#thank you!! I LOVE DRAWING its a lot of fun and comes easily right now so im riding the fixation wave as long as i can | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

creatively-cosmic · 4 months ago

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Hihi! I'm the anon from the MN talk sprite ask I'd love to hear about your sprite genius science haha :-D

Ps to say that I'm a huge fan of your work just in general

first of all THANK U SO MUCH WAAH....... im so glad you like our stuff TvT !!

second !! ill hop to the sprite explanation right here! i'll put it under the cut bc it might get long eheh

and a note: im using csp but this should work with any program! i previously used ibis for my talksprites before remaking them ^^

for my example subject, i'll be using ace! they'll be my best example since theyve gotten more use so far!

quick notes about the background; i always export my canvas as transparent to give the image that they're just a Part of the post/environment. the nametags and gradients are optional, but i feel the gradients help fill dead space and add a bit more to it- the nametags help in emulating the feel of video game dialog too (i dont tend to have the patience to actually make pokemon textboxes because i have to do it manually, so putting this over post text is my next best option.. makes it easier for chattier people, and gives screen reader accessibility as well!)

ANYWAYS, now for the actual Building of the Sprite!

where i usually start is with a base sketch of their neutral expression. i have two for All of the modern/updated talksprites, because i had initially wanted to put them at an angle to add a bit more flavor to them.. ultimately though, i stuck with the symmetrical style for my personal quality of life. i find it easier to work with and add to- i just have to be very meticulous about getting the proportions right is the main thing ^^'

now, from the sketch is the natural next step of Lining shit! and heres where the method of madness starts, because a big part of this entire thing is...

this . im so sorry about this image.

if you look at the layers, you'll see the general order of operations! basically i try to look at it as different Pieces, or Assets. its like a paper doll that you're assembling- the pieces that go behind need to go all the way in the back, then you build up. the back of someone's hair goes behind everything, then their body. then their clothes, then head, face, face accessories, bangs, and finally cartoony emotes on the very top if that's your style.

generally, i try to set my layers up for maximum customization- mixing and matching it the key for making my talksprites as versatile as possible. so stuff like having a base body that you can add changes of clothes too, using clipping layers to add shadows that would go over everything, that kinda thing.

but overall, having layer stacks worked out like this is the MOST important part, imo, for doing these talksprites. when it all comes together, the result is a clean basis for mixing and matching however you might need for both expressions and appearance. i keep everything in folders of Lineart, Shading, and Color as well, just in case i need to revisit or add to something premade later.

speaking of adding- this also allows for you to easily make any future assets for changing appearance and expression! i personally do it case-by-case, as i can't ever anticipate every expression or article of clothing i'd Ever Need. when something new is needed, i'll just make the new thing, and then it's just another piece to have in the mix! it's pretty nice! :D

tip: god remember to name your layers/folders. i used to Not and it made finding the pieces i need so hard. doing this method will result in a LOT of layers. be nice to yourself and name things accordingly!

now focusing in on the most important part of an expressive talksprite, heres the face, and the best way ive found to stack the layers so far. within all of these layers are the pieces of expressions that can make countless matches if you add enough to them. fun!

now the Eyes. the eyes . the eyebrows and mouth are pretty straightforward you just Draw and Color them and boom theyre done. but i want to draw special attention to the Eyes because figuring out how to do these were probably the thing i struggled with the MOST. its a system thats a bit more in depth than just. Doing it. here's what we got though.

the optimal stack for maximum eye expression that ive found? do lines and the coloring for those lines. SEPARATELY.

the idea is to make irises fully round so you can move them around or have wide eyed expressions without any weird cutoff in parts you failed to draw (looking at my old sprites. sighs). but to avoid having to delete or erase anything, the iris folder needs to clip onto the eye whites folder so you dont get stuff like

this . yeah.

and another thing i had to learn the hard way is that if your character has stuff like eyebags or makeup, and this is the reason my "lineart layer" has folders, if that if you put that stuff on the white layer, the irises will sit over THAT as well as the whites, resulting in some annoying little things.

see: ace's eyebags in the whites layer, VS ace's eyebags in the lines layer.

ofc this is unnecessary if you dont add that kind of detail to your own characters- in that case, the lines layers can be as simple as just being lines!

with all that, the eyes more than anything are layers i recommend having properly named. you'll need to have the right whites with the right lines, so being able to find the two pieces with the same names is important! else you could get fun bits like this:

i dont think eyes are supposed to do that.

and generally, that's the most important parts of making these that i'd say! i have a few more tips, but theyre mostly little things that are moreso optional that i'll rattle off real quick-

for shading, i just use solid black shading with a lower opacity (i know, booooo). it's the quickest and easiest way to ensure they're both consistent, and covering everything in the same way. tbh i dont every see shading as necessary for these- but it adds just that bit more of depth and extra visual appeal to it imo

a general rule i use for characters with facial hair, which is Several in missing numbers; beards go with the head base, mustaches should be redrawn with every mouth. when someone with a mustache or stubble is talking, its usually gonna be moving and contorting with the shape of the mouth:

having it be static can range from a little off, to just Weird with more extreme expressions. but thats mostly because my style leans more realistic- if you've got a more toony style, i dont think having a mouth overlapping a mustache a little will be too bad!

this is just because i put a lot of detail into stuff and is SUPER optional, but one thing i do is have two different head bases for whether a mouth is open or closed. the jaw is opening is gonna result in the chin going a bit farther down, as opposed to it being closed! all i did to make it was take the original head base, grab the jaw area, and lower it a few pixels, then filled in the gaps. work smarter not harder

when moving the irises around, i prefer to duplicate the base layer. usually to get things to look right, you'll need to move the irises independently, so its good to just have the original stay as it is because getting it back EXACTLY how it was might be difficult. plus, you can keep the moved ones for reuse later! ^-^

if your art program allows for a universal symmetry ruler, awesome! make sure you know exactly where to put it later to add to your character! and if you use a program like clip studio (like me) where the ruler only applies to one layer; at least for csp, i can put it on a folder and it applies to everything inside that folder, so i just put all the assets in one Big folder and put the ruler there. i dont know every art program, but hopefully that still helps??

if your character has strands of hair that rests in front of their shoulders like ace's wisps or leafs big old strands, draw them as a part of the bangs or put them in the same folder so they properly sit atop everything else!

ace doesnt have any hands yet, but those would go at the very top of the layer stack. heres our lovely assistant for an example!

and for now, thats all i can really think of!

these talksprites aren't ideal for a lot of bodily motion, but for stuff like that, i figure thats where hand-drawn pieces come in. generally, i have these setup to make work on updates a bit easier, as it takes me a while to draw entire original pieces (and i struggle to focus. this is in fact why the blog suddenly went quiet again), but i still want my posts to have that visual flair to them! doing an entire visual of a character from the ground up is a fair bit more work than just. drawing a symmetrical mouth onto a guy, so i've found this whole mix-n-match type of talksprite thing a godsend ^^

anyways !! i hope i explained that well enough- good luck with ur endeavors, and i hope i get to see it!! :O

and please feel free to shoot any other questions my way if you need anything else!! im always happy to explain and help :D

and as a blog teaser for whoever gets all the way down here, a little something for your time... ive hired these three trainers to stare at you

#mn diary #hoping this is comprehensible TuT thank u again anon ur so sweeet auhjndkfdklssnkksldjn #i hope this helps anyone who sees it n wants to try!#hell did something similar for green but exported his assets into some picrew-adjacent site for his own ease of use #so thats also a thing but idk how that works.. i like my methodical madness lol

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darkdumbass · 1 year ago

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Hi there! This is random, but I really really love the way you do line art! I love how simple, clean, and direct it feels. It has great energy and feels really appealing! I’m trying to improve my own line art right now… I feel like it takes me a long time to choose the “right” lines and end up with clean finish. What to you think has helped you get up to this point with your line art the most? Do you have any suggestions of ways to study and practice? Any favorite artists you look up to for their lines?

I love your work ❤️ thank you

Hello! Thank you for the kind words. I enjoy doing linework a lot, so this is nice to hear :)

These days my line art is more of a "clean drawing" rather than what one usually imagines under traditional line art, which would be opaque lines with varying weight. Right now I like to use a brush that doesn't vary size with pen pressure but varies opacity only. It gives the lines a very soft feeling that I've grown to love.

I browsed through your art, and I was a bit blown away actually, because I think you have a fantastic energy and expression in your drawings, which is something I aspire to have myself. You are very knowledgable about line weight and shapes, so I won't bore you with explaining any of that, haha.

I think good line art comes down to confidence. Obviously, an artist needs a confident hand to avoid shaky lines, to lead them exactly the way they want to, to give them an energy. This sort of mechanical skill is acquired through experience.

But! I've always felt there is a sort of a mental side to this as well, which is best observed during traditional inking. You have to commit to your lines, you have to trust them. You have to sit back and give control to your hand, because with the experience it has, it also has a mind of its own. This sounds pretty out there, but it's about letting go and not overthinking it. I realized this when I looked up to Jim Lee's work as an older teen. There's a lot of videos on YT where you can see his process, which looks utterly effortless. Take this one for example. It's quick, so it's a bit rough, but it does look like his hand is just doing whatever!

I fostered that approach in my art while doing daily drawing from life - straight to inks without sketching. The drawings look wonky a lot of the time, but it gave me confidence where it mattered later. To this day, when I do clean lines in digital too, I adopt this mindset of letting go, which gives the lines more leeway, which also means that if the line doesn't go exactly where it should according to the sketch, I can still trust it. (Although contrary to this, I still put a lot of controlled effort into faces, and this approach comes more easily while drawing bodies and clothes.)

As for suggestions for practice, as I've already mentioned, drawing from life straight to inks (I recommend this over going straight to inks from imagination as that's extremely difficult, at least for me). Have a fast hand, and do long lines even if they come out wobbly. Try to let your hand roleplay Jim Lee here and there - let it do that flick that crosses a line it shouldn't have, let it make a turn with an accidental squiggle, let it pool a bit of ink at the end of the line. Fake it till you make it. At first, I suggest trying this on subjects that aren't your expertise (eg. in my case, draw a bottle instead of a person), so you don't subconsciously compare this to your best work, but make sure you're still having fun :)

Of course, it helps to like doing line art too. I don't know what your relationship to it is, but if it suffers, I suggest busting out the traditional inks with dipping pens, wodden skewers and brushes. It connects me with the process like nothing else.

As for my favorites, I can recommend one of my favorite manga artists - Satoru Noda. Superbly confident and energetic linework. Check out his series Golden Kamuy or Dogsred :)

I hope this will give you a small idea of how I approach my line art. It might be a mess… If you have any more questions as a result of this, or related to anything else, don't hesitate to ask!

#ask

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taqoou · 1 year ago

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hi, your art style is so cool!! i love it

as a beginner artist, i was wondering if you had any helpful tips for procreate or anything? the art world is kinda daunting lol😅

thank u so much!! ive been feeling down ab my art so seeing this in my inbox was like a sweet treat LMAOO 🎀

so back to the q…. im afraid i dont have any mind blowing tips. its normal to feel overwhelmed as a beginner, but everyone starts somewhere! i say familiarize urself with basic procreate shortcuts (loads of tutorials online) and always play around with their settings! it should be helpful for the learning process along the way.

for eg ermm i used to abuse the gradient maps settings to pretend i know shit ab colouring 😭💀 i still do tbh, except now i understand how it actually works and i can easily get the colours that i want.

some of the things i learned:

1. cool lineart (i always use this as a part of my render process)

2. art is subjective, pick any that you think suits your preference/is fun to use

for brush, do you prefer it round or textured? lots of pressure sensitivity or none? i like my brushes textured and with a good amount of pressure sensitivity. for blending, do you prefer the transition colour to appear smooth or textured/messy? i sometimes mix between both to give a sense of harmony, but i like it textured more. it all comes down to what feels right to you. pick a few artyles that you like and incorporate it into ur own! pretty basic tip but thats the best way that i know. just pretend ur a mad scientist trying to find cure for like cancer or sumn

3. personal opinion: brush type matters

dont listen when someone says the type of brush u use doesnt matter. yes you can draw with any brush. yes all brushes work the same way 🤯🤯🤯. but theres gotta be that ONE brush that just hits the spot for you, as if its made specially for Your Hands….. unfortunately theres no shortcut to finding Your Brush. it took me 4 years of endless experimenting to find mine.

if ur curious on what brushes i use, i have it listed in my carrd. however i still experiment a lot and dont rly bother to update it, but those should be what i use the most/my top favs !

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

i dont think this covers everything, but this is all i could think of from the top of my head. just lots of trials and errors really, and dont be afraid to make a mess!!! i hope this answers ur question :33 all the best!

#ask #tutorial #-ish?#hope i answered this right jdhfgwj

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leon-swedfinqs · 1 year ago

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Harvest Omens -- AKA Mari is going insane

I should be doing my school work right now (disregarding the fact that it is almost 2 in the morning as I start writing this), however I have a lot of thoughts in regards to my partner and I's Good Omens Stardew Valley AU -- while I still love and regard my d&d au with my whole entire soul, this is currently our hyperfixation/idea fixation so a lot of the stuff we are doing/thinking about is in regards to this idea in particular and i am vibrating with so many thoughts and ideas that i cannot necessarily easily translate to the page or to a drawing and its driving me NUTS -- If you want to listen to the mad ramblings of frankly an insane individual /j in regards to their stardew valley x good omens crossover au of madness youre welcome to keep reading

To start, here are some portraits of the two main idiots I made using this portrait maker. It was a ton of fun to translate them into something more tangible to look at -- they do not exactly look like this, however, but this is the closest I could get with the maker so that is what I am working with. The main crux of why this idea came in the first place is because I started playing the stardew valley 1.6 update (which i cant do much of anymore THANKS UNIVERSITY :D) and subsequently playing this new update with the existing Stardew Omens mod, or well, the updated one by @counterklock (hi if you see this sorry for tagging just wanted to credit) which can be found HERE

So what exactly is the deal with these two? What is their place in the overall story???? I will say that there may be some similarities with the existing popular crossover fic "Untitled Stardew Omens Fic", however we generally have been trying to keep things purely original in this instance in order to keep these ideas purely separate. Don't want to step on any toes!!! (both the mod and the other au fic)

Start off with (at least in our writing so far) who I suppose is the main protagonist and who's perspective we get the most of -- Crowley.

Crowley in this story does work for the Joja Corporation, or as it can be interpreted, Hell (not that working for a capitalist organization wasn't already hell to begin with). The corporation wants to expand their business into new untapped markets, one of the most glaring ones being tight-knit rural communities much like Pelican Town. While there is a Joja Mart there, it doesn't earn enough of a profit as they would like. The biggest hurdle in this instance is the loyalty the members of the community have to each other and to their local businesses. This is where Crowley comes in, as he is the key player in their ultimate plan: the Rural Reliance and Trust-Establishment Initiative. What's the main goal? To infiltrate these communities, carefully gain their trust, and slowly dismantle their reliance on more local businesses and encourage them to utilize Joja products instead. In order to fully implement this initiative, they had to do a test run, with Crowley as their guinea pig.

Under the falsely made person as "the grandson of a well-loved community member who has since long past", Crowley is sent to live on a piece of property Joja secretly bought for this project and implement himself as a member of the local community. By acting as a community member and local farmer, he slowly shifts the townsfolks' reliance to be towards Joja products. Crowley, being a city person for practically his entire life, has a lot of reservations about "going up there and making some trouble" in the small rural community -- however, it does not seem that he has much of a choice in the matter.

It's safe to say that Crowley...fumbles his way through this assignment. And as a cherry on top, the assignment so far has been doing the complete opposite of what it was supposed to do. Instead of shifting the townsfolk to start using Joja more often, slowly yet surely this project has been drawing their employee (Crowley) away from them, their products, and their practices, as he gets a taste of life outside of that, and truly sees the extent of their malicious practices outside of a city setting. He struggles to farm at first, making a mess out of his first set of crops and desperately trying to grow at least one batch of flowers (because that is what he really wanted to grow in the first place), and often fails at being a consistent social presence within the community. Overtime, he starts to grow into a farmer that rants and vents to his crops, he develops a mysterious aura as he "becomes linked with the forest" and starts to befriend the local witch, and he finds himself falling head first into a crush on the self-imposed isolated, old-fashioned, overly kind librarian. He's a city kid that finally allows himself to relax, and through this allows himself time for self-reflection and personal growth (you can pry genderfluid!crowley from my cold dead fingers -- you thought this au crowley was cis/ Sike!!! he doesn't know that he is until later so its a surprise for him too)

Meanwhile, Aziraphale has been a member of Pelican Town for as long as anyone could remember. He grew up in this community, this place is truly his home. As a baby/young child, Aziraphale did live with his "mother" (a placement for god essentially), but one day she just...disappeared, and he was considered abandoned/orphaned. The saying "it takes a village" does truly apply to Azi in this case -- he grew up with the members of the community, being parents by nearly all of the adults, and experiencing his childhood with all of the local kids as his family. The community center, library, and local farm were his sanctuary, his true home. As members of the community he grew up in moved away and/or died over time, and the community facilities (such as the CC) slowly became decrepit and broken, Aziraphale started to lose those stable parts of his life. As he lost more and more of his support network, Azi became more isolated, a self-imposed social recluse. He made a home within the library, and isn't seen outside of it for long periods of time since.

He can be found outside every now and then, of course. Twice every season (except for Winter), Azi would go to the bus stop and have a quiet picnic with himself. Grandpa (or "crowley's gramps") was like a father/grandfather-figure to Azi -- he was the one who raised him the most, who taught him and actively took care of him. His death impacted Azi the hardest, as it was his last close personal connection that was finally lost. Having that picnic lets him feel close to the one who truly considered him family. Along with that, once a week in the late evenings (right before the store is to close), Azi can be found in Pierre's buying groceries. More often than not, this trip is on a sunday to allow him to pray to Yoba in the personal chapel. He could also be found, roughly once a month, in Gus's saloon purely because of the fact that the menu has "maki rolls" on the list.

Whether it was truly because he couldn't see that it was half buried in the dark, or the fates decided that these two should properly meet, regardless Crowley ultimately found Aziraphale through a lost book. "Anyone could've returned this book, surely?", "why didn't he even bother to go check to find the book?" -- is what many may be asking. For that, I present the following response: "They're gay and they can do whatever they want"

They're both complete idiots, but they're my idiots. I have thoughts about many of the other characters too and how they fit in this world (anathema -- witch, new -- previous walmart id, works with adventurers guild right now. adam and the Them just casually living in the valley), etc.etc. for other charcters, but I will not get into them now due to time and my own mental sanity. I want to make sure everything fits within the current lore as much as possible, while also not leaving specific people out and making them upset.

I have so much more I could say about this au, but alas I am tired LOL you may either ask or ill expand upon this post later teehee

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gynandromorph · 2 years ago

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Hi more Jessie questions,

Thanks a lot for the 'powers are what you can write' post, that's let me wrap my head around the power a lot more. It's not so much about something being impossible to do, it's about it being impossible to write. That being said, Jessie can create life or at least a feasible simulacrum of life. What happens if Jessie goes 'this is a 100% identical copy of me who would think and act the same way I would in any given situation'? Is there an upper limit to that? Because it's easy to write 'And then the 8000 or 9000 Jessies rolled up into a ball and went to fuck your mother' but since this is a comic, authorship has both a written and visual component. I think even the best artists have a balking limit of how many figures they want to draw interacting in space together (I am not an artist, so if I am wrong please say). Alternatively, would Jessie even allow a copy of herself time to know it is alive (cus I can tell you if I could make a copy of myself with no consequences I'd kill it just for kicks)?

And,

This is less a Jessie question and more a question about the Ants, that being how does the Ant cult work? The Ants have a connection to God that is closer than any religion in history ever did. Do they take advantage of this? Like do the Ants go directly to God to ask about problems, or is that seen as rude? Do the Ants take personal moral stances on what Jessie does, or do they assume that what Jessie does is good? One of the main reasons that I started worshipping the Gods is because they are capricious petty assholes who care more about saving face than doing the right thing. That humanness spoke to me. Would people in-universe worship Jessie for her extremely flawed use of the power of divinity? Would this worship be separate from the Ant cult, or would the Ant cult accept others as part of its fold?

And,

I'm sorry if these asks are too long, but your work seriously gets into a craw of my brain that nothing has ever crawed into before. I read through all of Fresh Meat in a depressive haze the other night and loved it. My mind's response to self-harm thoughts is now Lupe's speech about how cutting is addictive. I'm reading through Dropout right now and fucking loving it. I know Catharsis isn't done yet but I want to say what's out right now has really helped me. The way you write the interaction between Felix's mind and meatspace has made me realize enough about my mind that I'm trying to get in contact with a Nuropysch to get some testing done. It helped me realize that talking in your head with the people there is dissociating, and that's what I've been doing for a lot of my life. I hope Catharsis will be completed, but even if it isn't, I want you to know that I'm very grateful for the stuff you've put out there so far. All the stuff you make is fucking great. Straight up. Jessie is the vector for the craw as well, and the Jessie questions are so long cus I have a lot of thoughts in my head about her and your work and everything! Please keep creating. You create fantastic art.

Yes, the story explores imagination and its limits. We often think of our imaginations as unlimited, but that is an illusion produced by our own ignorance. A lot to unpack here.

Jessie can easily create copies of herself. They would come more intuitively than writing other characters, if they were pure replications of herself, because they require no extra thought. She would never make a copy of herself without drastic contingencies to make it subservient to her and prevent the copy from being able to overpower her or override the restrictions placed upon her powers — essentially, this would be a different character who looks like her more than a clone, at that point.

The thing about art is that it does not need to be literally true — only believable. No need to draw 9,000 Jessies, as 1,000 would likely not even fit onto one page. The illusion of 9,000 Jessies is all that is necessary.

A fun little fact is that Jessie doesn't know that is in a comic; she just doesn't think much of it. For all she knows, the visuals around her are imaginings in the head of someone reading a written book, or even in her own head. She only thinks of herself as in a written novel, even though she is open to the idea that the story is part of a larger medium, such as a movie or comic

For the cult: only the leader is an ant; the cult itself is an open religion and mixed-species. I'm thinking of calling them the Original Character Society or the Book Club at the moment... Something alluding to the fictional story element.

That said, no one would bring their personal problems directly to Jessie unless they had something even worse than a death wish. Jessie is a patently unhinged God, and, despite the cult's best effort to understand her and make their exchanges with her predictable, clearly unable to be predicted.

Unlike an invisible, unreactive God, Jessie is conscious, and can change her actions based on observation and prediction, like any person. She can intuit how she is expected to react and actively choose a different behavior intentionally — and she often does.

She has given them kid gloves to be handled with through Twiddler's reappropriation, and to encroach on her personal time and space on one's own terms instead, likely in the hopes of getting better results, is a cascade of transgressions begging for judgment.

The cult does interact with her directly, but largely first when it is small, and looking for her permission to exist, in a time when she is feeling strain on her relationships; or when she personally decides to engage with them. Its primary function as it grows larger is grooming members who want things from her to interact in successful ways by studying her behavior, keeping track of her moods, documenting which prayers she answers, forming scripts (later congealed into liturgy) to indirectly pray to her, and nurturing a positive image of her.

Due to the cult's primary function being successfully obtaining benefits from Jessie, liking her as a god is not necessary. I think there are many selfish members who think the world would be better off without her, but want things, and will gladly grovel for them if it's likely to work. Like any religion, there are a variety of opinions about Jessie, with some being positive, apathetic, horny, sycophantic, hateful, etc. The official position of the sect itself is not necessarily that everything Jessie does or says is good, but it is always true — this is specifically said as what she does is always "right." It's assumed by default what she does is good, but Jessie herself can say things she's done are bad, and that would be TRUE, canonically. I personally imagine that most opinions of her are not positive in the cult — either neutral or negative.

There are very likely some odd worshipers outside of the cult, but I would consider them casual worshipers, mostly invoking Jessie as a symbol or idol more than as an actual god who can respond to them.

Glad my work could help. Keep in mind that all people can have dialogues in their head — it's why "parts work" and inner family systems therapy works for people with or without dissociative parts. Like most mental illnesses, DID and other major dissociative disorders are simply normal brain functions which have veered to some extreme that has become dysfunctional or detrimental. I do hope that your testing is elucidating, but doctors in such a field are extremely prone to error, so don't give up on your gut instincts if they persist.

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deathbycoldopen · 9 months ago

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Idk if the second group is a thing as you’re describing it, but I’ll explain how (and why) I come at dnd differently than as a board game to give another perspective.

When I play dnd, I do think of the rules as a framework for collaborative storytelling, like you said, but in the sense of the restrictions of a medium on an artwork. The art in question being the story, and the medium being dnd.

Any medium (defining medium here as any tool used to produce the work) that you work with— oil paint, short story, plays, pottery, etc etc etc— is going to have its strengths and limitations. Eg. a traditional oil painting is fundamentally as static image, and so maybe if your goal is to depict a sequential story, you’re better off making a comic or an animation. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile to see how you can use the strengths of the medium (large canvases with room for detail, a long tradition of symbolism allowing for shorthand, composition that draws the eye across the canvas, color and texture that can evoke certain emotions) in order to invoke a sequential story in a single static image. In fact, that’s what a huge chunk of western art history has been about, and I think it’s a challenge worth taking on.

To bring it back to dnd, it certainly has its limitations as a way to make a collaborative story! It wasn’t designed with a wide variation in story types in mind, the lore is clunky and inconsistent at best, and a whole slew of other issues that people love to point out. But for me, the fun is that it’s a creative challenge— in order to create the story I have in mind, I have to work creatively with the rules and lore and other players.

Could I do this with other ttrpgs? of course! There’s nothing stopping me from approaching any other game this way— hell, to use your analogy, I could take a chess game and use those rules in order to tell a story too (I definitely did this as a kid). So why dnd?

Well, for better or for worse, dnd is widely known, and a lot of people have learned out to play it. Since this is about collaborative storytelling, having other people who are familiar and comfortable with the rules is key. It also means that when I’m coming at the medium creatively, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, because others have already gone there.

But more than that, I enjoy working with the medium that is dnd. I like the mechanics and the importance of combat, and that it also has space to take time away from combat to role play. And for me, a huge part of why I really enjoy dnd is that it does have a framework for homebrew that works within the rules as written. There’s space in dnd to do all my own worldbuilding, using the mechanics as a guide for the structure of the world, and to run games that make creative use of all the limitations of the medium.

Basically, tl;dr: for me, it’s not people saying “you can’t tell stories about this theme” in response to my request for inspiration, it’s like asking for tips on using oil paints and having people tell me to stop using oil paints and write a play instead. Yes, maybe I could tell the story more easily with a play, but I’m just trying to paint right now, thanks.

Seeing @thydungeongal constantly wrestling with people interpreting her posts about D&D in ways that seem completely alien to me has convinced me that there are actually multiple completely distinct activities both being referred to as "playing D&D" Before we begin, I want to stress that I'm not saying one of these groups is Playing The Game Wrong or anything, but there seems to be a lot of confusion and conflict caused by people not being aware of the distinction. In fact, either one works just fine if everyone's on the same page. So far, I think I've identified at least two main groups. And nobody seems to realize the distinction between these groups even exists. The first group of people think of "Playing D&D" as, well, more or less like any other board game. Players read the whole rulebook all the way through, all the players follow the instructions, and the gameplay experience is determined by what the rules tell each player to do. This group thinks of the mechanics as, not exactly the *whole* game, but certainly the fundamental skeleton that everything else is built on top of. People in the second group think of "Playing D&D" as referring to, hanging out with their friends, collaboratively telling a story inspired by some of the elements in the rulebooks, maybe rolling some dice to see what happens when they can't decide. This group thinks of the mechanics of the game as, like... a spice to sprinkle on top of the story to mix things up. (if you belong to this second group, and think I'm explaining it poorly, please let me know, because I'm kind of piecing things together from other people saying things I don't understand and trying to reverse engineer how they seem to be approaching things.) I think this confusion is exacerbated by the fact that Wizards of the Coast markets D&D as if these are the same thing. They emphatically are not. the specific rules laid out of the D&D rulebooks actually direct players to tell a very specific kind of story. You can tell other stories if you ignore those rules (which still counts as "playing D&D" under the second definition, but doesn't under the first)And I think people in both groups are getting mad because they assume that everyone is also using their definition. For example, there's a common argument that I've seen play out many times that goes something like this:

A: "How do I mod D&D to do [insert theme here]?" B: "D&D is really not built for that, you should play [other TTRPG] that's designed for it instead" A: "But I don't want to learn a whole new game system!" B: "It will be easier to just learn a whole new system than mod D&D to do that." A: "whatever, I'll just mod D&D on my own" And I think where this argument comes from is the two groups described above completely talking past each other. No one understands what the other person is trying to say. From A's perspective, as a person in the second group, it sounds like A: "Anyone have some fun inspirations for telling stories about [insert theme here]?" B: "You can't sit around a table with your friends and tell a story about that theme! That's illegal." A: "But we want to tell a story about this theme!" B: "It's literally impossible to do that and you're a dumb idiot baby for even thinking about it." A: "whatever, jerk, I'll figure it out on my own."

--- Whereas, from B's perspective, the conversation sounds like A: "How do I change the rules of poker to be chess, and not be poker?" B: "uhhh, just play chess?" A: "But I already know how to player poker! I want to play poker, but also have it be chess!" B: "what the hell are you talking about? What does that even mean. They're completely different games." A: "I'm going to frankenstein these rules together into some kind of unplayably complex monster and you can't stop me!" ---

So both people end up coming away from the conversation thinking the other person is an idiot. And really, depending on how you concieve of what it means to "play D&D" what is being asked changes considerably. If you're only planning to look through the books for cool story inspiration, maybe borrow a cool little self contained sub-system here or there, then yeah, it's very possible to steal inspiration for your collaborative story from basically anywhere. Maybe some genres are kind of an awkward fit together, but you can make anything work with a little creativity.

If, however, you are thinking of the question in terms of frankensteining two entire board games together, then it becomes a massively difficult or even outright nonsensical idea. For example, for skill checks, the game Shadowrun has players roll a pool of several d6 at once, then count up how many rolled above a target value to see how well a character succeeded at a task. The whole game is full of specific rules about adding or removing dice from the pool, effects happening if you roll doubles, rerolling only some of the dice, and all sorts of other things that simply do not translate to rolling a single d20 for skill checks. On a basic level, the rules of the games work very differently. Trying to make them compatible would be much harder than just learning a new game from scratch. Now, neither of these approaches is exactly *wrong*, I guess, but personally, I find the rules of TTRPGs to be fascinating and worth taking the time to engage with all the weird little nuances and seeing what shakes out. Also, the first group, "TTRPG as fancy board game" is definitely the older and more widespread one. I kind of get the impression that the second group largely got into D&D through actual play podcasts, but I don't have any actual data to back that up. So, if you're in the second group, who thinks of D&D as basically a context for collaborative storytelling first and a game second, please let me know if I'm wildly misunderstanding how you approach D&D. Because I'm pretty sure it would save us a whole lot of stupid misunderstandings.

#dnd #ttrpgs #no shade I hope this didn’t come across as snarky or anything #I really do think there are a lot of different ways to approach dnd and they’re all valid and cool #and yeah sometimes the approach might work better with a different ttrpg #and I get being tired of everyone only thinking of dnd when you talk about ttrpgs (which isn’t the point of this post but I’ve seen a lot)#maybe at some point I’ll get really into using a different ttrpg as a medium #just like I used to gravitate toward pastels but now love using oil paint #but at the moment I’m really enjoying working with dnd

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valyrou · 2 years ago

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Hello! I would like to request a BSD Match up if it'd be no trouble!! (My apologies in advance for any rambling/infodumping)

• Likes: antiques, light (like varied sources of light such as sunlight, lightning, stars, ectect), lightning/thunder storms, weaponry (weapons are so cool honestly), shiny things, clouds, just about anything visually appealing basically, comfy/flowy clothing (its fun), psychology, good attention to detail in writing media/characters, hardcover books, accurate psychoanalysis (i have a knack for it apparently, so much so its even been called "scary" with how accurate i am), good music and animation, genuine quality time, intricate art, dance, matching energies with people/bonding over shared likes and interests or at least given mutual support even though we may not understand each other, being right, ectect.

• Dislikes: ear piercing/sudden loud noise, being ignored, unkept promises, forced affection, being forced to do anything really (i can compromise and like if you explain why for some things without being rude about it then sure, i'm willing to do things just as long as you don't nag me about it too harshly), pain, uncertainties (they make me anxious), cuts (i'm strangely more okay with other forms of gore if i HAVE to see it though, I'd rather not, but incisions/cuts specificly give me the ick), bad sensory/stimuli (i have sensory issues so i'm pretty selective but i've worked on being more open minded to trying things), harm to children (i can sympathize with a lot of types of people, but when kids get hurt is where i draw a firm line though I would rather not be a parent myself for several personal reasons), people changing plans or taking things without at least asking first otherwise i don't usually have a problem unless it happens too frequently depending on what it is, having things assumed about me, ect.

• Personality Traits: I've been told I'm supportive, unyielding when it counts, strange but in a positive way, insecure (i've worked on this when it comes to me as a person but sharing my interests are still a work in progress), attentive to others, controling when it feels like others could be put in harms way, loyal, opinionated, protective, i often reflect others energy to socialize, easily overwhelmed, trustworthy, mature, calm, intuitive, intellectual(?), kind, quiet usually but can spontaneously be loud (its circumstantial), picky, shy, witty, sarcastic, sassy, emotional, wise, sentimental (give me anything and i'll likely keep it regardless of what it is), indecisive, anxious, observant, smart, petty, ectect.

MBTI: INTP-T or INFP-T (its SO close between my thinking and feelings anytime i have checked) its because i definitely am an emotional person but I also can at times be prone for apathy (only really when I'm tired of caring for someone that just does not even at least try to change for their own good yet they keep coming to me for solutions only to not follow through after so much time, such as trying to several months to even years) and rationalizing things (though I do understand that sometimes you just... feel and its okay to just let yourself feel)

• Hobbies: writing, concept/character creation, psychology study, cooking, dance, singing, reading, ect.

° Extra: I kin (BSD) characters such as Atsushi, Rampo, Poe, Odasaku, ect. Also my enneagram is 4w5 (Type Four wing Five) if that'd be any help. My love language is also quality time (though I think from certain said details that may or may not be obvious).

And I think that would be enough from me. Thank you for your time and consideration and please try not to stress yourself out on my account!

A/n: Hi!! Sorry for the late response but I am still in the middle of my exams atm!! (I‘m only finished with my test exams, I now have 5 weeks before the real exams come!) anyways I hope you like who I paired you up with anyways!

Requests: Open

I‘ll match you up with…

EDGAR ALLAN POE!

I feel like you two just go well together

You inspire Poe with his novels, even help him when he needs a complicated case.

You help each other out and have mutual interests. I picture you two just stargazing at a meteor shower :)

Loves spending time with you, doesn’t matter when or where. He even be happy if you two sat on a toilet together (at a certain point at least, this man is respectful)

Great listener

Poe probably tells you all about his rivalry with Ranpo lol and you’d have to encourage him to pull forward

You, Poe and Ranpo are the detective trio on god

Karl would love you, because you remind the little raccoon of Poe in some way

Probably gives you small gifts here and there (but only small ones even if they cost a fortune) but will stop if you‘re uncomfortable or just don’t like receiving gifts at all

Comes to you when he has a novel idea and discusses his idea with you

Little (love) poems for you <3

#Bsd #Bsd x reader #bungou stray dogs #bungou stray dogs matchup #bungou stray dogs x reader #headcanons #bungou stray dogs imagines #Bungou stray dogs Poe x reader #Edgar Allan Poe #edgar allan poe x reader #poe x reader #match ups #Anime #Anime x Reader

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4dtk · 4 years ago

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hii <88 ummm this is not from your prompt list but this suddenly come in my mind , can you made one like for chubby reader since i'm a little but chubby , angst and fluff , jaemin or jeno , like they said something mean and suddenly realize likeeeee ykwim rightt ? 😭😭😭😭😭😭

hope this is okay anon! i am not plus-sized and will not even come close to experiencing what you may have gone through, so i apologise if anything in here is inaccurate. please tell me so i can change it asap! thank you

this is a safe space, don't hesitate to speak out if you need to rant or anything. please remember - you're all beautiful inside and out!!!!!!!!!! dont let anyone dull ur shine!!!!!

warnings: jaemin gives a backhanded compliment, insecurity

with the last click of the camera, you're welcoming more of the camera rather than your boyfriend into your hands, excited to see the product of your outfit today. it was a lucky draw, one that you didn't expect to match but did on a random scour through your wardrobe.

getting ready for the small photoshoot was fun as well, the boys helping you to set up the living room where they cheered you on. your boyfriend was the one to take the photos, skilled at the camera more than anyone in the team.

"just like that, (y/n)!"

"you look good!"

compliments were easily dropped as they all struggled to view the small screen of the camera, where jaemin worked his magic.

"they look great, jaem, thank you! now all we gotta do is... export them..." your smile was still plastered on your face as you remove the SD card, laptop at the ready beside you. by now, the others have scattered off to do their own thing after a high five or a pat to your head, but you don't exactly mind when this was their off-day.

"that outfit looks really good on you, honey," jaemin speaks from over your shoulder where you sat, looking over how the soft light falls over your skin in the pictures, a perfect visit from the setting sun at the right time.

"you think so?" you laugh, looking down at it, "it was honestly a random fit that i put together. a lucky find, if you will."

"yeah, i think if i wore it, everything would just look weird," jaemin laughs, planting a kiss on your forehead.

your eyebrows furrow at that, having heard it one too many times. your parents have brought it up; your friends, in a joke; even total strangers, who thought it was an actual compliment.

"what do you mean by that?"

"hm? oh no- just- you see how these patterns fill up so nicely on your arm? it would crease all over if i wore it. i'd probably just ruin the outfit." jaemin explains with a laugh, unsure of the strain in your voice. he realises his mistake a little too late a second later.

you're not one to rush uploads, but now you wished the photos would transfer faster so you could leave the room as soon as possible. it wasn't an option, though.

"so... d'ya mean my body's only good for filling in the creases in clothes? does it look worse in outfits that isn't this one?" your questions comes out quiet, not wanting the other members to catch on, but your boyfriend is already fumbling with his words that catches the attention of the others.

"no! no- that's not what i meant, love. i was talking about- just how-"

the crestfallen look you give to jaemin breaks his heart and he regrets everything after his initial compliment, hesitation showing in the way he lets you go to his room quietly. it's affected you that you don't even bother taking the laptop, grabbing only your phone to pass the time on.

hours pass and your outfit sticks to your skin uncomfortably, not even bothering to change out of the one thing you thought you could feel confident in. you're not sure whether you should cry, or scream, or stare aimlessly, having heard backhanded compliments like those all the time.

you're outfit's so cute, i could never wear that!

oh, that black suit looks stunning on you! it's great, since i heard it's a slimming colour.

you're so pretty for a plus sized person.

additions, unnecessary words always had to make their way out of people's mouths. why couldn't they just stop at pretty, stunning, cute? why couldn't they stop at one compliment without compensating for something else?

you learned it the hard way, through media and society that everyone is conditioned to equate fatness to being ugly, and you hate, hate it so much that you're so quick to talk yourself down when you see a cute outfit on a slimmer person.

because you know the tables would be switched once you're the one to wear it.

with a sigh, you peel off the outfit that you admired in the mirror a few hours ago, that you gently pat down next to the locket that jaemin gifted you. it was a nice touch - a heart next to your heart patterned top. it was next to the heart you wore on your sleeve too, not nervous once when you dropped your feelings to jaemin.

and with a tight hug, he returned your feelings too, already smelling like how you knew he'd smell like: coffee and vanilla.

a knock drives you out of the faint memory, door pried open gently by the man who'd captured your heart. he lingers at the doorway, clearly uncomfortable.

"look- i-" he gulps, "it was wrong. of me. to say that. i took it too far, and- and i should've just stopped after my first words. i just went on and on with phrases that were just worded so... badly that-"

"y'know, jaemin, you say 'just' a lot when you're nervous," you chuckle, fingers lingering on the belt of your pants. you remove them with ease with a shake to your legs, chucking them across the room as you navigate his place, picking out the sweater and pants you wore before.

standing there in your undergarments, it wasn't anything that jaemin hasn't seen before, but he never wanted something more than what you had now:

a body in its natural form, not covered by clothes. it had all the blemishes and all the imperfections, but it only reinforces jaemin's love for you; when he chose to love you, he chose to love all of you.

jaemin sighs, immediately engulfing you in an embrace that leaves you surprised.

"i'm so sorry. that was so shitty of me."

"thanks for apologising, jaemin. i'm glad you realised your mistake, but, i have to say... it wasn't that bad of a backhanded compliment. i think i've heard worse."

your lover pulls back questionably, "crap, really? i'm sorry they said those things."

jaemin's frown is endearing while he feels all the feelings, soaking in the way your expression turns solemn. you shake your head. "don't be sorry, you weren't the one who said those things."

"but still-"

"i think maybe it hurt more, because it came from you." shrugging, you pat his cheek which brings on a tiny smile. with a peck to the crown of your head, he lays his forehead to yours, cradling all of you into his arms. "i'll do better."

smiling, you lay one on his lips. "i know you will."

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spilledkauffie · 4 years ago

Text

Third Time’s A Charm

Pairing: Roman Sionis x Female!Reader Word Count: 2.6k T/W: Smut / thigh riding, glove kink? choking A/N: Clearing out my drafts. I am very aware Roman is kinda terrible, but Ewan is gorgeous so:

The club was as usual: alive with vibrant streaming lights, voices chattering, and a drone from the d.j.’s booth made the floor vibrate softly underfoot. Normally you didn’t like to make an appearance, much happier away from the deliriously drunk crowds, but you hadn’t seen Roman in three weeks- and two days. . . you didn’t mean to keep track, but you couldn’t help it. Even though he had promised to come up and see you immediately after the negotiations he had to conduct tonight, you couldn’t wait any longer knowing he was right downstairs.

Stepping into his favourite silk dress of yours, the one that fell just beneath the curve of your ass, with an open back, you paired it with heels, and decided to have a little fun— after all you did give him that strip tease over the phone while he was away. Confidently, but carefully, stepping down the stairs, you caught clear sight of his usual table. It looked like some fancy upcoming hotshot was pleading for protection. Roman looked bored, you could tell his mind was already elsewhere. Biting in your lip, you smiled. Skillfully making your way over to the bar, unseen, the bartender greeted you by your first name, knowing you well enough by now, everyone did. You asked him for a tray with a glass of Roman’s favourite drink.

“Ah, jeez,” the bartender started, fiddling with his fingers, slightly nervous, “I’d love to, but- but Mr. Sionis told me not to let you waitress anymore.”

You shifted your weight onto the other hip, quirking your lips, a little let down, but not exactly surprised that he’d told everyone but you about this new rule, “well...I promise nothing’s going to happen to you,” you leaned in whispering sincerely, knowing it was easy to be scared of disobeying an order from Roman, “I’m not really waitressing, per se, think of it as more of a social experiment I need to conduct.”

With promised security from you, the bartender tried to be casual, looking around, but he mainly kept an eye on Roman whilst making the drink and handing you the tray. You thanked him and slid a few rolled 20s his way with a wink. Checking your hair in a nearby hazy mirror, you sauntered over to Roman’s table. The guy sitting opposite from him was stretched nearly halfway across the table, hands clasped together, begging. Roman was busy watching the performance, paying little attention to the whining kid in front of him.

“A drink, Mr. Sionis?” You asked from behind him, in your best waitressing voice.

“Sure,” he sighed, so annoyed that he didn’t even look up to you, “I’ll have-”

“Already ordered,” you carefully handed him the glass, making sure that your fingers touched, even though his were covered with his usual black initialed gloves, “and sent by special delivery.”

Once the drink was out of your hand, you slipped your fingertips along the slit of bare skin showing, at the base of his gloves, as you turned, walking away. By the time Roman looked up, you were already halfway across the club. Avoiding a look back, you were confident you’d gotten his attention. Softly setting the tray on the bar and biting the inside of your lip, you tried to repress the giggle swelling in your throat. Leaning forward into the bar as you waited, keeping your back purposefully to him, some unwanted company found you.

“Hey,” a stranger slurred beside you, slowly sliding in closer; he smelled like cheap cologne, “you wanna- shots, my place?”

Before you could answer: the whiskey glass you had just handed Roman was set forcefully between the two of you on the bar’s table top, a familiar gloved fist curled tightly around it. You flicked your eyes to look at the stranger for a moment, he suddenly seemed like a stray dog with his tail tucked between its legs. Returning your gaze forward, you straighten yourself up, knowing it was no longer your problem.

“Fuck off,” you heard Roman’s voice behind you, obviously aggravated; you couldn’t help feeling some sort of way with that being the first word you heard him say in person in weeks.

With the stranger gone, you suddenly felt cool leather touching your skin, starting at the base of your neck, Roman stroked a knuckle down your spine. Unable to ignore the tingling sensation spreading across your skin like settling champagne, you pushed back your shoulder blades and tilted your head, exposing the side of your neck to him. He took the opportunity, placing a linger kiss to your skin, you closed your eyes and sighed happily.

“Is that the perfume I sent you from Paris?” He breathed in the scent you had pressed onto your neck, his voice was just as erotic as you remembered it being.

“I’ve worn it everyday since you sent it,” you admitted, opening your eyes as he removed his hand from you, setting it against the metal edge of the bar, locking you between him and the counter. You could feel his lips lingering, so close to your skin. Attempting to control your already erratic breathing, you tried to breathe slower.

He hummed, but it was more like a purr to you. Almost placing another kiss to your neck, he pulled back, making you exhale disappointed, “turn around,” he told you instead.

You slowly did as requested, finding yourself a matter of inches from him. He eyed you up and down, “now there’s the view I like,” he said, gaze shifting from your figure up to meet your eyes. You maintained eye contact best you could feeling a blush rising. He smirked, taking a sip from his glass, “not that you don’t look fucking fantastic from behind.”

You broke into a smile, but he turned serious, dipping down slightly, holding your jaw in his hand tenderly, “I thought I told you that you don’t need to waitress anymore.”

Before you could say anything he was raising a hand to point towards the bartender. You quickly placed your palms against his chest, “I wasn’t-” he looked back at you with interest, but still kept his hand up, “I wanted to see you,” you blinked a few times, looking down, “keep an eye on you. . . since it’s been so long. I asked him to help.”

“Oh,” he breathed, lowering his hand and waving Victor away, “is my little kitten jealous?”

Roman hooked a finger under your chin, tilting your head up, making you look up through your eyelashes at him. He swiped his thumb across your bottom lip, you smiled softly, loving how the gloves felt against you, smooth and cold. Sighing with a smile he looked down to your dress.

“I like this,” he leaned back to eye you over again, slipping two fingers underneath the thin strap resting on your shoulder.

“It’s your favourite,” you reminded him; sliding your hands off his chest, pressing yourself against him, “nothing but silk,” you whispered, kissing just under his ear, before you began placing needy kisses along his neck while you tried to subtly center yourself on top of one of his thighs.

“Not here,” he pulled back from you completely, “I want you all to myself,” seeing the bambi look in your eyes, he downed the last of his drink, “get your pretty ass up those stairs,” he said, whiskey still burning his throat as he spoke, “I’ll be right behind you.”

You did as you were told, looking back half way up the stairs to see him talking with Victor, he was gesturing towards the poor soul that had dared to flirt with you. “Poor guy has no idea what’s coming,” you thought to yourself. Stepping back into the apartment alone, you weren’t sure if things were going to go according to the plan you had in mind. Sometimes he followed you, other times he was distracted by more business. But one thing was for certain, you realised just how much you had missed him and how he made you feel. You pressed your back against the wall, smiling to yourself.

“Now, that is a fucking perfect piece of art,” Roman said suddenly, drawing your attention to him as he locked the door and stepped over to a table, where he began taking one pair of gloves off, “now, I thought I told you I’d see you after negotiations?”

“I just missed you,” you smiled bashfully, “a lot.”

“Aww,” he smirked, glancing over to you whilst pulling on his white pair of gloves, he noticed the sharp inhale you took as you but your lip.

Continuing his walk to you from there he wrapped his arms around your frame, “baby, baby c’mere.”

You breathed in his cologne as he brought you closer, it was intoxicating. One hand traced down your spine, the other came to your jaw softly. Slipping his hand underneath the fabric of your dress, you felt him press against the small of your back. Inhaling sharply, your body naturally responded to his touch, pushing your chest against his. He had missed your body against his, he liked feeling your erratic breathing.

“Show me,” he said against your neck, thumb teasingly stroking the base of your neck; he easily parted your legs with his knee, “step out of those heels and show me what you wanted downstairs.”

You swallowed, meeting his gaze as he leaned back for a moment, “now,” he said, quirking an eyebrow.

Stepping one by one out of your heels, you softly kicked them away. Reaching your hands to the hem of your dress, you pulled it up a little to allow yourself more movement. Settling yourself atop his thigh, you placed your hands on his chest, you were desperate to feel some skin, but you weren't about to complain. Arching your back, you rocked your hips down against the slick fabric of his dress pants.

“Good girl,” he mused, caressing your sides with his hands, feeling your body move, loving every inch of you.

You were surprised how quickly it stimulated you. Pussy already throbbing after a few deep motions, you looked down, inhaling deeply trying to hold back a whimper, “oh no, no, no,” he chuckled, taking your jaw between his thumb and index finger carefully, “you look at me.”

You gave a small whine, making him smile. Determined to get more, you began unbuttoning his black dress shirt, you were happy enough when you reached halfway undone, allowing you enough room to spread your hands out against his chest, finally feeling his skin. You closed your eyes and bit in the corner of your lip, humming at the warmth.

“Harder,” he sneered, voice rasping.

You pushed up on to your tiptoes so you could grind your hips higher on him. One hand disheveling his shift from the desperate attempts to feel every inch you could of his skin, you clasped a finger through his belt loop with your free hand and tugged him closer to you. He said nothing, just moved a hand to your neck again. Palming the small of your back, he helped with the adjustment of your movements and picked up the pace. Gasping, you lifted a leg to slide up the back of his. He could feel your fingernails trying to dig into his skin at the edge of his shoulder. There was a knotting sensation rising in your abdomen, building, and building, and building-

“Roman,” you sighed blissfully, tossing your head back, lips parting in anticipation of your orgasm.

Immediately he tightened his hand around your throat, “don’t” he stopped all motion, pushing your leg off of him, “don’t you fucking dare.”

You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to squeeze your legs shut too when he stepped back, but he was quicker, slipping a hand between your thighs in place of his knee. The leather was cold against the inside of your thighs, and he liked the way you shivered at his touch. He traced his hand slowly up your legs. With you twitching them together the back of his hand stroked one leg while the palm of his hand inched up the other. He gave your inner thigh a tighter grip and your body naturally jolted a little, making him chuckle at how sensitive you were for him.

Tilting your head to look at him, he was inches away from your lips and you wanted to taste the alcohol on his. He gave you what you wanted, lips meeting yours with a passion. He was already nipping at the bottom of your lip when you practically screamed into the kiss as he pressed his fingers against your clit firmly. The coolness of the glove, the deep circular motion he was applying, for a moment you thought you’d lost yourself. You were suddenly reaching down to grasp hold of his wrist buried under the silk fabric, unsure if you could take more teasing after he had denied you your first orgasm.

“Sweetheart,” Roman clicked his tongue at you, pressing teasingly soft circles against your clit, “be good.”

You moved your hands away from his wrist shakily as you felt him continue his motions. As he returned to tasting your lips, you found yourself spreading your legs as he deepened the kiss. He teased you, barely gliding his middle finger along your slick folds. Feeling yourself become wetter by the minute, you let him swallow your moans, until he began trailing his ;ips down your neck.

“Are-are you gonna. . . gonna keep them on?” You asked, barely able to make a sentence, hands grasping his biceps for support.

He nuzzled your neck, kissing it once more, “I know how you like it.”

You could feel how your pussy was pulsing for him now and he had you right where he wanted you. With a gentle push, two of his gloved fingers swiftly slid inside you, all at once it was your heat met by the cool material. After the first few pumps, you could feel his fingernails through the fabric against your walls with how tight his gloves were now that they were slightly wet.

“Roman!” you screamed.

He used his free hand to cover your mouth, “shh, babygirl” he hushed, fingers deep inside you, your slick making it easier with each thrust. He felt you moan against his hand and watched your eyelids flutter. You suddenly put a hand around his wrist and guided it down to your neck. He brought you closer to him, lips pressing a kiss to your forehead as he tightened his grip. He could feel your breath against the base of his neck, your lips grazing against his skin.

“Fuck- Roman,” you mused, shakily dragging a hand up to push back his dirty blonde hair, combing it between your fingers, “right there, Darling.”

He pumped his fingers deep and hard. Giving an occasional repressed whine, you stood on your tiptoes, attempting to get a new angle. Parting your lips against his neck, you kissed him while you still had your wits about you. But when you felt him curl his fingers inside you, it made your jaw drop completely, and chest heave. Feeling your thighs beginning to tremble, he removed his fingers from you, just in time.

“Shit,” you whimpered at the loss of pleasure again, leaving you shaking and desperately clinging to him, “Roman-”

“Hmm,” he softly chuckled, but there was slight sympathy, “I’ve put you through it,” you looked up, to meet his stare, mascara smudged from when you had almost been brought to the bring, but denied, “tell me what you really want, babygirl.”

“I want you to fuck me,” you admitted, stealing a kiss of your own. You pulled him to you by the lapels of his velvet jacket, he braced himself against the wall behind you with both hands. You ground your hips against his, unabashedly forcing the kiss to be deeper.

“So needy,” he said, with a chuckle, your lips still touching his.

“Roman,” you whined, eyebrows furrowing.

“Alright, you know what they say,” he pressed his thumb against your lip, stroking back and forth, “third time’s a charm.”

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dethkomic · 3 years ago

Note

Thanks for making the music tutorial! Do you have pointers for making comics and especially when it comes to keeping with it? It's like every time I start, I never finish or I get two pages in and don't continue. Any advice for that? Sorry this isn't totally an art question.

On here and my main I've been getting a lot of asks about comic production and design and art and writing and... boy howdy, so much great stuff I wish I could sit down with each and every one of you guys and talk your ears off about. Never think you have to ask me about one thing or another on here. I love getting asks like these!

So, again, maybe this is owed a longer explanation when I find the time to do so, but I can absolutely give a few pointers right now:

#1 - Do your best to write your ending first. Everyone's going to tell you this, and it's crucial when it comes to a lot of storytelling outlets, be they prose or comics, or as I'm finding out -- even stuff like songs. Write with the knowledge that your ending is there, and you will write confidently. Write without an ending, and you risk not knowing how it all comes together and getting discouraged for feeling way over your head. And that last part is absolutely me, even though I'm getting better at open-ended things... it still happens. Often. Doing this also helps you to figure out what happens along the way, what you can leave out, and the all-important thing that is pacing. Oh! And don't think you have to have every single minute detail of your story figured out. A pretty good feeling for how things wrap up is better than none at all.

#2 - Throw interesting things into your comic at all times. And I don't just mean major plot points. Those are awesome and if you can manage it, do it. But if even if the simple act of including something you really enjoy drawing (I do this a lot with animals and vehicles) gets you to open up your drawing pad and start making a new page of comic art, then the day is won! And about that bit with the major plot points...

#3 - Don't save your good ideas for later. If you have a good idea for your story, use it as soon as possible. Don't hoard the good stuff if you can easily throw it in, sooner. You'll keep your interest (and probably your audience's!) by revealing interesting bits of your story, your characters, your interactions and more, by telling them the moment inspiration hits. And you'll think of other cool things to fill in when "later" comes. I promise.

#4 - Don't sweat the art, sweat the story. If I drew dethkomic with the same kind of mania I draw a lot of my other stuff, we'd be here all year waiting for a new update. Especially when it's a hobby/fancomic/just for fun kinda thing. Whole-assing your art is great, but panels fly by the reader's line of sight so quickly, they'll barely notice a fair amount of half-assing if your story's good. And a half-assed story with all its imperfections is better than a story never told. Certainly go ahead and save your best arting for the important panels, but if you only managed to draw three fingers on a character in the background of an establishing shot, nobody's gonna care.

#5 - Just do it. This is the hardest one on the list. Sometimes, you just gotta say "My people want to see this!" enough times in your head that it gets you into your work. Don't worry if anyone is or isn't reading/will give you likes. Don't worry if you think you've taken too long a hiatus for whatever reason. Don't worry if you think it's pointless. Finishing a comic is a great effort and not for the faint of heart. Don't downplay the difficulty of doing any labor of love, really. Shit's hard. But it's fun. And give yourself a break because you're allowed to fail at updates and change your drawing style and re-do chapter 2 fifteen different times. It's okay. You're making comics! And that's awesome!

And I'll be your number one fan if you do end up making one. Please let me know. You know why?

Because dethkomic loves you! Thanks for the ask!

#making comics #fan comics #fanart #fanfic #tips on writing #tips on drawing #comic advice #answered

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poursomesunaonme · 4 years ago

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HIIII FIRST OFF CONGRATS ON 50!!! Well deserved!!!

I’m so glad I came across your page a bit ago, and I have loved all your content so far! Sorry I’m not in your ask box, I got a lil confused on how to message you from there about your ‘cuffing season’ event. But I was hoping I could request for one?

My favorite characters: Jean or Nanami

Fav color: purple & brown

Fav drink: don’t really have one🥴

Ideal fall date: either like going to a pottery place kind of thing, or going to like a fall festival or horror night

Fall habits: I tend to get more inspiration for my sketching and drawing in the fall. I usually hit a block and around this time I just start filling up my sketch book pages every day. I love baking in the fall, it just feels more homey? What I wear in the fall is a lot of like long sleeves under shirts, crop tops with cargos and like a open button up over with converse or my doc martens. Basically:

With jewelry and changing up earrings all the time with my piercings. The thing I love about the fall is that I feel a lot more relaxed and calm? The weather is colder and the nights are longer, more stars seem to be out. In the fall I tend to get more serious in school though, I make sure to go to like cafes to do hw to prevent me getting distracted etc.

And I’d prefer if this could be sfw.

Sorry if this was too much😭 thank you am if you even took the time to read this<3

thank you sooooo much for participating babe! ugh i literally love this so much!! this was literally so fun to write pls send in whatever anytime u want bbygirl😫😫

word count: 2.6k

content/warnings: jean fluff, it’s literally so soft i can’t, sfw, artist!jean

author’s note: yalll i finished my last school related thing of the week today so now all my time will be dedicated to working on these!! stay tuned and submit if u wanna<3

cuffing season nav page

you hunch over your sketchbook, revealing more of your back to the warmth of the sun. a sigh escapes your lips as the heat already starts to seep through your layers of clothes; so much so that it nearly threatens to make you take off one of them. you shake your head to yourself, sneaking a look at the table to make sure that everything is in its right place. your baked goods were spread before you, on display for the passersby to buy when they craved a treat. jean scoots his chair closer to you, peeking at your drawing through the curtain of your hair.

“watch the table, babe!” you swat him away, covering your unfinished work with a splayed hand. he merely laughs at your meekness, but he obeys you, pulling away to give you space. with an elbow resting on the table, he cradles his head on his hand, watching you through lidded eyes.

“no fair, why do you get to draw?” he pouts at your inattentiveness to him, nudging your boot with his. you shoot a glance up at him, heart skipping a beat at the warm caramel of his eyes studying you. eyes ducking down to your paper once again, you feel a blush rise to your cheeks, a welcome contrast against the nippy autumn air.

“because i bake all the goods, you sell them. that’s how this business works.”

“i helped bake!” the indignance in his voice draws a giggle out of you. his face was clear as day in your mind even though you weren’t looking at him. the way he would grit his teeth, his eyes wide and alight with passion over something so trivial. your eyes roll as you remember the sight that he was that morning as he basically destroyed your kitchen.

“eating batter and spilling a whole sack of flour is not helping,” you point out, nudging your elbow against him. he throws up his hands, giving you an opportunity to lean into him. he stiffens, surprised at how easily your mock anger dissipates, but he relents, wrapping his arms around you and giving a kiss to your temple.

“fine, fine, you win,” he cedes into your hair. you straighten up at the sight of a little boy and his mother coming to buy your goods. jean assumes his role as a salesman, releasing your frame to attend to the customers. his smile flashes bright as a summer day as he easily pursues banter with the family, complimenting the woman and chatting with her son. your mind flies back to that morning as you idly doodle in your sketchbook.

both of you had gotten up early to prepare for the festival. jean was more than happy to assist you, but his talents, when it came to the kitchen, were for cooking only. put a baking sheet in his hand, and there’s no telling what he would do with it - anything but baking.

you had made your perch on the countertop, taking a break from scurrying around the kitchen with your last batch in the oven. jean was clutching his stomach, complaining about a stomach ache. you teased him relentlessly, knowing it was the amount of batter he had ingested whenever you weren’t looking.

he had attempted to help you clean up, the first thing being to help you put away the old ingredients that you didn’t need anymore. he went for the flour, and then somehow, it slipped out of his hands. the bag blew up in a cloud of white dust on the floor. you could only imagine the image of your face at the sight of jean standing there, hands still open, now covered head to toe in the substance.

but still, you tousled his hair and planted kisses on his lips, grimacing at the gritty sensation of the flour. not wanting to get too carried away, you gave him a great mock scolding and told him to clean up and shower. you ignored the fact that he argued that a man covered in flour would make the goods easier to sell, because “it looks like genuine effort.”

jean finishes his sale, somehow managing to seal the deal on the family taking almost half of your goods. after they leave with a whole box of pumpkin-decorated cupcakes, he turns to you with a cocky smile. you merely roll your eyes at him, then get back to the work at your fingertips.

he gives you a few minutes of peace and quiet, enthralled by your focus and the way your pencil flits gracefully across the paper, guided by the hand of the most beautiful visionary. the festival was nearing its least popular time, with not many people milling around as they had earlier. jean takes the time to memorize every inch of your face, every mannerism you execute.

you still hadn’t looked up at him after five minutes, which he obviously took offense to. he invades your personal space again, so you jab the eraser end of your pencil into his chest to ward him off, drawing a winded exhale from his lungs.

“ow, y/n!” he whines, giving you the saddest puppy look you’d ever seen displayed on his face. it obviously didn’t hurt him, but he was exceptional at being dramatic.

“just let me draw, dummy,” you tease, batting your eyelashes at him before you turn back to your work. his fingers lace underneath your chin to turn your head towards him. he lifts it in different directions as his eyes study the beauty he beholds.

“but it’s really slow right now,” he breathes, fingers ghosting across the side of your face as his hand withdraws from the contact. “how about i draw you?”

your lips press into a hard line. in all the time that you and jean had been together, not once had he revealed to you any of the work he had made of you (if any of it actually existed). but, curious to see how it would turn out, you humor him.

“okay, fine,” you huff with a bright smile, “i’ll draw you too.”

you hadn’t noticed that his sketchbook was sitting on the corner of the table until he retrieves it, flipping through the pages to find a blank one. you abandon the page of doodles you’d been idly working on in favor of a clean sheet. the two of you situate your bodies to face each other, and the magic begins.

your idea is to draw jean with his arms crossed behind his head, laying on the leaf covered ground. you don’t need to look up at him, as you have his features well-memorized, but you do it just for fun. it seems that your brains are connected; everytime you steal a glance, so does he.

every so often, you look up to find him in a trance as he relishes in your features. your heart threatens to give out at the amount of times it skips a beat at his loving gaze. no one else disturbs your focus, with the festival being pretty empty at the time.

you bask in the intimacy of it all, at the fleeting glances and lengthy stares. how jean’s determination was etched into the space between his eyebrows and his laughter lines. how his tongue sticks out in focus at the particularly difficult points of his sketch.

the pencils tell stories of features that had long been burned into your memories. you could draw jean without needing to look at him. the sharp curve of his jaw, his strong nose, deep, soft eyes; but you like to be reminded of his beauty in those short glances you steal.

your two dimensional jean stares back at you with a playful air as you dust off the eraser shavings, revealing the whole picture. you set your sketchbook on the table, far enough away to prevent him from stealing a glance. he notices your movements and finishes off his drawing quickly, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he scribbles furiously. you wonder what his drawing will look like with those violent flicks of his pencil.

he straightens up with a triumphant smile, patting the sheet gently. his eyes rise to meet your gaze as he grins and grips the sketchbook with excitement. a laugh flows through your nose while a gentle smile blesses your lips at his adorable mannerisms. he takes in a big breath, then shoves the sketchbook towards you with an exuberant flashiness.

“okay, here it is!”

the smile on your face is quickly replaced with a grimace at the sight of what jean had drawn. it’s a childish sketch, at best. you lean forward to study it, completely missing how jean covers his mouth to contain a loud guffaw. the drawing doesn’t get any better close up.

you assume that it’s you, since it’s a barely developed stick figure, sitting in a chair. you can make out the table on your right, decorated with poorly drawn cupcakes. the expression on your face can only be described as devilish - because he had drawn devil horns on your head… mature. your mouth is open and bearing sharp teeth as your eyebrows turn down into a malicious v.

the speech bubbles that flutter around your head are littered with censored expletives, expressing some kind of rage that you didn’t understand yourself. jean loses his control over himself, doubling over, snorting with laughter. you pull back, still utterly confused at what he had done. your eyes flit back to your sketch, heart sinking slightly at the unrequited effort.

“jean, what the hell is that?” you can’t help the anger that laces your voice, with undertones of disappointment. he straightens up, wiping a tear from his eye. tossing the sketchbook on the table, he crosses one leg over the other.

“it’s you twenty minutes ago,” he shrugs nonchalantly. you feel like such a baby at the sensation of tears prickling in your nose, but you grab your sketchbook anyway, flipping through the pages of idle doodles to find your work of jean.

“well, i hope this guilt trips you,” you shoot at him, turning the pad around to reveal your art. his eyes widen; he takes the piece to study it up close. you sit back and cross your arms over your chest, still wildly indignant at the lack of effort he put into drawing you. after he had practically begged you to let him.

“y/n…” jean’s voice had softened as he looks back up at you. your heart skips a beat at the admiration on his face at the wonderful portrayal you had made of him. he gently hands the sketchbook back to you, your fingers brushing together. your cheeks warm as your heart relents in your feelings towards him - making him happy makes you happy.

jean flashes a devilish grin at you, grabbing his notebook once again. he flips manically through the pages before finding what he wanted. taking a dramatic deep breath and closing his eyes, he rests the book face book on his lap before making an obnoxiously loud announcement.

“i hope you dont have socks on!” he declares, eyes still squeezed shut. a smile rises to your face as you interrupt him before he can speak again.

“of course i have socks on, babe,” you counter, stifling a giggle with your palm, “it’s cold.”

he slouches, defeated by your impeccable logic. “okay well, you see,” he begins, eyes opening to gaze into yours. “i already had this done before we started. i was just messing with you with the other one.”

your heart flutters in your chest as he picks up the notebook, about to turn it around to show you what he had seriously done. a ball of excitement bursts in your chest; you attempt to stifle it, not wanting to get disappointed like the last time, but something tells you that this will be different.

“go on, let’s see it.” you try to put on a strong face, but you crumble as soon as you see the first inch of the page as he slowly turns it around.

“ta-da,” he cheers quietly, face softening at the sight of you beholding what he had drawn. you scoot in to get a closer look, resting a hand on his thigh. his hand comes to clasp yours, gently rubbing his thumb in circles across your cold skin.

you’re still in disbelief as you pore over his drawing. it was of you, sitting cross legged in your chair, your sketchbook in your lap. overall, the sketch was done so gracefully, so softly, and that translated to a portrayal of yourself that you had never seen before. you’re enthralled by it all, the cascade of your hair into your face, the gentle curve of your smile as you sheepishly grinned at the beholder.

you look absolutely radiant, like an angel fallen straight from the heavens. jean’s admiration of you is painfully apparent in the drawing. he surrounded your frame with stars, the shading around you appearing to be as if you were physically beaming with the rays of the sun. you run your fingers over the page, heart expanding to fill your whole chest cavity.

when you finally bring yourself to tear your eyes away from the drawing, jean is gazing at you with an immeasurable amount of love in his eyes. tears gather along your waterline, threatening to spill out as he swoops down to press a gentle kiss on your lips.

“wow, jean… it’s…” you can’t even finish a sentence before you choke up, a baby tear escaping your eye. you brush it away quickly as jean plants a kiss on your forehead. he gives you time to process the drawing, gathering a piece of your hair and twirling it around his finger.

“it’s the most beautiful i’ve ever seen myself.” it was the only way you could describe it. you didn’t think you ever looked that gentle, that radiant, that alluring. he portrayed you with such an angelic aura that you could barely believe that he had actually drawn you. a soft sigh escapes his mouth as he cups your chin, bringing you to face him.

“it’s how i see you all the time.”

you think that your heart must have exploded in your chest at that very moment.

you throw yourself onto him with such a force that you knock over his chair; and soon the two of you are rolling around in the crunchy leaves, laughing. the joy you felt was nothing compared to anything else you had ever experienced, being the dazzling vision in the life of someone you loved with your whole heart.

after the sappy scene of affection, the two of you go back to manning the table, occasionally picking leaves out of the others’ hair as the customers begin to trickle through the grounds for the end of the festival. jean’s hand rests on your thigh, squeezing the muscle every once in a while, hearkening you back to his love for you, begging you to be reminded of the adoration he beheld you with every moment of every day.

and at the end of the day, after you had packed up your things - or lack thereof, since jean had managed to sell every last treat - the two of you head home. your heart beats fast in your chest as you imagine what else jean had drawn of you. a soft smile makes its home on your face, basking in the simple show of love he had showered you with. finally, as the two of you settle into bed, jean wraps his arms around you, surrounding you with a protective barrier of adoration and whispering praises into your ear, even long after you had fallen asleep.

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babymilkawa · 4 years ago

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Sorry if this has already been rone but- could I get Bakugou, Todoroki, Denki and Izuku (separately) with a non-binary s/o who’s quirk is based off of a hyena? They have splotches of lighter skintone on them, freckles, laugh like a hyena, have sharp teeth and eyes like them? And a tail + ears? S/o is really chaotic, they live by the motto “I’ll try anything once,” and are overall very likable yet funky? Extra points if the boys see them in their hero outfit (which is something a little showey💕

-🧸

this is rly interesting anon!!

hyena quirk headcanons with:

bakugou katsuki, todoroki shoto, midoriya izuku, kaminari denki

gn!reader :)

bakugou katsuki

so at first he was definitely ticked off by how different u were

tbh u kinda reminded him of Mina with ur personality

But he thought ur appearance was very cool

later on in ur relationship, you’d always feel him tracing the shapes of the splotches on ur skin, or softly scratching the space behind ur ears

he thought u looked so badass with those teeth though

u were wild but you weren’t careless

your attacks were precise and carefully planned during practice and he definitely noticed

even before u guys started dating, bakugou had already known almost everything about you just by observing

he noticed how your ears perked up easily

whether it’s excitement or during training

he loved watching how your pupils would dilate and how completely focused you’d look when on the battle field but if you’re just chilling?

your whole body is relaxed

oh and his favorite, favorite part is that if he teases you about things and you deny it, your tail will give it away

like your first kiss for example

he pulled away and with the smuggest grin he said, “not bad, right?”

you had rolled your eyes and looked away, unaware that the tip of your tail was rapidly moving side to side

Usually he’ll point you out

but after that kiss, he was dazed himself, so caught up on the feeling of ur lips, he didn’t even bother telling u that ur tail was betraying its owner

and the first time he saw ur hero costume? oh my g a w d man had to look away

cos damn what r u looking so good for

literally has to slap himself when no one’s watching so he can focus on the task

todoroki shoto

so your personality is very different than his

knowing this, you sometimes try to catch him off guard by like fake pouncing on him

but he never flinches or anything

never does

he prolly already knows ur planning this on the other side of the room smh

todoroki generally doesn’t have a playful side to him but when he’s noticing that you’re being more jumpy than usual he’ll join you cuz why not

but ofc it’s awkward at first

he doesn’t know how to have fun fun

he doesn’t understand ur impulsive decisions which happens a lot

for example, if you’ve accidentally had one sip of caffeine at 6 in the evening, you’re wide awake at 2 am and preparing to rearrange the furniture in ur dorm

he’s right below you, luckily, so he’ll hear all the noise and show up to ur dorm like “why?”

and you’ve got the same answer each time, “why not?”

he figures that he won’t be able to go back to sleep anyways so he helps you move the furniture

one thing that’s great is that he can instantly read your emotion or energy level from your tail

like if you’ve still got to move your night stand, but your tail is starting to droop, he’ll just drag you to bed

he’s tired too and he loves your cuddles even if ur ears tickle his chin a little excuse to be little spoon? I think yes

midoriya Izuku

your energy s c a r e s him sometimes

being ur partner during training will literally keep him fully alert, for you

but you’re a great partner, you can just be a little reckless sometimes

he soon learns that even if you dive right into the action, you don’t act without thinking

before you guys are even together, he’s already got your whole quirk analysis down in his notebook

he’ll ask you questions about whether your tail gets in the way or whether your ears help during training and all

sometimes if you guys are just chilling, you’ll catch him staring at you

one day you ask him and he just goes like “no you just look really cool. I hope I'm not being weird though! I don’t mean to!”

“you’re my bf you can stare at me all you want Izuku”

one time, you were sitting down with your friends playing a card game and he was walking by behind you

but suddenly your tail just unconsciously swept the floor and he stepped on it, making you cry out in pain

he felt soooo bad

oml

doesn’t know how to help make it better so he just keeps on apologizing

if it was anybody else, you would’ve pounced on them but he looks genuinely guilty

so lets not make it worse :)

at first, seeing you smile would give him mixed emotions

like you’d go up to his face and flash your teeth and he’d start sweating buckets

you looked adorable don’t get me wrong

but you also looked a little...menacing

kinda like himiko

after a while he got used to it, knowing that you were a really kind person at heart

but since you can be a little wild and you like to have fun, you'll just graze his shoulder or neck with your skin to feel him shiver

you won’t put any pressure that’ll draw blood but it’s fun to hear him whimper 👀

the first time he saw ur hero costume, he start stuttering random nonsense lmAo

“y-y-y/n, wow, uhhh” sweat sweat sweat

yea he’s prolly not gonna get used to that hahHha

kaminari denki

this boy matches your energy

your always paired up with him during training cos you guys make the best team

like you’re there to keep him from making irrational decisions but you also ignite the fire and make sure the two of you make the most out of the time

even if you guys fail the mission sometime, you always come out laughing and developing new inside jokes

sometimes if you’re laughing, he’ll just turn to look at you with the biggest smile

and admires your tail wagging like a little pup and your teeth glistening under the ceiling lights

he is all up for your impulsive decision making

your #1 supporter

“oh? you wanna have fireworks in the field? me too! let’s go!”

pulls out 20 packs from under his bed

you two hold the best parties ever

and sometimes Iida gets on ur nerves but denki’s there to politely ask him to not be a party pooper and that the door is wide open 👀🚪

y’all get in trouble with Aizawa all the time

like by now, he’s sick of y'all LMAOOO

someone told him that there’s a hole in the vending machine?

“y/n, Kaminari, come here”

but they weren’t even snitching on you two but it’s sooo obvious who did it hahaha

a lot of running around in the hallways and chasing each other

your so much faster than he is but he loves hearing your laugh echo the place

he clings on to you a lot cos ur soft

he’s usually the little spoon change my mind no u can't but when ur exhausted and all out of energy, he’s there to scratch your back or behind your ears, loving the way your tail wags in your sleep

you guys growl at each other

like playfully but it happens a lot

Midoriya walked in one time and lowk thought a fight was about to break down, tryna separate the two of you

you have an actual growl and a fake cute one, guess which one he likes ;))

a/n: aaah this was so fun to write!! thank you for requesting <33

bnha masterlist

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maddiwrites · 4 years ago

Text

The Hybrid (I)

Pairing: JJ x Reader

Summary: The Pogues rekindle their friendship with their old childhood best friend and JJ’s first crush, Y/N. Old feelings resurface for JJ and Y/N, possibly leading to a summer neither one of them could ever forget. Due to past trauma, Y/N is reluctant to let anyone into her heart, but JJ never backs down from a challenge, even if he knows it will come back to haunt him in the end.

Note: Thank you for being patient with me as I slowly write this series. I had this idea a long time ago and I’m not finding motivation to write it but the inspiration comes and go. I smile with every comment that is left on my fics and I’m so grateful for this community. Thank you for letting me pursue my creative writing without judgement. Love you guys! (Also, yes. If you didn’t see my last note, I based YN’s family off of the Gilmore Girls characters. That’s who I picture as them.)

Word Count: 8k

Masterlist Prologue

You wake up to someone falling on your bed next to you with a dramatic sigh. Knowing exactly who it is, you choose to ignore her and try getting back to the dreamless sleep you were peacefully having before you woke up.

That is, until she sighs again.

You flip onto your back and stare up at your ceiling fan that’s quickly spinning above you. “What, Rory?”

“How did it go with Andre and that boy?”

You look at her with one brow raised. “You woke me up to hear about Andre’s love life? That hardly sounds like you. You don’t care about high school drama or hookups.”

“You’re right,” Rory says. “But I thought I would ease you into what I actually need to tell you.”

You turn on right side and look at your sister confused. “What?”

She sighs. “The cafe’s basement flooded last night. Mom needs us there to help her clean up and take inventory on what’s salvageable.”

You turn back on you backside and close your eyes, exhaling a deep sigh. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Unfortunately not,” Rory says and pats you twice on your covered thigh as she sits up. “Come on. I made you pre-cafe coffee. It’s sitting in the kitchen.”

You throw your sheets off of you and trudge to the bathroom to brush your teeth and clean your face. It’s about 8 a.m. At least you were able to get about six hours of sleep.

Last night, it was hard to let your brain rest to fall asleep. You kept tossing and turning, thinking about the blonde Pogue who walked you home. You missed how easy it was to talk to someone who you felt truly knew you. Your banter rolled off your tongue easily and you never had to worry about offending him because you knew him like the back of your hand. You knew what he could take and what he couldn't.

Talking to him brought back childhood memories you had hidden deep in your mind. How JJ would constantly poke you until you ripped into a smile on days that were grey. How you used to steal John B’s bandanas until he was chasing you around his house to get them back. How you would draw a mustache and a unibrow on Pope’s face when he fell asleep by the water.

Those days felt like they were decades ago. So far away, you didn’t know if you’d be able to reach for them again. If it was even possible to get back.

You thought about texting him. Thanks for walking me back. We should all get together soon! You had written out. But then you deleted the whole message, telling yourself it was because you didn’t know if he even had the same number. But deep down, you were just afraid of the rejection.

Its been about three years since the four of you had been together in one place. You don’t know what they’ve been through or if they’ve changed. They for sure as hell don’t know what you’ve been through. You don’t know if they're dynamic has changed. Clearly you and JJ can still joke with each other but what about John B and Pope? You heard about John B’s father disappearing at sea, most people believing he’s dead, but John B holding onto hope that’s he’s alive. You always thought about calling him to reach out and offer your condolences. But for the same reason you didn’t text JJ, you never called. It didn’t feel like your place. They had Kie for that now. A little part of you felt jealous of her, like she had replaced you and any memory of you. She seemed nice, but she wasn’t you.

“Ready?” Rory pops her head in to your room as you slip on a cropped plain white zip up jacket over your cropped black tank.

“As I’ll ever be,” You say and snag the car keys out of her hands. “Don’t even think about it. I’m driving.”

Rory rolls her eyes. “I want to get there safely.”

“And I want to get there quickly.”

“Fine. But we’re taking my car. It actually has doors.”

For your sixteenth birthday, your grandparents gifted both you and Rory your own individual cars and even let you pick them out. Rory chose a black 2020 Honda Civic for it’s safety features and reputation for longevity as if she was planning on handing it down to her future kids. And you picked out a white 2020 Jeep Wrangler with a hard top that pops off along with the doors for a very open and thrilling ride. Everyone but you called it a death trap, but you found it to be the perfect summer car.

You park Rory’s boring Honda Civic in the back of the cafe in a lot used specifically for employees. The cafe is already booming with teens and families, waiting for their morning coffees and fresh pastries. Kids your age are running around behind the counter with sweat dripping down their brow bone to get everyone’s orders out in a timely manner.

In the back of the store, your mom walks up the steps from the basement with two large trash bags and immediately notices the two of you. “Oh good. You’re here. Rory, help the girls behind the counter. The dishwasher’s broken and poor Hailey is hand washing everything. Y/N, come with me downstairs.”

“Why does Rory get the fun job?” You grumble and follow your mom back downstairs after she tosses the two trash bags.

“Because she’s actually nice to the customers.”

“Treat others how you would like to be treated. Isn’t that what everyone always says?” You smirk. You never agreed with the phrase ‘the customer is always right.’ It’s complete bullshit and being the employee shouldn’t mean letting yourself getting verbally abused by a ‘Karen’ on the other side of the counter.

The basement is used for the cafe’s storage, lined with wooden shelves Steve put together that hold to go cups, back up espresso machines, boxes of coffee and food and ingredients, etc. Now all the boxes are dark and sopping, creating puddles on the concrete floor.

“Oh my god. Mom. How did this happen?”

“Jenky water pipe busted in the middle of the night,” Steve walks down the stairs and passes your mom a knowing look. It didn’t surprise you that he was here. He’s the jack of all trades. Owns his own automotive shop, builds a lot of his own furniture, actually cooks a decent meal, and has the same outlook on customer service as you do. He was probably your mom’s first call. “Talked to the plumber. They can’t get here until at least noon.”

“Noon? We’ll be underwater by noon. I might as well turn all my employees into a swim team,” Your mom says.

Steve shakes his head. “I was able to hold the leak until he gets here. You should be fine.”

Steve was the first person that actually helped your mother out when's she moved to the Cut. Six months pregnant, she pushed her car into his automotive shop after it broke down on the side of the road. Their banter was similar to the one you and JJ have. He helped save your mom money by building yours and Rory’s cribs, changing table, and dressers. And ever since, the two of them had been connected by the hip, although they both refuse to admit it. You think the pair are just trying to deny the love they clearly share for each other. And you think the main reason for that is because of the incident four years ago with your mom’s ex boyfriend. No thanks to you.

“Look at you constantly building your resume,” You smirk at him.

Steve scoffs. “It’s more than what you’re doing.”

You roll your eyes. Steve is the closest thing you have to a father. He practically helped raise you with your mom. He’s the one you turn to whenever a fight with your mom goes too far, which isn't too often but it happens. He usually lets you stay at his house for the night to let you cool off. But he’ll never sugar coat his advice when it comes time for him to give it. Even if you don’t ask for it. He knows growing up with Rory has been challenging. She was clearly your mom’s favorite, or at least that’s what you thought. She has a 4.0 GPA with a realistic dream to get into Brown University and study journalism. She played by every rule, never got into trouble, and spent most of her free nights getting ahead of her school work or staying late at the cafe with an open book from the library across the street. She was an absolute angel to everyone else, making you look like her evil twin.

You glare at him before turning to your mom with crossed arms. “What do you want me to do, Mom?”

“Actually honey. Can you go to Heywards and grab more coffee filters and napkins. The water soaked right through the plastic wrapping on our last box.”

You nod, leaving your mom and Steve to clean up the basement themselves. Before heading out, you sneak behind the counter and make yourself a quick coffee to go.

“Where you going?” Rory asks as she reaches behind you to grab a banana for her customer at the register.

“Heywards to grab a couple things for Mom.”

“Oh. Make sure to grab toilet paper while you’re out. I think we’re almost out of it.”

“Got it.”

Heywards is only a short drive from your mom’s cafe. It’s the closest convenient store that isn’t crazy pricey. It’s where your mom gets all her supplies whenever she runs out of things before shipment gets there.

You use to always come here when you were younger with the boys, each of you, even Pope, stealing a small bag of chips or a candy bar here and there. Little did any of you know, Mr. Heyward caught your thieving hands every time but never said anything.

The bell above the door chimes when you walk into the store. You know this place as well as you know the cafe, finding the toilet paper and coffee filter immediately.

When Mr. Heyward looks up from the counter, his smile grows. He can pick you out of a crowd anywhere, but he hasn’t seen you in a long time. Last time he saw you, you had braces and overgrown bushy brows. Now you had bushed hair and shaved legs.

“Hi. Mr. Heyward,” You grin shyly at him. You don’t know how he’s going to react to see you, unsure of what Pope might have told him about you.

“Little Miss Y/L/N? Is that you?” Heyward smiles widely, pulling your own lips into a wider smile. “I haven’t seen you for a long time.”

“Yeah, I’ve been busy with school and my mom’s cafe...” Both of those things were a lie. You just avoid the Cut to avoid the Pogues.

“How’s the fam?”

“They’re good,” You say as Heyward hands you your bags. “Mom says hello by the way. I’m actually taking these to her store now.”

“Well, don’t be a stranger. We miss your smiling face around her. Anette, too.” Heyward says, mentioning his wife.

“Tell her I said hi.”

“Of course, darling.”

Heyward and Anette always had a special place in their heart for you and Rory. They’re not one for gossip, but they knew a little bit about what your mom’s been through and have heard plenty of stories about your grandparents. They always thought, despite your mom’s background, that you and your sister were raised impressively. Anette always hoped that one day Pope and Rory would get together. Everyone always wanted their child to be with Rory.

As your about to leave the store, the bell chimes again with another customer. Only it’s not another customer. It’s Pope and John B. They don’t see you at first, and you wonder if maybe you can sneak out without them seeing you. But something about that felt wrong. Especially because Heyward would more than likely mention to them that you were here.

Pope sees you first and stops in his tracks. “Y/N?”

“Hey, guys. Long time no see,” You smile at both of them. You bite down on your lip awkwardly when you meet John B’s stare. You don’t know if you should mention anything about his dad’s disappearance. But what would you say? Sorry? What good would that do?

“How’ve you been?” Pope gives you a small side hug, then John B.

You shrug. “You know, living the dream.”

“How’s life as a Hybrid?” John B smirks.

You roll your eyes playfully and groan. “Oh god. Never call me that again.”

You may be considered a Hybrid by everyone else, but you would never put yourself into that category. You grew up a Pogue, the same way everyone else did around you. The only thing tying you to the Kooks are your grandparents.

“Why?” John B smirks. “I wish I was a Hybrid.”

You smirk back. “Maybe you will be one day. I hear you have a Kook of your own for arm candy.”

You saw a faint hint of blush on John B’s cheek at the mention of his girlfriend but you don’t mention it. “Sarah, yeah. She’s not like the other Kooks.”

“I would hope not. Her brother’s a dick.”

“Yeah,” They laugh.

“We miss you, you know.” John B says. Pope looks at you, trying to read your expression. John B’s not wrong. They do all miss you, especially Pope. He felt like you were the only one who really understood him. Of course his other friends are great, but you actually took the time to try and understand his passions. Like forensic science.

“I miss you guys too. It’s been a while.”

“Well, hey. We’re actually all getting together tonight at my place. Nothing big. Just a bonfire and a couple beers. You should stop by,” John B says.

“Yeah,” Pope says, immediately getting hopeful that you’ll show up.

Your smile falters. The invite makes your heart swell and your lungs contract. It’s an invite you’ve been wanting for three years. And now that you have it, you don’t know what to say. It’d be different if it was just the four of you like old times. But now there’s Kie and Sarah and although you have nothing against them, you’re afraid they won’t accept you. The thought of your boys picking them over you terrifies you.

“Okay. Yeah, sure. I’ll try to swing by later.”

Pope smiles wide and looks at his friend to see his reaction. John B grins and nods, almost impressed that you had agreed. But he saw the twitch in your lips when the question was asked.

“Great. I guess we’ll see you later then.”

You nod. “Okay. Bye guys.”

You suck in a deep breath when the fresh air outside of Heyward’s store brushes over you. Your heart thumps wildly with both excitement and nerves when you’re finally able to collect your thoughts. You don’t know what you’ll do tonight, but the possibilities can change your entire summer.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You spent the rest of the day mopping up the cafe’s basement and rearranging the shelves. You smelled of sweat and coffee grounds by the time you were done and dreamt of the shower you would be taking when you got home.

Rory drove you home after the two of you closed up the cafe for the day. Neither of you said much. Rory was exhausted from running around behind the counter and you were too busy thinking about whether you’d go back to the place you used to call your second home.

You took a longer shower than usual, still pondering what your night would be like. Your head was telling you to stay home but your heart pulled you in the direction of the Cut. You yearned to hear about what the future held for Pope, and listen to John B retell stories of when you were kids, and be able to stare into JJ’s bright blue eyes without him noticing.

You changed into a pair of jean shorts and a plain red cropped tank. Rory walks into your room as your brushing out your hair and looks at you as if you lost your mind.

“Are you out of your mind? You can’t wear that,” She says.

You brows scrunch together in confusion. “What are you talking about? I wear shit like this all the time.”

“Not to the Country Club, you don’t.” That’s when it hits you. Today’s been so hectic, you forgot what day it was. “It’s Sunday.”

Sunday dinner at the Country Club is now a weekly commitment forced upon you by your grandparents. Each week, your mom, sister, and you are forced to spend one dinner with your grandma and grandpa. This is basically your mom’s payment back for sending you and Rory to Kook Academy. Only they actually pay for the dinner. It’s usually the longest two hours of your entire week. It’s hard to listen to your grandfather rant about Real Estate and your grandma slyly critique your mother in almost every aspect of her life.

“Shit. I completely forgot,” You say.

“Well, you better change. We’re leaving in about five minutes,” Rory says then plucks a gold necklace from your dresser. “Oh and can I wear this tonight?”

You sigh. “Sure.”

You change into a baby blue wrap around dress and pin your wet hair into a half up half down due. It’s gonna have to work for the limited time you have to get ready. After applying a thin layer of makeup to look the least bit presentable, you meet your mom and sister by the front door.

“Finally,” Your mom says when she sees you.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize it was Sunday.”

“It’s okay, honey. I just don’t think I can handle another late remark from Mom today.” She looks you up and down and grins. “You look great.”

Despite the many fiery fights you and your mom can have, she is also your best friend. It’s kind of like a love hate relationship. Steve says it’s because you’re exactly like your mom - almost like a sixteen year old version of her.

You really hope that isn’t true. You’re not ready to have a kid in two years.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Your grandparents are already sitting at a round table in the corner of the country club by the two tall windows that reach up to the ceiling with a view looking out into the golf course. The best seat in the house for the richest a holes on the island.

“Lorelai,” Your grandmother grins, but you can instantly tell it’s sarcastic. “Did you have to walk here?”

You speak up before your mom could. “Sorry Grandma. It’s my fault we’re late.”

Your grandparents are hard on your mom but easier on you and Rory, especially Rory.

“Well, you’re here now,” Your grandpa says. He’s usually the mediator between your mom and grandma. Although he’s usually sucks at it. “Sit. Sit.”

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, JJ shuffles through his many coworkers with his apron in one hand and a piece of fried calamari from Miss Carol’s appetizer in the other.

“JJ -” She scolds and slaps his hand away from going in for a second piece.

“Good evening Miss Carol,” JJ smirks and makes his way to the area between the kitchen and dining room where most of the servers and bust boys hang out. Some of the boys slap him on the back or shove him by the shoulder, chuckling to themselves. “What’s going on boys? Busy crowd?”

“What are you doing here? You never work Sundays,” His friend, Mitch, says.

Luke Maybank was behind on several bills - worse than it’s ever been. They already shut off their electricity and JJ wanted to make sure the water wouldn’t be next.

But JJ shrugs nonchalantly. “Little extra dough can't hurt.”

“Well, you picked a good day,” Raymond walks up to the blonde, rolling his sleeves. “You got Kook Royalty and their Hybrid offsprings in your section.”

“What?” JJ looks through the small square Plexiglas on the swinging door. He knows exactly where to look and immediately sees you sitting with King and Queen Kook, looking absolutely miserable, pushing around your food with your fork.

“Damn, Maybank. Almost broke your neck - you turned so fast.”

“Shut up, Easterling. I was just seeing how crowded we were,” JJ lied. He really just wanted to see if you were here. And now that he sees you are, he’s a little nervous to do his own damn job.

Raymond Easterling chuckles. “Yeah, I know what you were looking at. But don’t get your hopes up. There’s a reason Kooks call that girl the Heart Sucker. Not even the high and powerful JJ Maybank could get a piece of that.”

The guys around JJ and Raymond chuckle and nod in agreement, hearing the stories of how you’d reject every single guy that’s ever asked you out. Sometimes you’d go on a few dates, trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but then things would quickly become too much, and you’d get overwhelmed.

JJ didn’t like the way Raymond talked about you or how the others laughed at your expense. His hands clenched into fists, tempted to throw a punch in Ray’s cocky face. The guy’s just being a jerk because he’s one of the guys that got rejected by you, he thought.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” JJ shakes his head and ties his apron around his waist to distract his hands.

“No?” Raymond challenges him. “You think I’m wrong? You think you could pull the infamous Hybrid over there?”

JJ glances back through the window. You’re looking at your grandma with a clearly forced grin. You’re twirling your hair between your fingers, a habit you picked up when you were little to do when you’re bored. JJ would find you doing that in school all the time.

You’re gorgeous, he thought. It’s no wonder that almost every guy on this island has tried to make a pass on you, including JJ himself, but his remarks always come off as playful, afraid of actually telling you how he feels about you. His fantasies about you went further than just getting you between the sheets. He could picture getting married, having children, and growing old together. Years ago, the two of you would talk about your future. Neither one of you cared about money or fancy jobs. All you wanted was to be free - of this island, of each other’s families, of responsibilities placed on you from birth. You hold the same values as JJ, and he’s never met another person like you.

But JJ has a hard exterior. No one other than his best friends know his true heart, and he wasn’t going to let someone like Raymond Easterling find out about his soft spot for you. He would never hear the end of it.

JJ looks at you one last time. You’re talking to Rory, your face in his direction. This time you’re smiling, probably discussing something other than your grandparent’s expectations of you. He’d kill to see that smile every single day.

What’s the worst that could happen? You reject him? Yeah, that might kill JJ inside, but maybe you’d still be his friend, or continue to be acquaintances like you are now. As long as he gets to see you, he’d be okay. There was always the future. But who knows? Maybe you’d say yes? He’ll never know unless he tries. Right?

JJ fakes the same cocky grin that Raymond wears. “I haven’t failed yet.”

The guys around him whistle and shake their heads with smiles.

“All right, Maybank. Let’s make a bet. I’ll give you one hundred dollars to get Y/N Y/L/N in the sack by the fourth of July.”

JJ scoffs. “You like giving away free money?” He ignored his racing heart at the thought of being that intimate with you.

Raymond nods. “Okay. Let’s put your money where your mouth is. Get her to say ‘I love you’ by the end of the season and I’ll raise you an extra hundred and cover all your dishwasher shifts in September.”

JJ raises his brows with surprise. No one offers to take the dishwashing shift. Sometimes the boys are pulled back there when the kitchen is short staffed and it’s easily one of the worst jobs at the Club.

This bet was almost too good of an opportunity to pass up. “Deal.” JJ says.

The boys shake hands on it and the other guys whisper to each other about how intrigued they are to see this play out.

JJ wipes his sweaty palms against his apron and pushes the door open to approach your table, hoping he can hear you over his thudding heart.

“Good evening folks. May I take those empty plates out of your way?”

You look up at the voice you know so well and a smile raises on your lips. JJ meets your eyes and he winks at you, splattering your heart in flutters.

“Please.” Your grandmother pushes her plate away from her, stuffed with filet and red wine.

“JJ,” Your mom grins up at him. Growing up, your mom always had a soft spot for the blonde Pogue. She’s heard the stories about his father, mostly from Steve, who actually grew up with Luke Maybank, his cousin. As a child, he was sent to live with Luke Maybank and his single father. Lets just say, he’s not surprised by the way Luke turned out. “Look at you. You’re all grown up now. Last time I saw you, Y/N was still pushing your head in the sand for stealing her popsicle.”

“Yeah. I quickly learned no one should mess with Y/N and her food,” JJ says.

“Never stopped you though,” You smirk at him.

“Lorelai. Who is this?” Your grandma asks, disregarding the boy himself.

“Mom,” Lorelai gives her mom a warning look. “This is JJ Maybank. He went to school with Y/N and Rory.” Lorelai knew to play it safe with her wording. She didn’t know where you and JJ stood. It’s been so long since you’ve seen him and she knew better than to ask.

“Nice to meet you,” JJ says politely. “I’d shake your hand but mine are kinda full.” He motions to the plates in his hand.

“That’s quite all right.” Your grandma’s smile is so forced, it makes you uncomfortable.

“I won’t hold you up. Has your server been around with the dessert menu?” JJ looks at you. “We have chocolate cake tonight.”

Heat rushes up your neck. Not because of the cake itself but because JJ remembered your favorite dessert. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. It was safe to save you were a choco-holic. The boys use to make it for you every year for your birthday. It usually came out burnt, none of them ever remembering how to properly make it. But it was all you needed to feel like a very special girl.

“Your favorite,” Rory elbows you.

Your grandma cringes. “Sounds like diabetes on a plate.”

“Mom,” Lorelai scolds.

“What?” She asks, not understanding the concept of a filter.

Now heat rushes to your cheeks for an entire different reason. “He did. We’re not doing dessert tonight. Thank you, though.”

JJ nods but feels disappointed by the way your face flinched at your grandmother’s comment.

“My pleasure,” He says like he was taught to do and excuses himself to drop the plates off in the back before he can say anything else that would probably get him fired.

Your mom looks at your with raised brows. “He’s cute, honey.”

“Lorelai, please. He’s the busboy,” Your grandma says.

“He’s a good kid, Mom.”

“If you’ll excuse me,” You stand up. “I have to use the restroom.”

Rory gives you a knowing grin as you walk away from the table. When you walk into the hallway between the dining area and the front lobby, you immediately feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Sometimes just the presence of your grandparents and their pompous judgements can be suffocating. You do your best to bite your tongue around them, excusing yourself when you feel yourself getting heated.

JJ catches a glimpse of your light blue dress out of the corner of his eye when he rounds the corner to collect the plates off a different table. He looks over his shoulder at Raymond, who’s staring at the blonde watching you, and winks.

“Hey, Y/N,” JJ says, walking up to you.

You look up from your phone and immediately smile. “Hey. I was actually hoping I’d catch you out here.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” You nervously tuck a piece of hair behind your ear. “I’m sorry about my grandmother. She can be...”

JJ shakes his head. “Hey. It’s okay. I work for Kooks almost every single day. I’m use to it.”

You sigh. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Don’t apologize for something you can’t control,” JJ says. “Besides, that’s probably the nicest she’s ever been to me.”

You hide your face in your hands. “Stop. You’re making it worse.”

JJ laughs and takes your wrists in his hands, slowly pulling them away from your face. Your eyes shoot up to his, immediately feeling a tingling feeling run through your skin, straight to your heart.

“It’s okay. I promise,” He says softly. His voice is so sincere that you have no other option but to believe him. It almost makes your feel guiltier, wondering how much bullshit he’s been through with ungrateful Kooks that it’s so easy for him to forgive and forget.

“Okay,” Your voice is a whisper, taken off guard by how close he is to you and how he still hasn't let go of your hands.

In that same moment, JJ realizes he’s still holding you and gently removes his hands. He coughs awkwardly and scratches the back of his neck, where sweat begins to bubble. Why is he so nervous?

“So um...” You say, suddenly feeling nervous too. “You going to John B’s tonight?”

JJ’s eyes shoot up in surprise. How did you know that? “Yeah. I’m heading over there after work.”

“I saw him and Pope at Heywards earlier today and they invited me over. I wasn’t sure if I should come or not.”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

Because it’s different now, you wanted to say. But you didn’t because you feel like the elephant in the room would only grow. And you didn’t want to admit you were nervous to meet Kie and Sarah outside of school.

You shrug. “I don’t know.”

“You should definitely come. The boys miss you.”

You pretend like a little piece of your heart didn’t just break when JJ didn’t say ‘we.’

“What time do you get off of work?”

“Around 9ish.”

You nod. “I can pick you up if you’d like and we could go together?”

Your heart races after you suggest it. What if he says no? Why were you feeling this way? This is the same kid you use to make fun of for pouring milk into his bowl before his cereal.

“Yeah. That’d be perfect.”

“Great!” Your phone pings with a text from Rory, telling you that your grandparents are wondering where you are. “Shit. I have to get back. I’ll see you at nine?”

“See you then,” JJ nods and turns back to the kitchen. When his eyes meet Raymond’s, he’s reminded of what he agreed to. Almost surprised how quickly he forgot about it. You were able to take his mind off of anything without even trying. He clears his throat to get rid of the giddy grin he was wearing after talking to you, wanting to look tough and casual in front of his coworker. “Easy.” He says to him. But that felt anything but easy. He could vomit with nerves.

“There’s still plenty of time for you to screw up, Maybank.”

JJ huffs. He’s not wrong.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You drive up to the front of the country club and park in front of the main entrance. It’s 8:57. You’re early and will look eager. So you wait until 9:06 to text him that you’re here.

You changed into a pair of dark washed denim shorts, a yellow cropped tube top, a grey flannel, and navy converse. You changed your outfit about four times before deciding on your first one, not wanting to look too casual or too dressed up.

For the last three years, you wondered when the four of you would get back together as a group. You wondered if it would ever happen. And now that two Kooks are involved, you feel more nervous than excited.

You jump when the passenger seat door opens, lost in the depth of your own head. JJ smiles, not seeing your reaction.”Cool ride,” he says and looks around the interior.

“Thanks,” you say, pulling out into the road.

“I got you something,” JJ says.

You glance at him with furrowed brows. What could he have possibly gotten you since you saw him last? A book mark from the Country Club’s gift shop?

JJ reaches into his backpack and pulls out a plate with clear wrap around it. Your mouth drops when you see the chocolate cake on a plate in his hands, the smell immediately hitting your nose with pure delight.

“You saved me a piece?” You jump in your seat excitedly.

“Had to hide it good too or else Miss Carol would have had my ass handed to me,” JJ jokes and even pulls out two forks. He undoes the wrapping and cuts off a piece. He waits until you hit a stop sign and says, “Open up.”

You look at him and immediately open your mouth. He gently places the fork between your lips and you take the piece of cake off with your teeth. Like a baby.

Your eyes close with pure pleasure. “Oh my god. That’s amazing.”

“Miss Carol does know how to bake a mean cake,” JJ says and takes a bite of his own.

“Another one,” You say, glancing at the cake again. Like you said, choco-holic. “Please.” You say when JJ teases you by holding the fork away from you.

JJ laughs. “I like hearing you beg.”

You slap him in the arm with the back of your hand. “In your dreams, Maybank.”

“You got that right, Y/L/N.”

The two of you finish the cake with only a few bites each. Small but rich in chocolate that leaves you craving more. You were gonna have to meet this Miss Carol woman.

After he puts the plate back in his bag, JJ reaches for the aux cord, but you quickly slap his hand away. “Hey. What do you think you’re doing?”

“You’re seriously gonna make me listen to this the entire way to John B’s?”

You scoff. “I’ll have you know Blink-182 is one of my favorite bands.”

“It’s also soccer moms’ favorite band,” JJ laughs at you.

You turn up the volume, blasting ‘All the Small Things’ and point to your ear. “Sorry. Can’t hear you!”

JJ rolls his eyes but laughs along with you, even bopping his head to the beat. You drive with the windows down, dancing and singing along to a bunch of throwback songs with JJ as if the two of you have been doing this forever.

You pull up to John B’s and park behind his dad’s old van, better known as The Twinkie. When you turn down the music, JJ looks at you with a shake in his head. “Next time, I’m driving.”

“What was wrong with my driving?”

“We’re in the Outer Banks, Sparky, not NASCAR.”

You scoff and follow behind JJ who’s leading the way up John B’s driveway. As you get closer, you smell the smoky scent of a bonfire nearby and eventually hear John B’s laugh mixed in with a female’s. Your smile falters as nerves gather in the pit of your stomach.

“What’s wrong?” JJ asks.

“Nothing,” You say, but JJ easily catches your lie and gives you a knowing look. “What if they don’t like me?”

“Who? Pope and John B? I’m pretty sure they like you more than me even after three years -”

“Not them, you idiot,” You shove him playfully by the shoulder as you two let yourselves inside. “Sarah and Kie.”

“Don’t you go to school with them?”

“Yeah, but we don’t talk,” You say quietly, not wanting them to hear you.

“Hm.”

“What?” JJ shrugs. “Nothing. I just didn’t think you cared about what other people thought.”

“I don’t,” You say quickly. “But they're your best friends. It’s different.”

“You don’t need their approval. You technically were here first.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been replaced,” You try to say it as a joke and even throw a smirk in there.

But JJ stops in his track and looks at you seriously. “No one can replace you. Not even if they tried.”

You open your mouth to respond, but you’re at a loss for words. It’s not a common occurrence that JJ gets all serious on you. Warmth covers you like a blanket and the longer he holds your stare, the weaker your knees become.

“JJ! Is that you?” John B calls out from the backyard.

“Yeah,” JJ yells back. He opens the fridge in John B’s kitchen. “Want a beer?” He offers to you.

You shake your head. “No thanks.”

For the first time, you take in John B’s home. It looks the same as it did three years ago, only a lot messier. The pull out couch looks like its been used recently with blankets and sheets tossed about on it. Empty beer cans and cigarette butts are thrown messily on the coffee tables and the air smells faintly of old marijuana.

JJ leads you out to the back where four people are gathered around a fire. Three out of the four immediately smile when the two of you approach them, but Kie’s eyes narrow and her head tilts with confusion.

Shit, you think.

“You came!” Pope laughs and hops up from his beach chair and embraces you in a hug.

You laugh, not expecting the embrace, but welcoming it all the same. John B’s next, giving you a quick hug and shaking his head.

“I gotta say, I didn’t think you were going to come,” John B says.

“You can thank me for that later,” JJ says jokingly.

“Actually when I heard JJ was coming, I almost changed my mind and stayed home,” You joke and smirk JJ’s way.

“Just like old times,” Pope says, looking between you and the blonde. The banter felt like the yall never separated in the first place.

“Hey, you know Sarah and Kie, right?” John B points to the girls. Sarah stands up to say hi, and eventually Kie follows her, not wanting to look rude, but stays off to the side, keeping her distance.

“Yeah,” You wave awkwardly.

“Hey!” Sarah says sweetly. “I didn’t realize you guys use to all hang out.”

“Y/N grew up down the street,” JJ explains and sips at his beer.

“You want a drink or something?” Pope asks you, not knowing JJ already did.

“No thank you,” You say again.

“You don’t drink?” Kie asks. It was the first thing she’s said to you.

“Not usually,” You say and hold her stare. You try to get a read on her, but she’s had to get a tell on. You can’t tell if she just doesn’t like you or just doesn’t know you. Either way, it makes you uneasy.

“Here, I’ll go grab you a chair,” Pope says and walks to the side of the house to grab another beat up beach chair.

As the night goes on, you feel the tension in your shoulders loosen and your body feel lighter. Most of the night was spent retelling childhood stories the four of you shared. Sarah would laugh at most of them, occasionally rolling her eyes at her boyfriend from the stupid shit he would do, although it sounds like he’s no different to you now.

You talked about the time you and JJ stole a golf cart for a joy ride on Figure Eight, or when you and John B pranked Pope by putting a dead fish in his locker, or how you and John B learned how to play guitar from youtube tutorials.

Midnight came around quickly and exhaustion was slowly taking over your body. It’s been a long day between the cafe flooding, dinner with your grandparents, and now this.

JJ was the first to notice you slowly fading.

“You okay?” He asks you quietly as everyone else is caught up in conversation.

“Yeah,” You say, lazily grinning at him.

“We can leave if you want,” He says.

“You’re not staying?” You ask. It sounded like everyone was planning to spend the night here. And as much as you wanted to, you just didn’t feel comfortable enough yet.

JJ shrugs. “My dad’s out of town tonight. It’ll be nice to have the house to myself.” Before you can say anything, he stands and brushes his hands against his pants. “All right, losers. We’re out of here.”

“Aw, you’re leaving?” Sarah pouts.

“Yeah, I’m beat and Y/N’s my ride home,” JJ says.

You were glad he didn’t call you out for being tired. You didn’t want to look lame in front of everybody, especially Kie.

“Thanks for having me,” You say to everyone. It might have been John B’s house, but it was everyone’s night you intruded on.

John B stands up to hug you. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

You nod. “I won’t. I promise.”

Pope hugs you next. “Text me when you get back safe.”

“I will.”

“Bye!” Sarah waves and Kie exhales a ring of smoke from her blunt.

You wave at them before following JJ back to your car.

“Nuh-uh-uh,” JJ says. You didn’t realize you both walked to the driver’s side.

“What? No.”

JJ nods and holds his hands out for your keys. “I’m not dying tonight.”

“You’ve been drinking and smoking all night,” You say. You didn’t think JJ was drunk or even that high, but you were not going to let a teenager with an ounce of alcohol in his system get behind the wheel. “Next time. For now, hold on to the cupholder.”

JJ sighs dramatically and goes to the other side of the car and hops in the passenger seat.

This time you keep the music quiet, listening to the hum of the radio instead of your phone.

“Take a left,” JJ says.

“JJ, I know where you live. And it’s not left.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

You snicker. “Not in the slightest.”

JJ rolls his eyes. “Just take the left.”

You hold your hands up in surrender and take the left turn. He directs you for a couple more miles until he has you park in front of a 24 hour diner.

“What are we doing here?” You ask.

“I’m in the mood for a milkshake.”

“We just had cake!” You say.

“Come on, Sparky. Show me what that mouth can do,” JJ smirks.

You go to hit him again but he takes off running to the front entrance and pulls the door open. You chase after him, almost running into his back at the front host stand where JJ safely smirks at you in triumph.

“Two please,” He says to the hostess.

The old cranky woman leads you to a booth off to the side next to a window without a word.

A couple minutes later, a waitress walks by and asks if you’re ready to order.

“Yes. One chocolate milkshake and one black and white milkshake,” JJ orders for both of you, already knowing what flavor you’d want.

“And fries, please.” You say. The waitress nods, takes your menus, and walks off. JJ raises his brow at the extra order. “What?” You shrug. “Just showing you what my mouth can do.”

JJ scoffs. “What a tease.”

You playfully kick his shin under the table.

“Did you have fun tonight?” JJ asks.

“Yeah,” You answer. “Felt like old times. The girls are nice too.”

You were about to only mention Sarah, but you didn’t want to cause any issues with Kie. Not yet at least. Maybe she just needed time to warm up to you.

“See? I told you they wouldn’t bite.”

A couple minutes later, the waitress comes back with your milkshakes and fries.

“How’s John B doing? You know, with the whole Big John thing?” You ask delicately, unsure of how JJ would react to you pestering about John B’s business. “I didn’t want to ask and bring the mood down,” You explain yourself although you don’t need to.

JJ shrugs. “He’s in denial I think. Won’t sign a death certificate until he sees a body. He could be worse, though.”

“Yeah,” You say softly. You don’t know what you would do if you were in that situation. In a way you felt lucky that you never knew your dad at all. It would be harder to lose him, knowing who he was.

You take a fry and dip it into your milkshake before taking a bite. This makes JJ freeze and look at you like you have two heads.

“What?” You say with your mouth full.

“I can’t believe you just did that.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” You say and give him a look to do it.

JJ reluctantly picks up the fry and dunks it into his milkshake. He looks at the fry questioningly before popping it into his mouth. Somehow the sweetness of the milkshake and the saltiness of the french fry complement each other beautifully and his widen in pleasant surprise.

“Oh wow,” JJ says.

“Told you,” You smirk.

You spend the next hour catching up, trying to fit the last three years into an hour. JJ does most of the talking because you want to know more about what John B, Pope, and JJ have been up to. Your life was so boring and depressing, you didn’t want to bore JJ with the details.

You drive JJ home and talk for a few minutes more when you park. He seems to be procrastinating getting out of the car, but you don’t mind. You could talk to him all night, suddenly not feeling tired anymore.

“All right. I’ll let you get home before the sun rises,” He says and opens the door. He pauses when his feet hit the ground and he looks back at you. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“I have to work at the shop, why?”

“Well, there’s a storm coming in. John B and I might go out to surf the surge before it hits. You still surf?”

You scoff. “Do I still surf?”

JJ holds his hands up in surrender. “Just checking. You think you can handle the surge?”

“Let’s not forget who the better surfer is, JJ.”

“I didn’t. It’s still me.”

“You wish.”

“So I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Now you have a point to prove. You have to show JJ that you’re still the better surfer.

“I'll see you tomorrow,” You agree.

“Great, it’s a date.” He winks and shuts the door before you can tell him otherwise.

You giggle to yourself as JJ walks up the front yard and stay there until he you see he gets in safely.

You pull out of the driveway, wishing he had asked you out on a real date. One that didn’t involve John B.

Tag list: @super-funky-bisexual @sunsetswithjj @moniamaybank @throwawayfish @poguestyle17 @5am-cigarette @jjpouggues @fly-away-from-here @buckys2thicc

#JJ Imagine #jj fic #jj maybank imagines #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank #jj obx #jj fanfiction #jj maybank imagine #outer banks imagine #outer banks imagines #outer banks fic #jj maybank one shot

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