, noteworthy, and descriptive of each entry

aim for 3-5 bullet points. any less than that and you have to ask why you’re including that entry. any more than that and the employer’s eyes will glaze over

try to combine bullet points

ex. “identify content and write articles when necessary,” “maintain a pool of freelancers,” and “identify key graphics and maintain tagging structure when uploading articles” all involve the process of creating an article, so they can be combined into: “identify content, assign stories to freelancers, write articles when necessary, and upload with appropriate graphics and tags”

start thinking about tailoring your word choices and bullet points to what the employer is looking for

if you can, pull up the job posting or a sample resume for the job you’re applying to and compare your resume to it. are you using similar language? are you demonstrating similar skills?

jobhero.com is a lifesaver

finally, eliminate redundancy in your resume, both in every individual entry and in the resume as a whole. if a skill can be demonstrated by multiple entries, you only need to list it once

kill your darlings! it may sound harsh, but the things that seem super impressive to you probably won’t even be a blip on the employer’s radar. “but saying i made coffee runs shows i’m dependable and a team player!” the employer isn’t looking that deep, my dude. you can showcase your dependability in your cover letter or your interview

you should redo steps 3 and 4 several times, soliciting feedback from your parents, peers, career center, etc each time

step 5:

add the Other Stuff

education

typically, you should only include institutions for the highest level of education you’ve attended. (undergrad and grad school both count as college for this purpose)

there are exceptions to this, depending on how long you’ve spent at a higher level of education, whether your alma mater will earn you brownie points, whether you had genuinely impressive accomplishments earlier in your life, etc.

once you hit, like, 2 years in college, you should try to get rid of high school achievements and showcase college achievements instead

list the school name, city + state, degree type (BA/MA/etc) and expected graduation date (even if it’s in the future), your major(s) + minor(s), and any related coursework (ie preprofessional tracks, specific courses related to the job). you can list your gpa if you feel it’s relevant, but i caution against doing this once you’ve graduated

ex. (where // indicates a new line) harvard university, boston, ma, may 2020 // bachelor of arts in cognitive neuroscience // minor: english: focus in creative writing // related coursework: pre-medicine, computer science 101 and 102 // gpa: 3.9/4.0 (dean’s list, all semesters)

skills

a list of items without descriptions. you can do a bulleted list or you can list the entries in paragraph form, separated by commas or bold bullets

hard skills: hardware, software, languages (spoken and programming), digital and communication platforms, social media proficiencies, other technologies and devices

ex. microsoft office suite, java, wordpress, slack, familiarity with ap and chicago style

soft skills: general qualities, buzzwords, personality traits

ex. leadership, conflict resolution, time management

certifications and awards

can be one section or two depending on how many of each you have

list each one on a separate bullet point

for each, write the certification or award, the institution that granted it, and the month and/or year you received it if relevant

publications

tbh i just cite my publications in the following format instead of following a style guide

lastname, firstname. “article or chapter title.” book title, publisher (aka company or website). publication date.

if you’re the sole author, you don’t need to list the author’s name

interlude: stretch the truth a bit. don’t lie about having experience or skills you don’t, but if you can reasonably google how to do something, boom! you’re proficient in it. if you worked with two team members who never pulled their weight? you just became the sole project lead. were you a beta reader for anime fanfiction back in the day? you’re a freelance editor, baby!

step 6:

now you have to organize all the entries from step 4

separate your entries into relevant sections. what’s relevant might change based on what you’re applying for

i’ve had, at various points in my life, some subset of the following sections: work experience, volunteer experience, leadership experience, research experience, writing experience, other relevant experience

list sections in order of descending importance

write all entries in reverse chronological order: start with the most recent and work your way backwards

write all bullet points in order of descending importance. unfortunately, i don’t have any quick tips on determining what’s important, but it helps to look at the job posting and see what matters to the employer

i tend to list big picture goals, then personal accomplishments (leadership skills, projects), then daily tasks

step 7:

format this shit

you can find resume templates online or in your word processor. templates serve as a good starting point, but i recommend creating your own format so you can edit and customize it with ease. this will probably involve a lot of fiddling with indentations, paragraph spacing, and moving things around

don’t go smaller than 10pt font

mess around with line and paragraph spacing to get the right balance of white space. if you’re curious about what i use, shoot me an ask and i’ll share my weirdly specific settings

keep an eye out for bullet points with orphan words (ie lines containing only 1-3 words) and get rid of them to streamline your resume

margins can be anywhere between 0.5″ and 1″

consistency is key! make sure each entry has the same kind of spacing. don’t use hyphens in one entry and en dashes in another

in the header, write your name, email, phone number, and address

interlude: save this version of your resume as your master resume. this gives you an unedited list of everything you ever did that you can now pick and choose from when you apply to jobs. update this list every 3-6 months.

step 8:

customize your resume for the job application

unless you’ve been in the industry for several years, your job-specific resume should be no more than 1 page

if you have more than 1 page: compare the job listing and your resume side by side and ask which entries demonstrate your capabilities most effectively, which bullet points are the punchiest, and if there’s any extraneous info

match each job requirement to one bullet point on your resume. then match each bullet point on your resume to a requirement in the listing. get rid of any bullet points that don’t meet either of those criteria. if multiple bullet points match the same job requirement, get rid of the extra bullet points

if you have significantly less than 1 page: see if you can add more bullet points or reformat your resume to introduce some more white space. a 2-column set-up is great for this, with section headers on the left and bullets on the right. do you have any hobbies you’re forgetting about? any soft skills you could add?

emulate the language of the job posting; use the same action words, the same soft skills

coda

your resume should work in tandem with your cover letter, but that’s a topic for another post. maybe in another 6 months i’ll write a post on that, too

always save your resume as a pdf! you don’t want your employer to have access to your metadata

if you made it through this whole post... i’m so sorry lmao but also thanks for sticking with me

let me know if you found this helpful or if this method scored you a job!

#studyblr #adulting #adulthood #job hunt #job applications #applying to jobs #resume #resume writing #studyspo #study blog #mine

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lotustories · 5 years ago

Text

Define: Love

Pairing: Jungkook x F. reader

Type: fluff, angst, possible smut

Warnings: rude behavior, vulgar language, mentions of alcohol use and sexual activity

Chapter Navigation

Chapter 3

“I want everybody to grab a syllabus and a partner and discuss it.” Your music professor shouted. The girl before you passed back a few papers. You grabbed them, passing one to the boy next to you who shyly grabbed them. Too nervous to find a partner you sat there quietly, reading it to yourself before a voice interrupted you. “Do you want to partner?” His voice soft, almost inaudible. You met his eyes, giving a small smile as you nodded. “I’m Yn.” You Introduced yourself, the kid smiling in return. “Yoongi.” He positioned his body toward you. “Sorry for asking, they’ll quiz us on each other to see if we spoke to our partners. I saw you didn’t find a partner and I really didn’t want to get up.” You shook your head. “No, It’s fine. Im just terrible at starting conversations.” You admitted and he smiled bigger. “I understand that. I probably wouldn’t have spoken to you if not for the quiz.” He admitted. “So what made you take this class?” You asked and he perked up. “I love music. I really want to be a producer.” You listened, he went on for a few minutes talking about how music is his real dream, but he was also taking architecture as a fall safe. “I’m more into writing, but music was a passion of mine since I was little. This is more for fun. I really want to learn how to expand my writing and learn backgrounds to music.” You paused. “Producing seems fun, but I’m not sure I’d be any good at it.” You finished and he smiled. “I mean, you won’t know if you don’t try. This class is mainly based around our interest. She usually sections class into three parts. Well learn about lyrical composure first, then we learn about beats or sampling and how to incorporate it into your work, and then producing which mashing it all together.” He beamed. “Well maybe one day we can write a song together. I write, but I also sing.” He bit down on his smile. “I produce, but I also rap.” The professor rang her bell, everyone’s attention turning back to her. The class ended quickly, you exchanged numbers with yoongi and went to your next class. Psychology. Most the seats were filled already, except one in the very back. You didn’t recognize the person next to it until you got closer, but it was too late. Class was starting so you sat down quietly. Trying your best to not bring attention to yourself. The entire class you tried your hardest to not look at him or meet his eyes. you had psychology clas with jungkook. He hated you already and you were seated next to him. All professors went by the You sit in it, it’s your seat until the end of the school year. “I want everyone here to prepare themselves for a partnered project in a few days. You will partner up with someone in here, pull from the hat on a topic. One of you has to agree and the other has to disagree. You’ll discuss why you agree with the topic, why you think that way, and you’ll understand why the other disagrees and why they think that way. I’ll go into more detail when I’ve prepared more topics for you, but just know it’s coming and it should run a month. Yes,” she fake gasped as she stopped explaining. “It’s a month long project.” She mocked. “So i suggest whoever you get partnered with, you take the time with each other to become friends.” You’re dismissed, jungkook rushes out from his seat to leave. Dropping a slip from his folder as he ran off. By the time you reached down to call for him, he was gone. The piece of paper in your hand, your peeked. Jeon Jungkook, please make your payment for camera repairs. Due date: 14 days from notice received. Failure to do so will result in pawn. Amount due: $605.98

The camera you broke. The notice was sent a couple days ago he only had a week or so to claim his camera or else it would be pawned. You looked for a number of any way you could contact jungkook, but it was useless. The slip only contained the information for the shop. Finally leaving the room and with your classes being over for the day. You headed back to your dorm, unfortunately you ran into Jada before you could reach it. “What’s this i hear about you going on dates, with Jimin nonetheless.” She stopped you, her eyes shooting daggers through you. “Uh, who said that.” You played stupid. She only rolled her eyes and swallowed her attitude. “Jimin is off limits. If you’re going to date, date your own grade.” She snarled before walking off. Bitch. When you entered your building Jimin was on his way out, stopping as he noticed you. The biggest smile plastered across his face. “Hey beautiful.” He hugged you. Pulling you into tightly as you squealed. “How were classes?” He sighed, his classes were barely starting. “They were good, are you barely going?” You motioned to his books and he nodded. “I don’t wake up as early as you.” He licked his lips, leaning down to press a kiss to your cheek. “I have to go, but maybe we can hang out after?” He ran off before you could answer. Your classes ended so early, you had no extra club, so you decided to explore. So many shops were hiring, they seemed to be on every other door. A shop in particular caught your attention, you opened the door to a old school 50s themed restaurant. It was pretty much empty, but most kids were in class right now. “Good morning, Welcome to Vixens. Take a seat and I’ll be right with you.” Their voice chimed. “Uhm, hi. I was just wondering. Are you still hiring?” You questioned and they immediately looked up. “Oh god yes.” They laughed rushing over to you. “Hi, my name is V. I own the shop.” They clasped your hand in theirs, shaking it slightly aggressively. “We are desperately hiring, are you interested?” They started, speaking quickly not letting you answer. “It’s 14.50 an hour. It would be from noon to 8.” They paused, but before you could speak they continued. “Weekly Pay plus 100% of your tips.” You couldn’t help but smile. “Do I need an application or is it online?” They immediately pulled you into a hug. “Don’t need it, you’re hired.” V pulled you toward the back of the restaurant, sorting through paperwork for you to fill out, handing you a uniform and some name tags. “You can write your name on them, and I hope the uniform fits. If you need a different size, I can order them.” V slid a packet over to you. “Since were a restaurant on campus, I just needed your student ID. The forms auto fill after that. You can start Thursday.” You looked outside to the two customers entering. “Will you be okay today? You seemed kinda relieved when I said I was looking for a job.” You joked. V smiled and pushed you out the door. “The first week of classes we’re usually slow. Next week is when I’ll really really need the help.” Ushering you out the door, you laughed at their energy. 2:50pm. You had no clue what to do now, you finished class, applied and got a job, but now you had the rest of the day ahead of you with no clue as to what to you.

You: when are your classes over?

Jimin: not til 7 princess, what’s up?

You: nothing, just don’t know what to do lol

Jimin: find the courtyard. There is usually activities like dance and music until 9.

You: what would I do without you?

No reply.

You tried your best to find the courtyard with the terrible signs the school offered. The sound of music and cheering ringing in your ears as you edged closer. There was a group of kids surrounding one kid dancing. Popping his body to every beat, not missing one. You instantly became mesmerized by him. Watching him dance effortlessly to every song that came on. The variation of music and his ability to dance to whatever was admirable. The entire time he smiled, if you could tell anything from watching him. It was that dancing was his passion. “Hoseok,” a voice made you jump. “You scared me.” you relaxed when you noticed amber. “You’ve been staring at him non stop since you started standing here.” She laughed. “He noticed.” She whispered, just as she said that he looked over to you. His eyes meeting yours immediately making you shyly look away. “He’s cute, he goes to our parties every now and then. Not much of a hookup guy tho.” She wiggled her brows. The music changed and her eyes widened as she looked up to the figure standing near you now. “Hi, hobi.” She smiled. Your head snapping to the boy in front of you now. His heart shaped smile making your stomach drop. “Amber.” He nodded to her. “And you are?” He smiled down at you. For a moment you forgot how to speak, but amber covered. “Our newest addition. Yn, unfortunately you have to attend Saturday’s party to know more.” She dragged you away. Hoseok smirking at her tactic as he watched you be dragged away. “Party Saturday?” You asked and she nodded. Her arm around your shoulder as she walked you back toward the main campus. “Yes, don’t worry it starts later than our last one.” She stopped in front of a coffee shop. “I have work,” she sighed. “Oh! And try not to get into trouble with Jada. She has liked Jimin for the longest. He won’t give her the time of day, but he seems to really like you already.” She watched your carefully. “She is the petty type.” She waved you off before entering the shop and disappearing. You looked around. Unfamiliar with the area. Where the fuck am I. You spun around a few times, trying to find signs that led you back to your building but all you could see were more restaurants. “You look very much lost.” A voice called out from behind you. Turning your eyes met with the cute barista from your first day. “Joon, right?” He smiled, walking closer to you. “I never got your name.” He stopped in front of you. His work apron in his hand, dressed in his uniform. “Yn, hey.” You started looking at the signs again. “I’ve never been this way. How can I get back to the co-ed building.” You looked around and he snickered. “You can go this way.” He pointed behind you down the pathway. “Think of the school as a giant circle.” He smiled. “If you walk with me to work, it will be just a few more minutes down the way.” He started walking and you followed behind. “So, co-ed huh?” He threw the apron over his shoulder. You hadn’t realized how tall he was until he stood beside you. “Yeah, it was what they gave me.” He nodded. Looking down to you while you spoke to him. “Freshman or sophomore?” He paused. “Freshman, nevermind. You wouldn’t have been lost if a sophomore.” He teased. “I haven’t really had time to explore. I never went on a tour.” You groaned and he laughed. His laugh was somewhat horse yet soft. It was warming. The familiar cafe signs came into view and you knew your walk was coming to an end. “Just keep walking down this pathway and you’ll eventually come back into your building.” He pointed down the campus. “It was nice talking to you, hopefully you’ll visit me at work some day.” He gave a soft wink before leaving you to go to work. Watching him slid his apron on quickly and effortlessly over his head. You made your way down the path he pointed and like he said, you eventually ran into your building.

Your first day of classes has gone unexpectedly well. Aside from getting lost occasionally, school has become a fun place for you to be. You’ve met so many new people. You weren’t even sure you wanted to go to school in the first place. everything was going to well, But was college going to be like this throughout the rest of the year?

#bts au #jung hoseok #jung jungkook #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #kim taehyung #min yoongi #park jimin #bts #jungkook angst #jungkook fluff

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angrylizardjacket · 6 years ago

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people change {Vince Neil}

@champagneandspice asked: hey! I adore your writing!!! could u please do a one shot but in the form of an article ? you’d be writing it as if you worked for people magazine or something like that. could u pls write ab the “speculated rumors” ab vince and I dating are true?? u could insert pictures or whatever u like. thank u <3

A/N: 2065 words. I love!! This style!! Of Writing!! also probably not what you were asking for, but i had fun and i hope you do too. i really sort of like this world/reader persona i’ve built?? i even added a few pictures for effect lmao. hope it’s enjoyable. i don’t usually do tags for one-shots but @cosmicsskies and @crazylittlethingcalledobsession asked and im too giddy to refuse.

WHAT THE F*** DO YOU THINK? - Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts newest guitarist Y/N Y/L/N spotted getting cosy after Crüe’s Atlanta show last Saturday? Does this hint at a collaboration between two bands, or is this more personal than professional? [Read more on Page 10...]

“What the f*** do you think?”

If you’re a woman working in or around the rock and roll music scene in the past half a decade, you’ve probably heard these words, or some variation of them, if you’ve come within a ten foot radius of the glam metal juggernauts Mötley Crüe; Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, and their blonde, boyish singer Vince Neil. They’re crass by reputation, however this is unsurprisingly true to life, though if you were interested in reading an expose regarding the number of gigs they’ve done while high, or how many hotel rooms they’ve set fire to, there’s innumerable gossip rags and magazines covering those particular scandals, including at least two Rolling Stone articles in the past two years, and we’re not here to retell old stories.

When attending their concert in Atlanta last week, which I highly recommend; if given the opportunity, and you enjoy their music, see Mötley Crüe live, they give an almost unparalleled live performance, in my humble opinion as a music journalist of almost a decade, I was fortunately privy to the moment that sparked debate and controversy within the rock music gossip sphere. After the show, while I was made to wait at the stage door, their manager Doc Mcghee was kind enough to invite me to the afterparty. There, at the stage door, restless fans were held at bay, young men in black leather pants, emulating their idols, young women in barely anything at all, there to catch attention and garner the same invitation that I had received, and when the band themselves appear, it’s as if the gates of Hell had opened; the screaming I heard, ladies and gentleman.

First through the doors is Mars, already looking like he needs a shot or a nap, and he dodges more than one bra thrown his way, giving me a longsuffering look as he passes. To be that exhausted by fame is on a level I can’t even begin to comprehend. He’s on the tour bus which will take us to the hotel bar for drinks almost before anyone else is even out of the building.

Next comes what the fans have affectionately dubbed ‘The Terror Twins’, Sixx and Lee, both carrying a beer each, followed by several very pretty women who head to the bus whilst the musicians take the time to say high to their fans, signing various body parts and generally taking the time to interact with the more hardcore of their following who were waiting in the cold night air. They’re enough of a distraction that one might have missed the final band member, Vince Neil, laying uncharacteristically low, and who had actually been preceded by a surprising figure; Y/N Y/L/N, the most recent addition to Joan Jett & The Blackhearts as their rhythm guitarist.

And this, dear readers, is the moment I decide to write the first gossip piece of my life.

As someone who regularly set fire to the copies of Hollywood Star my then-housemate had been getting delivered to our apartment back when I first began my journalistic career, the idea of writing an article based on speculation about the sexual conduct of celebrities was an idea I rejected out of hand. I’d told myself I had integrity.

But then my proto-punk loving heart betrayed me, as I recalled Y/L/N’s lyrics from my favourite song of her’s, Sucker Punch, ‘speculate / scream my name / my heart, my love, baby it’s a game / they call me heartless, fancy-free / as if anyone’s meant something to a girl like me’. Y/L/N has been credited as the sole writer for the single, under her band at the time, Nuclear Patricide, who had garnered a cult following that has been credited as an idol for Joan Jett herself. After the Nuclear Patricide’s split in early ‘83, it’s been relative radio silence from the writer and lead guitarist until Joan Jett & The Blackhearts announce her as their newest addition, and she’s been with them for almost two years since.

[ID: Stills from Nuclear Patricide’s music video for Sucker Punch, 1980, known for the appearance of then-break out star Jamie Lee-Curtis. Editor’s Note: Y/L/N did not appear in the music video herself.]

So, upon seeing Y/L/N trying to keep a low profile whilst exiting a gig she clearly was not playing at, without any of her own bandmates to keep her company, I must confess I began to wonder, to speculate about the nature of her relationship with Mötley Crüe. She’s adamantly and publicly denounced romantic relationships in her work and in her public appearances up until her split from her original band, so has anything changed in the past few years?

Back at the hotel, I find myself weaving in amongst groupies and fanboys. My dark jeans and leather jacket act as a camouflage in this den of debauchery; I’ve worn professional clothing to this kind of thing before, and it usually doesn’t go over well; if the band sees a reporter there’s a sense of immediate hostility in what’s meant to be a safe space, relatively speaking, however, I’ve found that blending in, and making it clear I’m not on the offensive makes them drop their guard enough that they’ll give an honest interview.

At least until a pretty girl walks past.

Neil and Y/L/N are nowhere to be spotted as I finally take a seat with a table that has neither cocaine nor a woman on it, and once I’ve ordered a drink and looked over my notes, someone actually joins me of their own accord. It’s Tommy Lee, who, to my surprise, recognises me from the last time Crüe had played in town.

He talks about the tour, about how exciting it’s been and how he loves Atlanta, but he’s losing focus very quickly, not surprisingly since his name is being called by other tables every few moments, and there’s a faint dusting of telltale white powder around his nose. He promises ‘see you ‘round’ [sic] and then he’s off again. However, it’s as he leaves that I spot Y/N coming from a room by the back of the bar, and I make my move.

Mars has, as I’ve been told, already retired for the night, Lee is up to his eyes in cocaine, Sixx already has his dick out under his table judging by the look of him, and Neil is surprisingly MIA, so Y/L/N is easy to spot as the odd one out.

Not nearly as f***ed up or strung out as the rest of them, I watch her order a jack and coke, and down the drink mere moments after receiving it, before she turns to me. It takes her barely a second before she correctly identifies me as a reporter. I ask if she remembers meeting me, back in ‘82, she says no, but that she can pick a reporter from a mile away.

People still fawn over her, pretty girls and pretty boys alike, her aloofness drawing them in, and I’d forgotten how overwhelming it was to be this close to her. She kicks a fanboy and a groupie who are messily groping each other out of a booth and we take their seats.

This is meant to be about Mötley Crüe, and I try to tell her as such, but she just gives me a thin smile.

“Then why did you come find me?”

And she gives me that stare, you know, the one from the cover of Nuclear Patricide’s final album, Treason Is A Girl’s Best Friend. It’s that piercing stare of hers that makes you feel like she knows everything you’ve ever done wrong in your life.

I ask about her relationship with Mötley Crüe, and to my relief she looks away.

She’s candid about admitting she’s travelling with them, but not touring, right up until I ask her about her relationship with each member of the band specifically.

“Mick’s fun; he’s very talented and easily riled up. They’re all very talented of course, but Mick’s dynamic, [because] of his age and everything, is interesting within the group [sic] and I enjoy watching it all play out. He’s smacked Tommy a few times.” I’m assured that nine times out of ten he deserved it.

She’s filled with glowing praise for both Sixx and Lee in turn, and even Doc Mcghee, but Neil she is oddly silent about. He’s the first of the band she’d met; he’d seen her play a few times with The Blackhearts and has admitted to enjoying her work in previous interviews when she’s been brought up, as the pair have been spotted together before. Well, she’s been spotted with the band before. Here is where she starts, to my surprise, to get antsy. So the rumours, which I had thought to be incredibly false given her history and general attitude, have more basis than she likes to let on.

And then she gets defensive.

He’s like cocaine; everyone’s doing him, it’s just the industry; no-one’s going to judge her for a fling. She does not appear to take comfort in the sentiment.

“People change.”

I ask her what she means. She refuses to clarify and leaves. Perhaps I pushed too far, but now I feel like a detective, and like I only have one more person I need to talk to. But perhaps I should have eased myself into talking about Y/L/N to Vince himself, but I’ll have to admit, between Y/L/N leaving and finding Neil, I may have done a bit of socialising with Sixx, which I recommend recreationally, and also if you have a high tolerance for most things.

“I don’t think we’re any of your f***ing business.”

Neil does not mess around, and apparently she’d already spoken to him about our earlier meeting. I leave it be, spend the night enjoying the festivities with Sixx and Lee when I can, leaving just before the sun comes up.

Some of you may be thinking this is dissatisfying, that you came into this article wanting me to confirm or dismiss the speculated relationship between Vince Neil and Y/N Y/L/N, but I can’t. Neither of them would speak to me, and I can only leave you with a list of things I saw that night, and you can make up your own mind.

- The room Y/L/N had exited from when I first spotted her is the same room Neil left less than five minutes later as we were talking. I went to investigate later; it’s a supply closet.

- After my encounter with Neil, and I’d stayed clear of them, whenever I would spot either of them, the other was almost always within arm’s reach. Make of that what you will.

- He definitely did a line of coke off her thigh at about three in the morning.

- I asked both Sixx and Lee about it. Lee’s response was ‘loud’ with something akin to a knowing smirk, and Sixx’s was ‘he’s a lucky bastard’ and when I ask him to clarify he just says ‘flexible’ and climbs to the next booth over where they’ve been asking him to do a line; I’m not even sure what to make of it, but personally I think it’s pretty damning.

- Readers, they were all over each other, I apologise for throwing my professionalism out the window for a moment, but if I’m being honest I couldn’t look to a secluded corner of the room without there being a 40% chance of seeing Vince and Y/N. It got worse as the night went on. Believe me.

So, while I don’t believe there is set to be a collaboration between Joan Jett and Mötley Crüe, I do come baring good news for those fans who had been speculating regarding Y/L/N’s relationship with the hair metal band’s lead singer. So are they together? Are they dating? Though neither party will publicly state anything, I’ll leave you with my thoughts, my observations, and the oft spoke words of the man himself;

What the f*** do you think?

#vince neil #vince neil x reader #vince neil imagine #motley crue #the dirt #the dirt imagine #motley crue imagine #nikki sixx #tommy lee #mick mars #the angry lizard writes

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mysticsparklewings · 5 years ago

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Sparkle By the Sea

Pardon me as I just barely squeeze a MerMay piece of art in. I'll be honest with you guys, I've been pretty lacking in artistic motivation since NaPoWriMo ended. Although if you've noticed my lack of uploads, you probably could've already guessed that. This isn't abnormal for the aftermath of a month-long challenge for me, especially with a brand-new video game calling my name at every moment of the day, but even so I feel like this particular motivation drought was a bit different. Part of it definitely had to do with the changes to DeviantArt that I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone of, but that's been more of me dreading seeing what the state of the community is than anything else. (However, I have noticed I'm not a fan of the new tag system over the old category one, as confusing as the category system could be sometimes.) Rather, I think this lake of motivation has more to do with the fact that being largely absent from all social media during NaPo reminded me...well, that I hate social media. This is really a bigger discussion for a journal or something, but suffice to say it did not feel good to realize just how many literal hours I had previously been spending trying to desperately to scrape up just a little bit of support on other social media platforms (namely Twitter), versus the more natural growth I see here on dA that also feels a lot more genuine and less forced/obligatory. I can't really explain it, but that reminder/realization really helped my brain slip back into a place where I felt like creating again. And with that, I'll transition into talking about the art and save the social media talk for, as I said, a journal or something later on. Naturally, I've been seeing a lot of mermaid art this month and every year I feel the urge to get in on the fun, though I know better than to try actually doing the MerMay Challenge (especially not this year after having just done NaPo), so I usually either do a one-off drawing or if I'm too busy with other projects I just skip it. But I was starting to feel that need to make art in my brain again and I've had a specific set of stickers from the dollar store sitting in my stash for quite a while now that more or less sealed the deal for me. How do these stickers fit into the mix? Well, I originally fell in love with/picked them up because they are mermaid-themed and absolutely adorable--See for yourself! And I thought they would make for nice decals in a book project since they're wall stickers and therefore repositionable with minimal adhesive-yuck. And at first, I thought maybe I'd end up making them into said hypothetical book project in time for MerMay...except that felt a little cheap in combination with my lack of uploads. Did I really want to come back with a book project featuring mermaids I didn't even draw? And for MerMay of all things? So I sat on the idea and left the stickers out where I could see them, and eventually I sat down and took a closer look at them. The art style, upon further inspection, actually didn't look like it would be too far outside my usual art-making realms...Most of the coloring looks a lot like watercolor, except for the skin which I thought was flat and smooth like alcohol marker and the glitter accents which from my perspective pretty much had to be digital, but could potentially be replicated with glittery/metallic supplies... And that was the moment the idea hatched. I decided I'd try drawing a mermaid myself in the same style. This would work for MerMay, have something to do with the stickers, and based on my plans would work well for me as a mixed-media project, which as I'm sure I've said before is where I think my artistic talent shines best. I thought the scariest part was going to be replicating the looser and less strict line style, and to a point it was, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I find it's usually kind of tricky to explain this, but really what this part of the process boils down to for me (if I'm replicating an existing style and not using my own), is really just studying the original artwork(s) and looking for patterns, then trying to stick to those patterns. For example, the style here features fairly large & rounded faces, and the hands are more like hand-shaped mittens (which was great news by the way because hands are always a pain in the butt for me), so I did my best to emulate those features. As per usual, I did start with a sketch, but I tried to keep it looser than usual, and then when I did the inking I started with my 0.2 Micron, again trying to keep things loose and no be too fussy if I could help it. Then I went back with a brush tip liner from Prismacolor to get more natural variation in the lines and to force myself to not have quite so much control over the line weight. I was also very careful with my choice of liners because I knew pretty much everything except the skin was going to see a lot of watercolors, which meant the lines had to be waterproof. And of course, I went with watercolor paper (my nice 100% cotton stuff this time) to make sure I didn't have any issues with blending or layering. Now, at this stage, I didn't know what I was going to do for the background, though I was leaning towards the idea of making one separately and placing the mermaid on top afterward, as sort of a nod to the original mermaids being stickers. But I wasn't totally sure yet. What I was sure of was how scared I was to just dive into coloring. The sketching and inking and gone so well I was thinking I was in for a rude awakening at any moment. So, just in case, I scanned my uncolored lines as a fall-back if I royally screwed up. With my paranoid mind set at ease (for the most part), I could begin with color application. I started with the skin since it was the easiest; Just one good layer of alcohol marker, leaving a little white space here and there like the artwork I was emulating. Although 1. The marker color turned out a bit darker than I was expecting and later blended too well with her tail, so I had to lighten it in Photoshop, and 2. because watercolor paper really soaks up the ink, I ended up with less white space than I thought I would. But beyond that, this step went off without a hitch. So then came the second-scariest part: The watercolor. I used a mixture of my Master's Touch watercolors and Mermaid Markers (yes, that was a very conscious supply choice ) and tried to take my time and be mindful of the color balance I was looking for. I'd decided ahead of time that I wanted to try and stick with a soft-ish palette like the original art, but I still wanted my choices to be different. Since yellow/gold is featured in the original but not used for a tail color, that's what I went with, and I opted for the blue-y-purple hair since a soft blue and purple are also prominent in the original and based on color-theory would be a nice contrast to the gold-orange tail. Though I did also try to get some pink in both the tail and the hair for a bit of unity and calling back to the pink in the original art. The trickiest part with the coloring was actually the tiny lips and blush spots. I ended up using a fluorescent pink for that turned out as more of a red originally and had to be touched-up via Photoshop because of that and also because of the lightening I did to the skin. It's more that it was a bit of a challenge to get the shapes of these much smaller areas right and in the correct place, since I had to use very minimal pencil markings, lest I end up with nasty graphite marks mixed into the paint. Getting the hair to be dark enough without being extreme compared to the rest of the drawing was also a great test of patience, but it ultimately worked out, I think. I also had a hard time deciding what color the piece of coral in her hair should be, which is why it ended up as this vague dusky-orange color. And I got more pink on the sand dollar next to it than I intended, but neither of those things is a huge deal. While I waited for all that to dry though, I had to decide how I was going to go about tackling all that extreme sparkle the original art had. I could have just added it in digitally and not even attempted it traditionally, but everything else had gone so smoothly that I decided to push my luck this time. Originally, I started with just glittery gel pens, but I found pretty quickly that they were sinking back into the colors underneath them too much and thus just weren't doing what I wanted. I wanted high-impact sparkle. After some brief consideration, I turned to the metallic watercolor sets I have made by Art Philosophy, which are very high-impact metallic and pretty opaque, which would work well over my failed gel pen and would work wonders for the areas where I wanted that high-impact over an opposing color. (I.E. Where I wanted the blue sparkle over a very orange-yellow area, which would normally make brown mud if the color on top wasn't opaque.) The funny part about that is that I originally used a different shade of purple and gold for those areas of sparkle that I ended up completely covering with different shades (the purple needed to be lighter and the gold needed to be darker/more gold and less yellow). And her eye shadow cover saw all three colors before I settled; The purple just seemed wrong, and the gold blended too well with her skin. I thought the blue wouldn't work so close to her blue hair, but it actually ended up looking the best out of the three. Although, I do have to make a full disclosure that the high-impact sparkle you see here is in fact where I went in and re-did it digitally once I scanned the artwork in. Unfortunately, glitter and metallic supplies just don't scan very well and usually end up looking too dark, dull, or flat by comparison. The metallic paints work just fine in person since you can move the art and see how they reflect the light, but it just doesn't work in a still image that's been captured by having a bright light uniformly shined over it. Still, re-tooling the sparkle digitally ended up being an interesting challenge, especially since it's been a fairly long time since I was messing with digital textures like this. Also worth noting is that I had to re-paint some of the metallic areas because they weirdly lifted off onto the plastic cover I used to protect the art when I pressed it onto the background to make the glue stick. I'm not sure if it's because those were the extra-layered areas and they hadn't fully dried all the way down to the paper, or if that particularly plastic just picks up this metallic paint really easily or what. And speaking of that background... Like I said earlier, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for a background for a while, but after reviewing my mermaid-centric Pinterest board I decided a simple rock seat and something to vaguely suggest the ocean/water without getting too detailed would suffice just fine. Based on that, I felt like using gouache would work nicely (and I just really felt like using the gouache since I don't find a lot of opportunities to use it) and that a color scheme that flipped her hair and tail colors would be best for the effect I wanted. I've found I really like the Strathmore 400 series mixed media paper for gouache because of how smooth it is, so I cut a piece down to size and got busy. For the most part, I just kind of went in with the colors doing whatever felt right, and trying to use some gouache I'd already mixed from past projects (since gouache can be reactivated and I've found this kind, in particular, seems to reactivate really nicely) either on their own or to mix the colors I felt like I needed. And I also tried to do a lot of blending straight on the paper to get more variations in color and make things a bit more lively. Oddly enough, this ended up being a good example of gouache's covering power because I accidentally started applying the colors upside down--using more greens and blues on top and more pinky-purple on the bottom--and not only had to flip the paper around but also had to do a fair amount of covering the colors I'd already put down with colors you don't really want to mix with them because they don't make very pretty results. But it worked out just fine, so yay! I also added some clouds for a little extra ambiance, which I think looks quite nice. Believe it or not, the most difficult thing about the background was the rocks. I spent far longer than I care to admit (or bothered to document, for that matter) trying and in many ways failing to mix the proper shades of gray I wanted, and the end result didn't turn out quite as clean and graphic as I had hoped, but by the time I put the mermaid on top, you really can't tell because you can only see a fraction of what's actually there. And I mean, the end result isn't terrible, it's just not quite what I was picturing in my mind's eye is all. Personally, I know it's kind of an odd choice, but I really like how there's no defining line between the water and the sky, and yet you still get a clear idea that they're separate and the rocks aren't just floating in space. I'm not sure how, but I think I'd like to work with this kind of ambiguity more often. It's like a step between abstract and more structured art. Anyway. With the background done, the next step was to attach the mermaid, which I felt like doing in a more 3D and less flat manner, so I chopped up a cardboard box that previously held a chocolate bunny I had on hand and glued some pieces together to boost the mermaid up a bit. This where those deep shadows between her and the background are coming from. Here I feel the need to insert a comment about how difficult it was to get my tacky glue to dispense the glue for me, though there's a chance this is because I need to poke the opening in the tip to be a bit wider. (You have to poke it open yourself and I always felt like I never did get it open quite enough...unless you like strenuous hand exercises...) Of course, once all the above was done then I had to scan the art in, which I was admittedly a bit nervous about after the incident with the plastic cover peeling off the metallic paint (though fortunately, the scanner glass didn't have the same effect), and then all that was left wad the digital retouches. Overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out. It doesn't blend in as well as I originally wanted it to with the original art, but in the end, that doesn't really bother me. It's just a nice piece of art on its own that is also unique from what I normally do...except it's still got a lot of similar elements to how I normally make art. It feels a lot like the days when all I made was fanart. The key difference here is that I know myself better as an artist now and thus can use that knowledge to my advantage. I can't promise this a return to regular posting for me, though I do hope it's a gateway to me posting more frequently at least, but I can say I do intend on getting back to working on art more often and therefore being more present online again. At the very least, I can happily tell you guys that I have a couple of new art supplies en route to me that I've been wanting for a while and am excited to share with you once they arrive. If nothing else, we at least have that to look forward to! ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

#mermay

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seenashwrite · 6 years ago

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Cards Against Supernatural: Sunday March 31st

◄ SUNDAY MARCH 31st, 7:00/7:15 P.M.-ish* CST ►

(* As always, this is not precisely when the game starts - we take a little time for everybody to get logged in & settled in chat, so feel free to come & hang out at Discord while you wait!)

If you see this? You’re invited. ALL SPN Family members who are at least 18 years & older are welcome!

💡 IF THIS WILL BE YOUR FIRST GAME WITH US, YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE IT’S GONNA BE YOUR JAM & VISIT CASPN HEADQUARTERS 💡

—> This is a mobile-friendly page and contains tons of need-to-knows —> This is NON-NEGOTIABLE FOR NEW PLAYERS

🌟 Post with link will go up closer to start of game 🌟

—> Make sure you are ready to go at Discord prior to game time so all you have to do is click-n’-chat! —> At the game site and on Discord (if you do not already have one), make sure you use your Tumblr name or a variation thereof so we know who you are - this prevents unnecessary confusion. 😁

🃏 Find out ways you can contribute to the decks, the most recent CASPN updates, quick tips for players, & how to join the tag list below 🃏

YOU CAN HELP MAKE THIS GAME BETTER!

Anytime you spot a great quote - and it will probably be on a gif! - that you think may work as a question/answer, shoot it my way and I’ll see if I can work it in.

Please include the season & episode number so I know which deck to put it in. FYI: We do not need any from seasons 3, 5, or 6 - those decks are complete or near completion.

UPDATES

On Skribblio…

This is a free online version of Pictionary that allows the host to input custom words - so we’ve been trying our hands at SPN-based drawings before CASPN starts, and it has been hilarious. If you have any ideas for words that are realistically draw-a-ble, feel free to shoot me an Ask with your suggestion. There will be a special chat set up for Skribblio separate from the CASPN chat, so if you decide to play, make sure you’re in the right chat. I believe the room limit is eight, otherwise you can jump in on the game even if it’s already in progress. Head over to the site (linked above) and get yourself set up ahead of time (your cookies will do the remembering from there on out). Recommend you use a mouse if you don’t have a pad/stylus - and be aware that the stylus will typically make a straight line “streak” across your drawing when you lift it from the pad, so I honestly think mouse will be better. * WE DON’T DO THIS EVERY SUNDAY, ONLY SOMETIMES! *

VERY IMPORTANT REGARDING VOICE CHAT

If you are going to participate in the voice chat over at Discord *PLEASE* make sure you are in a quiet place, and if you are unable to do so, kindly mute yourself and just listen until you are able.

Also, kindly mute yourself if you need to speak to someone on the phone/someone who is with you in person, and mute yourself if your environment becomes noisy - it happens! No worries! Just jump back in when that’s done/when it’s your turn to read

Have this set up and ready to go prior to game start, and ensure all other apps/messaging on your device of choice are muted.

If you are in voice chat just so you can listen because you can’t/don’t choose to read aloud, that of course is fine, but you need to have yourself muted, please, and communicate via chat that you need myself or someone else to read your hand.

TIPS & TRICKS FOR IN-GAME FAQs

(A kind reminder: most everything I/veteran players are asked in chat during games is covered at CASPN Headquarters)

Should your mic go out/no one can hear you in Discord, same thing applies as it does when you get duplicate cards/can’t choose a card over in the game - REFRESH! Just refresh the browser page for Discord, and give it a second, and it should remedy itself.

🏷️ Tag Me In The Future, Nash! 🏷️

TO BE TAGGED, YOU *MUST* SEND AN ASK! I will not tag you any other way, nor will I tag you if you’ve never played with us before. Them’s the breaks.

I AM UNABLE TO TAG ON THE DAY OF GAMES, suggest you look out for the post, come try the game on for size & if you enjoy it, kindly send an ask stating you’d like to be tagged after you know you like it & are able to participate in future games

IF YOU HAVE CHANGED YOUR NAME, it is YOUR responsibility to send me an ask - I will not track you down or assume you want to stay tagged

FOR THOSE WITH SETTINGS THAT PREVENT TAGGING, you do not have to follow me in order to participate, however I will not follow you just so I can tag you - I am following some CASPN players, however it is only when I find their content of interest or I was already following them prior to the original deck’s conception - if you want to be in the know about the game dates/times, I suggest you (a) follow me and/or #CASPN which is unique to the weekly games I run, or (b) make a side blog with standard settings that is purely for the purpose of being on this tag list (ex: “CASPN-[your handle])

Tag team, back again…

@salt-n-burn-em-all @abbessolute @ohio-cnk-80q3 @a-screaming-ghost @ericaprice2008 @butiaintgonnaloveem @idreamofhazel @winchesterprincessbride @bemyqueenofdarkness @revwinchester

* The Cannot Tags! *

It either (1) looks like the blog under this name is inactive, (2) you’ve changed your name and not told me, or (3) there’s a setting on YOUR end that prevents it.

- None presently -

NOTE: THE LIST HAS BEEN PURGED AS OF 3/31/19

❓ WHY AM I NOT TAGGED? you may ask ❓

Reminder: I’m taking roll at games so I can keep up maintenance on the tag list - if you aren’t participating often [read: approx. every 6 wks/6 games] & you haven’t let me know to move you to my “Hiatus” list, then you won’t be tagged on posts, but I’ll keep you on the CASPN tags page, listed at the bottom under the time frame you were removed.

It is possible I made a mistake if I get busy and neglect to c/p the roster frequently throughout the game - all you have to do is speak up. The biggest issue I have with keeping up is when you use some rando name in game that neither I nor any of the other players recognize. If you want to stay on the tags, you need to use a name I’ll know. Otherwise, I couldn’t care less, call yourself whatever strikes your fancy! :)

Want to be back on “active” status? Want to be removed altogether? No problem! Kindly communicate your wishes with me via Ask.

#CASPN #Cards Against Humanity #Cards Against Supernatural #Sunday nights #during season 14 #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days

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3wisellamas · 6 years ago

Text

Graffiti Wiener

(Oops, my recent fanfic kick spilled over from AT to OK KO. tl;dr: Darrell starts vandalizing the plaza every night and the bodega kids find it entertaining as heck. It’s very long, set aside some time for it. Also, disclaimer, don’t do crimes kiddos, yadda yadda yadda.)

It was early shift at Gar’s Bodega. Rad opened the store that day, looked at the relatively stocked state of the shelves from the day prior, and floated to the break room for a post-wake nap. Enid arrived second, and seeing nobody to keep her accountable she swiped an issue of Alt EDM Monthly from the magazine rack to peruse as she lounged on her counter. As usual, KO excitedly burst through the door last, waving at his mom as she parked the car to start her own day. But, this early on this quiet a day, his enthusiasm only took him so far into his cleaning duties.

It was too early to be at work, the three silently agreed. Then, as if a direct challenge to their morning ennui, their boss Mr Gar angrily smashed through his office door.

“KO! Enid!” He turned towards the break room door in the back. “Radicles! Front and center!”

The three slowly marched forward, Rad in particular taking a few extra seconds to come into the store proper, yawning. It was too early to be taking orders, the three silently agreed.

Their lack of enthusiasm only raised Mr Gar’s volume. “You three shape up and come with me. I got work for you.” He stomped towards the back of the store, out the loading dock, with his employees in tow. The four exited the building there, passed the trucks and the junkyard, and turned into the alley, where the sight that awaited them definitely made the early morning shift less dull.

Taking up almost an entire wall of the plaza alleyway was a large graffiti mural, unusually detailed and elaborate for the spray paint it was created with. The cans of paint in question had been carelessly discarded all over the alley afterward, simply left behind in what seemed like a hurry.

“Disgusting, isn’t it,” Gar sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose behind his glasses. “Someone vandalized the plaza last night, and today I’ve got two jobs for you!”

KO wasn’t listening. He immediately rushed over towards the wall to get a better look. “It’s so pretty!!”

“Yeah, this is pretty sick,” Enid agreed. “They did this in only one night?”

Gar snapped his fingers to regain their attention. “I have two jobs for the three of you. First, you’re cleaning up this mess.” He kicked a stray can out from under his feet, and pointed to a large bucket of white paint, a tray, and two paint rollers he’d set up underneath the mural. “I want every trace of what happened here last night gone, understand?”

“Yes sir, Mr Gar!” The three saluted enthusiastically.

“Good.” He paused. “KO, I only had two paint rollers and they’re pretty short, so you clean up the trash.”

“I’m on it!” KO gave a big smile, bouncing on his heels at the thought of having his own special mission.

“Now, the second thing…” Mr Gar leaned forward over his employees, to gain a more intimidating presence. “I want you three to come back here tonight, and keep watch over the plaza. If the creep who did this comes back, you’re to stop them at all costs. Understood?”

Enid and Rad looked at each other nervously, before giving their boss a shaky thumbs-up.

“If this wall isn’t sparkling white when I come in tomorrow morning, I am going to be very. Very. Disappointed in you.” He leaned back into his normal posture, and even a little further to crack his back. “Welp, time’s a-wastin’, Bodegamen. Get to work!”

All three shouted “Yes sir!” after him as he departed back towards the loading dock, leaving them to their tasks.

KO excitedly hopped around gathering spray cans, while Rad and Enid set up the paint tray. Enid in particular looked up at the mural again, studying the various scenes it depicted: A giant orange dragon along the top, who seemed to be desperately chomping and grabbing at a bunch of glittering technoes in mid-flight. In the center, a nondescript man in a cowboy hat riding a yellow horse, shooting what looked like a revolver at the dragon, and missing all six shots. Off to one side, a cute cartoony mouse glowing a gross nuclear green, and with what looked like toxic waste dripping from its mouth. On the other side, the artist’s tag, reading “DB” in simple, red block letters.

She sadly contemplated what she would soon have to do to the piece.

“So...who do you think could’ve made this anyway?” KO asked as he ducked between his friends to grab a paint can.

Rad didn’t even hesitate. “It’s Darrell. No question.”

“Are you sure?” Enid gestured towards the parking lot with her thumb. “I know he’s a graffiti wiener, but usually all he does is tag our sign every now and then. I didn’t think he was able to do stuff like...this.”

“You know any other graffiti wieners with the initials ‘DB’?” he asked, pointing towards the tag. He coated his paint roller in the tray, and raised it to the mural. “Welp, guess we better get paintin’.”

“Hold up a second, Rad!” Enid put down her roller and took several steps back, motioning for him to move aside. She produced her phone from her pocket and took several pictures of the wall, occasionally stepping to the right or the left to get a better angle. “It’s kind of a waste to just cover it up like this, you know?”

“Dude, Enid, it was painted by a Boxbot.”

“Oh well? I still think it looks cool.” She took one final picture, and then swiped back through them. “I’ve been reading a bunch of articles in Alt EDM Monthly about this DJ that also posts a ton of graffiti tutorials on Social Media, so I guess I’ve been on a real street art kick. And this…” She cropped a picture of the mouse portion. “...is my new lock screen.”

“Heh, okay then,” Rad scoffed.

She put her phone away and grabbed the roller again. “Alright, now let’s get to work.”

I didn’t take long before the whole wall was covered in two coats of plain white, letting through no traces of the graffiti underneath. The alleyway was spotless, with KO even finishing with the paint cans early and then using the time to collect the rest of the place’s usual debris. It was at least an eventful start to a dull early morning shift, the three silently agreed.

The late shift, though, was another story. Mr Gar had let his employees leave early to make up for coming back so late, and they were refreshed and ready for a Boxbot fight.

They took up a lookout position in a part of the fenced junkyard overlooking the alley, hiding behind a large pile of trash and robot parts. Enid checked the time, quietly signalling to the other two to keep their eyes open, but three hours later even she was ready to call it a night. Not even a tiny dinosaur had passed through the alley at all.

KO looked up at his friends and yawned. “I think we should just go home. I told Mommy we’d be out past my bedtime, but not this late…”

“You wanna take a nap, go ahead kiddo. I’m about there too.” Rad shifted to a slightly more comfortable position, not an easy feat in a pile of scrap metal.

“Guys, don’t stick me with lookout.” Enid continued scrolling through her Social Media feed to keep awake, not even paying attention to her duties at all.

They heard a metallic thump, and Enid looked up from her phone. “Rad, was that you?” She shook him awake when she got no response.

“It sounded like it was coming from the parking lot!” KO whispered. The three peeked out from behind their pile to see a hooded figure sneaking into view around the front of the plaza. The intruder kept nervously looking around to make sure the alley was clear, before jogging back to the site of their previous mural. The bodega employees couldn’t be sure in the dark, but it looked like the figure sighed as they laid a bright green backpack on the pavement and pulled back their hood.

The exposed brain case and large, single eye in the center of their forehead as they whipped their head around to do one last sweep of the area were unmistakable.

“Yep, that’s a Darrell.” Rad pulled the other two back behind the pile. “Ready to smash ‘im?”

“...You know what? Hang on a sec.” Enid grabbed Rad’s shoulder and held him in place. “We’ve still got that white paint, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then…” Enid let him go to peek at Darrell, squinting to see better in the dark. “I say we just let him go. I kinda wanna see what he does.”

KO peeked around the other side of the trash pile. “But Enid,” he whispered, “What about Mr Gar? Darrell’s gonna mess up the wall again.”

“We’ll just repaint it once he’s done.”

“Oh…”

Darrell dug in his backpack for a few moments, before finally pulling out the aerosol can he was looking for. He popped the top off, just letting it clatter along the pavement, and shook the can vigorously before laying down the first marks of a new piece.

“Orange!” KO excitedly whispered to the others. “He’s using orange first!”

“Yeah. Looks like he’s got a flame theme with this one,” Enid and KO both quietly got comfortable to watch the show.

Rad rolled his eyes. “I guess I just don’t get it.” He didn’t exactly stop watching Darrell work, though, from over KO’s shoulder.

The robot finished the base coat on the flames, and set the can down at his feet. He dug in his bag again and pulled out a can of yellow, and then a can of red, using them to add variation to the flat orange. With the flame background detailed, he placed the red can with the others and stepped back to take in his work. Satisfied, he dug for yet another can, and started painting black vertical bars across the entire canvas.

“Aw, what’s he doing?” KO pouted. “He’s ruining it!”

Enid clapped her hand over her little friend’s mouth as his whispering got just a little too loud for comfort. “Let’s just see where he’s going with this.”

As he started focusing on a portion of the canvas, though, Darrell suddenly started to act uneasy. He whipped his head around again, scanning the alley for anyone watching his efforts. The bodega trio ducked back behind their garbage pile just quick enough to avoid being spotted. He stared towards the junkyard for more than a few seconds, before finally turning back towards the wall and continuing with the black paint.

“Phew…” Enid held KO on her lap as Rad leaned back into the trash. He didn’t do so as silently as he’d hoped, though, and a small piece of scrap metal above his head loosened and dropped, loudly skittering across the ground as all three looked on in horror.

In the alley, Darrell jumped at the noise, throwing his paint at a nearby trash can. Like a startled rabbit, he bolted towards the parking lot, not even bothering to check what had made the sound. As he turned the corner out of sight, the trio heard his rocket boots activate and fade into the distance in the direction of Boxmore.

Enid released a breath she’d been holding for what seemed like the entire night, relieved she could finally do so without watching her volume. She and KO left their post to examine the fresh mural their archenemy had left behind, while Rad leaned against a clean wall nearby.

Between the black bars, Darrell had been painting a pair of hands gripping two of them when he was interrupted, one of which appeared to be melting and dripping down into the flames below.

“Huh. He’s a tortured artist. I like it.” Enid pulled out her phone again to snap pictures, using the flash to illuminate the area.

Rad, however, started investigating a much more intriguing target. “Hey, guys, look what he left for us!” He picked up the paint-filled backpack and draped it over his shoulder. He had forgotten to actually close it, though, and as he whipped it around about a dozen paint cans labelled in various colors fell out and scattered down the alley, which KO helpfully ran after.

“You guys, quit bein’ so loud!” Enid couldn't help but laugh at her coworkers’ antics, though.

“You’re one to talk, E.” Rad set the bag down between his feet and opened it wide. “Toss me one, KO!”

He did so, though his aim was a bit off. Rad quickly grabbed the tossed can in midair using his telekinesis, guiding it home. “Good shot, buddy! Keep ‘em coming!”

While the boys repacked the backpack, Enid got to work preparing the rollers and paint tray. It took just about as long as it had done earlier to apply the two coats and hide all evidence that anyone had vandalized the plaza once again.

“Just one thing left to do I guess.” Enid motioned toward the backpack draped over Rad’s shoulder. “Let’s toss that thing back across the street.”

Rad resisted. “Actually, I got a better idea. I’ll hang onto it for now.” He put on the backpack a bit more properly, with both straps around his shoulders.

“What, you repainting your van with that stuff?”

“Naw, you’ll see.” He smirked. “Besides, maybe if Darrell doesn’t have this he won’t be able to come back tomorrow night.”

“I don’t think that’ll stop him.” Enid sighed. “We might want to keep an eye out for him tomorrow too. Meet me here at midnight?”

KO and Rad agreed. The latter checked his phone, and groaned.

“Speakin’ of my van, yeesh. It is way too late. I’ll drive us home.”

KO looked up at the moon, barely visible over the alley wall above them. “Yeah…I definitely missed my bedtime.”

Darrell did return the next night, as the trio expected. This time he carried a light blue backpack, with an ‘S’ and a few of what were either flowers or tiny sawblades embroidered along the top. He was much more careful to make sure he was unwatched, however, to the point of even walking up to the junkyard fence to check behind the piles of trash.

Luckily, the bodega employees had taken up a new lookout spot on the roof, just above the wall Darrell had taken to painting. They peered down at him periodically as he worked, using the sound of his spray can to judge when it was safe to do so.

From that angle, it was difficult to miss the large crack in Darrell’s brain case.

“Hey, we blew him up today, right?” Enid whispered. KO nodded; this was definitely a different body than the one they’d chucked into the junkyard piece by piece earlier in the day.

The robot started spraying again, so Enid leaned over the ledge, checking his progress. So far, he had finished what looked like a portrait of himself, simplified of course, and with a sad expression on his face. Darrell stepped back, though with his eye luckily focused forward, and she noticed he was mimicking the expression on his real face. Then he looked down at his feet, searching for one of the colors he’d used previously, as Enid ducked back to safety.

“He’s getting a little more literal today,” she commentated to a curious KO. He took the next turn to lean forward, with Rad tightly holding onto his hand just in case.

As KO was pulled back, he quietly reported the next developments. “He started drawing...something around his head.” He looked down. “I couldn’t tell what it was yet.”

Enid scrolled through her phone. “Rad, you’re up.”

The alien peeked down for a second, then quickly leaned back. “He’s got teal. I think he’s drawing my fist,” he whispered, making one to illustrate his statement.

“That’s...weird. Is he drawing us fighting him?”

“I dunno, KO.” Rad took another peek. Looks like he’s got yours and I think Enid’s fists too. And a bunch of others…

“Let me see.” Enid set down her phone and took her turn once Darrell was distracted again below. There were indeed a number of arms ending in fists aimed at the painted Darrell’s head -- she recognized Rad’s immediately, and KO’s with his armband, and one plain human one that had to be hers, but there were also a bright orange one, one with a red glove, a catlike yellow claw, a couple of purple ones, and a green one. And a large open space at the very top, which she could barely examine before she needed to duck away as Darrell glanced up towards it.

The three stayed far from the edge for a while, just listening as he sprayed that final arm, which seemed to take longer than all the others. Eventually, the sounds of the robot shaking cans and spraying paint gave way to some sniffling. Then, the sound that they had been waiting for, as Darrell rustled through his backpack again, and all three leaned over the ledge to see the final result.

In that top spot was a bright yellow chicken claw, not just aiming at the painted Darrell but actually smashing right through his brain case, with bits of the green glass and even little fleshy chunks painted around the wound. The robot’s eye had also been painted over with a large black X. They momentarily glanced down at Darrell, who had stopped searching his bag and was wiping away a few tears.

The three ducked back, still silent. Enid looked at the boys, with an expression of horror.

“Okay, he’s a really tortured artist.”

Rad nodded. “This got dark.”

They were interrupted by Darrell shaking another can, this time much more vigorously. Rad held out KO to watch as he began haphazardly painting what eventually turned into a crude depiction of Lord Boxman’s face, finishing with his bright red eye. Darrell stood there holding the can of red for a moment, sadly looking at the second piece...and then angrily crossed it out. And then again, and again -- he wildly swung the can around while spraying, as if to assault the image with the paint. Eventually he threw the can itself at the image, and, still frustrated, even started kicking at the wall with his boot until he had finally vented all of his rage.

He stepped back again, picked up the can of red, and quickly finished the piece by placing his tag in the corner, in red block letters: “DB”. He then unceremoniously kicked aside the cans he’d used, put on the backpack, and ran out of the alley, leaving the area empty for the bodega employees to descend.

Enid once again snapped plenty of pictures of the wall as KO and Rad picked up the scattered spray cans, though this time without a backpack to catch them in. As the teens worked at covering the graffiti, Rad spoke up.

“Do you think this actually happened to him today?”

“Well…” Enid compared the damage she had seen from above versus the damage in the painting. “Maybe a super angsty emo-teen version of what happened to him today. Guess things aren’t going so great at Boxmore right now.” She looked down, and stopped. “Wait, shoot…”

There were bright red footprints going down the alleyway a short distance, from the mural site to the sidewalk in front of the fitness dojo before they finally faded, likely from Darrell’s boots as he ran. She remembered KO’s report of the robot kicking at the red paint and facepalmed.

“Oh geez. So much for cleaning up all the evidence he was here…” She ran her finger over one of the tracks. “It’s already dry.”

“Hang on, I think I know how to fix this!” KO searched through the paint cans he’d collected and found the black one. He slowly shook it as he’d seen Darrell do, then, holding it with both hands, pressed down on the top to spray a large black blob of paint onto the asphalt, covering the footprint fully.

Enid giggled, and patted him on the back. “Vandalism is wrong, Brush Head. But, good idea.” She found him a lighter gray can for the sidewalk, and let KO cover the rest of Darrell’s tracks while she helped Rad finish on the wall.

Darrell’s subject matter wasn’t nearly as dark the next night, or the night after that. They noticed from the roof that the crack in his head had been repaired, and he smiled and even hummed off-key as he worked, covering the wall in some more abstract, experimental images, like a door being shut in someone’s face with a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign hanging on it, and a princess tiara being chewed on by a swarm of rats, and a few frogs jumping around in a puddle of oil.

He seemed to be using the latter two to practice his shading, and even worked it into his “DB” tag, trying a gradient effect on the letters the fourth night, then a failed chrome effect the fifth night that he angrily painted over in plain red, and finally another attempt at the chrome on the sixth night that was a clear success.

Of course, every night after he finished painting the wall, the trio painted over it once again, though not before Enid could take a photo. She flipped through them at work on the seventh day since Mr Gar had tasked them with keeping the wall vandalism-free, until Red Action stopped her on one.

“Dude, this one’s sick!”

“I know, right? He’s actually getting really good.”

“Man, it’ll really stink when you guys finally make him stop in the alley.”

Enid shook her head, trying to empty out the cobwebs and process what she had just heard. “When...we make him stop?”

“Dude, you’ve been stayin’ up a whole week watching ‘im, right? That can’t be good for ya.” Red pointed out the dark bags under Enid’s eyes, and the fact that she’d dozed off at least twice since Red entered the bodega.

Enid recounted the number of graffiti murals she’d photographed. There were seven, it had been an entire week.

No wonder she was so tired.

Enid yawned after being reminded of the fact, watching it spread throughout the store as KO and Rad both copied her.

“We seriously have been up every night for an entire week, huh.” She pressed at her forehead. “Yeah, we gotta stop this.”

“I mean, it’s still cool and all, but whatever.” Red scoffed. “Probably for the best you just sleep and let ‘im go. You gotta take care of yourself more.”

“What’s Mr Gar gonna think if we don’t cover it up every night, though?” Enid shuddered.

“Well, that’s why you gotta chase him away!” Red unconsciously formed her hand into an arm cannon. “Just blast ‘im a couple times, like you do when they bust over here during the day!”

Rad interrupted from aisle 2, “I can blast him tonight no problem! Right in his robo-butt!”

Enid just shook her head, smiling. “Rad, please think before you open your mouth for once…” She finished ringing up Red Action’s order, waving her off as she left. With the store now empty, Enid’s coworkers gathered around the counter.

“So, we’re really gonna stop Darrell tonight?” KO yawned again.

“Yeah, bud. There’s no way we can keep this up.”

The other two were quiet, leaning against the counter to stay up. Enid was so tired she didn’t even care they were touching her sacred space.

Suddenly Rad seemed to realize something. “Hey, Enid, can I...try something tonight, when we see him in the alley?”

“Sure dude, what did you have in mind?”

“Remember when I took his backpack with all that paint, and I said I had a plan I was working on?”

KO lit up. “Oh yeah! You were gonna repaint your van with that stuff!” He laughed as Rad playfully punched him in the shoulder.

“No, squirt. I was gonna do somethin’ cool for us, but it might work better to try it on him tonight. You know, instead of just smashing his face.” He looked uncharacteristically serious. “The thing is, though...I gotta go get some stuff ready after we stop him. So, can you and KO hold him there for a couple of minutes?”

Enid and KO looked at each other, and nodded.

“Well, it sounds like we’ve got a plan,” Enid announced. The three put out their fists, bumping them across the counter. “See you guys tonight.”

For their final night of watching Darrell, the trio again hid in the junkyard, trusting that their target had relaxed enough to not look behind the trash piles again. To their relief, he didn’t, and as he arrived Darrell simply set down his backpack and began rifling through it for the right color as usual.

“So, when he tries to run…” Enid pointed towards the alley exit, on the parking lot side. “Rad, you’ll catch him, then pass him off to us. We’ll keep him here until you’re ready to go.”

Rad gave a thumbs-up, and readied himself alongside KO. As Darrell finally selected his can and started shaking it, he loudly shouted, “Hey!”

Darrell turned around, his eye widening in shock at the sight of the alien jumping out from behind a trash pile and floating over the fence, the other two shrouded in a pink glow as he brought them along too. He shrieked and bolted towards the parking lot, just as Enid had predicted, tossing the easily-dodged paint can in Rad’s direction. Rad’s finger glowed as he quickly grabbed the robot’s legs with his telekinetic powers, then the rest of him, and yanked him back into the alley, where Enid and KO grabbed his arms and held him in place on the ground.

“You good?”

“Yeah, go for it!” Enid adjusted her grip as Darrell struggled, and Rad sprinted away towards the loading dock.

“Stop it, Darrell!” KO used a free hand to pat him on the head, to the robot’s confusion. “We aren’t gonna fight you this time, okay? Rad’s got a plan!”

“Oh, so what, you’re gonna turn me in or something?” Darrell made another attempt to get free, but no success.

“No, you jerk. We wanna talk.” Enid paused, then experimentally loosened her grip to show she meant it. “You cool with that, dude?”

Darrell squinted. “...Really? Why?”

“Hang on, lemme show you something.” She dug her phone out of her pocket. “We’ve been staking you out here every night this week, to see what you paint. And, I guess to cover it up too before Mr Gar sees. But, we think it’s really cool, okay!” She turned on the lock screen, showing the nuclear rat she still had on it. “See? I took pictures of all of them before we cleaned them up.”

Darrell looked up at the phone and, appropriately, made a tiny, scared squeak.

“You’re...You’re gonna tell my dad I’ve been coming here, aren’t you?” He stopped struggling, instead sitting up a bit and curling defensively into his cloak. “That’s your plan, isn’t it? Get me in trouble again, for sneaking out after curfew every night, with proof?”

“No, dude!” She released her grip entirely, now that the robot was pacified. “We’re saying we like your art! Right KO?”

“Yeah!” The boy giggled. “I really liked the cowboy fighting that dragon, and that one with a lot of fire, and the snakes! They were all really beautiful!”

Darrell paused, unsure how to even react. “...R...Really? You...thought they were...cool?” He blushed, turning away from his archenemies. “You guys thought...I was cool?”

“Eh, you’re still kind of a nerd. But yeah, your art really is cool, Darrell.” Enid unlocked her phone and flipped through the photos again as he watched. “You’re getting really good. Where did you even learn to tag like that?”

“Well, there’s this DJ on Social Media who posts a lot of tutorials. I was just following those…”

“Nice.” Enid flashed him a thumbs-up, but then landed on the painting of Darrell having his brain case punched in. The robot shifted uncomfortably at seeing it again, averting his eye.

“Is...there some bad blood going on between you and your dad right now, Darrell?”

He sunk into his cloak a little more, shrinking into the space between his captors. “I don’t have blood,” the robot said matter-of-factly. “But...I guess I was having a bad day. You really saw that, huh?”

“Yep. All of it.” Enid shrugged. “Sorry.” She noticed Rad poking his head around the corner, beckoning them towards the back of the plaza. “Hey, come on. Rad’s got something for ya.”

“We don't know what it is,” KO added as he led the others, “but we know it’s not Lord Boxman!”

Darrell gave a small smile, and willingly followed the kid around the corner, gasping when he saw…

“My backpack!” He dropped onto the ground and hugged it. “I was looking everywhere for this thing!”

“That’s not the surprise, dude. Look up.” Rad stood proudly in front of three large shipping pallets, the kind the bodega received every day, all painted with the same white paint they had been using on the wall. He had them leaned against the loading dock’s door, a ready canvas begging to be painted.

“Wait, these are...for me?” Darrell stood, taking several seconds to process the situation.

“Look, buddy, graffiti-ing the plaza is...kind of illegal, but you weren’t really hurting anyone with it. And this way you’re not actually painting anything on the plaza, and if Mr Gar doesn’t like it he can just toss ‘em and I’ll get you some new ones.” Rad pointed to the pile of used pallets by the door. “Seriously, we have so many…”

Darrell snapped out of his processing. “So, I can come here at night...and tag these? And you guys’ll let me?” The bodega employees nodded.

He hugged his backpack tighter, not even bothering to hide the excitement on his face. But then he thought for a moment, and set the bag down, pulling out a few random cans of paint.

“Hey, um...If you guys want…” He held one up towards KO. “You wanna tag with me? Just, like this once…”

KO happily took the paint. “We’d love to, Darrell!” He glanced at Enid and Rad, who just smiled and obliged, taking cans for themselves.

The four each picked a portion of the canvas and got to work, not stopping until they started butting in on their neighbors’ art, and with the entirety of the three pallets covered they stepped back to admire the finished piece. They could only laugh together at how much the art clashed, from Radicles’ rough depictions of muscled teal cats, to Darrell’s abstract gears and wires, to Enid’s ninja clan logos and a “DJ Fireball” tag, to KO’s very rough but lovingly-rendered painting of him and his friend Baby Teeth riding a unicorn to a hot dog stand (as he described it to his confused audience).

Enid pulled out her phone to photograph the mural as this time Darrell scooped up the used cans into his reclaimed backpack, but as she was trying to get a clear shot Rad edged into the frame, standing in front of his section while contorting his face into the silliest possible expression. KO almost immediately followed suit, ignoring Enid’s attempts to get the two to move. Then Darrell backed into the frame as well, throwing an amazingly corny finger gun pose in front of his section, and Enid couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Rad?”

“On it.” He used his power to hold the phone up and tap the selfie button as Enid took her place and ridiculous pose as well, and once everything was in place he snapped the picture.

“That was perfect!” Darrell cried out, cracking up once again as he saw the final result. He put on the backpack, then nervously tapped his fingers in front of him as he tried to think of what one was supposed to say to their mortal enemies after genuinely having fun together for over an hour.

“Th-Thanks for...all this. Really. I’ll...I’ll see you tomorrow when I attack the plaza, I guess. Bye!” He smiled and waved as he ran around to the parking lot again, using his rocket boots to cross the street.

The others stayed for a bit, still admiring the graffiti, but then KO broke out into laughter once again.

“What’s so funny, kid?” Rad giggled a little along with him.

“You guys...we just hung out and painted a picture and took a funny selfie with a Boxbot. Friend-style!”

The other two sat up in shock.

“We...we really did, huh Brush Head?” Enid joined in, laughing alongside KO and Rad.

“Oh man, I kinda wish we could tell Lord Boxman without Darrell getting in trouble. I just wanna see the look on his face!”

“Don’t worry Rad, I bet he’d just be like…” Enid made a face somewhere between ‘seething rage’ and ‘just ate the sourest candy in the world’, to the others’ amusement.

The two picked themselves up and piled into Rad’s van, ready to finally call it a night for good.

“KO, Rad, and Enid!!” The three immediately snapped to attention in front of Mr Gar, but then looked on in pure terror as their enraged boss held up a blue embroidered backpack full of spray paint.

“Anyone care to tell me what this was doing in the alleyway this morning?”

“Oh.”

“Uh…” Enid and Rad searched for a way to explain the night’s activities, but then KO spoke up.

“The graffiti wiener came back last night, sir. But we scared him before he could paint in the alley!” Technically, it wasn’t a lie.

Gar harrumphed before handing the bag to the child. “Well, good job I guess. Now go do something with this where I can’t see it.” He stomped back into his office, grumbling something about having to throw away a bunch of shipping pallets as well.

The employees breathed a sigh of relief, returning to their daily bodega tasks. As KO began to carry the heavy backpack into the break room, though, the Boxmore alarm blared.

“Cob, now? Really?” Enid pinched her septum and hopped over the counter. She led the charge to meet the two large boxes crashing into the parking lot, which seemed to be...yelling at each other?

Darrell and Shannon both broke out, focusing more on each other than the plaza.

“Look, I know you took it, so just tell me where it is!”

“I told you like three times Mushroom-Head, I don’t know where you left it!”

“You’re seriously still saying I lost my-!” She looked at KO, still holding the backpack, and pounced, ripping it out of the child’s hands. “My backpack! What the heck are you losers doing with it?!”

KO glanced over her shoulder at Darrell, now very anxious that he’d been caught in his lies, and winked. Darrell tried to wink back in return, but it ended up as more of a regular blink.

“We stole it! And filled it with trash!” KO claimed, as Shannon opened it to reveal the spray cans. She tossed the bag aside in her confusion, and whipped out a sawblade right into his face.

“How dare you, you little…”

Rad yawned as he lifted her away with his telekinesis, throwing her right into the path of one of Enid’s fireballs, which in turn redirected the robot less-than-gracefully into the pavement. With a final power punch from KO, Shannon was down for the count.

The three turned then to Darrell, who drew out his arm cannon but otherwise paused before his attack.

“Hey, guys, um...I’ve gotta fight you right now, but...is it cool if we hang out again tonight?” He shrugged. “It was really fun.”

“Honestly that sounds awesome, bro, but…” Rad motioned for Enid to continue as he dropkicked Shannon’s backpack over to Boxmore, for her to pick up once she rebooted.

Enid rubbed her eyes, still with dark circles under them. “We have a lot of sleep to catch up on, dude. Maybe next week?”

Darrell gave her a thumbs-up in response, then powered up his cannon and charged into battle.

#ok ko #ok ko let's be heroes #ok ko darrell #ok ko enid #ok ko rad #ok ko ko #this might be one of the longest fanfics i've ever written holy shit #but i wanted to try these guys' character voices out so it was worth the day and a half #also seriously when's my jet set radio parody with darrell #emwrites

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dramaqueeenamby · 7 years ago

Text

The Tulips Are Too Red

A/N: So, I have a favor to ask of you all. Sooooo many of you have shared such kind words with me, sending encouragement my way in regards to my writing. Many of you even believe that I could be published my day. That still gets to me.

Anyway, here’s the thing, before I ventured into writing BP fics, I created a completely fictional story that I planned to post on Wattpad once I finished the other stories on there. Well, that never happened. I was working on chapters, getting up to three done but stopped as I was busy with other Wattpad fics. However, you guys have really got me thinking about my writing and just future in general.

So, I’m posting one of the chapters that I’ve written in the hopes that you guys will let me know your honest opinion of it. If it’s shitty, please say so. Constructive criticism will only make me better as a writer.

Also, as I was rereading it, I realized that I could really turn this into a BP fanfic as well, a T’Challa x OC story once I finish up the rest of the fics that I’m juggling.

Okay. I’ll shut up and allow you to read. I also won’t tag anyone because this is far from what you’re used to seeing from me.

----

It Is Winter Here

Chapter 1

It is Winter Here.

There are exactly twenty-four hours in a day. In minutes, that number grows to 1,440, and in seconds, it’s a whopping 86,400. Most people don’t think about stuff like that. Time. Unless they’re wondering how much they have left before they can clock off and go home to their adoring wife who’s been slaving over a stove all day. Or maybe their kids who’ve been home alone since they got out of school doing God knows what with God knows who. Other than those scenarios, and maybe a few more, like I said, hardly ever cross the mind.

But I’m not most people.

I tend to think about these things. I think about a lot of things actually. Like how long Craig plans to grow out his hair, or if Tammy will ever realize that that infomercial with claims of a one hundred percent success rate is based on a trial of exactly five participants, four of them, paid ‘volunteers’. I also notice a lot of things. Most of which, again, people are never privy to because of their supercilious concerns.

Like I said.

Not most people.

I watch her, not even attempting to hide my suspicious stare. She’s been sitting in the same spot for over an hour, a People magazine in hand and expensive shades over her eyes. To anyone else, she’s just another patron with plenty of time to spare. To me, she’s a hawk. No one reads the same magazine for an hour straight, especially one with a Kardashian on the cover.

“For someone who literally needs someone to wipe his ass, this guy is one hell of a di*k.” I look over at Candi who has been reading for roughly thirty minutes and is almost halfway through with the 400-page novel. “He sounds cute though. At least, the way she describes him makes him sound cute.”

“So you’d take him to the shop?” Zaria shifts in her seat, eyes staying on the photographic book in her lap. She’s had the same one for over an hour.

Candi giggles and lifts her left shoulder. “He could own the shop.” I roll my eyes and tap my nails against the mahogany wood armrest of my spacious chair. “Candi likes being on top anyway.”

“Candi likes all positions.” I chime, finally throwing in my two cents.

She sighs loudly and flips her blonde locks over a naturally tanned shoulder. “I’m a lover, Nova. You should try it sometime.”

“Oh I think you have enough to give for the three of us, Candi Cane.” I wink and return my eyes to the woman in question. I squeeze the solid chair, ignoring the pressure it puts on my weak nails. She still has that same damn magazine and has again started from the first page, looking over the front cover like she doesn’t already have the scandalous image and cliched caption memorized.

“Guys.” Zaria’s voice brings me back to reality as she pulls down the sleeves of her white shirt. There’s no need for her to do so, but it’s a habit of hers. “It’s time.”

Sure enough, Pat is only feet away from us, that stupid rehearsed smile on his droopy face.

“Already.” Candi pouts and puts her arms in front of her, hands in between her thighs, her busty chest on full display. “But I’m almost done.”

Pat offers a strained smile, chubby fingers going up to adjust his thick-rimmed glasses. “Why don’t you just buy the book, Candi?”

She tilts her head to the side and deepens her pout. “I already spent my allowance.”

“On?” When she smiles wickedly, his Adam's apple moves up and then down. “Candi.”

“Oh relax, Patty.” She giggles again and chews on her bottom lips, untangling her long legs and rising to her full height. “What kind of girl do you think I am?” She pulls out a southern accent and pulls a finger to her mouth, pretending to think. “Or is it woman?”

“I wanna buy mine,” Zaria informs, also standing up, looking like a lost child next to Candi’s lengthy frame. “Nova?”

I get up, taking Candi’s book and placing it on top of mine. “Yeah. Let’s go.” Zaria pulls her sleeves down again and tucks the book under her arm, walking in front of me, leaving poor Pat to deal with Candi while we complete this transaction.

On our way to the registers, I look back and see that the Hawk is walking out, stuffing the magazine in her black Hamilton bag.

She can’t be stealing. It’s a possibility, but judging by the tennis bracelet on her wrist and that rock on her ring finger, stealing seems rather out of character. No. The magazine is clearly hers. I wiggle my fingers and fix my jaw.

Who in the hell comes to a bookstore to read a magazine they already own?

Like I said, hawk.

✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻

The car ride back is long, bumpy, and crowded. The van, overdue for some serious improvements or a junking, has a strong odor. It’s not vomit inducing, but its stench will leave you crinkling your nose when you first get a waft. In the second row, seatbelt stretched and clutching onto a protruding chest, Candi engages in conversation with the driver.

He’s new, probably a tempt, and after a car ride with Candi Wallace, this will be his last time filling in.

“It’s so beautiful.” Zaria murmurs to my left, her tiny fingers and raggedy nails trailing over a portrait of the grand canyon. “The view from the top must be breathtaking.”

I give the picture a few seconds of my time, for her sake. It is nice, but nature has never really stood out to me. Too many elements that I can’t control. “Maybe one day you can take your own picture. That one, I’d maybe even frame.”

Aside from a small smile, she says nothing.

The rest of the ride is filled with Candi’s musing and Pat’s occasional business calls. When we pull up, the driver and Pat flash ID’s; the guard peaks his head in the car to make sure that everything checks out.

After Candi flashes him a wink and places her index finger in her mouth, he gives her a one-over and lets us in.

“He wants me.” She mouths to us and then giggles, clapping her hands together and resuming her goal of bugging the driver. When we pull up to the entrance, she’s the first one out, blowing him a kiss and happily waving. “Call me.”

“Maybe,” I add on, smiling when she shoots me a glare. “I couldn’t help.”

“Jealousy really isn’t becoming of you, Nova.” She raises her chin and saunters through the automatic doors, switching her hips and uttering variations of hello to everyone she passes.

“You gotta admit.” Zaria starts, keeping her book clutched against her chest. “She’s fun to be around.”

I look over my shoulder to see Pat watching us closely. He’s so annoying.

I roll my eyes. “My lady, you and I have very different definitions of fun.” Swinging my arm around her shoulder is easy as we’re roughly the same height. I think I have an inch on her, maybe even less.

She laughs, and I crack a small smile. Those are becoming more prevalent by the day. It’s a stark contrast from our first meeting where she woke me up out of my sleep with screams and sobs that were only silenced by a heavy sedative.

We’ve come a long way.

“Ladies.” Pat interrupts. I suppress my eye roll.

As always, Candi is the first to volunteer. Smiling happily, she keeps her arms up wide and legs spread perfectly. “It’s new.” She informs happily when the man reaches her chest and pouts when he says nothing in reference to Candi’s new bra. When he’s done, Candi mouths ‘as*hat’ to us, and I put myself in front of the man before he gets a chance to call on Zaria.

With a bored face, I let him do his job, sending a glare when he keeps his hands on my as* for too long.

Creep.

When it comes to Zaria’s turn, I take her book from her, sending her a reassuring grin. She doesn’t return my gesture, but I’m okay with that. Her eyes say thanks. That’s enough for me.

Any sign of trust from Zaria is enough for me.

My glare stays on the jerk the entire time. I watch his every movement, waiting for him to try something with her. When he gets to her chest, I feel fingers move about, fighting the urge to ball my fist. I can literally see the discomfort on her part. She’s literally counting the seconds until he moves his hands anywhere else. I don’t know if he can tell that I’m willing to have my level 5 access revoked or if he senses the ardent apprehension radiating from her, but he keeps it short and professional. As soon as he’s done, she’s back by me, reaching for her book.

“Well, he was a meanie,” Candi comments as we wait for Pat to put the key in the panel right next to the elevator.

“Too touchy feely for my liking,” I reply loud enough so Pat can hear. He says nothing. Neither does Zaria. The rest of the elevator ride is in silence aside from Candi humming “Oops! I Did It Again.”

When we finally reach our floor, the three of us stand outside the elevator for our evaluation.

“Well, you ladies seemed to have done rather well today.” Pat smiles, the fat on his face parallel with the rolls that make up his neck. “If you’d like, we can try again next week.” I yawn, wishing that I could just walk away. I’d risk losing my clearance for Zaria or even Candi, but not myself.

Someone has to keep these two from extending their bid.

“Tomorrow the group outing is to the aquarium.” He smiles fondly like this is the best news we’ve heard all day. One glance to a somewhat excited Zaria makes me realize that for her, it probably is. “I think you all would have a fine time.”

“I wanna show off my new bra. I’m game.” Candi grabs her boobs, lifting them with a wink and a smile. “Nova?”

I can literally think of a million things that I’d rather do than spend a day at the aquarium, but one look at Zaria, and I know my decision has already been made for me.

“I guess a day with Happy Feet won’t be too bad.” What I want to say is it won’t kill me, but around here, there are just some words you want to try and avoid. Kill being one of them. It’s for good reason though.

Even I’m not too much of an as*hole to admit that.

✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻ ✻

For dinner, we had chicken lasagna with mixed vegetables, garlic bread, and apple pie for dessert. If it sounds magically delicious, you’re magically wrong.

The chicken was bland, the vegetables cold, and the garlic bread might have left me with some cracked teeth. The apple pie was decent, but nothing to brag about. I shouldn’t complain. Yesterday we had beef casserole.

Majority of my plate ended up in the trash.

“He was cute though, right?” Candi brushes through her hair, that dazed look in her eyes. That can only mean one thing. She’s already been given her nighttime dosage. “Of course he was. I only fu*k with the best.”

Zaria, fresh-faced, arms out and exposed in her short-sleeved shirt and blue Soffee shorts, offers a small laugh. “He must have been close to forty Candi.”

“And I thought you only liked ballers?” I wondered aloud from my position on Zaria’s bed. Next to me, she continues to admire the pictures in her book.

“Well, duh. I need a middleman to get to him.” She says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, moving her shoulders from side to side, admiring her reflection. “I think my tits are getting bigger.”

“Your tits or your ego?”

She glares through the mirror and then pouts. “Boo, you whore.”

Zaria frowns. “You know I don’t like that word.”

“You don’t like anything, Zaria.” Candi rolls her eyes.

“Better than liking everything.” Zaria shoots back with a sly smile. I high five her, much to Candi’s chagrin. “If you catch my drift.”

“You guys are mean.” She stomps her feet and resumes brushing her hair.

When Zaria yawns, I realize her that her Clonezepam has already kicked in. Her lids are heavy, and she moves to put her book up.

“Uh oh. I think someone is sweepy.” She says in a baby voice and moves to pinch Zaria’s cheek, but Zaria swats her hand away. Candi laughs and sits on the bed, giving her a half hug. “Night, ladybug.” She kisses her cheek and brushes the top of her head.“You know I’m right down the hall if ya’ need me, sugar.”

“And I’m right next door,” I add on, lightly punching her on the arm. “Sleep tight, kid.”

“Thanks, guys.” She smiles gratefully, getting up at the same time we do so she can pull back the covers. She doesn’t even care that the horizontal lines on the inside of her thighs from not even two years ago are on full display. In the privacy of her room, even with Candi and I, Zaria is true to be herself.

We all are.

Candi yawns loudly with outstretched arms. “I’m wiped.”

“Doesn’t take much.” I chuckle, but hug her side. “Good night Candi Cane.”

She smiles brightly, her pearly whites distracting the small mole on the right side of her chin. “Night, babycakes.” I don’t even react as she squeezes my butt. I simply shake my head and walk over to my door.

I stop when I go to turn the handle, noticing the light peaking through the bottom of the door.

Smirking, I walk in and shut it behind me.

“Can I help you with something?”

He’s sitting on the green, faux leather chair in the corner of my room. I narrow my eyes, wishing that I could wipe that smug grin off his chiseled face. He leans forward, his green scrubs a contrast against his sun-kissed skin, the short sleeves clinging against solid muscle.

“I’m here for night check.”

I chuckle, purposely taking my time as I make my way over to him. “Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you Mr..,” I look over at the badge on his shirt. “Collins, but I have level 5 access. I don’t need a night check.” My body is jolted forward, my knees immediately separating so that I’m straddling him. “This is highly unprofessional and extremely inappropriate.” I moan as one hand goes to stroke my already hardened nipple and the other slips into my shorts.

He mimics my chuckle, satisfied when he feels the wetness already pooling from my core. “I’ve seen your records, Ms. Young.” He stands us up, his hand still in my shorts, teasingly running his finger up and down my folds. “Breaking rules is your specialty.”

I look down at him, his blue eyes holding nothing but pent up lust. Using my index finger, I run my finger down his cheek, parting his mouth and tugging on his bottom lip.

“Then what are you waiting for, Doctor?”

With a guttural growl, he throws me on the bed. I don’t think I need to tell you what happened next.

Two hours later, he’s long gone, and I’m out like a light.

Just another typical day at Lakeshore Mental Hospital.

#personal #DQAFics #PLEASE do not steal

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