#i went crazy and resized the head and face

[s-blast92]

headphoenssss

[oliviap]

Week 8: Illustration Show & Tell Part 2

For my second illustration I chose to recreate one of my old drawings I made on procreate. I think making this on Illustrator will be a good challenge as there are a lot of complex shapes and details.

The original image originally had a colourful background so I roughly removed it so it would be easier to work with.

I started by creating a base layer of the general shape. This took a while as there were a lot of sharp corners and curves which took a lot of handle manipulation. I used the pen tool for this which I think was the best choice as it is a complex shape.

I then moved on to making the outlines of the blazer and the skirt. I did this using the pen tool as well. I traced from the original drawing to save myself some time.

As you can see it is still a bit rough around the edges as the base blue layer can be seen at some edges. But I'll fix this towards the end as there will be more examples like this.

I then moved on to making her eye. Her eye has a lot of flecks in them and I don't think this will easily recreated in Illustrator with what I know so far. Instead I started with making the rough eye shape and making a gradient like in the penguin task in week 3. I played around with the placement of the reds, oranges and yellows. I ended up having a bold red outer edge and a mix of yellow and orange inner eye. I then added a pupil using the ellipse tool. I decided to add a small gradient effect in the centre using the same blue as her skin tone. I then make some highlights also using the ellipse tool.

I then began making her eye lashes. I once again used my favourite pen tool to make the curves to incase her eye and then used the polygon tool to add triangles for her eye lashes. When using the polygon shape tool, it originally drew a hexagon so I had to drag down a small point on the transform box. This removes points until it only has 3 left (becomes a triangle) as two would just be a line.

I then made her mouth. In the original drawing, her mouth had been sowed shut so I tried to make it as similar as possible. I used the pen tool to create the curved shape of her mouth and then made a stitch. I used two circles (ellipse tool) and a curved line (pen tool) to make the stitch. I then held down option to duplicate the stitch and continued this process until her whole mouth was sowed together.

Next was the design on her head. This was just a random squiggle that went all over her head. I used the pen tool to make random curves and circles all over. The handles are a bit all over the place as the goal was to get it to look crazy, but I did keep them small.

I then used the rectangle tool to make the earring. I made one small square and then a much larger one and joined them at the point. To make sure they remained square I held down the shift key to restrict the resizing.

I then made the ear. I traced the shape from the original image and the colour a shade lighter than the base layer. I then made the darker section for the inner ear and finally the small piece to finish it.

I'm not sure why I made the earring first. In reflection it would have made more sense to make the ear first and then the earring but I decided to do the opposite at the time.

I also added a shadow on the back of her head and on the underside of her neck. In my original drawing, I had used an airbrush brush in procreate so the shadow was very smooth. But I think the line suits the style of the illustration in Illustrator.

I then decided that the front of the face was too flat so I needed to add some more highlights on her forehead and cheek. I used the pen tool to make play around with some rough shapes of the highlights. I used the same shade as the ear.

This pretty much finishes the face. I will tidy up some minor details at the end but for now I'm really pleased with how this looks. I think the hardest part was getting the shapes right as otherwise it would throw her face proportions off.

I then moved on to adding detail to the blazer. I started by adding shadows with the pen tool. I traced the shadows from the original image and then adjusted them to match the shape of the blazer. I found every time I traced from the image, the shapes didn't quite match up with the other shapes. I just used the direct selection tool to reposition some handles and anchor points.

When I went to add the detail, I had to punch a hole in where the gap in the arm should be. I originally just had a white shape in there but I used pathfinder to clear the space. I used the 'Minus Front' feature.

I then added some buttons to the blazer. Used the ellipse tool making 6 circles: One large one, a slightly smaller and darker one and then four small ones in the middle.

I then duplicated it twice to make three buttons.

I then moved on to the skirt. I split the original skirt into three sections: highlights, medium tone and shadows. For the medium tone I used the base colour of the skirt which I has already applied to the shape.

I started with the highlights. I used the original as a reference and then used the pen tool to make them.

I then made the shadows. They weren't as defined in the original drawing so I made them up. I followed the shape of the arm and the sleeve and then dragged some sections down.

At this point this is what the illustration looked like so far.

I then added the shadow on the legs and then the toe nails. I did this using the pen tool.

I then added the string on the blazer. I used a similar process to the stitches on the mouth. I made 8 small circles and then used the pen tool to create the string.

I then copied the base layer and changed the fill to green. I had to rearrange it and send it to back. I then made the background black and this completed the illustration.

Overall I was really pleased with how this turned out. It used a lot of different anchor points and it was a good challenge trying to use as few anchor points as possible and trying to make the handles as small as possible. I used the pen tool, path finder, gradient tool, rectangle tool, polygon tool and ellipse tool. I think it was a really good and fun illustration to make. It took me quite a while but I managed to get everything done that I wanted to.

[asongofmarvelanddc]

Nothing Will Ever Change (This Love of Mine)

PAIRING: Marcel Gerard X Reader

WORD COUNT: 3,335

WARNINGS: None. Just fluffity fluff fluff fluff.

SUMMARY: Marcel returns from war to his estranged family, and his fiancée. When Klaus threatens her, Marcel realises it’s time to come clean about who he is.

A/N: Title taken from the song by Jimmy Jules. Also, I have a headcanon that Marcel is fluent in French, so translations in italics.

JANUARY, 1919

Whoever said money couldn’t buy status had clearly never met the Mikaelsons.

You didn’t know much about them other than what Marcel had told you: that they were farmers who were orphaned but managed to find some way up the social ladder by acquiring property all over the United States. It would be a heart-warming story if they weren’t so...arrogant.

Everyone could see it when they walked into a room - the way they always expected to be approached and never the other way around. Sure, some of them were always polite for the most part, but they all maintained an air of superiority, spoke to you in a way that reminded you that you’d never be them.

You weren’t fond of the Mikaelsons, and it seemed like the feeling was mutual. They’d reluctantly invited you to the party they were throwing in honour of Marcel’s return from the war. Elijah - being one of the few who tried to make you feel like a part of the family - asked on his family’s behalf which made it difficult to say no. Still, the party was for Marcel, and you’d been waiting four years to see him again, so you graciously accepted the invite.

The party was already in full swing by the time you arrived. You looked around, searching for any familiar faces, but found none other than the Mikaelsons. They were surrounded by people - the mayor being one of them - who were tripping over themselves to be gracious to the Mikaelsons and gain favour with them. 

Not wanting to join the other guests in fawning all over the family, you stood alone at the bar, nursing a stiff drink. All you could think about was Marcel. Before long, you began to feel eyes burning a hole in the back of your head and turned to find Klaus Mikaelson staring at you. It wasn’t obvious all the time, but you got the feeling that he didn’t like you very much. 

Ignoring his glare, you returned to your drink - impatiently waiting for Marcel’s return. But alas, Klaus couldn’t take the hint, and within seconds he was standing by your side.

A charming smile graced his lips as he greeted you, “Y/N. It’s a pleasure to have you here.”

“Is it?” you cocked a brow, “Because I think you only invited me because Elijah asked you to. Not that Marcel would’ve stayed longer than five minutes if he found out I wasn’t here. ”

He chuckled.

“I see you’re not in the mood to exchange pleasantries,” he said.

“What gave it away?”

His smile dropped and he leaned in closer, “Look, whatever I’ve done to upset you-”

“It’s not what you’ve done to me, it’s what you did to him,” you snapped, “Do you realise we wouldn’t even be having this party if it weren’t for you people?”

He avoided your eyes, his confident stance wavering.

“You drove him away.”

Klaus was silent for a moment as your words sunk in. It was clear by the guilty expression on his face that he knew you were right. You expected him to leave you alone after that, but instead, another Mikaelson approached - a smirk on her lips and a champagne glass in her hands.

“My, my, you could cut the tension with a knife.”

You rolled your eyes and turned back to the bar, “I’m not in the mood Rebekah.”

Klaus smiled as he looked at his sister, “Yes, she’s feeling a bit pissy this evening.”

You glared at him.

“Leave the girl alone, Nik,” Rebekah said, “She has enough on her mind.” 

He shot a glance at you, a thoughtful look appearing on his face, but then he let out a quiet sigh and walked away.

A breath of relief escaped your lips once he was no longer in your presence. Rebekah stepped closer to you and tilted her head as she looked at you. 

“So, what’s got you in such a mood?”

You let out another sigh. “I just need to see him, Rebekah,” you said, your voice sounding desperate, “It’s been so long and I just...I just need him here.”

She nodded and placed a hand on your back. “I understand, dear,” she smiled, “Come find me later, yeah?”

You cracked a smile and let out a sigh of relief when she walked away, thankful to be left alone. When you went to down the rest of your drink, the ring on your finger caught your eye and your thoughts immediately travelled back to Marcel.

Putting the glass down on the table, you twirled the ring on your finger, deep in thought. You never did manage to get it resized, there was never any time. Marcel had given it to you the night before he left. You’d been going out of your mind with worry since he decided to enlist, fearful of what could happen to him while he was gone. He called it a proposal, but it was obvious that it was more of a promise that he would come back to you.

And tonight he finally would.

You were reminiscing about the days before Marcel left when you felt arms circle your waist, and a face nuzzle into your neck. Heart hammering in your chest, you reached up slowly and touched the man’s cheek.

“Marcel?”

He hummed in response and placed a kiss on your shoulder. “It’s me, baby.”

A gasp escaped your lips as you closed your eyes and turned around, pulling his lips against yours in a fervent kiss. He grinned as you kissed him, a laugh even slipping out as you wrapped your arms around his neck, your hand resting at the nape of his neck.

You’d thought as soon as you saw Marcel you’d feel relaxed, but instead, your heart was beating out of your chest. Every inch of your body was lit aflame when he placed his hands on your hips and pulled you closer.

“God, I missed you,” he mumbled against your lips just as you broke apart. 

He rose one of his hands to cup your cheek, his thumb wiping away a tear that had rolled down. 

“Hey. No tears, okay?”

You wiped them away, unable to stop smiling. “It’s just so surreal,” you said, “I can’t believe you’re here. I feel like I can finally breathe again.”

“You think you missed me?” he scoffed, “I practically drove the guys in my unit crazy talking about you.”

He still had his arm around you, not wanting to let go. You let yours fall from his neck, one hand resting on his chest, “Four years.”

“Four years.”

You shook your head in wonder as you looked at him again. From his perfect, dazzling smile to those loving brown eyes. Even after everything he’d been through, he looked exactly the same.

“You don’t look like you’ve aged a day.”

Without missing a beat, he said, “I could say the same about you, pretty girl.”

You looked away, heat rising to your cheeks, “Sweet-talker.”

He laughed again, surprised that he could still fluster you even after so long together. Glancing down, he noticed the sparkling ring around your finger.

“You’re still wearing it,” he said and raised a brow, “I take it I haven’t been replaced yet?”

“As if anyone could ever replace you, Marcel Gerard.”

He held your loving gaze for a moment before shaking his head in incredulity and leaning down to kiss you again. It was softer and much more tender this time. 

He rested his forehead against yours, breathing heavily. “Let’s get outta here,” he whispered, looking down at you with lustful eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said, laughing as he pressed quick kisses from your cheek down to your jaw and neck. He took your hand, leading you towards the exit, when Klaus suddenly appeared in front of you. 

“Marcel,” he said, his hands clasped together behind his back, “I didn’t see you come in.”

Marcel let out a heavy sigh, but the grin on his lips never faltered. “Klaus. Nice to see you.”

Klaus looked taken aback by the response. “On your way out?” he asked, clearly offended, “Didn’t think to pop over to your family and say hello?”

Marcel rolled his eyes. “I just wanted some private time with my girl, Klaus, it’s really not a big deal.”

You noticed the sudden change in Klaus’ expression. In a second, his polite smile and mischievous eyes morphed into a look you could only describe as evil. You’d heard rumours about the Mikaelsons. About Klaus. Rumours you didn’t believe. But if there were monsters in New Orleans - you had definitely just seen one. 

But then like a storm cloud passing, his polite smile was back. “Well, perhaps you and I could have a drink upstairs before you leave, Marcel.”

“Klaus, I really just want to-”

“Or...we could take Y/N out for a drink.”

You felt Marcel’s body stiffen under your touch at those words. His jaw clenched as he gripped your hand tighter, taking a more protective stance in front of you. 

Eventually, he sighed deeply and shook his head, turning to you. “Attends ici, ma chérie,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss to your cheek, “I’ll be right back.” (Wait here, sweetheart)

Klaus’s smile widened, clearly satisfied by Marcel’s decision. The two disappeared up the stairs and into the Mikaelson family room.

                            __________________________

“So, Marcellus,” Klaus began as he poured himself a drink, “We throw you this party to welcome you home, even invite your little girlfriend to make you happy, and yet you can’t even grace us with your presence.”

“You visited me while I was gone, it’s not like you haven’t seen me in years,” Marcel said, “And she’s not my girlfriend, she’s my fiancée. And I haven’t seen her in four years.”

“So, you’d rather spend your first evening back with her than you would your own family?”

Marcel didn’t respond, but his silence spoke volumes.

“I see,” Klaus nodded and downed his drink, “Perhaps if the girl is taken out of the equation you’ll remember exactly where your loyalties should lie.”

Marcel sped in front of the door, blocking it as Klaus stormed towards him.

“You are not touching her, Klaus!” he yelled as he shoved Klaus back, “You’re gonna kill her because I wanna spend time with her? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I assure you, Marcellus, my reasonings for getting rid of that girl are just.”

“Like they were when you daggered Rebekah for five decades?”

“You haven’t been the same since she entered your life,” Klaus said, “She has been tearing you away from your family.”

“She is my family.”

Klaus’ face hardened. “Is that so?”

“Damn straight.”

He stepped closer to Klaus and began speaking in a scarily low voice. “I let go of Rebekah for you, Klaus, but I am telling you right now,” he said, eyes burning with anger, “I would see this city burn before I do the same with Y/N.”

Klaus was silent for a moment as he mulled over Marcel’s words. It seemed he had lost the fight, until a thought occurred to him.

“And what if she lets you go?” he said, the hint of a smile on his lips and a glint in his eye, “I wonder what she’ll think when she finds out just what kind of monster you are.”

Marcel’s jaw clenched, “You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I would,” he smirked, “I do believe that lasting relationships must be built on honesty and trust. I’d consider me telling her the truth a favour.”

Marcel balled his fists, looking away from Klaus to control his anger. He knew there was no winning a fight with an Original - even if he was burning with rage.

Klaus chuckled to himself and walked over to the door. “Don’t worry, I’ll allow you this one night with her,” he said as he walked out, “Welcome home, Marcellus.”

                            __________________________

Marcel was silent as you watched him put his hat down on your coffee table. He hadn’t been himself since you left the party. You twirled the set of keys in your hand, unsure of how to proceed. 

“You haven’t said a word since we left the mansion.”

He didn’t respond.

You let out a heavy sigh as you walked towards him slowly. “You know, I talked to a couple other ladies whose men came back from the war too,” you began, “They said that they weren’t the same. The things they saw over there...it changed them.”

You waited with baited breath for a response, almost afraid of what he might say. He hadn’t seemed different when you were at the party, but the quiet was making you think his mind was elsewhere.

“I’ve seen worse than I did when I was over there,” he said, his back to you, “That’s not it.”

“Then tell me what’s on your mind.”

For a second, you thought he wasn’t going to elaborate, and you felt your heart sink. Then he turned around slowly, a thoughtful look on his face as he spoke.

“You and I have been together for six years,” he said, almost like he couldn’t believe it, “And yet, there’s still stuff about me - my past - that you don’t know about.”

A nervous smile emerged on your lips as you moved closer to him. “What are you talking about? You’ve told me about your past.”

“Not about my parents. Not about the way I grew up.”

“You told me all that,” you argued, “You told me you never knew your parents. That Klaus’ family adopted you when you were young and you grew up with them as your siblings.”

He shook his head slowly, wiping his mouth with his hand in frustration and placing a hand on his hip. It was clear that he was wrestling with something in him - it was tearing him apart.

“Marcel,” you said as you took his hand, “Tu peux me dire ñ'importe quoi.” (You can tell me anything.)

He looked down at your hands, his eyes staying on them for a long time before he finally spoke. “I wasn’t honest with you about that,” his voice wavered and he paused to take a breath, “Klaus’ family didn’t adopt me...Klaus did.”

You froze for a minute, trying to understand what he just said because it made no sense.

“That’s impossible,” you said, “He would’ve been a boy himself.”

“I was born in 1810 on a plantation here in Louisiana,” he explained, “My mother was a slave, and my father, the Governor...he was her — our master.”

“What? If you were born in 1810 that would make you like—”

“A hundred and nine.”

Your eyes widened in shock as you snatched your hands away from his and stepped back, “Mon Dieu...” (My God...)

He reached out for you, but you took another step back, turning away from him to compose yourself. The stories you’d heard as a child, the ones every child in New Orleans has heard...they were all true.

“Demon of the night,” you whispered, “You’re one of them.”

“Yes.”

“And the Mikaelsons?”

“They’re all like me.”

You took in a deep breath and turned to look at him, arms folded as you eyed him nervously. He was standing a few feet away from you, clearly giving you space to digest everything. It wasn’t working however, because you had a million burning questions and no clue how to feel.

“The things they say about you, your kind...are they all true?” you asked.

“Some of it, yes. But not all of it.”

“So, the blood drinking and the mind control-”

“That’s all true.”

You sucked in a sharp breath once more and looked to the ground. All of this was difficult to hear. But it hurt more to know that he wasn’t honest with you.

“There’s a lot that I want to know,” you began as you lifted your gaze to meet his, “But I only have three big questions.”

He stepped towards you, surprised when you didn’t move back, and took your hand in his. “Anything you wanna know, just ask and I promise I’ll tell you everything.”

You nodded, mustering up a small smile before looking down again. “Have you killed people?”

“That’s a difficult question.”

“How is that a difficult question?”

“I’ve been a vampire for eighty-four years, Y/N,” he said, “During that time, I’ve fought in two wars. Yes, I’ve killed people, but never innocents. Not even when the hunger was unbearable.”

Again, you nodded slowly. You couldn’t deny the relief you felt after hearing that.

“Does Klaus? Kill innocents?” you asked, deciding on a follow-up question.

“He’s lived a lot longer than I have,” Marcel sighed, “I don’t think you get to be a vampire for almost a thousand years without getting some blood on your hands.”

“Wow,” you whispered. You’d always known there was something about that family, but you never would’ve guessed this. Suddenly you could understand the arrogance — you too would feel superior to everyone if you’d lived a thousand years of strength, speed, and the ability to get whatever your heart desired.

Marcel cocked his head at you, “You’ve been quiet for a minute. You wanna ask the rest of your questions?”

You blinked back into reality. “Yeah, uh...” you looked up at him, hesitant to ask him the next question, “This isn’t easy to say, Marcel, but I have to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

You bit your lower lip nervously, “Have you ever drank from me? Or used your compulsion on me?”

“Wow, um...” Marcel stepped back, your hand falling from his. He was taken aback. “No, I’ve...I’d never do that to you.”

“Marcel, I’m sorry, but I had to ask if-”

“I get it.”

“-we were ever gonna be comfortable with each other again.”

“Yeah, it’s okay. I understand. It’s fine.” He spoke the words quickly, hoping to sound like he didn’t care, but it was clear by the way he dropped his shoulders and avoided your eyes just how much the question had hurt him.

You walked towards him, this time being the one to take his hands, “Je suis désolé.” (I’m sorry)

“C'est pas grave.” He placed a hand against your cheek and smiled softly. You leaned into it, closing your eyes as you sighed deeply. Even after all you’d learned, he still felt like home. (It’s alright)

“Final question,” you said as you stood up straight and looked at him earnestly, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What?” 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a vampire?” you repeated, “J'aime tout de toi, tu le sais. You’re my family, so why didn’t you trust me?” (I love everything about you, you know that.)

“I trust you, I just—” He paused to collect his thoughts. “At first, I was being selfish. You liked me as I was, and as a bonus, had a wit sharp enough to leave even Klaus speechless,” he chuckled as you rolled your eyes while fighting off a smile, “But soon enough it became about protecting you from all of that death and darkness.”

“Tu aurais du me le dire.” (You should’ve told me)

Marcel frowned and pulled you close, “Je t'aime et je ne voulais pas te perdre.” (I love you, and I didn’t wanna lose you.)

“Mon coeur,” you smiled as you placed a hand against his cheek, “There is nothing about you that could make me love you less.”

The way he looked at you when you said that — perfect and loving as ever — tugged at your heart strings. He didn’t say a word. He simply wrapped his arms around you and leaned down to kiss you. Your heart racing as he did so let him know that the truth hadn’t changed anything between you.

You pulled away and rested your forehead against his, “Dieu, je t'aime tellement.” (God, I love you so much)

“Tu es mon coeur, mon amour, ma vie,” he whispered against your lips, “Je t’aime.”

[amanda-teaches]

Til Death Do Us Part? (1)

Series Summary: At a work party with your best friend, Dean, you panic when your new boss asks if you’re couple. Lying to protect your promotion, you wind up fake engaged before you can take it back. When Dean agrees to go along with your lie for a weekend retreat, you end up finding something neither of you had bargained for: love.

Pairing: AU Dean x Reader

Square filled: Fake Dating/Marriage for @spndeanbingo​, Fake Marriage for @spngenrebingo​, Mistaken for a couple for @spnfluffbingo​, “He’s always been there for me through all my terrible relationships and shit, and I can tell him anything” for @spnquotebingo​

Word Count: 2135

Warnings: A hint of future angst, some swearing, fluff

A/N: This is the first part of a little mini-series I’ve been working on. It will probably be around 3-4 parts, or more depending on how much fluffy cuteness I plop in the middle, but I’m pretty excited about it, so I wanted to share the first part with you all to see what you think. I hope you like it! Let me know! I haven’t finished writing yet, so you never know if your reactions may influence the series. ;)

Til Death Do Us Part? Masterlist

In the dead of the night, sitting on a deserted train station bench in the middle of the pouring rain, you finally felt safe enough to let yourself cry.

So, you sobbed. All alone, in the silky, golden evening gown that you’d felt so goddamn beautiful in, you sobbed, the tears running down your face and into your already-wet hair.

You pulled the note out of your pocket, watching as the words began to smear and run down the page.

To the Future Mrs. Winchester,

You look gorgeous tonight. Just like every night. Remember to save me a dance.

D

You closed your eyes and cried even harder, the sobs wracking your body. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It was all supposed to be fake, a means to an end, one friend helping another...

You weren’t supposed to fall in love. 

Damn that Dean Winchester.

One week and two days earlier…

You opened up the dating app on your phone, and scrolled through the dozens of “hey, sexy” and “what r u wearing?” messages before closing it again in disgust. “Oh my God, what’s the point of this stupid thing?”

Your best friend, Francesca, plopped down on the couch beside you, a bowl of popcorn in her hands, and looked over at your phone with a smirk. “The wonderful world of online dating?”

“How did you ever guess?” you answered sarcastically, amusement softening your tone. “Geez, it’s crazy! For every nice guy I find, there’s like 100 creeps.”

“Hey, what happened to that one guy? The therapist?”

You groaned. “He tried to psychoanalyze me all night. Wound up crying on my shoulder over his repressed daddy issues.”

“The architect?”

“Drew up the plans for our dream house within the first 10 minutes of the date.”

“The musician?”

“Texted his ex the whole night.”

She laughed and shook her head. “God, am I glad that I’m married.” Then, she turned to you, tucking a leg underneath her. “Hey, when are you going to give up on this whole online dating thing and just go out with Dean?”

Rolling your eyes, you shook your head. “I’ve told you a thousand times. Dean and I are just friends.”

“Oh, sure,” she laughed. “Just friends who text everyday, spend hours on Facetime with each other, and act as each other’s emotional support systems. Y/N, you’re practically married. The only thing missing is the sex.”

“Francesca!” you cried, an undercurrent of laughter running through your voice. “We are not practically married. Look, I love Dean, he’s always been there for me through all my terrible relationships and shit, and I can tell him anything, but that’s all it is. We’re just friends, I swear.”

She looked at you for another moment, skepticism filling her eyes. “Mhmm, keep telling yourself that. I’m just saying, you could do a lot worse than Dean Winchester. You don’t snap him up now, someone else will. And, ‘just friends’ or not, Y/N, I can guarantee, if that happens, you’re gonna regret not going for it.”

She sat back, focusing on her popcorn and queueing up the movie for the night, but you stayed staring straight ahead, her words lingering in your head. You wanted Dean to be happy, to find someone, just like you were trying to. You wouldn’t regret that if it happened...right?

Picking up your phone again, you stared at the picture of you and Dean that lived on your lockscreen, a smile playing at the corners of your mouth. You were going to see him tomorrow. He was your “date” to a party your new boss was throwing to get to know everyone, but you’d only asked him because you didn’t want to go alone. He was always your plus one to these kinds of things, and vice versa. You both knew it was strictly as friends, there wasn’t anything more than that. Besides, you were sure that the two of you could never really work. 

At least that’s what you kept telling yourself.

The sound of Dean’s Impala rumbling up to your house the next morning made your heartbeat a little faster than you were willing to admit. Closing your eyes, you took a deep breath to calm yourself and grabbed your purse and phone, heading towards the door. You were sitting in his passenger seat in no time at all, with him smiling at you from across the bench seat.

“Ready to impress the new boss?”

“Hell yeah,” you nodded. “Thanks for coming with me. I hate doing these things alone.”

“Course,” he replied, shifting the car into gear with an easy smile on your face. “You know how impressive I naturally am.”

“Mhmm,” you laughed, shaking your head slightly. He grinned and winked at you, pulling the car into the street on the way to the “garden party” as your boss was calling it.

You were expecting some sort of outdoor barbecue/picnic situation, but when Dean pulled up in front of the mini mansion the address led to, and you saw the valets parking the cars, you were glad you’d worn your nicest sun dress.

“Damn,” he whistled, under his breath, staring out the dashboard. “Who’s your new boss, Richie Rich?”

“Apparently,” you muttered, still in disbelief. “I was not expecting this when I woke up this morning.”

“But, good news,” Dean pointed out, stopping his car in the middle of the circular driveway. “I bet the free food’s gonna be out of this world.”

You laughed as Dean got out, rushing around to your side of the car to open the door for you. You smiled and thanked him, and, after watching him warn the valet to treat his baby better than his own mother, he escorted you inside, your arm intertwined with his. He whispered something that made you laugh again, and you leaned into him, whispering back, as if being this close was the most natural thing in the world. If only it was this easy with every other guy.

When you got to the backyard, Dean dropped your arm, making a beeline for the rows of white-linen tables stacked with food. You started to follow him, but, when you spotted your new boss out of the corner of your eye, you changed tactics, wanting to make a good impression on her before she was inundated with too many people.

“Clarissa, hi,” you stammered, a little awkwardly, once you reached her. “You have a beautiful home.”

“Thank you,” she said politely, turning to you. She studied you for a brief second before recognition registered, and her eyes lit up, a genuine smile replacing the formal one. “Oh! Y/N, right?”

“Uh, yes, yes!” You couldn’t believe she remembered your name already. Since you were one of four people vying for a coveted promotion at the company, this could be your big chance. “I’d really love to get a chance to talk with you about my thoughts on the Newman project.”

“Oh, of course, dear,” she humored you, dismissing the work talk by looking around. “Where did that nice young man that you came in with go?”

Your eyebrows furrowed. “Oh, Dean? He went to get us some food.”

“That’s so sweet of him. You’ve got yourself a good one there.”

“Oh no, we’re just…”

“You know,” she said, cutting you off. “There’s a couple’s retreat next weekend for some of the higher ups in the firm, a little bonding experience, so to say. There’s an open spot left. Maybe you and your young man could come?” She leaned in and gave you a conspiratorial wink. “We’d have plenty of time to talk more if you were there.”

“A couple’s retreat?” you repeated back, growing flustered. “But, Dean and I, we aren’t…”

She glanced at your ring finger. “Oh, dear, you two aren’t married yet. Such a shame. Unfortunately, the retreat is for married and engaged couples only.” She sighed, staring down at her mimosa. “Oh, I guess I’ll have to give Stuart your spot.”

Stuart? Oh, no way in hell. That guy had been gunning for your promotion for well over a year. You panicked, looking over at Dean, who’d piled two plates full of food over at the buffet. Watching him, you imagined your promotion flying away, and you blurted out the only hail mary you could think of. “Wait! Dean and I are engaged!”

Clarissa’s eyes widened with excitement. “Oh, really?! I didn’t see a ring, so I just assumed.”

“Oh, well,” you bluffed, struggling to think of a believable cover. “It’s all pretty recent, so the ring’s, uh, getting resized. But, yes, we’re engaged. Fully committed and engaged to be married.”

“That’s wonderful!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands. “Then, you two can come to the retreat next weekend! It’s up at the Mountview, all inclusive.”

You whistled under your breath. Damn, the Mountview. It cost like 1,000 a night to stay there. Suddenly, you realized what you were doing, and you knew this innocent little lie was spiraling way out of control.

“Actually…”

She waved you off, looking over your shoulder. “This is so great! I’ve heard really great things about you, Y/N. I can’t wait for you and your fiance to knock the socks off our executives. Now, if you’ll excuse me for just a second.”

Before you could stop her, she was gone, having spotted someone across the room. You were left standing alone, and, looking up, you spotted Dean smiling at you from across the lawn, holding up his plates of food triumphantly.

Oh God, were you screwed.

“YOU SAID WHAT?!”

You looked around for a second, putting your hand on his chest to quiet him. “Shh, someone might hear.”

“So fuckin’ what if they hear, Y/N! You told your boss we were engaged!”

“I know, I know,” you whispered. You grabbed Dean’s hand and pulled him further into the hallway off the doors to the backyard, so your argument would be blocked from where the party was still going on, in full swing. “I’m an idiot, okay? I fully admit that.”

He looked down at you and exhaled heavily, running his hand through his hair. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I don’t know!” you sputtered, beginning to ramble. “She thought we were a couple, and I tried to explain we were just friends, but then she kept talking and talking, and the retreat was all BAM, Mountview! And, then, then, she wanted to invite Stuart, I mean Stuart, of all people, and I just panicked, and, I...”

“Okay, okay,” he chuckled, placing his hands firmly on your shoulders. “Chill before you pass out on me. Deep breaths.”

You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, leaning into him. He immediately wrapped his arms around you, the argument instantly forgotten, and pulled you into a warm, safe hug. “I’m so sorry…” you mumbled against his chest. “I just wanted that promotion so bad, I think I went a little crazy. I’ll go out there right now and tell her the truth.”

He sighed, his breath ghosting against your hair. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”

Pulling back, you looked up at him, puzzled. “What?”

“Well, you already told her we were engaged, and if you backtrack now, she’s going to think you’re a crazy liar. Besides, it’s only one weekend, right?”

“Wait, are you saying we should actually go? And, pretend to be engaged?”

His face split into an eager smile. “Yeah. We’re best friends, so we already know everything about each other. How hard can fake marriage be? We pretend to be engaged for a weekend, you get your promotion, then we ‘break up’ and decide we’re better off as friends. No one’s any wiser.”

You stared at him for a second, the ramifications of his plan running through your head. Francesca’s words came screaming back at you. “Y/N, you’re practically married. The only thing missing is the sex.” Dean was right, you did know everything about each other. How hard could it be to fake a relationship for a weekend. “Are you sure?” you asked sincerely. “I mean, really, really sure.”

He nodded, taking your hands in his and dropping to his knee with a dramatic flourish. “Y/N Y/L/N, will you fake marry me?”

You laughed looking down at him, the sight of his goofy grin instantly bringing a smile to your face. You nodded, agreeing, but, no matter how much you tried to ignore the voice in the back of your head, Francesca’s other words lingered. “You don’t snap him up now, someone else will. And, ‘just friends’ or not, Y/N, I can guarantee, if that happens, you’re gonna regret not going for it.”

Shit, you really were in over your head this time.

Forevers- @atc74​ @babypieandwhiskey​ @be-amaziing​ @carryonmywaywardcaptain​ @deans-dirty-writer​ @deanwanddamons​ @deanwinchesterswitch​ @dolphincliffs​ @edgeofreality35​ @emoryhemsworth​ @focusonspn​ @hannahindie​ @heyitscam99​ @impala-dreamer​ @impandagrl​ @karikatz12481​ @katymacsupernatural​ @maddiepants​ @masksandtruths​ @mrsdeanfuckingwinchester​ @mysterious-398​ @ohmychuckitssamanddean​ @pinknerdpanda​ @roxyspearing​ @spnbaby-67​ @squirrel-moose-winchester​ @wi-deangirl77​ @wonderfulworldofwinchester​

Dean Tags - @adoptdontshoppets​ @akshi8278​ @alexwinchester23​  @dean-winchesters-bacon​ @squirrelnotsam​

[athingthatwantsvirginia]

Nora Roberts Shit Like That

PART FORTY-THREE OF THE DO YOU SEE HER FACE? SERIES

Pairing: Jess Mariano x Original Character (Ella Stevens)

Warnings: mentions of depression symptoms, plentiful pop culture references

Word Count: 4.4K

Summary: Ella performs another exercise in spontaneity.

A/N: We've still got the epilogue left, but this is the final regular chapter. Sorry this took so long; endings give me writer’s block. Thank you so much for reading! I have absolutely loved writing this story. I hope you like this chapter! :)

By late May, summer was blooming early and warm and fragrant in Philadelphia. Ella pulled her hair back in a low bun as she padded out onto the terrace. The sun was finally going down, painting the sky a pinkish orange. In the small view of the city past the other apartment buildings, she could see the buildings beginning to light up, tiny and twinkly. Jess was already out there, with a copy of Sharp Objects in hand. He chewed on his eraser, his brows furrowed as he concentrated on the words. There were already chunks of Ella’s messy cursive decorating the pages, and she’d insisted he read it as soon as she finished it the week before. He was already three quarters of the way through.

“This book is fucking crazy, Stevens,” he said as she walked out, not looking up from the text.

“Yeah, cutie. That’s why I like it,” she told him, smiling widely and leaning against the railing next to him.

“So unpredictable,” he deadpanned.

“Whatever, James Dean,” she replied, rolling her eyes and snorting a laugh.

Smirking, he finally shut the book and tossed it back onto one of the mismatched armchairs. Following her gaze, he saw the flaming orangey sun descending behind the cityscape. With the evening light reflected against her freckled face, he could see the green flecks in her eyes when he turned to look at her.

At first, she had not wanted to go to the graduation ceremony at all. She certainly wasn’t walking across the stage in a gown. But, she decided to go for the undergrads she had been the teacher assistant for. They clapped in the auditorium, and went out with Chris, Leo, Matthew, and Mabel to try the new Italian restaurant, which ended up being decent. It wasn’t entirely unceremonious, but there wasn’t much fanfare. Jess didn’t expect Ella to want anything more. She’d ended up finishing her finals a week before the actual ceremony, anyway.

But, still, she was finally done. Chris had even ordered a cake for the table in celebration, despite Ella’s blushy protests. She doubted it would sink in for a while. She was a perpetual student, and was already beginning to feel anxious without steady classwork and homework. But she would start teaching her summer classes in a week or two, and she was planning to fill her time with art and helping out at Truncheon until then.

For the moment, though, she watched the sunset. She felt the night begin to cool down, breezes blowing past her. And Jess could practically feel her relax. Since deciding to take the job at Penn, she’d seemed calmer. He hadn’t realized just how heavily it had been weighing on her until after it was over. She was using vibrant color in her paintings again, which he hadn’t seen in what felt like years. She was coming around to Truncheon after her classes, spending nights with their friends up in the apartment. She was playing music with Leo and running lines with Mabel.

Of course, she still had days when she felt so hopeless about the state of her life, and honestly, the world, that she couldn’t even explain her sadness. But she was working on it. She was trying. It made Jess so proud he almost couldn’t handle it. Watching her, so comfortable in her own skin, made a tiny smirk form on his lips.

As though she could feel his gaze, she suddenly faced him again. “What?”

“Nothing,” he said lightly. “Just looking at you.”

“At me?” she mocked him with dramatic batting of her eyelashes and a breathy voice.

“What can I say? You’re irresistible,” he quipped with a shrug.

She rolled her eyes, trying to brush off the flush rising to her cheeks. “You have to stop saying Nora Roberts shit like that to me.”

“Never,” he shot back smugly.

“Jackass.”

“Nihilist,” he said, then pressed a kiss to her rosy cheek. “A nihilist with a master’s degree.”

“Yeah, it seems that way,” she said, her words a sigh.

“Hey, Stevens,” he began, tilting his head at her a little.

“Yes, Mariano?” she echoed, teasing.

“I’m really proud of you,” he said sincerely.

She bit at the inside of her cheek and smoothed her hands over her simple olive green dress, fidgety and blushing once more. “Thank you. I’m proud of me, too.”

Jess’s smile widened but he felt his heartbeat picking up, stomach churning with anxiety. He felt so wholly content standing next to her, so completely enveloped by love. Dimples and Bette Davis eyes and a loud laugh. So stubborn and passionate and understanding. She was the end and the beginning of everything for him, and he almost felt out of breath at the thought of what was going to happen next. He cleared his throat and ran a hand over his mouth anxiously.

“You okay?” she asked, noticing his uneasiness.

He nodded. “Yeah, Elle...yeah.”

Sighing, Jess decided to bite the bullet, rip off the bandaid. His hands were shaky with excitement. He went over to the suit jacket draped over the armchair behind him. Reaching into his inside pocket, he grabbed the small velvet box. Ella looked on in confusion, as he turned back around and landed on one knee.

A thick shadow of realization crossed her face and her mouth fell slightly agape. “No way.”

“Look, I know you don’t like the big romantic stuff. And please stop me if this all too much of a patriarchal mating ritual for you. But I love you and you love me and we love each other,” he began, looking up at her. He had told himself not to cry, but he was already starting to. With the sunset behind her, Ella looked ethereal and beautiful. “And we’re supposed to be together.”

She rolled her eyes though they were growing tearful, letting out a scoff as he repeated back his own words from years earlier. The night he had tried to get her to come with him to New York flashed across her mind, but her heart didn’t twist in pain at the memory. Instead, it fluttered pleasantly.

“You Hemingway motherfucker,” she whispered through a watery laugh, though she blinked away the tears.

He chuckled breathily, face hot with scarlet color. “I’ll take that one as a compliment. But...I think we should get married. What about you?”

A small giggle escaped her lips before she could help it and she just couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as she spoke. “Y’know, most of the time, I don’t really see the point in getting married.”

Jess’s face fell for only a second.

“But that’s most of the time,” she said. “Not when I’m with you, James Dean.”

After a moment of shock on his face, he scoffed and gave a dramatic groan. “Fuck off, Daria.”

Ella shrugged. “Just thought I should give you a taste of your own medicine,” she told him, smile turning to a smirk. “But, if you still wanna marry me after that one, then I’d love to.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “Really.”

Rising quickly, he enveloped her in a tight hug and kissed her. His lips were gentle and sweet, and almost reminded her of their first kiss so many years ago. Then again, each time he kissed her was pretty much as good as, if not better than, the first time. And, to her surprise, she felt no fear. Something clicked inside her, and she was completely certain. When she pulled away to look at him, she wiped at the stray tears which had fallen on his cheeks.

“I can’t believe you got down on one knee and everything,” she said.

He shrugged humbly. “I try.”

“That you do.”

He looked away from her intense gaze shyly and took a step back, holding the open ring box out to her. “Do you want this ring, by the way?”

“Ah yes! I almost forgot!” she said emphatically. As he had spoken, knelt down, she hadn’t been able to tear her eyes away from his own. Brown and sparkling and kind.

Her breath hitched in her throat as she saw the tiny stone. A polished light purple amethyst shone in the center, and she took it out and slipped the thin gold band over her left ring finger, staring at it. It fit perfectly, and Jess almost couldn’t believe it. After having found it in a tray in the antique store, he’d thought at least some resizing would be necessary.

“I know it’s not huge or anything, but-”

“It’s perfect, Mariano. I mean, it’s fucking lavendar,” she said, flabbergasted.

Jess smirked a tiny smirk. “Yeah, well, lavender is for luck.”

.   .   .

Sat at the island with a paper open in front of him, Jess munched on his cereal. He couldn’t help the smile which was constantly tugging at the corners of his mouth. They were getting married. In all honesty, he hadn’t been entirely sure she would say yes, given her aversion to most things traditional and romantic. Then again, she had certainly seemed to come around to his idealist ways as of late, at least a little bit. And he’d wanted to do it the way it was usually done, on one knee with a ring box open in his hand. He didn’t know exactly what had possessed him to do so, but he was glad. She deserved something normal, something just the right amount of sweet.

Padding on bare feet, Ella waltzed towards the kitchen wearing nothing but one of Jess’s t-shirts, body and mind light from the night before. The early sunshine of the morning bathed the apartment in a sparkling golden glow, made more beautiful by their own joy, it seemed. On her finger, she wore the ring, still new and foreign. But she felt her heart speed up a bit every time she looked down at it. She, too, had been surprised at the way he’d proposed. But, somehow, it managed to feel perfect. It wasn’t over-the-top, but it felt like Jess. Earnest and charming.

He didn’t hear her, too engrossed in his reading, until she pressed a kiss to the top of his head on her way by. He winked at her when they made eye contact, and she rolled her eyes playfully in response as she put on some tea and coffee.

“Hey, Jess?” she asked, leaning over the counter across from him, mimicking their days at Luke’s Diner.

“Hm?” he said, looking up from the news with eyebrows raised.

“Do you wanna get married?” She bit at the inside of her cheek, slightly anxious.

“Well, considering I just proposed to you yesterday, I’d say yeah, I wanna get married,” he replied, teasing and slightly confused.

“No. I meant today,” she continued.

He chuckled a bit, but then saw she was serious. “Today?”

A smile blossomed on her face and she shrugged. “Yeah. Why not? Let’s just go down to the courthouse. We could call up Chris and everyone, to see if they wanna be our witnesses. ”

He gave a surprised scoff, raising his eyebrows. “Pretty spontaneous of you.”

She shrugged, a small smirk on her lips. “I learned from the best. I mean, do you really wanna spend all that money? I don’t really care about having a wedding. The whole tradition seems pretty antiquated to me, anyway.”

“Agreed,” Jess replied, nodding. “Except, what about Luke and Lorelai? And Lane?”

“I mean, we’ve all been to weddings. They’re pretty much the same every time. We can send them a card or something. I just wanna do it, Mariano,” she said, eyes wide and starry with excitement. “I don’t wanna wait. I mean, we’ve been together, more or less, for like, seven years.”

“Minus about four years in the middle there,” Jess pointed out, chuckling.

She rolled her eyes playfully. “Like you weren’t pining for me that whole time, loverboy.”

“Hypocrite,” he shot back. “You really wanna do this””

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” she said, with the most certainty possible. It made Jess so happy he almost wanted to start crying.

“You sure you don’t wanna plan it out and everything? I know how much you love planning,” Jess said. His heart was racing in his chest at her proposition. But, he was waiting for her to second-guess it, for her feet to turn cold. He didn’t want her to doubt her decision later, even if the idea of marrying her immediately made him beyond ecstatic.

“I love you more, though,” she said. “But I only want to do it if you want to also. What do you say, James Dean? Is today our wedding day?”

His smile grew, and he was practically beaming. “Yeah. It is.”

.   .   .

After a couple hours waiting on cold, hard wooden benches in the lobby of the courthouse, with Chris snapping as many pictures as possible on his fancy camera (which he bought inexplicably) and Mabel fussing over whether she had done Ella’s makeup well enough, the six of them stood in the air conditioning of the courthouse’s makeshift chapel. In her hands, Ella held a bouquet of thirteen yellow daffodils Jess had picked up from the supermarket on the way. Her stomach was doing flips, her smile was beginning to hurt her cheeks. Despite the spontaneity of the decision, she was beginning to feel like she had been waiting forever. The period after arriving at the courthouse when Leo had to sweet talk one of his friends from high school, who worked as an administrator at city hall, into giving them a marriage license without the customary 24-hour delay had been agony. But they had pulled it off.

They had all made an effort to look presentable, though Ella could hear her mother’s voice in the back of her mind calling them ragamuffins. Jess wore a simple white button-down with black pants, along with his only pair of real leather shoes and a belt to match. Over it, he wore the suit jacket Ella had been so shocked to see him in when she’d first come to Truncheon’s open house. No tie, of course. The only white dress Ella owned was covered in a pattern of black flowers, and she found the traditional sentiments about virginity behind white dresses to be troubling, to say the least. Instead, she opted for a plain navy blue dress with spaghetti straps, made from satin. It was the fanciest piece of clothing she owned, bought for a party at Truncheon two months earlier that had ultimately been cancelled due to a phantom March blizzard. If she had known at the time that it was to be her wedding dress, she would have laughed in disbelief.

On her feet were her old black ballet flats. She felt as though not wearing them would violate old time’s sake. Her hair was curled and pinned half-back. Her makeup was minimal, with small winged black eyeliner and muted pink lip gloss, a little less than she would have done on herself. But Mabel had practically squealed with delight when Ella asked her to put together the wedding look. Her heart swelled at the sight of Matthew and Chris standing behind Jess, and the thought of Leo and Mabel behind her. After so long feeling out of place, Ella thought she was exactly where she was supposed to be, with the exact right people. If she didn’t know any better, she would have called it destiny. But, at the idea, she wanted to roll her eyes at herself. It was Jess’s job to pull out the Hemingway bullshit.

Jess. As he stood across from her, she could see the ghost of the boy she’d met at the diner back when she was a frustrated high schooler. Back when he had been an angry kid. She thought of love at first sight, and how silly it was, and how whole-heartedly he believed in it. A jewel of fondness sat warmly in her core, and her eyes shone brightly with affection. Even back then, he had given her some sort of lively joy when her world was flat, filled with monotony, drudgery, grief. He had shown her how life could be, if she stopped holding onto her pain so tightly. And she liked to think she had shown him a thing or two, as well.

He looked so grown up. Still, it often struck her how much he had changed. The stubble on his jaw, the slight crinkles at the corners of his eyes when he smiled his slightly crooked smile, or, of course, smirked. His more respectable haircut and his more mature way of dressing. But there would always be a part of him that was exactly the same as it always had been. The foundation that sometimes cracked but never crumbled. The two of them against the world. She thought, not for the first time, of how wholly she trusted in him, more than she ever had before. He felt safe. She felt like she had known him for all eternity. And she felt so sure of marrying him that it was staggering. She swallowed thickly as the officiant gave his dull spiel about legal commitment, which he probably gave to some hopeful young couple every day. Blinking back the happy tears, willing them not to fall and ruin the makeup Mabel had worked so hard on, Ella did as the officiant said and passed her bouquet to Leo behind her. She and Jess joined hands. For some reason, the gesture seemed a bit cheesy, but she did it anyway, not without a sardonic smirk. He gave her fingers a squeeze of reassurance, winking at her, reading her expression expertly. She almost snorted a laugh, but bit the inside of her cheek to stop it. The officiant asked who would like to say their vows first, and Ella immediately spoke up.

“I will,” she said, looking over at the man and then back into Jess’s eyes. “You’re the writer here and I have no interest in following whatever you’re gonna say.”

Jess laughed a little, along with the rest of them, and nodded. He took in a deep breath, still shocked at what was happening. For the life of him, he could not remember a time he had ever before felt so content. The small, nagging voice in his mind told him he didn’t deserve her. She was perfect, after all. But then, she wasn’t, was she? She was stubborn and pessimistic and sometimes stuck in her ways. He loved those things about her, too, even if he sometimes didn’t like them. He had loved her the moment he saw her, and still did, even after finding her flaws. And she loved him, even after finding his. The thought made the voice in his head go completely quiet, for the first time in a very long time. The broken pieces of the puzzles which made them up just happened to fit together exactly, and that was all that mattered, he decided. And he wasn’t scared. He wasn’t nervous about her falling out of love with him. He wasn’t worried about her realizing he wasn’t enough. Instead, he felt complete. He felt ready.

Ella cleared her throat, biting the inside of her cheek again. Then, after taking a moment to compose herself, she began: “So, here we are, Mariano. I’m really happy we decided to do this today, but that means we didn’t have time to plan what to say beforehand. And, like I said, you’re the writer here. So, I’m just gonna try my best...like we always do. We try for each other. I promise I’ll keep trying forever. Because there’s not been one second since I met you that I haven’t wanted to be with you. I miss you whenever you’re gone, even if you’re only gone for a minute. Even when I fucking hate you, I want you with me. Because you are the only person who’s ever made me feel like I’m home.”

Pausing for a moment, she blinked back her tears again. And she disentangled one of her hands from his, to wipe away the dampness on his cheeks with her thumb. His face reddened with embarrassment, but still, the small smile was ever-present on his lips. She clasped her hand in his once more, and continued.

“I love you, simple as that. I didn’t even believe in love when I met you. But then you came and fucked that mindset up royally. You gave me a bed when I was drunk, and you wrote notes in the margins of my books, and you showed me the Hudson River. And a million other things. I have never known a person who is more kind and intelligent and generous and thoughtful. And such a smartass,” she added, and everyone laughed.

She shrugged playfully, and squeezed his hands in return. “You’re the fucking best. You’re it, cutie. I know you know how I feel about that hopeless romantic bullshit you’re partial to. And I never thought I’d believe in soulmates. But, today, with you, I do. Because you’re mine, James Dean. And I’m yours. You once told me we belonged to each other, and I think that’s true. So, why not make it official in the eyes of the law?”

Again, they laughed. But Jess had to choke back more crying at her words. And he had to prepare himself for what he knew was coming. She had always been the better public speaker. He was so nervous he could barely contain himself, despite her beautiful vows. In fact, maybe even because of them. She wasn’t the writer, but she’d pretty much nailed it, he thought. For a fleeting moment, he felt sick from the anxiety. What if he fucked it up? But, again, she squeezed his hands.

And he felt more sure of himself as the officiant passed the torch to him. He cleared his throat, sniffed, and met her ardent hazel gaze. At once, he felt like it was just the two of them.

“I may be the writer, Stevens. But in just a minute everyone will see why I didn’t go into public speaking,” he began. She shook her head a little at him and giggled, urging him to go on. “When I came back to Stars Hollow for my mom’s wedding, all I could think about was you. You were everywhere in that town, even when you weren’t. I wanted to tell you how much I loved you, and I didn’t know how. Granted, the plan I came up with to tell you definitely wasn’t the best. But, while I was there, Luke gave me this book to help me...learn about open communication.”

She let out another laugh and her cheeks were mirthful roses.

“Hilarious, I know,” he deadpanned, and she kept giggling. The sound made his grin widen. “Anyway, I’ll spare you the details, even though you’ve been asking me for them for years. I always wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Pretty much since the minute I saw you, honey. Even if you can’t relate to that Hemingway stuff, as you so eloquently put it. But there was one part in the book that made me decide to tell you. The narrator’s talking about the divorce of these two middle-aged tragedies named Philip and Judy. The narrator says Philip would have figured out how much he loved Judy if he had asked himself a few questions.”

Pausing, he averted her gaze for a moment. “I can’t believe Luke isn’t here to see me put this shit in my vows. I’m sorry, Eleanor.���

She chuckled through the happy tears welling in her eyes. “It’s okay, cutie. It’s perfect.”

He cleared his throat, nodding slightly. Taking his hands out of her grip, he reached into his jacket pocket to pull out an old, folded book page. He opened it, looking down, and began once more. “He should have asked himself the following questions: ‘Whose phone calls or visits are never unwanted or too long? Do you see her face? Who would you most like to have in your life to ward off moments of loneliness? Do you see her face? When you travel, who would make your travels more enjoyable? Do you see her face? When you’re in pain, who would you most like to comfort you? Do you see her face? When something wonderful happens in your life, with whom would you first want to share the news? Do you see her face? Whose face appears to you?’”

After the recitation, he folded the piece of paper back up and tucked it inside his jacket.

“Did you keep that this whole time?” she asked, blurting out the question before she could stop herself. She was overwhelmed with affection at the gesture, and for the moment, she could see no one else besides Jess as he stood across from her.

“Yeah, I ripped it out before I gave the book back to Luke,” he explained, lowering his voice, conspiratory.

She laughed. “Thief.”

He shrugged, unaffected. “Que será, será.”

Stifling another laugh, she nodded and composed herself. “Just checking. Go on.”

He retook her hands gently. His joking air disappeared and all at once, he was feeling the full weight of his emotion again. Clearing his throat, he hoped to ward off the shake in his voice. “I saw your face every time, Elle. Every single time. I wanted you to be that for me, and I wanted to be that for you. Because you’re beautiful, and you’re brilliant, and you’re the most unselfish person in the world. And I don’t want to spend one more second not married to you.” Then, after taking a deep breath, he finished: “Eleanor Stevens, I have been in love with you since I was seventeen.”

A smile so wide it hurt her spread across Ella’s face. She shook her head at herself as she began to cry just a little harder. Before she could think to say anything else, she pulled him in to place an affectionate kiss on his lips.

“Hey, we’ve still got a few paragraphs to get through, kids,” the officiant scolded them gruffly, though not unkindly.

Images of a flannel-clad diner owner back in Connecticut appeared in Ella’s mind. She caught Jess’s gaze, and he seemed to be thinking the same thing. She bit her lip, and then put her head to his shoulder, laughing loudly. His arm wrapped instinctively around her waist. Standing there, leaning on each other, they shook happily with messy giggles.

[fluffychubbyrose]

Tony Stark x Chubby Self Conscious reader.

One Shot.

Requested.

Warnings- Slight Language, Slight NSFW so slight if you blink you'll miss it, Tony Stark might be more OC than some may like, insecurities, and light bullying.

(Also I don't own any of these pictures I just made the collages.)

Tony decided today instead of staying in the tower and relaxing, maybe having a movie marathon or something that we should go shopping to get me some more clothes since I keep telling him that I only have a few outfits to wear that are comfortable when he asks why I'm wearing the same outfits again and again.

The outfits are mostly my old sweats and sweatshirts along with a couple of baggy dress shirts and dress pants that I feel comfortable lounging around the tower or going out in, because they cover me completely and hide my plushness from the prying and judging eyes of other people.

I've been wearing the same outfits on rotation for the past month or two instead of wearing the new dresses or skirts I said I loved and fit good when he bought them for me, even when they were a bit snugger and showed more skin than I'd like them to. But at the time they seemed like a great idea to get because while they were a bit snug, they were beautiful, soft, and lovely material that highlighted my figure and bust. But lately I haven't been as confident as I was when I first got those outfits and wore them around and out and about.

But now looking at myself in these dresses, skirts, and tight shirts they just show to much of me and dont look right on my body anymore, they show too many of my rolls and plushness. "You need more than a measly few outfits to wear love and you know it. If those clothes we bought didn't fit comfortably you should have just said something and we could have gotten a different style or size for you that would have been more comfortable."

He says with a sigh not budging about going shopping and seemingly pouting that I didn't tell him about the clothes not fitting comfortably until now especially since some of the ones I'm refusing to wear are his personal favorites. "I don't think they have any bigger sizes." I muttered. "Hmm what was that?" "Nothing give me a minute to get ready and we can go." I said heading to our shared bedroom to put some light makeup on, tame my hair, and change out of my sweats.

Once I'm finished I walk out and over hear Tony talking to someone so I stay behind the corner to eavesdrop. "Yeah Y/n and I are planning on going on a quick shopping spree but I'll see if she wants to go to afterwards and meet up with everyone and maybe I can talk her into getting a new bikini while we're out to wear to the beach."

"Okay we'll see you there but don't try to trick her into wearing anything she isn't comfortable with Tony." I think that was Steve he was talking to and said "we'll" see you there so is the whole team going to be there? If it's just us that could be fun but last time the "private" beach we went to was anything but. Luckily I had my one piece on and could cover up with my towel. Tony takes any opportunity and turns it into a party. "Me!?! Trick her! Never!" He said sounding appalled making me giggle and reveal my hiding spot.

Knowing very well that he's always up to something and trying to get me to do all kinds of crazy things from experiments in the lab, to getting me drunk from the expensive alcohols that he loves but I can't really stand the taste of. Knowing I was busted I walked around the corner and kissed Tony on the cheek from behind. "Oh there you are Y/n! Are you ready to go sweetheart?" He asks smirking at me with playful look for catching my eavesdropping. "Yeah I'm ready."

(Small timeskip to the shopping center.)

"Oooh I like this one!" Tony says swinging around showing me a nearly see threw black button up shirt with a plunging neckline. "Tony that's basically see threw I can't wear that!" I said embarrassed cheeks heating up at the thought of anybody seeing me in something like that. "Yes you can, if you only wear it for me!" He says with a cheeky grin. I sigh and continue look it through the rack of clothes in front of me.

Most if not all of these clothes are way to small for me. I sigh and continue down the isle looking for cute but comfy clothes that won't hug my body. Which is proving to be more and more difficult with nothing being in my size, and with Tony only picking out provocative clothing. I'm feeling more discouraged and upset by the minute deciding to give up on finding anything today I turn to tell Tony let's just go to the bathing suit store to pick out a new bathing suit for the "not a party at the beach" he managed to convince me into going to.

Until I see Tony with an armful of clothes that upon further investigation are a bunch of outfits I wanted to get but were way to small for me to wear there must be 20 something outfits in his arms while he's talking to the sales associate. "Hi, yes I need all of these 3-4 sizes bigger." He says dumping the clothes into her arms. Looking closer it looks like he got the biggest ones of each outfit which would only need to be 2-3 sizes bigger to fit me well. "I'm sorry sir but these are as big as we carry and besides these would just be a waste on someone like her if that's who their meant for. I mean no offense but they wouldn't even fit like they were made to on someone of her size." She spat sounding irritated and disgusted not apologetic by any means.

"The way they fit, or look, are up to her to decide. Not you or anyone else and say something like that again and I'll have your job by the end of the hour. So again I would like all of these 3-4 sizes bigger so they are comfortable for my girl over there." He motions to me with his head looking as pissed off as he sounds, and the way he said 'my girl' was very possessive. My eyes widen and my face heats up from embarrassment from what she said and the confrontation in general but I'm touched and happy with how he's defending me.

"And if you don't have any bigger sizes then custom tailor it to fit. If you need her measurements I'll send them to you. Here's my card and I expect to be contacted by the end of the day with all of these resized and ready for pickup." The women looks deathly pale after taking and reading the card realising she just offended Tony Stark. Knowing that his threat to her job moments ago was in fact real and emanate if she didn't comply. Seeing her so petrified makes a part of me smug knowing next time she'll think before she speaks at least.

"Yes! Right away, I'm so sorry sir they will be ready by the end of the day! You can pay for them then. I'll be right back." She squeaks out and runs off with the clothes with her head down and tail tucked between her legs hopefully feeling as embarassed and upset as am from her comments. I wrap my arms around my self with head down now that she's gone I feel tears pricking the edges of my eyes hearing her say that just proved what I've been thinking about myself is true that I'm so big that it's repulsive to be this size, hell I can't even fit into a single thing in this entire store without it being tailored to fit, that should say something.

"Hey don't listen to her sweetheart she's just jealous I'm with you and not her. Everything she said was just a spiteful lie trying to get under your skin." He says lifting my head up and wiping under my eyes where a few silent tears slipped past without me knowing. He kisses me softly and hugs me tucking me under his chin while his hands rub up and down my back. I snuggle closer with my eyes closed holding him tight. "C'mon Y/n let's go pick out that swim suit!" He says sounding excited and let's go of me grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the store and down to the next trying to get my mind off of the rude sales associate.

(Another small time skip where we just arrived at the beach.)

"Hey you guys made it!" Steve runs up in just his swim trunks, hair wet, and sand sticking to him like someone pushed him down onto the sandy shore of the beach just moments before. "Yeah we're just gonna go set up our stuff then we'll join you guys in the water." Tony replies with his arm wrapped around me. Steve smiles and nods then runs off down the beach. I'm not sure about getting into the water looking around there's a lot of strangers here all swarming the infamous Avengers wanting to get pictures with them or of them.

The beach isn't packed but it defiantly isn't as dead as it should be if just the team was here, and I don't want a rerun of what happened earlier especially now that Tony talked me into a bikini after all. Though I picked it out and hid it from his view until I changed into it. When I put it on and it actually fit really well supporting me and being snug but not tight when I wasn't expecting it to fit at all with just how small it looked, I couldn't just put it back and pick out a different one. (It's the bikini in the pic above.)

But thinking about it now I should have picked a much less revealing bikini, but I knew Tony would appreciate the colors if you know what I mean. So I put it on in the changing room and put my clothes back on over it, only taking the price tags up to the cashier so I could pay for it and said I wouldn't let him see it until we got here because I was worried I would loose my nerve and pick out another one piece bathing suit after all. Plus I knew that if I let him see me in it that we would never make it to the beach and would more than likely be banned from the store. So he's been rushing to get here and to get me out of my dress shirt and knee high shorts since I checked out at the store. "Hurry Y/n I can't wait to get into the water!" Tony yells twenty or so feet away and winks at me suggestively, dropping our things onto the sand not bothering to actually set anything up.

"Don't lie Stark you only want to see her in her new bikini! You don't really care about getting in the water!" Natasha yells back at him from a ways down the beach playing volleyball with Wanda and few other people I don't recognize against the boys. Both of them wearing their own bikinis. 'That's probably how Steve got covered in sand.' "How did you know about that?" He yelled back pouting harder than he would willingly admit, because she's seen me in my new bikini but he hasn't been aloud to. Natasha stopped playing and said something to a couple of the people I didn't recognize that were on her team and walked up with Wanda right behind her.

"Oh don't get your panties in a twist Stark she sent me and Wanda a few photos wanting some feed back before deciding which swim suit to get." She grumped at him. "But trust me you'll like what she picked out." Wanda said with a knowing smirk. My face heats up when his gaze locks with mine. "Oh I never doubted that I wouldn't like it. Now come on let's get into the water that's the whole point of going to the beach." He said pulling on my hand. "Fine but I have to take these clothes off and I'm not comfortable just stripping on the beach and you have get changed to."

I say holding my towel close to me nervous about showing so much of myself in front of everyone, especially in front of strangers. Tony not needing me to tell him twice took off to the changing rooms with his swim trunks yelling for me join him. "No way or I won't get to swim today! I'll change and be out in a few." I say while walking towards an empty room. I strip out of my clothes and look at myself in the full length mirror they had in the changing room. Feeling insecure and like this was a very bad idea all of a sudden.

Seeing all of my rolls and stretch marks in plain sight is making me feel ugly and disgusted with my self. I'm about to say hell with it all and put my clothes back on and say I'm feeling sick and that I want to go home even though Tony will know its a lie and will be worried about me, I can't handle this, I'm not ready, this is to much. That's when Tony's voice comes through the door. "Almost done in their my beautiful girl? You aren't going to keep me waiting all day are you? I could just come in there and get you if you'd prefer?" He purrs out but sounds worried.

I hurriedly wrap my towel around myself and unlock the door but I don't make a move to come out. "I'm not sure I can do this Tony. This is a bad idea I wanna go home." I'm hugging myself again degrading and upsetting thoughts are rushing through my head making me so overwhelmed that I don't notice Tony's in the changing room with me until he wraps his arms around me from behind making me jump. "Where's all of this coming from? Is it because of what that lady said earlier because she's wrong, so so wrong baby girl your beautiful in everyway!" I cringe trying not to cry knowing what he's saying is true but I can't help but let what she said and what I've been thinking lately get to me anyways.

I whimper and turn around in his arms letting him hold me again. "I'm sorry I don't know what's going on I've been more and more insecure lately for no real reason. That's why I don't wear those clothes you bought me anymore, they fit but they show to much of everything I hate and I wanted to cover up by wearing my old baggy clothes." I pull back looking up at him. Tony's silent for a moment looking at me with a thoughtful expression. "Well we'll just have to fix that now won't we?" He smiles softly grabbing my hand and leaning towards the door.

"Tony no I really don't want to go out there not like this at least." I say pulling back and looking down. "Like what? Your all covered up by your towel. I cant even see that little swim suit you bought earlier that I've been dying to see since we left the store. I love every single part of your body but if you don't want to go out there we don't have to. We can go home or stay right here in this changing room. Hell I bet if I text Capsicle he'll bring us something eat and drink then we can stay in here all day." I giggled at that imagining a confused and flustered Steve coming to the changing room bringing food and water.

"There's my girl." Tony coo's running his hands up my sides trying to tickle me. "Hey hey, No, Tony, Dont you dare!" I squeaked out jumping back hitting the wall of the changing room realizing I'm trapped my eyes widen and I'm about to yell at him again when he launches at me tickling me and I don't feel my towel falling while trying to squirm away laughing until I feel Tony's bare hands on my hips and he stops tickling me. I look up worried about the sudden stop in his "attack" and his silence until I see the desire in his eyes.

"As much as I absolutely love this." He leans close to my ear his grip tightening on my hips. "I'd love even more to see it off and on the floor." He kissed my neck once he finished. Making me gasp as heat floods my cheeks. He mumbles into my neck. "How about I show you just how beautiful you really are." Pressing his body up against mine nipping the sweet spot on my neck.

Let's just say I never got to go swimming in my new swim suit and Steve got more than just an eyeful when he came to check on us because we forgot to lock the door.

@lilacprincessofrecovery

[polygamyff]

53.

Robyn smiled at me “what?” she said “I want to see the dress” I pointed, Robyn is starting to pack things for Cali and I have seen about three suitcases now, but now the most important thing has come out “no, shut up. It needs resizing. I am taking it incase, I love the dress, but you can’t see it so stop it. And please do not try and look at it behind my back” she hung it up, it’s covered so I can’t see it “so you all packed or you got more?” I am confused on what she actually takes with her “erm, that is Reign’ suitcase, that is mine and that is yours! You do that yourself, thanks” pulling a face “I won’t need a case, I buy things on the go so there” Robyn huffed out and walked off “you know what Maurice, I will pack for you” that is what I wanted to happen in the first place, I wanted Robyn to do it for me. I stifled out a yawn while rubbing my eye, I have just woke up to Robyn doing this, it’s nerve wracking. I have a lot to happen to me while there, Ally is flying out with us. Robyn actually said she is invited to come, obviously she is with Jay so why not “Reign is crying, or did your mind just shut off?” looking over at Robyn “you know when you put on your bonnet, you act out. I swear” I must have started to daydream because I didn’t hear Reign crying “go and get her for me, and before you go and see Malik feed her for me please. I just need to tidy some things. Thank you” pushing the covers “sure, I wanted to ask. What did you get daddy for his birthday?” getting out of bed “what dad?” fixing my dick in my boxers “me, I am your daddy. I want to know what you got me” turning around as I stretched out “nothing” she shrugged “you know we got a gym here? Why don’t you start bulking up” I laughed, I had to laugh “I could also say the same about you but the other way around, you need to you know” eyeing her up “what exactly Maurice?” let me stay here, less likely she can get my ass unless she jumps on the bed and attacks me “your stomach looks stuffed” Robyn crossed her arms across her chest “keep going” shaking my head “Reign is crying” I pointed, Robyn is going to kill me “go then” she pointed, slowly walking around the bed “you’re not worth it skinny, go!” she waved me off, I chuckled and then let out a little scream catching Robyn grab the glass of water from the side. I jumped moving as she threw the water at me.

Robyn got me screaming like a girl, pressing my ear to the door. Reign is so loud, she is cussing in her little language and then crying. Opening the door, pushing it open. The room went ever so silent, not a sound but I can hear her moving “Reign?” I said “dada!!” I can’t, I can’t keep playing around “my love!! Look who it is” Reign is stood up in the crib and her little face smiling at me “superman came to save you” making my way to the crib “crazy hair! What happened?” Reign lifted her arms up at me, touching her hair “crazy” picking her out of the crib “I love you baby” picking bubzy out of the crib “I need to feed you, what we feeling? Some eggs? You want daddy to make some eggs for you, with some delicious fruit, we going to be healthy” the best thing in life is hugs and love from my daughter “your mom is not happy with me Reign” making my way out of the bedroom, Reign looked up at me “yes, she is not happy. She called me skinny, so I called her fat, I mean she is not fat at all. I was joking, but I know she is upset with me. Women are sensitive” I love that Reign listens to me, she just takes it all in and agrees with me in everything “dada did bad?” I asked, Reign shook her head “good, this is why you are my daughter” I chuckled.

“Reign you are my protection from your mother, she may attack me” walking into the bedroom ��Bonita?” I said “just call me butch, don’t call me that” I couldn’t help myself, I ended up laughing “Robyn, you called me skinny. It’s a joke, please let’s stop this silly behaviour. I have fed, cleaned and dressed the princess, she just needs to play now. But Robyn, I am sorry if I offended you but you are not fat, it was a joke” Robyn just side eyed me “you are just thick” putting my arm around Robyn “be quiet, stop being so annoying” pressing a kiss to the top of Robyn’ head “I love you, but I need to go now. My driver will be here any minute now, I will be good promise” placing Reign on the ground “good, give Malik my love. Tell him that we can’t wait for him to come out and we can get back to normal” I thought Reign would have walked off but she didn’t, she walked straight into Robyn’ legs “awww you want some snuggles” Robyn picked Reign “she wanted you, ok I will be back” pecking Robyn’ lips before I pressed a kiss to Reign’ forehead “oh and my mom said she is prepared, she is excited we are staying there” I cooed out “she misses us having sex constantly, I joke. I miss my mother in law. Call me if you need me” I better go.

Watching Nalah get into the SUV “afternoon Maurice” Nalah said “what’s good? We all happy now? Positivity now” Nalah laughed shaking her head “every time I kept texting you in anger all you kept texting me was positivity, Robyn is good for you but. We ready for Malik? He did call me and said you are coming; I go of course we are. I am on the fence in regards to telling him, I am not sure or maybe I don’t want to say it to him, it’s hurtful” rubbing my chin nodding my head “but I was thinking, he is in rehab. The best place he can be, so if he was to want drugs or want to act out he can’t? He will have the support there, I think I am going to say it to him so he can heal while he is there, so when he comes out he will have us there. I will support Malik as long as he supports me and is good to me, but I don’t see him fucking up again, do you?” Nalah shook her head “he has learnt, he said actually. Hugging his brother again was a good feeling even though Maurice didn’t want a hug, he knows he has done wrong, he always mentions how good Robyn has been to him and he let her down, we will see what he is like when we go back” I hope he is still in a good place, places like that your moods can change very quickly.

The hate I have for these places runs deep but here I am for Malik “how has he been?” I asked the worker walking us, it’s not the same person we saw last time “he is ok, he wanted to shave his hair again, so he is bald again. We told him that we liked the hair, nope. He said shave all bald, but he is in a good mood” shaving your hair is a sense of cleansing yourself, I did that. It feels good, I guess he still feel he has those issues “we are changing rooms, it will be in the hall” nodding my head walking behind Nalah, it is a nice place here but I expect it with the price tag that comes along with it “here” she pointed at the room “thank you” Nalah opened the door “oh my, look at this, Malik?” Nalah said as she walked into the room, walking in behind her “what?” I said laughing, seeing the balloons and the sign “Happy Birthday? For me?” I pointed laughing “yeah, I remember your birthday. I ain’t going to be there so I thought I get you cake here” that is so sweet “for real? Wow, that is very thoughtful Malik” Malik came at me first, he hugged me “you all emotional and shit, this is nice. Thank you so much, I love it” hugging him “I didn’t leave, the nurse got it for me. Nalah gave me money for it” I cooed out “it doesn’t matter how, you did it. I love it, I really do. Thank you” patting his back, this is so sweet that he did that “where is my hug?” Nalah said “oh yeah, I want to show Maurice the cake” I am taken a back “ok, go on then. Hug me after” I can’t stop smiling at all “didn’t want to ruin the surprise for you, he wanted to do this” Nalah said “I am impressed” I said “I don’t remember this moment but it’s got us on there” looking down at the cake “the Dubai opening, nice crop game. I love it, is that who means the most to you?” I pointed, the picture is us on the opening “yes” patting his back “I like it, we will have some cake. Come” I find this so sweet; I am actually very impressed he thought of me “I don’t have no gift for you, I am sorry but I will make it up to you” walking behind him “my gift is Malik doing good, my gift is you being you. The person I knew, this is enough for me” I didn’t expect this at all “take some for Robyn?” Malik said “of course I will, Reign will love some cake. I want to eat Robyn’ face please” I pointed; I will always eat Robyn.

Staring at the party hat “like who’s idea was this?” looking at Nalah, I know she probably said get this shit “not me, just put it on” what on earth are these two on with this shit, putting the party hat on “so we doing it all then? Even the happy birthday?” watching Nalah hold the cake as both of them sang happy birthday, I can’t help but laugh “one candle huh” Nalah stood in front of me with the cake “happy birthday dear Maurice, happy birthday to you!!” Malik shouted, I cooed out “thank you” closing my eyes before blowing the candle out “wow, Malik. I am shocked, I want Robyn’ face” getting up from the chair “I know I am going to miss it so, this will be fun” hugging Malik “and I appreciate it, it has really made me happy. Small things in life” looking behind me before sitting back down “I wanted to get a gift for you but I can’t leave so you know, I promise I will get you one” shaking my head “why do I need anything? I have everything I need, my siblings, this! This is what I want. You know I have been on a journey, you have too and you will prosper” I know he can “you think I can find myself a Robyn too? She has made you so happy, I want that” I chucked “bro, you can. I am sure you can” that is a compliment to me with finding such a perfect woman, Robyn is unique, and I love her.

Wiping my mouth with the napkin “that is a nice ass cake” I said which Malik laughed “I said to Nalah, it’s too cheap for him but glad you like it. Take some for Robyn though, thank you for coming. Nalah said you are busy but you came” placing the napkin on the table “I am, you know I am getting married while I am in Cali so I have a lot on my mind, you won’t be there of course but I will somehow send you pictures, I will tell your carer while here. Hand on my heart, I am sad you can’t be there because I am happy this time but I will send you pictures” Malik put his head down “I did this to myself, I fucked you over and you’re here for me, I went with your ex. I don’t deserve this at all” I sighed out wishing he didn’t think on it “bro, she fed you drugs and used you like every one in your life has. Don’t you think? In your life Malik, who has been the one there for you? Cared for you, you have done so much for attention, you wanted someone to give you some attention but yet nobody was giving it and you was destroying your life. I don’t want you to think of the past, we are looking forward right?” Malik nodded his head “future but I feel bad” he mumbled “and I have forgiven you, ok?” I said, I want him to move on.

Nalah and I just stared at each other, I know she doesn’t want to say a word, but I think it will be right time is now “how are you feeling mentally? Do you feel you are ready to see the outside world? Oh, and Nalah is pregnant” I added quickly “you just added that like it was seasoning! My god Maurice, yes Malik. I am pregnant” I grinned “really? Oh wow, you’re having a baby. Dad allowed that to happen” Malik said which made me laugh “he ain’t my damn uterus Malik, but I am pregnant, and I am ever so happy. I can’t wait for the baby to meet it’s uncles” playing with my earlobe, I am feeling a little nervous to say this myself “with Nalah pregnant, you come out you will be living with Nalah. Helping her with the baby, the father is a dickhead” I rolled my eyes “I thought you were with Shawn?” Malik knows “well my friend doesn’t do well with babies, he has ran off. So, we need Uncle Malik to take care of Nalah and the baby but erm. Malik, I have something I need to tell you. This is hard on me to say it to you but I want you to know that no matter what, Nalah and I love you so much and we all will prosper together, I feel like here is the best time to tell you, I know how it feels to be here, it is a time to heal so I have chosen to tell you now. But this is hard to tell you because it does break my heart for you, Nalah doesn’t agree but when has she ever agreed to things at times, but I want you to listen to me when I say I got you in this” Malik looks a little scared now “we going to be grown adults yeah, because at the end of the day we always had each other no matter how much our parents played us off of each other and I just want you to understand that, our parents never had us, none of us and Joy is a trash person but I need you to let me look after you” Malik just stared at me “what is it?” I am talking too much.

Rubbing my hands together “I found something out while I was in Spain, probably something I wish I never knew but I do. But this makes me, us move on. I was always confused on why I had to come back to Texas, I was happy in Spain. Well it’s no secret dad had married Paula, mom found out and so things escalated, mom did something that made you arrive. She uhm cheated on dad with his brother and dad came back to Texas wanting to kill Abel-” Nalah cut me off “what it is Malik, the reason why dad is so horrible to you is that Abel is your real dad, this is why for years dad never bothered with you, this is a family secret, mom was going to tell us when dad died but Maurice found out” Malik looks like a deer caught in headlights “huh, no. What you mean? That is a lie?” he laughed “I am not lying, I am sorry, but you are my brother. I just needed you-” Malik got up from the chair “I can’t do it, I can’t” he walked off “Malik, I would never lie to you. Dad treated you like shit for that reason!” I shouted; I don’t want him to storm off like this. Nalah shook her head at me “why me!” he shouted aloud “why me!?” Malik punched the wall “why!” another punch “me!” getting up from the chair “Malik” the door opened, two of the workers rushed in “calm down, what is it?” the lady asked “you’re going to have to sedate me, inject me” Malik said laughing “you’re going to have to sedate me, I will make your life hell if you don’t” I feel helpless right now “Malik” he pushed the worker, the guy barely moved “right, meet time is over” he dragged Malik out “don’t hurt him, look. Don’t sedate him” I rushed around the table “Mr Davenport, please stay in this room while we put him in his room” the lady said “you need to understand he just found out his dad is not his actual dad, he just needs time. Don’t sedate him” I don’t want that.

It’s weighing heavy on my mind; I feel bad but then I also know he is in that place and hasn’t ran off to be stupid. I got this cake with me; I feel like shit. Placing the cake on the coffee table “how did it go? What is this?” Robyn asked “Malik celebrated my birthday, he bought me cake” I said feeling so defeated “awww really? That is so cute” Robyn shuffled from the couch to look “where is my face!?” she questioned “in my stomach, I ate it” sitting next to Robyn “you are so ugly for that so how did it go? Not well? You look sad” rubbing my chin “it went well, everything was ok. He was happy to see us; he did that for me which honestly made me happy. He was smiling a lot too, wore a stupid party hat. Then I told him the truth about dad, and he didn’t take it well, I ruined his world. I know I did; he holds so much anger, punching the wall shouting why me. Then he told the workers to sedate him. I just think the best place was there, out here he could go to drugs, did I do bad?” looking over at Robyn “that is sad but no matter how you said it to him, it would have been hard but at that place would be best for you to tell and also his safety, that is so sad. I am sorry” Robyn placed her head on my shoulder, I hope he is ok.

[moldy-mold]

Diary Post: My Thoughts and Processes on Making “Silent Strength” It’s lengthy, taking place over long period of time. Mainly written for my future-self to remember what I went through, but also for anyone who is curious. Now that the project is over, I can post without reservations. There are certain things I need to keep secret though, so if I’m vague I do so intentionally!

Basically, a lot of number-crunching, physical labor, and psychological labor.

It started off as kind of a joke tweet I made. I had enough content to make a Tales Of art book and people were receptive to it. So… I thought maybe I could go somewhere with this. A few weeks later, I suddenly had a lot of Kratos art. Like. 80% of all my Tales art was Kratos. It didn’t make sense to make a broad Tales Of book when really most of it was Kratos.

I hadn’t made a book since I was in college despite it being one of my favorite things to do. They were never art books, just some editorial design projects that totally didn’t count. This book… would be my first-ever art book.

Several times, I came close to having enough art to print a book - the last time was my large collection of Yusuke Kitagawa, but the quality wasn’t where I wanted.  At that time, I was still experimenting with my iPad Pro and figuring out Procreate, so that was what I used him for.

NGL, I was pretty afraid of looking like a clown. After doing all this work, what if no one actually buys it? I was talking to some friends and they said they would buy it. It was enough for me. In the end, I’m creating something that I love. - The first thing I really wanted to work on was the cover. It needed to be epic but also mysterious (lol)… It was a good time to practice lighting and backgrounds. The cover had to be freaking Fantastic. I spent 3 days drawing nonstop. I was on vacation so I could spend full days just drawing. It was really intense. I would stop in the evenings to go for a run or else my legs would never get circulation again.

The hardest part was keeping it secret. I wanted to share it with the world right away bc I was so proud of it. Well, all I could do was show it to my parents and some close friends. They didn’t know who Kratos is, but it was obvious I was crazy about him.

Initially, I was doing some hand-lettering for the zine title instead of using a typeface. Tbh, I was so sure I was naming this zine “Blame Your Fate!” bc that is such an iconic line. But it just didn’t work with my cover, which looked… a little too serene for that. So… Silent Strength or Divine Strength? I asked around and got my answer.

But what size? All of my art has been on letter canvases. I wanted it to be large so you could see the details in the art. I’ll just start with that. - Luckily, I had all my Kratos-related art in one place. I started my InDesign file and threw everything in there just to see what it looked like. Man, I draw a lot of boxes… But I didn’t want them all next to each other. I also wanted to kinda organize it by the people Kratos hangs out with. There’s a Yuan section LOL… and a Lloyd section… and an Anna section. Idk, I tried to get some kind of order in there with a sprinkling of full spreads here and there to keep it fresh and interesting for the eyes.

I hadn’t worked with InDesign on such an intense level since college. I forgot all of the tips and tricks we learned in class. Spent some time reading on how to do things again… like adding page numbers. - I started drafting my pre-order form. It’s my first time making a google form like this. It’s kind of fun? I spent a long time on it, despite how simple it was. This was going to be my “Store” so it had to look and sound good. - My friend introduced me to charm-making. It seemed easy enough, and I wanted to give my zine more oomph. Besides, I’ve always wanted to make a charm.

I remember someone saying they’d buy a book of just the 4 Seraphim if it existed. I like them too and they lack art imo. In the end, I decided to do a polaroid charm. It’s not really that unique but I wanted Kratos to have actual friends to hang out with for once LOL.

She was going to do a group order to try to reduce the costs. I thought maybe 4 weeks would give me enough time. In the end she said I only have 2. I work well under pressure, so needless to say, I did make that deadline. I actually sketched the whole thing on the plane headed home. - After playing the game the second time, watching the OVA again, and reading “Offerings to a Star,” I have gained a real soft spot for Yuan.  My friend once said, “If you weren’t stolen away by Kratos, you would be in love with Yuan.” Lol. I’ve been in a “Kratos and Yuan hanging out” mood lately, so of course I needed something good for the zine. They’re so cute together! Now… what is the bro-est thing I can draw?

I was currently in Florida for my friend’s wedding. I was friends with the groom and his best man since high school, so that makes it 10 years now. Seeing how they’re still friends after all this time, despite living in opposite sides of the country, was really moving to me. Of course, me being me, I could see Kratos and Yuan’s long friendship being similar to this, if they had gone to school together. I just had to draw it. - When I got back from vacation, I did some research on zine sizes. Mine was HUGE compared to others. I just didn’t quite realize it until I held a magazine in my hands. It really is huge…

I settled for a medium size. 7x9. I really liked how it looked. Petite but not too petite. Unfortunately resizing my book had messed up my artwork placement so I spent hours rearranging all the text and resizing my images. I found out afterwards that there’s a way to retain the format while changing the document size. Gee, that would have been helpful 4 hours ago.

Sadly, choosing a custom size booklet makes printing more expensive. But I wanted it badly enough that I’d be willing to pay for it. Letter size is just too large… - I decided to stop dragging my feet and post a promo. I just really needed a deadline for myself to get this all done before July ended. I’m happy it was well-received. A lot of people like Kratos huh…

Anyway, the pre-order is due in a week and I still don’t know what all the costs are yet. I need a physical proof ASAP to weigh at the post office! - Something possessed me one day to do another drawing. I don’t usually do painterly style (mainly because it’s really difficult and takes 10x longer) but I just REALLY wanted to push myself on this Final Piece to the zine. I wanted it to be… radiant. Almost religious. I worked on it obsessively. From breakfast to sundown. The only time I would stop was at 7pm to go running or else my legs would give out on me.

Call me crazy, but I would save my progress on my phone so I could examine it for errors during my warmup. I also spend an hour examining it for errors before going to bed. It’s a miracle I hadn’t dreamt of the painting. - I sent my files in on Sunday in hopes that they start working on it first thing on Monday…. and it HAPPENED! They finished before I even woke up. I think they start work at like 6am…

Of course, I drove over there as soon as I heard so I can get a look. “Please… please let the colors be okay,” I prayed as I was driving. I barely remember driving there, I was so lost in thought. It would be another long ordeal if I had to fix all the colors.

Thank the stars. The press proof looked BEAUTIFUL!! I was screaming to the client coordinator how much I loved it. I mean, I worried for a looooong time that everything would turn out too dark (it usually does) but it was PERFECT. I was especially worried about the cover, which contained a lot of yellow and I def did not want it to come out mustardy… But it was great in the end!

The press operator is a quiet man. He’s got a scary face and never smiles but I think he’s secretly nice. He has done a lot of favors for me in the past without my asking. He was the one to print, bind, and trim the book for me. Obviously he had to have seen what I was drawing. I wonder what he thought of it…? He walked away before I could express how happy and thankful was. He didn’t need to hear it. It was like he already knew. So cool…

I immediately took it to the post office to weigh it. I needed as much info as I could get and plus, I was dying to know for myself. This is the week I was supposed to open pre-orders and there was still a lot I needed to do. Take pictures, create mockups, pricing, etc.

NGL, all of these costs were building up fast. It was so darn expensive to make a zine while also keeping prices down. But I wanted so much more for my baby. Extra glossy cover, perfect binding!! I knew by the end of this, I probably wouldn’t make much money. It hurt a little, but I tried to think that it was for the greater good. Learning experience and all that. And creating something beautiful. Especially something beautiful of Kratos. - Pricing was really the hardest part. I pretty much threw profit out the window. However, I definitely did not want to be losing money. My dad and I had worked together to create a spreadsheet of expenses to make sure my head was above water. I followed it… loosely.

My friend came to talk to me at the right moment. I was sort of panicking at the prices. She made me realize I was thinking way too hard about it and gave me some tips based on her own experience. It really put my mind at ease talking to someone who understands my woes.

The truth of the matter is, the book is wonderfully made and has a lot of pages - countless hours of drawing. There is only so much I can do about pricing. It is what it is… I just needed to come to terms with my own worth. - Boy, what am I going to do once the zine is done? My friend says that I’ll be so over Kratos that I’ll stop drawing him (but the love remains). It’s like… all of the intense planning, working, struggling nonstop will just suddenly… stop. TBH, I’m running out of ideas. I spent it all on the zine. - Photoshoot today. I had to paint my nails purple for this occasion. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the look I wanted in the apartment. It’s just so naked without props. I think I’ll take it to a cafe for some nicer backgrounds. I talked it over with my friend and decided to do a quick flip-through of the zine as a promotional video. I used the most professional video program I had on hand… Snapchat. It actually turned out pretty legit and of course I slapped stickers on there because it’s Snapchat.

I had to tape/hide some of the pages for the video because I wasn’t actually done with the drawings. I had the printers print it anyway so I could examine it for color accuracy.

I’m really stressed about pricing now. It turns out I had a lot more international fans than I anticipated. I wish I took notes on interest earlier in the game to cater to them. I had a list of “possible buyers” and I only just now decided to check where they live? Foolish.

I did another cost analysis on paper to figure out what my goal was to make up for the charms. Right now they’ve cost me a fortune for something that was supposed to be giveaway. Other things that rack up are packaging costs, PayPal fees, and some other supplies I needed for this project.

Maybe I shouldn’t have made it 40 pages. It is an impressive number, but no one is really paying for quantity. I think 25 is a better number lol. If I had done that, I could have had my super-gloss cover like I wanted. :’(

There is hope though. And I’ve placed it in the hands of my followers to come through for me. I think I’ll open pre-orders on Saturday or Sunday, depending on what I finish. - “Losing your cool will only lead to poor decisions.” 
Thanks, Kratos twitter bot. You always know what to say.

I read this post today on what makes people buy zines. Very interesting!
 https://twitter.com/andythelemon_/status/1141469048653398019 - Photoshoot part 2 today. My friend and I went to a cafe nearby that had some nice atmosphere in hopes of finding the right shots. I brought all of my Kratos merch just in case. I’m glad I did though, since the tables were pretty sparse and it was difficult to capture the backgrounds without getting a bunch of random people in it too.

I would have been the photographer, but I definitely wanted my hands in the shots. In a way, it was meaningful - to show that this was made by my own two hands. Plus, I wanted to depict natural interaction with the product. It made it feel real.

The photos were cute! I feared it would look a little amateurish with all the merch in there, but I think fun was what I was really going for, not “professional.” And plus the flip-through was a Snap anyway LOL. As long as the photos have good lighting and tasteful composition, you really can’t go wrong with “fun.”

Now that I’ve finished editing my photos, there really isn’t anything holding me back from opening pre-orders. I’ve pretty much come to terms with my pricing. If I fail to break even, I’ll just have to open commissions to try to make up for it. I was telling my friend on the way home, “I gave this zine EVERYTHING I had to give. So at the very least, I won’t be disappointed in myself.” No stone left unturned, no detail left unchecked. It was perfect according to my standards. I really love my zine okay?!

I thought I was crazy for not only choosing a small fandom, I narrowed it down even further by picking ONE GUY to make this zine about. She replied, “Even if it’s small, those people who love him now must be EXTREMELY LOYAL to still be in love with a character from a 15-year-old game. All of them will want your zine.” - I went to bed that night with the intention of making the pre-order post live in the morning. I was so nervous I couldn’t sleep. I was wide awake until at least 5 or 6 am. Luckily, I was able to doze off for a an hour or two before I would shake myself awake again. It was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. It was the moment of truth - to see if all my effort made a difference. Was it going to sell? - The pre-order post looked really freaking good. I’ll give it that. I even made a YT account just to post that darn preview video on tumblr lol. It was definitely fun seeing everyone’s excitement and we all just freaked out together.

I broke even! That’s what really matters. Honestly at this point, I couldn’t care less if I made profit or not. I now know how much people really like the zine and that alone made me so happy I could die.

I was particularly fascinated at Google Form’s ability to transfer all the data collected into a spreadsheet. That is extremely helpful. I spent hours organizing the data. It was really fun…?! Now I can tell who gets invoiced and who paid and separate them into categories. IT’S FANTASTIC!

Stayed up late researching how much adding tracking could be. I had a slight panic attack thinking “what if my books got lost in transit?” It would really hurt me to have to reprint books and ship them again. And then I realized I will need to fill out customs forms for all international orders. Yikes, I’m gonna be living at the post office lol. You can print them out at home if you fill out the form online but there are still some things I’m uncertain about. I may visit the post office later this week to ask all my questions. - This morning I sent out everyone’s invoices. I gave the international people the option to purchase tracking. It’s expensive… but I need to provide that option just in case.

I received a nice message from someone who offered to advertise for me on Instagram. Of course, I gave them the OK! I’m really so shocked they would do that… They said the liked the zine so much it deserved more exposure. My dude… I love you… T_T

I thought about advertising on insta myself earlier in the week. For some reason I felt it was going to be fruitless since I don’t have an art account on there with a following. So, I gave up on the idea. Hey it worked out in the end.

I’ve never been so organized in my entire life. I want this zine experience to be perfect. The people have placed their trust in me, so I cannot mess up. - Edited some pages in the zine. The typography must be perfect… It made me think back to undergrad days in graphic design school. Man, if only I can present this as a project - photos, videos, matching accessories and all. I’d probably get an A lol. - Orders slow down after the first day. The rest is just about getting new people to see the post and giving other people more time to decide.

I finished my Kratos stationery today. It’s going to be so cute. My friend said people would want to buy it but I don’t have it in me to do more products at this time. Plus, I want it to be a surprise.

Why make stationery? Well my real job (no, I don’t draw Kratos all day for a living) is a stationery designer! It would feel really wrong not to put into practice what etiquette I’ve learned in this business. Plus, I felt that it was necessary to properly thank all those who ordered. And it’s fun?

I started designing the shipping labels for the domestic orders since I don’t need to fill out a customs form for those. I wish I had sticker labels but… it’s okay. It will still look good in the end. - Every so often, I would get nervous at the amount of money I’m responsible for. Perhaps, if I had a store with existing products I wouldn’t feel this way, but the fact that the books haven’t been printed yet made me scared. I know, I need this money to even print the books in the first place, but I’m just baffled at my customers’ trust in almost a total stranger. I felt pressured that I could not let them down and lose that trust. It probably didn’t help that I watched a documentary on Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) that day.

So, I prayed every single day that nothing would go wrong. I’d check my spreadsheet constantly for any mistakes. It was a little obsessive, but I would rather be that than overlook something.

I began collecting cardboard boxes. My plan was to cut them up to protect the books during transit. I would have preferred hard envelopes but they were a bit pricey. If I have to do more work myself, so be it.

I’ve been getting nice DMs from some buyers. I think my invoice due date scared them… I really did not intend to be strict, but I wanted people to pay now if they can rather than forget about it. This happens at work all the time, so the best thing to do is have it due immediately. It would not look good to have to wait on stragglers when I close pre-orders, so I’ll probably reach out when there is one week left. - My Kratos stationery arrived! Aww it is SO CUTE!!! My babies… I have a lot of notes to write so I got started right away. It’s going to be a lot of work trying to come up with creative ways to say “thank you,” but I don’t mind. I said I was going to put my all into the zine experience so I will.

At long last, the charm order has been put in motion. My friend said it could take a while… I hope it won’t be longer than 3 weeks. I really do not want to keep everyone waiting. I may ship out the ones who did not win a charm first. I mean, there is no reason to make those guys wait. I should ask the charm winners if they still want to wait and see if anyone wants to give it up for someone else who is more patient. Hm. - I finally stopped by the post office today to collect customs forms. I have my work cut out for me since I’m filling all of them in by hand. D:

I’m not used to international addresses so I think I’ll ask for help in checking them for spelling errors and typos. Heaven forbid I mess up on the very last part of the zine experience.

In my nervousness, I decided to reach out about invoices early on. If someone wanted to cancel, I would rather find out sooner rather than later. Everyone was really nice about paying and thank goodness they’re still excited.

Feeling kind of overwhelmed by all the things I need to do, but it’s a good thing. If I don’t know what to do, I can either: cut cardboard, write letters, type shipping labels, draw more Kratos for a… possible volume 2? Someone I talked to today already said they’ll pre-order a second book if I make one. Omg I think I’ll die. But we’ll see. It’s just a joke right now haha… - Preorders end today. I had another nightmare last night that the books could not be printed properly and there was nothing I could do. Why do I keep getting nightmares about the zine! I had one a few days before about people canceling their orders when I asked them about the invoices. I’ll take these dreams with a grain of salt. I’m probably just stressed/worried but everything is going to be okay. When I open my eyes, nothing is on fire.

I received my final proof a few days ago. With all of the artwork completed and changes applied. The book looks good, no doubt about it. There was only one thing I was nit-picky about but it can be fixed. The press operator offered to print another book for me to inspect. I’ll go see it on Monday and then submit the rest of the orders. I also asked to to have a meeting with the press operator so we are on the same page. It would be beneficial to have an understanding of how my book is made so that I may be more helpful to him.

I spent the day preparing shipping labels. I hate to admit, I am not too familiar with the format international addresses so I had an address validator open as I was typing them in. For the most part, everyone was helpful in already formatting their addresses in the preorder form! - My parents called me the day after preorders were closed. They wanted to say congratulations on my success. No one thought it would do this well. I couldn’t be offended by that since I was also guilty of it. I’m happy though. It feels like my love spread across the world and was contagious.

I tried to think of what advice I would give to others. Obviously, genuine love for the subject and hard work were a necessity. But it would be good to consider value. If I were selling it at this price, I had to make sure my pieces and presentation looked the part. I ask myself, if someone else sold it, would I buy it?

I sent out messages to all the charm winners in the morning. I wanted to apologize profusely at the ridiculous amount of time it has taken to get them made. But no, I’ve got to stop apologizing. I stated the facts and left it at that. Everyone was really kind and patient⁠—to which I was thankful for. I don’t usually get that when I’m working customer service. - All the books were done printing in one day. Wow! I went to pick it up immediately of course. I can’t believe all of this is coming to an end. I finished preparing the mailers. All that was left was to stuff and seal the domestic orders. They were the easiest to do so I’m going to ship those first. The rest will need customs forms, which I haven’t filled out just yet. It’s going to be a while for those…

The mailers were quite sturdy with the cardboard cutouts I slipped in them. I have nothing to worry about. I’m sure my babies will be okay! - I took a whole box of domestic orders to the post office today. Wasn’t sure what to expect. But my clerk had to input every single address one at a time while I checked for errors. Omg, why are the post office shipping labels SO HUGE. I thought it was going to be half the size. And they’re ruining my designer labels! Slight panic but oh well…

I had a long long line behind me. I’m so sorry, people. Luckily there were two clerks or I would be really sweating. Despite my intimidating box of zines, the clerk and I had Synergy and we managed to ship all of these in about 15 minutes. I received a very long receipt and quite the bill lol. - Shipped the international orders today. I was kind of a mess since I had no idea what to do. I keep wondering if I can help speed up the process in any way but I don’t think I have the option to ship first-class at home.

When shipping international, keep the post office copy of the customs forms together with the package since they use that to type the address info into the system. Also, we get free tracking, which I did not know about. The other clerk told me that we did not get tracking for international first-class but I guess he was misinformed. It’s good to know for next time. - The charms finally arrived!! And THEY’RE HOLOGRAPHIC?! It was pretty awesome, but it makes picture-taking kind of difficult!! Anyway, I was a tiny bit disgruntled that they got my order incorrect, and I even asked for a reprint. But they said no, so I left it at that. Besides, it seems the holographic effect was well-received.

I like this size that I made. It’s really cute! Larger than your normal charm but not too huge. It’s almost like an Instax photo! - There was one customer who I found lives near me! I asked her if she wanted me to hand-deliver it to her in a public setting and she agreed (to my amazement). We finally met a few days ago and talked for hours and hours lol! I’m glad to have finally made a new friend here in this town but of course she’s moving away in two weeks. <:’3

We’re going to meet again to make the most of her time left. - I shipped the rest of the orders on the following Monday. I HAD to get these out. The poor guys have been waiting over a month! I think I picked a bad time to go because I had a huge line behind me and only one guy working. People in line were getting antsy or mad. The clerk at the other post office was super fast but not this guy…

For some reason shipping to the UK and Japan nearly doubled in price since the last time I checked. RIP. T_T - Omg I finally made a mistake. I wrote a letter to the wrong person. And the contents of that letter are too personalized!!! I am dying of embarrassment!!!!! Screams!! Had to apologize to both customers too!!! Luckily they were good sports about it but I’m seriously kicking myself AAAAAAAA!!!! - The most rewarding part after sending all my babies away is seeing the commentary on my project. It is so so nice to receive positive feedback. People are happy! Happy with something I created out of thin air. Everything was worth it 1000 times over. I can die happy!

I’m especially thankful to those who show understanding for how much effort went into it. It definitely wasn’t easy and I poured way too many hours into it… not that I regret that.

I don’t want to jump the gun but I would really love to make a volume 2. Because I know I can do better than last time. New and improved art and comics! But we’ll see if I make enough pieces for another book. I was against printing 40 pages before but now I kind of like it. It feels more worth it than a 25-page zine. If i’m going though so much effort, might as well bring in the entire package.

I’ll be printing more of this volume for Aselia Con 2020. Now I know people will appreciate it.

[marvelgbt-posts]

You Can Stay Under My Umbrella (M! Reader)

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 (yet to be posted)

{Tom Holland x Stylist! Male! Reader}

Warnings: Bad writing, also im in here for a short period- hello.

Summary: Tom goes to a costume fitting, and later takes you home in the rain under his Spiderman umbrella.

A/N: ella-ella-ey-ey-ey under my umbrella-ella-ella-ey-ey-ey-ey ey-ey (p.s. sry it’s short, and this takes place during the shooting of infinity war) 

i should also mention I’ve (obviously) never been on a movie set before, so i dont know how costume fittings work when it comes to  behind the scenes. But i have done performances and this is generally how they have worked for me, with some exceptions. So imma just go off experience. Also, lets pretend tom doesn’t have a trailer on set, k? Let’s pretend he has a home in America. Cuz i already wrote it and its done and I’m too lazy to go back.

(not edited)

“Shhh-it,” Tom cursed under his breath, frantically putting on his pants. “Hey, Tom. Make sure you take an umbrella, it’s raining crazy out there,” Harry said, throwing his brother a shirt. He caught it and put it over his head- backwards.

“Tom-” Patrick caught his older brothers attention as he gave Tom his Spiderman umbrella. Tom couldn’t help but smile at the small gesture, ruffling the hair of his younger brother. “Thanks, Paddy.” Patrick smiled.

Tom was running late for a costume fitting. There was going to b e a new Spiderman suit in Infinity War, and he had to get his costume resized twice. Sam had caught Tom on his way out, handing throwing him his phone and keys. “Thanks, Sam,” Tom rushed out the door and into the pouring rain.

***

Once Tom made it to the studio, he searched for his dressing room, he threw his phone and keys onto the small table and slumped in his chair. Only a minute late, good. It usually took his stylist five minutes before he came to his room.

It was now 8:29, and Tom was still alone in his room. He was beginning to panic, thinking he had either come at the wrong day or the wrong time. Was this even his dressing room. Yes, it was, it had his name on the front when he last checked, which was before he entered.

He heard the door open, and in walked Jay, who was a stylist, but not his stylist. “Sorry, I’m late, Jr. Clark mixed the outfits name tags again and Maria and I had to switch them ourselves. I swear one of these days, he’s gonna get himself fi- oh. Hey Tom, I’m sorry I must have walked in the wrong room. Sorry ‘bout that.” At this point, Jay was reversing their costume back out the door. Tom smiled, “No worries.”

It was another 3 minutes before his stylist came in, the right one. “Hey, (M/n)! Took your sweet time,” Tom teased. You chuckled, sending shivers down Tom’s spine, “Yeah, sorry. It’s just Clark-”

“Messed up the name tags? Yeah, Jay already told me.”

“Oh, I see. Well, what are you waiting for, get outta those clothes. Let’s get you changed.”

“Kay.”

“Wait, Tom… Is your shirt on backwards?”

***

You were behind Tom, fixing the back of his costume. The suit had clung to itself in certain areas and you needed to fix it, pulling on it so it would even out. You snuck a glance at Tom’s butt, holding in laughter at the thought of him wearing a thong underneath.

“What’s so funny?” Tom asked, turning to you, “Does it not fit right? Is it ripped?” You shook your head, telling him it’s was something you’d seen the day before you remembered. He nodded, turning back around, though sneaking glances at you from time to time… to time.

Finally, the full suit was on. All that was left to do was see if he could move and perform freely in it. You asked Tom to do some tests for you, like raising his arms and jumping, and touching his toes.

“Looks like the suit is finally ready to go,” you smiled, giving Tom a thumbs up with both hands. Tom smiled, he didn’t know why. The suit fitting him wasn’t that big of a deal, why was he so giddy?

***

Tom had recorded some scenes of him as Peter Parker for Far From Home, and then went home. Already, he could feel his body craving for Tessa’s touch. He had already had his planner full. He was going to play with Tessa from 12:30 until he went to sleep. Very busy schedule.

He had opened up his Spiderman umbrella, shielding himself from the rain with it. As he was walking to his car, he heard a familiar voice, “Even promoting your own merchandise? Wow, Tom, I hadn’t expected you to do something like that.” It was you, he turned around, smiling, “It’s my brothers actually.” You made a silent ‘oh’ sound, nodding your head, “I see… cute.”

Tom then noticed you hadn’t had an umbrella, and that you were soaking. Your hair stuck to your face, dripping with water. You were shivering. “Well, my house is just down the street a few blocks from here. I’ll be on my way. See you next week, Holland.” You waved, walking past him. Tom watched you leave, rain hitting your body as if assaulting you.

He ran up behind you, reaching up to cover both of you with the umbrella. You looked down at Tom. God, he was pretty tiny for 22.

“What are you doing?” You asked, amusement lacing your voice. Tom shrugged, looking forward.

“You said your house was a few blocks from here, so is my car. I’ll drop you off at home.”

“No, that won't be necessary,Tom. Thank you, though.”

Tom refused, insisting that he drop you off. ‘Because he’s British and British people are gentlemen was his argument’. You gave up and walked home, Tom right beside you.

***

“And then- haha- the scene where Thor had to catch the Mjolnir, Chris couldn’t get a grip on the handle- so- he-” you chuckled to yourself a bit, Tom giggling as well, “-he kept throwing it. His balance was so off he kept hitting the stupid thing with the palm of his hand. So Captain America had his shield and Thor was just awkwardly trying to get a grip on the hammer. Hemsworth’s face throughout it though, too. We all had a good laugh from it.”

On the way, you and Tom had decided to talk about what you two experience in the field of film. He talked about what it was like to see himself on video and you described fashion-fails and bloopers while you were on set. “Did you know Hiddleston once almost fell down the stairs in that scene where he finds out he’s a frost giant because his cape was too long? So i had to fix it, which delayed our scheduling by a day.”

Tom nodded, chuckling, thinking of what his coworker would look like at a panicked state at the top of a staircase.

���Well, this is my stop. See you, Tom,” You waved, walking up to the front door of your house to unlock it. Once you did, you and Tom made eye contact for about 10 seconds, before Tom rushed up and gave you a quick peck on the cheek, having to hoist himself up on his toes and using your shoulder for balance to do it.

He ran off the direction you two came down on, waving to you as he yelled, “See you next week, (L/n)!”

You smiled, fingers barely grazing over you now warmed up cheeks were he had kissed you, as you said a quick goodbye under your breath, “See you next week, Holland.”

Ewwwwwww this sucked ass… part 2?

[marsupials-of-mars]

Dreams

(Because tumblr decided to lose Dreams an Nightmares for no reason I have to reupload)

“Yknow, life’s pretty awesome. Who knows what could happen? We could go to a party, watch a movie, hang out with your friends, eat out... what if something big happens tomorrow? You rescue a puppy off the side of the road, and it turns out that it has puppies, and now you’re a dog grandpa. Or they discover an ancient castle in... some place that has castles....” Roman rambled off predictions. It was he and Thomas’s nightly routine, at least on good nights, on bad nights Virgil might take the shift. But Roman cherished his turn each time, predicting the events of the next day, week, year. It helped Thomas get to sleep, like a bedtime story.

“Thanks Ro.” Thomas yawned and rolled over. In a few moments his breathing deepened. Roman smiled and sunk into Thomas’ mind, energized by a job well done.

He looked around the hall. He didn’t feel tired. Usually if the sides didn’t feel tired at night it meant that they had a shift with... the prince gasped and looked down the hall. Sure enough there was a black and pink door sparkling at the end of the hall. Unlike the side’s rooms, this one only showed up to a side when it was their turn, or if they’d been given specific permission. Roman squealed. He hadn’t been there in weeks. He trotted down the hall eagerly and knocked on the door.

“Ugh, What? I’m working.” An annoyed voice spoke muffled through the door.

Roman smirked and leaned on the door.

“Fine then, I’ll just party all night all by myself.” There was silence a moment. The door flew open and Roman fell into the room. The door-opener sidestepped just in time.

“Watch it, you almost made me spill!” Roman looked up at a leather sleeved hand held out. He grabbed it and was pulled up quickly, almost wrenching his shoulder.

“Okay, ow...” he rubbed his wrist.

“Where have you been you bitch, It’s been so boring around here!” Remy pulled the prince into a hug. “What were you thinking leaving me so long?!”

Roman chuckled and shoved him. “You know if I had a choice I’d be here every night Rem.”

“Okay, OKAY, this is a big night, I’ve got some microwave popcorn in the kitchen, two new nail polishes, and I can queue up some Queer Eye, this is OUR night girl!”

He clipped his sunglasses on his shirt revealing winged eyeliner that none of the other sides could pull off if they tried. “Cmon lets fucking party!”

Roman grabbed his friends shoulders. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Um...drinks?”

“The reason I’m here?”

“To.....party...?”

Roman rolled his eyes. He loved Remy but he could be an airhead a lot of the time.

“Dream mode? Dreams? We need to make a dream.”

Remy blinked. “Well duh, I knew that, we’ve got all night.”

Roman sighed. “You know if we put it off you’ll end up dragging me into the best night of my life and Thomas will go without any dreams for another month.”

“Uuuuuugh!” Remy groaned dramatically. “Who shoved that stick up your ass?” He raised a brow and smirked. “Our Friend Lo~”

“Shut up!” Roman shoved him into the couch. He giggled evilly. “Cmon girl, liven up, live a little!”

Roman rubbed his eyes. It’s times like these he hated, acting like the adult. Who else would be lively enough to tell him, Prince Roman, to liven up? “Fine, why not?” He threw his coat and sash off. “Let’s have some fun first.”

Four episodes of Queer Eye and six collective wines later, Roman stood up. He swayed on his feet a bit. “Dreams! Dream time!”

“Aw, Cmon, my third coat’s nearly dry, give it a minute!” Remy blew on his dark pink nails. Roman touched his cherry red gloss to make sure it was dried.

“Okay, a minute.” He slumped on the couch and watched Remy.

“So what’s been up with you Remington? Whats the deal with the old REM cycle? What’s he been up to?” He turned himself so his knees hung on the back of the couch.

“Not much. Works been kicking my ass. Thomas has been trying to ‘reestablish a healthy sleep schedule” or some shit. It’s haaaard.”

“Does that have to do with the lack of dreams?”

“Yeah, he’s been pretty drained, deep sleep mode. Dreamless, Dark, boring.”

“Sounds gross.”

“Understatement much? It’s literally hell.”

Roman laid back and sighed.

“They dry?”

Remy touched his nails. “Looks like it.” He shoved up from the floor. “Yknow what? Let’s make this dream one to remember, go batshit crazy, more than usual, who’s gonna stop us huh?”

”I’m supposed to be the one coming up with the great ideas!” Roman stumbled to his feet.

“Tough bitch, Cmon!” Remy grabbed his wrist and dragged him into a black room. The door closed behind them, disappearing and leaving them in a blank space. No floor or walls, nothing but them. He waved his hand and a file drawer extended from the nothing. Roman peered over his shoulder.

“So what do we have to work with tonight?”

Remy pulled out a stack of folders. “Here’s all we have from this month.” He pulled out the first. “Ah! His aunt got a new puppy-“

“Oh my god YES! Have you SEEN her her name’s Lucy! She’s the sweetest thing!” Roman gushed.

“So... I’m guessing we’re using this one?”

“Uhdoy!” Roman grabbed the folder. He reached in and pulled out a coffee colored yorkiepoo. “And what if she was... horse sized?” He resized the puppy and squealed. “Cute! And now she’s blue!” He patted her belly and her fur faded to blue.

“Oooh fun, I love it, another!” Remy pulled out the next folder and checked the title. “His friend just introduced him to a guy from her yoga class who he thought was kind of cute but would never care or find any reason to act on.”

“He shall ride the dog! And he’ll be wearing a tux!” Romans pulled the man from the folder and customized his clothes. The man jumped onto horse Lucy, who roared like a lion in response.

“Love it, love it!” Remy pulled the next folder out. “Some random lady working the front desk at his doctors! Her face could be used for anything.”

“Hmmm... save that.”

Remy put the folder back. “What about that cookout he went to where he was eaten alive by bugs?”

“Perfect! Our antagonist! Roman plucked a handful of gnats from the folder and blew them up to the size of softballs, sending them to battle yoga boy and horse Lucy.

“Getting there! What else?”

“He had dinner with his mom recently...”

“Aha!” Roman pulled Thomas’ mother from the folder. He took the secretary and assigned her the role of mother. “His Mom is now the secretary!”

“Okay, Okay! Now? This next one is the entire layout of that cabin he vacationed to in sophomore year!”

“Perfect! I’ll meld it with his own house! We have our setting! Now for the plot!”

“Um... we have either ‘the video is going to be up late’ or ‘the fish I was served at a restaurant recently still had the head.’”

“The second one is juicer! The fish is still alive somehow and he feels the need to take it to the ocean!”

“Why would he-“

“Logan isn’t here! Now, I need one more person!”

“I have...” Remy spread the remaining folders out on the floor. “‘Red haired man he saw on the sidewalk on the drive to Joan’s house’, ‘Amethyst from Steven Universe’, and ‘Junior year Algebra 2 teacher’.”

Roman pulled out Amethyst. “Perfect! Her new name is Carol, and she’s yoga boys big sister! Should we see from her view in first person, or watch her antics in third person?”

“Um...” Remy thought. “Both?”

“GENIUS!” Roman conjured a keypad and typed up a quick script. “Aaaaand done!”

Remy locked in the dream and hit play. He quietly led Roman out and shut the door. “Cmon, we’ll miss it!” He pulled the prince back to the couch and shoved him into the cushions. He turned on the tv and the dream played out onscreen. Roman beamed at his masterpiece. As Thomas dreamt, Remy conjured face masks and frappuccinos. Roman dozed off. Tipsy Remy tried to find out how many popcorn kernels he could balance on his friend’s face. In a few hours the dream finished. lights dimmed. Remy shook Roman awake. “Rise and shine RoRo, he’s waking up.” The prince blinked awake.

“Oh...”

“Lunch this Friday? We need to keep in touch better.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Now get out of my room.” Remy pointed Roman to the door with a manicured finger.

“Bye bitch.” Roman saluted him with two fingers before stepping through the door. It disappeared behind him. He yawned and went to check on the waking Thomas. He rose next to him, sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal.

“Oh, hey Roman! I just had the weirdest dream...”

[anon-luv]

A Little Too Late (Jungkook X Reader)[One Shot]

Jungkook X Reader

BestfriendAU! 

Genre: Romance, Angst, Fluff

PG13

Word Count: 5K+

Summary: Jungkook is proposing to his 2 year long girlfriend with the help of his best friend (y/n). What Jungkook doesn’t know is that you are head over heels for him. You are torn in half whether to confess or not before it is too late. Meanwhile, you decide you have to, of course, help him plan the perfect proposal.

This Chapter is Dedicated to : @bangpenguins, @bunnybubkook, @randombtsprincessa, @kitten-dont, @b-angst-tan, and @jikookbias28

Thank you all for being here with me. I have reached 1.6K followers, so this is a gift for you all as well. Sorry for the delay. Work got pretty hectic. I hope you all enjoy :D

Chapter Edited Mostly by @b-angst-tan : Thank you Doll

Fic Soundtrack: Say It First- Sam Smith & Leave Your Lover- Sam Smith

Leave me loves and Feedback :D

“Would you marry me??” Jungkook asked with round eyes that shone as bright as the full moon on a clear starry night. His hair blew softly with the wind as if it had been planned to make him look even more handsome than he already was.

“No. Jungkook, you are doing it all wrong,” you replied, rolling your eyes to the back of your head.

Jungkook stood up from a kneeling position and dusted off both his knees as he let out an annoyed sigh, “How did I fuck it up this time??”

“First of all, Kook, you need to look a lot less like a deer caught in headlights and more like a knight in shining armor. Second, I am here on a voluntary basis; so I would appreciate a bit more gratitude. I am your best friend, not your little bitch you can boss around, so come on boy let’s step it up.”

“I am a man, not a boy,” Jungkook said as he knelt down one more time, pouting.

“Could’ve fooled me with that proposal and that sad excuse for a puppy face you have on. Now if you want her to say yes, chin up, smile, and make eye contact.”, you said as your heart accelerated once more. Jungkook’s habit of biting his lip whenever he was nervous or overthinking something, making it difficult to not focus on his tinted rosy lips and the freckle underneath them.

“(y/n) we have done this over a million times by now….am I at least getting better?? Our anniversary is tomorrow…. Everything has to be perfect by tomorrow… I am freaking out!” Jungkook said in a rush as his face paled.

“Calm down, maybe it’s coming out wrong because you are proposing to me and not her…… maybe everything will fall into place, and the words will flow out beautifully when you are kneeling in front of the one you love.” You replied as you looked anywhere but at Jungkook, refusing to make eye contact with him.

The still quiet that had taken over momentarily was broken by a barely audible “Maybe” coming from Jungkook’s lips.

You looked at your watch nonchalantly, “Come on Jungkook, let’s try it one last time before we head over to get the ring, it’s getting late.”

Jungkook nodded as he coughed nervously as he started, his voice barely above a whisper, “ I have loved you forever and a day and-” The alarm on your phone interrupted.

“Sorry time is up, come on. Let’s hurry up Mister!”, you said helping him up, “We will have to practice some time tomorrow before you meet up with her.”

Jungkook nodded and turned his back towards you as he headed back to his car. You followed closely behind dragging your feet with regret as you counted your steps. Your heart wanting to do nothing more than to grasp his hand that swung back and forth in front of you, while your throat ached with the need of screaming out words full of emotions that have been held back for years. Your brain though, your cowardly rationality was the problem, drawing up every possible scenario and making sure to highlight the ones where the outcome was sour.

“Jungkook” you heard yourself say with a trembling tone, Jungkook’s eyes traveled your way before your brain could catch up with your stubborn lips.

“Yes??” he questioned.

You shook your head, a nervous habit of yours that Jungkook had teased you about on several occasions.

“Let me guess… you forgot” he said giggling as he walked his way to where you stood frozen in place, the sound of his sweet laughter melting your insides, “I’m no doctor babe, but I do believe you might have an early onset of Alzheimer's or something”

You blushed at the pet name as you quickly covered your face completely mortified at how much of an idiot you always made yourself look in front of him, “Shush Jungkook, let’s just go already,” you said muffled by your hands.

Jungkook now stood in front of you with a wide grin, “Aww I made you blush, come on crazy let’s go before they close.” He reached for the hands that still covered your face, and as if he could read your mind, he interlaced his hand with one of yours as he pulled you forwards lightly. The blush on your cheeks only deepened. You could only pray he wouldn’t turn around, for you were more than sure your cherry red face had your feelings clearly written all over it, and once again the cowardly voice in your head was screaming for you to go run and hide.

The ride to the shop was rather quiet, a first for the both of you, as the usual singing voices were on mute. The song on the radio was slow and filled with sorrow, which only added to your internal turmoil.

The shop was fancier than you had expected. Jungkook was not very wise when it came to relationships, and to be quite frank you had expected a more bizarre scenario where he had just bought the ring off of a video game store or something equally as geeky.

“Nice, huh,” he said as he smiled proudly at himself as the lady behind the counter went to the backroom to retrieve the ring.

“Very nice, I feel like a peasant standing here in these raggedy clothes and, let’s not mention how I look like poop.” you retorted, as you playfully bumped your hip against him.

“Don’t be silly, you are more like a princess in disguise trying to blend in with us mere commoners,” Jungkook replied as he did a small bow. You giggled at his silliness.

“Sir, here is your order.” the attendant said as she opened the small black box she had in her hand.

Inside was a beautiful rose gold ring with a princess cut diamond adorning the center. It was simple and absolutely breathtaking, “Wow.” you sighed catching Jungkook’s attention.

“You like it??” he asked with a cheeky grin.

“It is absolutely gorgeous Kook, you did a good job there buddy!” you replied patting his back. Your voice coated with fake happiness for your best friend.

“Would you like to try it on??” the lady asked smiling widely, clearly misunderstanding your presence in the room.

Your mouth dropped open like a gaping fish as you tried forming coherent words.

“She would love to,” Jungkook spoke for you as he quickly grabbed your hand with both of his. You stared at him wide-eyed as he took the initiative to grab the ring off of the box and placed it on your finger. It fit perfectly. You expanded your fingers to admire it with a tiny smile on your lips.

Jungkook held your hand once again and then raised it towards his face, completely unaware of how erratically your heart was beating. The butterflies you had been trying to contain form fluttering all over your stomach were no longer following your instructions. Taking a deep breath, a warmth started spreading from the tip of your nose all the way to your feet. His lips were so close to yours, now burning skin as his breath caressed your skin tauntingly. Then he backed up slightly, which only taunted you more, as you had stupidly expected him to close the space between you two.

He eyed the ring that laid on your finger closely, “Yeah your finger is about her size….I think… when I got asked the ring size I could only remember yours,” he said laughing, “We have been friends for way too long. I can probably pinpoint blindly where the 3 freckles on your hand are without a problem.” He said as he slowly let go of your hand. He scratched the back of his head as he let out a nervous giggle, “I have no idea what I am going to do if the ring doesn’t fit and I awkwardly have to push it on.” You secretly hoped it wouldn’t fit her.

“You can always resize it.” You said glad that he had changed the direction the conversation was going. Your overall relationship with Jungkook was about to change even more than it already had, and you were not sure if you were emotionally prepared to let go. The strength you had been trying to gather to erase the idea off of your fantasies of being with him as more than just a friend had dissipated into nothingness when you saw him in front of you in one knee. You had been helping him prepare for the big question all day, and it was easy to imagine it as a real scenario when in reality you were practically a dummy to practice with.

“Earth to (y/n), are you ready to go??” he asked as he waved both his hands in front of your face repeatedly.

You shook yourself off of unreachable illusions as you were brought back to the shitty reality that was your life.

Jungkook stretched out his hand for you to take, just like he always had. For him, it meant nothing but a silly friendship gesture, but to you, it meant being in a temporary moment of bliss where you were happy, ecstatic, giddy, and like you had found your missing puzzle piece. Any sane person would avoid the chance to ache with emptiness once the moment was done and over with, but even then your masochistic ass interlaced your hand with his causing a silly little girl smile on your face to bloom on your face which was reciprocated by his bunny one as you hand in hand left the store skipping off like hyper little kids in a summer day with no care in the world…..Just like the old days.

She had come into his life like a tornado, on a weekend you had flown out to visit your family back in your hometown. When you had gotten back to your shared apartment you had encountered her in the kitchen wearing a black Deadpool shirt of his….one that you had bought for him at a comic convention a year before. The stabbing pain you had felt as you saw him hug her from behind, looking entirely smitten by her, made your insides cramp up which had you holding onto your stomach grimacing unconsciously. He had naively confused as your “lady days” as he retired back to his room with a giggling girl skipping behind him.

Temporary, you had told yourself every day for the first month, but you were sadly mistaken.

He liked her a lot. He had talked about her continuously for a week before they became official. He moved in with her six months after. Hell had looked like a vacation paradise at that moment, but after a few months, your heart had become calloused and masochistic, seeking the same closeness you had before, even if it included a plus one most of the time.

“Let’s walk to your apartment, I am too lazy to drive and I don’t trust you driving my car,” Jungkook said as he pulled you forward and away from his brand new Camaro.

“But Kook, it’s so far….let’s just Uber” you whined, pulling out your phone.

Jungkook swiped the phone from your hands, “Don’t be silly, it’s only three streets away, plus who knows when we will be able to have some alone time after tomorrow, you know how clingy Mina can be and it is bound to get worse with the whole wedding arrangements and stuff….if she says yes”

You looked down sadly, “True..and Kook doesn’t say if..say when.. She loves you as much as you love her, she will not say no.”

“You think so??” he asked smiling widely.

Your heart broke, “I know so, now let’s go before I freeze to death, it’s starting to get chilly out here.”

The lights of the city illuminated your path beautifully as the crowd of pedestrians walked by you unaware that you felt as if you were walking on clouds as Jungkook held your hand tightly as he rambled on and on about the new Avengers movie you both had seen earlier.

“It was amazing...there has to be another one right??” he asked as he paused in the middle of the sidewalk. You could already see your apartment complex from where you both stood.

You nodded at him happily, “We definitely have to go see the next one.”

A nice quaint little outside restaurant lit up the spot you both were standing on perfectly, a glim of unsureness shown in Jungkook’s eyes leaving you puzzled. You tilted your head as Jungkook coughed nervously looking around him as if he was looking for someone. You followed suit confused. Jungkook’s cold hands grasped your chin in place tilting it so you were staring right into his eyes.

“Smile beautiful,” he whispered as he kneeled on one knee catching you by surprise.

Fantasies. You had many of those. Dreams. That is the only thing that kept you sane all these years as you held on with a tight grip on the friendship between you and Jungkook. Your crush had started long ago, and your fear of losing him to a silly infatuation had you caving into the wildest of illusions that you could only encounter in Dreamland. Jungkook was luckily oblivious to anything having to do with girls. He was blind to all your blushing, stuttering, and breath holding every time he got too close.

The saddest thing about fantasies is that after a while the line between them and reality blurs, and when the most diminutive of opportunities arises, your rational impulses dissipate into nothingness. The illusions become a bogus reality as you succumb to it with arms wide open.

The temporary high of the moment fooling you to embrace the moment as if it was truly meant for you.

Your eyes opened wide with shock and tears evident; Jungkook probably completely oblivious at the onset of reaction on your behalf….at least that is what you thought.

“(Y/N),” he said with a small smirk painted on his face. That sneaky little A-hole giggled as you looked at him and then at your surroundings, where a small crowd of people had stopped on their tracks to witness this “special moment”. The people seated at the restaurant along with the waitress were staring your way with small smiles on their faces. You were distracted once again from the man kneeling in front of you as you took everything in and gulped nervously, stage fright settling in on the pit of your stomach.

“(Y/N)” he repeated now holding your trembling hand in his. Your eyes met his, and then as if by act of magic your surroundings blurred and all that existed in the perfect universe your conscience had created were Jungkook and yourself.

“Yes”, you replied, your voice barely above a whisper as a tear escaped down your cheek.

“I know this is not perfect. In all honesty nothing about our relationship is perfect. We argue about the stupidest things, nothing we plan comes out the way we want it to, nor you or I can cook so we would probably starve and burn the house down since we are equally as clumsy… but I don’t care. I have never been so sure about something in my life as I am about us. I want US. I want US forever, no matter what crazy adventures and dilemmas come our way… which let’s be honest, us being us….. and with our luck….. We are going to make those tv dramas look boring. I love you. I love everything about you...from the way your hair looks all frizzy like you just got electrocuted in the mornings to the way you cuss at the TV whenever your favorite character in a movie fucks up as if he/she could hear you. I love your weird, silly, stubborn ass with all my heart. You make my heart beat fast everytime you call out my name, my smile automatically appears in my face when I see your name on my Caller ID even when I am having a shitty day, I feel my skin burn whenever you touch me, even if it is just an accidental caress. Goosebumps appear on my skin just by thinking of your lips against mine. You have made me into a silly, lovesick puppy ….and I want to be your silly, lovesick puppy for life. (Y/N), we might be young, but I am more than ready if you are. Will you be my one and only?? Would you adopt this silly, lovesick puppy as a husband??? (Y/N) would you make me the happiest weirdo alive and marry me??”

Tears. Claps. More Tears. A moment of complete insanity. Yes. A ring on your finger and the crowd cheering loudly, “KISS HER!!!”

The ring once again was placed perfectly on your finger as it shined brightly against the bright lights.

Jungkook stood up quickly and gathered you in his arms tightly. His lips dangerously close to your ear as his hot breath blew against your neck sending chills down your spine. You could see the light of flashes around you.

“(Y/N), I am so sorry about this…..” Jungkook whispered. The illusion was now broken, “Do you think we can get away without a kiss??” He asked as the crowd grew louder and louder, “Fuck this is going to end up on the internet….isn’t it??”

You swallowed back a sad hiccup as more tears traveled down your face, but instead of them being happy they now were coated with heartbroken melancholy, “Probably”

“I am so sorry about this.” He said quickly as he pulled you away from him.

“About wha..?” you started only to be cut off by sweet chapped lips…..which were more teeth than plush, but nonetheless were perfectly molded to fit against yours. The crowd grew louder as ‘awws” erupted simultaneously. Once again you let yourself be taken by an undertow of emotions you knew deep in your heart were a lost cause. You tippy-toed to deepen the kiss as your fingers played with the tips of the hair by his neck. Fireworks were nothing in comparison to the explosion of happiness that were burning your insides pleasantly. The seconds felt eternal to you as all the memories that you had treasured with Jungkook flashed as if they were a movie only to end at this moment. A happy ending, but sadly….this was not a movie. The moment fell into sharp pieces that cut you apart as you separate slowly from each other. Jungkook’s eyes glistened with unshed tears and confusion was painted against his facial features. Your breathing was rapid and synchronized perfectly with his. He grasped your hand once again quietly as he smiled shyly at the few surrounding people that were left. Once again everyone was back on their set paths apart from the both of you.

“I think we should go,” Jungkook said monotonously.

You nodded as you once again, hand in hand, made way to your lonely apartment.

Once again silence had accompanied the both of you as the tense aura followed like a shadow. You had both done a huge mistake, you shouldn’t have gone along with it, but pretending had felt nice.

You looked up at the gray walls of your building, “Well, here we are… Thank you for walking me home Jungkook.”

“No problem,” he said awkwardly as he looked down at your shoes. You gave him a small, bitter smile as you turned your back to the man you love. What ifs no longer had significance, it was a little too late...and you both knew it.

You felt a hand on yours as you were about to open the door to your apartment, “(Y/N)”. You turned around, a hopeful smile had etched itself in your face. Hope...it was a silly ….. You knew it, but then again you had never been very smart when it came to Jeon Jungkook.

“The ring.” He quickly dropped your hand, as if it had burned him.

“Oh yeah.” You felt the sadness pour out of you uncontrollably. Your hands trembled as you choked back tears. You slid off the beautiful ring from your hand and into his.

He nodded, “Okay ...well, see you tomorrow.” 

“Yeah...see you tomorrow,” you said turning around practically running back into the safety bubble that was now your dull and empty apartment.

Sleep had come easily after the 2 hours you had spent crying and pitying yourself, but the headache that had your head pounding right now filled you with dread, not wanting to get up from your cozy, safe, and warm bed. The sound of your phone vibrating had finally and fully woke you up. Your dry throat ached as you answered without looking at the Caller ID, “Hello?” you croaked out.

“Good Morning Sunshine” Jungkook’s chirpy voice responded back, without a single tinge of awkwardness from the previous night.

You cleared your throat as you took a gulp from the glass of water in your nightstand, “Good morning Jungkook, what’s up??” you asked forcing yourself to sound as casual as possible.

Jungkook giggled on the other side, “Wow, you sound like you just swallowed a frog. I am assuming you just woke your lazy ass up. You promised you would go clothes shopping with me today, you know, for tonight.”

You could hear him practically pouting into the phone, even if you couldn’t see him, “Sorry, I forgot...I have like the worst headache ever.”

“But you have never broken a promise, like ever…,” he said in a small voice.

You looked up at your closet as you sighed completely exhausted, “Fine, I will get ready...and…”

“No (Y/N) rest, I will go get something quick, and once I am done, I’ll call you so you can get ready and head out with me to the park. You have to be there. I need you there when I propose...if not, I am going to screw the fuck up and….  I can’t fuck up today.”

You gulped as your dry eyes sought out moisture to once again cascade tears down your face, “Sure.” you said as your voice once again sounded hoarse.

Jungkook chuckled, misinterpreting the raspiness of your voice, “Oh and buy yourself some cough drops sweety. you sound like a young man going through puberty”

He hung up before you could muster a smart ass reply.

Once again you buried yourself into the covers as you prayed for the world to swallow you up whole so the ache in your heart would cease to exist.

The sun was a few minutes from disappearing when Jungkook and you arrived at the park. There were small lights illuminating the path towards a garden where he was going to meet up with Mina.

“Okay so here goes nothing.” He said as he cracked his neck nervously.

You scrunched up your face in disgust, “Don’t do that Kook! It’s horrible and probably not healthy.”

Jungkook ignored you as he jogged in place as if he was about to compete in a marathon.

“Calm down, you’re going to make yourself sweat.” You placed both of your hands on his shoulders keeping him in place.

“I am just freaking out, what if she says no?!” he said looking straight into your eyes.

You rolled your eyes back playfully to break eye contact before you fell back into his spell, “Kookie, she will say yes. Any girl you ask would probably say yes Jungkook. Everyone loves the shit out of you. You are strong, smart, charismatic, and handsome as fuck. You’ve got this. She loves you. Hell everyone in high school had a huge crush on you...even I did.” You said over blabbing unconsciously. You closed your mouth quickly before you could disclose any other stupid secrets of yours.

“You liked me??” He asked, now completely serious without a sign of nervousness.

You shook your head trying to ignore your fast-beating heart, “That doesn’t matter Jungkook, what matters right now is the love of your life is going to say yes and you are going to live happily ever after. Now I am going to go hide in that bush behind the bench so I can intervene with hand mimes or something if you get stuck. You got this!” You said running to your hiding spot before he asked anything else.

Mina was beautiful. She was tall with long legs and the face of a Disney princess. She had Jungkook wrapped around her fingers, but that didn’t change the fact that five minutes later when Jungkook had finally kneeled down in one knee, it hurt. Your feelings were mixed with sadness, anger, and a feeling of loss even if you never had him to begin with. You could feel yourself breaking as he smiled up at her.

“Mina…..there is a lot of things I need to say,” he started off as she squealed excitedly, with a wide smile on her face.

Jungkook swallowed hard as he looked up at her and then lowered his eyes towards the bush where you were hiding poorly in. His big almond shaped eyes landed on yours, effectively taking your breath away.

“There is a very important person in my life, a person who knows me better than I know myself. Someone who has made me laugh, even when I feel like the world is crumbling down around me. Someone who I trust to hold my hand and walks besides me when I feel lost. Someone who I feel I was born to love with everything I am and will be from this point on forward. She is better, smarter, sweeter, and more passionate than I will ever be. She deserves the world and more than I could ever give.” he said now looking straight into her eyes, “She pushes me forward when I am falling behind, and she makes sure to cheer me on even when I lose…...and I want to give her the moon and the stars…… I want to lay down next to her and sing her to sleep. I want to cuddle her and have her hide her face on my shoulder when a movie gets too scary. I want to protect her from everything and anything that might hurt her. I want to wake up to her and her raspy voice.” Jungkook eyes traveled back to yours, as they welled up with tears, your heart beating erratically as the black box that had been hidden in his pocket was taken out, “and that is why I can’t do this. I am sorry.” he said standing up and tossing the box into a nearby pond, “I am sorry Mina…. I can’t do this anymore”

You were so confused as you saw your best friend smiling at what should’ve been his fiance, no sign of regret or sadness on his face as he practically let his relationship go down the drain in a matter of minutes.

Mina looked down as she smiled sadly, “I saw it coming…. I was in denial….but you have my blessing. I hope you both live happy lives….. Don’t get me wrong… I am bitter as fuck, but I will not waste your time or mine when I could be seeking out my own prince charming who will love me and only me. I am selfish, what can I say. Now… go get her tiger.” She said as she wiped away tears from her eyes.

Jungkook smiled widely as he leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. She walked away, not looking back as Jungkook pulled your body from the bush where you had previously been squatting in a frozen shocked position.

“What the fu..” you started before you were cut off once again by Jungkook’s lips.

You responded quickly no longer holding back as your emotions poured out your lips and onto his. The kiss was messy with a few bumps against each other’s teeth, but nonetheless perfect.

At that moment, technicalities didn’t matter for you and Jungkook had all the time in the world to learn how to kiss each other without knocking a tooth out.

Jungkook backed away slowly as your lips followed his seeking more. Jungkook giggled softly as he placed a warm finger against your swollen lips tapping them playfully.

“(Y/N), I hope I am not a little too late for this, but would you be willing to give us a try?”

You smiled back at him as a tinge of pink decorated your cheeks, “I thought you would never ask.” You said as you jumped on him and placed your lips on his once again. Jungkook caught you with ease as he twirled you around slowly in his arms.

Your heart no longer ached as your fantasies had become reality in Jungkook’s arms, and reality was turning out to be a lot better than your dreams.

[sannitacortes-blog]

I can be tough I can be strong But with you It’s not like that at all There’s a girl That gives a shit Behind this wall You just walk through it

And I remember all those crazy things you said You left them running through my head You’re always there, you’re everywhere But right now I wish you were here All those crazy things we did Didn’t think about it, just went with it You’re always there, you’re everywhere But right now I wish you were here

Damn, damn, damn What I’d do to have you Here, here, here I wish you were here Damn, damn, damn What I’d do to have you Near, near, near I wish you were here

I love The way you are It’s who I am Don’t have to try hard We always say Say it like it is And the truth Is that I really miss

All those crazy things you said (things you said) You left them running through my head (through my head) You’re always there, you’re everywhere But right now I wish you were here All those crazy things we did (things we did) Didn’t think about it, just went with it (went with it) You’re always there, you’re everywhere But right now I wish you were here

Damn, damn, damn What I’d do to have you Here, here, here I wish you were here Damn, damn, damn What I’d do to have you Near, near, near I wish you were here

No, I don’t wanna let go I just wanna let you know That I never wanna let go

(Let go, oh, oh)

No, I don’t wanna let go I just wanna let you know That I never wanna let go

(Let go let go let go let go let go let go let go)

Damn, damn, damn What I’d do to have you Here, here, here I wish you were here (I wish you were here) Damn, damn, damn What I’d do to have you Near, near, near I wish you were here

Damn, damn, damn (Damn) What I’d do to have you Here, here, here (Here) I wish you were here Damn, damn, damn What I’d do to have you Near, near, near I wish you were here

 – Wish You Were Here – Avril Lavigne (2011)

 ***********************************************************************

APPEARANCE

Hair / Haare – Exxess – Coral Eyes / Augen – IKON – Sovereign Eyes – Denim Head / Kopf  – Lelutka – Simone Skin  / Haut –   Glam Affair – Enea Meshbody  – Maitreya – Lara Shape – Selfmade

 CLOTHING

Lingerie (Bra&Bottom) – Milk Tea – Elfrida   ==> @The Girl Power Event Applier for Belleza, Maitreya, Omega & Slink. Discounted at the event.

Stockings / Strümpfe – Milk Tea – Warmth  ==> @Whimsical For Belleza, Maitreya & Slink

 ACCESSOIRES / DECORATION

Balloons – Petit Chat – Cute Balloons   ==>  @The Chapter Four

Texture change options: 6 for the balloon, 6 for the string, 6 for the flags. Click the balloon and follow the menus. Resizer option 2 Versions available : Colors & Face. Fatpack available. Can be worn or rezzed.

all other Deco is a scene at Backdrop City

  POSE

inbuilt in prop

 LOCATION

Backdrop City

   Have fun shopping

 Greetings Sanni

 Follow me on flickr to see more photos taken by me. Thank you so much for visiting and reading my blog. It is much appreciated.  

[silverryu25]

Sans posable dolls tutorial

Thank you everyone who showed interest in how I made the Sans posable dolls in this post ^_^

I’ll try do give as much details about how I made them but most of it you can already see in the tutorials I used, here:

PART 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv2NeqqEKlo

PART 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVqp_OD5dXs&t=102s

I didn’t follow the above tutorials completely and I’ll try to point out the differences. And if I miss anything or don’t describe it right just ask me to explain in more detail.

The process is quite long so I’ll put it under a cut. And I apologise that not all the steps are shown but these are all the pictures I have and the rest is described quite well in the videos.

Before you start make sure you have all the tools you will need. I used the following:

Sculpting tools - I bought the cheapest children’s plastic set but if you want to you can splurge a bit on the metal ones

Pen scalpel or a normal scalpel - the pen scalpel is a lot easier to use on the dolls since they are very small but a normal one works just as well

Rolling pin - any kind of smooth round surface will do, just make sure it’s either glass or very smooth plastic that the polymer clay wont stick to

Longer straight blade - you will need this to cut larger pieces that need to have straight sides, a normal scalpel without the case works as well

Wire - get copper wire that isn’t very hard, it needs to be able to bend a lot and not break; you need two sizes: 0,7 mm (milimeters) for the body and 0,5 mm for the fingers

Wire cutters and pincers - you will need these to cut and shape the wire, any kind rill do

Size reference - it’s available in the video tutorials or you can get it here; you can adjust the size of the doll by changing the size of the image before you print it (or make a new one of your own) but be sure to keep everything in the same proportions as the original file. My dolls were 15 cm high and I resized the image to have the fully drawn Sans in it at that height.

Polymer clay - any kind of polymer clay you can buy is ok, I used the kind you bake (not the one that air dries) but any is ok; you will need a lot of white and very little black, yellow, red and/or blue (red for UF!Sans, blue for UT!Sans if you want his eye to be in battle mode, or white for normal eyes)

Baby wet wipes - I know this seems weird but these saved me a lot of time and made my life A LOT easier; the wipes are used to clean your hands (do this often!) and to smooth the polymer clay and get rid of all the little blemishes, finger prints and bumps. Just rub them gently over the surface you want to finish and it will look a lot whiter and be very smooth :3

Regular paper towels or tissues - used to keep the area you are working on clean, to clean your tools and hands

Owen - only if you use the clay that needs to be baked to be finished. I’ll put a "BAKE” between every step you need to bake the clay before going to the next step

When you have everything and have everything it’s time to start!

The first step is to make the skeletons of the future skeletons :) You do this by wrapping the wire in the shape shown on the size reference and the video. I needed 60 cm of wire for each wireframe skeleton. The result should look like this:

Next is adding some padding. You need to put some polymer clay on the joints so they don’t get loose while you work. The clay goes on:

the hips - make a cute little bum in the shape of a triangle... weird bum I know. Any clay colour works here so I went a little crazy X3

the shoulders - make a collarbone shape from shoulder to shoulder and a neck bone with a cut down the middle so the neck wire can bend back and forth. I used my ball pointed sculpting tool to make little grooves on the top of the shoulders to make it look a little like collar bones

the legs - just bend the loop on the feet and put a little white  clay to cover the loop and a little of the legs (1,5 cm no more needed); this is missing on the photo because I was trying to do the legs without it but it’s harder to make without that base

the hands - add a little white clay to fill the loop (cover it all but make sure it’s just thick enough to cover the wire, no thicker than that)

Bake the clay!

As you can see on the picture the necks ended up very wide and the cut’s in the middle weren’t wide enough for the wire. Use the pen scalpel to cut and scrape off an excess and thin down the neck until it’s around 1-2 mm thick.

If any of the clay was a little too thick or bumpy, just use your pen scalpel to gently scrape and smooth it out ^_^

Once the bums, shoulders, hand and arm bases are done it’s time to start making the fingers and legs. The fingers I did exactly like in the tutorial, you take small pieces of wire (I cut them to 3 cm length to have a little more wiggle room) and then bend the tip into a very small hook. You need to roll the clay over the wire so the top of the finger ends up on the hook. The fingers were between 0,8 and 1 cm in length (just the top parts not the flat parts).

I made one hand set first to have a size reference for making the others, here are the photos. Then I made the rest all at once... 60 total (╥﹏╥)

Bake the clay!

The wire is aprox 3 cm, the finger (whole) around 1,5 cm, and the top part around 1 cm.

The legs I made a little different than the tutorial. I didn’t plan on making removable slippers so they have a simpler shape (no fingers for example). And I added the fibula bone that isn’t shown in the tutorial. The shape ends up like this:

Bake the clay!

Make the top a bit wider to simulate the top of the tibia and add the fibula on the back side of the leg.

When that is done you need to make hands using the fingers, and this is where I didn’t follow the tutorial. In the tutorial you are supposed to cut the excess wire and leave only a bit to anchor the fingers. I didn’t cut the wire. I took a bit of clay and positioned all the fingers except the thumb on it, put the piece of clay and fingers on the hand loop and wrapped the extra wire around the wrist to make sure the fingers don’t fall of later ^_^;; 

Then I added the thumb like in the tutorial. Cut the extra wire, make a loop and stick it on. Then you just add a little clay and shape it like a hand with the sculpting tools and add a part of the radius bone to cover the wrapped finger wires. The hands should look like this:

Bake the clay!

Left is Red’s hand (with claws) and right is Sans’ hand (round tips). You can see i had a little trouble with blemishes, I used my pen scalpel to scrape those off and fix the shape of the hands (you can see a little bump below Red’s thumb that needed to be cut off).

Next part are the shoes and slippers. Slippers are easy, just follow the tutorial. I used a tooth brush to get the fuzzy pattern but they are really simple to make. The shoes took a little more work and are made in a few parts: the tongue, the back part and 2 front parts. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the parts, but you can get the basic shapes from the pictures since they are in different colours (or send me an ask to explain better, I’ll try sketching it out).

Bake the clay!

Here is a picture of how they looked after all the parts (except the heads) were done) ♥(^_^)♥

The last part are the heads and again I din’t follow the tutorial. First I made the bases in the form of small smooth balls approximately 2/3 of the finished head. Bake the clay! 

Then I drilled a hole in the balls and put them on the wire and added more clay to get the needed size like this:

Now you need to sculpt the faces. I did this by taking a piece of clay and making the jaw part of the head and smoothing it out so there are no cracks like this (the finished Sans is from April and his head isn’t the right shape so don’t mind him ;)

TIP: Use the baby wet wipes here a lot (on the other parts as well but here especially)!! You can get a loot smother heads if you use the wipes to soften the clay and then the roller, sculpting tools and fingers to smooth and blend everything.

When you have the shape done you just need to add the eyes, nose and mouth (scars are optional). You need to use the sculpting tools to make the faces. The eyes are simple, just press the ball pointed sculpting tool and turn it until you get the right socket size. I used a tooth pick to make the nose (check the tutorial). And for the mouth just put two points where you want it to end and roll the ball pointed sculpting tool in the shape of the mouth you need. I don’t have pictures showing that but it depends on how you want the face to look so just try it out.

If you make a mistake just add some clay and smooth it out to get the same shape as the picture above and try again. That’s the best part of working with clay, you can always fix it with more clay ;3

When the shape is done use the black clay to fill in the sockets and nose. Just add a little at a time and add more if necessary, use the sculpting tools to smooth everything out. For the mouth just roll the black clay into very very very thin lines and put it onto the mouth to form the “lips” and teeth (like putting icing on a cake ;)

The faces can be shaped any way you like, here are the ones I made (each is different on purpose):

Last part is optional: collars! I made them for only  of the Red’s and the process is easy, roll out a thin strip of red clay, cut it into a line of appropriate thickness and shape into a collar by rounding out one end, adding holes and adding optional spikes. Then just attach them on the skele of choice and add the clasp like this:

If you add a little wire loop like in the last photo you can add a chain ;3

You can even add a little blush if you wan’t to make them look even cutter (though be careful you don’t overdo it and faint from cuteness XD)

The clothes are described well in the tutorial so I wont go into detail. Just don’t forget to add some padding on the wire bones to give your Sans some plumpness before you dress him (♥ω♥*)

When the skeles are finally decent you need to do one more crucial step!! Take photos of the cutie!! σ(≧∀≦ｏ) (and tag me if you post them, I wanna see X3)

Thank you for reading this tutorial! And I’m sorry about the length and lack of pictures for certain steps. If you want to know more just ask and I’ll be happy to give more info ♥

[megwritesfanfiction]

The Lies We Told (Beast Boy/Raven , Chapter 6/??)

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. This is a work of fiction that I am not making a profit off of.

Author’s Note: Few more chapters to go, and I can wrap this fic up and get to another rewrite. I think I am going to tackle “Let Go” next. 

Need to catch up? I got you fanfic fam!

Past Chapters: Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Chapter Six: Still Into You

“I wanted you first.”

Rachel’s eyes fluttered open as she tried to slow her breathing. Lifting her head from his shoulder, she cupped his face gently. She never realized how green his eyes were. “What?” She asked panting.

Gar rested his forehead to her own. “I wanted you first.” He whispered, eyes drifting closed as he shivered in the aftermath. He pulled her closer to him, groaning as her legs tangled around his waist again. “I think I fell for you after I got to see all the different sides of you in Nevermore.”

She smirked at the all most forgotten memory. “I just think you liked the fact that Happy laughed at your jokes.”

“I did.” He chuckled breathily. “I got to see the girl beneath the cloak, and I loved all the pieces of her.”

Violet eyes opened slowly. She rested her head in the crook of his neck and him tight against her chest. Her hands traced patterns up and down his back as she enjoyed the feeling of his warmth.

“I still love her.” Gar confessed softly.

Rachel ignored the stab of guilt at his words. The warm delusion her orgasm provided was slipping away as reality flooded her veins. “I love you, too.” She confessed sadly. Placing her arms on his shoulders, she pushed him off her. Rachel slide off the counter, collecting her clothes from the kitchen floor. “It’s too late though.”

“What?” Naked and stunned, he stood by the counter.

“It’s too late.” She sighed, pulling her shirt back on. “You’re getting married in four months.” Pulling her pants back on, she walked over to the sink to splash water on her face and rinse her mouth out.

“So?”

Rachel froze eyes wide. “So?”

“I’ll break up with her.”

“We’re supposed to be stuffing and addressing envelopes tomorrow.” She scuffed, wiping her face off with a kitchen towel. Frustrated, she threw it across the room. “And, we’re working on centerpieces, the menu board, seating chart-“

Gar leaned against the counter, folding his arms across his chest. “Well, I think it would be better if I called it off before the invitations go out.”

“How are you so nonchalant about this?”

“How am I supposed to be?” He answered.

“Upset, angry, confused…” Rachel paused, feeling her adrenaline and panic rise. “Distressed!?”

“How can I be anything but happy finally knowing the woman I love, and have loved for years, loves me back?” Gar explained tenderly. “Especially, when I’d given up on the idea of us. I moved on with Terra because...” He shrugged. “What else what was I supposed to do?”

“I’m not going to pretend I have the answers for this.” Rachel ignored the excited butterflies at the thought of a future with him. “You’re engaged.”

“And you’re about be engaged.”

Ouch. “That’s my point.” Rachel gestured. “We’re not able to explore this option.”

“Who says?”

“I’m done with this conversation.” She decided, picking up his clothes and tossing them at him. “I’m going to go shower. And by the time I come back to my kitchen to get a glass of wine, you’ll be gone and back with your fiancée, and we can forget this happened.”

He called out, trying to stop her from walking past him. “Rae-“

“Goodbye Garfield.”

“You better be bloody dying.”

“No.” Rachel sighed, rolling to her back as she clutched her phone to her ear. After she’d kicked Gar out of her apartment, she showered, eaten a box of freezer burnt mozzarella sticks, finished the bottle of wine she’d bought and plus one she had in the cabinet, then tried to sleep without her guilty conscious nagging her. “But I think I’m going to hell.”

“Have you forgotten you’re half demon?” Though sleepy, Toni’s wit was still sharp. “I’m pretty sure it’s a guarantee.”

The violet haired woman decided to ignore her friend’s sarcasm. “I think I actually may have earned my spot.” She sighed. “Pretty sure Trigon still thinks nepotism for the weak, even in hell.”

“I’m halfway around the world. I can’t help you hide the body, just teleport it to another dimension.”

Rachel wasn’t sure how to respond to this statement.

Toni yawned, shuffling around. “If you wanna dunk it in acid or something, we can do that when I’m in town for the wedding.”

“Seriously?” Rachel paused, shaking her head. “We’re really having this conversation?”

“You said you’re going to hell…”

“So you jump to murder?!”

“What the hell am I supposed to think?”

“You’re not supposed to think I’m a murderer.”

“Honestly Rae,” Toni started. “What am I supposed to think? You’re calling me panicked, rambling, and crazy ass early in the morning. I’m going to jump to murder. I’m your best friend, so I am the person you’d call to help you hide the body.”

The violet haired woman dragged a hand over face, stressed. She didn’t have time for witty banter. Normally, this would be amusing. “I fucked up.” She sighed. “I fucked up, and I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh god,” Toni gasped softly, hearing the severity of the situation. “Did you cut up Terra’s wedding dress?”

“Metaphorically,” Rachel confessed. “Gar and I had sex.”

Toni paused. “You mean Garth, your boyfriend. Your boyfriend who’s been emailing me pictures of engagement rings because he’s trying to pick the perfect one out for you.”

“No I meant Gar as in Garfield, who is not my boyfriend.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.”

“Toni…”

“Nope.” Toni insisted. Rachel could imagine her shaking her head. “I want no part of this. I trust you’re going to do the right thing.”

Rachel was tempted to ask what exactly was the right thing. She was torn between what felt right and what she was expected to do.

“After the ceremony, we can go out and get drunk,” Toni assured. “My treat.”

“Thank you so much for volunteering to do this.” Terra smiled, setting the stack of envelopes in front of Rachel. “I tried to hire a calligrapher, but the rush fee cost more than getting the invitations printed!”

“She didn’t volunteer.”  Jinx snickered, stuffing envelopes from her seat across from them.

“True.” Rachel shrugged with a small smirk on her lips. “It’s not my fault I know calligraphy,” She looked at the list of guests, dipping her quill in the gold ink. “And I am happy to do it.” She decided her penance was to, happily, do everything within her power to make sure this wedding happened.

“Doesn’t hurt that you got laid last night.” Jinx grinned, sneakily.

The violet haired woman felt her blood go cold. She was thankful Jinx made that little remark after she finished the name on the envelope.

“Celebratory?” Kori grinned, from her seat. The redhead was assigned to working on the seating plan.

“There isn’t a ring on her finger.” Terra commented, without taking another look.

“That doesn’t mean anything.” Kori insisted as she continued writing. “It could need to be resized.”

“I am not engaged.” Rachel informed, them moving to the next envelope.

“Yet!”

“And I’m just in a good mood, is that so unusual?”

“Yes.” Terra and Jinx said together.

Kori grinned sheepishly. “I would have to agree.”

“You also have a hickie on your shoulder.”

“It’s not a hickie.” Rachel insisted. “It’s a bruise from aerial yoga. I decided to check out a class last night and one of the straps got caught on my shoulder.” If they didn’t buy the lie, Garth wouldn’t. Good thing it was still cold enough for thick sweaters and turtlenecks.

“Ouch.” Terra confirmed, reviewing her lists.

“Looks like a hickie.” Jinx pressed.

“Because you’re a pervert.” Rachel quipped back as she continued to write.

“Pervert,” Jinx shrugged, smiling cheekily. “Free spirit- Whatever. I appreciate good work that looks like good work.”

“Exercise injury.” Rachel reminded as she continued to work. “Didn’t get laid. Garth worked late last night, and I went to yoga.”

“That’s depressing.”

“Hey leave her alone.” Terra defended, pointing her pen at the pink haired woman. “Gar and I haven’t had sex since the engagement party. At least she has something to relieve stress, wedding planning doesn’t do the pinch.”

“Geez.” Jinx flinched. “That was over two months ago.”

Rachel looked to the envelope she was working on, ignoring the guilt she felt.

“You guys are busy with wedding stuff.” Kori assured. “Richard and I went through that. Wedding planning is stressful, and the boys work crazy hours.”

“He didn’t get home until six this morning.” Terra commented. “He showered, changed his clothes, and went to the gym.” She sighed. “I think he’s getting cold feet.”

“I don’t think so.” Rachel added. “This,” She gestured at the plethora of wedding materials around the small living room. “Is a lot.”

“It’s not like he has to do anything.” Jinx snorted, sitting another envelope in front her Rachel. “He just has to pay people-“

“Steve and Rita are taking care of the venue and reception costs, thankfully.” Terra added.

“Well,” JInx drawled. “All he has to do is get a tux and show up.”

“That is the groom’s job.” Kori giggled. “I did all the planning for my wedding. Richard really didn’t care. I promise, the day after the wedding you both are going to breathe a big sigh of the relief.”

“Whoa.”

The women looked up to see Gar stopping in the doorway with his gym bag on his shoulder. His living room was littered with color swatches, faux flowers, vases, bags, and many little trinkets.

“Speak of the devil.” Jinx laughed. “Welcome to the party.”

“Party?” He questioned, stepping over the pile of papers and walking over to the table they sat at. “What is all this stuff?”

Rachel could feel his eyes on her as he pressed a kiss to Terra’s forehead. She continued writing.

“Centerpiece ideas, tablecloth and napkin swatches, wedding favors, invitations-“

“I thought we were going to wait a couple weeks to send those out?” Gar asked, picking up one of the invitations. “The wedding is four months away. We’ve got plenty of time.”

Terra shook her head. “Less than four months. We didn’t send out save the date cards and the caterers a count for plates, so these need to go out preferably as soon as possible.”

“Yea, but I thought you wanted a calligrapher to address them.”

“Calligrapher would have to charge a couple hundred for a rush order, and Rachel graciously offered to address them for us.” Terra smiled, pointing to the woman’s handy work. “I figured if we could get these addressed before the weekend is over, I could mail them out Monday.”

“Let’s wait until the end of the month.” Gar pushed, leaning between Rachel and Terra as he pretended to examine Rachel’s calligraphy. “These look nice.”

“Gar, some of these have to mailed outside the country.”

“We could just to digital invites.”

“No, not for a formal wedding.” Kori frowned from her seat.

Gar sighed. “Can we-“

Rachel knew where this conversation was going. She quickly dipped her quill in the ink, jerking her arm to send the gold ink spilling across the the table and splashing on the blonde man’s shirt. “Shit! I’m sorry. I was rushing.” She interrupted, throwing paper on top of the ink she spilled.

“It’s alright.” Terra shrugged. “I got another bottle just in case.”

“Thankfully, the invitations are okay.” Kori noted, moving the ones that had been completed across the table.

“I’m gonna get some salt.” Rachel commented standing up. “That should help get the rest of this ink.”

“I think the paper got it all.” Terra checked the table.

“You should probably wash your hands too, Midas.” Jinx joked, looking at her gold covered hands.

“Think it will get it off my shirt?” Gar asked following Rachel into the kitchen.

Rachel walked over to the sink, flipping the faucet on with the back of her hand. “Are you insane?” She whispered, knowing the sound of the water would drown out their conversation. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I told you,” Gar whispered. “I’m breaking up with her.”

“We can’t be together.”

“You said it yourself. It’s not an option right now because we’re both in relationships.”

“Exactly.” She emphasized.

“So, I’m trying to make this work. I am getting out of my relationship.” He pleaded, scrubbing at the front of his shirt. “I want to be with you.”

“You don’t know me!” Her voice was low but harsh. “We’ve barely said anything to each other since we’ve moved out of the tower, and yet you’re willing to end an engagement over a one night stand?”

“It was more than that.”

“We had sex.” Her voice dropped, her eyes shifted to the doorway to the room where his fiancée and their friends were. “A lot old emotions came up.”

“So, let’s deal with it.”Gar pushed, tossing the rag into the sink. “Let’s see if we want this.”

Rachel sighed, shaking the water from her hands. Hands pressed on the edge of the sink, she hunched over. “So, what? Let’s date?”

“How else are we going to know?”

“Sure, let’s date while my boyfriend is about to propose to me and you’re getting married in a few weeks.”

“I am trying to break it off.”

“In a room, full of her bridesmaids and in front of the bridesmaid you’re cheating on her with? Classy, Gar, real classy.”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to think about this.” Rachel furiously scrubbed her hands. “Really, really, think about what we’re doing. You can’t break this off.”

“This situation is already shit storm, let’s not make it more complicated by dragging it out.” Gar sighed. “But, fine,” He shrugged. “I won’t break if off.”

She breathed a sigh of relief.

“But, I’m not giving up on us either.”

[mypersonalrambling]

Photo Shoot

Opening your eyes you felt around trying to find the warmth that normally consumed you. Instead of finding him you felt the empty side. Letting out a sigh you decided to get up and get breakfast. When you walked into the kitchen the glint of something caught your eye.

Walking over you looked down to find Harry’s face on the cover. Actually you found three different covers. Picking them all up you made your way to the living room. You remember him talking about the photo shoot but didn't know it was published yet. You opened all three to find them the same, so you took one and began looking through it.

The photos were beautiful. Harry was very photogenic, although he hated taking them. He wanted to be the one behind the camera. However after his friend Matt passed, he lost interest. It's been a difficult time for him lately. Photography used to be an escape, but now it was a reminder of how short life is.

Flipping through the magazine it was hard to choose a favorite picture, until you came upon the one of him lying in the field in huge sweater with a huge smile on his face. This was the Harry you were used to seeing. The one who was happy and wouldn't let anything get to him. It'd been a long time since you'd seen him like that. You began to ache. If only he'd feel like this every day. You don't mean to sound selfish but you wanted your Harry back. Not the one who only pretended to be happy, but was really in pain.

The photographs were amazing, however they couldn't compare to the interviews and letter from Gemma. The letter from Gemma was first. If you'd known what she'd written you would have tried to prepare yourself for it.

After reading Gemma’s letter you had to set the magazine down to not get tears on it. You couldn't fathom why you were so emotional, she'd told you those stories many times. But for some reason seeing them written down for the world to see hit you a thousand times harder. Now the world would have a glimpse into the Harry anyone close to him knew.

When the tears finally stop you pick up the magazine to see what else it had in store. Harry's interview with Paul McCartney. Even though they weren't face to face you knew Harry was probably a little nervous. He's a very confident person but every once in a while he was self conscious. Most of the time it didn't have to deal with other people, but just how he felt about himself. It didn't happen very often,  it when it did, it took a great deal of persuading to convince him otherwise.  On a few occasions you had to reassure him that he didn't need to change in anyway. He always wanted to tone his stomach because the ‘pudge just wouldn't go away.’ You were thankful he wasn't a self conscious person because being one yourself, you knew no one should experience that feeling. The interview seemed like it went smoothly and you hoped it did for Harry's sake. He looked up to Paul and it would have been a shame it something had gone wrong.

Harry's interview with Chelsea Handler was next. You expected it to be an amazing interview, but you had no idea that it would end up being your favorite interview that he would ever do.

CH-You’ve been dating Y/N for a while. How’s that going?

HS-It’s going very well; I can’t believe such a marvelous woman puts up with me. She’s the nicest, most generous women I’ve ever met.I never would have thought a simple chance encounter would turn into this.

CH-How did you two meet?

HS-We meet in a coffee shop. I was waiting for my drink when she walked in. She came over asking for a picture and was so polite. That was the first thing that caught my attention. Most fans are polite but when she asked she said it was okay if I declined. That was the first time someone had said that. I could tell she was nervous, but she hid it relatively well. She told me how much of an impact One Direction had on her life and that she hopes we keep making music for a very long time. By that time my drink was ready and I had to leave to get ready for the show.

I thought about her all day as crazy as that sounds. I went to the coffee shop the next day to grab something since we had another show. And she happened to be there. I bit the bullet and asked if she'd like to come to the show tonight. She did and well now here we are.

CH- That almost sounds like you took it out of a movie. When was the moment you realized you were in love with her? Are there wedding bells in the near future?

HS-I believe so. We’ve been together for a long time now, and it’s been the happiest time of my life. She puts up with my bullshit, which can be a lot at times. She’s the light of most of my days. Waking up next to her instantly puts a smile on my face. Her face being the last thing I see at night makes any appalling event melt away.

Not to sound cliché, but I feel like I walk on cloud nine with her. I don’t think there was a specific moment that made me fall in love with her. Every moment that I’ve had with her has made me fall in love. The longer we were together, the harder I fell. I never knew it was possible to love this much. She has my heart and is my home. And hopefully she feels the same way. Y/N will you marry me?

Wait, did that just…The two of you’d never talked about marriage. It was something that you both wanted. Lost in thought you failed to notice Harry come into the room. The look on your face must have given away what you'd just read. Ahem, you look over to find Harry down on one knee, tears in his eyes. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. “I…well…” he said using his head to point at the magazine still in your hands. No sound would come out. Of course you wanted to marry him. The thought made you giddy however the shock of not expecting it made it hard to comprehend. “Y/N?”

Jumping on him causing the both of you to fall. Being on top of him gave you the perfect advantage to attack him with kisses. You kissed any place on his face you could reach, finally landing on his lips for a long passionate kiss.

“I'll take that as yes,” he laughed.

“Yes. A thousand times yes,” you exclaimed. He took the ring out of the box, sliding it on your finger. When you brought your hand up to look at it closer the ring fell off.

“Oops. Looks like we'll have to get it resized,” he pouted.

“What’s wrong?” You ask not understanding why he was upset. This should be one of the happiest moments of your life.

“Just wanted everything to be perfect.” He looked like he was about to cry. He must have wanted it to go a certain way and this wasn't it. You couldn't fathom why. It was perfect to you.

“N’ it was. Wouldn't have changed a thing,” you smiled down at him. Pulling your head down he took your bottom lip between his. You didn't realize you were grinding against him until he moaned into your mouth.

“Fuck,” he groaned. He pulled your shirt off, tossing it across the room. It was slow after that. Harry kissed his way down your body, leaving marks where only he could see. “Jus for me love,” he said, his hot breath against your skin. It felt like he was taking hours and all you wanted was to feel him, every long, veiny inch. Suddenly you felt his breath against your inner thigh. “Soaked right through you panties kitten.” You didn't have to look to know he was smirking.

“Please Harry,” you whined. He was dragging this on so long. You weren't sure how much longer you take this. Placing a soft kiss, just enough to cause you to moan. He nudged your panties with his nose, making you gasp. Slowly he pulled them down with his teeth, until they were with your shirt.

Your eyes were closed, the anticipation of waiting for his touch killing you, but it didn't. Opening your eyes you saw him admiring at you. “Pretty, love.” His breath hot against your core. All you could think about was how he'd feel, you tried to grind down on him, but he put a hand on your hip to keep you in place. “Patience, darling,” he smirked.

The first lick had you gasping for air. He was taking long, wide licks. They were slow and with purpose. You weren't prepared when he wrapped his lips around your clit. He was doing small licks barely touching it. You tried to grind down on him, but his hand was keeping you firm in place. When he finally takes a firm hold around your clit, the moan you let out is low and long, coming somewhere deep in your throat. This encourages him to suck harder and longer, seeing how much he can push you.

“Harry…Harry please,” you plead. You want to feel him above you, the way his weight presses you into the floor. He complies without much hesitation, knowing that teasing isn’t the point of tonight, he wants to make love to the women he’s going to marry and be with for the rest of his life.

Harry flipped you over so you were on your stomach with his chest was to your back. He entered you in one swift thrust. Not giving you long to adjust, he set a slow pace, not wanting this to end quickly. He intertwined his fingers in yours. “I love yeh. Best thing that's ever happened to me,” Harry whispered.

“I love you t…” a particularly hard thrust cut you off. “Fuck,” you groaned. You were pinned beneath him, but you tried your hardest to grind against him.

“You're so beautiful. God. Can't. Believe. You're. Mine,” Harry said punctuating each word with a kiss. One of his hands slipped underneath you, finding your clit. This causes you to buck into the floor. “Harry…oh god,” you moan, clenching around him.

“Not gonna last much longer, love.” He’s groaning into your shoulder, biting when you clench around him. His thrusts are getting sloppy, signaling he was close. “Fuck, love, please cum.” His fingers began rubbing faster. The combination of his fast thrusts and rubbing your clit you were approaching your high quickly. Reaching your high you spasm around him, this causes him to reach his high. He doesn’t move off of you, not wanting to separate from you. When he slides out of you he can’t help but watching both of your highs trickle out. “I love you Y/N. Can’t believe you’re mine forever,” he said lying on the floor next to you, pulling you over to him.

“Harry I love you. There are no words to express how happy I am,” you say into his chest. The two of you lie there for a sometime before deciding to get up and have dinner. You never would have guessed this morning that you would be engaged to the love of your life.

[aonesol]

Everything You Should Know About Day Three of MozCon 2019

MozCon 2019 If MozCon thinks that everything happened too late on the last day, or if you forget everything that happened today (we have many opinions without judgment), do not worry if you know all the results on the third day. Reproduce the magic on the third day.

Do not forget to see all of Roger's photos in the photo booth! You can find it on Facebook's MozCon team. I also received a request to send you a message. You can now listen to Mozilla 2019 live playlists.

If you’re looking for a digital marketing company Pakistan, then contact A One Sol today.

Kindy Cram - Fraggles, Mobile Priority Index and Future SERP

If you are overwhelmed by the nostalgic waves of Sind's fascinating music, you will be disappointed with Cindy's Franks story.

"Fraggles" is a fragment + identifier. Fragment - Information on the page. The descriptor is similar to a marker, a conversion link, or a named anchor. Users can navigate through long pages and get what they need faster.

Page ranking is an inefficient way to answer questions. Pages can solve a myriad of issues. Now Google can extract one answer from multiple sections of the page and ignore the useless part in this answer.

The effect on the sound is enormous! In other words, you do not need to listen to your voice before you answer a question.

Google wants to index more than a website. They want to organize information about the world, not the site. Fraggles is a demo.

Luke Carty - eCommerce killer CRO and UX win SEO robots

In his explanation of the conversation, Lucati warned us that we must all consider all the things we should remember. We would notice that, and he said he would not make a mistake.

Get SEO services in Pakistan to outrank your competitors.

Traffic does not always mean that sales and sales do not always mean traffic!

Custom recovery is an excellent tool for finding lost CRO features. For example, Luke has given us a lot of potential for Best Buy. We went to an unoptimized page called "No Results Found" because tens of thousands were looking for sites.

You can also use Custom Extraction to find recommendations for you or your customers to use widely! Did you know that 35% of the products you buy from Amazon and 75% of the products you see on Netflix are the result of these proposals?

For example, did you show almost any product or supplements? (Tip: Try it, you can increase sales!)

Custom Screaming Frog Extraction allows you to extract all HTML data from a web page during a scan.

Andy Krestodina - Content, Leaderboards and Leaders: 1% Content Strategy Preview

Orbit Media has proposed a set of most effective strategies for transforming content into a high-performance content strategy. He also uses this wise proposition to flaunt, and we can apply it to our profession and personal life.

Contact us for content marketing in Pakistan.

Blog visitors are generally not of commercial interest. One of the best ways to find your audience through blog posts is to send them to your products and services pages using fairness, created with useful links to your posts.

Invest in your original survey to connect and share! Do not you know what to look for? Locate unanswered questions or unverified claims in your area and provide data.

Initial discovery may take longer than standard tasks, but it is more efficient! When do you think there is time to publish more ordinary news?

Give me what you want. Need a link? Connect with people. Do you have any feedback? Comments on other people's work

To optimize the content of social engagement, you must include real people, faces, and meetings.

Working with other content creators in your content not only provides integrated extensions but it also often creates more new links.

Rob Owsby - Running his SEO test: why and how

In recent years, our algorithms have changed a lot. What does SEO do? Follow Rob's advice, fashion and SEO. The answer is in the test.

"We always do this." And this is not enough to justify the SEO strategy in the current research area.

It is much easier to reduce spam than to sell spam when the algorithm starts.

For SEO audit online in Pakistan, contact A One Sol.

Rob and his team believe that Google has begun to rely more on user experience and satisfaction than traditional link ratings.

Thanks to the A / B control test, I get the following results:

Google lowers reliance on link signals, resulting in more than half of page 1 results.

Google relies more on user experience with critical terms (high search terms). Perhaps there is more user data.

In A / B testing, they also found that the same test generally provides different results in different places. The best way to succeed in modern SEO is to develop a graduate culture!

Greg Gifford - Dark Helmet local rules guide with Google messages and questions/answers

If you are a movie buff, you'll love Greg's speech. He talks about movies and inspires him through Google publications, questions and answers.

The person behind #shoesofmozcon tells us that Google is the new website for your local business. You should use Google tools to optimize your Google My Business profile. For example.

Google posts

Images from Google posts must be 1200x900.

Image editing is a bit rougher than average and is always uneven.

The size of the desktop thumbnail is different from the size of the mobile device.

Resize images in Google Post using bit.ly/posts-image-guide's free Greg tool.

You want free SEO analysis, head over to our digital marketing agency.

You can also download the video. The maximum file size is 100 MB and 30 seconds.

Add a call button to make the message useful! A button usually means you can reduce the text space of a word.

Do not share social content. Look for suggestions to distinguish you

UTM tracking should be used to understand the effectiveness of Google Analytics publishing. Otherwise, it is called direct traffic.

Google Q&A

Anyone can ask questions and answer. Why do not you do business? Check your conversation and consider this feature as a new FAQ.

This feature is available in the voting system. The answer comes first with the best voice.

Please filter these articles so that they do not include URLs or phone numbers.

Many of these issues are potential customers! Of the 640 questions and answers we received from car dealers, Greg anticipated 40% of our potential customers! Of this 40 %, the agency answered only two questions.

Emily Triplett Lentz - How to see what's included

Emily, a first intelligence service, provided valuable information about the importance of identifying and correcting common errors in online copies. He also went behind the stage to comfort his colleagues after the show. #GOAT. # Heroes do not need unnecessary.

Contact out content copywriter in Pakistan to get the most of your business.

As content creators, we all need to be mindful of our abilities. Discrimination is suitable for productive people. But we often commit this crime without knowing it.

An example of our ability to write a copy is usually a comparison of extreme or worse physical conditions with others (e.g., "disabled").

We have to work hard to make informal conversations more inclusive, but this is especially important for brands.

Create a list of allowed words, analyze the site, and replace it. But these words can not have a single solution. I often use words like "crazy" as fillers. By removing or replacing more appropriate words, we can improve the content and provide more information.

Finally, it is essential to remember that brands are more important than their desire for freedom of expression is to be excluded or unaffected. Why is not there a lot of content that is not a problem?

Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to view the content of the site!

Joel Irwin - Image optimization and visual research opportunities

Want to optimize your image and visual search? Joel was impressed with the resources he provided and how to use visual optimization techniques and Google Lens, Pinterest and AR for visual search.

Visual search is different from image search. Describes the process of using images to search for different content.

With a visual search like Google Lens, you can effortlessly search without knowing what you're looking for.

Pinterest has made great strides in this respect. They have a hybrid search feature that allows you to find additional entries for the items you are looking for. It's like finding a rug for your favourite chair instead of looking for the same type of chair.

Do you know what’s the best local SEO company Pakistan? No! Okay. It’s A One Sol.

62% of the respondents said they wanted a visual search. Therefore, it mainly used in apparel and furniture stores, but visual research will be improved. Then think about the benefits to your brand!

Joy Hawkins - Affects local algorithms, but does not affect biology.

Neighbours are very different when you compare local results with organic results. Investigate the results of your last study with Joy Sterling Sky, who found the naughty list.

The following are seven areas where the local algorithm is different from the general algorithm.

Close (AKA: What is the activity of the researcher?)

Intimacy is the top-ranked local rating factor, but rating factor 27 is organic.

Research shows that companies that are strictly related to researchers are more likely to classify local packaging than traditional biological results.

Rating tracking

We recommend that you do not send reports to your local business customers due to latitude/longitude variations and hourly changes.

Uses grade tracking internally but sends customers/prospects to customers. This reduces confusion and focuses on critical goals.

For more information on GMB tracking, please visit bit.ly/mozcon3.

GMB website (AKA: URL of the site linked from GMB account)

Contact A One Sol for enterprise SEO Pakistan.

Joy identified links to websites with broader access rights compared to local landing pages (more relevant) and found a significant increase in traffic to the site during traffic generation.

Confirm yourself before changing the GMB connection.

Example

Joy wants to know how many reviews are available and beneficial and beneficial.

She decided to see what would happen if she removed the rating. This will occur in a company that has been criticized (in violation of Google's rules), but the critique of the criticism of the breach will not disappear and will be "hidden" so the comment will not hurt the local rating.

Opportunity filter

You can filter organic results because the content duplicated, and you can filter local results too close to other companies in the same category. This is called a fuel filter.

Keywords of product name

This violates our rules, but unfortunately, it works.

For example, Joy is trying to add the word 'salad bar' to a list that does not have a salad bar.

Even if it works, it's not! Google may remove your listing of such violations. For this reason, it is no longer removed.

Fake listings.

The new ad does not have a website, permissions, or meeting, but can be categorized. This is because your keywords are full of mutual insights. This type of classification can happen overnight, and it can take more than a year to achieve some organic designation.

Read also: Search Results: Facebook is Allowing More Advertisers Place Ads

Take the time to report spam to your niche market. You can improve your local customer rating.

Britney Miller - Selected Excerpts: Key Factors and Goals You Need to Know

MozCon's final third day is our exclusive researcher, Britney Spears, an advanced search engine optimization that everyone's favourite SEO topic: the selected clip!

We have seen more explanations than ever and probably will not disappear. Now it's time to take advantage of this SERP feature to get your reputation and traffic for your customers!

Here's how.

Check the keywords that activate the selected bulletin board (evaluated on page 1).

Understanding the intention of the researcher

Give me a short answer.

Add a resume to popular posts

Check for common problems.

Take advantage of the Google NLP API

Control of selected extracts

If all else fails, use a third-party site. Your website may not be approved. The evaluation is not proper, but try to excerpt it from LinkedIn or Medium!

There is no doubt that the code snippet will send or remove more traffic because the code snippet has no clicks, but you should consider the merits of these snippets even if there are no clicks. Regardless of whether or not the provided clip will bring you traffic, SERP brand awareness increases or represents both opportunities together.

Ahhh, this is a pack!

Thank you for participating in this year's MozCon conference! Thanks to all of you who helped make MozCon this year (Mozzers, partners and team members). We can not do this without you.

When is your favourite meeting time? Please tell us in the comments below! Do not forget to take a picture of the speaker here! ......