#now my challenge is to DRAW that....no success in that department yet

[oliviaphleb]

Open Your Career in Healthcare: Top Phlebotomy Training Programs in Raleigh, NC

Unlock Your Career in Healthcare: Top Phlebotomy Training ‍Programs in Raleigh, NC

Are you looking to start a rewarding ⁣career in healthcare? Phlebotomy is ⁤a crucial field that offers numerous opportunities for⁢ personal and professional growth. ⁣In Raleigh, NC, several phlebotomy training programs can help you acquire the necessary skills to excel in this⁢ pivotal role.

what is ‌Phlebotomy?

Phlebotomy is the practise ‍of ‌drawing blood from patients for various medical purposes, including tests, transfusions, and donations.Phlebotomists play a ​vital role in healthcare by ensuring accurate sample ⁤collection,⁢ which is critical for patient diagnosis ⁤and treatment.

Why Choose a ‌Career in Phlebotomy?

High Demand: ‍The healthcare industry⁢ consistently needs skilled phlebotomists.

Quick ⁤Entry: Most phlebotomy ⁣programs can be completed in a few‌ months, allowing for swift entry⁤ into the job ​market.

Competitive Salary: Phlebotomists⁤ enjoy competitive pay, with additional opportunities for overtime.

Job Satisfaction: ⁢Working directly with patients can be⁢ extremely rewarding.

Top Phlebotomy‌ Training‍ Programs in Raleigh, ⁣NC

To help ​you find the best training options, we’ve curated a list of top ⁢phlebotomy training programs in raleigh, NC:

Institution

Program Duration

Certification

Contact

Wake Technical Community College

4 months

national Certification

Visit

Carolina school ‌of⁤ Phlebotomy

6 weeks

American ‌Society for Clinical pathology (ASCP)

Visit

MedFAST Training

3 months

Certified Phlebotomy Technician (CPT)

Visit

Phlebotomy‍ Training Specialists

4 weeks

National Phlebotomy Association ‍(NPA)

Visit

Benefits of Phlebotomy Training

Investing in phlebotomy training comes ‍with numerous advantages:

Thorough curriculum: Many programs cover anatomy, blood collection techniques, medical ⁣terminology, and infection control.

Hands-On Experience: Most courses include practical sessions that prepare you for real-world scenarios.

Flexible Schedules: Many institutions⁢ offer evening and weekend classes to accommodate working individuals.

Tips⁣ for Success in Phlebotomy Training

To maximize your phlebotomy training experience, consider the‌ following tips:

Stay Engaged: Participate⁤ in all hands-on‍ training sessions and ​ask questions to clarify doubts.

Practice regularly: Practice your‍ skills as much as possible during the training period.

Network: Connect with fellow students and instructors to build ‌professional relationships.

First-Hand Experience:‍ A​ Phlebotomy Graduate’s journey

To give you a better idea,let’s look at a‌ personal account from Jordan,a recent graduate from Wake Technical ⁣Community College:

⁢ “My time ‍in the ⁢phlebotomy program was challenging yet​ incredibly rewarding. The hands-on⁣ approach helped‍ me ⁢build confidence⁣ in my skills, and I⁤ appreciated the instructors’ guidance.After completion, I immediately found a job at a local clinic, and the demand for phlebotomists ⁤has made ​my career path⁢ an exciting journey!”

Case Studies: Success stories from Raleigh Graduates

Here are a few success stories from‍ graduates of local phlebotomy ⁤training programs:

Emily: ​ After completing her certification, she secured ​a position in a reputable⁢ hospital and now leads⁣ her department in patient satisfaction scores.

Michael: Following his training, he was hired at a local blood bank where he is now training new hires.

Sara: ⁣She used her phlebotomy training as a stepping stone⁤ to further her education in nursing, ultimately becoming a registered nurse.

The⁤ Future of Phlebotomy in Raleigh, NC

With the ever-expanding healthcare sector, the future ⁢for phlebotomists ‍in Raleigh looks bright. The U.S.⁣ Bureau‍ of Labor Statistics projects‌ a 22% growth ‌in employment opportunities for phlebotomists over the next‍ decade. This trend stems from the aging population and ​an​ increasing focus on health and⁢ wellness.

Conclusion

Phlebotomy offers a⁢ unique opportunity to enter the‍ healthcare field quickly and start making ‍a⁣ difference in people’s lives. By choosing one‍ of the top phlebotomy training programs in Raleigh, NC, you ⁤can ⁤set yourself on a ‍path toward ​a fulfilling career. Whether you want to earn a certification⁤ to start working as a phlebotomist or use ⁣it as a stepping stone‌ for further medical ​education, the options are plentiful. Take the first step today and unlock your career in healthcare!

https://phlebotomytechnicianschools.org/open-your-career-in-healthcare-top-phlebotomy-training-programs-in-raleigh-nc/

[elvesofnoldor]

this is like the best picture i could take of my lavellan when he’s with dorian, but idk what happened to dorian’s skin tone here oh boy it’s so washed out :| 

[inkdemonapologist]

[BatIM Call of Cthulhu Masterpost]

nEW SESSION (summary here!), where there’s been an unexpected development to the music issue and its time to [checks my notes] taLK TO THE PROPHET AND BREAK INTO SUSIE’S APARTMENT??? Also, the Prophet and Joey have made.... a truce(???), Prophet is concerned Sammy isn’t going to stay on task now that music is returning and has left him a sort of alarming note, and Jack is uh, trying to hold, too many things, maybe some things he shouldn’t be holding, Jack please put those things back,

anyway heres a stack of out-of-context quotes from our session under the readmore:

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Jack] My favourite thing is, there are so many reasons that Henry could've avoided things that I have no idea WHY Henry isn't affected. [Jack] Like, is he not affected because his art isn't a performance? Is he not affected because he warded his house? Is he not affected because he'S FILLED WITH GLOWING BLOOD?!?

[Jack] He got as far as feeding his cat, and I feel like feeding cat isn't a performance-- [Sammy] Not usually, not unless you sing a song to your cat, which-- [Jack] Awww! [Sammy] -- which, now that I've said that, sounds like something Jack would do actually,

[Sammy] Ohhhh, that's right, Joey just heard some people play some bad notes and start panicking, and then he stood up and passed out, [Jack] Which is probably how Sammy feels every time he hears people mess up music!

[GM] He finds news on the radio, but they’re not talking about that right now. [Joey] What are they talking about? [GM] Something mundane; business or sports or something. [Jack] The, the sportsball team, got a…..uh….. a, a point. Congratulations, sportsball,

[Joey] If the sportscasters sound normal, then Joey is instantly VERY ANGRY.

[Henry] Henry’s not very musically inclined, but he knows some songs, [Sammy] Like, can you hum Twinkle Twinkle Little Star -- [Jack] “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.”

[Jack] Jack has made a vague list of the kinds of people who seem to be affected. [Jack] There’s also “NOT HENRY?????” with a bunch of question marks in this list.

[GM] He’s told that Peter is out of town for a week. [Jack] Hmm. [Sammy] PETER WHERE ARE YOU GOING? [Jack] Hmmmmmm. [Sammy] Jack, is Peter coming here, to check on you, [Jack] HMMMMMMMMMMMMM,

[Sammy] *exasperated* NPCs Stop Getting Involved In The Occult Challenge [Henry] Stop Getting Involved In The Occult Or Draw 25

[Joey] Peter had never seen a Bendy cartoon, and this needed to be fixed. [Joey] The premier is this weekend, and he sent tickets to Pete to correct this, error, in his ways. [Jack] ...I think it is very slowly dawning on Jack, that this means that Pete has been pulled directly into yet another… supernatural nonsense... [Sammy] WE DIDNT DO THIS ONE!!

[Sammy] I CAN’T BELIEVE PHONES ARE THE ANTAGONIST OF THIS ADVENTURE

[Henry] Oh wait--! oh, no, nevermind, I forgot he and Allison probably aren’t together yet. [Sammy] Yeah, I think they just met; they had a meet-cute where they found out they both like Frankenstein and that’s it. [Jack] They actually got married today, since nothing else was happening at the Studio, [Sammy] That’s why Allison hasn’t shown up, she was busy getting married!

[GM] Bendy might’ve been keeping tabs on Henry, but it depends I guess on how distressed Joey is seeming. [Joey] Joey is probably just going to bury his sorrow in studying magic. [GM] Okay! That’s fine and normal Joey behaviour!

[Sammy] Sammy will note that nothing got done in the music department, because he has good priorities.

[Jack] I like the idea that it’s just like, when the teacher isn’t in, and nobody does the work the substitute teacher gave you, [Jack] Everyone’s just playing pokemon in the back, [GM] I thought you were going to say “poker,” but I like the way you ended the sentence better.

[Jack] HMMMMMM. I wonder if we know, any suspicious women, who were around on that specific day, who are known to have, skill and interest in magical things,  [Joey] And also were aware of the cutouts, [Sammy] *cheerfully* Yeah, weird! Anyway!!!!

[Jack] Sammy was acting weird about Allison. Far too agreeable for a Sammy!

[Sammy] *talking about Prophet* If you want to lock him in somewhere, or restrain him, I’ll cooperate. [Jack] Just handcuff him to Jack! [Sammy] SAMMY IS UNEASY WITH THAT PLAN, [Jack] *laughing* What could go wrong! It’s not like Jack is significantly less strong or anything!!

[Jack] Not everyone makes up their entire self, Joey!!! (Affectionate)!!

[Sammy] I give my word, my sheep! [Henry] How good is your word? [Sammy] I mean. It’s pretty good.

[Henry] Henry’s trying to decide if it would be rude to doodle during this very serious conversation. [Jack] I mean, Jack is taking notes, so I feel like-- [Joey] --you can get away with fake note-ing. [GM] No one will know! [GM] Well, Bendy will know, because he’s up high. [GM] Ceiling Bendy

[Sammy] He’s not gonna give you a grade afterwards, like, this isn’t a lecture, [Jack] Time for Prophet Pop Quiz!

[GM] What’s Prophet writing? [Sammy] Um, I gotta think about this... [Jack] “Dear Frightened Shepherd, that Allison person sure is nice, isn’t she?” [GM] “What’s up with everyone ragging on her?” [Joey] “I think I have finally found a way to bridge the gap between us!” [Jack] “I think you need to replace your sheep, they seem kind of suspicious for no reason,” [Jack] “To Do List: Get Better Sheep”

[Sammy] Does this feel like something that’s trying to take his focus, like, very compelling creative ideas? [GM] Yes. [Sammy] ...Prophet will write “don’t get distracted” five more times.

[GM] His mind is abuzz with thoughts of dancing and actoring, [GM] Ideas to be the best Joey ever! [Jack] Oh no.

[Joey] He will wave at the cutout and make a “come here” motion. [Joey] Though also, he’s looking at the cutout like, I’m not quite sure how this works, but I’m going to trust you that it works! So I’m going to do this and see if Bendy shows up! [Jack] Like someone trying to learn how to do phone video calls for the first time, [Joey] YES. Joey’s actually like really close to the cutout, and the motions -- you can make them out, but it’s really awkward,

[Sammy] They’re in no danger. I will take care of the Shepherd’s sheep. [Jack] ...JACK’S BEEN DOWNGRADED!! He’s no longer PROPHET’S sheep!

[Joey] I like how everything Prophet says really just feels like, Knife Cat face.

[GM] You could probably make a Mythos roll to figure it out. [Joey] *rolls* Oh! Extreme success! [GM] Joey’s back!

[GM] Bendy will lead Joey back to the room, where hopefully there are three alive, non-fighting boys!

[Jack] Part of me was like, “What if Jack DOES turn into a cat…?! It’d be pretty hard to write things!” [GM] *laughs* We’ll keep that in our back pocket, in case Jack ever fails a Mythos check. [Jack] Meowthos check…

[Henry] I’m going to have Henry look, look with his Special Eyes.

[Sammy] *failing a roll* Prophet is just, NOT on the ball today, in any way shape or form. [GM] Really hard not to think about music. : ) [Sammy] Ohhhhhh boy, [Jack] Prophet just writes a note to Sammy that says “HOW do you LIVE like this???”

[Henry] Henry’s gonna try to scribble what he remembers of the symbol!  [Sammy] Didn’t we learn, from the last scenario, about reproducing weird symbols, [Henry] No.

[Joey] Did Joey get burnt? [GM] Make a dexterity roll! : ) [Henry] *mumbling* Y’all this entire building is made of wood. *Joey fails* [GM] 1 point of damage, you singe your hand -- on the plus side, you kind of were holding it as it burned up, so it doesn’t fall on the wooden floor. [Sammy] OH GOOD, we’re not LOCKED IN A CLOSET that’s about to burn down? GREAT!

[Joey] We could head over to the infirmary -- [Jack] Jack is already pulling the burn ointment out of his bag. [Jack] He’s prepared this time! [Jack] He’s been practicing, he knows what you’re all like,

[Joey] Joey will give him a smile that’s most recognisable as the “I know you will do good!” smile. [Sammy] Prophet will also smile! It is not a friendly smile. [Jack] It’s a “smile” in quotation marks, but it’s like, baring your teeth as an act of aggression. 

[Jack] Jack lets him go to do the call, but just before he picks up the phone, he says, “Don’t call him Petey.”

[GM] The phone rings, and is not answered. [Joey] Okay! Joey hangs up, says Peter checked into his room, but is not answering. Most likely asleep. [Jack] Half of my brain is going, “what if he’s just stood outside Jack’s house?” The other half of my brain is concerned about manias. I hope he’s not decided that now is a really great time to do more writing, and now he can’t stop, and this could go wrong-- [Jack] This is what Jack’s mind is doing, thinking of all the terrible possibilities. [Joey] While humming. [Jack] ...yes. He’s writing some very troubling lyrics.

[Sammy] *talking about Jack’s compulsive humming* Like Cornifer, [Jack] *starts humming Cornifer’s theme* Dangit, now it’s in my head, why would you do this to me? [Sammy] It’s in character! [Sammy] Method acting. : )

[Joey] Joey’s going to grab supplies to make sure Bendy can… hang around with them! [Joey] Sleepover supplies! Let’s grab your sleepover bag! :D

[Sammy] I don’t know why the idea of a wild Bendy running around across the rooftops is so cute to me… [GM] Probably on all fours, [Jack] Scampering,

[Jack] It’s a good thing Henry’s around because I don’t think Jack can… carry??? An entire Sammy??? [Jack] Like he’s good at holding but he’s not strong at holding.

[Joey] We’ve all been acting terrible for the last 24 hours… [Joey] WAIT. We’ve all been acting terrible for the last 24 hours!!!

[GM] Bendy hides under a blanket or something. [Jack] Comfey… [GM] Cozy boy, [Joey] Bendyrito. [Sammy] BENDYRITO,…….. [GM] Rolled up… snug...

[GM] Is everybody coming into the apartment, or just the two? [Jack] Hmmm….. Jack isn’t fond of either of these options. Going in is suspicious and weird; staying outside makes it look even more like they’re breaking in, to steal things, as opposed to, y’know, breaking in, for,,, “good” reasons(???) [Sammy] We’re not breaking in, we’re just walking into this apartment! What’s so weird about that?! [Jack] That’s breaking in. That’s what breaking in is, Sammy. [Sammy] They don’t have to know that we don’t belong here, maybe Susie gave us a key! [Jack] ...they heard us knocking. [Sammy] [Sammy] We’re BEING POLITE!! SHUT UP!!

[Henry] Jack, did you pick up kleptomania.. [Joey] I thought Jack picked up Being Prepared! [Jack] H-he’s just hoarding a little bit!! It’s fine!!! It’s very, useful, see, already Joey got injured!! It was useful to bring lots of things with him okay!!!!!!!!!

[GM] They do not have the police called on them, so that’s nice. [Sammy] Oh good! [Jack] Thank GOODNESS. [Henry] Love when that happens! [GM] If you guys got arrested, the Lurker’s just out in the car all night, [Henry] oh NO, [Jack] Worse punishment than jail… [Joey] Lurker learns how to drive for fun. [GM] *laughs* Gets curious, [Joey] “I said I wouldn’t leave the car, but--”

[Joey] WAIT. There’s a very important factor that we just decided but didn’t say. [GM] Oh? [Joey] If we have Henry heading home, and everyone else sleep over at Jack’s…. [Joey] ...the Lurker finally gets to meet a cat. *everyone gasps* [Jack] Oh that’s SO important

[Henry] And Henry will probably look at these, while in the car, to make sure they don’t have any gold writing on them-- [Sammy] Isn’t Henry driving??? [Henry] ……Henry is not going to look at them in the car,

[Sammy] We’re all going to bed, Sammy, you don’t need a banjo to sleep! [Joey] You might sleep worse if you have a banjo, actually. You might not stop.

[Sammy] Jack you wanna join us? We’re gonna just jam all night! [Jack] It really is Jammy… [Sammy] *laughs* TRUE Jammy!! Real Jammy Hours… [GM] That makes it a pyJAMa party… a real jammy jam…

[anoutlandishfanfic]

Metamorphosis Ch.26: Over the Sea

The Premise: What if Claire had conceived on her wedding night with Jamie? How would that change the plot points we all know and love?

We’re coming down the home stretch folks! Our get away car is in the harbor! We just gotta get em there! 

You can find a Master List of chapters here on tumblr or read the whole thing on AO3. 

February 21st, 1744; The Abbey, Scotland Jamie.

I stifled a groan in Claire’s curls as the church bell tolled three, my arms reflexively tightening around her as I tried to ignore the fact that it was time to get out of bed.

I hated to wake her.

The night had not been an easy one for my wife — were they ever these days? — and Claire only just managed to fall back asleep, but I knew she’d need a wee bit of extra time to dress this morning… as her appearance was vital to our ruse.

Smoothing the tousled curls away from her brow, I placed a kiss on her temple, then trailed one after the other until I reached the base of her neck. She stirred at my touch, her eyelids flickering and one corner of her mouth pulling upwards towards a smile, but didn’t wake. My hand lowered to her hip, then slid along the distended curve of her abdomen as my lips found hers.

Her own hands moved then, reaching and finding me in the darkness.

“Good morning,” I murmured into her palm, brushing a kiss across it as her hand drifted round to the back of my head.

One eye cracked open to scowl at me at this greeting, her words slightly jumbled but still coherent, “Thisn’t morning, y’oaf. Dark’out.”

I curled my lips between my teeth to keep from grinning at her offended expression, the innocence of slumber still lingering on her face and made her appear very much like a spoiled, pouting child.  

Claire felt my suppressed amusement and struggled to open both her eyes. Her brow furrowed with the effort it took to spear me with what I’m sure was meant to be her best look of consternation, but it fell short. I kissed her soundly in an effort to keep from laughing outright, rousing us both completely and bringing us directly back to why we’d risen at this inhospitable hour of the morn.

She sighed a moment later, a wistful look dancing across her now clear eyes.

“It’s time, isn’t it?”

“Aye,” I swallowed hard, excitement mixing with the fear of the unknown as my stomach churned.

“Time to leave.”

... Half past 4am.

The wind howled around us as we stepped from the shelter of the abbey out into the open courtyard, cautiously picking our way across the frozen cobblestones. It’s nasty chill bit at any patch of exposed skin it could sink its teeth into and my cheeks and hands were already red and raw from ensuring the rig was properly loaded with our things.

I hastily grabbed for the carriage door, lunging for it before it was really in reach as I was eager to get Claire out of the cold, but she was of a different mind.

“You won’t say a word if we’re stopped, will you?” she inquired, pulling up short and studying my face intently. “Or only in French if you must? That cap’ll do to hide your hair, but there’s no mistaking your voice.”

My hand instinctively went to the back of my neck, feeling the rough wool of my knitted hat. It would keep me warm, certainly, but pulled low as it was, it went a long way to hide the telltale auburn hair that was plastered all over my broadsheets.

“Aye, er, oui Madame,” I promised, squeezing her hand reassuringly with a forced smile as I helped her onto the first step.

Wobbly as a new foal, I steadied her as she picked her way into the dark carriage. Murtagh held his lantern high, giving her light to see as she eased herself into the padded cushions and meticulously arranged the folds of her cloak.

“The same goes for you, hmm?” Claire’s head snapped up to look at us, her gaze locking onto my godfather’s. Her eyes narrowed in a rather unreadable expression of consternation mixed with something akin to a challenge as she continued, “Not a word from the both of you. Let Francis do the work and the talking until we’re aboard ship.”

I caught the twitch of my godfather’s lips out the corner of my eye — despite his heavy beard and the early morning darkness — and marveled yet again at the relationship the two of them had formed while I was away.

“And I can quite handle myself, thank you very much,” she added in afterthought and under her breath, almost as if to reassure herself as it was to us.

Claire caught the mirth bubbling up beneath my gathering nerves and reached out her hand to me. I took it in an instant, leaning in and keeping my voice low, even though I was sure no one but our present company could hear us.

“May your brilliant mind and unbridled tongue keep us safe, my love,” I blessed her in French, then dropped my hand to the swell of our children. “And may you both bide until we are safe.”

She crossed herself, the barest hint of a shudder running through her, and I dove into the carriage beside her, pulling her into my arms and vowing, “No harm will come to you, Claire. I give you my word.”

“I know,” she murmured back after a moment and I loosened my grip.

Sitting back, she waved me off.

“We need to leave if we’re going to catch the tide,” she insisted with a smile that gained confidence by the second. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

I blinked at her for a moment, which made her laugh — a heartily welcome sound — and I shook my head with a smile of my own.

“Oui, Madame,” I stepped back onto the ledge of the doorway, “I am entirely at your service, my Lady Beauchamp.”

She nodded curtly and dismissed me fully, all but shoving me out into cold with a single look.

I grinned at her and exited the carriage, shutting the door firmly behind me. Turning, I moved to join Murtagh on the bench up top but hesitated a moment before climbing aboard.

That they might be safe… both she and the children.

My eyes slid shut, my heart offering up the rest of a prayer that I could not put into words.

“Come along, a bhalaich.”

Murtagh’s command was urgent yet gentle and I reflexively moved to do so, hastily crossing myself before climbing up beside him with a fluidity that hadn’t been mine since before my injury. I nodded to him and with a flick of the reins, he set us into motion.

I held my breath as we passed through the main gate and left our safe haven behind.

There would be no going back.

We hadn’t traveled long before we encountered the first crofter’s hut, still shut up and slumbering in the early morning dew. I scanned the road ahead and caught sight of a small copse of trees off to the left side. This particular stretch of road wasn’t bounded by forest, so it would make a perfect lookout post, should a soldier or two want to keep an eye on the comings and goings of the abbey.

And they certainly would.

My gut clenched as we approached, wishing the lanterns posted on the corners of the carriage were bright enough to see what we were about to ride into. The mare on the right snorted to her teammate and I flinched. It took everything within me to not grab the reins from Murtagh’s hands and turn us around.

“Steady,” Murtagh coaxed in the language Claire had instructed us… one I knew he didn’t particularly care to use.

To anyone listening, it’d be logical that he would have been speaking to the horses, but I knew it was intended for me.

… Claire.

The carriage began to slow and I spat out an emphatic, “Fuck!”

I bit down hard on my lower lip, the sharp pain competing against my rolling stomach and spasming back. The deep, frozen ruts of the lane did little to ensure a smooth ride to the harbor and the combination of my raw nerves and the carraige’s jolting, jostling motions were enough to set me completely on edge.

Lifting a hand to the ridiculous bonnet atop my head, I adjusted it slightly and then arranged my skirts around me. Our success was dependent on my looking every inch a respectable woman of wealth and I was determined to have everything in place when that door opened. We came to a complete stop long before I was ready and I forced myself to take as deep of a breath as was possible in my current state.

Here we bloody go, Beauchamp.

Male voices began to bark orders, sending a shiver down my spine, and I steeled myself for the gust of frigid air mingled with danger that was sure to come at any moment. I didn’t have to wait long, for the door opened in the next second and I saw the face of Lady Margaret’s most trusted footman, Francis.

His expression gave nothing away as he offered his hand in assistance — the as yet unseen redcoats obviously requested I present myself — and I donned my most affected air, slipping into the personage I’d crafted in my wakeful hours of the night.

“Tell them I wish to speak to their commanding officer,” I sniffed, drawing my cloak tighter around me, “and do shut the door, Francis, or I shall catch my death of a chill.”

One brow twitched and I caught the briefest of smiles flicker across the chap’s face before he disappeared back into the night, doing exactly as I’d asked.

More voices sounded in conversation outside the carriage, taking on an air of confusion as a whole, with the exception of Francis’ Lowland lilt.

“Ye better do as th’Lady asks, ye ken,” he warned and I couldn’t help but grin in the dark in spite of my nerves. “She’s not one t’bide... an’ she’s a ship t’meet.”

There was a shuffling of feet and a clanking of metal, but one person had obviously moved off and all discussion faded away into nothing. A few moments passed in anxious silence until a new disgruntled voice suddenly asked, “Have you found something, then?”

Bile rose at the back of my throat as I thought of them finding Jamie up above me, but I didn’t waver from my plan.

Negatory remarks followed the new voice’s inquiry and the officer — for indeed, he must be — was informed of the situation.

Francis opened the door again and I launched into my tirade, “What is the meaning of this inconvenience, Captain?! If my ship departs without me, I shall ensure that you are stripped of your position, paraded through the streets barefoot in nothing but sackcloth and ashes, and unable to find a place of employment as anything but His Majesty’s scullery maid!”

The officer stood slack jawed just outside the door in perfect response to my tirade, obviously not expecting a well-bred, highly enraged, loyal British subject on the road at this hour.

“Do come in and explain yourself,” I huffed, beckoning him forward, “you must have a reason for holding up honest traffic in the middle of the night like a Highland bandit.”

His mouth snapped shut at this and his brows rose all the way to the edge of his wig as he climbed inside, a lantern in hand. I blinked at the sudden brightness, but it only helped to permanently affix my scowl.

“Now, who do I have the pleasure of addressing?” I titled my head to the side, feigning interest while looking very much like an addled bird, I was sure.

“Captain George Brooks, my lady, of, ah, His Majesty’s Third Battalion,” he cleared his throat, stammering slightly. “I, well, I sincerely apologize for Private Richardsen’s rather forward behavior and, well, the delay.”

He studied me quite openly, his gaze taking in my fine clothing and warm cloak. The captain seemed to take me for what I appeared to be, for he quickly continued, “You see, Madam, we have word that an escaped convict has sought sanctuary within the abbey and are stopping and searching every conveyance that leaves the place.”

I stiffened at the word convict, but used it to my advantage.

“I must tell you, Captain, that I was the guest of the good brethren and can assure you no such man exists,” I leveled him with a look that made him squirm. “And, certainly, no one of such quality is among my men.”

“I consider the Scottish brutes to be a detestable sort and am on my way now to leave this godforsaken country,” I sniffed, forcing myself not to choke on the absolute fallacy of my own words.

Captain Brooks nodded at this, but it was clear from his gathering frown he had questions for me.

“There’s a respectable tavern in the village where my men are quartered,” he shifted, leaning forward slightly. “Why stay with the heretics when other suitable — and dare I say safer — lodging was available?”

I snorted, feigning disgust, “I’d rather sleep in the gutter than under the roof of a Highland villager, Captain… and as for the heretic Papists, you forget that a good many of His Majesty’s subjects are such.”

He caught sight of the jet rosary on display around my neck and had the good grace to wince.

“My apologies, Lady…,” he trailed off.

“Beauchamp,” I supplied for him, ready to rattle off my concocted scenario. “My husband is Lieutenant Commander Alexander Beauchamp of the Royal Navy and I’m meeting him in Portsmouth… that is, if you and your men will permit us to be on our way.”

My companion shifted uncomfortably once more, groveling, “Yes, well, I see there is no reason that you should not be allowed to travel on. I shall send a man ahead to alert the guard at the port. They’ll see that you board and depart without interference.”

“How good of you, Captain,” I commented, forcing a smile as a sudden wave of nausea overtook me.

Hurry up, Captain, or you shall be wearing my breakfast.

... Jamie.

The captain strode out the door of the carriage, nearly knocking Francis off his feet, and beckoned wildly to his lieutenant. I tensed, nearly grabbing the reins out of Murtagh’s hands, but instead steeled myself as I caught his orders on the wind.

“Ride ahead,” he motioned for a horse to be brought round, bellowing, “Tell Phillips to let them through without trouble and ensure no one delays their departure... And If I hear that so much as a seagull spoke out of turn to the Lady Beauchamp, I shall have both your head and your commission, Hawkins!”

Lieutenant Hawkins swung into the saddle with a barked yes, sir and was barreling down the path ahead of us a moment later.

I blinked in surprise, then let the darkness of the night hide the beginnings of a smile that warmed my face.

Well done, mo nighean donn.

…

Claire.

The remainder of the ride to the harbor was something akin to cruel and unusual punishment.

The road had gotten better some time ago — the carriage no longer pitching from side to side with every rut we hit — but I still felt every stone, every bump we drove over. The muscles of my lower back and left hip spasmed with a ferocity that I had never experienced, protesting their rough handling in a language that I could not ignore. My stomach rolled, my chest heaved, and it was everything I could do not to lose my cookies all over Lady Margaret’s velvet cushions.

Breathe, Beauchamp.

I slid my eyes shut. It was dark as the deepest cave around me, but somehow the feeling of closing my eyes still gave me a barrier to the outside world.

You did it.

We’d passed through the checkpoint undetected, sent on our way the very man in charge of the entire operation. I couldn’t let my guard down yet, though, couldn’t celebrate this victory until we were really, truly well on our way on the open sea.

I shook my head, trying to fixate on something steady, something outside of the tossing, tumbling barrel I was currently deposited in.

Jamie.

I did allow myself to smile then.

What did he think of it all? Of our walking through right under the redcoats' noses?

I was thankful he had Murtagh at his side through the whole ordeal, but I still wished I could have been with him. For my presence beside him to steady his nerves.

Who are you kidding, Beauchamp?

You couldn’t have climbed up there next to him if your life depended on it.

Well… maybe only if it truly depended on it.

My hands moved, my arms cradling the curve of my distended abdomen as I shifted against the seat cushions. Climbing aboard this conveyance had been interesting enough… I didn’t want to think of what getting aboard the Demeter would entail.

The footman Francis was a short, sender slip of a thing, and while that suited his career perfectly, it wouldn’t suffice should I need assistance boarding the ship.

No one would think twice of Jamie’s strong form helping me… would they?

My heart lurched to a stop, skipped a beat, then thundered on as the carriage began to slow and I realized the next hurdle was upon us. We didn’t stop, but continued to crawl along for many minutes, allowing me time to right myself and prepare for act two of my facade.

When Francis did open the door… I was ready.

… Around 5am, Aboard the Demeter; Jamie.

A dhia, what a woman.

I shook my head in amused astonishment as I watched Claire’s rigid form dismiss Colonel Phillips with a flick of her hand, then turned to the captain of the ship and pointedly asked for shelter from the cold. We hadn’t the time to inform him of her ruse before we boarded, but he gruffly acquiesced and motioned for her to follow him into the cabin.

Seeing that Phillips had disembarked and none of his men were looking towards the ship, I slipped into the shadows of the gathering dawn and trailed after them.

“I do apologize for my tone on deck, Captain,” I heard her sigh as I entered the small, cluttered room. “We sincerely appreciate your kindness and understand the risk you’re taking in bringing us aboard.”

“Aye, well,” he shifted from foot to foot, not quite sure what to make of my wife, “‘Tis nothin’ much… so long as ye stay within an’ out of my men’s way, ye ken.”

I’d gathered in our short time on deck that the crew’s opinion of my wife was something akin to an omen of bad luck — as a woman aboard ship often was — and had no intention of letting her out that door again until we were disembarking onto French soil.

Claire turned as the ship’s captain left, realizing I was there for the first time and her face completely crumpled. She looked as though her body was about to follow suit and was at her side in a moment, gathering her into my arms and tucking her head securely beneath my chin. I could feel her begin to tremble from head to toe against me and looked wildly around for a place for her to sit.

Not readily finding one, she clung to me as we stood in the middle of the room, swaying slightly with the motion of the ship.

“Ifrinn,” I muttered when I found I could finally speak, “I shouldna let you do tha’, mo chridhe.”

“We didn’t have a choice,” came her soft reply, muffled by the front of my coat.

I shrugged at this, knowing she was right, but wishing my heavily pregnant wife hadn’t had to be the one to navigate us through the lion’s den.

“But ye did verra well, indeed,” I had to admit, more than a hint of pride coloring my voice.

She snorted in objection to this and I grinned, turning back her hood and shedding her of that ridiculous cap in one movement. Placing a kiss amid her curls, my hand cupped the back of her head.

Lifting her chin, she looked up at me, fatigue evident in her eyes. I kissed her soundly then and she turned in my arms, looping her own around my neck with a contented sigh.

“Are you cold?” I asked, placing a kiss on her warm neck but had felt her chilled cheek against my own.

“No, not very,” she rested her head against my shoulder. “It’s much better in here.”

I nodded, agreeing as my gaze lifted and I began to examine the quarters we’d been given.

Captain’s quarters they may be, but it was also clearly a storeroom for a good portion of  his cargo. Crates stacked upon crates loomed around us like a forest of trees, with bundles and baskets cast about on the floor in unorganized chaos. There didn’t seem to be a bed to be found  in any resemblance of the word and this gave me no amount of disquiet.

Resigning myself to a sturdy crate that was roughly sitting height to my left, I slowly moved Claire in that direction, easing her down onto it as I went in search for better accommodations. She flapped a weary hand at me, encouraging me on my way as she loosened her stays and let out a shaky breath.

I wove in and out of the stacks of goods, desperate to find a place for my wife to lay down. There were large wooden trunks and canvas wrapped parcels, small wooden crates and barrels of various volumes and heights… but no bed. I discovered something resembling a hammock slung in one corner, but as that would never do, I dismissed it immediately and continued my search, doubling back and returning a different way than I’d come.

“Jamie?”

Claire’s voice had me leaping over a canvas wrapped bundle and grabbing for the bucket I’d caught out the corner of my eye. I reached her just in time for her to deposit her breakfast in the receptacle, her eyes wide and cheeks gone an unearthly pale.

“Christ, I’m sorry,” I gushed, keeping a stray curl from getting in the way of things. “I shouldn’t have left yer side… tis the same wi’ me, too.”

In truth, our current rhythmic motion was nothing compared to what we’d experience once we left the harbor, but I had the good sense to let that be.

Claire shook her head, glowering into the depths of the bucket and grumbled, “It was that bloody roller coaster.”

“Mhmm,” I commented noncommittally, not entirely sure what that was but fairly confident she meant the carriage ride here. “Aye, well, ye’re off it now.”

She retched again, as if the very mention of the conveyance had set her stomach into motion again.

“Shh, my own, it will be better in a moment,” I assured her in Gaelic as I knelt beside her, smoothing back the hair from her face and rubbing her back.

Offering her my handkerchief when she appeared to be done, I took the fragrant bucket from her and set it aside, though within arm’s reach should she need it again.

“Are you alright?” she squeaked, the color beginning to creep back into her cheeks.

I stared at her, my brows nearly to my hairline as I asked incredulously, “Me?!”

“Yes, you,” the frown was back, but I could see that the wheels were churning furiously behind those amber eyes. “You were just paraded in front of an entire battalion of redcoats… that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

I shook my head, shrugging off her concern, assuring, “I’m fine, Sassenach. They didna give me so much as a second glance, thanks to you.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

A slow smile tugged at my lips at her slow, deliberate enunciation of every syllable of this declaration.  

“Aye, I ken jus’ what ye mean,” I reached for her hands, twining my fingers between hers, “an’ I think ye ken me better than I ken myself, at times.”

She snorted at this, dismissing the notion.

“If I do, then it’s the same with me,” she muttered, wiping at her face.

I grinned, squeezing her hands tightly.

“Oh, aye, mo nighean donn… I do, indeed.”

[skidar]

Disney announces a ‘live action’ (hyper-realistic CGI animation) remake of Bambi

I’m sure most of the world is tired of the Disney remakes and sequels that have been plaguing the box offices as of recent years. With all the stories of the world that have yet to be told, Disney is opting to stay in the illusionary ‘safe lane’ and continue the hash out the same products it already knows will sell instead of trying to cobble together an original feature. It’s hard to believe that the animation company that backs amazing original tv show ideas like Gravity Falls, The Owl House and Amphibia cannot fathom how to make an original animated movie. Is Disney actually scared of risk? It shouldn’t be! Disney is literally too big. A massive media monopoly that could literally make flop after flop in the box office over and over in experimentation and not fail. So many indie studios do NOT have that luxury and yet still take crazy risks to tell us new stories in new ways. Disney used to be the animation pioneers but recently the only thing Disney seems to create are re-hashes of its classics that fall all too short. Disney is focusing on the visual realism in its films while seemingly ignoring the heart and soul that made the originals so successful. The most recent and best example was The Lion King remake. While the films boasts near-flawlessly realistic animals, their stoic expressions and restricted movement made them unappealing. The movie copied dialogue from the original word-for-word and nearly shot for shot but the focus on the realism cut the character’s charm completely out. The ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ number lost all its stylistic qualities that made the song bright and colorful and the character’s lip-syncing to the songs was emotionless and stale. The characters also no long moved with expressive freedom. Are they happy? Sad? Overjoyed? We wouldn’t know. The Lion King remake was devastatingly disappointing. A realistic skin stretched over the bones of a far better film while letting no charm or heart escape the cold, hyper realistic faces.

Surely Disney would realize the mistake and stop. Right? Surely they could dig around their submissions box and try to make something new with the skills they obviously have without resulting to re-hashing it’s already successful classics. Right? 

Wrong.

Disney now has Bambi on its chopping block of remakes and plans to do to it what it’s done to The Lion King. Virtually gut it.

Bambi cannot be remade successfully as a hyper realistic film today. You could tell the story, yes, based off the original book, Bambi: A Life in The Woods by Felix Salton, but it would not be the visual masterpiece of the original. Let me explain:

Bambi was the 5th animated feature by Walt Disney but it was MEANT to be one of the first. Walt wanted to make Bambi from the beginning but he wanted to make it ‘right.’ He wanted to stray away from the ‘toony’ simplified animals of Snow White and Pinocchio and instead focus on realism, anatomy and expression. He brought live animals into the studios and worked with animal artists to develop a healthy balance of realistic anatomy and exaggerated features. Ie: Bambi’s large forehead and eyes symbolized that of a toddler as a young deer. 

Bambi also pioneered new ways of technology, the early pan-shot of the forest in the beginning of the movie was made by painting trees on long panes of glass and then stacking the glass vertically and sliding the panes around to show depth. By sliding the camera on a track from left to right, the viewer was transported through a ‘3D’ forest that moved and shifted with them. Bambi also brought about the study of the art of water physics for the ‘Little April Shower’ scene. By filming and photographing drops of milk, the animators learned how to draw the intricate patterns of a splashing drop of water on a leaf or in a puddle. 

Speaking of animators, Bambi employed at least four of Walt Disney’s ‘Nine Old Men’ some of the most well-known character animators in history: Milt Kahl, Frank Johnson, Ollie Thomas and Marc Davis.  The iconic movements of Bambi and the other animals would not have been possible with them, but the biggest artistic influencer of Bambi was a young Chinese-American man name Tyrus Wong. Tyrus Wong had been an inbetweener animator on Pinocchio but expressed interest in Bambi by privately submitting some sketches to Walt. He was hired and became the lead production illustrator of the film. Tyrus Wong’s beautiful watercolor backgrounds were soft and simple, setting a film steeped in nostalgia, innocence and beauty of the natural world. Without Tyrus Wong, the film would have been completely different. 

Bambi was also the first Walt Disney film to recognize a woman in its screen credits. Traditionally, women often worked in the Disney Ink and Paint department coloring cels. Retta Scott was a storyboard artist that worked mostly on scenes with Bambi and his mother, but became well known for her savage hunting dogs sketches that caught the eye of Walt Disney during production. Many men were shocked at the ferocity of her dogs because ‘she was a women and shouldn’t have been able to draw something so vicious,’ but she became the lead animator for the hunting dogs that chased Faline during Man’s hunt. She was tutored by another member of the Nine Old Men, Eric Larson. Retta Scott’s continued yet under-appreciated success opened doors for many women in the animation industry.

Bambi was a film of massive risks and little payoff. It challenged style, it pushed animators to their limits, it experimented in technology, color and technique. It opened doors for marginalized people that usually had doors slammed in their face. It received backlash for its violence and the anguish of loss and its questionable suitability for children. Bambi broke boundaries… but wasn’t much a success until it’s future re-releases. 

Bringing us back to the present. Disney announces a Bambi remake similar to the failed ‘Lion King.’ There will be no luscious backgrounds of Tyrus Wong. There will be no jaunty gaited fawns crafted by the masterful Nine Old Men. There will be no ferocious hounds carved by the hand of Retta Scott to make a path for women. There will be a story of a deer in the woods. A ‘real deer’ in ‘real woods.’ It will be hollow and lifeless. It will be eye-candy at best, but it will not be better than the original. The original is a true masterpiece. It is not something that needs to be redone or retold. Bambi was a risk, a risk that didn’t pay off in the beginning but today it is a marvel. A true testament of art and love of the craft and it cannot be replaced. Disney should not remake Bambi, they should learn from it, they should learn that they are big enough to take risks and they can. They should learn to give marginalized creators a chance to shine because they have something amazing to share. They need to let go, move on, and embrace the fear of the untold story. I hope that in the years to come, the age of remakes and sequels will stop and we can look forward to a new era of wonderful stories that get to be told for the first time in animation.

--

Bambi is my favorite movie in the world. I have seen it well into the hundreds if not quad digits. I watch it when I’m happy, I watch it when I’m devastated. I watch it when I’m sick and I watch it when I wake up from a nightmare and can’t fall back asleep. Bambi is what made me want to become an artist and I have a lot of personal feelings about the movie as a work of art. I’m not looking forward to the remake, I can only hope and hope and hope that Disney learned from the Lion King and won’t make the same mistakes again. Until then, we just have to wait...

[roseproductivity]

The Case Against To-do Lists ????!!!!??!!!

In his article “The Case Against To-do Lists (and What to Use Instead)” Nir Eyal, author of books on productivity and attention in the digital media age, advocates against to-do lists. I am a prodigious user of to-do lists. I can barely walk from one room to another without maintaining at least a mental to-do list of what I will do when I get to that room. I have too many things going on in my head at once, competing for attention, and I only survive by lining those things up in nice tiny mental or paper rows. In my opinion, the “case against to-do lists” has one item on it: I waver between preferring to write it as “to-do”, “todo”, “To-do”, and “To-Do”.

Obviously I read this article defensively, metaphorically clutching my to-do lists against my chests, white=knuckled, as I read. Eyal quickly reassured me, however, that he was not going to rip away my comfort lists. He distinguishes between keeping lists to reduce mental load and keeping lists to successfully complete tasks. Using lists to relieve cognitive load is a central tenet of Getting Things Done (GTD). You write the thing you are thinking about on a piece of paper or put it in your calendar so that you brain closes the loop on it and can move along to thinking about more important things. Writing the item down has a value even if you never do it. Eyal is not arguing that lists aren’t successful in the mental load department, but that they are not the most effective way for getting us to actually do the things that MUST be done.

He also suggests that keeping these lists of uncompleted tasks has a negative impact on our self perception. I guess it could, but I personally recognize that not everything on a list needs to be done. Some entries are more like ideas of things that could theoretically be done. I have lists, for instance, of ideas for comics to draw, but I don’t see the ratio between my ideas and my execution as a reflection of my self-worth. Instead, the length of my lists are a reflection of my creativity in coming up with things to do. Where Eyal and I align is that the challenge then becomes deciding what things on that list I do really want to do.  Once I pick which comic idea I want to draw, I should file away the others and work on the one at hand, and not let all the potential ideas in the universe crowd out what I am doing. Especially if the endeavor I am engaging in is a long term one, it is easy to wonder if I made the right choice in where to invest my energy. At that point, the list of possible ideas is a reminder of all the possible avenues I did not pursue, and are a distraction from the one I am on. But the list only becomes a distraction after the decision is made. Eyal writes, “we cannot call something a distraction unless we know what it is distracting us from.“

If lists are useful until you are in the process of executing an item on the list, one solution to the distraction of lists is to keep lists but create an archiving process. Once you have the list prioritized, move the list mentally or physically out of sight. You have the safety of knowing the list is there; you did not “lose” or “forget” anything important. Yet, it is not a distraction.

Eyal’s suggestion is to abandon the list altogether for “schedule building”. Schedule building means blocking off time on your calendar for what you want to be doing at that time and focusing on nothing else. A block might be for playing with your children, and during that time, you are not thinking about your “to-dos” at all. This is the same concept as Cal Newport’s time blocking. I agree with scheduling time in advance as a theory but it has never worked out for me in practice. For one, it does not accommodate small needs, things that take up less than fifteen minutes. It also does not accommodate other people very well. If I have my whole day scheduled out and my partner comes and spends fifteen minutes talking to me during my thirty minute reading block, it can feel like the entire day is now out of sync. I do not want to consider my loved ones as distractions. Some might say the answer is to tell other people to “respect your time”, but most of my relationships are more important to me than “my time”. (Also, if you have children, you know that they cannot make the decision to “respect your time”. They need things when they need them!) Lastly, schedule building does not accommodate highly variable moods and energy levels. For all those reasons, I cannot make the switch from to-dos to schedule building, even though Eyal makes a convincing case.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Dragon Dancer IV: The Wife of Chu Zihang

The moon shined bright, surrounding each of the pink blossoms of Chizuru in a bright halo. I leaned against the bark, sitting against one of the hundred year old trees, gazing upwards, letting my mind relax, while little Ru’Yi satisfied her hunger, pulling greedily at my breast, curling her fingers against my skin, gulping milk like a little pig.

I should be grateful. If she didn’t wake up to eat, it got painful to move around. She was too much of a good thing however. Even though I was reluctant to pull her off early, she had no self control. If I didn’t stop her, she would eat too much, burp and spit up everywhere. Right now, I had nowhere to bathe.

So I pulled her away, wiped myself with  my shirt and flipped my bra up.

At least the night wasn’t as cold.

The Cherry Blossom park was already getting ready to open the Hanami Matsuri later this month, the same one Chu Zihang and I had visited. It was a moment that existed only in our memory. According to official record, I had been in Paris on assignment with the principal. They didn’t know about my teleporting.

I climbed to my feet, rocking and patting Ru’Yi. I’d appeared just at this spot. This was the picture Johann had sent me as a reference point. A wide cobblestone path lined on both sides with the oldest trees in the park. I’d appeared there and he saw me.

I closed my eyes picturing the bright spring scene. I remembered how wide his eyes were behind his glasses. He didn’t believe what he was seeing. He ran to me, hugged me tight.

I squeezed Ru’Yi to myself in recollection. His hand slipped under my chin. He kissed me. My body grew hot like a furnace. I gasped for breath.

I opened my eyes and the tears slipped down my face. “Johann... I miss you.”

The tears continued to fall as I made my way through the memory. We didn’t hold hands. He stayed close at my side, and only our pinky fingers hooked together. We listened to the traditional music and listened to people recite haikus. Girls took selfies in their yukatas with their friends.

At the end of the path was the large mirror pond that reflected the glory of the flowers, doubling their brilliance against the sky. Johann said that the water reflected on my face, that I had cherry petals in my hair. I reached up and pulled down a flower. I crushed it in my palm and sprinkled it on my head. Then I looked up at someone who wasn’t there.

I froze. Adrenaline coursed like lightning through me. Someone was there.

I lowered one hand to Spider Fang and settled Ru’Yi into the soft grass. I gripped the hilt, unlocking it from its sheath. I’d broken out into a cold sweat, trembling. I shuddered, just like when Chisei had released his Soul Skill earlier that day. There was a powerful enemy very nearby.

Even though there was no one around, my body reacted like there was a knife to my throat.

The tall ancient cherry trees cast shifting shadows and my eyes darted to every movement. I knew there were Soul Skills that used shadows and made someone invisible, but those were relatively rare.

Johann occasionally had me train with him blindfolded to help me hone my other senses. It wasn’t about necessarily having super hearing or being able to smell your opponent’s breath. But more about process of elimination and spotting the anomaly in the surroundings.

My eyes slowly shifted to the pond. It reflected light from the moon in the water and the water was still like a mirror. It reflected the shadow of a person crouched low, his face turned not to me... but to Ru’Yi.

I rotated out from behind the tree, drawing the sword in an upward arc while my fist swung close behind it. Another blade met mine.  We exchanged blows four times in quick succession before I consciously realized who this person was.

I recognized him first by the blade he carried, the hunter’s blade, Dictator. My murderous intent receded like a tide and we broke away from each other.

“What were you thinking, trying to snatch Ru’Yi?” I was breathing hard, more out of an angry fear than exhaustion.

“Because I knew if I had her you would have no choice but to come peacefully.” He was smiling at me, but without malice or arrogance. He was dressed in a fine button down shirt, black vest and slacks, like he was going to a dinner party. “Unfortunately, your instincts were a little too good.”

“You were careless.” I shot back.

His smile faded. “I came all the way here for you... for a reason. Things are going to get very bad for Lu Mingfei and I’d rather not have the Academy targeting you.”

“Tell the Academy that my only aim is to find the one who disappeared Chu Zihang! I don’t have the skeleton, I don’t know where Mingfei is, and I don’t know who harmed the principal. Leave me alone!” 

“We can’t leave a mentally unstable hybrid just wandering around, Carli.”

I immediately brought my guard up. Caesar came running, extremely fast. While my technique matched his, I couldn’t equal his raw physical strength. He smashed Spider fang to the ground and stepped on it with this foot. I staggered back, stumbling over a tree root.

It was a chance Caesar couldn’t resist. His shadow descended on me.

Tongzi’s edge tore through the fabric of his shirt, knicking his skin in a long curving line. Dictator came up in a belated attempt to block a strike I’d already made.

For a moment, his side was left open. If I wanted, I could have drilled Tongzi straight into his heart with an Alchemy blade that negated a Hybrid’s healing factor and scrambled Dragon blood. Instead, I cut him again and fled, hurrying to retrieve Spider Fang.

But there was no need to hurry.

Caesar stood, raising one hand to his chest, his fingers coming away red.

Caesar had graduated from Cassell College shortly after my marriage to Johann. He was sent to man the helm at the Executive Department in Italy. He’d married Nono and settled down easily into the job. Everyone respected him as a dragonslayer, the killer of Dragon King Norton. Since the Student Union members were so numerous, he had influence over commissioners who were members and stationed in areas all over the world. One could honestly say that he was an Emperor out of Cassell.

And yet, this emperor had been cut twice in quick succession by a junior student 6 years younger.

I swallowed hard, wondering if he was going easy on me the way Mingfei did when we were playing Street Thug together. So I didn’t gloat over this accomplishment. Caesar was Chu Zihang’s greatest rival for a reason.

His expression had grown quite a bit more serious. The amusement in his eyes became mixed with irritation. “I wouldn’t be doing this, if Lu Mingfei hadn’t gotten Nono involved.”

“By running with an accused traitor, she risks her own future. I would rather get this over with as soon as possible.”

I took a deep breath. “Then you understand why I have to stay free. Chu Zihang is to me like Nono is to you. Every day he’s missing is painful!”

“Chu Zihang is not real.”  He said this slowly, firmly.

“If he’s not real, then how come I can cut you?” Caesar was Chu Zihang’s greatest rival, but what was Caesar without Chu Zihang? While Caesar was in a coma, Johann lamented to me how his skills had gone down without Caesar to push him to greater heights. This Caesar with out Chu Zihang was slower, because the one advantages he had over Caesar was speed!

I shot out like an arrow, bringing the sword down and up, dancing around him, one maneuver seamlessly followed by another.

It was how Johann and I always practiced, a long series of strikes that were like a dance to us. It helped us maintain a sense of an attack range while at the same time, maintaining a sense of staying just out of range of the opponent, looking for a single opening that would land a hit.

A sword master might go seven strikes or ten strikes in a row with much practice. But before I was too pregnant to move, Johann and I had gotten up to twenty five without a break or a breather.

The Caesar I knew was the only one who could stand up to such an aggressive, unrelenting series of attacks. But this wasn’t the Caesar I knew. This was a weak Caesar, a fake Caesar! That’s why Spider Fang stung his knuckles, cut along his wrist, bit his shoulder. He grew increasingly confounded while I settled into the rhythm. My eyes grew colder, more contemptuous.

I’d backed him against the edge of the mirror pond, panting from the effort. “You’re nothing without Chu Zihang to challenge you. No one can challenge you like he did.”

“Except for you. Because you’re his wife?”  Caesar smiled, tilting his head. He used Dictator to cut a length from the vest that probably cost a thousand dollars but had been ruined in the fight. He tied it, putting pressure on where I’d cut his wrist. 

Did I go too far? I didn’t want to seriously hurt him. “Do you believe me now?” I asked.

“You make a good point. But that doesn’t change your current predicament. The Academy grows increasingly impatient with Mingfei. They’re going to go all out on him. I’d hate for you and your daughter to get caught in the crossfire. If you want to continue your investigation, you can do so from the Gattuso residence.”

“No thank you.”

“You’re out of strength, Carli. Your heart is beating to its maximum capacity. Don’t try and attack me again.”

I suddenly realized that the Soul Skill was sensing was Wind Devil. He knew where I was because he could hear my heartbeat and my breathing. “How long were you watching me?”

“While you wandered the park like a mad woman you mean? Talking to an invisible person?” The mocking light had left his eyes.

My face grew hot. He wasn’t supposed to see that. When I acted that way, I knew I looked crazy. “It’s the only way I can keep his memory alive in a world that has forgotten him. Okay? This place has special meaning to us.”

“If everyone forgot about Nono, would you willingly date someone else? Or be married to someone else, even if no one else believed you? Or would you try to find her no matter what anyone else said?” I asked.

The words seemed to have an effect, but not the one I intended. It was only because I was already keyed up that I saw his hand to his holster, where Desert Eagle rested and I dove to one side rolling behind a tree to escape. But he’d already followed me, kicking out my legs from under me and following me down to the ground. I landed hard on my back, winded.

He pinned me under his weight and pressed his forearm against my throat so hard I thought my windpipe would collapse. His blond hair rested against my forehead and his blue eyes gazed sadly into mine as my lungs heaved but failed to draw in any air.

I had to escape, but without oxygen my muscles and mind grew heavy. I reached for the last resort.

Caesar would have seen my eyes blaze and shine with a yellow light. My pupils would constrict into sharp vertical sickles. My skin itched as scales feathered down my arms. 

My hands went from scratching, to clawing with nails sharp as knives.

Power surged through my muscles and I tossed him off me. He went sailing through the air and landing hard, scrambling to his feet. I rushed toward him, howling like a storm wind. His form came at me in my vision. I collided with him, with both hands and feet  like an animal bringing him down again.

I heard him scream. My claws had hooked around his ribs. 

Blood rage increased dragon blood purity, which also intensified the desire to kill the object of that fury. Shocked, and wondering if I had pierced his heart, I pulled my fingers from his body. 

His hands wrapped my neck and he slammed his head into mine so hard my vision exploded into stars. He grabbed my neck again and punched me hard, pummeling me in an effort to bring me down.

I lifted my hand and caught his fist, my claws digging in. I smashed my other hand into the wound I’d created in his chest, funneling all my strength into it. HIs ribs collapsed under the blow and he fell, unable to rise again.

I blinked, dizzy with one too many blows to the head. But I heard him ask, grunting with the pain. “Blood Rage.... where did you learn it? That’s a forbidden technique!”

I leaned against the trunk of a tree, staggering to make my way back to Ru’Yi. 

“Chu Zihang taught me.”

[recentanimenews]

The God of High School Script Writer Reveals the Challenges and Rewards of Writing for Action Shows

The God of High School, the newest project in the Crunchyroll Originals lineup, is easily one of the most anticipated titles this season. This action-packed martial arts anime based on the hit WEBTOON series by Yongje Park launching TODAY is for sure the show to check out this season for your shonen battle fix!

In anticipation of today’s launch, we took the time to sit down with the scriptwriter for The God of High School, Kiyoko Yoshimura! In the past, she’s written for anime titles such as GRANBLUE FANTASY: The Animation, GARO -VANISHING LINE-, Sonic X, and now The God of High School. She told us all about her job from her daily schedule as a scriptwriter to the challenges of writing action scenes and the many reasons why you should be watching The God of High School this season!

How did you get your start in writing for anime? I’ve always watched a lot of anime because I enjoy it, but I didn’t aspire to be a scriptwriter right from the beginning. I was an otaku who hoped to be a light novel author and submitted my writing to magazines all the time. I just happened to meet a certain famous scriptwriter on a certain anime fan site, and we started communicating by email. At the time, there was a shortage of anime production staff due to a sudden explosion in the number of anime series being broadcast, so that writer asked me if I wanted to try writing scripts for the project they were doing the series composition for. That project was Jibaku-kun, and I was already a fan of its author, Shibata-sensei, and I was able to dive right into the project since I had already read the manga. So that was my first success, and it was the starting point in getting to where I am now.

    What particular challenges do you face as a writer when adapting a script for anime from existing source material? When I’m in a creative role, I look for the things I personally enjoy and find appealing in the series, whether it’s the characters, the worldview, or the setting, and I focus on those positive feelings as I write. If I don’t feel anything positive toward a series as the writer working on it, then I can’t create something that other people will enjoy. From there, I write the scripts based on consideration of the visuals that the director wants, what everyone hopes the anime will be, and a web of other opinions.

  Are there any common challenges about writing for anime that fans might not realize? This connects to question 2, but I’m generally the type that prefers to write anime based on positive feelings toward it, whether it’s “This is fun,” “I like this,” “This is really interesting,” or “This is so cool.” It makes me happiest when viewers look at something I thought was awesome, and talk about how awesome it is.

  How did you come to work on The God of High School? I worked with Director Park on MAPPA’s VANISHING LINE, and Producer Otsuka asked me to work with them again on this project. VANISHING LINE was very well-received and showed me how amazing Director Park’s work is, so I accepted the job immediately. Also, I personally love battle stories and tales of young people growing up.

    How does adapting a WEBTOON series compare to adapting a manga? I didn’t really notice that many differences. As far as writing scripts goes, I think the best thing about shows based on manga is that the visual composition of each scene in the story already exists, and we can see the image we want to create right from the start. And in GOH’s case, the art and composition of the battle scenes look amazing, so those are the main benchmarks I use to write the scripts.

  What about The God of High School’s story drew you to it most when reading through the original source material? The fact that Mori, Daewi, and Mira start out so distant, but gradually grow closer and more bonded as teammates. Then, after Ilpyo comes into the picture, the scene where the four of them are seen walking away shoulder-to-shoulder really moved me. And also Jegal’s life of unanswered hopes ... He’s an antagonist, but just condemning him alone won’t fix things, and that really made me think about how harsh that kind of world is.

  Could you walk us through a day in the life of a scriptwriter? How do you manage your time throughout the day? An anime writer’s job basically consists of weekly meetings to read each other’s scripts, discussing problem points, going home and making corrections, then resubmitting them and meeting to read them again. It’s quite a mundane cycle. And working on GOH isn’t all that different from working on any other anime. Our meetings involved a lot of staff living in other countries, so we had a lot of remote meetings, but that’s about it. As for my home life, I’m also a mother with a son in elementary school, so I make his breakfast and send him to school in the mornings, help him with his homework, clean the house ... and do some writing in between. When things get really busy, I ask my own mother, who lives in my neighborhood, to help with some of my housework. I can’t express how grateful I am for my family.

  What is the process like for composing a script, from beginning the project to final delivery? The process varies a bit depending on the project, but generally, when I’m doing series composition, I start by coming up with a rough draft of the series as a whole, which is reviewed and discussed by the director and staff. Then we move on to each individual episode’s plot ... deciding what role the number of episodes will play in the series, determining the points where developments happen, and rationing out the work, and from there each writer starts working on their scripts. Occasionally, we’ll be working on a script for a later episode that ends up depicting some development that will require an earlier, not-yet-complete episode to be written in a certain way, so we make those adjustments as needed. When the scripts for all episodes are finished, we pass them along to the production and animation departments, and that concludes the writer’s role. From there, we look forward to seeing the finished product along with the fans!

  Could you tell us how exactly a fight scene looks when you script it? How much of the flow of the battle is in your script? I’ve heard that with things like live-action and tokusatsu series, the fight scenes aren’t written in detail in the scripts; instead, they’re composed right there on the scene by acting and filming specialists. But most anime projects call for fight scenes to be depicted in some degree of detail in the scripts. It directly connects to the time allotment and required number of drawings for the episode, so that needs to be controlled in the scriptwriting stage. At a bare minimum, the script needs to explain who does what, and what effects it has. I don’t usually write every single punch and kick in detail, but in a scene where, for example, a character who was thought to be right-handed suddenly uses their left hand and wins, those details need to be clearly written in the script. In the case of GOH, the battle scenes are composed in very fine detail in the original work, so I generally followed suit in the anime scripts. The most important thing was to make sure the changes in the characters’ feelings as they fought were in agreement with the visual highlights of the animation. If we focused only on the visual depiction, the characters’ emotional expressions would have been left out, and they’d all just be slamming into each other with flashy imagery. Portraying the emotions of a scene through monologues, flashbacks, other characters’ facial expressions, the announcer’s voice, etc., is the most important part of scriptwriting.

  South Korea is a fairly novel setting for an anime. Did writing for a real-world, non-Japanese setting affect how you approached your work at all? While most anime produced in Japan are also set in Japan, there are also many that aren’t, so I didn’t notice that much of a difference. VANISHING LINE, which I worked on with Director Park, was set in America! Still, even though Japan and Korea are geographically close, their languages are quite different (especially the pronunciation), so I did struggle a bit with things like proper nouns and place names.

  Action shows like The God of High School are never just action shows, they also have plenty of comedic and emotional aspects to them as well. Are there any specific tonal scenes you enjoy writing most? One is Mori’s birthday episode. It’s a scene where everything he’s accomplished comes together in the form of a strong bond. Murakoshi-san, the writer of that episode’s script, made that scene extremely emotional. Another is the final preliminary round between Mori and Daewi. It’s the first major climax in the series, and Daewi’s personal drama becomes deeply involved in it, so I tried my best to make it a really intense scene.

    Is there any character in The God of High School you’ve enjoyed writing the most? All the characters do have their own unique charms, but it’s hard to choose just one since it’s much more fun to see how they all bounce off of each other. They’re all strong, remarkable characters, but they have playful sides and even some cute weaknesses that are brought out so skillfully when they’re interacting. Mori and Daewi, Daewi and Mira, Ilpyo and Jegal, Commissioners Q and O, Commissioner Q and Daewi, Taejin and young Ilpyo ... yeah, I just can’t choose (lol)

  The God of High School is, of course, one of the newest Crunchyroll Original productions coming soon. How has working on this production compared to other standard ones you’ve been a part of? Director Park came up with several highly ambitious plans, and he was very passionate about making them into reality, so I couldn’t help feeling like this project was going to turn out well worth all the effort. It was very exciting to work on, and I’m excited to see it when it airs.

  Finally, do you have anything you’d like to say to fans eagerly anticipating the anime’s debut this summer? All of us on the anime staff devoted everything we had to faithfully recreating the intense developments of the original work in animated format. Unlike manga series that you take your time reading at your own pace, the animation will drag all of you into the world of God of High School with the speed and impact of a crashing wave. The action and drama are so fast-paced, you won’t have time to blink! I hope you all enjoy it!

  READ THE OFFICIAL GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL WEBTOON SERIES HERE AND WATCH THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL ON CRUNCHYROLL!

Danni Wilmoth is a Features writer for Crunchyroll and co-host of the video game podcast Indiecent. You can find more words from her on Twitter @NanamisEgg.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[ladylillianrose]

Extraordinarily Star-Crossed a Max Richman/Zoey Clarke Fanfiction

A/N: Thank you all for your responses to our work! @clarkemanotp​ and I appreciate all your comments and kudos! This is the second to last chapter in Italy, and then on to new and exciting places....

Florence, Italy 1485 Chapter 5 

Florence, Italy 1485 Chapter 4

Florence, Italy 1485 Chapter 3

Florence, Italy 1485 Chapter 2

Florence, Italy 1485 Chapter 1

Greece 382 B.C.E. Chapter 6

Greece 382 B.C.E. Chapter 5

Greece 382 B.C.E. Chapter 4

Greece 382 B.C.E. Chapter 3

Greece 382 B.C.E. Chapter 2

Greece 382 B.C.E. Chapter 1

Florence, Italy 1485 Chapter 5 

"Imagine my surprise at the letter I received, offering me congratulations for my impending fatherhood," Pietro looked at her coldly. "Your duty was to me and our house, but now you would bring shame to us. Give me the name of the father and I won't throw you out into the street."

Elena's heart raced, but she stubbornly lifted her chin, "I myself shall bear the blame.*"

Pietro narrowed his eyes at her defiance, "You've brought this upon yourself." He stalked down the hall to Elena's chamber and began tearing through her belongings, searching for any information about her lover.

Elena ran after him, Magdalena at her side. "Pietro, stop this madness!" she cried.

"Then give me his name!" Pietro yelled.

Elena remained silent, Pietro could do what he wanted but she would not betray her love.

Pietro walked from the room, pausing at the door, "I will find him. Then his blood will be on your hands, Elena."

Elena collapsed into a heap on the floor shaking with sobs. Magdalena wrapped her arms around her, stroking her hair and murmuring words of comfort.

"We must get word to him," Elena whispered. "Somehow, without Pietro finding out."

"I will talk to Nunzio, we can walk through the market so as not to be overheard. We have been there often enough that it will not cause any gossip."

Elena nodded, "We must be extra cautious, do nothing to raise suspicion."

________________________________________________________________

"I must say, I am quite flattered that you are seeking my attentions so frequently," Nunzio smiled.

Magdalene rolled her eyes, "You should be so lucky. You are merely a convenient means of conveying a message."

"It's been many a century since someone tried to woo me, but I'm fairly certain insulting one's love is not how it works," Nunzio teased.

"Must you be so insufferable. Time is of the utmost importance," she hissed at him.

"What has happened?" all trace of humor was gone from Nunzio's face.

"Pietro had returned and is aware of Elena's condition. Even as we speak, he is trying to find out who the father is."

Nunzio's face grew white, "Then, they need to leave as soon as possible."

"He must not do anything to raise suspicion. Pietro has eyes throughout the city," Magdalena warned.

"There should be a ship leaving in the morning. I'll book their passage on it, meet us at the docks tomorrow at first light," Nunzio told her.

She nodded as they took their leave of one another.

________________________________________________________________

"Master?" Nunzio called had he raced through the door and into the studio.

Lucian looked up from his packing startled. "What is it? Is it Elena?"

"Her husband has returned, and he is aware of her condition."

"Then she is not safe, we must leave immediately," Lucian began pacing frantically.

"I've arranged passage for you both on a ship leaving in the morning. It is headed for Spain, but it was the one leaving earliest," Nunzio explained.

"I don't care where it is headed, as long as it gets Elena out of here!"

"She sent her nurse to warn you that Pietro is searching the city for you. He doesn't know your identity, yet. But he is out for blood. Elena begs you to be discreet."

Lucian nodded, "Come, we must pack quickly. Take that package and arrange to have it delivered tomorrow evening," he gestured to a wrapped canvas addressed to Pietro de' Barbari.

Nunzio took the package and headed back out into the marketplace.

Finding a courier, he gave explicit instructions that the parcel was to be delivered to the house tomorrow evening.

The courier nodded and took the parcel and his fee.

Satisfied that his duty was discharged, Nunzio returned home.

________________________________________________________________

Magdalena returned with the news that they would be departing in the morning. 

Elena was relieved, soon she and Lucian would be far away.

She packed only the essentials, as well as some of her jewels that they could sell if needed.

"It has been an exhausting day for you. It's best if you get some rest now," Magdalena told her.

Elena nodded, knowing that she needed to rest for both herself and the babe. 

Magdalena gathered their bags and slipped them into her chamber. Thinking ahead she headed to the kitchen and packed some food for their journey. Satisfied that everything was in hand, she retired for the evening.

________________________________________________________________

Early Morning

Elena crept out of her room and down the hall to Magdalena's chambers, where she tapped quietly on the door.

Magdalena opened the door, handed her a woolen cloak, and stepped out of the room.

The house was quiet and still as they made their way to the door. 

On the table nearest the door was a parcel that was torn open.

Elena looked down and gasped, it was her portrait. And crumpled on top was the note she had written to Pietro. 

She turned quickly and headed towards her husband's chamber and threw open the door. It was empty.

Running out of the room she yelled to Magdalena, "He knows! Oh God, he knows!"

They ran out the door and onto the street just as Nunzio arrived in a carriage.

"Where is he?!" Elena cried.

Nunzio shook his head, "Your husband arrived not an hour ago with some men and dragged him from the house. He challenged Master Lucian to a duel and then they threw him in a carriage. I heard the other men mention something about the clearing outside of town."

Elena gasped, "No! Where is this clearing? Nunzio, take me there at once!"

Nunzio looked at Magdalena who nodded. "We have no time to lose. Get in the carriage."

The three of them quickly jumped into the carriage, speeding away.

Elena held her hand to her swollen belly as a twinge ran through it, "Please, let him be okay. I need him….we need him…"

As soon as the carriage arrived at the clearing, Elena jumped out, not wasting a moment. She raced towards the two figures she spotted in the distance, circling one another almost as if they were dancing until she saw the glint of the sun on polished metal. She couldn’t tell the figures apart at first, but as she drew closer to them, she recognized the bronzed skin of her husband as he faced her. Her attention, however, was focused on the other man, the man she needed to save. Lucian. 

She drew closer, unable to take her eyes off of them, as their weapons clashed.  Lucian parried each blow expertly, moving quickly out of his opponents’ reach. Pietro was not nearly as adept as Lucian, his life of leisure had not prepared him for the strain of this fight.

The moment she was close enough to see them clearly, she cried out, attempting to get their attention. “STOP!” 

Lucian’s blade stilled and he turned towards her, she smiled relieved at her success. She lifted her skirts, moving towards Lucian, just as Pietro’s sword continued its arc. Pietro’s blade drew across his neck as Lucian turned distracted by Elena's arrival. He now faced her, a look of concern on his face that quickly morphed into pain as blood began dripping from his mouth. She watched in horror as blood began to pour from the gash in his throat.

Letting out a wordless scream, she ran towards him, reaching him just as he hit the ground. He lay there, pressing his hand against his throat, as he coughed and choked, gasping for air as his blood pooled on the ground around him. She fell to the ground, mindful of her swollen belly as she gently pulled the bleeding man into her lap. She cradled his head with her left hand as she pressed her right hand to the wound, attempting to staunch the flow of blood, knowing it was hopeless. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she cried, tears pouring down her cheeks.

He coughed, desperately trying to speak as more blood expelled from his mouth. He reached his hand up and tenderly traced her cheek. She leaned into his touch, feeling the sticky warm substance his fingers left behind, as more tears escaped from her eyes. 

“I’m so sorry, my love,” she whispered, running her fingers softly through his hair. He choked, trying to breathe again, but could not draw in any air. Then suddenly, smiling softly, he relaxed as his rich brown eyes met hers, as his body became still. His head fell to the side leaning towards her abdomen, his glazed eyes unknowingly staring at the child he would never meet.

Elena looked down at the shell of the man she loved and let out a heart-wrenching wail. She gripped his shoulder, bending over him as if to shelter him from the world. She knew that it was her desire to protect him that had cost him his life, she distracted him and at that moment she lost everything. He could have survived if she had just stayed away if she hadn’t fallen in love with him in the first place, but now, she would never know. Lucian was gone, and she was alone. All she had left of him was their child that she carried inside her, and the crimson stains of his blood on the cream fabric of her dress.

A/N: * “Tam Lin”- Fairport Convention

[sylleboi]

𝕮𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖔𝖘𝖈𝖔𝖕𝖎𝖓𝖌 | 23/10/19

During the morning we went to the photography department of the school where we would start the day off there by filming our own footage to rotoscope later on. There were no restrictions as to what we were allowed to do in front of the camera and green screen, but we had to move from one side of the screen to the other. I decided to go for a gun man or James Bond type of vibe. I didn’t want to just do a simple walk or run cycle, but instead I wanted to challenge myself a little. I did this by sneaking into frame, holding my hands up as if I was holding a gun (this added a prop that I would have to draw form scratch during the process of rotoscoping) then doing a turn and running back out the frame. When recording the clips in the green screen room, I also decided to turn around and then turn back while moving to add to the difficulty of animating everything together. This is how both of them turned out:

I decided to go with the first of the two clips for my rotoscope. I did this simply because of the turn being slower and therefore making it more challenging to animate the gun to follow the movement in such a way that it won't look “out of place”.

I didn’t find the time during college hours to actually do the rotoscope for this, so I did it at home using my own program (Krita) and my drawing tablet.

The process was relatively simple; I took the video and took a screenshot of each frame as I went, dragging the screen grab onto the canvas and began tracing my figure. As I went, I also drew in the gun for each frame, lining it up with the position with my hands.

To keep the appearance of the gun consistent I copied most of the frames, up until I came to the part where I had to change the perspective of which the gun is seen from (during the turn).

Once I had finished the whole rotoscope this is what I was left with:

The finished amount of frames came to 66. Quite a high number for such a short animation, but I didn’t want to take away from the fluidity and smoothness. Now I could have just left it here, but I wanted to do some more experimenting. I tried out filling in the clothes with some texture to create a more interesting looking sequence, but half way through I decided to go back to the original linework since I just wasn’t happy with how it was turning out, but here was that in motion:

Instead I did a bit of brainstorming, thinking about what I could do to improve what I had already made. Here’s the mindmap of the brainstorm that I did:

So as you can see, I ended up wanting to experiment with depth, leading me to be doing something to the background. Most of the mind map is based off visual language. I found using this as the root for my brainstorm really useful due to the way you can interpret each term differently to whatever the context is. I will definitely be doing this again and experiment with it further in the future.

I had also settled on wanting to keep it monochrome (misspelling in mind map) and more specifically drawing towards the style of the classic black & white manga comic book style. Based on this, what immediately popped into my mind was this program I recall trying out years and years ago called Medi Bang Paint Pro, or as I think it was used to called; Medi Bang. I was probably around 12 or 13 when I first downloaded it, but I didn't know what I was doing what so ever, so I quickly gave up. For a long time it wasn’t compatible with Mac up until recently; so I decided to take a shot and download it again. The program is free; but that wasn’t the main reason to why I wanted to try out this program again in particular. It has a lot of great tools for drawing and building comic pages, and I thought “What would it look like if I made a background inspired by traditional manga?”- so that’s what I did.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to pull it off at first, so I did a little test run beforehand and I really liked the result:

So the way that I did this was by taking a picture (that I unfortunately have lost now) and then proceeding by changing the levels of the picture, playing around with it until it’s primarily just blacks and whites. With a brush tool I began cleaning everything up a little by either erasing unwanted bits or adding additional linework just to emphasise on the subject and shapes within the drawing. I added leaves and other vegetation with some pre-made brushes that came with the program. The last step was to add a screentone of a clouded sky to add a bit of texture, shading and general interest to the whole piece, and voila! Done. This technique is super quick and efficient for creating backgrounds for comics of this style, though I still prefer when everything is painted by hand. The screentone has a very recognisable style to it and is quite often used in manga’s. One of the ones that come to mind for me is Berserk. I have always loved the artwork of that comic series; it’s the kind of art that you could stare at for hours on end and not get bored with. When looking at the artwork from the series, you can clearly see the technique of screentones are being used to create a lot of additional detail to each panel.

Here are some examples of some screentones:

In this example, it has been used for the background. A screentone with blobs lightly shaded has been added to almost create some sort of mist, changing the whole mood and feel of the panel very effectively.

Like mentioned before, in Berserk, the screentones are mostly used as an extra bit of atmospheric detail, rather than being used for any of the shading which is all hand drawn. In this example, it has been used for the lettering/type and again for the background. It creates a gritty and sort of dirty effect, emphasising how he is in a battlefield with monsters around him; definitely not a place you could call “clean”.

In this example, different kinds of sceentones have been used in each panel. In the panel to the left, the opaque stripes are a type of screentone very often used to indicate either speed, focal point or action of some kind. Not only that, but at the bottom of the panel a softer pattern of screentone has been used to create the look of dirt or sand, again with a gritty texture to emphasise on the fact that the character, Guts, is inferior at this moment.

In this super epic and intense illustration, you can again see the great use of screentones, most notably used for the background yet again. It really helps to create a strong feel to each illustration. The use of tone is especially important in manga or comics, since it so often is done in just black & white, so you have no use of colour; this is where screentones come in as a great tool to use for just this.

So, with all of this brainstorming and researching done, and by using the same technique as I did when doing the “test”, I began drawing. I used this picture which I recall taking somewhere on the border to Germany as the base image:

I chose this because it has that “street” vibe to it, which I thought could be cool with the whole theme of “gun man”. Very edgy, very edgy indeed.

This gif above shows loosely the process of the piece from start to finish. It was mostly just me playing around and figuring out all the tools of the program, but it was quite fun to put together.

With the background now complete, I put it into my rotoscope, went over each frame and painted the shape of myself in the animation white and was finally finished with the final rotoscope; being the third version or option that I did.

I am very happy with how it turned out in the end, and I have definitely learnt masses with this exercise of rotoscoping something that that I have filmed myself. I think if I were to further improve on this, I’d definitely consider animating the background itself (birds flying or leaves rustling), or maybe even try shading the subject somehow, taking inspiration from manga’s such as Berserk or any of Junji Ito’s work.

I decided to try out asking a few of my peers in the class what their opinion was on the final rotoscope. The feedback that I received was purely positive; the people I asked said they couldn't think of any particular way of improving the finished product. They said it both looked great as well as it answered what the task was questioning and challenging us to do.

To me, this really shows and proves that the work I have done here is successful work that I can be proud of and take what I have learnt through doing this task with me for the future, without doubting if what I have learnt is of quality.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

As a little extra note, here are the same frames (frame 23) in the three different versions:

[midnightmoontarot-blog]

8.8.19 // giveaway reading for the-travelingwitch // attracted energies reading

A giveaway reading for @thetraveling-witch, who requested the Attracted Energies reading from my shop. Reading below the cut!

First of all, I hope you had a delightful hatching day!

Your reading seemed to center primarily on mental and creative energies and spoke to me quite heavily about big changes/transition/adjusting. Let’s see what we’ve got here...

1) GROUND: where you currently stand. Ace of Crystals, reversed. Right off the bat here, it seems as though you are feeling a little unstable in terms of your material life. Money is a big concern right now and there may be some kind of financial risk present as a result.

2) ENERGY: source of your attraction. Three of Swords. Your attracting energy is primarily mental in the sense that, even though you are currently dealing with financial issues (and other challenges), you are moving forward with a sense of determination and confidence, attempting to redirect negative forces into something more positive. I can feel a change in outlook in this card, as if you’ve recently acknowledged that yes, things are tough right now, but you can change them for the better. And I can see this energy working its way through the rest of your reading, which is pretty cool!

3) YOU: what you’re attracting for yourself, in general. Perspective. Drawing on the last card, you’ve recently reached a point in your life where you’re looking outward, trying to glimpse and understand the bigger picture, trying to find your place and purpose in the world. Despite facing challenges, you are remaining grounded and centered. In general, you’re attracting transition to yourself -- changes that will better resonate with you and your life.

4) FAMILY: what you’re attracting in familial relationships. Page of Swords, reversed. I get the sense of some past issue or conflict rising up to interfere with the relationships you hold with your family. Is there an old grudge or hurt that you’re hanging on to? I feel a bit of bitterness with this card, as if your family did something to upset you and you’re having trouble letting it go. It may even be something they consistently do to upset you (I always associate this card with a repeating pattern or habit or cycle).

5) FRIENDS: what you’re attracting in friendships. Seven of Swords, reversed. When I first glimpsed this card, I felt defensive and guarded, along with a need to forge peace. This card also marks a need to acknowledge some kind of challenge or attachment with regard to your friendships, and even hints at some secrecy or dishonesty. It’s very possible that a friend or two doesn’t have your best interests at heart.

6) CAREER: what you’re attracting in your career. Nine of Cups, reversed. The first thing that jumped to mind was, again, transition. I also felt a little overwhelmed, as if burdened by my current workload. In need of a change. Is that perhaps how you’re feeling right now? Is your current career just not “doing” it for you? Do you find yourself feeling low at the end of a workday? You seem as though you’re trying to attract something new for yourself. Something that honors your heart/life path.

7) LOVE: what you’re attracting in your love life. Six of Wands. This card usually marks good fortune and success, or some kind of conquest. When I stared at this card, though, I couldn’t help but get the sense of magnetic attraction. There’s a distinct feeling of heat, attraction... something sexy. You’re feeling very confident in this area of your life and you’re attracting some good energy here!

8) MONEY: what you’re attracting financially. Here’s the anomaly in your reading. Your GROUND card indicated some money issues, and your MONEY cards basically emphasized those issues. I felt extremely anxious when trying to hone in on a card to pull, and ended up pulling two more because it didn’t feel completely answered with just one. Even after I had pulled the third one, I felt unsettled and nervous. My only guess is that these feelings may be paralleling your cards. Two of Wands and Ace of Wands actually came up reversed (not shown in the photo), and Two of Wands felt quite literally as if power was out of my hands. Losing my grip on creative power/inner drive. Paired with that, a reversed Ace of Wands, indicating to me a lack of focus, or power being misused/misdirected. But then, interestingly enough, we have a King of Swords who seems determined and sure of himself despite financial challenges. He’s ambitious. I can’t help but wonder if this King of Swords is perhaps pointing all the way back to your Three of Swords ENERGY card, that energy acknowledging your challenges, yet appearing unshaken by them.

9) FUTURE: what you’re attracting for your future self. The Sun, reversed (also not indicated in the photo). While your direction may feel clouded at the moment -- while you may be feeling lonely and challenged by life’s peaks and valleys -- I get the distinct sense that you’re slowly turning your life around. I don’t think this card is saying that you’re attracting bad things to your future self. It’s more like... a sunset. A transition. Things will seem dark, for a time, but then the sun will rise again, and all will be well, and you’ll be standing taller for it.

10) UNIVERSE: what you’re attracting on a universal scale. Ten of Crystals. I like to think of this card as a culmination, or a reflection of what you’re attracting in the “bigger picture.” (As I think of that Perspective card...) Ten of Crystals marks a truly prosperous period, and the geometric quality of the illustration brings to mind interconnectedness. Sharing the wealth and wisdom of the universe with others. It makes me wonder if perhaps this is where your purpose lies: in the mentoring or nurturing of others. Spiritual ascension.

So, in summary, even though you appear to be currently occupied with some financial issues (and a few in the friends & family department), there is a distinct sense of transition being attracted to you. You are ready for a change. You’re ready to regain your power and attract abundance to yourself. Something tells me that you already have an idea of what you can do to improve your situation. You may even be working on it already.

I hope this reading resonates at least in part. Take what does resonate and leave out the rest! Thank you for allowing me to practice with you, and have a fabulous rest of your day!

Moon ☾

[sirius-whoisleft]

GENERAL INFORMATION ➤

Full Legal Name: Sirius Orion Black III Nickname(s): Padfoot Age: 18 Gender & Pronouns: cisgender male; he/him Sexuality: Initially, I began writing him as a demiromantic pansexual. However, I am pleased to announce that with each day I write him? He not only gets gayer, but his capacity to love and crush and pine grows threefold. 

Date of Birth: November 3rd Horoscope: Scorpio, baby!!!!! Hogwarts House: Gryffindor, though and through Nationality: French by way of London  Occupation:

Sirius is currently a seventh year Gryffindor student at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry which is, all things considered, a pretty sweet gig. He’s preparing for NEWTS! He’s living off the trust fund provided for him by his dearly departed Uncle Alphard! He hasn’t been kicked out yet! He’s snogging his boyfriend in the library every chance he gets!

And, improbably, Sirius Black is preparing for his future. 

Recently, Sirius had been admitted to the competitive and prestigious Gringott’s cursebreaking training program. After graduation, he’ll make that five-times-a-week trek down to Diagon Alley and immerse himself in ancient societies, runes, translations, curse-handling, history, desert magic and...yes...wait for it...copious paperwork! Upon graduation from the program, Sirius will emerge a newly minted and proud Cursebreaker, working at the bank’s back office most days, doing research and translations and the like, but also getting his hands dirty on trips. The pyramids of Egypt and the tombs of China will call to him, and he can’t wait to see them all!

Unfortunately, his time with the cursebreakers will be cut short, and he’ll hurl himself headlong into his Order of the Phoenix membership under Alastor Moody’s dark influence...but that’s a story for another day.

Summarized in One Word: Bombastic!

APPEARANCE ➤

Faceclaim: Ben Barnes Height: Just as with the sexuality question, Sirius gets both gayer AND SHORTER the longer I write him. Currently he’s hovering around 5′7″ by accurate standards, but in my mind he’s a tiny little pocket bastard. Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Grey Noticeable Features: Devastating good looks. Emphasis on the devastating due to the strong Black family resemblance. A growing collection of tattoos. Long hair that he’s wont to elegantly flick away from his eyes. Perpetual haughty looks off into the distance. 

Typical Outfit or General Fashion Sense: Sirius dresses simply, but well. How well depends on the occasion and your personal opinion, but it can’t be argued that he looks good doing it. His typical layabout clothes consist of either a band-tee or button-down with a pair of trousers or muggle jeans (the magic of which Remus Lupin introduced him to); for formal affairs, he still remembers how to walk the walk and can pull off a suit and tie with uncomfortable ease. 

Truth be told, Sirius is still figuring out his fashion sense! He went from his clothing being dictated by his family to skating by on a Hogwarts uniform for several years. He’ll come into his own slowly and with purpose – the first step being an overindexing on punky, black leather jackets. 

HISTORY ➤

Hometown: London Financial Status: Trust fund bastard! After being cut off by the House of Black, Sirius coasted by broke and on the basis of favors from the Potter family for over a year before his Uncle Alphard passed away and left him a hefty little nest egg with which to make his way in the world. For all his talk about wanting to be of the common people and despising the wealthy and all they stand for, Sirius was raised with the safety net of exorbitant wealth and still defaults to many of those old habits and assumptions.  Spoken Languages: French was his first language, followed by English and then Latin. He’s deeply interested in dead languages and the study of runes.  Dream Job: Cursebreaker!  Bad Habits: Biting the inside of his cheek. Lashing out at those that care about him most. Pushing friends and concern away. Refusing to apply himself lest he try and fail. Squandering his education. Cocaine, alcohol, and other substances; his general proneness to addition. Recklessness and adrenaline-highs. Stealing the covers at night. Joking to cover up his real feelings. A proclivity for dark magic. Singing in the shower. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND ➤

Mother: Walburga Black (neé Black), estranged. Father: Orion Black, estranged.  Sibling(s): Regulus Black, estranged.  Pet(s): n/a Cousin(s): Bellatrix Black. Andromeda Black. Narcissa Black. Evan Rosier.

MAGICAL ABILITIES ➤

Wand: Reed, dragon heartstring, 10 ½ inches, rigid

Patronus (and which memory they’re currently using to cast a patronus if they can, or which one they’d use if they could): Like his Animagus form, Sirius’s patronus takes the shape of a large dog. He’s able to cast it with highly varying levels of success lately; while he has a good tutor in Remus and a willingness to try, Sirius’s magic has always been affected by his mood swings and he just...has too many of those to predict. His most successful attempts have been driven by days of rare concentration and memories colored by the other Marauders. Currently, were he to try and produce one, Sirius would think about the day that Remus kissed him in their dormitory following The Prank fallout – giving him affection and forgiveness and a second chance.

Boggart: The House of Black version of himself - the one that might have happened if he hadn’t been able to break away from his family in time.

OWLS: Ancient Runes, History of Magic, Astronomy, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Arithmancy NEWTS: Ancient Runes (O), History of Magic (A), Astronomy (O), Charms (O), Defense Against the Dark Arts (O), Transfiguration (E), Potions (O), Arithmancy (O)

What Kind of Magic do They Excel at: 

Sirius’s best subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts. He is handy with a wand, knows his own power, and is unafraid to act in the heat of the moment – perhaps a bit recklessly, but there’s nothing life-or-death about the inside of the classroom, and so he simply manages to come off looking talented. 

The most important reason behind him succeeding in that class is the simple fact that he believes it to be useful; it’s going to Mean Something in the Real World, and so it’s one of the few school subjects that commands his attention and respect in equal measure. 

He also has a talent for Ancient Runes that’s finally being appreciated—now that he’s allowing people to appreciate it, and owning his deep interest in the subject openly—and, unfortunately, for the complexities of Dark Magic. 

PSYCHOLOGY ➤

MB Type: The Campaigner

Few personality types are as creative and charismatic as Campaigners. Known for their idealism and enthusiasm, Campaigners are good at dealing with unexpected challenges and brightening the lives of those around them. Campaigners’ imagination is invaluable in many areas, including their own personal growth.

Yet Campaigners can be easily tripped up in areas where idealism and kindness are more of a liability than an asset. Whether it is finding (or keeping) a partner, staying calm under pressure, reaching dazzling heights on the career ladder or making difficult decisions, Campaigners need to put in a conscious effort to develop their weaker traits and additional skills.

Enneagram: ENFP [read more]

Excellent communicators. ENFPs have outstanding communication skills and they know how to use them. They will engage anyone in conversation at the drop of a hat, and they know how to draw others out in a way that keeps the discussion flowing. Whether casually shooting the breeze or collaborating in the workplace, ENFPs provide the horsepower that keeps the engine of conversation humming along.

Imaginative. ENFPs are imaginative problem solvers and reject the idea that traditional ways are always the best. In every situation they believe an original approach is possible—and desirable—and they refuse to become prisoners of habit or routine. They see roadblocks as opportunities, and they confront every challenge they face with fresh eyes and no preconceived notions.

Natural leaders. ENFPs step forward to assume positions of leadership readily and instinctively. They are confident in their ability to handle demanding responsibilities many people find scary or intimidating. ENFP leaders are consensus builders who work hard to gain the trust of their associates, patiently listening to their ideas and reacting enthusiastically to their good suggestions. Their assertive, “can-do” attitude inspires others and motivates them to action.

Strong social conscience. Often active in social movements, ENFPs stand up for what they believe in without apology. Some people talk the compassion game but don’t follow through with meaningful action, but ENFPs believe it is vitally important to back up caring words with good deeds. Despite their friendly nature, an ENFP will go supernova with righteous anger when they are exposed to suffering and injustice. They can get quite loud and assertive, if that’s what it takes to get their opinions heard.

Hypersensitivity. ENFPs sometimes let their imaginations run wild and often perceive bad intentions that don’t really exist. Being hyper-alert and aware helps ENFPs improve their social comprehension, but reading between the lines only works when something is actually hidden there. If it isn’t, misunderstandings can occur and hurt feelings can damage good relationships.

Lack of focus and follow through. ENFPs are endlessly creative, capable of filling a thousand days with a thousand bold ideas. But they don’t always follow through on their inspirations, and if others are not brought on board to handle the details, their best ideas may never be put into practice. ENFPs rely on their initial excitement and passion too much and don’t always show the discipline necessary to translate their ideas into real-world production. They have a tendency to start new projects before the last ones are finished, and failing to see things through is where ENFPs sometimes come up short. 

Overthink things. ENFPs have a tendency to perceive slights, resentments or hostility where none actually exist, and their habit of overanalyzing other people’s behavior can lead to unnecessary anger and conflict. If ENFPs aren’t receiving as many compliments as they expect from their significant others, their insecurities can be activated and they may start to feel unappreciated and unloved. 

Overemotional and approval-seeking. While emotional expression is a core part of the ENFP's identity, they can come on too strong. The bubbly, energetic style of ENFPs doesn’t mesh well with every partner and introverts, in particular, can sometimes feel steamrolled in their presence. ENFPs are also approval-seekers, and in their desire to receive praise and acknowledgment they may try a little too hard to make a good impression, talking too much and listening too little in the process. 

Moral Alignment: Chaotic Good

Archetype:

55% Rebel - The Rebel is comfortable throwing caution to the wind—and bucking the system...if that means getting their point across.

25% Advocate - The Advocate is the one everyone wants on their side. In the name of justice, they are not afraid to challenge authority or speak up for others.

20% Caregiver - Friendly, sincere, and compassionate, the Caregiver finds their reward in helping others. No one could ask for a better best friend.

Temperament: Sanguine

[scifigeneration]

Why is the Pentagon interested in UFOs?

by Iain Boyd

An apparently unidentified object detected on a Navy plane’s infrared camera. U.S. Department of Defense/Navy Times

U.S. Navy pilots and sailors won’t be considered crazy for reporting unidentified flying objects, under new rules meant to encourage them to keep track of what they see. Yet just a few years ago, the Pentagon reportedly shut down another official program that investigated UFO sightings. What has changed? Is the U.S. military finally coming around to the idea that alien spacecraft are visiting our planet?

The answer to that question is almost certainly no. Humans’ misinterpretation of observations of natural phenomena are as old as time and include examples such as manatees being seen as mermaids and driftwood in a Scottish loch being interpreted as a monster. A more recent and relevant example is the strange luminescent structure in the sky caused by a SpaceX rocket launch. In these types of cases, incorrect interpretations occur because people have incomplete information or misunderstand what they’re seeing.

Based on my prior experience as a science advisor to the Air Force, I believe that the Pentagon wants to avoid this type of confusion, so it needs to better understand flying objects that it can’t now identify. During a military mission, whether in peace or in war, if a pilot or soldier can’t identify an object, they have a serious problem: How should they react, without knowing if it is neutral, friendly or threatening? Fortunately, the military can use advanced technologies to try to identify strange things in the sky.

What is this object?

Taking the ‘U’ out of ‘UFO’

“Situational awareness” is the military term for having complete understanding of the environment in which you are operating. A UFO represents a gap in situational awareness. At the moment, when a Navy pilot sees something strange during flight, just about the only thing he or she can do is ask other pilots and air traffic control what they saw in that place at that time. Globally, the number of UFO reportings in a year has peaked at more than 8,000. It’s not known how many the military experiences.

Even the most heavily documented incidents end up unresolved, despite interviewing dozens of witnesses and reviewing many written documents, as well as lots of audio and video recordings.

UFOs represent an opportunity for the military to improve its identification processes. At least some of that work could be done in the future by automated systems, and potentially in real time as an incident unfolds. Military vehicles – Humvees, battleships, airplanes and satellites alike – are covered in sensors. It’s not just passive devices like radio receivers, video cameras and infrared imagers, but active systems like radar, sonar and lidar. In addition, a military vehicle is rarely alone – vehicles travel in convoys, sail in fleets and fly in formations. Above them all are satellites watching from overhead.

Military vehicles bristle with antennas, cameras and sensors of all kinds. U.S. Army

Drawing a complete picture

Sensors can provide a wealth of information on UFOs including range, speed, heading, shape, size and temperature. With so many sensors and so much data, though, it is a challenge to merge the information into something useful. However, the military is stepping up its work on autonomy and artificial intelligence. One possible use of these new technologies could be to combine them to analyze all the many signals as they come in from sensors, separating any observations that it can’t identify. In those cases, the system could even assign sensors on nearby vehicles or orbiting satellites to collect additional information in real time. Then it could assemble an even more complete picture.

For the moment, though, people will need to weigh in on what all the data reveal. That’s because a key challenge for any successful use of artificial intelligence is building trust or confidence in the system. For example, in a famous experiment by Google scientists, an advanced image recognition algorithm based on artificial intelligence was fooled into wrongly identifying a photo of a panda as a gibbon simply by distorting a small number of the original pixels.

So, until humans understand UFOs better, we won’t be able to teach computers about them. In my view, the Navy’s new approach to reporting UFO encounters is a good first step. This may eventually lead to a comprehensive, fully integrated approach for object identification involving the fusion of data from many sensors through the application of artificial intelligence and autonomy. Only then will there be fewer and fewer UFOs in the sky – because they won’t be unidentified anymore.

About The Author:

Iain Boyd is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

[rkheejin]

‧ ₊ ˚ ♡ the skills challenge performance!          • • • singing be myself by gugudan // 0:09 — 2:03!

     heejin despises the way her heart skips a beat the moment her name is uttered by one of the judges after an almost painful wait, flimsy syllables tossed out without a care in the world as if they hardly held any importance— as if they didn't make her up name, as if it wasn’t the very thing she'd desperately needed them to do. as if it wasn’t the very thing she was absolutely craving to hear. it's weakness she loathed having ( the sudden and intense need for verbal validation ), as if she hadn't already gotten enough of that throughout her short life so far.

     no, she's become well accustomed to the sensation of praise, of meeting highly set standards with relative ease, hard work and a steady drive of determination propelling her towards the stars. it's here, however, now placed on such an imposing stage, eyes of skillfully perfected focus and unpredictability ready to pick her apart without any warning, that heejin can't help but feel her own walls of unwavering confidence finally begin to shake.

     she hates it— knowing now just how terrifyingly easy nerves can be brought on simply by bated silence ( and just how quickly those nerves and can morph into questioning relief the very second good news is given ).

     confirmation of her moving on to the next round only brings newer, more nagging thoughts to the surface. she'd done it— she'd proven herself yet again, a sure sign that she could do this, that she could pull through as she wanted to and secure victory. yet, that also meant the herd had been cut down significantly.

     room for errors and mediocrity would become slimmer and slimmer the longer this went on, all until nothing short of perfection could be given without fear of leaving this whole ordeal empty-handed.

     heejin refused to leave with nothing to show for herself.

                                                                      ♡

     there's little rest to be had, skin anxiously prickling more and more with each passing day, her mind preoccupied with nothing but sing, sing, sing— correct your breathing here, don't let yourself strain at this part, keep yourself as steady as you possibly can. run through after run through, correction after correction, all painstakingly repeated and ingrained in her mind. heejin is rarely home during this period of time, hardly seen by anyone who doesn’t come looking ( or, in some cases, can’t spare the time to break from their own preparations ), her only true opportunities for rest being forced on her by her academic schedules ( even then, tucked far in the back of her classrooms, something she rarely allowed herself to do, her mind is far from her lessons— no, all she can think about is how she could do better, what she needed to do better, all in the hopes of earning another success ).

     it's tiring, so tiring, but she can't stop. she won't let herself.

     it's only the day before she ( and everyone else ) are set to show up and perform that she finally gives herself a moment to properly breathe.

     she feels stiff, far more rigid than she'd like to be, and that's when she knows she needs to pull back, if only for a moment. sat snuggly in one of the secluded practice rooms located in her schools' music department, she simply sits, letting peaceful silence take her over.

     jungeun comes to mind, images of the blonde submerged deeply within her own element while on stage during the first round playing out as if she had seen them earlier that day, and heejin can't help but wonder how her own practice has been coming along— with her phone grasped loosely between small hands, the brunette almost hits the call button. almost.

     it almost feels like a selfish thought, wanting to reach out for someone ( anyone ) who could possibly understand the growing exhaustion burning through her veins. who was she to distract others, though, when she'd done this to herself willingly? this had been her own choice, her own decision— she wouldn't pull for the blondes attention, not now, when her best friend was no doubt working just as hard ( if not harder ) for her own victory.

     no, she had known what this would all entail the minute she'd sent in her application, bright-eyed and determined. she couldn't lose that fire, not this early over something so simple— heejin would figure this out.

     her phone vibrates silently in her hands, catching her off guard, and it's only a moment before she sees what's been sent.

❪ ⤑ ✉ 3 new messages┆🌙💕 ❫

     her lips break out into a gentle smile, tired eyes softening, and suddenly, she doesn't feel as beat up as before. eyes scanning his words, the warmth in her cheeks only grows, but it's pleasant— it's missed. with words so caring, so encouraging, at a time when she felt she needed them most, there's newfound vigor brewing in her body.

     you will be awesome on saturday!

     heejin could do this.

                                                                      ♡

     walking onto set feels as daunting as it had the first time, her face blank ( save for the slight rise of a single brow ) as she lets curious eyes travel the space, taking it all in. the lack of people is noticeable right from the beginning, the area less stuffy with half the amount of original chairs gotten rid of, but that only makes heejin think— one hundred, such a large and strong number, cut down to a mere fifty with ease.

     well, at least she was aware now that she had actual competition.

     out of the corner of her eye, she spots unmistakable blonde hair filtering around the room, and heejin can't help but feel relief once more knowing they'd made it this far together ( just like she knew they would ). tearing her gaze away, she spots faces and silhouettes she's come to familiarize herself a bit more with thanks to the little celebratory outing yuzu had suggested the week before— short black hair recalls memories of pleasant conversation, of a possible friendship she wouldn't mind growing, and heejins legs take her to where ryujin is sat without protest.

     she sits beside the younger girl with a grin, eyes shining with anticipation, and the thought passes by quickly— she wonders what the other has in store for them all today. while it seemed that singers made up the top percentage of contestants ( heejin being included ), the younger girl was grouped in with the dancers at second. while there were certainly others better at that particular skill, she couldn't deny that the other had a certain draw to her. similarly to kyulkyung, whom she'd also made sure to greet as she passed by, she was an entertaining act to watch.

     of course, heejin had her own biases ( she would always sight jungeun as her personal favorite ), but that didn't take away from anyone else. ryujin was talented in her own right— it would be interesting to see her go far.

     it's only once everyone's seated, noises sounding off and startling the brunette slightly, that it's finally time for things to start. unlike the first time, seeing who the judges are doesn’t cause her heart to beat wildly as it had before— now, it’s almost expected. after all, these were the ones who’d be taking the finalists into their companies when this was all over. who better than to pass judgments than them?

     however, general nerves rear their ugly heads, and for a second, heejin can't help but question herself— question others.

     what if she didn't stand out this time? what if she, despite all of the effort and time put into choosing her song and making sure it was perfect, fell short? would anyone going up before her be performing the same song as her? had her music choice in general been a mistake?

     that last question had been one she'd thought of from the very moment she settled on her vocals— the choice had been difficult, but in her eyes, she felt like it was a necessary one to make. it hadn't been lost on her how, up until now, all of her performances had songs of the same caliber. similar vibes, similar emotions, similar technique. sure, they suited her ( at least, she felt they suited her better than anything else ), but she didn't want to grow stale, boring, in others eyes.

     versatility was important no matter the skill.

     so, watching as the first handful of singers go up and perform, her head nodding along to distant beats and rhythms as a way to soothe her own mind, heejin steels herself. there was no room for doubt anymore, not when her name was about to be called. she needed to be sure of herself, confident in her abilities and quality.

❝ CONTESTANT #5013, JEON HEEJIN— PLEASE TAKE THE STAGE. ❞

     reaching for jungeun's hand quickly, she gives it a gentle squeeze, one that's gratefully returned as a sign of encouragement, and heejin rises from her seat. as she walks to the stage, she catches yuri's eyes and lets herself break out into a soft grin, nodding her head in acknowledgment. she would need to talk with the younger girl once it was deliberation time to tell her how good her performance was— well, would be, considering yuri was up after her.

     she had all the faith in the world for her cousin.

     brushing aside shorter strands of hair that weren't held in her low pony, heejin stands tall in center stage, a signature smile on her lips.

     "hello, it's nice to see you all again—" she can't help but joke, a way of squashing any last remnants of nerves in her system, the mic picking up a small laugh as she bows. "i'm jeon heejin and today, while i'll be singing for you once again, i hope to show you a little bit of a more different side of myself. please enjoy this performance just as much as you enjoyed my last performance."

     receiving nods to proceed, she awaits her music queue, ready to begin. her music starts and, immediately, she's heejin is focused.

날 향한 차가운 눈빛 둘러싼 소문만 참 많아 걱정 마 난 강인하니까 사소한 것에 겁내지 않아

더 강하게 ooh ah yeah 더 당당하게 ooh ah yeah 한계를 뛰어넘어 위험해도 좋아 더 색다른 날 보여줄게

     unlike the first episode, she has no props— no guitar to play, nothing as additional help with the intent to enhance her showcase. now, everything is all dependant on her, on her voice and presence, those two factors being the sole reason she'd done so much in preparation. her vocals had to be spot on, carrying their own distinct flare while still delivering the most solid performance she could with the hopes of leaving her audience wanting more, facial expressions and body language all playing a role in only furthering that agenda.

     her voice is clear, strong as it should be for the power the song holds, adlibs starting out smoothly just as she'd practiced countless times. right away, there's an attitude to be seen— nothing to be taken seriously once she's stepped down from the stage, but something to marvel and become immersed with as she sings.

     flicks of her brow, blatant smirks forming here and there between the words that leave her lips, a sense of appeal heejin has only recently felt comfortable projecting. she's always been confident in herself, in her skills and what she's got to show, but this? this is a little different from her normal, a side to herself she'd rarely ever shown, usually in favor of something more soulful and indie.

     hesitance aside, it's an image she likes— it's one she wouldn't mind expanding on.

be yourself 더 이상 망설이지 마 뭐든 네 멋대로 우리에겐 내일은 없어 난 규칙 따윈 몰라 모두가 깜짝 놀라 다쳐도 좋아 바로 지금 do it now

누가 뭐래도 nothing like what i do do do 내가 뭘 해도 good thing ( good thing ) 좀 더 자유롭게 be myself 난 내 멋대로 살래 잘 지켜봐 yeah

     as she comes to the pre-chorus, the tempo a tad slower, it's the perfect chance to show how smooth her tone can be, a dull fire emanating from her as she puts more soul into her performance. with something so pop, it's easy for ones vocals to flatline and become bland, easily overshadowed by synths and overproduction. heejin doesn't want this, no— she wants her voice to hold as much depth and pull to it as it can.

     eyes closing, there's more focus, letting it all build up until the chorus breaks through, and her voice is lighter, rising and falling to hit her notes prettily ( she tosses a wink in at her almost whispered good thing, tone naturally on the huskier side with how lowly it's done ).

     leading into the bridge, that same soulful quality returns, and she moves in time to the song, heel meeting the floor subtly in time to the beat.

내가 결정해 나다운 게 뭔지 oh 눈치 보지 말고 좀 더 자신 있게 나를 보여줄래

고민하지 마 nothing like what i do do do 끌리는 대로 good thing ( good thing ) 너를 표현해봐 be yourself 세상을 너로 칠해 널 보여줘 yeah what you do

     hand on her chest, she's still pleasantly steady in her performance, inhaling away from the mic when she needs to, and she's entering the final stretch. this bridge, mellow, yet still holding a certain sultry quality to it, allows heejin the slight refresher she needs before letting herself peak in the end.

     opening her eyes, she lets her gaze travel around all who watch her, a brow raised in invitation— an invitation to what? to that, she’s not quite sure. praise? criticism? jealousy?

     challenge.

be myself be myself be myself 가장 나답게 위험해 위험해 위험해 be myself be myself be myself 이 밤이 가기 전에 위험해 위험해 위험해

     her voices echoes around the room as she finishes, music ending with her, and all that's left to be heard are her receding breathes as she pulls the mic away from her face.

     it's silly, recalling how worried she'd been the last week— jaehyun had said it himself.

     you will be awesome.

     heejin was awesome.

[allysartstuff]

Note: This has been drawn as a reference guide which is free to use if you wish to draw this character. However, please do not repost or claim as your own, thank you.

The tenth born in my MLP Next Gen.

WARNING! Below has some sad stuff including a fan favourite canon character. Don't say I didn't warn you and please keep your tears and pitchforks at the door thank you.

Berry Bubblegum

Personality: Emotional, high-strung, mindful, passionate, fun loving.

Likes: Making others happy, factoids about royalty, parties with Cheese Sandwich, goof offs with Pinkie Pie, helping out even the smallest of ways.

Dislikes: Arguing with Bright Eyes, bugs, criticism, teasing, feeling useless.

Story;

Berry Bubblegum is the youngest daughter of Princess Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. Like her older sister Bright Eyes, she is the result of Alicorn Magic combining the love of two ponies of the same gender and third party reproduction. This means she is related to both Pinkie and Twilight and has both their DNA. By Pinkie’s request, Bright’s biological father is Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie carried her, on equal ground with Twilight who carried Bright Eyes.

At a very early age, all Berry ever wanted to be was a princess, just like her Mama Twilight. She dedicated herself to finding everything out about princesshood, constantly bothering Twilight and any other royalty about it. She insisted on going to every event Twilight was invited to, never leaving her side and proudly proclaiming she was the princess’s daughter. However, this ego inflation caught the attention of a few green eyed bullies. Many of them pointed out that she was just an earth pony and there was no chance of her becoming a princess. Berry pretended to ignore those comments, not showing how much they chipped away at her confidence. She was still determined to become a princess and anyone can become a princess!

Right?

Those dreams and obsessions, however, began to break when Berry was ten. An eighteen-year-old Bright Eyes, who was more than a tad clumsy with her magic, accidentally invented a groundbreaking new spell. Her reward from Princess Celestia herself was to be turned into an Alicorn Princess, much to everyone’s surprise and Berry’s horror. She was utterly crushed that her sister became a princess and not her. Bright, who in fact did not want to be a princess, saw how upset Berry was so she literally demanded Celestia turn her back into a non Royal Unicorn, which she did. Berry really appreciated the gesture from Bright and it brought them together closer as sisters. However, Berry slowly began to realise that the likelihood of her becoming a Princess were very, very slim. She tried every extraordinary thing that she could be capable of doing but nothing worked.

Berry also had another problem. She was now a teenager and still didn’t have her cutie mark. Because she was so set on becoming a princess, she didn’t think to consider other options. This was the cause of more bullying, led to depression and more insecurities. Eventually, she just stopped trying at anything. Her parents noticed soon that her grades were low and she stopped coming to Twilight’s Princess outings. One day, Pinkie Pie decided to have a heart to heart with her about it. This was where Berry expressed her feelings and insecurities, saying that because she was not a unicorn or a pegasus and couldn’t perform magic, she wasn’t special or good enough to become a princess. She was just a dumb, stupid, useless earth pony. Trying not to sound hurt by Berry’s words, Pinkie asked her what was so bad about being ordinary? After all, ordinary earth ponies are still capable of doing extraordinary things. Berry didn’t believe her, though she did feel guilty when she overheard Twilight comforting a weeping Pinkie Pie.

When Berry was sixteen, Cheese Sandwich made a surprise trip to Ponyville and Berry was delighted at seeing her dad again. But he was not there on a happy occasion. He revealed to the TwiPie family that he was very sick with cancer and, while treatable at this stage, it very close to being terminal. Everyone was devastated, most especially Berry, who is the most emotional out of her and Bright. Everyone dealt with the news differently. Since the Ponyville hospital had a good cancer treatment department, Twilight allowed Cheese to stay in the castle during his treatment while Pinkie took him to all of his appointments. Berry tried to be strong and spend as much time with her father as possible, even attending all his appointments with him, but she desperately wanted to help him and felt even more useless than usual. It also didn’t help that Bright had locked herself in her room and buried herself in her studies, not wanting to address Cheese’s illness. Berry was furious, accusing her sister of not caring about their father’s sickness.

After that fight, Berry stormed off, running to the hospital where Cheese was on an overnight stay. She found him entertaining foals, still smiling and making ponies laugh despite being in incredible pain. Touched, Berry knew what she could do to help. She asked Pinkie if she’d be willing to teach her how to make others laugh, much to an already emotional Pinkie’s delight. While being taught and improving her skills, Berry gathered her friends Lucky Bug, Lickety-Split, Opal and Forelle to put on a performance for all the ponies at the hospital. It was a huge success and Berry finally felt she had helped not just her father, but the kids and her sister, who finally came out of the castle to see it and opened up about her emotions about Cheese’s illness. This was when she finally received her cutie mark, several blue bubbles.

In the current timeline, Berry is eighteen and still in school. She is much more confident now, still continuing to entertain for sick ponies and plans to create a charity based around that with help from Twilight. Both Pinkie and Cheese (who is still very ill but is making progress) train her in the ways of entertainment. Berry also goes by her unofficial title as ‘The Princess of Parties’.

Bits and Pieces;

Ever since getting her cutie mark, Berry’s confidence improved. She even challenges Pinkie to a Goof Off every now and again. There’s yet to be a decided winner.

Pinkie’s baby name for Berry is ‘Berry Baby’. Berry isn’t entirely found of it but Cheese gets away with calling her that.

Berry’s full name is Raspberry Bubblegum Sparkle Pie.

Berry’s nickname among friends is ‘Bubs’.

Berry’s best friend is Forelle. Berry is one of the few ponies who doesn’t act awkward over Forelle’s blindness and is the only one who gets away with joking about it.

Berry is the only one out of the whole next gen to have different coloured eyes. The left is pink and the right is purple.

Despite being high strung, Berry care very deeply for her friends and family. She loves to make them happy, even just a little and keeps a little scrap book of everyone’s favourite things called ‘The Happy Book’.

Just like Pinkie, Berry has appalling table manners.

When Berry got her cutie mark, she screamed excitedly for a while, joined by Bright when she showed it off to her.

Bright and Berry often squabble as sisters do. Bright is more logically thinking while Berry is more emotional driven. However, they bond over planning parties and charity events. Before Cheese became ill, their favourite time of the year was summer when they would attend Cheese’s party expeditions.

Berry gained her father’s height and is significantly taller than Bright as a teen. Her body type is similar to Luna or Fleur de Lis.

Since they have two mothers, Bright and Berry call Pinkie ‘Mom’ and Twilight ‘Mama’.

Berry is deathly afraid of any kind of bugs and insects. This was due to a childhood prank on her from Lickety-Split, who dumped Lucky Bug’s collection of bugs on top of her. Since then, she cannot even look at a pretty butterfly without screaming blue murder. Bright often has to ‘rescue’ Berry from bugs since their castle is full of them.

Berry Bubblegum © Me

My Little Pony © Hasbro

[fierycosmos]

FFXV: Noctis Meeting his Date

(sorry for dropping you right into the action of the story again - didn't know how to write a good opening, everything i tried ended up sounding just bleh - but i hope you enjoy) *Dancing with friend in a round-waltz - where guys are on the inside and girls are on the outside, and the girls circle revolves around the guys to switch partners* Her friend is blatantly nervous and looking around frantically. He almost freezes on spot when he eyes a certain girl next in line to dance with him. Gulping, he tightens up and looks down at his feet, overthinking everything as usual. Diane holds back an eye roll and grips her friend’s shoulders to help him get a grip. Snapped out of his state, he looks up at her meekly before sighing deeply. Meanwhile, Diane is keeping a trained ear on the tempo of the music changing – signaling a change in partners coming near. “Okay, you ready?” Diane asks, staring her friend down encouragingly.   “I-I’m not sure I can do this, maybe I should bail—” “Don’t you dare, mister.” She cuts him off and sternly locks eyes with him.  “Now, take a breath.” Begrudgingly, he does as he’s told. Diane smirks and hears the right tune that signals the change. ��Now don’t forget to smile, and don’t look down.” She takes lead of the dance for a mere moment, trying to make it look subtle, and swings out of his grasp and moves onto the next dancer without paying her new companion too much mind. Once his friends realizes the plan was taking place, he looks at her fleeing and immediately panics, but then his focus changes when he feels a hand land in his, and he’s met with the girl he’s been anxious about meeting all night. The girl smiles warmly up at him. Mr. Nervous gulps, but nods in acknowledgment and positions himself properly so that they may begin dancing – him leading. Diane smiles to herself as she continues to peer at her friend and watch him dance. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt you?” Came the voice of the man she was currently dancing with. “No, no, you’re fine,” She says offhandedly, but meets the eyes of the man she’s dancing with and stiffens. Her eyes widening slightly when she realizes its Prince Noctis. “Forgive me, but my friend is hopeless.” She nods her head in his direction. “Oh?” The Prince muses, quirking a brow. She smiles.   “Take a look.” She nods her head in the direction of her friend, and Noctis follows her line of sight. It’s clear to see that her friend is struggling slightly to contain himself, and at the same time lead the woman in his arms gracefully. “He’s so nervous, poor thing.” She remarks with a heavy sigh. “He’s been overthinking every way he could approach this girl before now, and now that she’s found him, he can’t get a grip.” She smirks, and this in turn has Noctis give a small laugh and gain a smirk of his own. “That’s very kind of you,” Noctis gains Diane’s attention again at his compliment. “Is this a typical occurrence?” “No, I’m usually just keeping him out of trouble.” She jokes with a grin. “I believe I’ve graduated from being a babysitter to playing cupid.” “Well, I believe you have a knack for it.” Noctis tilts his head in Diane’s friend’s direction and Diane lets her gaze fall on him again. Her friend, thankfully, has a more comfortable smile on his face – though still blushing – but his grin grows as he’s managed to say something that makes the girl laugh. Diane smirks in acceptance. “About time.” She shakes her head and laughs and meets Noctis’ eyes again. She smiles at him warmly, feeling more relaxed than she has with her previous dance partners, including her friend. “I suppose my mission was a success.” “It has, and you should be lucky to have such a success.” Diane blinks curiously at Noctis’ remark. “Am I?” “Sadly, I have a friend in a similar state – he might always be hopeless.” Noctis sighs. She laughs. “Oh come now, is he that bad?” She chides, though then gains a challenging smirk. “Or are you just not doing your job right?” He looks surprised by her quip. Not expecting that reaction from him, she hesitates for a moment, thinking she overstepped, but relaxes when he grins. She sighs in relief mentally, appreciating Noctis’ good sense of humor. “I have the proof right over there.” He nods his head to the direction across the room, and Diane follows his gaze and sees Prompto – though she doesn’t know it’s him – as he’s fiddling with his thumbs while another burlier man stands next to him – Gladio – and tries to shove him with a smirk but his friend looks like he’s babbling and blushes. Diane laughs more audibly than before. “Oh dear, a whole entourage of cupids.” She remarks with a smirk. “I don’t know whether or not to commend you for roping another person in or to still doubt your matchmaking skills.” “Prom will never deny more help,” he laughs and smirks fondly while recalling the last time Prompto was trying to socialize with the ladies at the last ballroom event. “He is always running up in a panic over someone new.” Noctis meets Diane’s eyes again after checking on Prompto once more. “He’ll get there someday.” They share a smile. She has really enjoyed getting to know a side of the prince she never knew was there. She wished it could last longer. Then, Diane realizes she never introduced herself to Noctis yet, but before she could the music changes and they must switch partners again. Diane looks baffled and distraught for a moment as she has to move on from Noctis, but he smiles at her genuinely and nods at her before paying attention to whoever came his way. Diane visibly deflates somewhat, but puts on a good face for her new partner. However, as she dances through the various partners, she’s distracted and thinks of how foolish she felt for not introducing herself sooner to Noctis – and feeling as though she was incredibly rude for it and might not get the chance to make up for her tomfoolery. She inflates slightly when she sees Noctis close to being her partner again, but realizes the song is drawing to a close. She hopes they might loop it once more, but right as she smiles while spinning to have Noctis lead her again, the song ends, and everyone claps to reward the orchestra. He steps away from her and claps along with the crowd, as Diane does so begrudgingly. With the audience dialing down on clapping, the orchestra starts a new song, not one meant for a roundabout waltz. Noctis shrugs with a small smile on his face and begins to depart from the dance floor. Without knowing what else to do and feeling desperate, she blurts out rather loudly, “Diane.” She almost bites her tongue at sounding so foolish, but it gains his attention like she wanted. Noctis meets her eyes with his own, though slightly widened again. “Diane?” “My name,” Diane blushes at her being so abrasive and sounding like a crazy person. She clears her throat and then dips into a slight bow. “I’m Diane.” She falters but swallows and gains some composure. “I didn’t get to properly introduce myself earlier, and I felt rude about it this whole time.” “It’s alright,” He bows, with a smile gracing his features. “I’m glad I know it now. I admit I was curious.” “Again, sorry for not saying so before, and instead going off on worrying over my friend.” She finds said friend in the crowd still talking with the girl he wanted to dance with before, as they too met up again. “He’s now ready to function on his own like an actual grown up.” She meets Noctis again. “That’s hopefully a good sign that the same will occur for your friend.” He laughs and her smile grows. “I’ll hold you to that.” “Oh no, please, have mercy.” She jokes. “I hope not to become an enemy of the state through such a off-handed remark proving to be wrong.” He quirks a brow at her exaggerated accent. “Who do you take me as?” He jokes, but she smiles sheepishly. “You know, your highness—” He cuts her off by stepping towards her, which alone causes her voice to trail off. “My father holds that title. Just, Noctis.” He reasons sheepishly towards the end. She falters for a moment before responding but regains her voice. “Well, Noctis, I know very well that a friend’s well-being is held above everything else.” Noctis smiles, agreeing with her. “You would be right.” He pauses a moment before obtaining some nerve she couldn’t tell he gathered from. “So, what if you’re wrong? You have a way of paying for the expense I will have to go to when having to console my dear friend?” He challenges with a mocking smirk. Still taken aback by the turn of events, Diane blushes. “O-oh, I couldn’t—“ “We go to the movies.” He cuts her off again with his offer. She blushes brighter than before, and blinks at him. “S-sure.” She curses herself inwardly for stuttering, but Noctis is pleased enough with her answer to smile at her stutter. She clears her throat to cover her nervousness. “If he does end up not succeeding, I suppose that’s a punishment I could take.” She smirks. “On the other hand, what if I’m right?” “We go to the movies, my treat.” He smirks back at her. “Oh my.” Diane’s hand mockingly drifts up to her mouth, covering it in feign shock. “Does that mean you weren’t planning on treating me on our first date? How positively informal.” She joked, faking feeling hurt. Successfully, she gets Noctis to blush this time. “C-can you just meet mere here tomorrow? Around 8?” He asks, looking uncomfortable and avoiding to answer her question. “I’m sorry.” She laughs – almost feeling bad for teasing him and giving up the façade. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Noctis sighs in relief. “Six, I never thought we’d reach this point.” He admits. “Well, if you wanted to ask me in the first place, next time don’t just hide around the idea of bet.” She reassures him with a glint in her eyes and a sincere smile. “I would have accepted either way.” They exchange a smile and all time ceases to stop for a moment as they share a warm moment. However, something out of the corner of his eyes knocks him out of their fantasy and he turns in the direction of the disturbance and sees Prompto. “If you’ll excuse me, I do in fact have to check in with my hopeless case. It’s the least I can do to make sure he hasn’t made a complete mess of himself – at least, without me seeing it for myself.” They share a laugh and after they both stop, he bows again and meets her eyes as he’s bent at the waist. “Tomorrow, then.” His smile makes her smile and she curtsies in return. “Can’t wait.” She smiles and she doesn’t get up from her bow until he does so first. He smiles at her once more, rising from his bow – her following suit, before retreating to the two friends she saw before – the nervous one and the burly one – but who were now joined with a tall man wearing glasses. Diane smiles to herself, gets up, and keeps a watchful eye over her friend flirting from afar, amused as she thinks of how tomorrow will play out.        

__________

hi so my third post out of four (best for last is prompto that's full of fluff and cutesy awkwardness) noctis' story - though i adore him - is i think my shortest of the four "ball setting" one-shots like with my last two posts feel free to treat this ficlet like a reader-insert and disregard the name "Diane" again - i threw in a name and didn't make this a straight up reader-insert due to specifics and not wanting to influence the reader too much so i hope you enjoy hope noctis sounds in character - i just feel like he'd be interested a girl who initially ignored him and then talked to him like he was a person and joked with him not like he's a prince i hope that's okay would super love feedback <3 story belongs to me noctis and references to ffxv were created and are owned by square enix