#it's a poem about how art nerds need to just get laid

[britneyshakespeare]

RE: “mr. youse needn’t be so spry” by E. E. Cummings (1926)

okay, but little did you know... that i am in possession of 1,000,001 statues...

[kmclaude]

Forgive me Father, I have no awful headcanons for you, only a general question on comic making. How do you do it, writing-wise/how do you decide what points go where, how do you plot it out (or do you have any resources on the writing aspect that you find useful?) Not to get too bogged down in details, but I attended a writer’s workshop and the author in residence suggested I transfer my wordy sci-fi WIP into graphic novel script, as it might work better. (I do draw, but I don’t know if I have it in me to draw a whole comic—characters in motion? Doing things? With backgrounds? How dare, why can’t everyone just stand around looking pretty)

I was interested but it quickly turned into a lot of internal screaming as I tried to figure out how to compress the hell out of it, since novels are free to do a lot more internal monologuing and such compared to a comic format (to say nothing of trying to write a script without seeing how the panels lay out—just for my own sake, I might have to do both concurrently.)

As an aside, to get a feel for graphic novels I was rereading 99RM and was reminded of how great it was—tightly plotted, intriguing, and anything to do with Ashmedai was just beautifully drawn. I need more Monsignor Tiefer and something something there are parallels between Jehan and Daniel in my head and I don’t know if they make sense but it works for me. (As an aside, I liked the emphasis on atonement being more than just the word sorry, but acknowledgment you did wrong and an attempt to remedy it—I don’t know why that spoke to me the way that it did.)

I thought Tumblr had a word count limit for asks but so far it has offered zero resistance, oh well. I don’t have much else to say but on the topic of 99RM, Adam getting under Monsignor’s skin is amazing, 10/10 (about the Pride picture earlier)

wow tumblr got rid of the markdown editor! or at least in asks which means the new editor probably has no markdown....god i hate this site! anyway...

Totally! So first, giant thank you for the compliments! Second, I have a few questions in turn for you before I dive into a sort of answer, since I can give some advice to your questions in general but it also sounds like you have a specific conundrum on your hands.

My questions to your specific situation are:

did the author give any reason for recommending a, in your words, "wordy" story be turned into a graphic novel?

is the story you're writing more, like you said, "internal monologuing"? action packed? where do the visuals come from?

do you WANT it to be a comic? furthermore, do you want it to be a comic you then must turn around and draw? or would you be interested in writing for comics as a comic writer to have your words turned into art?

With those questions in mind, let me jump into the questions you posed me!

Let me start with a confession...

I've said this before but let me say it again: Ninety-Nine Righteous Men was not originally a comic — it was a feature-length screenplay! And furthermore, it was written for a class so it got workshopped again and again to tighten the plot by a classroom of other nerds — so as kind as your compliments are, I'm giving credit where credit is due as that was not just a solo ship sailing on the sea. On top of that, it got adapted (by me) into a comic for my thesis, so my advisor also helped me make it translate or "read" well given I was director, actor, set designer, writer, editor, SFX guy, etc. all in one. And it was a huge help to have someone say "there is no way you can go blow by blow from script to comic: you need to make edits!" For instance, two scenes got compressed to simple dialogue overlaid on the splashpage of Ashmedai raping Caleb (with an insert panel of Adam and Daniel talking the next day.) What had been probably at least 5 pages became 1.

Additionally, I don't consider myself a strong plotter. That said, I found learning to write for film made the plotting process finally make some damn sense since the old plot diagram we all got taught in grammar school English never made sense as a reader and definitely made 0 sense as a writer — for me, for some reason, the breakdown of 25-50-25 (approx. 25 pages for act 1, 50 for act 2 split into 2 parts of 25 each, 25 pages for act 3) and the breaking down of the beats (the act turning points, the mid points, the low point) helped give me a structure that just "draw a mountain, rising action, climax is there, figure it out" never did. Maybe the plot diagram is visually too linear when stories have ebb and flow? I don't know. But it never clicked until screenwriting. So that's where I am coming from. YMMV.

I should also state that there's Official Ways To Write Comic Scripts to Be Drawn By An Artist (Especially If You Work For A Real Publisher As a Writer) and there's What Works For You/Your Team. I don't give a rat's ass about the former (and as an artist, I kind of hate panel by panel breakdowns like you see there) so I'm pretty much entirely writing on the latter here. I don't give a good god damn about official ways of doing anything: what works for you to get it done is what matters.

What Goes Where?

Like I said, 99RM was a screenplay so it follows, beat-wise, the 3-act screenplay structure (hell, it's probably more accurate to say it follows the act 1/act 2A/act 2B/act 3 structure.) So there was the story idea or concept that then got applied to those story beats associated with the structure, and from there came the Scene-by-scene Breakdown (or Expanded Scene Breakdown) which basically is an outline of beats broken down into individual scenes in short prose form so you get an overview of what happens, can see pacing, etc. In the resources at the end I put some links that give information on the whole story beat thing.

(As an aside: for all my short comics, I don't bother with all that, frankly. I usually have an image or a concept or a bit of writing — usually dialogue or monologue, sometimes a concrete scene — that I pick at and pick at in a little sketchbook, going back and forth between writing and thumbnail sketches of the page. Or I just go by the seat of my pants and bullshit my way through. Either or. Those in many ways are a bit more like poems, in my mind: they are images, they are snapshots, they are feelings that I'm capturing in a few panels. Think doing mental math rather than writing out geometric proofs, yanno?)

Personally, I tend to lean on dialogue as it comes easier for me (it's probably why I'm so drawn to screenwriting!) so for me, if I were to do another longform GN, I'd probably take my general "uhhhhhh I have an idea and some beats maybe so I guess this should happen this way?" outline and start breaking it down scene by scene (I tend to write down scenes or scene sketches in that "uhhhh?" outline anyway LOL) and then figure out basic dialogue and action beats — in short, I'd kind of do the work of writing a screenplay without necessarily going full screenplay format (though I did find the format gave me an idea of timing/pacing, as 1 page of formatted script is about equal to 1 minute of screentime, and gave me room to sketch thumbnails or make edits on the large margins!) If you're not a monologue/soliloque/dialogue/speech person and more an image and description person, you may lean more into visuals and scenes that cut to each other.

Either way this of course introduces the elephant in the panel: art! How do you choose what to draw?

The answer is, well, it depends! The freedom of comics is if you can imagine it, you can make it happen. You have the freedoms (and audio limitations) of a truly silent film with none of the physical limitations. Your words can move in real time with the images or they can be a narrative related to the scene or they could be nonsequitors entirely! The better question is how do you think? Do you need all the words and action written first before you break down the visuals? Do you need a panel by panel breakdown to be happy, or can you freewheel and translate from word and general outlines to thumbnails? What suits you? I really cannot answer this because I think when it comes to what goes where with regard to art, it's a bit of "how do you process visuals" and also a bit of "who's drawing this?" — effectively, who is the interpreter for the exact thing you are writing? Is it you or someone else? If it's you, would you benefit from a barebones script alongside thumbnailed paneling? Would you be served by a barebones script, then thumbnails, then a new script that includes panel and page breakdowns? What frees you up to do what you need to do to tell your story?

If I'm being honest, I don't necessarily worry about panels or what something will look like necessarily until I'm done writing. I may have an image that I clearly state needs to happen. I may even have a sequence of panels that I want to see and I do indeed sketch that out and make note of it in my script. But exactly how things will be laid out, paneled, situated? That could change up until I've sketched my final pencils in CSP (but I am writer and artist so admittedly I get that luxury.)

How do I compress from novel to comic?

Honest answer? You don't. Not really. You adapt from one to another. It's more a translation. Something that would take forever to write may take 1 page in a comic or may take a whole issue.

I'm going to pick on Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo spent a whole-ass book in Notre-Dame de Paris talking about a bird's eye view of Paris and other medieval architecture boring stuff, with I guess some foreshadowing with Montfaucon. Who cares. Not me. I like story. Anyway. When we translate that book to a movie any of the billion times someone's done that, we don't spend a billion years talking at length about medieval Paris. There's no great monologuing about the gibbet or whatever: you get to have some establishing shots, maybe a musical number, and then you move tf on. Because it's a movie, right? Your visuals are right there. We can see medieval Paris. We can see the cathedral. We can see the gibbet. We don't need a whole book: it's visually right there. Same with a comic: you may need many paragraphs to describe, say, a space station off of Sirius and one panel to show it.

On the flip side, you may take one line, maybe two, to say a character keyed in the special code to activate the holodeck; depending on the visual pacing, that could be a whole page of panels (are we trying to stretch time? slow it down? what are we emphasizing?) A character gives a sigh of relief — one line of text, yeah? That could be a frozen panel while a conversation continues on or that could be two (or more!) panels, similar to the direction [a beat] in screenwriting.

Sorry there's not a super easy answer there to the question of compression: it's a lot more of a tug, a push-pull, that depends on what you're conveying.

So Do I Have It In Me to Write & Draw a GN?

The only way you'll know is by doing. Scary, right? The thing is, you don't necessarily need to be an animation king or God's gift to background artists to draw a comic.

Hell, I hate backgrounds. I still remember sitting across from my friend who said "Claude you really need to draw an establishing exterior of the church at some point" and me being like "why do you hate me specifically" because drawing architecture? Again? I already drew the interior of the church altar ONCE, that should be enough, right? But I did draw an exterior of the church. Sorta. More like the top steeple. Enough to suggest what I needed to suggest to give the audience a better sense of place without me absolutely losing my gourd trying to render something out of my wheelhouse at the time.

And that's kinda the ticket, I think. Not everyone's a master draftsman. Not everyone has all the skills in every area. And regardless, from page one to page one hundred, your skills will improve. That's all part of it — and in the meantime, you should lean into your strengths and cheat where you can.

Do you need to lovingly render a background every single panel? Christ no! Does every little detail need to be drawn out? Sure if you want your hand to fall off. Cheat! Use Sketchup to build models! Use Blender to sculpt forms to paint over! Use CSP Assets for prebuilt models and brushes if you use CSP! Take photographs and manip them! Cheat! Do what you need to do to convey what you need to convey!

For instance, a tip/axiom/"rule" I've seen is one establishing shot per scene minimum and a corollary to that has been include a background once per page minimum as grounding (no we cannot all have eternal floating heads and characters in the void. Unless your comic is set in the void. In which case, you do you.) People ain't out here drawing hyper detailed backgrounds per each tiny panel. The people who DO do that are insane. Or stupid. Or both. Or have no deadline? Either way, someone's gonna have a repetitive stress injury... Save yourself the pain and the headache. Take shortcuts. Save your punches for the big K.O. moments.

Start small. Make an 8-page zine. Tell a beginning, a middle, an end in comic form. Bring a scene to life in a few pages. See what you're comfortable drawing and where you struggle. See where you can lean heavily into your comfort zones. Learn how to lean out of your comfort zone. Learn when it's worth it to do the latter.

Or start large. Technically my first finished comic (that wasn't "a dumb pencil thing I drew in elementary school" or "that 13 volume manga I outlined and only penciled, what, 7 pages of in sixth grade" or "random one page things I draw about my characters on throw up on the interwebz") was 99RM so what do I know. I'm just some guy on the internet.

(That's not self-deprecating, I literally am some guy on the internet talking about my path. A lot of this is gonna come down to you and what vibes with you.)

Resources on writing

Some of these are things that help me and some are things that I crowd-sourced from others. Some of these are going to be screenwriting based, some will be comic based.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud: I think everyone recommends this but I think it is a useful book if you're like "ahh!!! christ!! where do I start!!!???" It very much breaks down the elements of comics and the world they exist in and the principles involved, with the caveat that there are no rules! In fact, I need to re-read it.

Comic Book Design: I picked this up at B&N on a whim and in terms of just getting a bird's eye view of varied ways to tackle layout and paneling? It's such a great resource and reference! I personally recommend it as a way to really get a feel for what can be done.

the screenwriter's bible: this is a book that was used in my class. we also used another book that's escaping me but to be honest, I never read anything in school and that's why I'm so stupid. anyway, I'd say check it out if you want, especially if you start googling screenwriting stuff and it's like 20 billion pieces of advice that make 0 sense -- get the core advice from one place and then go from there.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: many people I know recommended this. I think I have it? It may be in storage. So frankly, I'd already read a bunch of books on comics before grabbing this that it kind of felt like a rehash. Which isn't shade on the authors — I personally was just a sort of "girl, I don't need comics 101!!!"

Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate: this has been recommended so many times to me. I cannot personally speak on it but I can say I do trust those who rec'd it to me so I am passing it along

the story circle: this is pretty much the hero's journey. a useful way to think of journeys! a homie pretty much swears by it

a primer on beats: quick google search got me this that outlines storybeats

save the cat!: what the above refers to, this gives a more genre-specific breakdown. also wants to sell you on the software but you don't need that.

I hope this helps and please feel free to touch base with more info about your specific situation and hopefully I'll have more applicable answers.

[distoretion]

More stuff on my 80s characters! They’re officially on the side characters page now. : )

Raven Vasilev(80s AU): Dis’ best friend (in this AU) Raven was actually christened Christina, and her family still calls her that or Tina, both of which she hates. She goes by her middle name now because it’s more ‘gothic’. She’s fairly tall for a girl, about 5′7, with a somewhat willowy figure and naturally dark hair. Her style leans more towards silk and lace than leather and spikes. Her parents travel a lot for work, so her and her little brother live with her old Russian grandmother who came over as a child and still speaks the language. She is fiercely protective of her friends, with a sarcastic streak and generally good (but also snarky) humor. Her talents lay in creative pursuits like art and design, and she hopes one day to be a fashion designer with her own shop. More self-confident than most teenage girls, she takes a ‘say what you want about me but don’t shit-talk my friends’ sort of attitude, and isn’t insecure about the things she’s bad at.

Max Gunnarsson(80s AU): Raven’s long term boyfriend, an absolute unit of a man who’s trying to break into pro wrestling. Despite looking like he could break your arm, he’s a very laid back and easygoing metalhead whose long black hair, pitch black liner, wicked tats, and steel piercings merely distract from the fact that he’s a big old teddy-bear. Usually dressed all in black, he walks around town with his booming laugh and nothing to prove attitude, being a generally cool dude to everyone and shooting shit with his friends. To him, Raven is his Dark Angel of the Abyss, the no bullshit stunner that puts up with his frequently broke and carefree ass, supporting him in his dreams and helping to make them actual goals he can accomplish. He fully admits she’s got him wrapped around her little finger, and wouldn’t change a thing except to find more ways to show his love for her.

Charlie Taggart(80s AU): Charlie is a bright, cheery nerd and oldest of six who likes old poems and epics full of monsters and mysteries. A little on the scrawny side with shockingly ginger hair and even more saturated green eyes, this freckle-faced teen knows tons of obscure facts and lore from anything as ancient as the Fenian cycles to anything as modern as Pacific Comic’s Twisted Tales. Smart as he clearly is, Charlie is largely hampered by his undiagnosed learning disabilities (mainly ADHD and Aspergers) and has trouble putting the same effort into other things as he does to his special interests. Like Dis, he’s in the process of questioning his sexuality, liking girls but also wondering if he maybe likes boys too. Unlike Dis he plans to keep his thoughts on the matter quiet, both because of how his family would react and because, well, he hasn’t had any luck with either gender so far. He’s happy enough not dating anyone anyway.

Duncan Cooke(80s AU): In any more recent decade, he’d be a brooding anime pretty boy who just needs a bit of help with his dress sense to truly become a heartthrob… But this is the 80s, so in reality his natural booksmarts and deep interest in philosophy and literature make him a fucking weirdo nerd. It doesn’t help that he’s a little too honest with people, and that his personality is generally quiet and a little grumpy at the best of times. Really he just wants the assholes who make fun of him to shut up and leave him alone so he can hang with the few friends he has and focus on getting his PhD to become the wise but standoffish Professor who refuses to attend the faculty Christmas party that he was always destined to be

[geniusorinsanity]

aww man if youre still looking for prompts, i would love to see the first chapter of if we bite from nursey's point of view? like, what exactly was he thinking when he brought up blowjobs to dex etc? that would be amazing!

DID YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE THIS PROMPT. BC I LOVE THIS PROMPT.

He’s not sure why he says it.

It might be the stress, or the way that studying Shakespeare makes him think about sex more than usual, or the fact that he’s scatterbrained and tired and that makes him lose his filter, but--

“God,” Nursey mumbles, mostly into Dex’s bedspread. “I’m so tense right now. I just need to suck a dick, you know?”

Dex chokes on his Red Bull and starts coughing, bending over his desk. He’s totally red, and Nursey’s not sure if it’s from what he said or the fact that he can’t breathe, but he snickers as he gets up and smacks him on the back a few times. “Jesus, Poindexter,” he laughs. “Chill.”

“You chill,” Dex chokes out. “What the shit, man, you can’t just say that.”

Nursey blinks at him, all innocence, just to be a dick. He and Dex are friends now, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like riling him up. “Say what?”

Dex rolls his eyes, then puts on his Derek Voice, which he usually reserves for terrible reenactments of stories where Nursey’s done something embarrassing. “‘I just need to suck a dick,’ bro? Really?”

Satisfied that Dex is breathing again, since he’s chirping, Nursey flops back onto Dex’s bed. “Hey, we’ve all got our stress relief.”

Dex’s cheeks go pink. Nursey refuses to find this attractive. “Yeah, but like...Don’t you mean, uh, have someone suck yours?”

Oh. That’s what this is about. Nursey raises an eyebrow at him pointedly. “No,” he says. “I said what I meant.”

Dex flushes redder, mutters something about how he doesn’t think that could be relaxing, and Nursey snorts, chirps him gently. They go back and forth like that a bit, Dex getting redder and redder but still asking, not dropping it, and finally, Nursey gives up. “You really wanna know?”

Dex’s throat works as he swallows, and he shrugs. “Good to know how your d-man ticks, right?”

There’s something under his words that Nursey can’t really place, and the room feels warmer than it did before, the weird tension that’s always hovered between them thicker, tighter. Nursey licks his lips and closes his book. “Yeah, okay.” He sits up, hesitating slightly as he thinks through what he wants to say. He knows how he feels when he’s going down on someone, but he’s never had to put into words to another person before.

The closest he’s ever come is putting it on paper, but even that has just been snippets of sensation, and those poems have never seen the light of day.

“I guess it’s about turning my brain off,” he says slowly, carefully. “Y’know, you’ve just got an objective that you’re going for, and you don’t have to think about it. And it’s a lot of sensation, so there’s that, too.” He smiles, thinking a little absently of his favorite parts. “Hard to think too much when your mouth is full and someone’s got their hands in your hair and--”

“Okay, I get it,” Dex says quickly, cutting him off.

Nursey grins. “What,” he teases. “C’mon, you don’t get the same thing eating pussy?”

He knows Dex has had at least one long-term girlfriend, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he’s done oral--he hopes he has, at least, Jesus, he’s an asshole but he should at least be a gentleman in bed--but Dex flushes again. “Not exactly,” he says. “I was definitely still, uh, thinking.”

Huh. Nursey shrugs. “Maybe it’s just my thing, then.” Dex still looks uncomfortable, though, and honestly, he sort of is, too--this is more than they’ve ever talked about sex, just the two of them, and it’s sort of weird. And not just because the way Dex keeps looking at him when he talks is making him half-hard in his jeans. He’s grateful for the notebooks in his lap. He changes the subject to something safer. “I mean, it’s no Finer Arts of Maplewood Sanding, but--”

The tension breaks as Dex rolls his eyes. “I swear to God, bro--”

They manage another hour or so of work before Nursey has to give up again, too stressed and annoyed with his essay to keep trying to make his points flow together the way he wants them to. He closes his laptop and gets up. Dex asks if he wants to get dinner, but Nursey turns him gently down--he’s too jittery to eat, and he needs something to calm him down before he can do anything else. He’ll text Lardo first, see if he can get a joint off her; if not, he’ll try one of Sadie’s art friends--

“Or,” Dex blurts out, as Nursey’s halfway out the door.

Nursey stops. Slowly, hesitantly, he turns. Dex is staring at him, upright and rigid in his desk chair, looking a little bit like he’s not sure saying something was a good idea, but like he still has more to say. Nursey raises his eyebrows. “Uh,” he says. “Or what?”

Dex stares at him for another moment, deer-in-the-headlights, and then he seems to force himself to relax, leaning back in his chair, all casual. “I mean,” he says, letting his legs fall open slightly. Nursey does not let his gaze flicker down. He doesn’t. “I’ve got a dick?”

Nursey’s brain does the thought equivalent of a record scratch. He stares. His brain plays the Mac OXS startup music. Chimes. He stares. Dex looks back.

“Are you fucking with me right now,” he says finally, “or are you serious?”

“Serious?” Dex says. It sounds like he’s guessing. Nursey frowns at him, and Dex flushes, backpedaling, talking quickly. “I mean, y’know. Giving blowjobs relaxes you. Getting blowjobs relaxes me. Seems like a win-win?”

He’s rambling by the end, and all Nursey can do is keep staring at him, his mouth open slightly. He blinks a little, and swallows. “I thought you were straight,” he says.

Dex shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe,” he says, and Nursey thinks, wildly, maybe???, but then Dex gestures at Nursey, encompassing his whole body, which...what? “But I’m not fucking blind.”

And it’s Nursey’s turn to flush a little, his cheeks warming. Because he’s used to compliments, yeah, used to people looking at him, but for some reason it feels different, coming from Dex. He’s not really sure why. Not really sure he wants to think about why.

He takes a breath. “If you’re fucking with me, this is a seriously dick move, even for you,” he says. “Like, grade-A asshole move. You know that, right?”

Dex nods, raising his hands, as if in surrender. “Genuine fucking offer, I swear.”

Offer. Like he’s doing Nursey a favor, letting him suck his dick. Like it’s a nice thing to do, letting Nursey get his mouth on him, see what he tastes like, feels like, see if he flushes all the way down his body when he’s turned on--

Fuck. He’s really going to do this. Nursey schools his face to calm. “Yeah, alright,” he says easily, smiling, and closing the door properly. “Chill.”

Dex looks almost as startled as Nursey feels, and for a second, Nursey thinks he is going to pull a “just kidding!”, but he doesn’t. He lets Nursey chirp him about the fact that he and his suitemates are computer nerds who never get laid. He takes off his jeans. They talk about condoms and STIs, because assholes or not, they’re not idiots.

And then Dex is sitting down on the edge of his bed in his boxers and t-shirt, his cheeks flushed, the outline of a semi visible through the thin cotton of his underwear, his eyes fixed on Nursey. Nursey watches his throat move as he swallows. “You wanna?”

He pats the bed next to him, clearly expecting Nursey to blow him from there, and Nursey hesitates. That’s the piece of this that he didn’t mention, but that’s okay. Dex’ll figure it out soon enough.

“Nope,” he says. Nursey smiles, making sure he holds Dex’s gaze, steady and unbreaking, and, slowly, he sinks to his knees.

[paige-writes]

Behind the Mic (chapter 2)

A voltron college!au fic between Shiro and Lira (OC)

Lira felt dead on her feet. Morning classes were always a hassle and made her and just about 98% of the school feel like zombies. Kudos to the rest who actually liked getting up at 7 am.

After walking into her creative writing class, Lira trudged up the steps to the middle section of the seats. The front was where basically everyone got picked to answer questions, and in the back you could barely hear the professor speak, so the middle was the only option in Lira’s case. After choosing a random row, Lira sat down as if a weight was strapped to her shoulders. She laid her head down in her arms in an attempt to get a few extra minutes of sleep before class started, but was soon woken up by someone tapping her shoulder.

Obviously annoyed, Lira turned her head to the side to see this perpetrator, only to bolt upright when she was faced with the same guy she bumped into yesterday. Since when was he in this class!? Okay, calm down Lira. He’s just a good looking guy you were just ogling after he made you fall. No big deal. Just….talk.

“H-Hi.” Okay, you stuttered.

“Hey,” he replied. “Did I wake you?”

“No, n-not at all! I was just resting a bit….” Lira tapped her hands on the table, thinking of what to say next. “So….what’s going on?”

“Oh, nothing. Just wanted to return these.” Lira stared at him confused until he reached into his bag and pulled out the same bag of mini Oreos that she’d dropped yesterday. “You, uh, left them behind, and I didn’t want to throw them away. I figured I’d give them to you since we’re in the same class.” He slid the package to Lira, who hesitantly took it in her hands. He….actually saved them for her. “Thank you,” she said. The guy smiled in response. “I’m Takashi Shirogane, by the way. You can call me Shiro, though.” Lira found herself smiling back. “Lira Evans. Nice to meet you.”

The opening of the classroom door signaled that the teacher was here. She began class by saying that everyone was to write a poem. “Since we have been on the topic of poetry for the past couple of weeks,” she said, “I wanted you all to try your hand at it yourselves.” There was a synced groan from the students that the professor ignored. “Your poems will be due next Friday and everyone will be presenting them.” Another groan from the class, one that Lira heavily emphasized. One thing that was worse than talking to one stranger was talking to multiple of them. She was never good at it; her throat always dried up, her hands would get clammy, and she would stutter tremendously. It was easy to avoid up until now when it was mandatory.This was going to be loads of fun.

Shiro noticed Lira’s look of distress and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “It won’t be that bad,” he assured. Lira sighed. “I hope so.”

“If you need help we could always work on these poems together.”

Lira felt her ears heat up slightly after he said that, because the one thing that romance films have taught her growing up was that working on schoolwork together meant ‘study date’, and study dates didn’t really include a whole lot of studying in those films. Lira instantly shook her head. “I-I think I can do this on my own. Thank you, though.”

The teacher gave the rest of the period to the students so that they could brainstorm their poetic ideas. Most of them sat around and did nothing while the rest got to work. Lira stared at her blank notebook, then to Shiro who was doing the same. He was twirling his pen in his hand, in complete focus. Sighing to herself for what felt like the umpteenth time that morning, Lira reached into her backpack and retrieved a leather-bound photo album and started to look through it for some sort of inspiration. Shiro noticed her movements out of the corner of his eye and switched his gaze to her, then to her album. There were various photos ranging from nature to antiques at a pawn shop and everything in between.

“You’re a photographer?” he asked, pointing to Lira’s album. Lira nodded, then explained how she was an art major in the photography field. “I do draw a little from time to time,“ she said, "but photography is what I’m mostly good at. There’s just so much to capture in one frame. Even a simple photo of a leaf could have a special meaning, although in my opinion the perfect photo is all about angling and precision. You have to hold your camera just right at a certain degree to get a perfect shot, and even after that there’s always the option of the right filter and—” Lira cut herself off when she saw Shiro staring at her, his cheek resting in one of his hands with a smile plastered on his face.

Heat quickly rose to Lira’s pale cheeks. “Oh no,” she said, making Shiro’s smile disappear into a puzzled expression, “I’m sorry, I’m rambling again. God, this always happens!”

“No, no,” Shiro replied, his smile returning. “Don’t be sorry, Lira. You’re passionate about photography, something you love. It’s cute that you like to talk about these things so openly.” Cute? Shiro thought it was cute? Well that was certainly one way to put it.

"I’m….flattered. Usually someone would tell me to stop talking by this point, but you don’t seem to mind at all.” There was a brief silence, both students not knowing how to continue this awkward conversation. It ended up finishing with just that, and the two resorted to writing their poems.

“Bonne après-midi my fellow listeners at Altea University! Welcome back to another daily segment of ‘Advice Corner’. I’m your host, A. It’s that time in the semester again where everyone crams and gathers in the library. Yes, it’s almost time for midterms. Grab your textbooks and your coffee and get studying! And if any of you need to vent or get advice, just send in a call and I’ll listen. Oh, and it looks like we have our first caller. Good afternoon fellow listener. How can I make your day feel A-Okay?”

The line was silent for a second before a male voice broke through.

“Uh, hi A. Man, these midterms are gonna kick my ass. Got any advice on how to not be too stressed?”

“Of course. It’s true that stress can’t be relieved altogether, especially with tests, however there are a few ways to clear your head in these trying times. Go outside for a breather if you feel cramped inside or are in need of a break. Listen to a calming soundtrack made for studying for concentration. Maybe take a hot shower or drink a warm beverage afterwards so that you feel more at ease. I know that when I’m stressed, I always put on my favorite fuzzy pajama pants.”

“Ah, these sound like good ideas. Thank you, A.”

“No problem, mon amie. Glad to help. Okay, next caller!”

Lira stretched in her chair, a strangled noise leaving her throat. Another successful segment, and now it’s back to classes.

As Lira left the office building, she heard her phone vibrate multiple times in her bag. Oh yeah, she’d forgot to silence it before starting the segment. Taking it out while she walked back to campus, she saw that it was yet again a text from Anita, and this time she made a group chat with Pidge included.

Art Nerd (Anita): liraaaaaaa

Pidge(on): llllliiiiiirrraaaaa

Art Nerd(Anita): answer ur phone dammit

Art Nerd (Anita): if ur asleep then wake uuuuuup

Pidge(on): pls dont be dead liraaaaaaa

Not-So-Social (Lira): Guys im fine. Just busy.

Pidge(on): OH MY GOD SHE LIVES

Art Nerd (Anita): PRAISE

Not-So-Social (Lira): Yes yes im alive, but what’s with the group chat? Usually you guys don’t make one unless….

Not-So-Social (Lira): oh no

Not-So-Social (Lira): Guys. This better not be what I think it is.

Art Nerd (Anita): sHIT! pidge shes onto us!

Pidge(on): welp. might as well come clean then. lira, the three of us are going out on Saturday. and when i say three, i mean THREE. not three and then one chickens out at the last minute.

Not-So-Social (Lira): Hey!

Art Nerd (Anita): shes not wrong tho. lira, we know u dont like interacting with other people, but at least spend time with us! we feel bad that ur holed up in ur apartment all the time and god knows we dont want u looking like casper the ghost. hell even pidge leaves her computer once in a while, even if i DO have to drag her away.

Art Nerd (Anita): and i mean it both metaphorically and physically

Not-So-Social (Lira): She goes out with you because you’re dating

Art Nerd (Anita): point taken

Pidge(on): COMING BACK TO OUR INITIAL TASK, it’d be nice to have some fun before we all have to hibernate and cram, and it’s not like we’re going to one of those sketchy frat/sor parties. we’ll go somewhere that’s nice and doesn’t leave us smelling like tequila and pot.

Not-So-Social (Lira): I’m pretty sure I don’t have a choice, but not smelling like tequila and pot sounds great in my book. Fine, send me the details when you guys can.

Art Nerd (Anita): YES

Pidge(on): we knew you’d come around. we’re irresistible >:)

Not-So-Social (Lira): I feel like I’m gonna regret this….

**chapter 3 coming soon!**

Translations

bonne après-midi (French) - good afternoon

mon amie (French) - my friend