#i went over it a bit with thicker lines to make it look nicer and more consistent to barok's linework

[krispytm]

Here's the comic I promised to make based on my pinned post!! I'll color it as soon as I can, it'll just take a while!

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Portrait of a Dangerous Man🎨4

Warnings: (series) non-consent sex and rape; slow creep; cucking; (this chapter) only plot hehe

This is dark!mob!Clark Kent x reader and explicit. 18+ only.  Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Synopsis: Your dream of having your work hung in an art show comes true but your first buyer is not all he seems to be.

Note: I’m at my tipping point, I swear. I’m dealing with everything in our household, new bed (delayed delivery yay!), cleaning, cooking, dog walking, and working. My only escape are my fics and this weekend I’m telling everyone to fuck off so I can do the writeathon... but sorry for the rant, enjoy more Clark.

Thanks to everyone for reading and thanks in advance for all your feedback. :)

I really hope you enjoy. 💋

<3 As usual, I’d appreciate if you let me know what you think with a like or reblog or reply or an ask! Love ya!

Wednesday trickled by like sand in a glass. You could hardly keep your eyes open as you typed away and a double espresso shot was the only thing that saw you through your hours at the gallery. Vanessa was excited for her next event and already asking after some new pieces from you. You promised her some from your storage unit to stave her off as you held in your yawns. 

You collapsed into bed that night beside Marcus. He complained about his day until he drifted off and you followed suit shortly after. You awoke with a decision, the echoes of your boyfriend’s gripes in your head and heart. You hated how miserable his job made him, how dull your own was. It felt like there was nothing else but the almighty dollar.

You called Clark after an email to Jim, your nerves alight in anticipation of the disgruntled reply. It didn’t matter. You were done. You didn’t need to worry about the all caps messages and curt zoom calls.

“Hey,” Clark picked up, he sounded out of breath.

“Oh, hey, sorry, it’s me,” you swiveled in your chair, “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“Nope, just getting in a work out,” he grunted, “you’re not bugging me if you have good news for me.”

“I think… I do,” you forced out, “I just sent in my resignation.”

“Mmm, you don’t sound… happy,” he hummed.

“I am, I think I’m just processing it,” you replied, “I said I’d let you know today so I’m letting you know.”

“Well, how soon can you be here?” he asked.

“Today?”

“Sure, why not?”

“I guess, I could leave as soon as you want me,” you said.

“I’ll send a car,” he intoned, “I’ll give the driver your number, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah,” your voice almost squeaked, “I can do that.”

“Alright, sweetheart, see ya soon.”

The line cut out and you lowered your phone slowly. You stared at Outlook and the new email icon along the taskbar. You closed the laptop and stood. You could worry about the fallout later, right now, you had to get ready for another day of painting.

🎨

It was starting to feel like deja vu every time you arrived at Clark’s house. You got out and thanked the drive, Jeremy, before he drove off. The doors opened before you got to the top of the steps and your host was already dressed in the same outfit he wore for each session. His hair was neat but his beard was even thicker than before.

“I think you can tell I’m a little antsy to start,” he chuckled, “how are you, sweetheart?”

That pet name caught in your mind again. It might just be a habit of his. Nothing more than an absent-minded word.

“Me too, honestly,” you smiled, “but I have a weird question for you.”

“Ask away,” he said as he walked with you through the foyer.

“The beard… you want that in the portrait or--”

“Oh, ha, yeah,” he ran his fingers along his jawline, “I guess I wasn’t thinking. You’re the artist, what do you think?”

“Well, erm, either way is fine,” you said, “I was just… wondering. I’m not even close to starting on, uh, you yet. I mean, right now I’m just working on the background and basic shapes.”

“I’ll let you make the call when you get there,” he said, “say the word and it’s gone.”

“Alright,” you came to the top of the stairs and he pointed you ahead of him.

He followed you as you entered and you went about filling the jar with water and resituating the set up. He sat as you mixed and chose your brush. You climbed the ladder and peered around the canvas at him. He took on the same pose as usual and you dipped the bristles into the pigment. You could make a happy life of this.

🎨

Clark shifted and cleared his throat. You rolled your wrist and glanced back over at him as you drew your hand back from the canvas. He braced the chair and pushed himself up.

“How about a break?” he asked as he shook out his arms, “back’s a bit stiff.”

“Sure,” you said, “I think I could sit down for a moment.”

You took a step down the rung of the ladder but your toe slipped and suddenly your palette was against your chest. You slid down backwards as Clark rushed over and barely kept you from toppling the entire thing over. You laughed at yourself as he righted you and looked down at your paint-streaked shirt.

“Jesus,” you muttered.

“You okay?” he asked as he kept his hand on your upper arm, “be careful.”

“Yeah, I’m-- clumsy, is all,” you carefully pulled away and set down your brush and palette.

“Come on, sit,” he pulled up the stool and planted it before you, “take a minute.”

As you sat, he stretched his arms over his head and then out to the sides. He paced around the other side of the table, long strides as he worked the cramps from his long legs. He stopped and came up to play with a brush as you leaned an elbow on the table.

“Well, I did have another offer for you,” he said, “I was thinking of waiting but might as well ask now.”

“Oh?” you raised your brows curiously.

He swished a slender brush in the air then lowered it and picked at the tip.

“I’m having a get together on Saturday, some business friends and the like,” he said as he set the brush back with the rest, “it won’t be work. You’ve earned some time off. You can even bring the boyfriend.”

“Saturday?” you pondered, “I’m usually at the gallery on Saturdays.”

“It would be great networking,” he said, “and I already told all my friends about you. They’re excited to see your work. It will almost be like a viewing and it’s only right the artist is there.”

“I could make it work,” you mulled, “Marcus would love to come back.” You snickered, “he loves this place.”

“It’s a nice house,” he said casually, “a bit big for one person… hence, the party.”

“I’ll put it in my calendar,” you stood and slid your palette closer and cleaned it off to remix the mess of paints.

“Great,” he said as he rounded the table and brushed close to you, “it’ll be nice to look at a mug besides mine, huh?”

You laughed as you squeezed out the dark paint and nodded, “ha, sure.”

🎨

The rest of your week was spent much the same. Jeremy drove you to Clark’s and you went up to the studio to continue your work between small talk and silences that grew so thick you had to break them with mindless comments. It wasn’t enough to focus on the path of your brush as the man tugged at your attention.

Marcus was excited when you told him about the party. He raved about how he needed to let loose, about how much expensive alcohol he was going to drink, and the awesome backflip he was gonna do into the pool. You reminded him, he hadn’t done anything like that since college but he swore he could still do it.

You didn’t share the sentiment. You were anxious. You were flattered to be invited but despite what Clark said, it still felt like work. His friends were going to be there and he apparently was trying to sell them on your art. 

You didn’t realise until after you hit send on your email, but you put your livelihood in this man’s hands. A man, you reminded yourself, who was little more than a stranger.

On Friday, a day you were thankfully not called to the mansion to teeter on the ladder and paint, the buzzer rang and drew you off the couch from amid your YouTube binge. The man on the speaker called back that he had a delivery and you let him up. You took the box from him, the thick silver ribbon giving away the sender even before you could read the tag.

Inside you found a black dress with little gemstones set into the fabric like stars in the sky. It was nicer than anything you’d ever owned before and a pair of silver shoes were tucked in beneath the outfit. You took the shoes from the tissue paper and something else shifted in the bottom.

You reached in and revealed a velvet box from the depths of overzealous stuffing. You opened the lid and found a simple chain of diamonds. You gaped in disbelief. They were real. The fake ones didn’t look so nice.

You phone chimed before you could even think to call Clark. It was as if he could see you. You answered and your voice warbled pathetically.

“Hi, I was just gonna call,” you touched your throat as it constricted.

“Yeah? I got the notification that it was delivered,” he said, “you like it?”

“It’s too much,” you gulped out, “really, I can’t--”

“I want you to look nice. I want you to feel good and have a good time,” he said, “I feel like you’ve been working so hard. You need a chance to just let it all go.”

“Look, I…” you were uncertain how to handle it. It was more than generosity but you felt wrong denying it as much as you did accepting it, “I’ve never had a boss buy me diamonds. At least let me give those back.”

“Boss?” he mused on the word, “I suppose, but you gotta dress the part now, sweetheart. You’re gonna rub shoulders with a lot of rich dicks like me. Pardon my language.”

“I didn’t realise it was such an upscale thing,” you put the velvet box down and turned to sit on the couch beside the large box. You played with the silver ribbon and chewed your lip.

“Sweetheart, it’s nothing, you got this,” he said, “trust me, if you can win me over, my friends will be child’s play.”

“Mhmmm,” you stared at the tv mindlessly, “Clark?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you doing all this?”

There was silence and you heard him sigh then a subtle metallic click.

“Because I can. And you’re a talented artist. Didn’t all the big painters used to have patrons back in the day? You know, Da Vinci and all that.”

“Sure, I guess--”

“Look, sweetheart, I’m glad you like the dress, I gotta go.”

He hung up abruptly and you turned your phone to stare at it in confusion. You were starting to get a bad feeling and that little voice in that back of your head, that little sabotaging bitch, whispered in your ear. No, you wouldn’t let your self-doubt get the best of you this time. You either grabbed this chance or you spent the rest of your life doing menial work and painting the world as it passed you by.

🎨

Friday night, Marcus couldn’t stop rambling about the party the next day. You just couldn’t get over the tickle in your chest, the same one you got before job interviews and doctor’s appointments. You were on edge, even as you spent your stress on him, your body writhing against his as you panted and pouted. It had been a while since you fucked. All the work and the stress had just let things slip past you. Maybe with your new gig, you could get back to those early days when it was all you wanted to do.

You slept soundly. You blamed the sex and the momentous week. You got up, had a lazy brunch time meal, and beat Marcus at MarioKart several times over before he convinced you it was time to get ready. 

You pulled on the gifted outfit after fighting with your make-up and hair. You gave a little tada spin to Marcus and he lifted his brow as he tried to figure out his tie.

“Wow, where’d you get that?” he purred, “fuck, let’s be late.”

He ran his hands over your hips as you neared him and fixed his tie for him. You giggled and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Jeremy’s on his way,” you warned, “I don't wanna bite the hand that feeds.”

“Oh, and it feeds you well,” Marcus chirped, “you think he’ll let me have a spin in the McClaren?”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t. I don’t need to scrape you off the side of the road,” you took your phone as the screen lit up, “come on, he’s here.”

“Fuck, babe, really, you’re gonna make me follow you out of here with your ass looking like that?”

“Stop,” you tittered, “you know, there might be more sellers tonight?”

“Oh yeah? I guess you’ll be paying a mortgage soon enough.”

“Me?” you scoffed.

“Sure, I’ll be your sugar baby,” he kidded.

“Well, baby is accurate,” you teased as you stepped onto the elevator, “please, just behave.”

🎨

You were surprised to see Vanessa at the party but reassured to see a familiar face. Clark had been distracted by his other guests and you did your best to mingle, letting Marcus take the lead until he was distracted by another guest’s Rolex and started asking too many questions. If you did start selling art to these kinds, you suspected you’d be paying for a lot of overpriced brands. That was a worry for another time.

You stood with Vanessa and a man she introduced you to. Bruce Wayne was tall and his dark-hair was combed back neatly as he spoke over the glass of wine in his hand. You were bored of the Monet-Manet argument, one you’d heard a million times from the stubborn gallery owner, and you were at your limit of socialisation.

You excused yourself and put down your unfinished drink on a table. You looked around but couldn’t see Marcus anywhere. The last you saw him, he was with Clark but you couldn’t find him either. You frowned and wandered between the pairs and trios gabbing around the room.

Just past the bar, you looked back and still no sign of either man. You huffed and your heels clicked into the foyer and to the stairs. You’d go to the studio and sit for a moment and collect yourself. You just needed to take a breath.

You climbed the stairs slowly, the din of the party floating up behind you. You came to the top but stopped as your eyes were drawn to a pair of open doors opposite the studio. You neared and stayed against the wall as you peeked inside. Marcus admired an old-six shooter and spun the barrel.

“You got everything, man, I swear,” you hid behind the door frame and listened.

“Eh, it’s all just things,” Clark replied, “I bought that from an auctioneer down in Texas. A verified antique but it just hangs here. Not good for much but looking at it.”

“Dude, what I wouldn’t do to live here? Have cool guns and even cooler cars? Shit, you know how fucked it is that my lady is making bank and I’m over here with my dick in my hands? I mean, I’m proud of her but… I mean, if I could get paid thousands for drawing, I would’ve tried to learn.”

“She’s good. Dedicated,” Clark remarked, “she’s special. Worth more than money.”

Marcus hummed and you heard the barrel click back into the place. Neither of the men spoke as you heard something shift and Clark cleared his throat. Subtle footsteps moved around the room and you pressed yourself to the wall. You should leave and let them talk but you couldn’t help but be curious.

“Isn’t she?” Clark prodded.

“Y-yeah, but… I don’t know. I just wish I had more,” Marcus said, “I probably sound like a chump, huh?”

“You can’t have it all,” Clark replied.

“Says the guy who can buy anything and everything,” Marcus moped.

“Oh?” Clark intoned, “so… how about it then? Fifty thousand.”

“For what?” Marcus chuckled nervously.

“Her,” Clark answered.

“Her-- I… my girlfriend?” he sputtered.

“If money can buy me anything, that’s what I want,” Clark said firmly, “it’s a one time offer… whether or not you agree to it, I’m gonna fuck her.”

You skin crawled at his words and you covered your mouth in disgust and shock. You inched closer to the door to hear better as you waited for the response.

“One hundred,” Marcus said.

“Seventy-five,” Clark countered.

“That’s my girlfriend, dude,” Marcus hissed.

“And yet you’re haggling with me over her. Eighty.”

You tore yourself from the wall before you could hear anymore. You felt hollow and heavy all at once. Your eyes were glossy as you scurried over to the studio doors and pushed the left one open. You unhooked the diamond necklace and tossed it onto the paint-stained palette and rolled up your brushes.

You stormed over blindly to the easel and pushed it over. It clattered to the floor loudly but you were already out the door and halfway down the stairs. You gripped your clutch and the bundle of paintbrushes tightly as you continued on outside and the blurred outlines of luxury cars passed you by. 

You stomped up the long drive in your heels as you flicked away tears and pulled out your phone. You knew it was too good to be true. Any of it; your art, Clark, Marcus. You weren’t good for anyone unless they could get something out of you.

[kikis-writing-world]

Every Pilot Needs a Wingman

Summary: You have been pining quietly over your neighbor for months. He hasn’t noticed, but apparently his friend has...

Pairing: Frankie Morales x F!Reader

Word Count: 3.9k

Rating/Warnings: Smutty thoughts - grey sweatpants should be their own warning. Fleeting mentions of masturbation and sex toys. Swearing. Santi gives the reader tips on how to impress/pick up Frankie, I don’t know if that might come off as shady or triggering to people so I want to mention that. Dividers by @firefly-graphics​

You grabbed your keys from the hook beside the door on your way out, making sure to check that it was locked behind you. It was warm out, especially given the time of day. Walking out of your air conditioned house into the humidity felt like walking into a brick wall. Luckily you had checked the weather, dressing in a pair of shorts and a light t-shirt. You didn’t have to wear anything fancy just to run errands, so you made comfort the priority.

You heard your neighbor’s door open and even before looking, you wished you’d done something nicer with your hair. The humidity made it a little unmanageable so you hadn’t bothered this morning. You turned to see if it was the owner of the house next door stepping out into the midday sun, or a guest, but there was Frankie in all his glory. All of it.

You’d lived next door to Frankie Morales for just over a year, and most of that had been spent pining silently over the man. He was attractive, that you had noticed the first time you had seen him, but getting to know him since moving had made him all the more appealing. Those warm brown eyes that crinkled with laugh lines as he smiled. His big, strong hands that he used on his woodworking projects and home renovations. His broad shoulders that he would happily sit his daughter on for rides when he had her for his shared custody. He was not only devastatingly handsome in a fittingly “boy man next door” kind of way, but he was just so kind and funny. God you wanted him.

It took a conscious effort to keep your eyes from bulging out of your head when you saw him. Hair wild, dark framed glasses perched on his nose - that was a treat in itself, he often opted for contacts over his glasses. His lack of shirt let you see the sprinkling of hair along his chest and the darker treasure trail that started just below his navel, running down over the dip of the small tummy he’d gained with age. He often complained about being out of shape compared to his younger years but you loved any glimpse you got of it. The line of hair grew thicker until it disappeared under the waistband of his grey sweatpants. Taking him in, you didn’t know if the powers that be were rewarding you or punishing you.

“Hey Frankie,” you greeted politely. You’d more or less been staring at him, so you couldn’t play it off that you hadn’t seen him.

He greeted you back, his voice hoarse as he squinted in the bright sunlight.

“Rough night?” You guessed with a knowing grin. You knew the signs of a late night as easily as the next person, plus with Frankie usually being an early riser his disheveled appearance definitely had you thinking he’d been into some kind of mischief. You bit your lip, trying not to frown if you wondered if a woman was part of the mischief, a spark of envy flowing through your veins.

“Yeah,” he chuckled, running a hand through the mess of chocolate curls atop his head. Oh lord, his sweatpants dipped lower on his hips as he did. “An old buddy of mine had a fight. Went out with the guys after to celebrate.”

“Oh, that’s… Billy?” You attempted, trying to remember the name of the friend he had told you was into boxing.

“Benny.” He corrected lightly.

“Benny. Sorry.” You nodded.

When his back turned, reaching into his mailbox to get his mail, you allowed yourself the moment to check him out properly. The muscles in his back flexed softly as his arms moved. The dimples in his lower back called out to you. The curve of his ass just barely hidden beneath the elastic waistband. Staring at his ass, you wondered if he was going commando before you stopped yourself from following that train of thought. Stop being perverted…

He turned back around, shuffling the envelopes in his hands. You were lucky he was looking through his mail since your eyes were still aimed on his lower half as he turned. You’d sacrifice something to the gods of grey sweatpants as a tribute later. After the errands, and after spending some time with your battery powered friends as the image stayed in your mind. The pants were thick enough fabric that they didn’t bare all, but damn if you couldn’t tell he had a decent length to him.

You had fantasized about the man more than you’d care to admit. He was such a goodhearted man, you knew he would be a kind, gentle lover, but he also had this underlying masculine energy that made you wonder if he would go a little wild. Your favorite fantasies involved both, and now that you’d caught more of a glimpse of what he was working with, you could add even more context to your thoughts. How he’d prep you gently, sweetly, making sure you were ready to take all of him but once he’s inside he would lose himself to the pleasure and fuck into you nice and hard-

You forced your eyes back up to his face as you swallowed hard, knowing that you’d have to stop somewhere to get a cool drink as you drove around town.

“Anything good?” You asked, nodding towards the envelopes in his hand. It wasn’t any of your business but you wanted to keep the small talk going a little longer. A few more minutes in his presence.

“Junk and bills. The usual.” He chuckled, his usual laugh sounding even lower, raspier from the late night of drinking. Even with the glasses on, you could see those laugh lines you loved sprouting at the corners of his eyes.

“Damn. Being an adult sucks.” You laughed with him.

“Tell me about it.” He sighed. “But it does have its perks.”

“Like drinking all night and napping all day?” You suggested.

“Like that.” He agreed with a grin and a nod. “Just gotta kick some pendejo out of my house first.”

Your easy grin became forced at that. So he had brought someone home from the bar. “Another perk to adulthood, right?” Your laugh was a little strained this time, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Huh?” He frowned, his hungover brain taking a minute to figure out your meaning. “Oh, oh, yeah, I guess.” He chuckled, scratching the back of his head bashfully. “Not last night though. Just my friend. He crashed on my couch.”

“Oh!” You hated yourself a little bit for the relief that you felt. He can sleep with whoever he wants to and it would be none of your business. “Not that I should have- it’s not really my business.” You mumbled, running a hand over your own hair to make sure it was behaving in the heat.

“Don’t worry about it.” He waved you off. “I’ll let you get going though.”

“Alright.” You were equal parts disappointed the conversation was closing and relieved you couldn’t dig yourself into a deeper hole. “I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, you know where I live.” He teased.

“That I do.” You smirked. “Feel better.”

He didn’t respond verbally, waving a hand at you as he turned to walk back up the path to his home. You moved around your car, stopping once you were at the driver’s side to watch him for another fleeting moment. You hated to see him go but you loved to watch him leave...

Forcing your mind out of the gutter, you focused on the mental to do list you had for the day, climbing into your car and starting the A/C as soon as the engine was on.

Frankie closed the door behind him, relishing the dark and cool of inside.

“Who was that?” Santiago asked him, making him jump. He was standing in front of the living room window, facing the street.

“Neighbor. Nice girl.” Frankie barely explained as he dropped the envelopes onto the side table for later.

“Just a neighbor?” Santi pushed with a grin. “She’s cute.”

Frankie shot him a half-assed glare, not having the energy yet to deal with Pope’s libido. The coffee he’d put on before stepping out was brewing so he instead followed his nose to the kitchen.

“She’s really into you, too.” Santi continued, following Frankie through the house.

That caught Frankie’s attention. “What?” He scoffed, turning to stare at his former teammate.

“Seriously?” Pope deadpanned, lifting an eyebrow at Frankie’s grumpy, confused grimace.

“She was just being neighborly. Making small talk.” Frankie brushed it off, turning to pull two mugs out of the cupboard.

“Neighborly staring at your cock.” Pope grumbled under his breath, in disbelief Frankie could be this oblivious. “Remind me again how you ever got far enough with a woman to knock her up?”

“Why are you this way? Who hurt you?” Frankie sighed, rubbing his creased brow to ease the pressure of the hangover.

“I’m serious, hermano. You wouldn’t know a woman was flirting with you if she gave you a fuckin’ lap dance.”

“She wasn’t flirting.”

“Maybe not with her words, but she was eyeing you like a damn buffet.” Pope teased. “Sausage buffet.”

“Get out of my house.” Frankie huffed, no real bite to his words as he leaned against the counter, holding his head in his hands.

Pope ignored him, picking up the coffee pot and pouring it into their mugs. He slid one towards Frankie before picking up his. The two men savored the first few sips of the piping hot coffee in silence, letting it erase the pains of the night before.

“Seriously though,” Santiago broke the silence. “You should ask her out sometime.”

“You’re still here?” Frankie shot back, eyes locked straight ahead as if no one was in the room with him.

Santi sighed, shaking his head as he took another sip of his coffee. If Frankie wanted to be difficult, then he’d just have to play dirty.

Later on in the week you were still thinking about the encounter. You couldn’t remember exactly what the two of you had talked about, but the image of Frankie stuck in your mind. Despite knowing that he was nursing a hangover at the time, you couldn’t help but imagine he’d look a bit similar after sex. Hair mused, under-dressed, a light exhaustion. He was missing that post-sex glow: the relief that shines through your skin, mixing in with the sheen of sweat that covers your whole body. That part you’d had to add in yourself in some mental editing.

You imagined Frankie walking through your kitchen looking that way. Like he’d thrown on the nearest pants he could find after sliding from the bed, scavenging for something to eat after working up an appetite with you.

God, I need to go out and get laid… you thought to yourself as you realized just how much of your mental capacity was taken over by the handsome man next door.

A knock on your door had you frown softly. You weren’t expecting anyone, you didn’t think you had any deliveries scheduled. You looked through the peephole to find out who was there. 

You didn’t recognize the man standing on your stoop. You looked him over, trying to gauge if you should open the door or pretend you weren’t home. He kept looking off to the left, towards Frankie’s house, which didn’t help ease your mind, but after making sure your chain lock was secured you decided to open the door.

“Hi?” You greeted cautiously, looking at him through the small crack the chain lock allowed.

“Hey! I’m Santiago. I’m a friend of your neighbor. Frankie.” He introduced with a smile.

Your stomach dropped. “Is everything okay?” You blurted out, worried. Was he okay? Was his daughter?

“No, no! He’s fine! Everything is fine.” Santiago was quick to reassure you. “I’m actually here to talk to you.”

Your frown returned as your brow creased in confusion. “Why? What did I do?” Your mind started racing, wondering what you had done to make Frankie send a friend over. Oh god, had you made him uncomfortable and now this Santiago was going to tell you to back off?

“Nothing. Wow, you’re nervous.” He laughed.

“A man I don’t know is knocking on my door.” You pointed out with a wry grin.

“That is true. I didn’t think about that part. Damn.” Santiago grumbled to himself. “I’ll cut to the chase then and you can decide if you want to talk to me or not. I know you like Frankie, but he’s an idiot. He doesn’t know you like him, but I saw you flirting with him a few days ago. I was inside, saw everything.”

You felt your face heating up in embarrassment as he explained himself. You briefly considered closing the door in his face and moving to Bora Bora.

“Since ‘Fish is never going to believe me and make a move, I thought I would come over, give you some pointers, help you make the first move?” He offered, voice pitching up as he questioned your interest.

You glared at him for a moment, considering the request as you tamped down your fight or flight instincts. Frankie had mentioned a friend stayed the night, and you had definitely checked him out hard.

“Give me a sec,” you mumbled, closing the door so you could unlatch the chain. When you opened it fully, you stood to the side and gestured for Santiago to come inside.

As you knocked on Frankie’s door a few days later, you started second guessing yourself. Would any of this even work? You didn’t know Santiago from a hole in the ground, what if he’d told you things to make you seem like an idiot? Or what if he told you things that Frankie hated, just so he would be sure not to ask you out? This was so stupid. You were about to turn around and walk away when the door opened.

Frankie’s eyes widened when he saw you standing on his porch. His eyes immediately fell to your bare legs before flickering back to your face. The small action gave you confidence in the plan as you started to believe what Santiago had said.

“Frankie loves a woman in a sundress. I know, who doesn’t? But he really likes it. Wear a dress that shows off your legs, and if you have any kind of strappy shoe, the kind that will make him notice your legs… yeah, that’ll get his attention.”

“Hey, what’s up?” Frankie asked as he leaned against his door jam.

“He likes feeling useful, likes helping his friends out. Ask him for help with something, something he needs to fix, use his hands. That kind of thing.”

“I noticed you’re pretty handy,” you started hoping he would take it as the compliment it was. “Fixing your fence, building the porch. Are you any good with plumbing?”

Frankie seemed to puff up a bit at the question, your confidence growing even more. “A little. I’m no plumber but... depends on what you need.”

“My garbage disposal isn’t working right. I don’t know if I did something or if I need to call a professional. Would you mind coming to take a look?” You asked, fluttering your eyelashes at him a little.

“He’s oblivious. I mean it. You could smack him over the head with a board and he probably wouldn’t notice. Don’t be scared to lay it on pretty thick.”

“Sure! Want me to come over now?” Frankie was already stepping out onto the porch before you could answer him. “My tools are in the garage, I can grab them and follow you over.”

“That’d be great,” you smiled brightly at him. “Thanks!”

You trotted down the steps ahead of him, heading towards his garage.

“Any chance you get to turn around, take it. He’s an ass man, and in a sundress… he’ll be looking.”

You resisted the urge to look over your shoulder to make sure he was watching you as you crossed the yard. You didn’t want to give-up the game, let him know you were onto him. If you caught him, he might get shy and draw into himself instead of being bolstered up into asking you out.

It took no time at all for him to grab his basic toolkit and follow you into your house. You led him into the kitchen and showed him the problem..

“Did you want a drink while you take a look? I’ve got beer.” You offered as he used a flashlight to peer down the drain.

“Once you’ve got him on the hook, get him a nice cold beer.”

“Th-that sounds great, actually, thanks.” He leaned up to grin at you before his attention turned back to the sink. You smiled triumphantly, fighting the urge to skip to the fridge. Grabbing two bottles, you took a moment to appreciate the sight.

He was leaned over the sink a bit, emphasizing his ass and his waist, but that wasn’t the part that appealed to you most… he was fixing up something in your house, and you’d be lying if you weren’t attracted to a man who could get the job done. Who wasn’t scared to roll up his sleeves and use some good old fashioned elbow grease. Before you could walk back over, he crouched down with a quiet groan, looking under the sink.

It was the perfect moment to return, standing next to his crouching form as you offered him the beer. He turned, face to face with the skirt of your dress. You couldn’t tell from this vantage, but it looked like actually licked his lips as he took in your legs from such close proximity before slowly looking up.

“Thanks.” He took the beer, taking a swig immediately. You hid your smile by doing the same.

Frankie sat his beer on the counter and turned back to the pipes under the sink. You set your beer next to his before hopping up to sit on the sink, letting your legs dangle.

“If you need anything, just let me know. I’ll be your runner.” You offered, waiting patiently as he inspected everything.

“Honestly, it looks like it’s just some loose connections. Easy fix.” He explained, setting his hat on the floor next to the toolkit before sliding himself under the sink. You grinned at the memory of Santiago helping you to loosen them.

“Really? That’s great.” You mocked relief at the news. “I didn’t want to have to wait for someone to come in and take a look then charge me an arm and a leg for some putty or something stupid. It definitely pays to have a neighbour who knows his way around a toolbox.”

Frankie chuckled in agreement, but didn’t respond otherwise as he worked at tightening all the joints you and Santi had messed with. It didn’t take him long before he was shimmying out from under the sink.

“All done.” He declared as he sat up, wiping his hands on his jeans.

“Thanks Frankie, you’re a lifesaver.” You gushed, crossing your legs at the ankles.

The motion caught his eye and he turned, coming face to face with your legs. You watched as he once again checked out your legs, eyes trailing from ankle to where your knees just barely disappeared under the hem of the dress. He chewed on that full bottom lip of his for a moment before seemingly remembering himself, smiling up at you. “It was nothing.” He pulled his cap on, hiding under the bill as he finished tidying up his things.

“Still, I want to thank you somehow.” You insisted, hopping off the counter.

“You don’t have to.” He shook his head. “The beer is enough, I promise.” He reached up for the bottle, taking a few gulps to prove his point.

“Okay, it’s a bit of a thank you and a little bit another favor then,” you confessed.

Frankie’s eyebrow quirked up in confusion, setting the bottle back on the counter and sealing up his toolbox before standing back at his full height. You had been standing close enough to give him a view of your legs, and now that he wasn’t crouched down, he towered over you.

“And what’s that?” He asked.

“Fish doesn’t talk about it a lot, but he loves baseball. Doesn’t have a favorite team or anything, but this guy goes as much as he can. He likes the slow pace and the strategy to it. It’s relaxing after all the shit we’ve gone through.”

“I have an extra ticket to the ballgame next week. Decent seats, nothing crazy though.” You shrugged. “I was going to offer it to you, if you wanted to join me.”

His eyebrows shot up into his bangs, stuck still under the hat. “Really? The Rays game?”

“Mmhmm.” You nodded coyly.

“I-I’d love to.” He admitted, face flushing. “I love baseball.”

“Really?” You pretended not to know.

“Yeah. Great way to spend a day.” He shrugged bashfully. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll take the ticket if you let me drive.”

“I’ll allow it.” You teased, feeling emboldened enough to wink at him. You were pleased that it seemed to make him blush more.

“Great. It’s a… plan.” He hesitated, fiddling with the hat atop his head nervously, lifting it to smooth down his curls before repositioning it.

“A plan?” You repeated, grinning. “Sounded like you were going to say something else for a second.”

Frankie hid his face from you as he bent to pick up his toolbox, opening it once more to make sure he didn’t forget anything first. “I uh, I almost said date,” he admitted, and you could see the blush creeping up his neck. “I didn’t wanna be too forward.”

You waited patiently for him to stand back up, watching him avoid eye contact with you. You thought it was adorable, how sweet he was that he was worried about seeming too forward when you’d spent the day carefully leading him like a horse to water.

“A date it is.” You declared, smiled widening as you watched Frankie’s embarrassment make way for his own happy grin.

Bonus scene:

[4:23] Fish:  Idk how you do it but you were right [4:24] Pope:  I know [4:25] Pope:  About what? [4:26] Fish:  I’ve got a date with my neighbor next week [4:26] Fish:  She invited me to the Rays game [4:26] Pope:  Really? Nice! [4:27] Pope:  You sure thats a date? [4:27] Fish:  100% [4:27] Pope:  You’re the man 🐟 [4:28] Pope:  Half man half fish [4:28] Pope:  🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏻‍♀️ [4:32] Pope:  Fish? [4:36] Pope:  You ignoring me? [4:42] Pope:  Hello? [4:45] 🧜🏻‍♀️: HOW DID YOU CHANGE MY NAME?! [4:46] 🧜🏻‍♀️:  PUT IT BACK!

Tagging  @wickedfrsgrl​​ @din-damn-djarin​​ @seasonschange-butpeopledont​ @kesskirata​ @phoenixhalliwell​ @vonschweetz​ @insideafictionaluniverse​​ @driedgreentomatoes​​ @computeringturtle​​ @spideysimpossiblegirl​

[icancdramahanfu]

Making the belt to hold it all together - layer 3.5 - I guess

After ironing out all of the washed fabric, I set at making a rectangle pattern for the belt.  I first made the base teal layer by folding over the edges of the hem twice to prevent fraying.

I moved it a bit so it isn’t that wiggly in reality.

This is based on the waist + 4″ calculation, in my case 31.5″ and the belt is about 4″ wide.

My original plan was to fold over the raw edges of the white strip which is ~2″ wide but I noticed like many types of white fabric was pretty translucent and I decided to double it up.  I made a long tube, cut off the excess and kept about 2 inches of one edge open to pull everything through.  I found this to be much nicer giving the white a more solid ‘color’ so to speak.

I sewed this one with a longer seam length, 3 on my machine, so it would be easier to flex and not be super tight.  I’m pretty sure that the actual outfit has two independent layers of white and teal laid over top and maybe the red cord is fixed to the white part.  The red cord is too thin for a single layer - I may wrap the two parts of it to be thicker or I may go get more and braid it. 

Before that, I decided that I am going to put some velcro down on the edges and I have to test it out with everything.

I marked the edges with one of my fabric pens to determine where to put the velcro later.  I may need to find some stiffer fabric to line it or also make a sandwich of the teal with interfacing, the ends are puckering up.

Overall though it does look nice.  I think some stiffing material will make a huge difference in the end.

It definitely ties the entire outfit together nicely.  I’ll have to futz around with it a bit more to see how I like it.  I went ahead and added some velcro to my belt and tested it out with the three layers.  I wish I had a cleaner end, but I cheated and put the overlap side under my arm instead of on the back.

For the ties on the blue zhiju, I took strips of fabric, folded them over a few times, sewing each fold down as it became narrower.  I used a seam ripper to open the side seam, put the tie in and then sewed it back down and in place.  I may try to use cord ties for another layer just to see how it works out.  I then tested out how the blue zhiju tied up and put the unfinished belt over top.

After letting things sit for a few days I got back to finishing the belt.  I twisted the cord around itself to create a thicker one - I’m currently not motivated enough to get more to make a braid (but I think that would look quite nice).

Here is the underside where you can see some quick stitches in red to hold down part of the cord.  As I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of hand sewing so I just found a few places to machine stitch it down.

Here is the top side with the twisted cord, that has been sewn down in a few places, well four exactly.  Next to it is a sort of stiffening insert that is made with two strips of left over cotton, interfacing and then some of the teal fabric.  I’m still not sure if I want to attach it to the belt or just place it under the belt and give some structure that way.

I made sure some of the cord is longer than the belt so I can ‘tie it down’, pretending to make it look more exciting than the velcro it is hiding underneath!

That’s pretty much it.  I’ve drafted the green jacket pattern already and I’ll hopefully wrap that up this week.

[asweetprologue]

me lámh le do lámh - Part VI

First | Previous | Next | Masterpost

Geralt tried to make an effort after that.

It was a fine line to walk, of course. He wanted to be more vocal—more honest—about how much he cared about Jaskier. His deception about the nature of the ritual made him itch to tell Jaskier other things, to bury the lie under a heap of truths. The idea that Jaskier might not know how highly Geralt regarded him, might think that Geralt didn’t care, was unacceptable. No matter how uncomfortable it made him, he began to try and show Jaskier, in small ways, that he wanted him.

He just couldn’t show too much, couldn’t let himself speak the deeper truths of his heart. A fine line indeed.

Initially, Jaskier acted almost suspicious. They stayed by the ruins for three days while his head recovered. His ankle took longer, and Geralt could admit that he was coddling a bit. He forced Jaskier to sit as he made camp and cooked dinner, took away his notebook when Jaskier had been squinting at it for too long in the dusk light. He needed to rest, Geralt insisted, and he couldn’t do that if he was constantly at work. Jaskier was resistant, as always. Geralt had tended him a few times when he’d come down with a particularly nasty cold, and once when he’d been honest to gods poisoned by a rival bard. Jaskier was always petulant, irritated at being cooped up even when he couldn’t keep down anything thicker than broth. He was no better now, fighting Geralt every step of the way to recovery.

Geralt tried to retaliate with affection. He sat closer to Jaskier in the evenings, telling him the stories he craved, watching afterwards as he mouthed words up at the stars to fit new ballads. He told Jaskier that he enjoyed the tune he was humming, and Jaskier had blinked at him like he’d grown two heads. When they finally decided it was time to move on, Geralt offered to let him ride Roach, and Jaskier stood gaping at him.

“Excuse me?” he spluttered. “Did you just say you want me to ride Roach?”

Geralt sighed through his nose. “Was that not clear enough?”

Jaskier leaned against Roach, one arm out to steady himself on the saddle. His ankle still wouldn’t hold his weight for more than a few moments. “I should throw something silver at you,” Jaskier said, “or douse you in holy water. You’ve been replaced by a spirit.”

“Jaskier.” Geralt’s tone was a warning.

“A much nicer spirit,” Jaskier said as he began pulling himself up into the saddle. “A very kind spirit who lets his poor injured friend ride his very sweet, docile horse. Nice Roachy. Please don’t throw me off.”

“She won’t buck you,” Geralt snorted, hiding a grin. He took the reins and began leading them back to the main path, heading southwest. Their next destination, according to Triss, would be just outside of the Brokilon Forest. The last of the moonflax supposedly grew in that area, and hopefully the locals would know how to point them in the right direction. They found their way back to the main road easily enough, and it was several long moments before Jaskier spoke.

“I’m really fine, you know,” he said, and when Geralt glanced up at him, he found Jaskier staring resolutely down the road, a small pinch to his brow. “So you can stop being weird.”

“I’m not being weird,” Geralt said automatically.

“You are,” Jaskier insisted, looking down at him. His eyes squinted at Geralt as if he were trying to see straight through his skull. “And I know it’s coming from some misplaced guilt that you’re carrying around, thinking that it’s all your fault that I got hurt, as if somehow your witcher powers could stop a floor from collapsing—”

“I’m not—” Geralt started, and then bit back the words. He was guilty, and of course Jaskier could sense it on him. It just wasn’t entirely for the reason Jaskier thought. Instead he said, “It’s not about that.”

Jaskier raised his eyebrows in an expression that meant he thought he was about to win an argument. “Then why are you being so nice to me?” he asked, jerking his chin forward cockily. Like he was already sure of the answer.

The question gave Geralt pause, literally. He stopped for a moment on the road, blinking up at Jaskier. His hair was backlit by the noonday sun, his eyes as brilliantly blue as the cloudless sky above them. It was a shame, Geralt thought, that he’d never before seen Jaskier from this angle. He’d have to let him ride Roach more often. “I realized I wasn’t really, before,” he finally said, haltingly. “I mean—I want to be. Nice. Nicer.” He grimaced.

Jaskier’s expression changed to one of blatant shock, and then smoothed into something softer that Geralt couldn’t identify. It made his breath quicken in his chest, catching in his throat. “You’re a good man, Geralt. You don’t have to perform social niceties for that to be true.”

“I meant to you,” Geralt clarified, shifting uncomfortably. They were stopped in the middle of the road now, and he knew he should probably keep going, because if he kept looking up at Jaskier during this conversation it was going to feel a lot more profound than it needed to be. “I don’t really care about what every farmer or lord I deal with thinks of me.”

“But you care what I think,” Jaskier replied, face once again open with surprise. He’d been making that expression a lot lately, Geralt had noticed. Like Geralt kept doing things that made him reconsider his entire worldview.

“Yes,” Geralt said simply, because it was true. “You’re my friend. I should be nice to you.” He quirked a smile, hoping to break the tension. “That’s what Ciri tells me, at least.”

It had the desired effect; Jaskier tossed his head back and laughed, and Geralt was forced to reconcile himself with the long line of his throat. His mouth went dry at the sight, and he forced himself not to move—not to reach out, not to pull Jaskier off Roach’s back, not to press his lips to the pale skin that peeked out of Jaskier’s loose collar. He stayed stock still, until Jaskier looked down at him with a grin. “Ciri is a smart young woman,” Jaskier said, “and I can’t find fault with her argument. Though truly, don’t make any great effort on my account. I know how difficult I can be to tolerate.”

Jaskier’s mirth made something relax in him, and Geralt found himself smiling back. He unstuck his limbs from the ground and turned to continue on, giving Roach’s reins a gentle tug. Jaskier leaned forward at the sudden movement, and Geralt allowed himself one touch, reaching out to put a hand on Jaskier’s thigh, stabilizing him. Wryly, he said, “You really aren’t.”

Jaskier looked down toward him, and leaning forward as he was, they were suddenly much closer than before, and Jaskier’s face was softened again in surprise and— something else. Geralt felt sure, for one crystalline moment, that Jaskier was going to lean down the last few inches to press their lips together. He held his breath in anticipation, and for a moment Jaskier wavered. And then Roach huffed and canted forward a step, and Geralt’s hand jerked where it was clenched white-knuckled around the reins. He leaned back and away, taking his hand off of Jaskier’s thigh, and felt cold despite the warmth of the day. Jaskier straightened in his seat, and when Geralt looked up at him again his face was blank, squinting up at the sky.

Geralt’s hand burned as he started forward again, leading them down the road towards their destination. He had been right, he thought, to avoid touching Jaskier. Every instance was like flying closer to the sun. He couldn’t survive it if he kept pushing his limits.

*

They stopped for the night at an inn. It was unusually vacant; they were far enough south now that the last vestiges of winter had faded behind them, and the roads had been plenty busy. On their way into town they’d passed a large band of travelers—merchants, a cobbler, several families—headed in the other direction, so it was likely they drove off any others passing through the area. The innkeep looked tired, a woman who couldn’t be older than Jaskier but had a full head of gray hair. She gave Geralt a shrewd look when they entered, but was quickly swept up in Jaskier’s charm, especially when he exaggerated the limp a bit.

“Afraid there’ll be no one to play for this evening, my boy,” she said, the thick accent of southern Velen making her words sound like chewed barley. “You’ll have to pay for a full night.”

The rate she gave was fair, not marked up for the presence of a witcher as far as Geralt could tell. They were well off on coin after a drowner contract he’d taken before the ruins. They were always particularly active in the spring, having grown hungry under the ice and snow all winter. Geralt had cleared out at least thirty of them from a lake and its nearby stream, gaining no more than a few shallow claw marks but a hefty bag of coin for his efforts. “The rooms are a touch small,” the innkeep said. “You’ll want two; no chance of sharing with this one’s shoulders as they are.” She nodded to Geralt, her gaze passing over his broad chest. He huffed, annoyed.

Jaskier hummed himself, a slight frown passing over his features. “Are you quite sure? We’re accustomed to sharing, and it would save us some coin—”

“We have coin,” Geralt said, slapping the money down on the counter. Jaskier made a noise of protest that Geralt silenced with a look. “I don’t want to risk fucking up your leg by lying on top of it. Two rooms, one night.” It was fine. They were in no danger of running low on funds. There was no need for them to spend a night in discomfort. “It’s this or the road, bard.”

At that Jaskier pouted and dropped the issue.

*

That night they ate dinner together in the main room of the inn. The food was good, hearty liver sausages with a thin vegetable broth to wash it down, and a loaf of dark oat bread. The ale wasn’t half bad either, even watered down as it was. Once they finished eating, Geralt allowed Jaskier to goad him into a few rounds of Gwent. He never understood why Jaskier wanted to play—Geralt always won handily. Five extra decades of experience and a long tradition of playing for his meals made him the better player by far, and his deck was tournament worthy. Yet Jaskier needled him at least weekly until Geralt gave in and pulled out the cards. Maybe he thought eventually Geralt would let him win. He would continue to be disappointed.

It was, admittedly, hard to concentrate on the game when the light of the fire backlit Jaskier just so, like the halo of some old god. His long fingers worried at the edges of the cards, a terrible tell he couldn’t seem to shake. He always played with the corners of particularly good ones in his hand. Geralt could almost use it to predict the end game totals by this point. Jaskier’s fingernails were a patchwork of color; he’d had them painted sometime while he was staying in Oxenfurt, and the dark burgundy was almost completely chipped away after a few weeks on the road. It was a miracle that the color clung on at all, or that Jaskier had allowed them to remain partially decorated when they lost their perfect shine. Maybe there was a poetic appeal. Something about one’s masks being slowly chipped away, or some such nonsense.

He won the first game. Jaskier begged for best three out of five, and Geralt won the next two games as well. Jaskier finally relented, and the smile on his face wasn’t that of a good natured loser accepting his lot. He said, “I suppose you win again, my dear,” and his eyes were warm as he looked at Geralt.

It was rare that Jaskier could be described as soft in any way. He was boisterous, and excitable, and generally prone to fits of dramatic romanticism or unbridled rage in equal measure. Sometimes he was melancholy, and other times—sometimes when he was very drunk, he was giddy, and he would rope Geralt into unwise activities like they were school children. He was almost never quiet. Even in moments of calm he would be busy moving, strumming his lute or scratching in the margins of his notebooks or singing a new line or two at the stars. But now he was sitting and looking at Geralt over a pile of cards, and he was still. Just looking, chin resting on one hand, as if Geralt’s face held the key to an interesting riddle he was trying hard to solve.

Geralt cleared his throat, feeling unmoored. “Time for bed. Early start tomorrow.”

Like that the spell was broken, and Jaskier rolled his eyes with a groan. “And for what reason? Roach, for one, would deserve the rest. We mustn’t always get up at the first light of dawn, witcher.”

“But we will,” Geralt said, feeling his lips twitch. He turned towards the stairs to hide it, hearing Jaskier’s uneven gait follow after him. He resisted the urge to turn around and offer his arm to assist, knowing that it would only annoy Jaskier and put them in close proximity. Something he was trying his best to avoid.

They parted ways at the doors to their rooms, set next to each other in the hall. They were almost identical, and Geralt wondered if at some point a wall had been constructed down the middle of a room to provide the inn with more to rent out. The result was two cramped spaces, with only enough room for a small bed pushed up against the wall and a trunk across from it. Geralt had deposited his things in the corner before heading back down in search of dinner earlier, and he now set about making sure that his equipment was taken care of. There was a spot on his armor that needed to be reinforced after a drowner had scratched it. The leather was still supple from regular oiling, but he would need a professional to look it over soon. Even so, he was capable of making his own minor repairs until then, backing the fragile spot with spare pieces that he kept for this purpose. The work was grounding in its familiarity. Once he was done he set about sharpening his swords as well. The silver would soon need a new coating; Geralt could see a few places where the darker iron core shone through, where he’d blocked the swipe of a griffin’s talon a month back. A problem for another town.

He could hear Jaskier in the room on the other side of the wall. It was thin enough that there may as well have been no barrier between them whatsoever. He could hear the bard humming to himself, the rustle of cloth as he tossed aside his clothes for the day. No, not tossed—Jaskier was meticulous about his clothes unless roaring drunk or in a haze of academic preoccupation, which tonight he was not. Geralt could almost picture the other man as he carefully folded his doublet over the back of a chair, set his undershirt to hang near the window where it would dry out after the sweat of the day. His pants would be pressed into a neat square and put into his bag alongside his other colorful finery. His hose would be draped near the doublet, his boots neatly set by the door. Dressed down to his braies, he would slip into bed.

The creek of the mattress came from closer to Geralt’s room than he might have expected. The beds must be pushed up against the same wall, mirroring each other.

Geralt slowly and methodically finished his tasks, sliding his swords back into their scabbards and putting them under the bed, within easy reach. With a flick of his wrist, he extinguished the lone candle in the room. He could hear from the noises filtering in from outside that Jaskier’s room had been the one graced with a window. No matter; he could see fine without the added help of the moonlight.

By the time he slipped into the small bed, Jaskier’s breaths had evened out in sleep. His heartbeat was loud through the wall, louder than it usually seemed in their small campsite, with the sounds of the forest drowning it out. The bed really was too small for two, Geralt thought, rolling over to stare at the wall. If they’d shared, they would have had to sleep practically on top of each other. Geralt would have had to wrap himself around Jaskier just to keep him in place. Put his hand over the bard’s heart and felt the rhythm drum out under his fingertips.

He turned around, pressing his back to the wall, listening to the sound of the bard on the other side. His chest ached. The bed felt huge and empty, big enough to swallow him whole. A ridiculous fucking notion. The thing was tiny.

Geralt wondered, really and truly, when it had gotten this bad. When he’d let it get this bad. He pressed his back more firmly against the wall, and fell asleep to the symphony of his own heartbeat matching Jaskier’s one to four.

[alwaysaslutforbakugang]

BakuSquad Boys reacting to their extremely curvy crush

Summary: Just headcanons of the guys being hormonal teens.😊

Bakugou:

Bakugou never really paid that much attention to you. Sure, he’s noticed (your pretty face but that’s besides the point) that you can keep up with him in a fight but other than that, he gives you little to no observation.

He also caught onto the fact that you wear a lot of baggy clothes. Your work out clothes? Baggy. Your casual clothes? Baggy. The fucking clown costume you wore that one time on a dare just to scare Kaminari? Fucking baggy. The whole thing was just really starting to bug him.

That is until you got your hero suit.

Then BAM! Curves! Your suit was mostly just an entire one piece with long sleeves and legs and a pair of thigh high boots, but god did they catch his eye.

In practice he would watch the way the smooth fabric of your suit would pull and stretch over your hips and hug your ass.

Bakugou is an ass man through and through, so when he sees you doing a few stretches before a mock rescue mission, the boi was shook.

The squad would tease and poke fun at him whenever you were around. 

“I see you like ‘em thicc, good choice.” “That girl is curvier than a back road, don’t you think Bakubro?” “A little cushion for the pushin’ huh” “Girl thicker than a bowl of oatmeal.”

Cue Bakugou chasing the guys around the dorms yelling at them to mind their business.

When you two start dating, Bakugou is very touchy. Mostly in privacy, but this boy is just very hands on (if you catch my drift). Either it’s running his hands up and down your thighs or rubbing your butt. He’ll kiss your hips and trace his finger over each and every curve your body has to offer.

 This boy is so goddamn grateful, let him cherish you.

“You look so fucking good baby. You’re all mine.” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Kaminari:

Since day one Kaminari had always thought you were pretty. His thought of that only intensified the more he got to know you. 

You both joked together, quoting memes and tossing little innuendos back and forth. You two would study together and you would help him with his english while he would stare at you and think about how gorgeous you looked when yelling at him to pay attention. You both would also pull little pranks on your friends, putting peanut butter in their shoes or replacing their water bottle with vinegar. You both were a menace.

To Kaminari, you were perfect. And there was no possible way you could get any better.

Boy was he wrong. . . 

You joined him and his friends on a trip to the beach once. Him and the guys were setting up their places in the sand, all dressed in their swimsuits waiting for you and Mina to return from the restrooms in your own swim attire. 

All too busy with trying to set up the grill, the boys hadn’t noticed you both walking up.

“You guys still aren’t done setting up?” Mina whined. Catching their attention and fuck was it a shocker.

Literally. Kaminari fucking short circuits when he sees just how voluptuous you are in your bikini. However, it doesn’t last long considering he passes out from the over excitement.

When he comes to, his head is resting on your thighs and your running your fingers through his hair. When you notice, you smile down at him, “Thought we lost you for a moment there Kami, you feeling ok?”

exe.Denki has stopped working.

When you guys date, Kaminari makes it his goal to compliment you on your body. “Your hips would look so much more nicer in my hands, Love.” He’ll give you a smirk as he let’s his hands follow the natural curve of your body. He would rest his head on your breast (his favorite) and just drift off to sleep. You were just so beautiful and he couldn’t believe he got to be with someone like you.

“You’re so amazing (Y/N), you’re perfect.”

Sero:

UA was in charge of hosting a banquet for the Hero Course, where a few of the students would give a speech (not him, thank god) and you all would eat fancy catered food. All of this would have been fine, if it didn’t mean he would have to dress up.

Now Sero wasn’t really one for suits. Sure, he looked good in them but they were always a hassle to get over his elbows. Then he would have to do something to his hair and that gets tiring, so all in all, Sero hated getting fancy.

On the night of the banquet, the building had been filled with reporters and camera crew, along with a few of Japan’s official figures. Tense wouldn’t even begin to describe the way the atmosphere felt back stage.

As people recited their lines and did last minute wardrobe checks, Sero allowed his eyes to tiredly scan the crowd.

Until they found you practicing your lines in the crowd.

He had been awestruck. Your hair done up into a bun, loose curls framing your face. While your makeup was natural enough to show off your true beauty. 

But what really caught his attention was your dress. You had been dressed in a strapless gown, black and sequins with a slit going up your thigh. It hugged you well. 

A little too well if you asked him. He couldn’t take his eyes away. He knew you had a body, he could tell by your uniform, but not like this. Never like this. The fabric cupped your breasts and dipped into your waist, curving with the shape of your hips and at the moment Sero found it very hard to breathe in his suit. 

Even when you went on stage to give your speech, Sero was front and center, eyes trailing along the shape of you as the lights made your dress shimmer. You were like an angel.

When you two start dating, he’s a bit insecure. He thinks he’s too skinny to be with someone so curvaceous and full figured. But he soon gets over it when he sees you wearing his baggy clothes. They practically swallow you up. 

#Quality girlfriend

His favorite thing is to cuddle in his hammock, with you laying on top of him while he gently caresses you. He loves your hips and will place his hands there whenever. They just feel so full, so right in his hands.

“I don’t know babe, I might just have to hold you here all night.”

Kirishima:

It had been a total accident, but to this day he does not regret it.

Mina had given him the key to her room one early morning and told him to go get the extra hair gel she keeps in her closet (he had ran out, and he can’t just not do his hair)

What Mina had failed to tell Kirishima was that You had previously spent the night in her room and is currently still asleep in her bed.

Oops. . .

When Kiri opens the door, he can feel the blood in his face literally boil.

There you were, asleep on top of Mina’s covers, wildly positioned and in your bra and panties. Your thighs looked so thick that he was sure you could squish his head between them

*Cue thoughts sinful enough to make a priest cry*

He back tracked so fast out of Mina’s room that he had forgotten to grab the gel. But he refused to go back. Not when the cups of your bra pushed up your breasts the way they did. Or how your panties seemed to show a bit of cheek at the bottom of them. OR. . .

When you guys start dating, Kirishima’s favorite thing to do his have you straddle his hips while you guys talk. He finds it so comfortable and relaxing. He’ll rest his hands on your hips, occasionally reaching over to grab your ass. You’re so soft, so warm, so fucking sexy. He loves it so much

 He’ll purposely leave his clothes in your dorm because he knows you’ll wear them, and you fill them out so nicely. 10/10 WOULD FUCKING RECOMMEND. He also loves when you wear baggy tshirts and nothing else. Wink wink.

“You look so nice in my shirt babe, it’ll look even better on the floor though,”

[aedelia]

The Best Gifts

How do you thank someone for not only saving your friends and family’s lives, but your future too? Saying it is a good start, but Danny thinks a gift would be nice too.

               Danny was bored.  He was beyond bored actually.  Two days into Spring Break and he has nothing to do.  Sam and her family were off on a trip to somewhere in Europe. Tucker has relatives visiting and can't hang out, and Jazz has practically been living in the library to work on some big senior project that will be due when school gets back.  Even his parents were gone, some exclusive paranormal conference in New York, and they wouldn't be back until the weekend.

               Danny heaved a heavy sigh.  No ghosts had attacked for the last four days and now knowing the value of good time management, he had already managed to finish all of his schoolwork.  He listlessly tapped his fingers against the kitchen table where he was seated.  Playing Doomed solo was an option, but it's nowhere near as fun by himself, and it feels weird to play video games so early in the day.  He got up from his seat and paced for a bit.  He could go flying, but he didn't want to tempt the peace or any ghosts hanging about.  He stopped and drank a whole glass of water just for something to do. Hydration is important, right?  He resumed his pacing for several more minutes, wracking his brain for any ideas that could interest him.  He would work on a model rocket, but he had finished the one he got for Christmas over winter break.

                 He stopped in front of the fridge and glanced at the clock on the wall, it's not too early for lunch.  He grabbed a box of saltines out of the cupboard and pulled out a handful. Setting the box back on the counter he eased open the fridge door.

"Hey guys, I have a nice snack for you." he said as he checked for any loose ectoweenies.  He couldn't help the sad noise that escaped him when he saw the plate with last night's leftovers had been cleaned bare.  At least one weenie must have gotten out of the drawer.  He placed a cracker on the plate to lure the escapee from hiding.  Small, high-pitched growls greeted him as he slid the duct taped drawer open a couple of inches and sprinkled crushed saltine in the gap.  

                 The ectoweenies were kind of cute when they weren't eating his lunch. Jazz was by far the best cook in the family and he had been looking forward to enjoying the meatloaf again for lunch.  His musings were interrupted by tiny crunching sounds. "Aha!" he exclaimed as he snatched the miscreant up off of the plate.

 "You've had enough of an adventure, time to go back home," he dropped the weenie through the open gap in the drawer. "Ouch!" he yelped as it managed to bite his thumb on the way down.  Danny pouted as he stuck his thumb in his mouth to suck on the bite.  The returned weenie was growling its story to the others as he toed the drawer closed before using his free hand to reseal the duct tape.

               "For some reason, I'm not that hungry anymore..." Danny muttered as he inspected his thumb.  Thank goodness for supernatural healing, what was a bleeding cut a moment ago was already reduced to a light pink line.

                 Danny resumed his pacing for a moment before sitting back down at the table. He rested his chin on his arms as he watched the seconds tick by on the clock.

 ‘I have so much time and all I can think of doing is watching the clock tick.’  He mused on the irony of trying to make time and when he finally has some, he can hardly use it.

   ‘I wonder what Clockwork does when he isn’t pretending to try to kill me.  To think that he had planned for us to try to escape to the future to see Dan in order to set me on the path of overcoming that future.’  He frowned, ‘Even then I didn’t actually make it in time to save anyone.  It was really nice of Clockwork to not only save them, but to set me further back afterwards so that I could keep my secret and do some damage control.  I didn’t even get a chance to thank him for his help.’  He rose to his feet and started pacing once more.  “I really should thank him.  I think I remember where his lair is.  It might take an hour or two of flying if nothing interferes… Should I just show up?  That seems kind’ve rude.  Maybe I should get him a gift?  Thanks for saving my family and friends, and you know, not killing me when you could have.  Yeah I should definitely bring a gift, that would be the polite thing when just showing up at someone’s home.”  His pacing slowed as his thoughts deepened.

                 “But what gift do you give the ghost who can control time?  And also saved you and your family from terrible fates... He said time is like a parade that he watches from above but it was more like he was helping to direct the parade than just watching.”  Danny grinned in delight as inspiration struck, “I know the perfect thing!” he said as he dashed out the door at a quarter to eleven, patting his pocket to check for his wallet as he went.

                                                            -----

               A quick scooter ride later and he was at the outlet stores by the mall. He looked fondly at the video game store before parking his scooter and walking into the music store.  He browsed around the aisles, poking at one or two of the display instruments. ‘I remember when we came here so Jazz could pick an instrument in Middle School; I don’t think she’s played since then.’  

 When the lady at the desk finished with her short line of customers (mostly band kids buying reeds or random accessories), Danny popped out from the shelves to ask her, “Hey, do you guys have the kind of baton that bands use in parades?  I’m looking for a gift for a conductor I know.”

   She pursed her lips in thought before sliding her chair over to her computer next to the register.  “Hang on; let me see if we have anything like that in stock.”  Danny tried to keep from fidgeting as she spent a couple of minutes typing and clicking away at the computer.  He was trying to decide whether or not to scratch his nose when she turned back to him.

  “So we don’t have anything like that in the store right now.  You could special order one if you’d like but that would take a while and unless you wanted a gag gift, would be pretty expensive…” At his crestfallen expression she continued, “However, if you would like to get your conductor friend a conducting baton, a good quality one runes about $20-30 and we have a nice selection I can show you.”  

 Danny’s face lit up, “It’s not my first idea, but that would be just as good!”  The store clerk smiled at him and standing from her computer chair, she led him to one of the display cases by the register.

   “These are arranged by price and material.  This side is the lower end and is mostly fiberglass and cheaper wood or rubber,” she said, gesturing to Danny’s left, “and these are the nicer, more durable ones to your right.  My favorite is the rosewood style right there.”  She pointed to a medium priced baton with a nice reddish wooden bulb.

 “Tell you what, since this is for a gift, if you get one of the wooden ones I’ll engrave a name for you for free.”  

 Danny grinned at her, “That rosewood one you pointed out would be great!  For the name, could you put it as Clockwork?”

 She smiled back at him and chuckled a little, “As in, when they’re conducting everything runs like clockwork?”

 “Yeah kinda like that, it’s a nickname, so could you capitalize the C?”

 “Of course, that’ll be $25.96 after tax.”

 Danny paid her and watched as she pulled a slim case from below the counter.  She popped the end cap off and pulled out the new baton.  

 “Looks to be in perfect shape, give me a minute and I’ll have the name engraved for you.”  She picked up a small tool slightly thicker and longer than a pen and flipped a switch on the side.  A low buzzing filled Danny’s ears as she carefully engraved the name on the shaft in neat handwriting.  The tip of her tongue was sticking out of her mouth as she concentrated.   She flipped the tool off and stowed it out of sight before blowing on the engraving to help cool it and to remove any dust.  She waved it a couple of times before neatly sliding it back into the case and handing it to him.

 “There you go, one personalized baton for your friend!” she chirped.

 “Thank you so much, I’m sure he’ll like it!” Danny effused before heading out the door with a wave to the friendly salesperson. He retrieved his scooter and helmet and headed back to Fentonworks.  The whole trip only took about half an hour.

                                                           -----

Once back at home, Danny stowed his scooter and made a quick stop back in the kitchen. He slapped together a peanut butter sandwich so he wouldn’t have to deal with the ectoweenies again.  He scarfed it and washed it down with another glass of water.

“Ok!” he said, talking aloud to help psyche himself up.  “I should leave a note for Jazz somewhere in case I’m out when she gets home, and then I need to store the gift in my ghost space pocket so I don’t lose it on the trip.  I think that’s everything,” he said with his arms crossed and tapping his fingers against his elbow.  He nodded and then reached for the notepad next to the fridge to write out a quick note for his sister.

‘Hey Jazz, I’m going for a visit to see Clockwork, he’s the guy who helped me out during the CAT stuff.  Nothing is wrong.  I’m going to thank him and probably visit for a bit.  Don’t know how long it’ll take but don’t worry if I’m not home yet.’

“She’ll probably still worry and tell me that it’s her job as my big sister, but at least she’ll know I wasn’t kidnapped or something.  This should keep her from looking for me too.  She’s not going to go searching for me in the ghost zone unless I’m gone a really long time.”

He put the note in the middle of the table then grabbed the gift and lightly skipped down the stairs to the lab.  A quick flash of light and Danny tucked the slim case into the special space pocket where he normally keeps his thermos and cell phone.  Discovering that ability had made his ghost fighting a lot simpler, no more racing to his locker to grab a thermos or trying to discreetly pull it from his bag when he says he’s going to the bathroom.  He still keeps a spare in his locker and under his bed.  Sam and Tucker both keep a few too.  It never hurts to be prepared, especially when it comes to ghost fighting.

               He pulled off his glove and unlocked the portal.  It was kind’ve funny that his DNA was still recognizable to the Fenton scanner in ghost form.  After pulling his glove back on, he slipped through the portal and was on his way.

                                                            -----

Danny hummed cheerfully as he flew through the green and purple mists of the ghost zone.  He had been so bored, but he found the perfect thing to do!  Even better, since his parents weren’t home, he won’t have to worry about being locked in the zone.  

               He did a loop and waved at some cute blob ghosts before significantly increasing his speed.  ‘I might be able to shave off some of my travel time if I fly near top speed, it’ll be good exercise too.’

               Danny continued to increase his flight speed until his surroundings blurred and he weaved among the floating islands, rocks, and other debris with minute adjustments to his path.  Amazingly enough, he didn’t encounter any ghosts itching for a fight. ‘Maybe it’s because I’m in the Zone, most ghosts that come through the portal have some sort of goal.  Most in the Ghost Zone just want to be left alone.  It could also be partly the speed I’ve been going, harder for anyone to try to fight me if I’m already gone by time they notice me.’

               He slowed his pace down as the floating gears that fill the space near Clockwork’s lair began to appear.  ‘I wonder where all these gears come from.  He does have a lot of clocks.  Maybe he used to have more?  I can always ask him later if the visit goes well.’  Danny gently touched down in front of the large door to the lair.  He took a deep breath, thinking, ‘I hope he doesn’t mind a visit.  Of course he probably already knows I’m coming here, but still.’ and then firmly clanged the doorknocker.  

A few seconds passed and then Clockwork opened the door with a slight smile, “Daniel.  Please come in.,” he said while beckoning with his free arm.

“I hope it’s ok that I just showed up.” Danny said as he stepped into Clockwork’s lair for the second time.  

“It’s perfectly alright.  You are welcome here Daniel, I can always make time for you.” Clockwork replied as he closed the door behind them.

‘Did he just make a pun?’ Danny wondered, pausing in his surprise before following Clockwork into a lounge area that he hadn’t seen on his initial visit. ‘Not that I really had much time to look around with everything going on and Clockwork manipulating us for a better future. On the subject of that diverted timeline, I shouldn’t forget what brought me here in the first place.’

Clockwork, currently in adult form, had stopped and was now floating by a flat gear suspended at coffee table height.

“Clockwork,” Danny said, “I really want to thank you for your help with that horrible future.  I really appreciate that not only did you save my friends and family; you also gave me a second chance to fix my relationship with Mr. Lancer about the cheating thing.  He let me retake the test and actually let me study for it during detentions.  He even answered questions that I had about the material!” Danny paused to take a breath, “To show my gratitude for your help and to say thank you for giving me a chance, I got this for you.”  He rotated his arm slightly to reach into his sub-pocket and pulled out the slim case holding the engraved baton.

               As he handed it to Clockwork he said, “It’s not much but I was thinking about how you said you see time like a parade that you’re watching from above, it felt more like you were directing the parade a bit and I’m really glad you kept it from marching off a cliff…”  Danny trailed off, halting his ramblings as Clockwork opened the case and gently withdrew the baton.  He phased to his older form as he lightly ran his gloved fingers over the engraving of his name.  

“It is a lovely gift, thank you Daniel.  It is very thoughtful and especially fitting in your case.  I will cherish it.,” he said as he slid it into an invisible pocket up his sleeve.  “I am glad that you decided to come by.  Due to my actions on your behalf, I have been given charge and responsibility for you.  Think of me as your ghostly guardian, or mentor.  You should feel free to visit me anytime, whether you have questions, are looking for advice, or just want to spend time in a safe place. Cookie?” he offered as he switched to his child form.

               Danny was sure his jaw was hanging loose as Clockwork finished informing him of their new potential relationship.  Given that he was currently in ghost form, that could be a lot more literal than normal.  He was still trying to process this bombshell when his whole train of thought derailed at the sight of the cookie that Clockwork was holding out to him.

“That cookie is green.  And glowing.” he said as he cautiously reached out for it.

“Of course it is, “Clockwork replied, “The flour was soaked in raw ectoplasm before it was baked.”

Danny looked slightly repulsed but curious as he examined the cookie now in his hand, “Is it safe for me to eat?” he asked.

“Yes it is, and actually, on the subject of nutrition,” Clockwork said, phasing back to his adult form once again, “You need to increase your ectoplasm intake if you want to remain healthy while using your powers.  The easiest ways for you to do this would be to accept it into your diet, such as with these cookies,” he gestured towards the still uneaten cookie in Danny’s hand, “or you can absorb ambient energy from spending time in the Ghost Zone.”

“Wow, you’re being a lot more straight forward now than when you helped save the future.” Danny remarked.

“When I helped you, my hands were tied by my employers; they wanted me to eliminate you instead of solving the root of the problem. Now that I have responsibility for both you and the alternate phantom, I am able to directly advise you when you have a problem as opposed to the convoluted run around that was necessary to keep the Observants from interfering further.”  He shifted to his elder form and concluded with, “Maybe they wouldn’t be so shortsighted if they had two eyes instead of just one.”

               Danny smiled slightly at the dig at the pretentious eyeballs.  He had encountered them a few times while exploring the zone but hadn’t known what their jobs were at the time.  “I know I promised that I’ll never turn into Dan, and I’m planning on always keeping my promise! But, is there anything that I need to watch out for to keep everything on track?”

“Do not worry.  The actions that you have taken and the choices that you have made have decisively prevented you from ever becoming Dan.  You have committed yourself to doing what is right, and remember, Dan was not just you, he was a combination of Phantom and Plasmius.  You have nothing to worry about as long as you keep going as you have been. Eat your cookie.”

               Danny nibbled at his cookie and was surprised that it tasted really good to him.  It was a sugar cookie with a lemon-lime aftertaste that somehow worked really well.  As he finished the cookie, he realized that it satisfied a craving that he hadn’t realized he had.  Like finally scratching an itch.  Danny ate another ecto-cookie from the plate on the table as Clockwork looked on in his child form.

“So I can visit tomorrow too?” Danny asked.

“Of course you may Daniel, you are welcome here any,” he paused and smirked slightly, “…time.” he finished, shifting to adult form.

               Danny grinned at him, Clockwork liked puns too!  He floated over to the older ghost and tentatively reached for a hug. Clockwork did not hesitate in holding him tight and completing the embrace.

“You are a good and precious child; I already am anticipating your next visit.  Unfortunately, you will need to be leaving soon if you do not want your sister to form a search party.  She has finished early at the library and will be heading for home shortly.”

               Danny hid his smile against Clockwork’s chest as he felt his hair being ruffled.  The ticking of the clock under his cheek was comforting.

               “Thank you again for saving my whole world.  And thanks for the advice and the open invitation.  I’ll definitely be visiting more this week.”

Clockwork gave Danny’s head a final pat before separating, “As long as you fly the same speed or faster going home as you did coming here, you will avoid any encounters and will make it home with plenty of time to reassure your sister and to tell her about your day.” Clockwork shifted to his elder form and with his characteristic smirk, stated, “Later Gator.”

Danny beamed with delight as they floated to the door.

“After a little while, Crocodile.”

“We’re far too gharialous for a traditional parting.”

It took Danny a moment to work gharial and garrulous apart before he could shoot back, “Caiman, these puns are getting old.”

Clockwork replied by waggling his eyebrows and shifting to his child form, “Actually, you will find that they are getting younger.”

Danny laughed and waved to his new mentor as he floated out into the ghost zone proper, “I’ll see you tomorrow, bye!” he shouted as he turned and sped off towards home.

Clockwork shut the door once Danny was out of sight and moved to his time viewing room where Danny flying home showed on the main screen.  Some of the smaller screens floating off to the side showed him dropping the ecto-weenie back into the drawer in the refrigerator and eating dinner with his sister.

“There are some advantages to being the master of time, and taking care of such a wonderful and delightful child is definitely one of them.  The puns are a bonus too.” he mused with a slight lisp and fingering the baton that he’d been gifted.  He watched Danny talking to himself during his flight home.

“…and I should ask him where those gears around his lair come from tomorrow.  Oh! And if the ectoplasmic contamination in Mom’s cooking is actually a good thing for me.  I need to learn about more types of animals and things so I don’t run out of puns!” He was flying home with a huge smile.

                                                        -----

True to Clockwork’s words, Danny once again didn’t have any unfriendly encounters while he travelled.  He had even managed to shave a couple more minutes off of his flight time!  He slowed down as he approached the Fenton Portal and slipped through at normal speed. When he popped through he startled his sister where she was fiddling with some ghost hunting gadgets.  “Danny!” she yelled, dropping a Fenton Thermos and some miscellaneous inventions that didn’t actually do anything.  She threw her arms around him as he transformed back to human form.  “I read your note but I was starting to get worried!  I finished early at the library so that I could get dinner started.”

Danny gave her a quick hug back before responding, “I’m fine.  Actually, I’m way better than fine!  I’ll tell you all about it upstairs, do you think you could make meatloaf again?  An ectoweenie ate all of the leftovers.”

               His sister ruffled his wind-swept hair before tugging him towards the stairs. “Of course, little brother, I’m so glad that you had a good day and weren’t just playing video games or bored the whole time.”  They headed upstairs together and Danny started off his story, “So I was really bored this morning.  Incredibly bored.  Then I got the perfect idea…”

[natalinasvlogs]

Hold My Hand - Jeff Wittek

Read on AO3

Summary: Reader goes to Coachella with the VS and gets anxious in crowds. Jeff holds her hand all weekend so she doesn’t get lost.

Word Count: 1357

Warnings: none

AN: hi friends, this is my first ever fic. pls be gentle. if you like what you read and want more, i'm open to prompts/requests :-)

It was my first time going to Coachella, and I was unbelievably excited. I had been friends with David and Natalie for a few years, since David’s first line of Fanjoy merch. I was a fashion designer, and had helped create some of the most popular designs. In the last year, I was able to quit Fanjoy and become self-employed, and run a successful online business creating handmade clothing. It was a small business, but it had taken off, especially with everyone in the Vlog Squad promoting my work.

Because of how popular my designs were with influencers and celebrities, I had been able to get a Coachella artist pass of my own. David had offered to bring me last year, the way he brought all his friends who wanted to go, but I didn’t like accepting handouts from anyone. This time, I was able to go on my own terms, and spend time with my friends as equals.

I was in the VS Coachella house getting ready for the first day with Natalie and Cas. Nat and I had just finished, but Cas was still doing her makeup.

“Natalie! I need to get some footage with the new merch before we go to the festival!” David yelled out. Cas rolled her eyes and kept applying eyeliner while Natalie and I headed to the backyard. 

Both Natalie and I were wearing shorts from the new merch line, but hadn’t put the hoodies on so we were both in our little bra tops for our day 1 outfits. As soon as the boys saw us, they startled whistling and complementing both of us. 

“Babies you look so good!” Zane called. Natalie laughed and went over to the clothes to pick out a hoodie while David started talking to her about the bit he wanted for the vlog.

“Damn doll, I don’t think David needs to worry about sales if that’s how you look in those shorts,” Jeff said to me, winking. 

I blushed a little, but that was par for the course. Since Jeff had joined our friend group, he and I had a very flirtatious friendship. Nothing had come of it, and although I liked him, I didn’t expect anything to come of it. Jeff was very clear to everyone about not wanting a serious relationship, and I made it clear to everyone that that was the only kind of relationship I was interested in. I had tried the casual thing before, and it didn’t work out. It went unspoken that neither one of us wanted to risk our friendship or the friend group for a casual fling that wouldn’t last. 

“Well it certainly won’t help hoodie sales if I’m not wearing one in the photos!” I said, laughing as I walked to get a hoodie for filming. 

We filmed and took photos for an hour before David declared he had enough and we headed to the festival. Once we arrived, I realized I had underestimated how crazy it would be. I started to get nervous thinking about the crowds and how easy it would be to get separated from my friends, especially once everyone started drinking. Jeff noticed that I started to get quiet when I had been buzzing with energy moments before.

“You alright, Y/N?” he asked, concerned. I shrugged, keeping as close to the group as possible as we headed to the first act. 

“Yeah, I guess it’s just busier than I thought. I’m not the biggest fan of crowds,” I said, trying to smile reassuringly. Jeff frowned.

“Weird place to go if ya don’t like crowds, doll,” he said jokingly. “But don’t worry, stick with me and I’ll make sure ya don’t get lost.”

Jeff grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him. I nodded, biting back a smile when he started pulling me through the crowd. He didn’t let go of my hand the whole night, and no one commented on it despite Natalie giving me a raised brow when she noticed. 

This continued for the rest of the festival, both at the Coachella grounds and at the parties David dragged us to. Jeff would grab my hand and squeeze it if the crowds started to get heavy. We joked and flirted like normal, but Jeff seemed to go out of his way to be nicer to me than normal. 

By the last night, we were walking in a less populated area and he was still holding my hand. A couple girls, Instagram models by the looks of it, stopped us and asked to take pictures with him. He did, and let go of my hand to do it. It felt strange to be there without his hand in mine, the warmth of his body pressed against me, but because the crowds weren’t bad in this area I didn’t feel anxious. Our group was walking away to get to the next show, and Natalie grabbed my hand to keep me with her. I knew Jeff would catch up when he was done talking to the girls, and I felt bad that he had been glued to my side the whole weekend when he could have been meeting girls and doing what he wanted. 

As we approached the stage, the crowd seemed to get thicker by the second. Natalie’s hand slipped out of mine and I was separated from the rest of the group. Before I could panic too much, I felt two hands grasp my arms and turn me around. 

“Jeff!” I exclaimed, grabbing his arms in reassurance and taking a deep breath. 

“Why the hell did ya run off like that? I looked away for one second and you were gone!” he shook me gently, a worried expression on his face.

“I felt bad that you’ve been stuck with me all weekend, and you seemed to like talking with those girls,” I huffed. “I was with the group a second ago but we got separated in the crowd.” Even thinking about the crowd was making me feel claustrophobic, and I looked around and realized just how big it was. Just as I started to feel anxious, Jeff slipped his hand into mine and pulled me away from the stage, shaking his head the whole way. 

“Why would you think I’m stuck with you? No one forced me. I like being with ya and I don’t want ya to get lost or feel scared,” he admitted, once we were far away from the rest. My heart pounded as he looked deep in my eyes and stepped closer. 

“I want to be close to you,” he said. His voice was low, his eyes darted away from mine and back again. 

“I want to be close to you too,” I whispered. I stepped even closer, and tilted my chin up. It felt like a scene from a movie, and I worried that in a second he would pull away with a laugh like one of us always did when we got close.

He brought his hands to my face, and with one last glance in my eyes, he leaned in and kissed me. It was slow and sweet, and I sighed into him as my hands grasped his arms. Realizing what this could mean, I pulled away. His eyes stayed closed for a moment before he looked at me in confusion. 

“Jeff, I like you. You know I do. But you also know I don’t do casual. I can’t,” I said hurriedly, wondering if this could be the end of our friendship. 

“Doll, I haven’t been with anyone in months. I’ve been waiting for the right time to show ya that I’m ready for something serious. I’m ready for you.” 

Jeff stroked his hand through my hair, and looked at me so earnestly. 

“Let me hold your hand even when there aren’t any crowds,” he whispered, bending to rest his forehead against mine. 

My heart swelled and I couldn’t stop a smile from stretching across my face. 

“Alright, Jeff. You can hold my hand whenever you want. And whenever I want,” I laughed, wrapping my arms around his middle. 

“Always, doll. Always.” 

[ashleyswrittenwords]

How To Be A Queen [Part 12]

Summary: Princess Zelda is at a loss. Her handed royal responsibilities have begun to weigh heavily on her and she is eventually backed into a corner. Live a life she loathes or run away from everything she’s ever known? Navigating life is hard, and Link forces her to learn that she doesn’t have to do it alone.

Warning: Blood. Slight scary like stuff. Lmk if you think I should add more.

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Part 1 Here

How To Be A Queen

No, it wasn’t Link.

A shout was already in my throat, but it quickly died to the sight of a horse’s snout staring straight at me. My eyes drifted up to the rider and my breath froze in my lungs. The man from the festival. The older gentlemen, except his eyes weren’t as soft; instead he looked like he had just heard a joke.

“It’s her alright,” he was grinning wryly, exposing his teeth.

I needed to run.

Link was too far; I couldn’t scream and hope he’d hear. It had to be me to save myself.

I turned to do just that. Adrenaline coursed through me, making my fear more intense. The only sound I could hear was of hooves on dirt. More than one? I can’t outrun a horse. I can barely outrun a tortoise. He was toying with me. Right over left and for the love of Hylia don’t trip.

My mind raced with what they could possibly want to do with me. Ransom was what first came to my mind. Father had many enemies that masqueraded as allies; I wasn’t blind to see truth in that. My family had volumes of meaningless bloodshed commanded by their hand. If anything, it could just be a group that hated the monarchy and simply wanted to see me hanged from a tree. My eyes flickered to the forest. It was dense, not exactly too dense for a horse, but I didn’t have a choice. I was going to be run down. I put all my weight onto my left foot and took a sharp left into the woods. Twigs snapped past me and I heard a female shouting not far behind. The air felt like sharp knives in my lungs. It hurt and I wanted desperately to stop. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t.

The snow was thicker here and my boots felt like weights. I was panicking. Goddesses, no. The horses behind me didn’t seem to be hindered much. There was a steady stream of shouts and clickings that guided them. New tears pricked my eyes. With every fiber of my being I felt pure fear resonating. In this moment, I understood what it felt to be a fox being chased by hunting dogs. Branches raced past and I knew I was being scraped to pieces. Somehow, I couldn’t feel anything. My throat felt numb and my muscles struggled to get the oxygen they needed. A pasture opened before me and I didn’t stop.

A sharp sound flew through the air and I felt sudden pressure around my arms and neck. Then, I couldn’t breathe and I saw the stars above. Their beauty felt mocking. My head hit the ground before the rest of my body and I couldn’t move. My arms were paralyzed to my sides.

“Nerissa!” The man screamed, “Don’t kill her!”

I can’t breathe.

“She’s fine.”

Crunching snow.

A woman came into view above me, replacing the stars. My mouth gaped like a fish for air. She was glaring at me but crouched to released the tight knot. My breath came it small gasps, but it didn’t last long. Her foot hit my stomach and the little breath I had left once more. I turned to my side, squeezing my eyes shut and waited for another blow. I was yanked upward and hit the ground again. My backpack was cut off at the straps.

Then, she took to binding my arms and legs.

“Who are you?” My voice wasn’t my own.

She snickered. “Oh, you don’t recognize me?” Her face came into view fully now. The woman from the fire. The same woman from the bridge. I didn’t say anything, but the shock showed on my face by the looks of her satisfied smile. I shouldn’t be surprised at this point.

I was thrown over her shoulder rather roughly and then over a horse’s back. Thick tears were caught in my eyelashes. The horses began moving back to the path.

“What if she screams?”

Nerissa made a noise akin to a chuckle, “She won’t.”

I felt every bit of movement and I was jostled around quite a bit. Every now and again one of them would ask if I was still breathing. Which was pointless, I refused to talk to them. It had gotten to the point where she had pushed me off the horse and listened to my pained grunts as I hit the cold dirt.

“Leave me alone,” he mocked with a squeaky voice, “Go away, Link.” My brow creased and I felt my throat close painfully. I choked on my sob.

“Don’t say that name,” Nerissa hissed.

“Can’t you at least agree how pathetic that is? We surprised her on horses. The princess-”

“Shut up! The job isn’t done,” she sounded pissed, “Don’t get cocky.”

The rest of the ride was spent in an uncomfortable silence. My restraints hurt terribly and by the time we reached the destination my skin was rubbed raw. I stayed silent as the man pulled me off the horse. A large Goron man stood in front of the house’s door, shock flickering on his face. Several other odd people stood around, staring at me as if I were a piece of meat and they were starving wolves. I tried keeping my head high retaining what bit of dignity I had left. That was hard to do when you’ve been tossed to the ground like rubbish.

Nerissa wasn’t afraid to drag me inside without another word being said to our audience. She was taller than most of them and by the looks of it was regarded with respect as well. I was taken past the main room and into a side room. It was windowless and I assumed they were using the abandoned house as a temporary headquarters. The house was stripped other than the bare furniture, trash that littered the floor, and the windows boarded up. A bright lantern offered some light and I was able to finally make out the state I was in. As she untied my wrists, bloody rashes lined my skin. The glimpse didn’t last long because she pulled my arms behind the chair and retied them. I cried out, one of my wrists flared with pain. She also made sure to gag me with a long piece of cloth as if now I would think this is the optimal time to start screaming. The coat was ripped, and my pants weren’t in any better shape – probably worse. My face was wet with tears and mud. I felt disgusting.

Nerissa didn’t say anything as she rummaged through my bag. I thought she had to at least be partially Gerudo. Her skin was pale, but her stature was not anything Hylian. A man, not the older one from before, walked in. He had stark black hair and his eyes just as dark. I hoped I didn’t react, but his gaze made me freeze. He was smiling.

“Well,” he started, “I’m pleasantly surprised, Nerissa.” He sounded as such. I decided that I despised him.

“You shouldn’t be,” she responded lamely, throwing my pouch of gold coins on the table.

“Princess,” the man addressed me now. His voice disturbed me. It was silky and deceptive.  He strode closer. “We are so humbled to have you under this roof.”

He expected me to reply because he removed that cloth in my mouth. His rough fingers grazed my skin. When I did not speak, he knelt and looked at me with falsely kind eyes. His hand traced my jaw gently like he was savoring the moment. “Don’t fret, Highness. We’re heading to a nicer quarters soon enough.” I gathered the saliva in my mouth and spit in his face. The smile wavered, if not a little and it gave me a sick satisfaction. He stood, turned away from me and towards Nerissa who was staring hatred at me. So much so, that I looked away.

“Crow told me it went smoothly, yes?”

She looked bored, “Like you asked, sir. He wasn’t necessary.”

He made a gesture, glancing back at me, and they both left the room. Whether it was the pain that brought me to tears again or the suddenness of being alone, I broke down. My body heaved with sobs and even that hurt. Each tug at the ropes was pointless, it did more damage than good. I felt a deep pit of regret growing. I should never have left Hateno like that. I shouldn’t have left Anju nor her family. Most of all, I shouldn’t have left Link. If I was already useless on my own, how was I supposed to trek across Hyrule alone? I sat in solitude with my thoughts for a long while. Whatever they stepped out to talk about must have been heated because I could vaguely hear shouts reverberate into the room. The dry wall was cracked and decaying and I shivered at the thought of bugs creeping beyond the lantern’s flame.

The door opened again, revealing Nerissa. She looked agitated, even more so when her eyes laid on me. Regardless she pulled up a chair with the small side table along with it. “You looked like a snot nosed, brat.”

I swallowed another sob that threatened to surface and met her gaze. It was full of distain and I wondered what I did to deserve it. She opened her mouth, “I knew it was you when you got to that stable.” The woman flipped a switchblade in her hand and smacked the hilt on the table. I winced at the sudden clank. She reached over and yanked the gag from my mouth and over my chin, letting it hang uselessly like a necklace.

“I knew beforehand too. I was going to try to take you that night if you were alone,” she twisted my hair in her finger. “Would have,” she pulled at it, forcing my head forward and I yelped, “yanked you by your pretty yellow hair all the way here and we would have been done with it.” She hummed, “And if I had it my way, scalped it off you as a trophy. But no.”

Nerissa let go, letting the lock fall back in front of my eyes. “Of course not. You had to bring someone with you. Had to… make everything more difficult for me, huh Zelda?” She said my name as if it were a hot knife.

I sounded scratchy, “Why do you hate me?”

There was a pause and she laughed boisterously. I breathed inward, suddenly hit with the alarm of how afraid I was of this woman. “What don’t I hate you for? Your entire family has given my people and I nothing but anguish,” Nerissa flat-lined, “I hate you because of who you’re destined to become. Don’t take it personally, puppet. It’s a professional hatred.”

“Besides!” She waved off her last comment, “I love hunting you Hylians for sport. Makes it much more exciting when I’m being paid by these idiots to hunt down a princess. You made it fun, too. Gave a chase. Albeit not a very long one, but a chase nonetheless.” She unknotted the rope to my hands, freeing one, and laid my injured wrist onto the table. The woman acknowledged my pained whimpers and spread my fingers out delicately, surely not to relieve the pain but to prolong whatever she planned. My hand was shaking.

“However, you’re not the one I want. The Yiga love you for other reasons. I want another,” she took her time and made sure each digit was equally apart. My wrist throbbed. “I want you to tell me about everything you know about him. His family, his lovers, his friends. Everything you know. And while you keep that information from me, we will play a little game I call the Knife Game.” Nerissa smiled to herself as she picked up the knife already laying on the table and looked at me expectantly. “You may begin.”

I stared dumbly at her, “Who are you talking about?”

The knife’s sharp blade embedded itself into the wood between my thumb and point finger. I had screamed, thinking she was going to take a stab at my hand.

“Wrong question. You shouldn’t ask things you know that answer to,” she finally looked down at where the blade landed, “Oh, you got lucky. Worse luck next time. Surely.”

“I-I don’t,” I started hyperventilating as she yanked the knife from the wood again, “The King? Why would-“

“I don’t give a shit about your dad. Stop playing stupid.”

The knife nicked the skin of my middle finger’s knuckled and I cried out. It wasn’t a deep pain, but it was sharp. She wouldn’t let that man say Link’s name. Is that who she’s talking about?

“Link?” I asked it more as a question to myself, but the name made her look up sharply. Her knife stayed imbedded in the wood. She offered a thin-lipped smile, “So, I wasn’t wrong. Such delicate little fingers, not a callous mars them. I bet you’ve never seen a day of work in your life. It would be a shame if you lost one for careless reasons. Come on, puppet, explain who he is to you.”

I didn’t want to. Whoever she was, this Nerissa was filled with malice. A deep seeded hatred that shook me. I couldn’t expose the people I had come to love to her, right? Whatever she was doing to me in this moment, I didn’t want them to go through. They did nothing to deserve that. Link didn’t deserve that.

“I don’t know anything about him,” I squeaked. My heart leapt as the stab missed again.

“We can do this all night,” Nerissa growled.

“He’s a captain in the Royal Guard,” I cried out and there was another slash to my pinky. I prayed it wasn’t bad. The new wound seered. “That’s all I know! That’s it!”

“Bullshit!” She was livid, her voice screeching. “You know more than that. Stop playing stupid. I’m not blind, Princess. I’ve seen you galivanting across Hyrule with that monster from the start! Tell my where,” She started puncturing backwards now without waiting for me to talk, “he is.” She kept going like the ticking of a clock.

“I don’t know,” I stared in horror as my fingers reddened with my own blood. I pleaded and begged but it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t stop. But I wasn’t going to tell her that his family lived in the town they were just at. It would be too easy for them. What if Link had already left for the capital? There would be no one in that house except Aryll and her aunt.

“God damn it, Nerissa!” The dark-haired Hylian man shouted as he burst into the room, “You said you weren’t followed!” The door smacked against the wall behind it.

He growled a curse and Nerissa scowled. I almost cried in relief when she paused her stabbing. The aftermath bled onto the table and I couldn’t look away.

“I wasn’t. You know I should at least be able to manage that. What are you on about?” She set down the switchblade and stood from her chair, annoyed that our exchange was interrupted. As an afterthought, she roughly yanked the gag back into place.

“Crow just told me the fucking mercenary was found behind a tree half alive. Of course, you were followed. You had to have been.”

She looked bewildered and spared a glare at me. “He’s a Goron. Probably just drunk himself under the table.”

“Yeah, with a dented skull.” He flung his hands behind his head and paced the floor. “Makes sense. We only kidnapped the high fucking princess of Hyrule, Nerissa,” he shoved a dagger into a scabbard hidden in his boot. “It’s fine,” she said, “Probably just a straggler that saw us.”

The man looked me up and down. I squirmed under his gaze and tried shouting a curse at him through my restraints. “Or it’s her fuckin’ guard dog.”

Laura shook her head, “Impossible. They split at the last village. I saw it.”

“Maybe you should reevaluate. No one else would be able to take down that meat head without us hearing. I’m surprised you of all people could overlook that.” He shouted orders outside the door, hearing muffled voices back.

The man shook his head, stepping from the doorway. “They found another one. Tie her back to the chair. We can’t have her try to leave.” She did, ignoring my muffled cries.

“We’ll search the perimeter then, station someone at every angle in pairs,” Nerissa was interrupted by her counterpart.

“I’m the one making order here. Not you.” He looked at her hard, then they left.

The door was left ajar and I with my bleeding hand. I tried listening in on their conversations to get a gauge on what was happening, but they were too far away at this point. I tried tugging at the ropes again, but my wrist was in too much pain. My hand, as well, for that matter. It was still bleeding, and I could feel it drip onto the left as I attempted to add pressure to the cuts.

There was a weird smell. Smoke?

My heart raced. They were coming back for me, right? Something crashed loudly outside, splintering. Then, I heard it. Flames licking up walls. There was a lot of yelling and then nothing. I yelled out, forgetting the cloth in my mouth and hoped desperately for help.

“Hello?” It came out smudged and I felt frantic, squirming in my chair. I tried anything to make me mobile again. The chair tilted and eventually I toppled over. The smell was more intense now, distinctly smoke. I screamed, praying someone will hear me. Anyone. There was no chance now to get out of this chair.

My throat felt raw and it hurt with each scream.

The door flew open and a pair of boots stepped into my vision almost soundlessly. An arrow was pointed in my general direction but was loosened. Smoke billowed in and I kept yelling. My feet kept kicking.

I stopped my flailing at the movement of the ties being cut. First my wrists and then my ankles. I watched as the ropes at my feet were being pulled. I almost didn’t recognize him. His hair was matted and he moved with a measure of preciseness and purpose. Link’s face scared me. He didn’t look like himself. I yelled his name through the gag. He kept mumbling and finally untangled them from my feet. There was a lot of smoke now that came into the room and the sound of fire was outside the door. Link looked at the wall behind us and went to it, tugging on the boards harshly. I tried to come to my feet and gasped at the added pressure on my injured hand. My knees didn’t feel normal either. He pulled the boards off the open window and tossed them to the side.

Link came back to me and untied the gag. “Can you walk?”

My legs were shaking, and I had to grab onto him in case they gave out. Either he got the message or I took too long to answer, because he held onto me and carefully picked me up. We went threw the window and immediately in the forest. He kept looking back every now and again. Link took long strides. Anything to get as far as we could from that house or what was left of it. He looked at me occasionally, taking small assessments and his eyes reminded me of blue fire. Link was guarded and it was hard to read him, not that it was easy before – but now it was somehow different. Blood was soaked into his shirt and he gripped me as if I’d slip through his fingers.

Eventually, he seemed to be comfortable putting me down. There was a large rock he sat me on and knealt in front of me, giving me a hard look. Link was angry. He studied my face and his brows creased in concentration. “I’m sorry,” he said.

I felt a deep sense of anguish hit me. Tears welled up in my eyes and I cradled my hand in my coat. The bruises marred my skin in more places than I could see. Because if I couldn’t see them, I could feel them and I felt broken. I felt utterly and truly broken.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. Then another time. He went to apologize once more, but I interrupted by saying his name. He looked at me in shock at the sound of my voice. It sounded like I went through Hell and back. Link looked worried; his eyes softer than what I had seen at the house. As if finally out of energy, his forehead touched my knees and he leaned forward into me. The tenseness in his body slipped away.

“I thought I lost you,” Link spoke.

The bow and quiver came into view. I brought a hand to his blond locks. He became rigid to the touch for a moment but eased as I combed through his hair. Despite my aching body, I felt suddenly at peace. The fear and anxiety of but an hour earlier dissipated slowly. Link was warm and familiar.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly, echoing his earlier sentiments. His eyes met mine. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was apologizing for. Everything from leaving without telling him to simply dragging him from his place in the castle filled me with regret.

“I left you,” he was touching my side of my calf now with a hand. Even in the state I was in, his touch sent a light flush to my cheeks. “I,” Link faltered, seeming to search for words, “I thought that you’d be okay if I left you for a little bit. I went to grab some things and see if you’d understand.” He looked frantic as he thought it through. The hand on my leg tightened its grip. “It didn’t matter how far I ran to catch up. You weren’t there.”

He shook his head and let out a shaky breath.

“…but I’m here now,” I voiced. A faint ghost of a smile crossed his face and he only nodded, then drew his eyes to my right hand. He held his own out, gesturing me to release it from my side. I swallowed and gingerly put it in his hand. As he took it, he watched my pained reaction at the movement. The cuts had stopped bleeding, but it was an ugly sight. My wrist was blue and bruising up. His face was hard. “Who did this?”

“The woman from the stable.” The semblance of a sob bubbled in my throat. Looking back at it made the cuts more sore as if they were still fresh. “She wanted me to… to talk about you.”

Link’s brow furrowed, “About me? They were Yiga weren’t they?”

Were? I frowned, “She didn’t seem to be. I think she was hired.”

“Mercenary,” he mumbled, annoyed. Link seemed to want to ask more, but relented by noticing the tears in my eyes. Instead, he dropped my hand in my lap for a moment and shuffled over to behind the rock. Our bag was there. Apparently, this stop wasn’t as coincidental as I thought it was.

He came back with white bandages. “I think your wrist is broken. Did she do that too?”

I shrugged, “Probably when she threw me off the horse.”

His brows creased. “She threw you off a-!” Link was yelling but stopped himself and closed his eyes. He took a moment to collect himself, “Okay! We’ll have to see someone for that.”

I tilted my head to the side as he started wrapping a bandage around my index finger. The cuts bled slightly at the added pressure. A realization hit me, “Wait, you’re not taking me back to the castle?”

He looked up, confused. “Do you want to go back to the castle?”

“No. I just. I thought that-” One of my shoulders shrugged and hope caught aflame in my chest.

“If you want to we can. It might be safer,” he said, paying my attention to the bandages.

“Safer?” I would think it would be the safest. Link sighed as he secured the finger and examined the nest, “I don’t suppose that they’ll let me be your personal guard anymore if we went back. I think that you’d be safest with me.”

A smile played on my lips, “Is that an ego, I hear?”

He scoffed, “No, I’m just saying I’ve never lost in a dual and I’m not planning on starting that streak anytime soon. Plus, it’s not like we’re heading to any rebel territory.”

“Well, I was going to Gerudo Town,” I said and his eyes darted to mine. “Do you really want to go there?” His fingers stopped rolling the bandages.

I shrugged, “If I’m going to be queen one day, I want to understand different cultures. Father has a difficult enough time talking to the Gerudo. It seems like a good opportunity to learn.”

“You know they don’t let men inside the city walls, right?”

“Oh, yes, that was a big motivator actually.”

He grew quiet for a moment and ran a hand through his hair.

“I want you to know that I do want to be here. With you and following you and being here with you,” Link paused to read my expression. My heart felt like it stopped and my lips clumsily communicated that, “What about… what about what you said to-”

He looked down at our hands and shook his head, “I-I don’t know! I was tired of the questions, I guess.”

“Listen,” he breathed in deeply, “I don’t know what I think of you, Zelda!”

My brow creased and I went to voice my question, but he continued with exasperation in his words. “When I first saw you it was in a portrait when I was 15. It was at the castle right after I enlisted. You weren’t smiling or anything so my first thought was, ‘Wow she looks stuck up.’ And then before we deployed, the King did his speech during a military parade and you were there. I had never seen you in person until then. You looked calm and even and you didn’t look as stuck up as in the portrait.

“Then during my knighting, you looked just every bit of a princess. Everything everyone said about you was in front of me. I didn’t believe them and, goddesses, I hoped you didn’t see right through me in that moment. I thought you were holy. Like you had just stopped by from heaven and for some reason decided to give me the time of day.” He took a breath, his eyes flickering to mine for a moment and his cheeks reddened in embarrassment. “And two years ago after when I was promoted, I didn’t know what to expect. A part of me told me to turn down the offer. But when I met you and you smiled at me. And when you tried to get me to laugh or when you tried scaring me. When you laughed at your own jokes instead and when you looked disappointed at my lack of fear… everything I had ever thought of you was turned upside down again.”

Link’s hand gripped my own just enough that I noticed. “The night that we first stepped into Castle Town and you stopped to see everything,” he smiled, “It was like seeing that town for the first time all over again. It was when I knew I had made the right choice not only with joining you but with this whole personal guard thing. Even if I don’t know, you make me want to know. I want to keep seeing the world through your eyes, so wherever you decide to go I’ll come with you.”

He focused his eyes on me again and I felt my heart beating fast at his closeness. Link wanted to be with me. “So,” I started, my face feeling redder by the second, “So, you’re not doing it for the money?”

“Zel,” he laughed lightly, “I haven’t seen one rupee since the day I enlisted. The majority goes straight to my aunt and sister. No, I’m not doing this for the money.”

“I’m not a job to you?”

“If you were, I wouldn’t have let you out of your room that first night.”

I smiled widely and he smiled back.

“Gerudo Town, right?” He asked, starting again at my injuries. I nodded, feeling happier than I’ve been in a long time.

[mysticsparklewings]

Arteza Watercolor Polaroids 

On a bit of a roll with the painting stuff lately, aren't I? I mentioned in my last piece that I had a specific piece coming up to talk about the supplies I used, and this is it! So let's talk about the 60 set of Arteza Watercolors, shall we? Boring stuff out of the way first: I purchased the set from Arteza's website while it was on sale for $35, and signed up for their email to get an additional 10% off discount code. I was too cheap to pay $4 for express shipping, but the paints arrived about 4 days later, so the wait wasn't so bad.    The set comes in a sturdy paper/cardboard box, and the paints are 6-tubes to a little plastic tray, five trays deep in two columns. I was a little confused at first because my assumption was that the paints would be laid out with the first ten in the first top two layers, but actually, you make your way down the column on the left for the first half of the paints, and then down the second column for the second half. It doesn't make much of a difference, it just took me a minute to figure out that's how they were arranged so that I could swatch them in the correct order.    The tubes are 12 ml each (which seems like a fairly standard size watercolor tube from my experience), and each one has a label around the top indicating the color, with the color name printed on it. Just a note that I did have one tube, my Ice Blue, that had a little bit of this sticker/label that had ripped off at some point--I assume while it was still at Arteza's factory since the missing piece was nowhere to be found in the box. This also isn't a huge deal, but I think it's worth mentioning since this combined with my experience with Arteza's colored pencils proves that they do have a few minor quality control issues that pop up from time to time. Here's where things get a little more interesting, as when I swatched the 60 colors out initially, I was also testing for something else beyond color selection. (Incoming tangent on the way paint dries, presented in small text so you can skip over it if you have no intention of letting the paints dry and then reactivating them or otherwise don't care.) The price for these is awesome--$30 or $40 (depending on where you buy from and sales & such) for 60 colors that have proper pigment and lightfast information is a great deal, considering some other brands of student quality paint can cost upwards of $30 for as few as 10 or 12 colors, and professional quality paints can cost over $10 for one 5 ml tube--However, I initially passed on buying these because when I first started looking at them (not long after I'd only just started getting into watercolors) I was big into the idea of converting the paints from tubes to pans in a travel palette, but a lot of the reviews on Amazon and from more experienced artists that I value the opinions of made it pretty clear that these paints don't seem to like doing that. They dried funny, or weird, or somehow "wrong," to make them into pans. And so I wondered, is that why they're so inexpensive? To swatch the paints, I squirted a teeny tiny drop of each color onto a piece of plastic I was just going to throw out anyway instead of mucking up a nicer plastic palette and having to clean it off if the paints did indeed dry in such a way that they were unusable. (I.E. couldn't be reactivated and used again like most watercolors.) I swatched twice; once on a piece of watercolor paper that I cut so it fits comfortably in the box with the paints, and again on a thicker piece of regular paper that went in my swatch book for quick color reference. I had a decent portion of each drop left, and so I sat the "palette" aside and let it dry overnight. Being the skeptic that I am after other art supply experiences, I just had to see what they would do.    The next day, sure enough, the dried paint looked pretty sad. The dots were exceptionally dry (even for dried watercolor), some looking like colorful desert rocks, and some had dried so much that when my faux-palette was bumped they completely detached from the thin plastic, either in one whole chunk or some in smaller pieces. I was thinking I was going to find what I'd heard to be quite true. Still, I had to try just to be sure. It was a little weird though; the first time I tried reactivating the paints, I made a little Artist Trading Card (more info on those here) with my usual black-tree-silhouette-sunset look, and at that point, I noticed it seemed like the darker a color was the more water it needed to reactivate and the less well it did when reactivated. Granted, I only used maybe five colors at most, and it was a pretty small piece. Then I went on to make my Mon Cher painting with paints fresh from the tube on a proper palette, deciding the little dots I had leftover wouldn't be enough or offer enough pigment/color coverage for what I had planned. Naturally, I had no issues there. But I chose not to clean off the paint from the palette right away. Just out of curiosity, I tried closing up the palette in a ziplock bag to see if that would slow or stop the drying, and even if it didn't, I still wanted to keep trying reactivating the paints because I wasn't satisfied with just the one test. The bag seemingly did nothing as the paints still fully dried, but that may have been that I needed a newer bag since this one I had used before for other things and could have very well had an airhole in it I didn't know about. I had already decided that I wanted to make some more art as my "review/first impressions" piece on the Arteza watercolors since I was so happy with how the Mon Cher piece turned out that I wanted to focus on the painting itself, rather than talking about the paints that made it, and so I ended up slicing up a large piece of Canson XL watercolor paper into Polaroid-sized pieces (yes, official Polaroid size! I looked up the dimensions and measured accordingly!) and figured I'd make however many I felt like out of the nine pieces I'd cut, and then upload them as a set and talk about the paints there. Which brings us to where we are now. For all four of these, I used whatever dried paint I had left; both from the not-palette and the remnants from the Mon Cher painting. No fresh paint squeezed out at all. This time, the results were noticeably better, except on the last one where I was starting to run low on some of the colors and I think I got a little carried away with the water since the piece wasn't turning out the way I'd pictured it in my head. My conclusion on the state of the dried paint alone is that while I don't think I'll be procuring a specific palette to convert these into pans, I can definitively say that they aren't totally useless once they've dried, and that was really all I wanted to know. And just as an aside, if you do want to convert these into pans, you can try added a couple of drops of Glycerin (which you can usually find with soap-making supplies in craft stores), or a little bit of honey (or both if you're feeling adventurous). Both are used in watercolor formulas to help the paints retain moisture; even some professional quality brands like M. Graham specifically use honey in their watercolor formula. I haven't ventured that far yet, but I may try some things in the future and if I do I'll let you guys know how it worked out! Now on to something about the paints besides how they dry in the palette I noticed right away in my swatching and on my Mon Cher painting that these watercolors lean on the more opaque side, which to some watercolorists may be a problem, but it usually isn't to me, as there are some effects and details I like to work with that instead of having to pull out other supplies. You can probably see this exhibited best in the first one, which I think almost looks like a gouache painting, rather than watercolor. You can also see this effect pretty good on the third one, especially since most of the black on that one is watercolor as well, unlike the first and fourth ones, where the black portions are either stamps or pen. This also means that the color spread pretty far without much paint with the more water you add to it. But they also water down pretty nicely, as seen in the Mon Cher piece and as you can see somewhat on the second one here. And likewise, they layer up pretty nicely too. I was also pretty surprised that these watercolors didn't seem to mind having other supplies put over top of them; My white gel pens and black pens didn't fight me really at all with them. And I did use a little pale yellow PanPastel around the moon on the second one since I was afraid I'd end up with a harsh water line if I tried to use yellow paint to glaze it. It wasn't all peaches and cream, though. On the fourth one (the one with the snowy evergreen trees), I'm not really sure how much of it was the paint and how much of it was the paper (as this Canson XL watercolor paper is lower quality than the Canson Heritage L'Aquarelle paper I did the Mon Cher painting on, and lower quality watercolor paper that isn't 100% cotton can have issues with certain techniques) and how much of it was just user-error. But as you can see, what was supposed to the Northern Lights did not turn out as pigmented or as nicely blended and arranged as I had envisioned in my mind. To be fair, I was starting to run low on the blues and the pink I wanted to use, so that may have contributed to me making personal errors in fear of completing running out and being stubborn in not wanting to put any more out for this one last small painting. I ended up trying to use my white gel pen to save that last one, and if I'm honest I'm still not sure how I feel about the final product. I feel like it is kinda pretty, but I think the reason it just doesn't work for me is that, as I said, it's almost nothing like what I had pictured in my head.  I'll have to try this look/technique again and try different paints, different paper, etc. and see if I can get closer to what I see in my mind's eye. I supposed I should also mention that on the second/pastel moon one I also had some trouble getting the clouds exactly how I wanted them, but that comes down more to A. me being very particular about the clouds and B. the ever-present unpredictably of watercolor. At the end of the day though, I really like how these Arteza watercolors handle, and I'm pretty eager to do more with them. And, I don't normally say one way or the other on my watercolor opinions, but this time around I feel comfortable saying that I think these would be a good choice for a beginner, even the smaller set options and not just the full 60 set like I got. And this is where I'll talk about the color selection: You can kind of tell when you swatch these out that the first 24 colors are probably the exact arrangement you'll find in the 24 set, as you've got a fairly basic color layout: White, a few yellows/ochres, orange, a few reds, a rose/magenta color, a couple of purples, a few blues, a couple of greens, a couple of browns, and a black. From there the color layout seems pretty randomized to me, including a Neon Pink kinda all by itself and some really pretty pastel colors, and some really nice muted pale earth tones too. I think this is one of the first times where I've felt like the color selection is really well-rounded and there aren't really any major switches I would make if given the choice. If anything, I can think of some colors I'd love to add on to the set (some more Neon colors since the pink is one of my favorite colors to work with so far, and I'd love to see some metallic/shimmer shades with the same formula), but as of right now I can't say I'd replace any of the existing choices with them. One more thing I will mention: The paints do have identifying number codes, much like the Arteza Expert colored pencils do. And while I figured not all of the colors would match/have colored pencil counterparts, I was surprised to find that seemingly none of them match up, even ones that have the same name. For example, in the colored pencils, "Noir" (black) is A012, but in the watercolors, it's A163; likewise, Apricot in the pencils is A034, while the watercolor is A212. I'm not really sure what's the deal there, and I don't have much else to say about it other than it was just kind of weird to me. (Then again, I don't know why that surprised me; Prismacolor has both alcohol markers and colored pencils, many of which are named the same and look pretty much the same, but the numbers for those don't match either. So I don't know why these should be any different.) Regardless, I do really like them and this honestly makes me want to try their 60 sets of Gouache and Acrylic paints a lot too, since these turned out so nice, I've been wanting to try gouache, and if you've been paying attention to me lately you'll know I've been dipping my toes into acrylics lately. I'm closer to getting the acrylics than the gouache partly because I have technically used those before and they're cheaper, and I do have my eye on another, cheaper set of gouache I think I'd rather have as my first set to see if the 60 set would even be worth the investment anyway. The point I'm trying to make: I like the Arteza tube watercolors, and as long as you don't mind dealing with the drying issues (in/on a palette; on paper they dry just fine ) that I mentioned at the beginning of the description in small text, then I think if you want to give them a try you're in for a bit of a treat. They may not technically be professional quality, but I'd say they make a pretty good stand-in if the idea of paying $10, $15, or more for one tiny tube of paint (or over $100 for a much more limited palette) is entirely too much for your wallet to even think about. Speaking which, there may or may not be another watercolor piece on the horizon made possible only by the magical power that is clearance stickers at the art supply shop, so stayed tuned for that. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[writings-and-wonderings]

High Tide - Chapter 7

It took nearly another half day of rocky ocean and quesy feelings before I was able to see the island clearly. The majority of the stolen cargo was stored beneath decks, hidden away between our own cargo, should an inspection occur. The crew had sorted through the boxes and taken out the the items we could sell to bring in a little more cash for repairs and to free up space. Loki had not said anything to me since that morning, despite us working together to get all the crates in their rightful positions and making preparations to dock. Kidd had shown me the ropes - quite literally in fact - in order to try and get me more involved in ship life.There were plenty of other skills to be learnt - swordsmanship, marksmanship... Perhaps it was something to bring up at the hotel tonight if I were to share a room with Loki.

My muscles gave out a dull ache as I found myself, once again, staring out to sea and watching the land mass come ever closer. It seemed that ship life consisted of the same routine, repeated every few hours, with the odd bit of excitement; docking at a new port being one of them. From what I could see it was a small port town, with the buildings slowly dying off the higher up the hill they went. The entire island only seemed a few kilometers long, and tourism seemed to be their main business, along with perhaps farming. Boats were scattered across the port, some larger than others but none bearing a national flag - a safe haven for those with more dangerous purposes.

"What do you think of it?" Loki's voice whispered behind me. I had been so encapsulated in sizing up the town that I hadn't noticed his footsteps.

"It looks quaint. Much nicer than my town at least." I muttered back, not bothering to turn around.

"Your town was nice - just in a different sense of the word." He came to my side and adopted the same position, staring straight ahead at our destination. "I can't help the feeling that you're angry at me," he said after an awkward silence.

"I could say the same thing to you." At this I turned to look at him, crossing my arms and leaning against the railing with my hip. "You haven't said a word to me since our exchange this morning." He cast me a sideways glance before returning his gaze to the island and sighing a deep breath. The crew were calling out to one another, preparing for docking, and the energy on board began to grow.

"We'll be sharing a room together tonight. I do hope that's alright. When I wrote to reserve you weren't on board."

"I'll only share a room with you on shore if you tell me what is going on inside that head of yours," I said as I watched him closely to see if I could catch some sort of reaction. The wind was picking up, and I started to grow goosebumps along my arms and shiver slightly.

"Let's go into my cabin." He reached an arm around my shoulders as he lead me into his cabin, pulling out a chair for me to sit in as he sat across from me, putting his feet up on the table. "I can't tell you everything about me, (Y/N), mainly because it would take too long. The reason I was awkward this morning was because of the events of last night. I didn't exactly know how to process it all..." He wouldn't meet my eye, and everything he said was with a stiffer tone compared to what I was used to. I get up from my seat and walk over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder and trying to contain my annoyance.

"Loki - I don't need your entire back story. Whatever happened last night... whatever your feelings towards me may be... we can put it behind us." I didn't want to put it behind us, I wanted to explore it as much as I wanted to explore the ocean. But if this relationship wasn't sorted out, Loki could easily leave me at a port in the middle of nowhere and I would have to fend for myself in an entirely new world. A part of myself was annoyed by my dependancy on him, but a larger part of me knew that he was essential in me reaching my dreams.

He didn't say anything for a few moments but then stood up suddenly, weaving his hand around me and holding me to him as his other hand tilted my face up to meet his. My lips parted as I gasped from the sudden contact, allowing for his tongue to slide gracefully across them. I allowed my own tongue to reach up and meet his as his hand traced my jaw, following the lines down to my neck to my shoulder, holding me ever closer. Our breathing became heavier as the air around us became thicker with lust and need. My mind was only focused on his touch as his hands traced my bare arms whilst mine held onto his shoulders in an attempt to ground myself. I broke away first, out of breath. Loki's forehead came to rest on mine as his breathing slowed to a more normal pace and his hands came to rest on my hips.

"I don't want to put it behind us," he muttered, his eyes closing slowly. "I want you."

"Why didn't you just say that?" I laugh under my breath, the impossibility of the situation striking me square in the chest.

"I didn't know that's what I wanted until now." His eyes opened to meet mine, the same twinkle had resparked inside of him, and I began to realise how delicate he was inside, even if the rest of his body didn't give away his inner turmoil.

"This will definitely make tonight a lot more interesting." He chuckled at this before kissing me again, this time slower and more controlled, but the lust was still there, just barely being reined in.

"And I hope this forgives my behaviour earlier." He held me at arms lengths, taking in my flustered appearance.

"I'm sure I'll be able to get over it."

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[koreanboyswriting]

In Translation Pt.3

(At long last, I’ve finally put it together! Lol, tell me if you guys like it! Seriously, I’m starving for feedback. Hell tell me if you think I’m trash, I just want feedback. Lol, thanks for the support you beautiful people.)

Things between you and Jungkook turn in a direction you didn't see coming.

6.9k words

You got up the next morning, riled up with energy, and maybe a little bit later than you should’ve. You went with black jeans today, thinking that maybe pants would make you feel more in control, when you looked in the mirror, you felt it. It was colder today so you had to go for thicker options; your jeans were paired with a black turtleneck and boots, and you grabbed your coat and gloves on the way out the door. You ran outside, looking at your watch and realized that you only had five minutes to get to the agency when it usually took you ten. You sped there arriving fifteen minutes late and fearing for your life. As you careened into your parking spot you saw Dae get out of the car and look around for you. You grabbed your purse and ran out calling his name. 

“Dae! I’m here! I’m sorry!”

“Oh, good I was starting to get worried.”

You flopped into the backseat your things splayed out across the back, panting a little. You took a deep breath, and then looked up at Dae and smiled, he was looking at you with concern and laughter in his eyes. He chuckled when your eyes met and you snorted, trying to hold it in.

“So, Dae are you going to pick me up every day?”

“That’s the plan Miss. y/n.”

“You know I could drive myself since I drive here anyway.” You shrugged your shoulders at this. And Dae looked up and met your eyes.

“It’s ok Miss, the label likes it this way and so do I. And this way, when we get there late I’ll say it was because of me.”

“Oh no Dae please don’t do that, it was completely my fault.”

“You were late how do you know I wasn’t late?” He looked at you through the rearview mirror, and made a funny face, and you couldn’t help but chuckle at him. 

“Ok, ok, but I owe you one! Breakfast on me next time!”

“There’s no need Miss y/n.” He gave you a warm smile the lines on his face becoming more prominent as the warmth touched his eyes, and you smiled back. Whoever Dae’s children were, they were the luckiest kids alive.

Dae pulled into the parking garage at BigHit in less than five minutes and you marveled at what this man did to make the traffic go away, but now you were twenty minutes late, so you hurriedly grabbed your stuff and basically fell out the door, when Dae opened it for you. You both speed walked inside and the girl at the front desk told you that Manager Sejin was waiting in dance studio #4 which was on the lower level instead of the fifth floor that you were on yesterday. Since the building was on an incline, the floor that you and Dae had walked into from the parking garage was technically the second which meant when you walked downstairs expecting a dark basement you were surprised when it didn’t look too far different from the floor above, all white walls and windows set high in them. The staircase led down into a large lounge area with a small kitchenette on the side of the room, where healthy snacks and bad ones were stacked in copious amounts, and your stomach grumbled in response. Dae led you down the exiting hallway where only two doors were set into the wall each opposite from each other, the hall ended in a “T” the ends branching off. The doors were labeled, one in Korean as the supply closet, and the other a clear glass door into a ginormous dance room where you could see the boys deep in practice. As soon as the door opened the booming music took you off guard from the complete silence outside. Dae led you in, motioning you to stay back a little as he walked up to Manager Sejin who was clutching a clipboard, his phone in his hand as he dictated notes to his assistant. As soon as Dae walked up, Sejin’s face turned from serious business man to warm and welcoming. Sejin put his hand on Dae’s shoulder and smiling ducked his head down as Dae leaned in talking quietly to Sejin who nodded his head repeatedly while Dae spoke. After Dae finished talking they looked back up at each other and Sejin flicked his hand up as if he was saying, “no problem.” Dae nodded at you and you walked up to Manager Sejin trying to apologize for your lateness over the music. 

Sejin leaned in closer as he talked to you, “Oh don’t worry, Dae just explained the whole situation to me, it’s not your fault. The interview actually got pushed to two o’clock so we have much more time than we thought go ahead and get yourself something to eat if you’re hungry and you can watch the boys practice. I can give you some cards with some questions to expect and you can go over answers with them individually.” He took a stack on index cards off his clipboard and handed them to you.

You nodded your head and slipped them into your bag, grateful that he was being so nice, when his assistant came up and interrupted you, as you had just opened your mouth.

“Mr. Sejin, the phone call that got cancelled this morning has just come in now, he’s on line two in your office, I figured you’d want to take the call in a more private and quieter area.”

Manager Sejin excused himself and rushed from the room as he talked with his assistant. You looked up and finally acknowledged the boys, who were taking cues from Hoseok as an employee paused the music. Hoseok began demonstrating, making sound effects with each effortless popping movement of his body. 

“Jin, hyung, it’s like this. Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.” 

Jin watched in concentration his eyebrows furrowing as he made the same noises along with Hoseok. Hoseok nodded to Jin as he finished cueing him to try it himself, the man sitting by the audio system rewound the song and played it again as Jin did the combination again, this time damn near as good as Hoseok. They all got excited clapping Jin on the back yelling, “good job hyung,” as Jin laughed pushing them off. Jungkook looked up and noticed you, smiling with mischief in his eyes, you looked away from him towards the rest of the members and nodded at them, mouthing you’d be back in five, as you exited the room with Dae. Once outside the room Dae said goodbye and you were left by yourself, steeling your nerves as you walked towards the food table, jumping at the chance to eat, thinking maybe the food in your belly would chase out the butterflies. You grabbed a bottle of orange juice and muffin and began greedily pulling back the wrapper, biting into it and groaning with happiness. 

“Enjoying yourself?” You turned around meeting the eyes of none other than Jeon Jungkook. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes as he looked you, smirking and dabbing the sweat on his forehead with a white towel. He was once again wearing all black except this time he was wearing a baseball cap. You wanted to say he looked hideous but his tight-fitting joggers were doing wonders for the thick thigh muscles in his legs, and his shirt was sticking to his sweaty chest in all the right places. You swallowed and looked at him with as much disinterest in your body that you could muster.

“Yes, I am, thank you very much.” You walked away and sat down at the table pulling out your laptop from your bag, opening it and pulling up your email to see if you had anymore job requests. Jungkook just smirked and grabbed a water bottle and followed you to your table. He sat down across from you, and took a sip from his water bottle.

“You were much nicer yesterday.”

“Hm. I’ll need to work on that then, don’t want to give you the wrong impression of what to expect.” You didn’t move your eyes from laptop, your fingers typing a response to Mr. Lee

He laughed, tipping his head back then he leaned forward pushing your laptop closed on top of your fingers.

“Hey, I was typing an important email.” You huffed.

“Well now your done typing the important email,” He smirked pushing down on the laptop harder so you’d have to move your fingers out.

“Is there something you need?” You looked at him trying your hardest to keep the sass from your voice.

“Yeah, your affection.” His mouth twitched up at the corner.

“Oh, do you now? You think you’re so slick, don’t you?”

“Oh, I know I am,” he leaned back in his chair aiming to prop his feet up on the other one at the table, when you pushed the chair out from under his feet, his shoes hitting the ground, as his momentum made him lose his balance, almost falling out of his seat. You smirked at him as you stood from your chair shoving your laptop back into your bag. You gathered your trash and threw it away, leaving to find the bathroom not once looking back at Jungkook who looked at you astonished. You went back down the hallway thinking one of the branches had to lead to a bathroom. You passed the practice room where you saw all the boys sitting on the floor resting, with towels on their faces and water bottles in their hands. You decided to turn right at the end of the hallway passing more doors that looked like supply closets and two frosted glass doors which had names printed on them, the lights out in both. There was women’s sign attached to the wall and you walked eagerly towards it, about to savor your couple moments of solitude. You stood in front of the mirror staring yourself in the eyes, looking for an explanation. You slapped yourself in the face and started talking to yourself, “Pull your shit together, y/n!! This is a job. Jungkook is a paying customer. He is not your boyfriend. He is not your friend. Stop mixing the lines together. You mean nothing to him. He means nothing to you. And this is just a job. And you are goddam professional!”

You sighed, your head falling, looking down to the sink, your shoulders sagging. You breathed heavily trying to restore calm to your body. You looked back into the mirror and ran your hands under the cold water and pushed your wet palms into your eyes, sighing you dried off your eyes and reapplied your mascara and left the bathroom realizing you had no control at all.

You walked down the hallway and back into the practice room where the guys were still scattered across the room. You sat down on the floor next to Namjoon and pulled the index cards out of your bag.

“Okay, who do you think needs the most help?” You spoke in English, waving the cards you had in your hand. 

Namjoon laughed, “Tae for sure.” You got up leaving your bag next to Namjoon and moved over to Taehyung who was laying spread eagle on the ground the towel over his face.

“Sleeping beauty, time for and English lesson.” You said in a sing-song voice, the other members laughed as Taehyung sat up, the towel falling off his face.

“Ok teacher, I’m ready to go,” He winked at you and you smiled looking back down to your cards. 

The boys had moved closer once they realized you were teaching Tae English phrases, and you were all laughing loudly at Tae’s terrible English as Jungkook walked back into the room.

“Jungkookie, come over here!” Jimin shouted out to Jungkook who looked at you, smirking, and you breathed in heavily remembering your words from the bathroom before.

You all settled into a circle and you went around playing a game you usually did with little kids to test their vocabulary. Each person had to say a word in English then point to a person in the circle and they would have to say one back then point at another, it was kind of like hot potato, and whoever messed up the chain had to do a workbook page, but with BTS they all wanted to have punishments for each other. After a couple minutes, you were all laughing too hard to play the game properly. Manager Sejin walked in and clapped to get everyone’s attention and told the boys they needed to start getting ready for the interview. They all got up, Tae extending out his hand to help you up. They thanked you and left the room to head towards the changing rooms. Manager Sejin came up to you and told you could take a break if you wanted as getting the boys ready took a while, you nodded and thanked him and he left the room behind the boys. You looked down at your watch, which told you it was ten o’clock, you yawned and decided to find a quiet place to take a nap. This was your best option as your car was back at the agency and you didn’t want to track Dae down for a ride. 

You walked out the dance studio, and began searching around for a place to lay down. You got in the elevator that was across from the kitchen area and figured out that the building actually had ten floors. You pressed the tenth and came up to a hallway that had glass windows all around. It gave you a beautiful view of the city, you walked down the hallway there were only a few doors set into the wall, one was Manager Sejin’s, the other was a supply closet, and the last looked like a small office for his assistant. The hall ended and you walked into a large open lounge area that had several comfy, modern looking couches that surrounded a sleek coffee table. You plopped down onto the largest couch and relaxed, before you knew it you were dozing off, the light from the windows pleasantly warming your face.

"Sleeping beauty, it's time for the interview," You woke up to the sound of a low voice and opened your eyes to see Taehyung standing entirely too close to your face. You jerked upright, not remembering when you fell asleep. Tae was laughing at you as you checked your watch and tried to finger-comb your hair back into place. 

"Am I late, have you guys started yet?"

Tae laughed at you, "Calm down they just got here they're setting up right now."

You loosed a breath you didn't know you were holding and sagged back on the couch you were laying on. 

"Sleeping beauty missing out on her sleep?"

You scoffed at his continuation of the phrase, "Yeah I guess you could say that." You got up hoping he would follow, and he did, much to your surprise.

“So, who exactly is setting up?"

"Uhm... I think it's a news source called entertainment tonight. Have you heard of it?"

"Uhm yeah, I've heard of it! Wow, that's a big deal. Why the interview?"

"Searching for answers, are we?" You looked down trying not to look guilty.

Tae just laughed at you, "You'll have to wait just like ARMY, though I'm sure by now you are one."

"Ha ha," you laughed sarcastically, "Don't flatter yourself."

Tae just smirked and said, "Oh we get to everyone eventually."

You walked into the elevator going down to the sixth floor into yet, another conference room, except this one didn't have a large meeting table like the others, it was bare, except for a couch and three bar stools behind it, which were in front of a back drop that had ET logo printed across it. The camera crew were busy setting up all the sound equipment, and there was a girl reporter with extremely long and dark black hair perched on a stool behind the camera. She was intensely studying a sheet of paper, when she looked up and saw Taehyung and you standing there. She gasped and hurried over, tottering on her stilettos, Taehyung’s eyes grew big and he looked at her like a piece of meat. Your rolled your eyes, but at least happy his attention had shifted from you. She looked like a typical Cali girl, she was wearing a Kim K inspired outfit and her makeup was flawless, her face contoured and highlighted to perfection. Tae extended out his hand to her and she smiled, giggling, placing her hand in his, she introduced herself as Hannah. And you fought the impulse to not roll your eyes again. You basically grimaced in her direction as you fought your inner thoughts. She was really sweet though and ran through the questions she was going to ask with you, and you translated them to Korean for Tae and he nodded still flirting with his eyes to Hannah, who was blushing hard. And you understood why, Tae was out of his practice clothes and he was wearing a beautiful Gucci outfit, plaid tailored pants, a white button down, with a black tie that had a little snake printed on it, and black loafers with the Gucci emblem on them, the look was finished off with a silver dangly earring hanging in his left earlobe. As you were translating a conversation for Hannah and Tae, the rest of the boys walked into the room with Manager Sejin. They all took their spots on the couch and stools, Tae reluctantly joining them. You could see from the corner of your eye that Jungkook was staring at you, but you kept your eyes averted never looking at him directly. 

The interview went great, Hannah was fantastic and made the boys feel very comfortable, they laughed easily and you only had to translate a little behind the scenes, as the boys were doing really well on their own, with help from Namjoon who was glowing, proud of all his members who were trying their very best to speak English. When the interview wrapped an hour and a half later, everyone began clapping and Hannah stood from her chair smiling and satisfied. Namjoon once again walked over to you and thanked you for helping.

“Seriously, I didn’t even do that much you guys were great on your own. I don’t even think you guys need me anymore.”

Namjoon chuckled and Jungkook came up swinging his arm around Namjoon’s shoulder, “I wouldn’t say that, we definitely need you.” He smiled at you, and you fought the urge to blush.

Jin walked up joining your little group, “Hey y/n you should definitely join us for the company party tonight!” Namjoon and Jungkook nodded enthusiastically, and Tae yelled across the room, confirming, he too agreed. 

“I don’t know…” You said shrugging off at the end, when Manager Sejin walked up and clasped your shoulder, “I insist y/n, we should also meet tomorrow morning, all good news I promise.”

You sighed, “Well ok, I guess.” You smiled sheepishly after. Sejin smiled at you, when his phone rang and he swept from the room again. Tae came up to you and asked you if you could invite Hannah to the party as well, because he didn’t want to mess up his words, you laughed and agreed and you both walked over to her. After you spoke, she nodded enthusiastically and Tae looked a little too mischievous. 

Dae walked into the room and came up to you carrying your purse, that he must have picked up from the bench on the side of the room. 

“Are you ready to go Miss y/n?” 

“Oh yeah sure Dae, one minute I need to go to the bathroom.” Dae smiled and dipped his head and told you he would wait outside. 

You walked outside looking for the bathroom on this floor, when Jungkook swept up behind you and slipped his hand into yours. You looked up to him astonished and instinct had you trying to jerk your hand away, but Jungkook only held on tighter. Your cheeks were turning red and you couldn’t even attempt to control it this time.

“Hey, save me a dance tonight, will you?” He smiled and brought your hand up to his face brushing his lips across your knuckles. 

You steeled your nerves and whispered, “Maybe, if you’re lucky.” And pulled your hand out of his grasp, walking straight for the exit rather than finding the bathroom anymore.

***

Dae pulled up outside your agency and you thanked him once again for the morning and slipped from the car, but instead of going inside to continue your work day you got into your car deciding you would finish early this Friday. You turned the key in the ignition and left the parking lot getting home in thirty minutes because of the late afternoon traffic. You wearily walked inside after parking in your apartment building’s garage and collapsed on the floor being way more dramatic than necessary. You threw your clothes on the bed and decided tonight was going to be a bath night. You gathered some candles and your iPad, as the tub filled up with hot water and bubbles. You lit the candles all around the bathtub and slipped into the tub setting up your iPad on the side next to your candles. You sighed in relaxation and laid back against the edge making sure you let your hair hang on the outside of the tub. You played blissful music on your iPad and tried to think about what you were going to wear tonight, and how you were going to avoid the dance with Jungkook.

You were becoming less and less hostile with him, but you still didn’t trust him because you knew he probably treated all his girls the same way, but you couldn’t help but be intrigued by him. It didn’t matter though, you were an employee and it didn’t matter if he liked you or you liked him, you simply couldn’t go there. You breathed in and whispered over and over again that this was just a job. After twenty times, you almost believed yourself.

You got out of the tub once you felt like a prune and decided now was as good a time as ever to get ready. The party started at ten o’clock and it was already eight, and you still had no idea what clothes qualified for a company party. You began furiously searching through your closet, you had a lot of dresses since you had a habit of buying clothes anytime you got a paycheck, but they all suddenly felt underwhelming. You obviously didn’t need a ball gown, but you wanted to look nice, this was a company party after all. There would be so many important people there and if you needed to look presentable, if you networked a lot tonight, your clientele could shift to a lot higher of a paygrade. You weren’t greedy but you had always dreamed about going back to school and getting your masters. You began rifling through your closet again and found the black tight-fitting dress you bought online last week, it seemed a little too simple at first and you considered putting it back and trying to find something else, but if you dressed it up right, it could be much better. 

You put on a thong to avoid panty lines and slipped on the dress, you looked in the mirror and felt immediately beautiful. It was a dress that made you feel good about yourself you got excited and pattered around your room putting your outfit together. You pulled your hair up into a sleek ponytail, your hair brushing the back of your shoulder blades. You slipped on your simple two strap black heels, and found your fake diamond drop earrings. You took off your makeup from the day and applied something a little more dramatic, doing the best you could as your skills weren’t the best. You paused in front of the mirror when you were done and admired your work, you nodded approvingly and grabbed your favorite pink coat to slip over your bare arms. The clock now read 10:30, and you jumped a little grabbing your clutch and doing your “I’m-in-heels-and-trying-my-best-to-run-attempt”. 

Once you were outside, to your surprise Dae was there in tux rather than a suit leaning against the car holding his hat and spinning it around in his hands. 

“Dae?” You said in surprise, putting your now useless keys into your clutch. “What are you doing here?”

“Manager Sejin sent me. He thought one of the most important members of the team should have a proper escort.” Dae opened the door and offered his hand to you, you smiled and took it settling into the back seat, pondering what he meant by member of the team. But you decided not to ask. 

“I do have to say you look very beautiful, y/n.” You smiled and looked up into the rearview mirror and met Dae’s eyes and smiled. 

You arrived at an elegant club twenty minutes later, you stepped out of the car with assistance from Dae, and looked at the fancy entrance. Dae dipped his head and told you to enjoy yourself as he got back into the car and left. Paparazzi took pictures of you enthusiastically at first, then slowed down as they realized you were no one special. You blinked rapidly trying to gain back your sight as you walked down the red carpet to the entrance. It all felt so Hollywood, the carpet was lined with velvet rope, and the entrance was framed with neon blue lights and an obscenely large man stood at the entrance holding a clipboard in his hand. You walked up to him clearing your throat meekly and said your name when prompted. He checked off your name on his clipboard and dipped his head as he unclipped the velvet rope allowing you in.

The club was huge, and the party was already in full swing as you were fifty minutes late. A bar took up the left wall, the wall to the ceiling was filled with alcohol on glowing shelves, the barstools filled with people, talking animatedly. The middle of the room was filled with a large glass dance floor and a dj booth elevated next to it, lasers going off behind the dancing dj. On the side of the dance floor a little farther back was the obvious V.I.P section, it was elevated with stairs going up to it, another large man standing next to it, guarding the velvet rope entrance. The members were all sitting around drinking and laughing with manager Sejin and another man you hadn’t seen before. Sejin looked up and saw you and waved you over. You breathed heavily and began walking towards the second large man, he held out his hand to stop you but Sejin walked over and insisted that you were V.I.P, your cheeks heated and the man apologized and let you through. Sejin politely guided you by your elbow towards their table, he pulled out a chair for you and all the men stood at your approach, Jungkook ogled you and you looked anywhere else trying to be calm, but they were all doing the same thing. You blushed even harder, sure your entire face was a tomato, you turned towards the one man you didn’t know. He extended out his hand to you and introduced himself as Bang Si Hyuk, you tried not to gasp. You couldn’t believe your idiot self didn’t recognize him, you felt like you should bow or something, but settled instead for shaking his hand and smiling. You sat down and they all followed suit.

“So you’re the translator I’ve heard all the good things about,” You blushed even more and tried to cool yourself, you didn’t even know it was possible to get this red. 

“Well thank you, I didn’t know I was getting praised.”

“Well of course you are!” Sejin said, “The boys think your fantastic, and so do I.”

“Wow, that’s high praise, I will work very hard to be worthy of it.”

“I like her already,” Bang Si Hyuk said. You laughed and bowed your head. The boys laughing along too.

Manger Sejin and Bang Pd stood, the second announcing, “Excuse us, it is time for me to make the announcement.” The boys all stood and bowed to him then sat down smiling more than you had seen them before. You tried not to look confused, but sat there expectantly as Sejin and Bang Pd made their way to the middle of the cleared dance floor, with microphones in their hands. The dj lowered the music to background noise, and Bang Pd cleared his throat.

“Since the release of Love Yourself: Her we have seen major success as a company and as a unit,” He paused as applause filled the room, every eye at the bar, the V.I.P section, and the people from the tables on the other side of the dance floor focused on him. “After winning the Billboard award, BTS’ success across the ocean has only increased.” More applause filled the room, “And America is now very interested in our boys. And these kids who have grown so much under my eyes, have now turned into men poised to break k-pop out of Korea to everywhere across the world. And I am proud to announce that the American Music Awards Association has invited them to perform at the 45th annual music awards!”

The applause turned riotous and you sat shocked as the boys all got up around you hugging and clapping each other on the back, happiness etched into every line of their faces. It was infectious and you couldn’t help but feel as happy as them as Jungkook came over to you, hugging you tightly. You smiled and tried not to think about how easily his body fit into yours, before he broke away and you hugged the rest of the members. 

“This night was called together not only to celebrate BTS but to celebrate BigHIt and how far we have come and how much we’ve succeeded!” Everybody was still cheering as Bang Pd was speaking forcing him to shout into the microphone. Sejin spoke at last, “Celebrate everyone tonight, for all your hard work, and enjoy yourself!” The cheering rose up again but died down as the music raised in volume people now on the dance floor, happy and excited with drinks in their hands. Manager Sejin and Bang Pd both walked towards the bar and began talking with other senior members leaving you really alone with the boys. 

“I’m so happy everyone knows now, I couldn’t hold it in any longer!” Jimin yelled out over the music, the boys all laughed Tae slinging his arm over Jimin’s shoulder. 

“Oh I think that’s Hannah over there! Excuse me guys,” Tae stood up abruptly, the boys laughing even harder, Hoseok even slapping him on the butt. 

“Hey you need help?” You asked in English to Tae, the boys were practically on the floor now as Tae waved you off, his face turning red.

Then, Namjoon, Jin, and Yoongi, got up to go to the bar, leaning into each other’s ears trying to talk over the music. Hoseok got up next pulling a laughing Jimin with him to the dance floor, he protested but eventually went with, his hand in Hoseok’s. 

Before you knew it, you were alone with Jungkook and hating yourself for turning down Namjoon’s request for you to join them at the bar. 

“How about that dance?” Jungkook looked at you, smirking seductively, and you were left without an excuse. So, as Jungkook walked over to you extending out his hand you had nothing else to do but put your hand in his. You got up and took off your jacket leaving it on your chair, as Jungkook grabbed your hand and led you out to the dance floor. You passed Hoseok and Jimin who looked like they were dance battling each other, each one doing crazier moves than the other, skill turning into them goofing around. An upbeat song was playing and you didn’t know what to do with yourself. You loved dancing and weren’t too bad at it, but having Jungkook here made you instantly insecure. He started dancing around you, fluid and smooth, as if he knew every beat of the song in his bones. Your cheeks heated and you didn’t know what to do, until Jungkook grabbed your hand again and twirled you out and into his arms, dipping you back, he made a funny face as you tipped back and you laughed, the tension slightly leaving your body. 

He pulled you up, into his embrace, and whispered in your ear, “Hey, just relax. I won’t bite unless you ask me too.” You leaned back and looked into his smirking face and decided to stop caring, you laughed and nodded and let Jungkook spin you around to the beat. The song changed to a slower r&b one, and Jungkook began to move around you more sensually and you let yourself fall into his rhythm, moving your hips into his, your body mimicking his fluid movements. His hands were on your hips and you grinded them slightly into his crotch, before spinning out of his embrace and giving him a flirty wink as you danced in front of him, he laughed and looked at you with lust in his eyes. You kept dancing until each of you were breaking out in a light sweat, to which you announced that you needed a drink, Jungkook nodding to your statement. He grabbed your hand and led you off the dance floor towards to bar. You plopped down on an empty seat, smoothing your hair as you waited for the bartender. Jungkook stood behind you and leaned into your ear and said, “Hey, I’m going to go put my jacket at our table. Get me whatever your having, “You nodded and watched his backside as he walked away. He was slipping his arms out of his suit jacket, and his butt and thighs looked fantastic in his tight-fitting suit pants. You snapped back to reality as the bartender was trying to get your attention.

“Oh, I’m sorry, can I get two,” you paused, you always got wine but were unsure if Jungkook was a wine guy, but decided he would probably enjoy it, “Can I get two glasses of whatever cabernet you guys have.” The bartender dipped his head and produced two glasses in front of you, grabbing a wine bottle from under the counter, popping out the cork and pouring the chilled wine into the glasses, you thanked him and took a sip, looking over just as Jungkook was walking back.

“Wow, you already started without me, jeez.” 

“Oh, shush! Just drink.” You pushed the wine glass towards him, and he smiled and took a large sip.

“So you’re being nice to me, should I expect this from now on?”

“Accept for now, but don’t get used to it!” You laughed and Jungkook rolled his eyes while smiling. Jungkook looked behind your shoulder and you turned to see Manager Sejin walking up with an older man you didn’t recognize. 

“Y/n, I want you to meet Seo Jin-young, he is on the board of directors for JYP Entertainment.”

“Oh wow, hi Mr. Seo it’s an honor to meet you.” You immediately put your wine back on the bar and dipped your head.

“I just wanted to introduce myself, Mr. Sejin has been speaking very highly of you, and I was wondering if you would be interested in other big events for JYP, like label meetings, and contract signings, some would involve travel of course.”

You were astonished you had no idea this job would open so many doors for you. “I would be honored, sir. Thank you so much for even considering me.”

Sejin smiled warmly at you, “You’ve proven yourself to be a wonderful addition to this team, be proud of yourself.”

Mr. Seo nodded to Mr. Sejin’s words. “We will leave you young people to enjoy your night.” You and Jungkook bowed your heads as they left talking like old friends.

“Looks like someone’s getting a raise. Let’s celebrate!” “I thought we already were?” You laughed at Jungkook.

“Well now we can celebrate you too!”

Jungkook downed the rest of his wine, prompting you to follow and asked the bartender for a bottle of Soju. 

“Oh no, no, no. Jungkook I’m not getting drunk tonight.”

“Relax, we’ll only have a little.”

You huffed realizing you would lose this argument no matter what. The bartender produced a bottle of Soju and Jungkook opened to bottle and poured you a shot.

“To us, and our upcoming success!” You said, Jungkook smiled and clinked his glass against yours.

***

A little while later you were laughing harder than earlier and another bottle of Soju was next to the first, almost empty. 

“Hey, let’s go dance some more I love this song!”

Jungkook pulled you to your feet and you fell a forward into him laughing and regaining your balance quickly. Once you were on the dancefloor, Jungkook moved around you just as fluid as before and you moved your body the same, rolling your hips around, your head tipped back. The song changed to an electric beat, and everyone around you guys started jumping, Jungkook and you joining in, and from the corner of your eye you swore you thought you saw Tae slipping out the back door, with a giggling Hannah on his arm. You rolled your eyes, and kept on dancing with Jungkook, who made every move look so purposeful. The songs kept changing, but you and Jungkook didn’t stop, laughing and dancing for ten more songs. The dancing mixed with the alcohol, was making you feel ten times more drunk than you actually were though, and you tapped Jungkook’s shoulder telling him you needed air. He nodded and agreed and followed you off the dance floor to one of the hallways branching off the main space. It was dimly lit and you figured there had to be a bathroom or an outdoor patio at the end of it somewhere. 

Just as you turned to the corner at the end of the hall, Jungkook pushed you against the wall, his body fitting into yours a little too perfectly. You gave a half-hearted attempt to push him off then gave up, as his lips crashed into yours. Your mind was racing with all the reasons you shouldn’t but your desire got the best of you, and you lost yourself in the kiss. Jungkook’s lips were soft yet demanding and his whole body was hungry for you. You ran your hands through his thick hair, moaning a little against his lips. Jungkook grunted in response, lifting your legs up and wrapping them around his waist, you locked your ankles trying to bring his body even closer. You opened your mouth to him and he explored it with his tongue, nipping on your bottom lip, eliciting another moan from your mouth, as he trailed kisses down your neck, sucking on your neck and biting hard into your shoulder. He was turning you on so much, and all you wanted to do was rip his clothes off. You unhooked your ankles and Jungkook set you down on the ground. You looked around and opened the nearest door to you, a single bathroom which was lit much like the club, you pulled Jungkook in, his eyes devouring you. He closed the door behind you guys, clicking the lock into place. 

He walked towards you and whispered into your ear, “What do you want me to do to you?”

You smirked, “Bite me.”

Jungkook grabbed you and sat you on the sink, kissing you even more hungrily than before, you bucked your hips into his needing some friction, against your arousal. You could feel his erection straining against his suit pants, and you moaned at the contact. Jungkook moved from your lips and slipped the straps of your dress down your shoulder freeing your bra from underneath. Jungkook pushed your strapless bra down, cupping your breasts and massaging them as he tugged on your earlobe with his teeth. You leaned your head back against the mirror, as Jungkook began swirling his tongue around your nipple, and you felt all the way down to you folds, sure your underwear was wet with how excited he was making you. You sighed in pleasure, and Jungkook groaned as his name fell off your lips.

***

The sun was shining on your face as you woke, and you stretched your arms out sighing contently. You rolled from your back onto your side and saw a shirtless Jungkook sleeping soundly next to you, the sheet just covering his hips. You turned slowly onto your back and looked at the ceiling. You racked your brain and ran your fingers through your hair aggressively. 

What the fuck did you do last night?

[ryviri-cosplay]

Hey! So I know some of you were asking for some advice on a Chrom cosplay so at last I am here to help. Sorry it's a bit late, but let's get started!

Here's the front of the shirt! The shirt and pants are made up of some dark blue spandex-ish type fabric, and I got about 4.5 yards of it. The shirt is actually two layers, the under layer being the part with the sleeve and folded collar. I used just a basic long sleeve shirt pattern for that but instead of sewing on both sleeves, I only did the one and just hemmed off the one missing the sleeve. The collar was simple too, I just used YouTube for collar tutorials since I never made one like this but it's very basic and is easier to make than you might think. Now, the top layer is a sort of poncho that I made out of the same fabric that I lined with bias tape as seen above and connected the buttons and other collar to.

Chrom is weird and has two collars, one being the folded one (that I sewed on the bottom shirt) and the other being a sort of Sailor Moon or Anime School Girl collar which I connected to the top layer, the poncho. The flatter, school girl collar was simple to make as well and just used more tutorials on YouTube, you can make these however you want or in what way you want, but that's how I did it! So the funky-shaped poncho went over the shirt and that's the base of the shirt!

The bias tape is actually made by me, I bought the fabric I wanted for it which was some silvery-gold satin and used a bias tape maker to get the even strips of fabric that are free of frays on the outside. Then I literally just hot glued them onto the shirt lol.

The buttons are made of craft foam and worbla and I just hot glued those on as well. Sometimes the simplest/laziest methods work the best! 

This is the back of the shirt where you can see that school girl collar much better. To get the designs, I used some thinner cardboard/cardstock and cut out the shapes, then I took the same fabric as the bias tape I made and covered the cardboard pieces with it. (The cardboard could be like the backs of notebooks or cereal box cardboard, that's what I used) I tucked the edges of the fabric around the back of the cardboard and glued it down so the fabric didn't fray, then I just hot glued the pieces on, nothing fancy at all!

Here are the pants, I already talked a bit about them in a previous post but here they are again! The base of it is just leggings I sewed, then the part on the thighs are strips of that blue fabric that I put bias tape on and glued together and wrapped around my legs. So they're like an extra layer that I just hot glued on top of the leggings. I also stuffed them with a bit of stuffing to give them that pantaloons shape that Chrom has. (So yes, these are pillow pants basically) The little buttons are buttons that I covered in that same fabric and glued on as well.

Here's the back of the pants where you can see how the fabric is wrapped around from the butt and all the way around the front and to the inseams. It was very awkward to make, but they're comfy!

These are the belts that go around the chest area! I got about 2-2.5 yards of this I think... The base is just some white vinyl I picked up and folded over (and glued) so it had nicer edges. The buckles are made of craft foam and worbla and the buttons are googly eyes that I painted. There's also a decorative button that I sewed onto it as well.

It looks like a jumbled mess now, but if you take a look at a reference of Chrom, this all makes much more sense where everything should be placed! You can also see Velcro on there where I attach it to the bottom part of the belt that goes around the waist, which you'll see in a second.

Only one of the buckles I made actually functions like a buckle in case I need to use it getting on the costume or taking it off, but usually I don't need to unbuckle it at all.

Here is the other belt I mentioned earlier that hangs lower on Chrom's waist and sort of loops around his thighs. You can also see the Velcro here where I keep it attached to the chest belts. Nothing fancy here either, just a strip of fabric with lines on it. The lines are black fabric paint that I very carefully painted on because for some reason, I didn't want to sew on the black lines since it was leather-y fabric. It took a lot of patience lol.

Moving along, these are the gloves and the little wrist band thing that goes on his sleeve arm! I literally bought some gray gloves off amazon, cut them down to size, then made little cuffs and sewed them on (that are lined with the same gray fabric as the wrist band). Then the wrist band is just a strip of fabric I hemmed and sewed in a loop that I just slide onto my wrist. It also has some tiny buckles on it that I believe I bought from Etsy, I just got a little package of like 12 of them since I used them more later on.

Here are the leg things! Leg sleeves? Leg bands? Leg warmers? I have no idea. Either way, you can see that the little buckles come into action again here and I just stuck them through little hemmed strips of fabric, then (you guessed it) hot glued the strips down to the base of the leg thing. The longer leg thing is just sewed in a tube and hemmed, once again nothing fancy there, then the top is a band that I sewed in a tube shape as well and sewed black lines on for details. As you can see, I also added on the cuffs just like the gloves made of that same gray fabric (that I got about 2 yards of). So I made two identical bands with cuffs, but one has that weird leg sleeve thing, otherwise they're exactly the same and just slide onto the legs just below the knees!

Now getting to the cape, you can see the little brooch he has that I made out of clay and then painted with acrylics and sealed with mod podge. The brooch is hot glued to some weird rope stuff I found at a craft store, however, I braided the rope so it was thicker, sturdier, and got a similar effect to Chrom's. The other end f the rope is hot glued to the inside of the cape on the edge there, where there is also another decorative button I just sewed on.

Here's the pauldron/shoulder armor! I could have done better on this but whatever. It's made out of craft foam and worbla and I just shaped it to the way I wanted and added on the details. The details are little strips of worbla that I heated up and rolled into noodles, then I just attached them  and shaped them to the surface of the pauldron. No glue there since worbla sticks to itself! If it looks uneven, you can always heat it back up and move the pieces around!

I also just glued the pauldron to the cape because I was lazy and when I was looking at references, I didn't notice any straps or anything that Chrom has so that's what I did!

And this is the cape! You can see the black patch in the top right corner there, that's just more Velcro that connects to the back of the brooch, which of course also has Velcro on it. You'll see that in another picture as well. The cape is made up of some nice cotton fabric and it's two layers of the same stuff that are just sewed together. I made sure it was cotton because that's the easiest to dye since the bottom gray-ish part is gray Rit Dye that I dipped it in to gat the worn/burnt/dirty effect. The edges are all trimmed in random directions to give it the cool effect.

After that. I decided to take it up a notch! I actually rubbed that bottom part of the cape in some dirt and grass as well to get some real dirt effects. (which you can't see as well in the picture, but it's the thought that counts) Then I had some help with a blow torch and singed the edges of the cape to get an even more battle-worn and burnt look to it! This was the most fun part of making the cosplay tbh.

Here's the backside/inside of the cape! It's made of that same cotton fabric, but I dyed it blue! (Fun fact I had this fabric and it was dyed blue already before I even thought about making this costume because I was going to use it for something else but never did lol) You can also see the sloppiness of the cape bunched up where the pauldron is because that's where I glued it, but it looks fine from the outside which is where it counts! And you can also see the patch of Velcro on the back of the brooch that I mentioned before so I can keep the cape on and take it off with ease.

Next is the shoes! These were fun to make too! I just used a cheap pair of boots I bought from Saver's for the base and decorated them with the same dark blue and gray fabric from before. I added on some cuffs just like the leg bands and gloves, and of course I covered the front and back with some gray fabric which took a long time to get that smooth effect. With the leather-y boots, I used super glue to glue down the fabric and I only used the super glue along the edges so it didn't bleed through in random spots in the middle.

As you can see, they also have a band that I attached to the cuff part and I used Velcro so I can put them on and take them off easily. The Velcro especially helps keep them on my feet since I had to manipulate the original boots and cut them down to get them to the shape I wanted!

Almost done! These are the fake tattoos I made that I use for his Brand of the Exalt on his shoulder. I'm going to be honest, I went into Microsoft Paint (before I got a tablet and Paint Tool Sai) and took a picture of the brand and just colored it to that light red-ish color that I wanted. Like I said, sometimes the simplest methods work the best! Afterwards, I put the picture onto a Word document and got it to the size I wanted. Before I printed it on the special tattoo paper, I monkeyed around with the shade of red I wanted and the size and printed it on normal paper first to double check everything. Once It was settled, I fit as may little pictures as I could onto the Word document and printed it with the tattoo paper. There are instructions with the package, I just looked up "temporary tattoo paper" on amazon and it was the first one I'm pretty sure. This was an easy part of the cosplay too!

Last but not least, the wig! This is a Magnum wig from Arda wigs in the color dark blue, from what I can remember. It was very easy to style and I know I can always trust Arda to have some amazing cosplay wigs!

Besides the Falchion, that's basically it! The Falchion is made of poster board with foam and worbla details, but since there are 100 million ways to make swords, I won't go into depth unless you guys are interested.

Just let me know if you have any further questions and I'll try my best to answer them! Thank you so much for all of your support and great questions, I'm always happy to help!

[nikwently-blog]

Devil’s Pleasure (TG Caption)

  Travis was too good for his own good. A teacher’s pet was the literal definition of who he was. Almost all of the teachers within his high school treated him far nicer than any of the other students. If anyone even stepped out of line the tiniest bit Travis was there to snitch them out. This continued for a good while and no one was able to stop him until the day they had a substitute teacher Mr. Birgol come in to take over the class one day. Mr. Birgol was a man in his early 20s who had recently just begun teaching at the nearby elementary school. He had always wanted to teach at a high school though, so the principle gave Birgol a chance to prove himself.

   Mr. Birgol stepped into class, and sat down at the desk unpacking his things from his briefcase. The first person to walk into the classroom was Travis who was always exactly 5 minutes early for class.

   “Hello there Mr. Birgol,” Travis said, with an innocent smile. “I just wanted to welcome you to our class and hope that you enjoy your time here as our teacher for today.”                

   “Ah… thank you very much,” Mr. Birgol said cheerfully as he watched Travis skip merrily into a desk in the very front of the room.

   After class began it only took a few minutes to figure out that Travis was clearly the teacher’s favorite given he was incredibly eager to answer every question thrown his way, and always had a smile on his face. Of course Mr. Birgol wanted to give other students a chance to answer so after a while he began ignoring Travis and began to get other students to answer. Mr. Birgol could clearly see the other students despised Travis as they rolled their eyes at him every time he got up to answer.

   Lunch came roughly an hour later, and Mr. Birgol was in charge to keep an eye on the students as everyone ate.

   “Did you hear about Ashley and Todd,” a girl said, chatting it up with a bunch of pompous hot chicks who had gathered at a table.

   “I know I heard they really went at it last night,” another girl’s voice murmured.

   Travis who had been sitting nearby got a good earful of what they were talking about, and didn’t hesitate to walk up to Mr. Birgol to let him know what was going on.

   “Mr. Birgol those girls over there are talking about sex which is rather irritating to me and many of the other students trying to enjoy their lunch,” Travis said, pointing over at the girls.

   “Very well I will talk to them after class, but for now could you please just move if the conversation is bugging you,” Mr. Birgol said, trying to be fair to the girls as well as Travis.

   “Well you see Mr. Birgol those girls had actually already been asked many times before to stop talking about sex, and I think everyone would see it fit if they are sent to the principal’s office to have a talking to,” Travis said, without missing a beat.

   “Sorry Travis, but I feel that would be a bit irrational since their conversation doesn’t seem to be bugging anyone else.”

   “Mr. Birgol those girls are talking about sex, and if you even bothered reading the school’s handbook you would know that conversations discussing any sexual content is strictly against the school’s guidelines,” Travis said, speaking up to try and get others attentions as if to get people to stand up with him. Instead this just seemed to cause a huge stir across the room as people started whispering to each other.

   Mr. Birgol, feeling eyes watching him, had Travis follow him back to the classroom. Closing the door, he had Travis sit down at the desk directly facing his.

   “Travis I would like you to please just ignore those girls; I feel that this shouldn’t be too much of an issue as that conversation doesn’t even have anything to do with you,” Mr. Birgol said sternly.

   “However Mr. Birgol I feel that you still don’t understand is what they’re talking about it clearly against school guidelines…” Travis said, babbling as if he was in some sort of trance.

   Mr. Birgol getting annoyed realized just how much of an issue Travis really was, and realized that many of the other students would probably get in trouble for no reason with Travis continuing to act the way he was.

   “Ok, I will go ahead and speak to the principal about this for you, and we’ll see what we can do about this issue,” Mr. Birgol said, lying through his teeth.

   “Thank you for understanding Mr. Birgol I’m sure our efforts will help make the school a comfortable environment for all our students, and will help no doubt help you become a great high school teacher,” Travis said, with a big grin across his face.

   Travis began to make his way towards to the door when Mr. Birgol pulled something from out of his desk: it was a bright red cherry lollipop.

   “Here Travis, would you like a lollipop before you go,” Mr. Birgol said, with Travis accepting it in almost an instant.

   “Why thank you Mr. Birgol, I will enjoy this lollipop and all of its deliciousness.”

   Travis began to suck on the lollipop as he made his way towards the door again. Right as he was about to reach for the door though his hand began to shake as he dropped down to his knees.

   “Ah… this lollipop… is really… mmm… good…” Travis said, trying to hold back his moans of pleasure as he began to suck even harder on the lollipop.

   His tongue seemed to stretch out a little bit as he continued to suck down hard on the lollipop. Eventually he bit down on the lollipop and once he did he screamed as a red aura took form around his body. He began to scratch his head vigorously as his hair slowly grew out longer turning to a bright blonde. He screamed when he realized his hair as grown out, and was about to confront Mr. Birgol when his face seemed to contort muffling his voice for a moment. His plump round face thinned out as it transformed into that of an angelic being with two beautiful big eyes, thick eyebrows, a petite noise, and plump juicy red lips.

   His lips trembled as he spoke, but instead of hearing his old voice it was now incredibly soft and smooth feminine voice that almost seemed to bounce off the walls. He rubbed his hand over his neck which had now shrunken down to match his head.

   Looking down at his hands he noticed that they had changed drastically. Now his hands were small and delicate compared to what they were before. They also had grown long finger nails that had been painted with a bloody red, now his fingernails almost looked like claws. He moved his eyes up his arm as that changed as well thinning out as all his muscle and fat dispersed down into the lower regions of his body. His knees shook as Travis watched in horror as his bony legs slowly began to fill up expanding to become much thicker. The higher the changes grew on his legs the thicker his legs seemed to get. His thighs were now beginning to swell up as he knees tightened even more together. He had to slightly lift up his rear end for a moment as he felt his bottom begin to expanding as well. Soon his booty had blown out becoming a perfect curvy heart. He squeezed it with his small hands; feeling just how thick it was caused him to scream a high-pitched girly scream. An audible rip could be heard as his underwear pants had come undone revealing his ass crack to Mr. Birgol. Travis embarrassed tried to cover it up but to no avail.

   The distribution of the fat finished by filling up his hips; his penis had now been crushed between his thighs which was rather uncomfortable to say the least. He tried adjusting his body to a more comfortable position plopping down on his new fat ass. His shoes had fallen off due to his feet shrinking down. Could things get any worse? Travis then felt another pressure on his body. With a loud crack his spine adjusted inward pushing out his butt even more. Another crack, and his shoulders had adjusted down becoming more round. Suddenly Travis no longer felt uncomfortable down below. Confused why this was he lifted up his pants to reveal that his dick was gone. Now all that was there was a fresh new pussy. He screamed or I suppose she screamed again. Those screams soon turned to moans though as one final change was beginning already. Travis could feel a pressure pushing the fat from her stomach higher up into her body. Grasping her chest, she moaned heavily as two perky breasts budded from her body. Letting go they jiggled down.

   “What happened to me?” Travis said, getting up slowly to avoid losing balance.

   “I’m sorry Travis, but I feel that you be much more appreciated in this form now, and will find life will go by much more swimmingly given you’ll be much more respect by your classmates,” Mr. Birgol said.

   “What are you talking about?” Travis said, getting up just to find her pants fall down revealing her virgin pussy.

   “I’m sorry, but it will be better this way.”                

   Suddenly two horns sprouted from Travis’s head as her mind changed her into Tina.  Mr. Birgol was shocked to see the two horns.

   “All crap… I must’ve given him the wrong lolli…” Mr. Birgol said, before being cut off by Tina’s sweet giggles.

   “Oh mama, I feel so good,” Tina moaned, as she began to fondled her breasts.

   Mr. Birgol couldn’t help but grow a boner from watching the young devil play with her irresistible body. She suddenly then glanced up at him licking her fingers. Tina slowly began to strut over to Mr. Birgol stripping off her remaining clothing as she did until she was entirely naked.  Her butt jiggled along with her breasts as she stopped in front of Mr. Birgol who was speechless cowering in his chair.

   “Is that for me?” Tina said, bending over and poking at the bulge in Birgol’s pants looking up with a devious smile.

   “Please no, you mustn’t do this… you cannot be having sex with your teacher!” Birgol said, standing up to try and take control of the situation.

   “Don’t make laugh you tease,” Tina said, licking her lips and pushing Birgol back down with great strength. “I need a big man who can take care of me.”

   Tina then commenced to unzip Birgol’s pants and pulled his long dick. She slowly began to lick it up and down. The amount of pleasure was too much for Birgol to handle as his moan uncontrollably shooting excessive amounts of cum out from his member. Suddenly he began to feel strange as he actually grew a few feet taller. His dick also grew a couple as well as his fat evaporated from his body leaving him with rock hard abs, and a sexy six pack. His glasses came clashing to the ground as his face formed into that of handsome hunky man’s. Tina continued to lick him slowly up his body until finally reaching his neck well she began to passionately kiss him. Birgol looked down at her insatiable body, and finally allowed her to take control as they began making out. Tina climbed up onto his lap, and began to slowly stroke his huge penis with her hand as they continued to make out. Their tongues slid in and out as their kisses became longer and deeper each time their lips met. The amount of pleasure caused Birgol to once again cum which spattered all over Tina’s hands. She lifted them up to lick the cum off her hands, and then leaped off of him turning around. She stood there for a moment to allow Birgol to study her sexy body. He looked up and down studying her slender curves that made her godlike.

   “I need you Birgol, I need someone that can dominate me to rule over Hell,” Tina said, in an erotic voice. “I need you to be my king, and you if you choose me I can pleasure you forever in our special little Hell with no distractions in our way.”

   Tina then bent over onto all fours allowing her butt to bubble up in the prime position to be made love to. Birgol stood up with his long dick erect.

   “Then you shall be forever mine,” Birgol said, as he sent his throbbing dick straight down into Tina who began to moan heavily as Birgol pounded her sending cum flying into her. Tina clenched her hands as she let out a long scream of pleasure. Two horns then emerged from Birgol’s head as he became her immortal lover. They passionately made love on that classroom floor for another hour before they both got up. Eventually Tina got up and materialized a tight black suit over her body.

   “Honey aren’t you going to put on any clothes,” Tina said, strutting over to the huge man jumping onto his lap.

   “We are gods Tina are bodies shall be worshipped by the mortals we shall allow them to see us nude so they can worship us properly,” Birgol said in a now deep heavy voice they shook the room.

   “Very well my king,” Tina said, with a devious smile heading over to the door. Her demon tail wagging excitedly as Birgol stood up and walked over to his queen.

   Tina leaned against Birgol allowing him to rest his hand on her butt. She giggled clinging onto his nude body as they stepped out into the world. Together they would dominate all.

[settoglow]

Beauty Review: Top Mascaras for 2017

When it Comes to Beauty Products, What Makes One Product Shine over the Other?

When I mentioned that I was a bit bored with my mascara on Instagram, lots of my followers suggested their favourite cosmetic products.

There are so many cosmetic products out there; from the well known luxury brands, to the best drug store buys, to the natural cosmetics brands and brands you have never heard of. I will be reviewing L'Oréal False Lash Architect 4D ($15.36AUD) and L'Oréal Manga Mega Volume Mascara ($15.36AUD) that I bought in Priceline in Sydney. Two of my followers suggested these. I will also be reviewing Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara ($47.50AUD), Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara ($43.50AUD) and Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara ($42.50AUD) in the luxury cosmetics brand area. I bought there from StrawberryNet because they are discounted but I also get a loyalty discount. Plus I will also be talking about Dejavu Lash Knockout Extra Volume Mascara ($21AUD) which is a Japanese mascara. Another Instagram follower suggested Benefit They're Real! mascara, which I will hopefully have my hands on soon.

I will talk about packaging, they way they feel in my hand, their brush applicators, how they went on my lashes, we'll compare photos of each product when they are on my eyelashes and then rate them out of 5. Hopefully, after that we can work out which product is the Top Mascara for 2017 and finish the Set to Glow Beauty Review on a high note!

Mascara Packaging

A lot of my regular income comes from the design industry, specifically packaging so I know a lot about it. Obviously, the type of packaging a company uses depends on their position instore and whether they have their own pop up within a department store or not. For example, Dior always has their own booth in Myer. Another reason packaging is different is down to the brand and how they want their product to be perceived. Is it a luxury brand? Are there foil finishes on the packaging?

Both the L'Oréal False Lash Architect 4D and the L'Oréal Manga Mega Volume Mascara were hanging in Priceline, so their secondary packaging include a hangsell. Both have pretty impressive close-up pictures of an eye with mascara on it while the L'Oréal False Lash Architect 4D has a close-up of the brush applicator. The close-ups of the eyes look like they have false eyelashes on, which is false advertising really if we are honest. However, I will find out when I use the product.

The Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara, Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara and the Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara all come in cardboard boxes, which is better for the environment I think. The Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara and the Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara come in metallic board boxes so they have a premium feel. The Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara is in a high gloss black box with silver foiling on it. Only the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara has a illustration of an eye and the brush. Not a photo though, so I am not sure what I think about that. Less of a hard sell... These brands let their products and reviews do the talking.

I don't know very much about Japanese packaging other that they seem to like a lot of it and their products always seem to be in clamshell packaging. Dejavu Lash Knockout Extra Volume Mascara is no exception. It is in a plastic clamshell which a paper insert. It has two illustrations, one of the brush head, and the other explaining how the product coats the lashes.

So How Do They Feel in My Hand?

The L'Oréal False Lash Architect 4D packaging was super easy to open, you just pulled the top of the box open and you could slide the product straight out. It is light to hold and you have a good grip to open the product because of the contours on the mascara. The super bling silver mascara opens easily but it is a bit hard to close again. Maybe that will loosen with application.

The L'Oréal Manga Mega Volume Mascara has a card backing and a plastic top. This type of packaging is called a blister pack. It is pretty easy to open, but I never like that the card doesn't come away from the plastic properly, and you always have to pierce the leftover card to access the product. In this case, I damaged the L'Oréal Manga Mega Volume Mascara with scissors. I put a scratch in the pink metallic paint on the lid. The Manga Mascara is smaller and nicer to hold than the Architect 4D Mascara I think. I feel like the lid twists on and off more easily too. 

Now we come to the first of the more expensive premium products. The Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara packaging is really easy to open and the product slides right out. I find the lid a little tight but the product sits nicely in my hand since it is a rounded tube. Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara is heavier than the two drug store bought L'Oréal products which is good. Both the L'Oréal products are 9mLs each and the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara is 10mL. So that is good. It is more expensive but you get more product.

Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara is also easy to open. However it is only 8.5mL. I have never actually paid attention to the amount of mascara I am getting as a consumer, I must admit. It is a smaller, rounded tube with pleasant contours. And at this stage in my review it is the nicest to hold. It opens and closes really well and the tube is super black and glossy with a really nice little Giorgio Armani logo seal near the lid. It is not as expensive as the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara but has a nicer feel in my opinion.

The last premium mascara is the Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara. It is also easy to open this box and the product slides right out. Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara also has a similar rounded, contoured tube to the Giorgio Armani mascara, however it is slightly longer. This product doesn't open and close as well as the Giorgio Armani, however I like the Shocking brush script on the gold metallic tube. This is not as light as the two L'Oréal Priceline bought products but it is lighter than the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara. This is the smallest amount of mascara of all the products at 6.4mLs!!

And now to the only Japanese mascara I have ever tried. Dejavu Lash Knockout Extra Volume Mascara comes in a clamshell and I have to ruin the packaging by going at it with a pair of scissors. The Dejavu Lash Knockout Extra Volume Mascara is small like the L'Oréal Manga Mega Volume Mascara but far lighter. Dejavu Lash Knockout is 8g and I really like the pink coloured packaging. It is easy to open and close.

Beauty Review: Mascara Brush Applicators

When I opened the L'Oréal False Lash Architect 4D the brush applicator was already bent. The picture on the box was in no way representative of the brush as well. It was the right shape though, long and thinning at the end like the bottom of an ice cream cone. The product seemed to clump at the smallest end of the brush. The L'Oréal Manga Mega Volume Mascara was the same, the picture on the box is not representative of the brush. However it has the same brush shape as the L'Oréal False Lash Architect 4D but you can bend the brush head it seems as there are lines in the arm about a cm away from the brush head. I will see how that goes when I apply it. When you look at the brush applicator for the Manga Mega Volume Mascara, the product clumps at both the smallest end of the brush as well as right at the start of the arm. There was quite a bit of product stuck there when you first open the Manga Mega Volume Mascara...

The Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara has a curved brush applicator a bit like how a pair of false eyelashes curve. It is thinner at the very end of the brush. The product only clumps right at the end of the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara brush. So far the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara brush comes out the most cleanly from its tube. It has I really like the share of the Giorgio Armani brush, it is long and thick and tapers to and end really quickly. The Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara has the same shaped brush as the Giorgio Armani brush applicator but it is thinner. The Yves Saint Laurent product immediately smells like flowers. It's very strong!! I think it smells like roses. I am not the best on fragrances because I don't often wear them. I also avoid skincare with fragrances. The product gets stuck at the end of the brush and at the start of the wand on the Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara. 

The Dejavu Lash Knockout Extra Volume Mascara has the same shaped brush as the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara however it has less of a deep curve. It also seems thicker to me. This brush is the cleanest of all the mascaras when it first comes out of its tube, however there is still some product at the tip of the brush applicator.

Beauty Product Review: Mascara Application

Firstly, let me just say that I have applied my mascara with no other makeup on so you can see each product in its natural state, but also so no other makeup ingredients affect the way each mascara performs. I have also done no retouching to any of the above photos.

There was a CLEAR winner half way through the process and whilst I was applying each mascara it became obvious as to why millions of women part with lots of money for mascara... Drug store/cheaper brands are just not as nice to use and the end results are not nearly as good... So there you go! You can all justify spending a bit of money on mascara!!

L'Oréal False Lash Architect 4D wasn't very easy to apply and you can see in the top left photo that my end lashes aren't coated. When I tried to use the end of the wand to coat my smaller end top lashes it ended up being a hot mess. This was because the product clumped on the end of the brush. I felt that my lashes were separated a bit better than when I used the L'Oréal Manga Mega Volume Mascara however. The Manga Mascara brush was really great to use. It sort of bent and sprung when I touched my lashes. I LOVE this brush, pity the formula wasn't great... It seemed to make my lashes stick together at the ends and therefore wasn't my favourite AT ALL (see the middle top photo above). I was a bit disappointed with Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara... Have a look in the top right photo above. The shape of the brush meant that it was easier to coat more of my lashes from left to right. It did open my eyes and they seemed more dramatic when my eyes were open... BUT if you look in the photo above, they actually appear shorter?? I give Lash Architect 4D a 3 out of 5 and the Manga Mascara a 3.5 out of 5 because of the brush.

Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara is my favourite of the more expensive brands. The simple brush is easy to use and formula glides right on. It didn't make my lashes clump at all - it seemed to coat each one individually and opened my eyes right up. Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara separates you lashes really well and if you have a look in the bottom left photo above it seems to make them a bit more full. Even though it is waterproof, it was pretty easy to get off. It sort of flaked off in little pieces if that makes sense? Usually your cotton pad comes away with a big black smear on it when you take your makeup off. Giorgio Armani gets a 5 out of 5.

This brings me to Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara. I have never used a more horrible mascara. The smell was too much, it got everywhere, the formula was too gluggy and made my eyelashes clump together and seemed to coat them like wet paint. My lashes were webbed together by wet formula. It was horrible to get off and irritated my eyes. This is not worth the money AT ALL. Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara gets a 0 from me since it is so expensive, smelly and horrible to use.

Dejavu Lash Knockout Extra Volume Mascara ($21AUD) is actually a really great buy. It was similar to the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara in ease of use. And doesn't seem to clump at all. It wasn't as good as the Giorgio Armani because it didn't make my eyelashes seem as full. However, for the money it is better than both the Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara and the Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara. I give it a 4.5 out of 5 only because of the price. If it was more expensive it would have been a 4 out of five.

Set to Glow's Top Mascara for 2017 is the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Wet Length & Volume Waterproof Mascara with a 5 out of 5!

Followed closely by the Japanese Dejavu Lash Knockout Extra Volume Mascara with a 4.5 out of 5!

Set to Glow's WORST Mascara for 2017 is the Yves Saint Laurent Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils (Shocking) Mascara with a 0 out of 5!

Which mascara do you use and what do you rate it? Comment at the end of the post!

[spartanburger]

Process #3

I like to do these process blog things after doing a significant project to detail the process it took for me to do, but for this one, I have a surprisingly little amount of stuff okay nevermind this turned out bigger than usual. The previous one (1 & 2) had a lot going for it as I was constantly taking snapshots along the way for work-in-progress updates and to give examples of certain problems I may have been encountering along the way (fucking phong shading). These are also useful for debriefingg” myself on what I did and where I can improve in the future.

But this time, it kinda just went without issues. But here we go anyway.

These were done as part of a project for @palavenmoons. The final shots I created are available here:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

The first step was to figure out what 3D models I should use. This is important as, in many cases, different textures are needed for different models, so if I use the wrong one, I may have to recreate the same texture twice. Thankfully, in the case of the Turian models, 90% of the models used the same head model, just with a different 3D body. Same for the female Turians. Essentially; create the texture once, never have to create it again. These were the models I chose from:

For the male Turians, I actually switched it up between different images. Varik in Link 2 uses the third casual MTurian model, while using the second model in Link 4. 

Vitus likes heavy armor, particularly the terminus set, which, since the only Terminus set model has the big helmet, meant I needed to hack two models together: one for Vitus’s face, and one for the body. I had never really done this to a full extent before, so I was glad when it all came out fine.

This is the headhack:

And this is what the Terminus model looked like without the new head:

Scaling is fun.

Vitus was first to get his face texture. To my surprise, the most difficult part wasn’t actually getting the face pattern to work, but getting the skin shading. What I first tried didn’t work at all which left me to ad-lib my way through it. But, I figured out a process, and the raw face with no pattern came out like this:

Applying the markings at first was easy:

But I wasn’t 100% satisfied with them, so I made them a little bit thicker, and morphed them a bit so they wrapped onto the face in a way that looked more realistic.

Next up was Varik.

While Vitus had a lot of different layers just getting the more subtle gradient of his face shading to work, Varik had a lot of contrasting shading going on. His neck was much darker than his face, which lead to my doing more detailing than normal to get around the scales/spots on the base neck texture. Plus, his fringe has got dark tips. There was a little more detail going on in the face markings too, but thanks to some nice references, it was relatively easy to figure out.

Still the biggest issue with figuring out the face pattern is how it wraps onto the 3D model. Because textures are just 2D, and the models are 3D and can be shaped in ridiculous ways, a straight line on a texture can appear wavy once applied to the model. Without decompiling the model and opening it up in some sort of 3D program that allows you to “paint” directly onto the model, the only workaround I’ve found is to do a trial-and-error approach: Make change, save change, import into VTFedit, save as .vtf, and reload the textures in SFM. Thankfully, that is not a super long process; it’s just more steps than I’d like. Anyway, I have no other work-in progress shot of Varik other than this:

At this point, I had kinda “figured out” the process of creating custom faces, so moving on to Cilea was really easy. The Female Turians have an advantage in that the model came with a number of blank face textures without any pattern that could be used as a base, unlike the males where, if you want a dark face, you have to start with an almost colorless and bright face, making it a bit finicky to shift the colors to work.

Anyway, Cilea came together really quickly, leading to this:

As I was working on the faces, I threw this little thing together for the lols:

One of the most important things here that I had never done in a major project before is work on scaling the characters differently. Though I’d experimented with it in the past, it never really stuck with me. This was all due to the rigging I was using. By just using the regular Forward Kinematics rig, if you scale the model, the whole thing scales with it, so if you wanted to make someone who was really buff, you’d just end up with a really large character, with every limb proportionately the same to each other, only larger on ever axis or scale. However, when you use Inline Kinematic rigs, it creates new animation bones, and if you apply scale controls to that, it doesn’t affect the size of the model, but the size of the rig. Additionally, if you apply scale controls to the hidden regular FK bones, the body parts will scale proportionately, but not move from their regular position, leading to someone with, say for example, thicker and bigger arms whose arms are still the same length. This can’t be done to extremes, but it works well on creating more subtle differences. I scaled all three of these characters around a bit, as shown here:

Vega for scale.

Now onto making the actual images. The first thing I thought up was to have some kind of piloting thing going on, since Varik and Cilea(?) were pilots. Only only the internal cockpit models for the Hammerhead and the Normandy SR1, and I wasn’t about to start scenebuilding now (okay I’m just lazy and still haven’t gone out of my way to figure that out but hush).

Anyway, this is what the final pose looks like with no lighting or AO.

The model’s holographics are kinda meh, so I added additional ones. I slapped a number of lights on this to make it look nicer, including volumetrics around Vitus in the BG and from the orange holos in the front. This is what eventually became the one in Link 1.

I liked the post I did for Vitus so much I just moved the camera, slapped on some different lighting, and got another thing out of it. It’s one of the benefits of working in 3D: if you make a good or complex enough scene, you might be able to get a number of different shots out of it just by moving the camera.

My obsession with absurd rim lighting makes scenes look like this from outside the camera’s perspective:

Unless the camera is stationary, and the models in question are not moving too much, this cannot be used in video, as the lighting fucks everything up once things start moving. It’s like forced perspective shots, only with lighting. The only time I’ve gotten it to work relatively well with moving subjects is in this little... experiment. 

Anyway, I hadn’t done anything with Varik at this point, and realized that he had been left back at the spawn. And was now in a wall.

I put him in the other pilots seat and came up with Link 3. Even doing my best to cull unecessary lighitng, this pushed SFM to its shadowed light limit (only 8 lights can cast shadows and anything over that has to have shadows manually disabled). I’m not as satisfied with this one as the others, but I thought it was good enough. The lighting was hard, and the cockpit model is funky with the way some of the things work, so it came out alright. I had to layer two version on top of each other to get the window transparency, as they have weird material properties that aren’t transparent at all. Fun fact: the space in the background comes from a planet model that contains its own space “skybox” if you will. Unseen in the shot is the planet itself:

The final shot in Link 4 was originally supposed to be a full body shot. It’s not seen in the final shot, but the pose has Vitus lifting Varik and Cilea off their feet.

I couldn’t quite get it into a final shot that I liked though, so I just went with the torso-up shot.

Lighting was an issue here as well. I very quickly hit the shadow limit again, and actually had to forgo a light that illuminated part of the background. And the materials property on that goddamn rock on the back left meant that it was immune to the map’s inbuilt lighitng, making it stand out >:(

Anyway, I used Optical Flares in After Effects to apply the flares in the first three links. The last one had a oil paint filter over everything except the faces. And, as usual, I used vibrance color boosting to make the colors pop out more.