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highwarlockkareena · 4 years ago

Photo

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you ali for the tag on this collaboration with @nyx4, ali! @wendashanren

tagging: (I mostly talk about collaboration for this one but if you check #showyourprocess most people talk about how they made their creations or check my first post about giffing here!)

@elysean for this set @timothyolyphant for this set @sugardaddyahxu for this set @jun-hee for this set @bloominflowers for this art

I wanted to collaborate with Jackie on a set. We’d talked about it anyway, and thought about what we could work on. So when I saw this request on mdzsnet, i knew this was the one for us.

wei wuxian, black/red, cql, yp!wwx/sunshot campaign scenes/nightless city scenes, the lyrics from "the war" by syml

I knew Jackie loved Syml, so she’d want to make this request, so I put both our names down to claim it, then when Jackie was online checked if she’d prefer to do this one solo, or shared. She loved the idea of a collab, so we got to work.

First we listened to the song a couple of times, thinking about how it worked for wei wuxian. then we broke down which lyrics we wanted to use and the general scenes for them.

We split them out across a number of gifs (originally it was 4 but I don’t have a screenshot of that) with a general idea of scenes we’d work from for each. As you can see, I do plan but my notes tend to be sparse reminders rather than detailed. jackie wanted to dig the angst knife in deep and wanted the ‘my war is over’ to coincide with wei wuxian falling off the cliff, so we worked back from that for our scene choices.

Jackie:

Originally it was going to be 4 gifs, all of them with the lyrics that made it to the final set, but it would have been too much text on each gif so first we decided on a gif without text in the middle before deciding on spreading out the song a bit more which led to the 7 gif set.

We started making gifs 1 and 3. in my usual fashion i made about 10 gifs to pick which scenes i wanted to work with & jackie made 1 because she isn’t an idiot.

Jackie:

Kareena does make a ton of gifs just to choose one or two, which is both amusing and amazing. I have proof!

Luckily we’re both admins on WoHDaily, so we used the drafts in there to share a post we could both edit gifs in & out of.

I’d wanted to do a silhouette edit similar to one in @lan-xichens lovely overlay tutorial, but it wasn’t coming out the way i’d liked, so I had to keep trying different things until it worked as I’d envisioned.

I finished a touch before Jackie who had taken time to pick emotionally devastating scenes for her gif, so we used my red throughout both, but then tweaked each gif with feedback from each other.

Jackie:

When we first decided on the scenes, I waited for her to do the first gif so I could match her colors. Once she made the first one, I showed her this template I made so we could visualize how it’d look.

Then we moved on to the next gifs. This was harder, because we didn’t want to overload the set by making every single gif super fancy, so we tried out a variety of things to see what would hang together nicely.

Above is an example of one idea of mine that got discarded. I think i had 3 iterations before we got to the gif below.

Jackie:

I then moved on to gif #6 and I made a gif which Kareena completely shut down. She said, Jackie, this is really ugly. I accepted it, because she is the one with the skills here, and because she was right. (KAREENA: this is a lie - the gif is *gorgeous* but it just has a lot going on in an already busy gifset.)

There was too much going on in that gif and it didn’t really fit with the set we were making. The gif we ended up with fit much better and I’m glad she said something. For the last gif, I showed her a few shots and we both agreed on those two (wwx crying, walking backwards on the cliff). I made a couple of gifs that Kareena was nice enough to say were gorgeous, but I thought they sucked. Third one is what we ended up with.

For me, most of the work was in getting the scenes to fit the lyrics and to work with the color scheme that the requester gave us.

We continued to work this way, making ideas and sharing them, tweaking or discarding or remaking as necessary until we were both happy with the gifs. It wasn’t too hard to get them to work as a set, it was mostly about communication and honesty. jackie and i get on well enough to crit each others gifs without worry, so we both liked what was created. We pushed each other, Jackie knows I’m very lazy & she didn’t let me slack. I pushed her in other areas so that we both tried out new skills.

Once the seven gifs were made, it was time for typography! We spent a little time discussing our love of simple fonts, sharing a few examples, before I handed over to jackie as the typography queen.

Now, fonts:

Yup, I like simple fonts and for the typography not to take over the whole set. Luckily, Kareena feels the same way, so early on we decided on two fonts, one of them to highlight a word here or there. I showered her some fonts samples, we agreed on a style, and then I got to work.

The fonts used were:

Ostrich Sans https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/ostrich-sans

Memories https://www.dafont.com/memories-2.font

I kept it simple, just looking where the text would look best. I didn’t know how to wrap text around a shape before, which is what I wanted for gif #3. Turns out it’s very easy and people probably know this already but I’m a ps noob (lie). Still putting this here just in case anyone wants to know.

Using the Ellipse Tool/Custom Shape Tool, I made a circle 2px bigger than the bw gif i wanted to wrap the text around. I didn’t want the shape to be visible, so I chose Path there. (If you choose shape, the actual shape will be visible in whatever color you have chosen)

With the Type Tool, just hover over the line of the shape and a squiggly thing will appear. Click and start typing. I then dragged the text and fit it over the bw gif. I made the shape on the side so I could see it clearly, but you can make it over the actual shape you want the text to wrap around. Listen, this is the best I can describe it ✌

We discussed how to post the set. Since it was a group effort, should one of us post it or should we post it via the net? Since we’ve also got another request lined up to collaborate on, we decided that I would post this set & Jackie would post the next one.

TLDR:

It was fun, it was about communication and compromise. Pushing each other in our weak spots, nitpicking at each gif to make them the best we could, agreeing why one gif might not work in this set. It was about mixing two styles but still creating something we both liked! It was enough fun we have two more collaborations planned, just to keep having fun and to keep learning.

#showyourprocess #collaboration #my stuff #nyx4

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buildarocketboys · 3 years ago

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8 and 12 for the autism asks?

Woops, sorry anon, you gave me the opportunity to infodump about autistic!Nathan and I'm afraid I took it lol

8. If you have any, what are your special interests?

Honestly at the moment it's probably mostly just Heroes (and specifically Nathan and Peter Petrelli lol). Like I usually say cooking/baking but somewhere in the past few months that's kind of faded out a bit and I don't love doing as much as I did, which is a shame. Apart from that I've kind of been having fairly short-lived hyperfixations (I'm currently watching season 4 of Glee after stopping at s3 last year, which was probably the wisest place to end but never mind).

12. Do you headcanon any characters as autistic? If you want, tell us why you headcanon them as autistic.

Aha...see my previous post. But I'm gonna give a rundown on why I headcanon Nathan as autistic, because I think it's a headcanon with a lot of evidence:

- Fake smile/exaggerated facial expressions

- makes weird/awkward comments/jokes (gifset)

- Stims (even though he masks a lot) (gifset)

- Scripting (gifset) - also his career/s as lawyer/politician are ones that involve a lot of talking/interacting with people but a. They're things that you can probably script/practice a lot of, go over every scenario etc and b. Nathan sucks as a politician lol. Like he can deliver a speech OK, but he was gonna lose (and knows he's going to lose) when he's running for Congress which is why Linderman has to kidnap Micah to fix the vote and also he literally only becomes Senator in s3 bc the Governor sees him having a mental breakdown on TV and obviously thinks 'this guy will be so easy to manipulate'

- Echolalia (there are several examples of Nathan repeating back something someone's already said to him, I think my favourite is in the s1 finale when Claire tells him that "the future isn't written in stone" and he repeats that back to her later when he flies in to have his Big Damn Moment

- Tripping over his words/words running into each other (gifset)

- Black and white thinking ie in Haiti when he's like ‘If I don’t save the world I’m basically evil’

- on the other hand, difficulty knowing what the right thing to do is, relying on other people to tell him - His whole ‘what is right/why can’t I tell the difference speech’/asking Peter what he should do

- in .07% - difficulty comprehending/empathising with a large amount of people/finds empathy difficult for people he doesn’t know/care about - I have a fairly developed headcanon that's pretty much canon about Nathan's Big Damn Moment saving Peter/New York really being entirely bc of Peter and his empathy for him (and knowing/being told by Claire how much it'll kill him to be responsible for the deaths of millions of people, since Peter has a hyperempathetic streak bigger than he is) - but yeah, that. (Actually I might make a post about this bc there's a fair amount of detail in it that's basically what I take from what we're actually given in canon and I think it would make a nice piece of meta. I talk about it with Anni all the time.

- despite not exactly being the most honest/moral person, Nathan's also really not that good at lying, especially when he has to do so spontaneously/improvise. Family brunch is probably the best example of this

- the people that Nathan most vibes with (as in, makes a real connection with that isn't shallow and based on him masking and trying so hard to fit in) in the show are characters that are either neurodivergent/mentally ill in canon or who I headcanon as neurodivergent/autistic: Nathan+Hiro (who I also headcanon as autistic), Nathan+Matt [who's canonically dyslexic], Nathan+Niki [DID(/multipersonality disorder lol, which is obviously poorly handled by the show but still, the mentally ill/ND vibes)], Nathan+Peter obvs. Claire's probably the only one who doesn't fit this but a. They don't vibe immediately, Claire takes a while to actually understand him and b. Claire's best friend is Zach and her S4 gf is Gretchen. Both of whom have incredibly autistic vibes. Claire is basically the ND equivalent of a fag hag (in the nicest possible way - I love her)

- kind of a sad/horrible one, but when Arthur says ‘I made you’ to Nathan in s3 it really gives me Lovaas being like with an autistic person you have to build the person from the ground up gross dehumanising vibes. Arthur is the worst lol

- Is actually extremely emotional (and a lot of his actions are extremely emotionally motivated - for better and for worse) e.g. Angela talking about him being ‘overly theatrical wrt Kelly’s death/calling him a sap, and him not even being able to look at the photo Meredith shows him of Claire (that whole scene really shows how hard he tries to mask his emotionality to his own detriment; he can barely look at the photo bc it's so much, and then he doesn't get Meredith to call Claire back - even though he basically came down to Texas to meet her - because he doesn't know how to handle his emotions about finally meeting the daughter he thought was dead without losing it)

- Obsessiveness (the hundreds of photos of Peter thing+him literally calling himself obsessive)

- Mostly blank/unemotional facial expression and relatively monotone voice even when talking about/in extremely emotional situations (e.g. I’m not leaving you Peter). His voice *does* show emotion sometimes but only in really intense situations and even then rarely (I think this is partly masking, partly his natural expression)

- Doesn’t like touch (apart from if it's Peter/someone else he feels safe with) especially when emotional (gifset) also his and Claire's hug in s1 is extremely awkward lol

- Burnout/losing control of his life (s2 and also kind of s3 - Nathan's a mess). Basically all the mentally ill Nathan stuff - side effects of autistic burnout/masking for basically all his life

#anon #asks #autism tag #actuallyautistic #nathan petrelli #actually autistic #ask meme #autism headcanon #autistic headcanon #autistic Nathan petrelli

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crispsevans · 5 years ago

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** Disclaimer ** - I am NOT a professional graphic designer, however I did work with many of them for different occasions and I have been designing my own things for over 10 years now. All the knowledge I have and share with you in this post was gathered by me over the course of 14 years.

I recently started my font series, where I shared my favourite fonts of different typefaces. People have been requesting to post my favourite font pairings and as much as I love to do that (and I also will, just scroll down to the end of the post to see them), I think it’s also important for you to understand, why they work together nicely and what you should look out for, if you plan on pairing typefaces yourself.

Understanding fonts and typefaces

There are so many to choose from nowadays. You have probably scrolled through the JUNGLE of fonts that you can find online nowadays, some are free, some aren’t and they all go by different category names:

Serif - Sans Serif - Script. All of them can also be Display fonts.

What do they mean?

A serif is a small line or a stroke attached to the end of a larger stroke. So all the little strokes that I circled in red. The most common serif font is probably Times New Roman, which I also used in the picture above (hence TNR).

Arial is a sans serif font, and also one of the most common ones. Sans serif is translated from french, sans meaning “without” - so it’s basically a font without the little strokes, much more clean and modern looking.

Now let’s move on to script fonts, which are more commonly known as handwritten or brushed fonts. Bombshell pro is a script font based on the looks of modern hand lettering.

Display fonts can be fonts from all the different typefaces above. They’re usually used in larger sizes for e.g. headlines or logos, instead of bodies of texts, like Times New Roman or Arial are mostly used for. Abril Display (I used it in a bold weight) is a display font, as well as a serif font.

Now that you know the differences between these typefaces, let’s dive into the different font weights.

Many serif, sans-serif and display fonts come in different weights (thin, light, normal/regular, bold, extra bold, black.. you name it). This is important as it plays a fundamental role in pairing fonts together.

Playing with different weights can help you underline the importance of the text you’re writing. I keep bolding phrases and words throughout this post, so you know to keep these in mind PLUS it’s easier to find the part of the post you are interested in. This also works for headlining on your graphics or gifsets!

Pairing different font weights

I will use the simple phrase “I will remember you” throughout the following part of this post.

First you need to figure out what you want to highlight. Do you want to highlight, that you will REMEMBER them? Or do you want to highlight that you specifically remember THEM (in the phrase ‘you)? Lay it all out for yourself, so you know exactly what to do.

The difference with these two examples isn’t too big, as you might have noticed. I used the regular and bold types for these examples. However, fonts like Avenir or Helvetica come with thin or even ultra light versions and you have more to play around with.

Script fonts usually don’t come in different weights, however you can utilise Photoshop to apply its bold addition to the fonts. It usually doesn’t look too nice though, so be warned!

Also, script fonts are harder to pair with one another, because it’s easier to cause an ‘overload’ for our eyes with pairing them depending on their level of ... let’s call it fanciness.

Now, you can pair the different weights together like this, centred.. and boring.. or you can play around with different font sizes, weights, kerning (click here to find out what kerning is) and positions. It’s fun, I promise! Just make sure you don’t forget which word(s) you want to emphasise!

Pairing DIFFERENT FONTS with each other

Now here’s the part people have asked for haha.

The first thing I want you to understand is, that the less is merrier does apply in this case. I personally n e v e r pair more than three fonts together (and I only use three different fonts for an entire corporate design including a website), two usually work the best!

For two different fonts to work nicely together, you (again) have to think about what you want to emphasise and create some kind of hierachy. In order to create an appealing design, you need to catch the viewers attention to the word or phrase you want. Create a focal point, something the eye is immediately drawn to. And then you add to it with simplicity. You really have to think about what you want to be seen first and what you want to be seen second (on the base of using two different fonts).

Take a look at the fonts you have chosen. Display and script fonts usually need to be a larger size to be readable or to make them look good, so you probably want to use that one as the top of your hierachy. Also fonts with a heavier font weight tend to work better as the leading font. To accompany your leading font, choose a thinner, more simplistic companion. Why? Because if you use two heavy fonts or two fancy fonts (script, black, brushed etc.), your eyes will have a hard time concentrating on who is more important.

I hope this example helps you to understand what I mean. In the first picture you see the whole thing as ONE block, because your eyes don’t know where the exact focal point lies. They don’t know which word they should concentrate on. The second one, however, gives your eyes clear instructions on where the importance of the quote/phrase lies.

Now how do you find out, if two fonts actually go together? Sometimes it’s also about the look of the whole design in general, if two fonts go well together or not. However, there are some things you can look for before you pair fonts:

Have a look at the weight, spacing/kerning, strokes in general and their width to figure out, if the two fonts you have chosen are different enough from each other, to actually pair well. Fonts that are too similar to each other have the same effect as shown above. At the same time please also keep in mind, that they have to have some similarities, such as their general proportions and heights. If these parameters are too different, it might doesn’t look as good (there are some cases where you can make it work though, but you need to play around a little here).

If you made it this far, congratulations :D

This is not the ultimate guide to how you will always pick the right pairing of fonts, but it’s a start and something you can work on and evolve from! I hope it helped you. Feel free to message me, if you have any questions left. And now to what has been requested in the first place.

Here are some of my favourite font pairings:

(Avenir Next at kerning 200 + Abril Fatface)

(Avenir Next at kerning 200 + Sunbreath)

(Bodoni FLF at kerning 300 + Alberobello Script)

(Almondia at kerning 60 + Billy Ohio)

(Boysen at kerning 75 + Saturday Rock)

I hope you found this useful! :) Feel free to share!

#typography #typography tutorial #pairing fonts #font pairings #resources #userlexi #uservaleria #usersophy #annasuser #tuseralex #usernums #userauden #font series #tutorials #mine

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sirianhewigxiii · 3 years ago

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what inspired you to make all these rwby gifs? they're really good, it's always nice to see them while browsing the tag ✨

Thank youuu, dear Anon, it always makes me happy to hear that people enjoy my gifs (*^_^*)

I apologize in advance for this maybe being a bit too deep/long and me rambling but here we go (^_^”)

Honestly what started it all was that one moment between Weiss and Willow in V7 when Willow takes the booze and drinks it straight out of the bottle.

Or rather it always bothered me a little how people misinterpreted Weiss’ behavior when she threw and burned those bottles (in V6) – to me it was clearly because she was triggered by Qrow’s alcoholism and how he wasn’t doing shit to help (he was even actively being a fucking nuisance in the middle of all of that danger).

Still people always made it about Weiss just having gotten emotional for no actual reasons even though we knew at this point how Willow sank herself into alcohol and resigned. (Weiss’ trauma having been triggered like that especially by the way is one of the reasons you will never see any Winter and Qrow stuff on this blog, but let’s not get into that here...)

Either way I was always a little bit shy/protective about sharing theories and thoughts about things I very much hyperfixate on online or at all really (I also don’t really have a community irl to even share stuff like that with) – I also didn’t honestly even know that people would do theory or analysis posts that much about RWBY (or in general).

All I would ever do on Tumblr was look at the fanart and the Gifs (^_^”) so what I did know was that people would do Gif-sets/parallels.

But when that scene in V7 came up and I didn’t find anybody making a set out of the Weiss’ scene (V6:E6 - Alone in the Woods) and the scene with Willow (V7:E8 - Cordially Invited) and put ‘two and two together’ I just felt a little disappointed (^_^”)

I was like ‘Did people just not notice maybe? These scenes line up so well though…maybe I can do it then…?’ and so I kinda learned how to make basic gifs.

So my very first Gif-set of these two scenes took me forever to make and it’s really really blurry as all of my early Gifs really were since I had no idea what I was doing and what free programs were best and easiest to use xD

I would also use any basic subs that I could just find or get somewhere online, so some of them are really sloppy (^_^”)

These days I actually taught myself how to make my own subtitles so everything looks a lot cleaner - along with the Gifs themselves since I just kept figuring out how to do better I guess? (^_^”)

Either way that first Gifset kinda ‘blew up’ and I though to myself ‘Hey, maybe it’s safe to kinda share all of the details I notice like this. People seem to enjoy it and add to it in the tags, replies, reblogs. Maybe I’ll find all of the peeps who enjoy and love the show the same way as me.’

And so I just kept going to find my community really and just share something that others who are/were like me may get happy about seeing (✩ ์ ᴗ ์✩) (If that makes sense? xD)

And without getting into too much details about my private life I’ll say that RWBY is one of the very very very few things I have in life that just truly give me joy.

I just truly love the show, the story and the characters to the point that with every new Volume I’m just scared to death that something/some plot or character thing might happen that will just break it for me and leave a void – even though there has yet to be an episode to disappoint me.

And just finding all of the details, parallels, even the way scenes are cut and change is something that I simply enjoy a lot and I just always feel like I just want to share and show everybody about just how fantastic the show is ヾ(＠^∇^＠)ノ

And more than anything showing people what I want to point out by doing something as simple as putting scenes together/side by side, these days even putting my thoughts down about a certain scene in words or making fun headcanons and using Gifs to visualize it all has drawn people towards the blog who are also just really fun and cool about the show.

And while there are (quite a few) people who I have without missing a heartbeat simply blocked for several certain reasons, the majority of people here (who check out my blog) are people who actually watch the show, pay attention to the characters, their actual characters and developments, actions and interactions and are willing to look genuinely at things the way they are without being pretentious about it or clearly emotionally just not mature enough to understand what is going on.

Not that I somehow blame those latter type of people for maybe simply not being old or experienced enough to understand certain human behavior or interactions. It is however the entitlement that comes with unwillingness to listen to others who do know what they are talking about that I don’t like and the entitlement to think that certain headcanons that were unfounded from the very beginning are more important and ‘right’ that what actually happens. But that’s a whole other issue in on itself about the FNDM.

That said Gif-ing alone especially these days is also something that simply helps me a lot with anxiety (attacks) and existential fear. It just gives me something to do and to focus on for longer amounts of time that also involves something that I just enjoy and it also, on a more positive note, gives me the opportunity to connect to people, share visuals and ideas with others.

It’s just a very, for the lack of a better word, simple way to connect with people and every like, reply and reblog without or with a comment (regularly or in the tags) just makes me feel happy about one more person enjoying the same thing as I (❁´◡`❁)

And I know there’s also a crap-ton of others out there who make Gifs/Gif-sets and have been longer at and while I usually will reblog a set somebody else has already made I also usually like just cutting thing a bit differently and some people just use filters that I don’t really like (but maybe I’m just ‘showing my age’ here xD).

But I know a lot of people like them, personally however I just think the show’s too gorgeous to slap some filter on it but that’s just really a matter of taste I guess and so I just don’t use them, I also keep my subs simple for that reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That said however I do know that it’s probably a crap-ton of extra work to filter and sometimes watermark things (^_^”)

That was it for my answer I think and hope that wasn’t too boring or disappointing of a read (＾◇＾)ノ

#ask me anything #rwby #rwby gifs

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imaginejamesandsirius · 4 years ago

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Titanic au? I need angst

((A/N: Warning for suicidal ideation in the beginning (in keeping with the movie), and some referenced period-typical homophobia. Also I’ve never seen the movie before so this is based on the synopsis I read and some gifsets. Therefore, scenes are almost certainly out of order. It’s a sort of open ending, so you can imagine it ends like the movie or they both make it out))

Over the course of his admittedly short life, Sirius had come to the conclusion that he was always going to be miserable. His parents didn't like him very much, but that was just the beginning of his issues. Granted, all the other issues stemmed from that, he was sure.

Like this. He was getting on a bloody boat and he hated boats. He didn't even know how to swim-- and sure, no one was going to be getting into this water because it was freezing, but that was beside the point. Or how about the part where he was being forced on this trip to go and meet his fiancé? A fiancé that he'd never met and had zero interest in. Sirius was of the mind that they should've been introduced, at the very least, before getting engaged, but his parents hadn't agreed.

He was on a boat that he didn't want to be on, on his way to an engagement he didn't want to be a part of, and part of a life that he didn't want to live.

They boarded the ship. Time passed. They were having a grand old party. Sirius was standing on the deck in a suit because he was supposed to have attended the party like a good son, but instead of attending, he was looking out on treacherous water. Without really meaning to, he went to the back of the ship and gripped the railing, leaning forward like he was going to pitch over the railing and into the ocean.

If he climbed on the outside of the railing, it would be so easy for him to lose his grip and fall. He'd be lost in the waves and terrified as his will to live suddenly flared, but he didn't know how to swim so it would be a short fight. No one could prove that he'd done it on purpose. He could just... stop existing, here, on this expensive boat where first class tickets had been a small fortune and third class tickets still cost a hefty sum. He'd be able to leave, and no one would be able to stop him. It wasn't like back home, where there would be an investigation and he'd get a big funeral; his body would be as fake in death as he'd been in life. He wouldn't have to marry some random woman that he cared nothing about, and that seemed preferable to him right now.

"Nice view," a deep voice commented.

Sirius jumped in surprise and turned to see who'd snuck up on him. He noticed right away that the man must be on here third class, and he hated himself for it being the first thing he saw.

But it was so obvious.

Not at the party, for one. No suit, for another. His clothes weren't cheap, but they certainly weren't expensive. Economical. Sirius had never owned an economical piece of clothing in his entire life; his parents wouldn't have allowed it.

"Though something tells me that it's not what you were enjoying."

Befuddled, Sirius glanced out at the ocean. "It looks like shite."

The man snorted, then started laughing. "Fair enough. I figured it was a better opening than asking if you were planning to jump, though."

"I wasn't going to jump," Sirius denied automatically.

"Sure you weren't. That's why you chose this part of the ship to stand at, where no one would catch you."

"You caught me,” Sirius couldn’t help but point out. It wasn’t a course of conversation he wanted to follow though, so he said, “Anything else to say now that you've ruined my time alone?"

The man looked at him for a long moment. "Just in case you had been thinking of jumping, I want to tell you that you shouldn't."

"What?"

"If I wake up one day and find out that you've jumped, I'm gonna jump to."

"Are you stupid?" Sirius asked, the words slipping out of his mouth before he could filter them.

"Generally, yes. But people who are suicidal aren't willing to kill other people too, that I've seen. So if you had been thinking about it, I want you to know that it wouldn't be just you that died."

Sirius stared at, dumbfounded. That was... "I wasn't going to jump," he muttered, pushing past him and heading back inside. Joining the party wasn't on the top of the list for things he wanted to do, but it was better than this.

"My name's James," the man called after him, before he got very far.

Sirius paused and turned to look at him.

"This is the part where you tell me your name."

Sirius started walking again. He wasn't going to see this bloke-- James, apparently-- again. Third class was in a completely different section of the ship from first class; he wouldn't have to see him for the rest of the trip.

"What do you do for a living?" Sirius asked.

"I'm an artist," James said, not bothering to ask about the suddenness of the question. It's not like Sirius had built up to it, after all. He had a habit of blurting out whatever he was thinking, no matter how rude it might be-- his parents hated it.

"Like oil paintings?"

James laughed. "That would make me far richer than I am. No, sketches mostly. Watercolours sometimes, but never on a ship," he said with a smirk. "And only a few, at that."

"If that's what you do, how did you afford a ticket?"

"Lottery," James admitted, with no shame. He was so comfortable with himself.

Sirius wondered what it would feel like to be that way. "What do you draw?"

"People. Flowers." James's smile went soft as he looked at Sirius. "Anything I find beautiful," he said, voice low so that no one would overhear.

Sirius's face flamed. No man had ever complimented him before, and he'd certainly never had the courage to do it to them.

"Not clothes though," he added casually, but he still kept his voice quiet. "Never did get the hang of those."

"I'd imagine that makes quite the portfolio," Sirius managed to reply. He cleared his throat. "Did you bring any with you?"

"I did, though I'm not sure how comfortable you would be with some of them."

"Would you describe them as racy?"

"I wouldn't. Some might, by simple virtue of me being a man."

"Despite what you might think of me, I don't think anything you've drawn would scare me away."

"I think a great many things about you, but it's been too short a time to know which ones are accurate."

"Pretty big gamble telling me what you draw, then." Sirius had never told anybody what he liked, after all. Though sometimes, he wondered what it would be like to find someone else like him. What they'd talk about. If they'd kiss, of if they’d just be friends who shared an interest.

"It wasn't a gamble at all," James said.

"You say that rather confidently. Everything's a gamble."

"When you have nothing to lose, I would argue it makes nothing a gamble. Like when I found you on the railing? You remember that?"

"When you said you'd jump if I did?"

James nodded. "It wasn't a gamble. I knew you wouldn't jump."

"Did you?"

"Yes."

Sirius hadn't known that for sure. James's confidence boosted his own, though. Maybe it truly hadn't been a gamble.

James was... alive. It felt stupid to think-- because of course he was alive, they all were, it's the only reason they'd been able to meet-- but he lived and he was happy about it. He took joy in living, and Sirius wasn't used to that. He said so, and James gave him a strange look. "Like... ever? You've never been happy to just exist?"

"I don't know."

"You've at least been happy before, right?"

Of course he had. He just couldn't think of an example.

"When was the last time you enjoyed yourself?" James asked, since it didn't look like any answer was forthcoming for his other question.

"I guess... when Regulus was around."

"Who's Regulus?"

"My brother. He got sick when I was- oh, maybe fourteen? Fifteen? Went in hospital and never came back out. My parents always liked him better," Sirius added without really meaning to. Then his mouth twisted. "I know. Poor little rich boy with his rich boy problems. Other people have it worse."

"I wasn't going to say that. Although it is true that somebody will always have it worse than you. You could be in the middle of getting tortured, and there would still probably be someone who had it worse than you. But that's not the point," James said, shaking himself.

"What's the point?"

"That being rich doesn't make you exempt from having problems. You lost your brother, and it sounds like your parents hate you. All being rich means is that you're not worried about having a place to live or something to eat on top of that. I have that problem sometimes, but you know, I don't even think of it as my big problem. You want to hear my big problem?" James asked with a grin, nudging him.

Sirius chuckled. He never knew how serious James was when he said things like that, but even if it was just a joke, it made him feel better. That was more than anyone else had done for him in a long time. "Sure. What's your big, bad problem?"

"Sometimes, I draw with the wrong pencil."

Sirius stared at him for a moment, but James kept his face straight. Sirius started laughing. "Really? How do you have a wrong pencil? Aren't they all for drawing?"

"Yeah, but there are different types. Some have hard graphite, some have soft."

"And what does that mean for your poor drawings?"

"Well, if I use the wrong pencil, sometimes it'll smear everywhere. Or it can make the subject appear much harsher than they are."

"Truly tragic."

"Isn't it?" James agreed mildly.

"You want to know my big rich people problem?"

"It's not going to be like losing your brother is it?"

"No, this one is definitely ridiculous."

James grinned. "Alright, tell me."

"There's a horribly expensive necklace that I'm supposed to give my fiance when I meet her."

"How horribly expensive?"

"I feel like it's more than the boat cost to make," Sirius said flatly. It might be an exaggeration, but it didn't feel like much of one.

"Sodding hell. That's..."

"Right?"

James nodded numbly.

"What's with all the automobiles?" James asked, looking out at the rows of them.

Sirius snorted, assuming it was a joke. Then he noticed that James looked confused. "Oh, er- they belong to the passengers. That one's ours," he said, pointing at one with gleaming black paint. "Pretty much everyone in first class is bringing their automobile with them." He knew, because it had been part of the ever-so-titillating conversation they'd had at lunch one day. "Some are just here for the ride so they can be sold once we reach land again. I think the crew might be transporting a few for the government."

"Rich people really are living in a different world than me," James said with a chuckle. He grabbed Sirius's hand and they headed down the stairs. As always, James's touch made his heart race. "If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go?"

"My room, since anywhere else would have a high likelihood of housing my parents," Sirius snorted. His parents only went to his room when they were specifically trying to find him.

"No," James said, rolling his eyes. "I meant like, anywhere out in the world."

"We're surrounded by water," he reminded him.

"You're no fun at all. Use your imagination," James said. He let go of Sirius's hand and sat in one of the automobiles at the edge that didn't have doors. He mimed putting a cigar in his mouth and puffed. "Where to, sir?" he asked in a gruff voice meant to imitate a cabbie’s accent.

Sirius laughed and sat in the backseat. He hummed, thinking it over. Imagination... all he'd ever imagined was getting away; he'd never thought about where he would get away to. He leaned forward so his arms were resting on the back bench of the front seats. "To the sky," he said, thinking about the dozens of hours he'd spent looking at clouds and dreaming that he was flying among them, because anything had been better than walking on the dirt.

James glanced at him, grinning. "What's the point when you already have a star?" he asked, dropping the accent.

"Because we'd be there together," Sirius said under his breath.

They were close enough that James heard him. His smile widened tellingly, but he didn't say anything about it.

Sirius's parents were busy and would be for several hours, so Sirius didn't think twice about inviting James to his room so he could finally look at his pictures. Maybe it was silly, but Sirius had spent a lot of time thinking about those drawings and what they would look like. It was pretty much as described: pretty people and pretty things.

The people in his drawings were nude, but it was hardly pornographic. About half of them didn't have a full view of their- ahem, special place because of the way they were posed. Women... and men. There were quite a few of nature and buildings as well, but Sirius couldn't take his eyes off the portraits.

"Who are all of these people?"

"Some were models. Others were just people I met at parties and the like."

"You met people at parties and they volunteered to pose for you?" Sirius asked doubtfully.

"Well," James smirked, "they were French. Very different, that."

"I see," Sirius agreed, also smirking. He flipped through a few more. Was it his imagination, or could he see the love these had been done with? He'd never been a great admirer of art. He'd never understood it; it had never spoken to him. It had all seemed lifeless, but anything James did couldn't be confused as such. A person with that much love and light could never make art that didn't reflect it. Even the buildings he drew were love letters to architecture. "Would you ever draw me?" he asked.

"I don't think it would be the sort of portrait you're wanting."

"What makes you say that?"

"As you can see, and if you recall, I told you that I only do nudes."

"I know."

James looked over at him, hands frozen in place where he'd poised one drawing up to show Sirius.

Sirius met his gaze evenly, even as his cheeks pinked.

James's throat worked. It seemed like he was speechless, and Sirius didn't quite know what to make of that.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," he mumbled after several seconds of silence.

"I didn't say that," James said immediately. "But I don't want you to do something you'd be uncomfortable with."

"Do I look uncomfortable?"

"You might once you're naked." He paused. "Have you ever been naked around someone before?"

"Does the doctor count?"

James raised his eyebrows. "Not even for sex?"

"Saying yes now would be lying on two fronts," Sirius said. To help distract himself from the deepening blush across his cheeks, he reached into his pocket. "This is that necklace I told you about."

James reached out and stabilized the jewel in the center. "It's beautiful."

"I was thinking... maybe I wear this. If you draw me. It'd be nice to think about it as something other than a symbol of the decay of my personal life."

James's eyes flitted away from the necklace and back up to Sirius. "You're serious about this."

He nodded.

"Alright," James said.

"Try not to use the wrong pencil on me. I want to look as pretty as all your French blokes."

"You'd look prettier than them no matter what I did," James said softly. "I'll lock the door, and you can... get comfortable."

"There's a party tonight in third class," James said. "You should come with me."

A party in third class. Sirius didn't even know what that would like, but refusing would make him more like the person his parents wanted him to be and less like he wanted to be. But, "I don't know why you'd want me to come with you." It's not like they'd be able to dance together, and that was the point of a party, wasn't it?

"You invited me for that stuffy dinner in first class. We might as well see how the other half lives, while we're at it."

"You're part of that half," Sirius pointed out. "You already know how they live."

"Then maybe it's something I think you should see. I think you'll have fun there; it's nothing like the dinner in first class was, or how you've described the parties you've been to."

Sirius worried at his lip for a moment. Then, "What should I wear?"

"Dress down a bit. More like me," James said. He got to his feet, putting a hand on Sirius's knee and squeezing as he did. The touch was mostly hidden by him moving, and it was fleeting; it still made Sirius's blood run hot. That was silly, wasn't it? James had seen him naked-- had drawn him naked-- and a touch on the knee was getting his blood pumping? They'd held hands; they'd talked as though they had a future together. Comparatively, a touch on he knee was nothing.

But it wasn’t nothing, and Sirius couldn’t even try to pretend otherwise.

And now they had a date to go to a party together. He didn't even have to worry about impressing him; all James had wanted was for Sirius to be himself. He still worried a bit for how it would go.

He didn't quite know how it had happened. They'd been laughing, and then Sirius had pulled him out of the main room, still laughing. He was pretty sure that he'd meant to ask if that’s what all parties were like for him, but then they'd been sharing the same breath, and there wasn't a damn thing that could've gotten Sirius to step away.

"We should go somewhere we won't get caught," Sirius managed to say when he got enough space from James's mouth-- not an easy feat.

"Your room?"

Sirius grimaced. "My parents have a key." He wasn't sure he had a key, but they definitely did. "They like to make sure I'm not getting up to trouble. Yours?"

"Third class," James reminded him. "It's not just my room; there's loads of other people there."

"Bugger. Wait, I've got it. C'mon," Sirius said, and started pulling him in the right direction. He was sure that it was obvious what they'd been doing, but most of the people in third class were still at the party, no other passenger would be down in this area, and there was nothing here that the crew would need.

"Where are we going?"

Sirius grinned. "The sky."

He loved the way that James's eyes lit with realisation without him having to say another word. James cared as much about him as he did about James, right? This was proof. It wasn't idle flirtation and animal attraction; it was something more than that.

They hurried down to where all the automobiles were, and not a one of them was locked because they were on the water. Sirius picked one that wasn't near the edge, and they tumbled into the backseat.

"I love you," James whispered against his neck, his hands on Sirius's back under his shirt and hot as a brand. Sirius was his, now. "I love you," he said again, when Sirius got a hand around his prick. His tone was worshipful and awed, like he couldn't believe the universe had let them find each other at the exact right moment.

Sirius could hardly believe it either, and he wasn't about to turn it away. "I love you too."

"Sirius, where are you going?" Orion screamed. He latched a hand around his son's upper arm to try and stop him from getting any further away from the lifeboat.

"I'm not leaving him!"

"He's going to die here!" They were yelling because they were angry, but the sound of everyone else panicking and the water and the boats was enough to make them have to speak louder anyways. "If you go after him, you'll die too. Even if you make it out of here alive, you'd be executed wherever you lived!"

"I'd rather die with him than live another second with you!" Sirius screamed, wrenching his arm out of his father's grip and running towards the lower decks where he knew James was. He didn't know how he was going to get him out of the handcuffs or where they'd try to go after he was free, but he couldn't just leave him there.

If you jump, I jump. James had said that it wasn't gamble back then, but this time it was. Sirius still believed it, though. He wasn't leaving this boat without James, and if that meant not leaving it at all, then he'd be okay with that.

#prongsfoot #marauders #james potter #sirius black #fanfic #filled #fusion #getting together #siriuslystarbucks #Anonymous

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clumsyclifford · 4 years ago

Note

hi i have some continued thoughts about the gif set i made earlier but i’m just thinking about like baby boys writing nothing personal and jack just like feeling really down on himself one day bc he doesn’t know what he’s contributing and alex tells him he named this song for him bc he is so important i don’t know there are so many THOUGHTS TO BE HAD why are they like this

hi paige i don’t know if this was supposed to be a prompt but i took it as one because i’m me hope that’s okay <3 (also here is the gifset in question, warning for max damage)

read it here on ao3

“Hey, where’d Jack go?”

Flyzik looks up from his laptop and glances around the control room. “I dunno,” he says. “I thought he was here.”

“I leave for two minutes,” Alex says, sighing exasperatedly. “We need to put a bell on that kid.”

“Believe me, if I could, I would,” says Flyzik, returning to the all-important task of probably talking shit on Twitter or whatever he does when he’s taking up studio space.

Squire, whose playing had been arrested upon Alex’s re-entry, starts the guitar line from the top. The unfinished track fills the small room. Alex considers handcuffing him just so he’ll stop playing that one fucking guitar part.

At this rate, he’ll be sick of the song before it’s even released.

“I’m going to find Jack,” he announces, not that anyone cares. In a halfway attempt at defiance, or being annoying, or whatever, he snatches Flyzik’s coffee mug off the table.

“Hey,” Flyzik says half-heartedly without looking up. “Give that back.”

“You’re fired,” Alex informs him.

“Joke’s on you, I quit this morning,” says Flyzik.

Alex rolls his eyes and leaves the control room.

There’s really only one place Jack is likely to be (okay, two places, but Alex has just come from the bathroom and he’d been the only one in there). Alex heads for the lounge. The TV is on, playing a commercial for mattresses. Occupying the entire length of the couch:

“Jack,” Alex says. “Where’d you go, man, I thought we were working on the song.”

Jack makes no indication that he's heard Alex at all.

“Dude,” Alex says, coming into the room and facing Jack. The way Jack is slumped into the cushions, it looks like he’s been lying here all day, not for two minutes. “Were you just waiting for me to go to the bathroom so you could bail?”

Jack shoots him a glare, but again says nothing. Alex frowns.

“Are you good?” he asks, sinking to the floor with his legs crossed. He sets Flyzik’s coffee on the table at his side. “Is something wrong?”

Jack groans. “Can you leave me alone?”

“Hey,” Alex says, hurt. “What —” He breaks off. Obviously Jack doesn’t want company — or at least not Alex’s company, which stings — and if Alex doesn’t want to be a dick, he should leave.

Except Jack is already kind of being a dick. So.

“Dude,” Alex says again. Jack keeps his eyes on the TV over Alex’s head. “Can you at least look at me?”

“I’m just taking a break, what’s the big deal?” Jack mutters.

“The big deal is you were fine five minutes ago when we were tracking the guitar,” Alex says irritably. “I leave for two seconds and when I come back you’re gone? ‘Taking a break’?”

“Yes, Alex, I came to jerk off in peace,” Jack snaps. “So can you piss off?”

Alex huffs. “Stop being an asshole when I’m just trying to understand what’s wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong, dude!” Jack finally looks at him, though it’s clear he would rather not be. “You don’t need me to finish the song, okay? You have Squire to do the guitar, and if he can’t do it then you will, so I’m just gonna sit this one out, alright?”

Alex stares at him. “The fuck do you mean, we don’t need you to finish the song? You need to learn it. And Squire’s just doing the demo track anyway. Meaning technically he doesn’t need me for it, either.”

“Alex, you wrote the fucking song.” Jack crosses his arms. “It wouldn’t exist without you. Unlike me.”

“You…would exist without me?”

Jack glares at him, again. “No, the song would still exist without me. And it would have a guitar part, without me. I know my role in the band, Alex, I’m not getting any ideas, okay? I’m the one who makes inappropriate jokes on Twitter and collects bras during shows. I don’t contribute in the studio.”

The gears in Alex’s brain grind loudly to a halt. “You don’t — what? What?”

Jack draws his knees up to his chest and looks back up at the TV. “Am I wrong?”

“Uh, yes?!” Alex says emphatically. “Extremely wrong, what the fuck? Since when is this a thing? You really feel this way?”

“Oh my God, it’s not a big deal,” Jack grumbles.

“It’s a big deal to me,” Alex retorts. “You think you don’t contribute when we’re in the studio? You’re, like, the reason most of these songs get made. If you weren’t here we’d still be on our first record.”

“You don’t need to therapy me,” Jack says dully. “I’m fine with it.”

Which is obviously not true. Jack’s shuttered expression and bitchy attitude don’t exactly communicate ‘fine.’

“I’m not trying to ‘therapy’ you,” Alex says, making air quotes. “Whatever the fuck that means. I’m trying to tell you something you should already know.”

Jack sighs wearily. Somehow he seems to sink deeper into the couch, like whatever’s weighing him down is only getting heavier. “Alex, it’s fine.”

“Stop saying it’s fine,” Alex says sharply. “It’s not fine. Did someone say something when I left? Is that why the mood whiplash?” There’s no way. Squire would never, and Flyzik hadn’t even been on the same planet. Not that Flyzik ever would, either, but then again, they make a lot of fucking jokes around here. Sometimes the kind of joke that hits a little too close to home. Call it an occupational hazard of living and working with a bunch of guys in their early twenties; none of them really know when to stop.

It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

Jack’s gaze flits between Alex and the TV, which has really been playing commercials for far too long. He seems to realize he’s not going to escape this conversation, and with an almighty sigh grabs the remote and hits mute.

“No one said anything, okay?” There’s a pause. Alex waits patiently while Jack gathers his thoughts. “It was just that, like, you were there, and we were joking around, and then you left, and like…Squire kept playing the part, Flyzik was still on fucking MySpace or whatever, and, like, I don’t know. It just felt like if I left it wouldn’t matter, so I did.” He barks a humorless laugh. “And I was right. It didn’t matter.”

“It mattered to me,” Alex says. “I came back and you had abandoned me with Squire and Flyzik. You think I want to be stuck with them?”

One corner of Jack’s mouth pulls up, barely, then drops down again. “I’m fine,” he says a third time. “You can go back and finish tracking the lead. Just call me when you need me for something.”

Alex considers this. “You know, I could use a break, while I’m here.” He takes a sip of Flyzik’s coffee, which is absolutely disgusting and also room temperature at this point. Jack frowns at him.

“You’re in the middle of demo-ing a song,” he says flatly. “‘Best Friend Knows,’ right?”

“Well, as you so eloquently pointed out, Squire can track the guitar,” Alex says. “And in fact is tracking the guitar. And has been for half an hour. He doesn’t need me for it, either.”

“But that’s not the fucking same and you know it. You wrote the song.”

“Yeah, so what? It’s not that great of a song. Anyone could have written it. I bet Andrew has fifty better songs in his back pocket.”

“But Andrew isn’t in the band,” Jack says. “The whole point is they’re your lyrics that you write for your band.”

“And you play the guitar,” Alex counters, raising his eyebrows at Jack. “Yeah, there are a billion songwriters and guitarists in the world. Anyone can play guitar, but there’s only one All Time Low guitarist, and it’s you. You’re our guy, Jack. You brought the band together, you keep it together, and you keep us moving forward. So what if you’re not writing lyrics? There’s way more to being in a band than writing the fucking lyrics. I promise you, man, without you we’d still be playing the fucking Dulaney Talent Show. We’d be fucking nowhere. We definitely wouldn’t be in L.A. recording our second full-length studio album.”

Silence falls as Alex’s words hang in the air. They’re both quiet for a moment. The Red Bull fridge buzzes in the background, and even more faintly comes the sound of Squire relentlessly playing the same lead part for what has to be the millionth time.

“If you say so,” Jack finally says, although he doesn’t really seem to believe it.

“I do,” Alex says firmly. Jack is the heart of the band more than anyone else, the beating pulse that keeps them alive no matter what shit gets thrown their way. When they were traveling from venue to venue in a shitty van, Jack was the one who kept spirits high. In their earliest days, Jack had held them together like glue, as if he could tell that something really special would happen as long as he didn’t let them go.

And he’d been right. There’s no All Time Low without Jack. That’s always been obvious to Alex.

“I think it’s an awesome song,” Jack quietly adds, as an afterthought. “No one else could’ve written it, so take that shit back.”

“Mediocre at best,” Alex says. “But there’s still time to make it better.”

“I like it,” Jack insists. “It’s cool. You’re a good songwriter.”

Alex waves a hand. “All the good lines are from Squire.”

“Well, I don’t know any of the words,” Jack says, a hint of his usual dry humor making a comeback. “But I bet that’s not true. All the best lines always come from you.”

“They’re meh. There’s not even a good line for a title. ‘What Your Best Friend Knows’ is just the most repeated line, but like, I don’t know. It’s boring.”

“So just call it something else,” Jack says. “The title doesn’t have to come from the song. You might have heard of a little album called From Under The Cork Tree? It’s by this super underground band, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of them.”

Alex laughs a little. “Yeah, okay. I guess.”

Another pause fills the room. Finally Jack says, “If you want to hang out, you can, but stop trying to therapy me.”

“I’m not trying to therapy you! It’s called being your friend, you dumbass.”

“Well, cut it out,” Jack deadpans. There’s the Jack Alex knows.

Alex smiles at him, even though he knows it makes him look very sincere, more sincere than Jack probably wants from him. “You made your band bed,” he says. “Now you have to lie in it.” He half-stands and clambers onto the couch, and Jack stretches his legs over Alex’s lap. “What are we watching?”

“I don’t know,” Jack says, reaching for the remote. “It’s been commercials since I got here.”

“Jesus Christ, don’t these people have anything better to do than advertise all day every day?” Jack unmutes the TV. An episode of a show neither of them know is playing. Alex rolls his eyes. “Which channel is playing Lost reruns, do you think?”

“Only one way to find out,” Jack says, raising the remote like a wand. “Hope you brought a board ‘cause it’s time for some channel surfing.”

“Oh my God, you’re so lame.”

Jack snickers. “Maybe there’ll be a line you can use for the song title. Like a ‘Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner’-type thing.”

“In Lost?” Alex says skeptically.

“Maybe, you don’t know.”

Alex highly doubts Lost will have any cool one-liners that could double as song titles, but it’s not a bad idea, pulling an iconic movie quote the way Fall Out Boy did on Cork Tree. The gimmick isn’t really the All Time Low style, but there’s a first time for everything.

Besides, Alex thinks, glancing over at Jack, whose attention is trained on the TV, I think I know the perfect movie.

—

“What?”

They’re back in the studio the following day. After yesterday’s minor emotional hurdle, Jack seems to be doing much better. Right now his eyes are wide in surprise as he stares at Alex.

“‘Keep The Change’ —”

“I know the quote,” Jack interrupts, a smile stretching over his face. “That’s the name? Of the song?”

Alex grins. “Has a cool ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Are you fucking kidding me? This is the best day of my life,” Jack enthuses, beaming.

Alex shrugs. “Well, someone gave me the great idea to use a movie quote for a title. This felt fair.”

“Alex, I literally love you so much, you don’t even know,” Jack says. “Just for this, I’m giving you my firstborn.”

“If you ever have children, God save us all,” Flyzik says dryly from the far side of the room. He’s not wrong, but Jack doesn’t even act offended, still caught up in the excitement of the song title.

“Hey,” Alex says in a low voice, kicking lightly at Jack’s leg. “For the record, I’d never in a million years have thought to use a movie quote title.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Jack says.

Alex gives him a meaningful look. “That’s my point, man. Next time you think you’re not contributing, just remember this, alright?”

The shadow of realization passes over Jack’s face, and he shakes his head incredulously. “You are such a piece of shit,” he says, although he doesn’t seem upset. “This was just to make a point?”

“I didn’t do it to make a point,” Alex says. “I did it because it was a good idea. But it does make a point, because you thought you weren’t contributing in the studio, and this is proof that you are.”

Jack sighs. “Point taken.” A little bit of humility colors his expression. “Thanks.”

Alex gives him a cheeky smile. “You are welcome,�� he says airily, and throws an arm over Jack’s shoulders. “And now I think we both have some guitar parts to learn, am I right?”

“Yup,” says Squire, as if he’d just been waiting for his cue. “Jack, you wanna track this?”

Jack glances over at Alex, who grins. “Yeah,” he says, stepping forward and taking the guitar out of Squire’s hands. “I’d love to.”

#jack barakat #alex gaskarth #jalex #jalex fic #all time low #atl fic #fic #my fic #yeah this is a little emo and? what about it?#i feel like this is pretty conceptually emo there wasn't much i could do #mukeaf #ask #answered #sam said post this one so i'm posting this one

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yumatual · 4 years ago

Text

bye bye 2020, hello 2021 !!

happy new year everyone!! there’s a lot of people i want to thank for making last year so much more bearable so i tried writing some messages for some of my dearest mutuals this year as well!! (keyword tried because i absolutely cannot put my feelings and thoughts into words. i love you all though and thank you so so so much!!!)

@angelhyunjin : angi!! i know you’re not on here anymore (actually i just found out . i ran to twt to find u as quick as i could!!) but it felt weird not?? putting you on here because you WERE a big part of my year!! i was always excited to chat with you and i rlly rlly loved (still do) seeing your art and your dance covers i can’t believe how talented at both you are!! you are really really lovely and even if it’s been a while i hope you know i still think of you and hope you’re doing well!! this year might have been hard but i hope 2021 will be much nicer to you because you definitely deserve it!! i love you!!

@cinanamon : stephie!! i think we haven’t talked in a while until we started suddenly bonding over minho but all is well that ends well because now we are the founders of a minho cult and that’s all i could hope for in life i think! we don’t talk that much but seeing your tags in all the minho posts is always a TIME i absolutely love reading them! thank you for being there to lose it over minho, always, but also for being there in general! you are really sweet and i do love to talk to u!! i also know you are a really good writer so i hope 2021 brings you lots of inspiration to write more!! (and i’ll finally catch up on your fics too! hehe) happy new year!!

@cocogoat : puppy !! i think we haven’t been friends for long actually and that sounds fake because that would mean there was a time i didn’t instinctively check your blog when i woke up in the morning (or the evening let’s be real)?? you are so! adorable and for what!!!!!! i really do love seeing you pop up in my phone notifs and reading your posts even if i dont have any idea what they’re saying half of the time unless it’s dgrp (i cannot believe i have a dgrp friend now. amazing i think i won) u are so funny and so cute and i’m really glad i got to know you because!! you’re such a nice friend that i! love! times can be hard but i hope 2021 is gentle with you because that is! what! you deserve! gentle pats and tight hugs! (maybe that’s why i associate ab6ix’s heaven with you it’s the gentle vibes) <3

@glossiers : miss bri i am in love w u that’s it. no i’m kidding that’s not it i have much more to say . i am in lov w u though #brillie2k21 i think. i think it’s been a surprisingly short time since we’ve actually started talking?? which is kinda crazy if u ask me because?? how the hell did i live my life without screaming BRIIIII whenever i see u on the dash like for real how . that sounds like a life so empty like. that would rlly be missing . something?? anyways u are a dear dear friend that i really really love and i’m sure you know that but i will keep saying it anyway! i’m sure i’m pretty annoying so thanks for putting up with me! and for talking to me! i feel like i’ve said it before but! you are a delight to see on the dash and i lovlovlov talking to u (and sending u pics of my cats, thank u for appreciating them). i still cannot believe u managed to convince yourself i was a hyeongjun stan though. hope i can be convincing enough to clear that up and leave no doubts in your brain this year. anyways i love you and i hope we can continue to be friends and talk even MORE this year!!!!!! happy new year ilu <3

@hwacinth : miss dia my sweet sweet floral nymph real life shirayuki and queen of urls! i am? so so so so so glad that we are friends you literally have my heart it is YOURS i can’t even try to claim it back!! you literally are shirayuki i don’t even know how to elaborate i think it’s just self-explanatory but you are just. such a sweet little sunshine!! it’s like you bring spring everywhere you go!! we could be in a middle of a metaphorical storm but when you appear the skies clear up and flowers bloom wherever you step and i cannot help but smile when i see you online!! thank you so so much for being my little ray of sunshine in these tough times! i hope to see even more of your posts this year!! don’t hesitate to live blog anything you watch in my dms if you feel like you’re posting too much (but i hope you never feel that way because you’re not . love seeing u live post it is absolutely amazing i won’t ever get tired of it)!! happy new year and i love you!! ps only 1 more hour until your birthday HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIA ILUUU <3 I HOPE YOU CAN HAVE A WONDERFUL ONE!! IM SENDING YOU CAKE TELEPATHICALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@hwisgf : sorinaaaa! happy new year!! we don’t talk that much but it is always nice seeing you around! you are vv sweet and i really appreciate that, thank you for taking the time to talk to me sometimes!! you are also probably my only fantasy mutual?? which is terrible on one side because i think everyone should stan sf9 but that’s besides the point . i really do love the fact that i at least have u to talk to abt sf9 if need and i LOVE seeing u in love with hwi it is absolutely amazing. i am forever grateful for all the free hwi pics days too!! <3 i hope 2021 can be a year full of happiness for you!! (also that is also besides the point but @ fnc i want an sf9 cb announcement) ILY!! (and so does hwi)

@inkigayeo : miss vivi galaxy brain happy new year!! we only started talking recently but u do have my heart already!! i hope this year treats you well and that we can get to know each other more and be friends hehe!!!! <3 (my other wish is for u to stop breaking my heart with those fake titles. please . why should san NOT come back explain yourself .)

@jeongcheols : mimi . mimi mimi mimi im literally typing this as u are listening to that ten n dj stage ok now it’s kai ok anyways . ANYWAYS i am loving your sm concert live commentary . criminal is sounding amazing taemin is insane indeed (yes i took a break before coming back to writing this) i truly don’t know what to say?? n i have to keep watching the time so that i can scream HAPPY NEW YEAR into the mic in 14 minutes. but like?? i love you?? like. like for real i don’t know what i would’ve done without you?? also it’s weird writing this for tumblr instead of just in your messages (also i can’t focus with idea playing. idea soty). and i mean. you technically know all of this but like?? i can’t believe we’ve known each other for so long but also such a short time at the same time like. what. thank you for being my bestestest friend and my soulmat i don’t think i would’ve been able to remain sane this year (and last year too honestly) if it wasn’t for you?? thank you for always listening to my incoherent rants and i’m always so sorry for spamming you while you’re asleep i know you must wake up to like 150+ messages with absolutely no connection between them and they’re all just so random i truly don’t know how you manage to not get annoyed and to just stay with me all this time i’m- getting emotional. you had a terrible year, i know it! i really do!! and while it might not be looking too bright right now, i hope the universe hears me and treats you much better in 2021 because!! you deserve so much more!! you deserve the world, really!!! i love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i would write more really but like what is there to say literally i’m just (your emoji)) i love you for real;;

@nakyngs : ele <3 happy new year!!!!!! we haven’t talked much this year but i do think of u a lot daily i hope you know that!! and i love u a lot! even if i still need to catch up on all your aus </3 i hope 2021 can be a fun and stress-free year for you!! and we should catch up sometime too!! ps i hope your fish are ok

@ncityzen : dear spring fairy!! i already sent you a new year’s message earlier today like what. 6 hours ago but! once again!! i really do hope you can leave the hard times behind in 2020 and only get the best things possible this new year!! i’m always very happy to see you appear on my dash and curious to see your life updates and your random literature-related mini-rants in the tags they are always very interesting to see!! so! hoping to see even more of that this year <3 i hope you know that i love you and i really care about you!!

@woojjongs : MISS IRI! i am screaming this very loud so hopefully u can hear me all the way in canada! okay i had to leave this one for last because i?? don’t really know how to start i’m just a pink glittery puddle with lil hearts flowing in it that is how i feel towards u right now . how does one think and how does one write down their thoughts coherently give me a second. this is going to be a mess maybe u shouldn’t read it (‘accidentally’ forgets to tag u). just know that i decided to play txt’s wishlist to write this and u might be confused by that but all u need to know is that it means i love you very much. OKAY so miss iri you are . such a wonderful pal i truly don’t know what i would’ve done without you like . it would feel so weird not seeing you around tumblr would be so so so so empty i don’t even think you can begin to imagine how empty i’d feel without you around here ksdjbskbds i absolutely adore you but we already knew that. i’m always super excited to see your gifsets and your nonsense!! be it your love for woojong or u missing lim jimin (play m.. 🔪) or your snoo brainrot or hating literally anyone on smtm or whatever else it might be i love it all!! you are so cute and adorable and talented and sweet and funny i cannot believe you also happen to be the prettiest person on earth too. how does that feel! anyways i love you so so so so so much? i keep telling you to hold back from committing crimes but i absolutely WOULD commit a crime for u i really do adore you!! i mean . how many groups did u make me stan . (ok actually i don’t think there’s that many. but STILL) i know i can be super annoying but thank u for taking the time to chat with me nonetheless!! i’m all over the place but . there’s times i come online literally just to check your blog nothing else! i hope we can continue to be friends this year too n perhaps talk more (or the same amount idk please tell me off when i’m too annoying)!! happy new year, i hope it holds wonderful things in store for u!!!!!! and we really are starting off great since victon comeback is approaching <3 (this got way too long i’m so sorry i’ll cut it off now before i write 10 pages)

@xiaocity : miss siya hello hello hello first of all i’m just so very glad that you’re back i l o v e you!!! i love seeing you around be it your gifs or your text posts which yes. i cannot properly understand half of the time but google is my best friend after all! you’re such a wonderful person and i’m just?? really glad to have you around like?? you feel kind of like a cousin i don’t always get to see but am always excited to talk to when i can? this might not make sense but. you are vvv cool and talented and funny and feel very like. reliable? i feel like i am not making any sense so like ignore me. what i’m saying is i really really like you a whole lot and i really hope we can talk even more in 2021!! happy new year, i hope it’s a wonderful one for you!!

@yunwoo : miss anna we haven’t been moots for that long and we haven’t talked much but u are vvv cute and i hope we can become (better) pals this year!! i’m looking forward to seeing u on the dash more often, hopefully!! happy new year <3

#happy new year everyone i love you all;;;; thank you again!! hope 2021 treats you all nicely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#there's like a few mutuals i rlly do appreciate but didn't really have much to say to/abt because we haven't really . talked #i really do love all of you though!!!!!!!!!!;;;;;

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softjeon · 5 years ago

Text

In love with your dark side | Pt.2

• Pairing: Beauty!Taehyung x Beast!Yoongi • Genre: Fluff, bit of Angst | Rating: Teen and Up | Beautyandthebeast!AU / Fairytale!AU • Words: 5k | AO3 | Gifset Trailer • Disclaimer: anxiety, mentioning of a curse

written with @cassiavioletblue

↳ Yoongi had tried not to think about what would happen if someone saw him but his mind had wandered through all of their possible reactions anyway: screaming, laughing, shock… he’s had so many horrible encounters in his mind and yet the boy in front of him didn’t react like in any of his thoughts.

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“One black coffee, please.” Taehyung said as he searched through his wallet if he had enough money with him, ignoring the baristas weird look as he was already carrying a cupboard try with two cups from a different brand in them. He paid, thanking her sweetly and just as he slipped out of the coffee shop, the young barista closed the doors behind him, locking it firmly.

It was late already, when Taehyung had closed up his own shop and had rushed to the upper side back again to still get one of the pricier coffees. With a bright smile and a naïve mind, Taehyung greeted the night shift receptionist with a smile, before pushing the elevator button with his elbow. Only when he stood in front of Yoongi’s office again, did Taehyung hesitate for a second, taking a deep breath, before he knocked.

Yoongi froze.

Had he misheard or had someone actually knocked at his door? Before last night he would have simply ignored it but with Taehyung in the picture he was too curious to see who it was. Taehyung had no reason to come back, did he? And yet he hoped that the other still came back. Maybe he was the clumsy type and yet accidentally taken a letter from him again. Carefully he pushed the curtain a little aside, just enough for him to take a sneak peek without being too obvious about it. His heart jumped in his throat as he recognized the boy’s face. Outside of his door stood Taehyung - with a tray of coffee in his hands. Yoongi wondered briefly how exactly he had managed to knock without putting the coffee aside but then he hurried to unlock the door.

“Come in. No letter this time?” He greeted the other courtly - but with a small smile on his lips.

Taehyung’s heart did a jump when the door got unlocked and he carefully pushed it open. “No letter,” He smiled back at his boss, “But coffee. Two coffees actually.” Walking over to Mr. Min’s desk, he placed the tray down taking the two cups and placing it in front of his boss. “I wanted to say thank you for not firing me and if you work this late you might are in need of coffee.” A big smile appeared on his lips and he motioned to the two cups, “Though I wasn’t sure which kind of coffee you like...so, I bought two. One from my favorite place and one from the shop downstairs, the overpriced one.” Taehyung took the third cup from the tray and stepped away, “Oh and this is mine.” He never liked the bitter taste of caffeine and a hot chocolate was actually what he needed after a long day of work. “I wanted to apologize again for bursting in last night, so please...take this as an apology and a little thank you.”

He actually broke into laughter at that, a real if awkward laugh that made his gums show. Shocked he covered his mouth with his hand. He waited tensely for a reaction, but Taehyung did yet again surprise him as he didn’t take notice of his awkwardness at all. He just couldn’t figure him out! But coming over with coffee in the middle of the night to say ‘thank you for not firing me’ when it was Taehyung who had control over his life as well had taken him by surprise. However, it was quite a nice one. He reached for the coffee, looking at the logos that were plastered all over the paper cups. He didn’t knew any of them.

“So, what you’re saying is you brought two coffees for me and none for yourself?” He smirked as he went to the corner of the room, opening a shelf to reveal a compartment with a coffee machine inside, neatly stored away. “You can have a coffee in return if you want.”

Taehyung’s eyes widened, cheeks blushing in embarrassment. Of course, he could have thought about how his boss probably had his own coffee machine right in his office but he had been so happy to have something to bring him as a small ‘thank you’. He would have found it awkward to come back with nothing.

“Oh,…” Taehyung bit his lip, “I…I am sorry I didn’t know. You probably like your own better, right? I can take these back or…give them to Jaesung downstairs.” When Yoongi looked at him in confusion, he added quickly, “Your night shift receptionist? Jaesung?” Taehyung chuckled, “It’s okay, you have like a million customers. Though I can tell you each name and where they sit.” He smiled teasingly, “Do you remember mine?”

“Of course, I do remember your name, Kim Taehyung.” He could have added his age, his love for photography and everything else that he had found while searching the web for him. It had actually impressed him to see how present the other was and not in the usual silly social media stuff you found when researching someone in their twenties. His blog was artsy, intelligent and had piqued Yoongi’s interest right away. So, he was all the more curious about his young employee who seemed so fearless while ignoring the norm. “Don’t you dare gift my coffee away! Don’t you have manners? Gifting someone something means they get to keep it; you can’t just change your mind about that!” He snatched the coffees away so quickly that it was a good thing they had a lid on top or else the black fluid would have spilled over on the table.

Taehyung couldn’t help but laugh, when Yoongi talked about manners while grabbing the coffees so quickly from him. “I’m glad you accept my gift then, Mr. Min.” He smiled at his boss and for the first time tonight, really looked at him. The long shirt he wore was nothing of what he usually would expect of someone being the CEO of a company, but then again: Yoongi didn’t expect anyone that late at night and he wasn’t even sure if his boss was still doing meetings. All he knew was the rumors people gushed about in the office and what Yoongi had told him himself, that his health mustn’t been great. The long sleeves reached over his hands, giving his boss sweaterpaws and Taehyung had to keep himself from cooing over the cuteness that the imagery had.

He noticed how Taehyung’s eyes lingered on his hands and he quickly withdrew them, trying his best to not follow the urge to hide them behind his back or stuff them in his pocket. He had learned that showing weakness was the worst you could do because it was like serving your weak spots to others on a silver plate and they wouldn’t hesitate to use this to their advantage. So instead he turned around and stood before the coffee machine, his back to Taehyung. “So how do you like your coffee then? I don’t have fancy vegan milk, but I’m stocked up on the classics.” He liked to drink his coffee black, sometimes with sugar but he had still some coffee creamer left from when he had actually used his office properly.

“Oh, no, please. I don’t want to bother you and I have some of my hot chocolate left.” He pointed at the third smaller cup (he hadn’t enough money to get himself a bigger anymore). “Thank you though,” His cheeks dusted in a rose color at the thought of Yoongi wanting to do something for him in return, “You probably have to get work done. And there’s someone waiting for you to get home soon. I don’t want to bother.”

Yoongi cocked his head. “Hot chocolate, I see. No coffee could compare to that.” The amusement made his eyes shimmer, but it was gone as quickly as it came. The thought of being left alone with his work made him feel all cold and the idea of his empty home - where definitely no one was waiting for him - left a bitter taste. “If that’s a polite way to tell me that you have other plans for the night then I got the hint. If not you are welcome to stay and help me, make some copies for example. It would be paid work, of course.” He quickly fabricated.

He didn’t need copies. But he needed company.

Taehyung’s smile reached his ears when he shook his head. He had no plans at all and staying sounded more fun. He took the coffee cup and walked over to Yoongi and leaned down just enough to look him into his eyes, noticing the habit of the other looking everywhere but him. “Drink this one. It’s not the expensive coffee but it tastes better, believe me.” He smiled, when Yoongi reached for it carefully and this time he kept his eyes on him. Tae had noticed how quickly he had retreated his hand before and did not want to bother him. “And please there’s no need to pay me. I’ll help you anytime.”

Yoongi shook his head. “I wonder how you made it through life so far with your honestly catastrophic sense for opportunities. I insist on paying you. I’m no charity and I don’t want to be treated as such in return. Besides, photography equipment is expensive, and you could use some extra lenses for that macro photography of yours. Money makes all the difference there, believe me, you won’t get satisfying results with cheap equipment.” He didn’t like feeling vulnerable and Taehyung helping him would have definitely made him insecure. He didn’t like owing people, be it money or time or attention. Like this is was a clean, clear business deal. Work for money, just like the hundreds of other employees that worked for him right now.

“My…my photography?” Taehyung stuttered as he was confused on how Mr. Min knew about his art. His heart was beating fast and he gulped against the lump in his throat. “How do you know about my photography,” His confusion was written all over his face. Taehyung couldn’t think of one reason why Mr. Min could know this about him. They hadn’t cared to know about what he did as his main job when he applied for the mail position, so there couldn’t be any papers. “Money doesn’t make all the difference, Mr. Min. You can have the most expensive equipment and still be a crappy artist.”

“I’d like to be informed about my employees,” was his curt answer - which was a blatant lie. He didn’t know anything about most of the people working for him and the things he did know he had acquired by accident or because they had messed something up and therefore stayed in his memory. He had never googled one before Taehyung, but he definitely wouldn’t tell that to his face. “While that might be true it’s also difficult to be a splendid artist with ‘crappy’ equipment. Ideally you have both, talent and the financial resources to fund your dreams. So, stop complaining about payment please I won’t let you work without it.”

“My dreams,” Taehyung chuckled low and for a moment, he let Yoongi see through the façade of his happy smile, where there were too many broken dreams. He replaced it quickly with a grin again and nodded. “Okay, if you insist but I want to ask for something in return.” His heart jumped, when he suddenly felt nervous, but the thought had hit him the moment he had laid his eyes on Yoongi. He didn’t know how Yoongi would react, but he had learned to be trusting of his own instincts and if he saw something beautiful, the urge to take pictures of it was too big to deny. “Will you let me take a picture of your hands then?”

Yoongi’s face fell the moment Taehyung's question left his lip, flinching back as if he had been slapped.

“My …my hands? So, you do want proof for some shady expose! Of course, you do, no one is ever that selfless. Get out. Now!” It hurt. It actually hurt even though he barely knew the other and had only seen him twice but after so long of being lonely and all by himself in the dark he had latched onto the first person who pretended to still see him as human. He had fallen for it so easily. How pathetic he was. He should have known better. No one liked the ugly, everyone strived for beauty. He was an idiot for forgetting.

Taehyung startled effectively when Yoongi shouted at him, hunching up his shoulders in a reflex before he reacted. “No, no, Mr. Min you don’t understand.” He turned around to grab his bag and reached for his phone inside to open a folder filled with pictures and showing it to Yoongi, who was still furiously shouting at him. “It’s part of my new series, look! I just thought…” Taehyung took a deep breath, before he spilled the truth, “They are the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, very delicate and…perfect. And I’ve noticed the habit of little marks on your fingers from the pens you use. Right there on your hand.” Tae would have loved to reach out and show Yoongi, but instead he showed it on his own where Yoongi has smudged some kind of ink all over his palm.

“You... you are crazy!” Yoongi had shrunk back when Tae had pushed the phone forward for him to look at it. He hadn’t lied, there were hands all over, delicate ones and ones with chubby fingers, some colored with something like turmeric and beetroot, others covered in scribbles all over. But they all had something in common: they were healthy, normal hands, not like his: spoilt and rotten and tainted with the darkness inside of him. “Please get out.” He didn’t shout any longer, but his voice trembled from too many suppressed emotions. He couldn’t handle this; he couldn’t deal to be confronted with his ugliness right now.

Taehyung’s eyes widened when he realized that he had cornered his boss with his simple request, completely disregarding how he could feel about it. He was his boss after all. He was in no place to ask such stupid questions. “I am sorry,” He pushed the phone deep in his pocket, “Again.”

Taehyung felt guilty and horrible for being so dumb to see that the other might not want to do this for him. “I should have asked more respectfully but I got excited and I have this stupid habit of talking too much when I shouldn’t.” He bit his tongue and cursed himself in his mind. “You’re way kinder than the people say, and I thought since you talked about my photography that you liked it maybe.” He bowed his head, cheeks red in shame. “I won’t ask again, I promise. But I won’t take it back about what I said about your hands.”

Yoongi stayed silent. He was too scared to talk; afraid he might actually start to cry if he did. The self-hatred tasted bitter on his tongue as it burned through his veins like acid. He was pathetic, weak... he didn’t deserve to be head of a company being like this. He couldn’t be moved by a simple request like that, he should have been impressive enough for Taehyung to not even dare to ask such a question and pull his ugliness out in the open like that. He should start to wear gloves again. Or be above his cursed condition or… or…

He just wanted to be alone right now to figure it out so he pushed a random pile of files in Taehyung's hands and asked him as calmly as he could to make some copies.

Taehyung stood a little awkwardly as he watched his boss disappearing up the stairs. He sighed and then looked down to see what kind of files he was holding, but he figured he had no clue about economics anyways. So, he walked up to the copy machine and started making copies of the files, sorting it perfectly, thinking that Yoongi just needed a little bit of time to see that he hadn’t tried to be mean or get too close. He hadn’t kicked him out in the end after all.

After a while Taehyung couldn’t help himself but yawn with every copy he made. He finished the last file, just like Yoongi had asked him to and put it onto the stack of papers, when a faint melody coming from the room above caught his attention, making him halt in his movements.

Without the noise of the copy machine, he could hear it a lot clearer now and it sounded like something familiar. A piano maybe, something classical. Taehyung bit his finger in nervousness as he tried to figure out what the right thing to do was. He had to tell Mr. Min that he was done with everything anyways and he wouldn’t hear him if he was listening to music. With a rapid heartbeat, Taehyung looked up at the closed door at the end of the staircase and took the first step.

…

With Taehyung busy and his emotions still in uproar Yoongi did what he always did when his heart didn’t seem to calm: He went up to play the piano. He was sure that copying all those files would keep Taehyung occupied for a while, long enough that he could play one or two pieces and then come down as if nothing has happened. He didn’t want him to know that he lived up there even though he had a suspicion that sooner or later Taehyung’s curiosity would make him figure it out. The other was kind of crazy apparently - but he was just as much considering he was risking everything he had just to talk to someone. He pressed the key under his index finger down harder but instead of a sound there was nothing. His stomach cramped in apprehension of what was about to come and with horror he pressed the key again. Nothing. There was nothing even though he had played it like five minutes ago. Yoongi howled in desperation as he balled his hands into fists and slammed them onto the keys. “Can’t I have one fucking day without this stupid curse ruining everything?” His voice was a hateful hiss as he closed the lid violently, trying not to think about how many keys the curse had already taken from him and how little there were left.

Taehyung stood in awe, leaning against the doorframe as he listened. He had closed his eyes, letting the music embrace him and take him away, because Yoongi played with so much passion that it made it seem like he was telling him a story. It broke off so suddenly and it pulled Taehyung back into reality when the song abruptly stopped and instead Yoongi drew the most horrible sound from the piano as he slammed onto the keys. He didn’t really get what Yoongi was hissing to himself, so he just broke through his self-hatred (because he figured that much) with a sweet tone, “I think it sounded absolutely lovely, why did you stop?”

Yoongi flinched so hard he almost fell backwards over the piano stool. “What the hell? You don’t know the meaning of private, do you? First my office, now this.” It was biting and cold and only after he said it did he feel a little pinch of guilt. But he was angry and so he kept going. “Don’t hold it against me when I can’t take much from your compliment. You don’t play, do you? How much concerts have you been too? Classical ones, those with standards I mean.“ When Tae didn’t answer fast enough he groaned, wiping over his face, “This is a fucking waste of my time!” He could feel the tears way too close under the surface, just waiting for an opportunity to spill over and break his last resolve. He was nothing. All that he had built had started to fade the moment he had been cursed and now the curse slowly took his music from him. He couldn’t bear the thought of the day when nothing would be left, and he would be all alone in the darkness - forever.

Taehyung could feel the anger and frustration coming off from Yoongi in waves, the hatred that filling him up. And yet, it hurt when he talked about him so bluntly, judging him from what he thought he looked like: someone without any class.

“You really like to judge people, huh?” Taehyung spat back at him, “Why do you think I’ve never been to a classical concert before? Because I can’t afford it? Because I look poor?” He shook his head with a sigh, before an idea came into his mind as he stared at Yoongi’s back, who had turned away from him on the stool. If this were Jimin or someone else, he might have hugged the person, but from what he could tell Mr. Min wasn’t the kind of person for skin ship and yet, he needed comfort. And Taehyung was great at that.

Slowly, Taehyung came closer and sat down at the other side, pushing his back against Yoongi’s, facing the opposite direction. “My dad used to play the piano actually. I think that’s when my love for art came from. Do you know those finger paints that you can color windows with? I imagined I could paint a wonderful imagery, maybe a flower field or something and run into it.” He chuckled softly at the memory. “When did you start playing?”

The answer Yoongi wanted to spit back at the other (because he was the only outlet for his anger right now) stayed stuck in his throat when Taehyung leaned against him as if they were old friends. His pride told him to lean away immediately and yell at Tae how he dared to cross such boundaries. But the warmth that seeped through his back made him tear up and his throat feel tighter. When was the last time that someone had touched him? It must be almost a year and oh, how he missed it!

It wasn’t like he’s had any long term relationship in the last few years but he had always craved contact as much as he feared it and so he had indulged himself in regular hook ups, never with the same person twice. His voices sounded small and choked when he finally answered, far from the cold reply he had initially prepared. “When I was in high school. We had a piano that was very expensive, so I was never allowed to touch it. And I pretended to obey but whenever my parents were out I snuck in and taught myself how to play. When one of the maids told on me I could play enough to impress my mum, so she got me a teacher. I was punished for breaking their rules of course but it was worth it.”

“That’s very sneaky of you, Mr. Min.” Taehyung laughed, leaning his head back in the process, “That doesn’t sound like the well-mannered CEO I know now.” He let his mind wander, thinking about how a young Mr. Min had been like, if he had dreams, if he still had the same one’s now or if they had changed. “It was truly worth it. I really liked the way you play; it was almost like…you were telling a story.” Taehyung closed his eyes and hummed the melody he remembered, fingertips playing in the air. He could feel Yoongi straightening his back a little, hearing his soft laugh against his back and Taehyung took it as an invitation to just keep on talking and rambling until Yoongi’s voice didn’t sound as broken anymore and his answers were longer than a few words.

“...And then one day, I came home and Jimin had put up all of my photography in the hallway just like that and invited a few of our friends over. There was even champagne,” He was gesturing around as if he was showing Yoongi how it looked, although their backs were against each other, “The cheapest one he could buy though, from the discounter. And he pretended as if it was my first exhibition, interviewing me and my friends just played along. In the end we all just got very drunk but…we were young.” He laughed and raked a hand through his messy hair, before his voice dropped a little. “One day I’ll have my own though.” Taehyung bit his lip as he thought of his little dream and peeked over his shoulder just a little, “Do you still have a dream, Mr. Min?”

It was easy to listen to Tae. He spoke so lively and colorfully that the vivid images rose in his mind all by themselves and a soft smile had stolen its way on his lips without permission. “Dreams?” He sighed deeply. “Well, I’ve got one, to be honest. I long for it with my whole being and yet I can do nothing to achieve it. I want to be free from this… sickness.” He had almost said curse. Luckily when it slipped people just thought he spoke figuratively. “I wasn’t always like this. But I fear I will be now, for the rest of my life.”

“Is there anything you can do?” Taehyung asked carefully, “You must know good doctors, right?” He wasn’t sure how much he could ask without pushing Yoongi away again. “Is it bad for you? Will…will it affect your health?” He hadn’t expected the aching in his heart at the thought of Yoongi being in pain or losing his life to an incurable sickness – now that he had gotten to know him a little.

“Not… really. I guess I could ‘think positive’ and ‘be kind’ and all that new age shit…” He normally didn’t try to curse in front of others, but it slipped so easily from his lips whenever the frustration took over, “...but apart from that I can only wait and hope that something changes before my time runs out. And doctors can only cure what their schoolbooks taught them. As soon as you differ from the norm they’re lost. I might end up in a glass cage if I let too many people look at me. I tried, in the beginning I was naive and thought that there had to be someone who was able to help me, I’ve seen so many specialists. But in the end I had to give up. That’s the worst, isn’t it? Putting all your energy and time and hope into something just for it to mean nothing in the end.” He couldn’t answer Taehyung’s question fully without revealing what he suffered from so he stayed vague and talked only as honest as he dared to be.

Taehyung had turned around slowly, when Yoongi was talking not able to speak up and silence filled the room as he let everything sink in. It felt heavy on his heart to know what he had been through with no one by his side (at least he assumed it from what he knew now). “But you feel no pain from the disease?” He asked again, just to make sure, before shifting completely, so that Yoongi’s back was against his chest instead. Taehyung wasn’t leaning in, yet, giving Yoongi the chance to back away if he wanted to or lean back if he needed it. “C-can I?” Taehyung reached out slowly, hovering over Yoongi’s hand, while being so close that his breath was tingling Yoongi’s skin right by his ear.

“No, I’m not in pain. Not physically.” His cheeks heated at the confession that he hadn’t really meant to share. Because he was hurting, just in places that were beyond the flesh. He tensed when he felt Taehyung shifting, waiting for the other to get up, preparing himself to do the same but nothing the like happened. Instead the warmth came back and suddenly he could feel Taehyung’s breath against his skin. He shuddered, his whole body vibrating with nerves as Taehyung reached out for him. Yoongi tried to mask the nervous tremor in his hand by tilting his palm up but he regretted it the very next second. He had forgotten how dark his palm was, for one single blissful heartbeat he had actually forgotten how ugly he was because Taehyung’s closeness had wiped everything else from his mind. He was about to take his hand back when Taehyung’s fingertips touched his palm and he instinctively held his breath.

The younger could feel it against his chest as he leaned a little closer. His touch was a careful one, soft and light as he traced along a line on the inside of Yoongi’s hand. He shifted closer as he reached around the man’s body towards the other hand and did the same: waiting for Yoongi to relax and then touch him again. Instinctively, Taehyung leaned his head on Yoongi’s shoulder as he drew patterns into palm of his hands; long forgotten that this was his boss he was sitting behind. It was like the moment they had stepped away from the office, it didn’t matter anymore. Right here, by the piano in Yoongi’s makeshift (very expensive looking) home, it wasn’t about the status anymore.

It was just them, in the middle of the night.

Taehyung intertwined their hands softly, letting go again just do repeat the motion because his own big hands, fitted so nicely against Yoongi’s smaller ones. “I still think your hands are beautiful,” He whispered softly, before a yawn drew out of him and he wasn’t fast enough to hide it. “Do you want me to come back tomorrow,” Taehyung released his hands from his, soothing over Yoongi’s arms before he leaned back, “To do the work you wanted me to?” It was written all over Yoongi’s body that he was lonely, and Taehyung had taken a liking in his strange boss and if it would make it easier for him to decide to let him back in if it was “job” related, then so be it.

Yoongi bit his lip before the words could tumble out and he made the mistake of asking Taehyung to stay a little longer. It was amazing - and also a little scary - what some intimacy could do to him and if he was honest he already started to miss the warmth the moment Taehyung leaned back.

“Sure. If you have the time you can come over.” Telling him that he definitely wanted to see him felt like an inappropriate confession, so he tried to keep it casual. His hands twitched as he put them back onto his thighs without anything to hold onto.

“I’ll be there,“ The words were whispered, when Taehyung hugged Yoongi once, before getting up and rushing back to the stairs – this habit of staying up late was really messing with his sleeping schedule. “Oh and, you can call me Tae by the way.” He waited for Yoongi to turn to look at him before he waved, “That’s what all my friends call me.”

A/N: Ohhh, what do you think? ;) Will Taehyung’s natural curiosity will be a mistake or the way through to Yoongi’s heart? ;) Thank you for reading!

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littlespoonevan · 5 years ago

Note

“please stay” for gallavich 🥺🥰

ok so the other week i saw gifset of the policeman telling ian mickey escaped prison during s7 and people were discussing the suggestion ian had visited mickey more than once so obviously i had to write it. so here’s a little snippet of ian visiting mick in juvie/prison over the years - i hope you like it

(this got angsty in the middle lol sorry)

Ian had been nervous when he’d first shown up tovisit Mickey in juvie, too afraid that Mickey might refuse to see him and notat all strong enough to deal with that kind of rejection. But Mickey had agreed to see him – not only that,he’d seemed happy to see him.

Well, as happy as Mickey ever allows anyone else tosee.

Sure, Mickey scoffs when Ian says, “I miss you,” butIan can see the way he hesitates before he starts throwing out threats, thequiet surprise in his expression before it melts into something else. Ian is convinced it’s understanding.

It’s what prompts him to reach out, to reach forMickey even though he can’t touch him.

“Take your hand off the glass,” Mickey says and Iandoes but he still has to bite back a smile.

He lets Mickey change the subject then, happy to lethim complain about his inmates. It’s inane conversation that doesn’t mean much– even Ian can tell the majority of Mickey’s threats are empty ones – but hestill revels in listening to Mickey talk.

He really fucking misses him.

All too soon their time is up and Ian has to fightthe way his face falls at the warden’s warning.

“It was good seeing you,” he says hesitantly,watching the way Mickey’s expression flickers before going carefully back toneutral. “Can I come see you again?”

Mickey huffs, “Do what you want, man, I don’t care.”

Ian nods, trying not to let himself feel dejecteduntil Mickey’s fingers tap against the glass once – so quickly you’d miss it ifyou weren’t looking. Ian blinks in surprise, gaze shooting up from whereMickey’s hand has disappeared from the table to Mickey’s face.

Mickey nods silently and hangs up the phone.

Juvie the first time had been shit but relativelymanageable. Juvie the second time was torture.

The first time he’d been able to pretend he didn’tmiss Ian, pretend he didn’t care about him and that they were nothing but fuckbuddies. And in spite of all that he’d known Ian would wait for him in somecapacity. Even if he’d been off fucking other guys he’d still want Mickeybecause what they had was good.

Now…

Ian probably hates him, the last words Mickey had saidto him were that they were over, and Mickey misses him so fucking much he feelslike he can’t breathe.

When he’s told he’s got a visitor he assumes it’sMandy since it’s always Mandy, what he doesn’t expect is to see Ian sittingthere on the other side of the glass. He’s got a fresh buzzcut and hisshoulders look bigger with the way his t-shirt stretches across his chest butit’s the look on his face what gets to Mickey the most. The look of nervousdetermination like he’s more than willing to tell Mickey, “fuck you,” if hequestions him for coming.

Christ, Mickey wants to touch him.

He sits down heavily in his seat, putting the phoneto his ear and gripping it too tightly. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Ian says back, voice carefully devoid of anyemotion. “How’ve you been?”

Mickey shrugs, averting his gaze, because lookingdirectly at Ian after so long hurts his eyes. “I mean, it’s juvie.”

Ian nods like he gets it even though he’s neverstepped foot in this place unless it’s to visit Mickey.

“You?” Mickey asks then, unsure of how to navigatethis conversation when he’d felt so angry the last time he saw Ian.

You’renothing but a warm mouth to me haunts him at night. Ian’snot a warm mouth. He’s warm everything. He’s the only fucking thing that’s evermade Mickey feel warm.

Ian lifts his shoulder in a half-shrug. “Okay, Iguess.” He falls silent for another beat before looking up at Mickey under hislashes. “For what it’s worth, I think Frank drank away whatever brain cellsregistered what we were doing. He hasn’t brought it up since – I don’t eventhink he remembers.”

Mickey swallows hard, forcing himself to nod. “Kindafigured when my dad didn’t sic anyone on me in here to send me to theinfirmary.”

Ian’s mouth pinches into a tight line and Mickeywants nothing more than to reach out and smooth it out.

“Would he really do that?” Ian asks and Mickey wantsto scoff or roll his eyes or call Ian fucking deluded but he’s too tired so hejust nods.

“Yeah,” he says, resigned. “He would.”

Ian’s quiet as he absorbs that, expression unreadablewhen he turns the full force of his gaze on Mickey again. “How long you gotleft?”

“Six months, I think. Maybe less if I get out on goodbehaviour.”

“Okay,” Ian replies, voice too soft, and Mickey wantsto remind him where the fuck they are but he can’t get the words out.

Ian taps the glass just once, seeming more like anervous habit than anything else, but it sets Mickey’s heart pounding in hischest for the rest of the night.

This is probably a mistake. In fact, it’s definitelya mistake.

But Ian feels like he’s drowning in plain sight andnobody can see it. He’s hollowed out inside and raw and broken and he just reallyfucking wants to see Mickey.

He hasn’t since the last time.

When Mickey showed him the tattoo and Ian had liedand said he’d wait. But he thinks he’d been lying more to himself than toMickey.

It’s just- fuck, he doesn’t want to put Mickeythrough this. Over and over again. He doesn’t want Mickey to see him like this.But he also can’t breathe and Mickey’s the only person who knows how his lungsare supposed to work.

Mickey freezes on the other side of the glass when hesees him, hand gripping the back of the chair where he’d been about to pull it outto sit down. Ian wouldn’t blame him if he threw the chair at the glass andstormed off. He deserves worse.

Mickey doesn’t do any of that though because Mickey’sa better person than him. Instead, he sits down, faltering for just a momentbefore he picks up the phone and puts it to his ear. “Fucking hell, Gallagher,”he breathes. “What happened?”

“Hey Mick,” Ian replies quietly. His voice doesn’teven sound like his. It seems to be permanently hoarse from disuse lately.

Mickey’s initial shock seems to have worn off,replaced by a deep-rooted look of concern that Ian feels all too familiar withnow. “Ian,” he says, like the name’sbeen ripped from his chest. “What’s wrong?”

Ian shrugs, hunching his shoulders. “Jus’ been a badday,” he mutters.

“Uh huh and how long’s this bad day been going onfor?”

Ian closes his eyes because Christ, Mickey knows him. Mickey sees through him everyfucking time.

“A month or two,” he admits finally, swallowing hardat the sadness in Mickey’s eyes.

“You takin’ your meds?” Mickey asks likes he’s afraidto even say it.

“They’re not helping,” Ian replies tremulously.

“So try different ones,” Mickey murmurs, voice asoothing balm on Ian’s soul. “Ian, you can’t pull yourself out of this on yourown.”

Ian nods, staring down at the table in front of himas he takes a steadying breath. “I know that.”

Neither of them speak for a moment and Ian isoverwhelmed with how much the yearning he feels for Mickey consumes him. God,he just wants to hold him once more.

“I’m sorry,” he says then, voice wavering as he meetsMickey’s eyes. “For trying to push you away. For what I said. For everything.”

Mickey seems so surprised he forgets to keep hisguard up and his face is too open, too vulnerable. Ian has never despised thepanel of glass between them more. “You mean that?” he asks eventually and Iannods fervently.

“I thought you’d be better off without me,” hereveals, ducking his head self-consciously.

“Ian, when the fuck have I ever been better offwithout you?” Mickey asks tiredly and Ian closes his eyes, forcing air into hislungs and back out again as he pushes back the burn behind his eyes.

“You shouldn’t have to put up with me when I’m likethis. It shouldn’t be this for therest of your life.”

Mickey stares at him, mouth working. “How ‘bout youlet me make that decision for myself, huh?”

Ian nods as his eyes travel across Mickey’s face.Fuck, he misses him. “I miss you,” he sighs.

“I miss you too,” Mickey says, almost choking on thewords. His eyes are shining when Ian looks at them and he doesn’t think when hereaches out, just presses his curled fist against the glass.

Mickey takes a shuddering breath as he watches himbefore his own knuckles mirror Ian’s.

“Eight years is really long time,” Ian whispers, thelump in his throat making it hard to speak properly.

“Yeah,” Mickey agrees, opening his mouth to say somethingelse before closing it again.

“Ian, can you just- Please stay,” he requests finally,shoulders hunched and head bowed like he’s already expecting a rejection.

“I’ll stay,” Ian replies quietly and Mickey suddenly seemsto breathe easier.

Ian stays until visiting hours are over, neither ofthem really even talking – just watching each other, committing one another’s facesto memory once again.

“I’ll come back soon,” he promises, forcing himselfto stand when the warden starts eyeing him irritably.

He touches the glass one last time and Mickey’s stillgripping the phone so hard it looks like it’s going to break but he nods.

Ian’ll come back.

Mickey had felt sick to his stomach stepping backinside prison. It hadn’t been the usual fear – it’d been different.

Fear of rejection tangled with nerves andanticipation.

It had all melted away the moment Ian had looked athim though.

It’s been hours since then and Ian had climbed downoff his own bunk the second the guard had done his last check, crawling intoMickey’s and kissing him until both their mouths were raw. Now Ian’s lying onhis side against the wall, head pillowed on Mickey’s chest and Mickey can’tfucking believe this is something he gets to have again.

They’d talked before, not about much beyond how thefuck Ian ended up in here and muffled, “I missed you”s in between kisses. But theystill haven’t really talked about them.They’re quiet now, Mickey’s fingers gently trailing down between Ian’sshoulderblades and back up again.

Ian reaches for his shirt then and Mickey doesn’t getwhy he’s tugging at it until he catches sight of his own tattoo peeking outfrom behind the fabric. Mickey feels shame and embarrassment burn through himand he’s about to pull Ian’s hand away until Ian’s pushing up on his elbow abit and kissing Mickey’s heart, right where his own name sits.

Mickey swallows hard, hand coming up involuntarily totwist in Ian’s hair.

“I’m sorry,” Ian mumbles into his skin. And it’s notthe first time he’s said it but it still makes Mickey’s chest tighten.

“I know,” he says after a beat.

“It never went away,” Ian tells him, gaze boring intoMickey’s. “Loving you, I mean. It never went away.”

Mickey wets his lips and tries not to let hisemotions get the better of him. Searching for something to say, he lifts hisfree hand and reaches for Ian’s, folding their fingers together on top of hischest.

“I know that too,” he mumbles.

It never went away for Mickey either.

#gallavich #ian x mickey #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #shameless #my fics #Anon #asks #meme thing

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zakkura · 5 years ago

Text

Pairing: Cloud x Zack, slight Aerith x Tifa. Warnings: None. Extra: Hybrid AU. EDIT: I forgot to add that I gathered inspiration by the many beautiful gifsets of ZackSoldiers, so please go and follow them!

ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾

Aerith couldn’t help but laugh at the scene before her.

Placing her basket of flowers on the kitchen counter; she put her hands on her hips as she watched her daft overgrown German Shepard hybrid wiggle his backside as he stared out of the window with noises of glee leaving his lips.

“I take it that pretty blonde is out for his afternoon stroll again?” she asked and Zack jumped slightly as he had clearly been far too into his own world.

“I didn’t think I’d be attracted to a Spaniel,” Zack grinned widely causing his owner to simply roll her eyes with a playful smile.

Aerith approached him with her hand held out, fingers delicately stroking his fluffy black ears which, in turn, made the hybrid push into her touch.

A loving gesture that Aerith had learned meant he had missed her whilst she was out trying to sell her bouquets.

“I don’t know why you haven’t invited him over yet,” Aerith snorted at the small blush on Zack’s tanned skin, “I thought you and Cloud were friends of some sort?”

“Well...I think he thinks that I’m stupid,” he cringed inwardly as their one of two interactions flashed in his mind, “I might have pretended to know about the book I saw him reading...I um...I just spoke utter crap,” he let out a pained whimper and hid his face in her shoulder.

“Aw Zacky,” Aerith cooed and held him tight, her cheek against the top of his head, “everyone behaves like a fool in front of the person they like; it’s natural,” she pulled back and blew a playful raspberry against his cheek.

“I tell you what,” she pulled Zack over to the couch to get a little more comfy, “I will go and invite his owner, Tifa, over and say to bring Cloud with her as a sort of friendly get together,” she giggled, “what do you think about that?” she let out a yell of surprise when Zack threw himself on her and cuddled her with such strength that she was certain her ribs were about to break.

“I love you!” he howled; tail thumping on the couch.

ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾 ᵔᴥᵔ 🐾

Aerith was tempted to film what she was seeing right now.

She had never seen Zack so nervous before; so nervous that he was pulling at the hairs on the tip of his tail.

When the Hybrid’s head shot up suddenly, she knew that he could tell Cloud was at the door and she bit back a laugh as she gestured for him to open the door.

Zack nodded, determined but jittery and pulled the door open so quickly that he was nearly punched in the face by Tifa who had her hand up in the motion to knock on the door.

“Hello!” Tifa chuckled and Zack offered the top of his head to pat, which she did and almost squealed at how soft his ears were, “you must be Zack,” Zack nodded with a small smile as Aerith held his hand to try and make him less nervous.

But that quickly fell apart when he spotted the other canine standing behind Tifa, his hands covered by the sleeves of his plain black jumper that was deliciously stretched over his chest; enough that Zack could see how in shape he was.

He quickly tried to catch his own tail as it started wagging faster, his ears twitching with interest.

“This is Cloud, but I think you might know that already,” Tifa threw a wink his way, moving over to Aerith who greeted her with a tight cuddle and a kiss to the cheek.

“Hi,”

Zack’s heart thumped hard against his chest at the sound of Cloud’s voice.

It was a lot softer than he remembered but he gathered that was because he was most probably anxious going by how the blonde was biting into his bottom lip, skin looking sore and picked at.

“Hey!” Zack barked and moved without thinking; grabbing both of Cloud’s hands and shaking them happily whilst Cloud just stared at him with wide blue-green eyes.

“Zack, calm down,” Aerith pressed gently.

It took Zack a moment to realise how forward he was being and he jumped backwards.

“Oh! I’m sorry,” he murmured feeling silly as he flushed a deep red.

He had never ever been the type of person to blush and get nervous in front of people so everything that was currently happening was like trying to speak for the first time.

When everybody had settled, Aerith and Tifa in the kitchen and the Hybrids in the front room, Zack was starting to become more comfortable with the more Cloud started to open up to him.

He couldn’t get over how handsome the other man was, how sweet it was whenever he moved his head and his long blonde ears swayed with him, how whenever he spoke about learning to ride a motorcycle his entire face lit up and his eyes seemed to sparkle with enthusiasm.

Oh he was in trouble.

Even more so when both of their tails settled down on the couch they were sharing and just so happened to land on top of one another making both of them blush.

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Cloud laughed quietly as he peered at the older man through his bangs, he went to tuck his tail back around the other side of him but was quickly stopped by Zack grabbing his wrist gently.

“I’m fine with it,” he nodded to reassure him, “if you are, I mean...” he let out a small whimper as he struggled to form sentences together without stuttering.

“I’m fine,” Cloud responded with a brilliant smile that nearly knocked Zack sideways, “your tail is so soft and poofy,” he giggled and paused as he wited for Zack to signal it was okay for him to touch his tail.

It was quickly granted and Cloud practically dived to touch it making shivers ripple up and down Zack’s spine.

“This is a little easier to talk about, huh?” the teasing tone confused Zack for a second as his brain wasn’t working correctly under the touch of the person of his affections, “tails are easier to talk about than,” Cloud paused and met Zack’s similarly coloured eyes, “books for example,”

“Are you implying something?” Zack quizzed playfully once his head cleared, though he was now hypnotised by the way Cloud’s slender fingers sifted through the soft black hairs of his tail.

“Oh not at all,” Cloud then lifted his own tail and gestured for Zack to touch.

Hybrids did often offer their tails to people they would like to be friends or partners with, usually only other Hybrids but on the rare chance, Humans have been blessed with the offering.

Zack couldn’t help but wag his own tail as he gently slipped Cloud’s through his thicker fingers, watching as the blonde fur brushed over his tanned skin.

“Your fur is so long on your tail, doesn’t it get annoying?” he asked innocently.

“No, I think of my tail as my own personal flag,” he wiggled his tail to show his point, “do you like it?” his voice was a lot shyer than before and Zack’s heart clenched tightly as he moved closer to the blonde.

“Yes,” he whispered with a pause in his movements; debating on whether or not he should go through the one thing he really wanted to do, “I like it a lot,” he then nuzzled his head against Cloud’s.

The noise that left Cloud’s lips was something Zack was storing in his memory forever.

A mixture of a whine and gasp at the sudden affection.

Both Hybrid’s ears moved t the sound of laughter from the kitchen but their eyes never left one another, the atmosphere changing into something much more intimate.

“I watched you the other day,” Cloud whispered, swallowing loudly making Zack’s eyes follow his Adam's apple before returning back to his eyes.

“Yeah?”

Cloud blushed darkly as he nodded.

“You were working fixing the window frame on the outside of the house?”

Zack nodded watching Cloud’s lashes brush against his skin.

“Tifa wanted me to go over and offer to hold the ladder for you,” he laughed as his hand found it’s way to Zack’s ear making the German Shepard sigh and push into his touch as Cloud’s thumb gently rubbed the bottom of his ear.

“Why didn’t you?”

Cloud looked down again as his own ears moved to the back of his head.

“I had a better view from my window,” he admitted and Zack nearly groaned at the way their eyes met with heat behind them.

“Did you now?”

Cloud nodded with a whine before taking Zack by surprise and pulling him into a kiss, his smaller hands now tangled in Zack’s hair, his lips parting in relief when Zack actually responded to the kiss.

The blonde was shaking so much because of his own actions and Zack couldn’t find it anything but endearing as he helped the Spaniel onto his lap.

Cloud tasted of coffee and mints and Zack was living for it, fingers grasping Cloud’s waist tightly but not enough to hurt him.

Zack smiled when he felt the soft material of Cloud’s jumper on his cheeks, gentle fingers stroking him before they moved away from each other.

There was no need to exchange any words as both of them moved their faces into the other’s neck, scenting to show their dedication to each other.

“Well, well, well,”

Cloud shrieked as he was nearly thrown off off Zack’s lap from how quickly he stood up in shock at the sound of Aerith’s voice.

“Told you it wouldn’t take long for them,” Tifa nudged her friend with a grin making the flower girl laugh.

“What?” Zack asked with a frown but apparently the two women didn’t even hear him.

“I’m just glad they were only scenting and not mating,” Aerith replied making even more glorious laughter to come from them as they walked away from the baffled and disheveled Hybrid’s.

“Did they set us up on a play-date?!”

#zakkura writes: zack x cloud #this is awful #hybrid au #final fantasy vii crisis core #ffvii husbands #final fantasy vii #ff fanfiction #cloud strife #zack fair #zakkura #clack #zack x cloud #cloud x zack #my writing #personal: zakkura #zacksoldiers

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mccncrane · 4 years ago

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INTRODUCING — LUCAS CRUZ

“ AND YES, HE RAISES THE MOON ON A CRANE AND SCRUBS IT UNTIL IT SHINES. ” is that OSCAR ISAAC? oh no, that’s LUCAS CRUZ, born on the 25th of FEBRUARY, 2002. i heard HE (CIS MAN) is a HUNTER in JACKSON TOWN. apparently, he can be AMICABLE and ATTENTIVE but also known to be RESERVED and INTOLERABLE. spends most of his free time OUTSIDE, WITH NATURE, probably smells like FRESH MUD AND TREE BARK. is that a bite mark i see? no, must have been a trick of the light.

BULLET POINT HISTORY:

Lucas grew up in a world before the apocalypse. With a single mother and a sibling, he lived pretty normally, all things considered. He was barely a preteen when the world went to shit.

His mother took her two children and escaped the city to take refuge in the woods. The three of them had a few months together, while she taught them how to survive; setting up traps, hunting, first aid, preparing food. She made sure they knew everything, and then she was bitten. She separated from them, so they wouldn't have to kill her when she finally turned. She left them alone and ran as far as she could.

Luke and his sibling had to grow up alone, keeping each other safe and alive. As the older brother, he always felt responsible for the other -- he still feels responsible for them.

Eventually, much older and feeling like a pair of wild animals after so long in the woods by themselves, they stumbled into the Jackson Town community. (If they are together or if his sibling left for another faction is tbd by whoever takes on the connection, if it happens)

It was a while until he started bonding with people in town, but it happened eventually. He made friends, he became a good hunter for the community. He met the love of his life and got married, about fifteen years ago. Meeting Isaiah in the middle of the apocalypse almost made him want to become some kind of hopeless romantic.

But then Isaiah got taken by the Idaho Hunters, three years ago. Ever since then, Luke has been retreating back into his shell with each passing year. He doesn't even know if Isaiah's still alive, but he holds out hope. The hunters would've had to come looking for another doctor if they'd killed him.

He's determined to do something about this, and he's growing impatient. One of these days, he's just going to march into hunter territory and snatch back his husband himself.

PERSONALITY:

He's a bit of a grump, a bit of a mopey guy nowadays. Used to be a lot more smiley and the human embodiment of the 🥰 emoji when Isaiah was around, but now he's a lot more reserved and quiet. Spends a lot of time sitting up in trees and contemplating the meaning of life, etc.

A bit stubborn and doesn't trust easily. Very unforgiving of people once they fuck up. That gifset of Reese Witherspoon saying "I tend to my grudges like little pets".

EXTRAS ( FROM THE APP ) :

the wording on this might get repetitive because I'm just pasting it as I wrote it in the app

CONNECTION 01: YOUNGER SIBLING (01, fc of any ethnicity for an adoptive sibling, guatemalan if biological, but i'm impartial to either) luke was still a kid when the end of the world started. he doesn't remember much of that chaotic moment, nowadays, but he remembers the need to protect his little sibling with tooth and nails. he's always been protective of them to a fault, and this hasn't changed. they used to live with their mother in the city, and as soon as the outbreak happened, she took them to the mountains, hoping it would be better there. she was the one who taught them both how to protect themselves and how to survive. she was bitten months later, and to save her kids from having to kill their mother, she begged them to go into the wild, then ran in the opposite direction as far as she could before she turned. luke and his sibling were left to fend for themselves, still kids. growing up alone meant growing sharp edges and thick skin, but above all, they survived.

CONNECTION 02: RIDE OR DIE (01, jackson town only, everything else utp) luke isn't a very open person. he's warm, he likes to care for others, but he doesn't open up easily. he keeps his emotions locked up inside and he keeps the displays of such emotions to behind closed doors. he's also not easy to forgive people once they've done wrong, so he doesn't trust easily, but this person he can trust completely. the ride or die is someone he can rely on to get through that distant exterior, someone he's probably known for years. in the last three years, since isaiah's been gone, luke probably relies on them, for their friendship, more than ever.

PLOT POINT: lucas finally decides he's had enough of sitting around waiting for the hunters to give back his husband. whether someone follows him or not, he doesn't care anymore, it's been too long of surrendering to these bastards. he'll bring it up to the rest of the town in hopes to gather some support on his mission; he thinks if they gather a small army and sketch out a plan, they can stand up to the hunters. with or without help, either way, he's going there.

#the important bits are like the last few points of his history and the personality #everything else is extra spice for anyone who wants to read more #jacksonhqintro #maybe ill get pretty tags some day #𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐳 | * 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎 #lucas cruz | * 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒

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purplesurveys · 4 years ago

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959

Do you have one of those calendars that have a word of the day? No but I have a plug-in dashboard on Chrome that used to give me motivational quotes every day. I’m not into that though so I’ve turned off the quote feature.

Do you sleep with your bra on? I used to, back when I was still in school and I’d often arrive home too tired to even change clothes. I usually immediately headed to bed.

Do you know how tall you are barefoot? 5′1″.

Is one of your friends bugging you right now? None of them are but work is super hectic at the moment. I really shouldn’t be even taking this survey rn HAHAHAHAHA brb

Would you rather do 10 push-ups or sit-ups? Sit-ups. My arms wobble real bad when I do push-ups and more often than not I end up crashing to the floor, ha.

Do you like Snoop Dogg? He’s alright. He hasn’t done anything to piss me off, I think.

What time did you wake up today? I started waking up at around 7:30 but I wasn’t properly up until around 7:50ish since that’s the time I usually get up from bed to prepare for work.

Where do you think you'll be in 10 years? I don’t really think of where I’ll be, I simply hope. And in 10 years I hope I’m happy and for things to have fallen more into place than they are now.

When this survey was created, was it your birthday or anyone's you know? I have no idea when this was made, I just got it from someone else.

Will you be seeing the movie Kung Fu Panda 2? I’ve never seen anything from that franchise.

Do you rate every survey after you take one? I don’t really get to do that on Tumblr, so.

Where do you buy your groceries? My parents do the groceries either at SM or a local store that we have. It’s usually between those two.

Is there a song that always makes you sad? Yes. I can’t listen to O by Coldplay without feeling sad because that’s all I listened to during my great big depression slump of 2016.

Have you ever been searched by the cops? Nopes.

Do you call anyone by their last name? Kinda. Denise’s nickname is Mils, but Mils is a shortcut for her surname.

How's life for you? Not being very kind, but I can’t do anything at the moment.

Have you ever taken a survey with 1,000 questions? I probably did when I was new to surveys and was way more enthusiastic about the longer ones. These days I’d rather stay within the 50–70 range lol.

Are you holding onto someone you shouldn't? Yeah but I’m working on it.

Do you own any silly bandz? As a kid I did. Not anymore.

What's your favorite type of Doritos? I just like the most basic one. I think it’s called Nacho Cheese.

Have you ever had fruit pizza? No thanks.

Have you seen any of the Step Up movies? I don’t think so. They never looked appealing to me.

Do you have Twitter? I do but I’m deactivated for now. Too boring the last few weeks and I’m in the mood for a social media detox anyway, so it’s out the door for now.

Do you think slang words were created because people are lazy? That’s a good possible reason. It’s also a way to get creative.

What color was the last pen you wrote in? Black. Always my preferred ink. I always feel off when I have a pen with blue ink; it always has to be black for me.

Do you like chocolate or vanilla pudding better? I’ve never had pudding but I would prefer to try chocolate if I had to have one for the first time.

Do you have any warts? Nope.

What color do you like better: Brown or Gray? I’d go with brown. Gray seems a little bleak and sad to me.

Would you rather marry Taylor Lautner or get a million dollars? Shittiest deal ever lol, give me the damn money. I love Twilight but I wouldn’t go that far lol

Ever had frozen yogurt? No. I don’t like yogurt, got traumatized by it from a young age so it’s a straight no for me.

What brand of jeans do you usually wear? I don’t really look at brands when it comes to jeans. If they fit me well and I think they’re cute, I get them.

Do you drink Dr. Pepper? I’ve never had it, but seeing as it’s soda I doubt I would enjoy it.

Do you like bears? Sure! I’ve only heard of bears being super gentle around humans, and I think that’s adorable.

What laughing thing do you use? (Lmao, lol, haha..) I use HAHA with close friends. The more HA’s, the more likely I actually laughed out loud in real life. Haha is to just sound chill whether with acquaintances or friends and to show I’m not pissed. LOL/lol and lmao are fillers.

Are you polite? Always, unless I have a valid excuse not to be.

Have your parents ever crashed a date? No. They wouldn’t be the type to, either. They like to stay out of my business, which I appreciate.

Do you have curtains in your bedroom? I have pull-down shades, not curtains.

Do you watch the show The Hard Times of RJ Berger? I’ve never heard of it. But may I recommend the song Hard Times by Paramore.... ;) Hahaha. Gotta plug my faves any time I can.

Have you seen the movie Easy A? I’ve never seen the whole thing but 2010 Tumblr used to be populated with so many gifsets and photosets that I might as well have seen the movie. That’s the movie that got me to hear about Emma Stone for the first time.

What color are your best friends eyes? Dark brown.

What does your pillow case look like? They’re the same design as my bedsheet, which has a multi-colored geometric print.

LOL is getting old, agree? I’m still using it and so are a bunch of people, so I think you’re wrong there.

Megan Fox or Mila Kunis Mila Kunis a thousand times over! < Big this.

If you could, would you erase all of your mistakes and regrets? Some.

#survey #surveys

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margridarnauds · 4 years ago

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ronan & olympe for the ship opinions? (also please let your previous anon know that they're the funniest person in the world and i love them)

So…interesting thing, there. And something I’ve been increasingly thinking about as I think back on my last few years of fandom, my evolving feelings towards M/F shipping, and how fandom, as a whole, treats M/F ships. I’m going to apologize in advance for the length since I KNOW you didn’t sign on for 1.5k words of reminiscence.

Also: BEAGLE ANON, YOU’RE THE FUNNIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD.

When I first started out with 1789, in about 2015 or so, I was actually pro-Ronan/Olympe. Like, I wanted NOTHING more than fix-it fics where they retired to the country and had babies. I listened to La Guerre Pour se Plaire for HOURS, getting caught in the gothic atmosphere and the passionate, conflicted lyrics. But, at the time, the overall fandom environment was…well. Not conducive to it. And I was young, and I wasn’t strong in my opinions yet, so I stood back and kept it to myself. I think that might be part of why I ended up backing away from 1789 when I did. Yeah, I liked it, but I didn’t have a strong sense of community, and most of the attention, at that time, was in the Mozart, L’Opera fandom, and I wasn’t a major picture there. I attended streams, yeah, but I wasn’t a CONTENT creator, and it was easy for me to fade into the background, I think. Maybe because I was too afraid to be a content creator, back then, because that would involve possibly expressing my own opinions. I accepted that Ronan/Olympe was No bad, terrible, awful based on that desire to fit in, because it was so much EASIER. Just like I accepted that French 1789 was a disaster, that MOR was much better, and that, really, it wasn’t worth the effort. Just an inferior musical. (The problem, of course, was that I NEVER liked MOR as well as I liked 1789. Maybe it’s better put together, but I don’t ENJOY it as much, and imo it drags quite a bit at a few places, a problem shared by its German counterpart.)

I came back to 1789 around…2017, with the European Musicals Streaming event, with the Takarazuka one totally stealing my heart, specifically Lazare/Ronan. Suddenly, I was IN, and I was creating content. Yeah, most of the French musicals fandom didn’t give a flying fuck that I was creating content, with most of my support coming from my friends and Takarazuka fans, but I was CREATING CONTENT, for the first time since I joined fandom. I was finally starting to figure out my way in fandom, finally starting to get noticed. In 2018……..for reasons I won’t give out, at least publicly, there was a massive rift in the old French musicals fandom, a lot of bridges got burned, and, naturally, I was far enough from the fire. But this DID give me a shot at carving out my own 1789 experience, for once, without them hanging over my shoulder. I do think that the reason why the 1789 fandom’s as strong as it is now is because of that rift, because it left a sort of power vacuum. Suddenly, there was a space for other French musicals, and we didn’t have to worry about the constant comparison to MOR. BUT. Keep in mind. 2-3 years ago, the overwhelming consensus on Ronan was pure, unadulterated hatred. There were a few Ronan content creators in an already small pool, but the general consensus was that Lazare was better in every way and Ronan was a terrible protagonist. (I know fully well that some old members of the French musicals fandom, to this day, won’t engage with Ronan content. At all. And I can say this as openly as I do because I KNOW they don’t follow me.) As a Peyronan shipper, I was in an awkward place, especially as time went on and I realized that I actually did like the little shit. One half of my OTP was absolutely beloved, one half was hated, and, while there was definitely some content on the Tumblr side of things (I definitely did NOT single-handedly invent the ship out of thin air, I don’t take credit for it, and I’m grateful to everyone who kind of. Took me in), the fan fiction side of things still tended to lean Ronan/Olympe. If, today, it seems like the fandom consensus is Ronan/Lazare, that’s because I fought tooth and nail to get my own place in the fandom.

I…suppose you could say that I justified my place in the fandom by tossing Ronan/Olympe under the bus. It was easier, that way. It meant that I could forge alliances with anyone who wanted Solène/Olympe instead, though I was still on dangerous ground since I still wanted precious Lazare with Ronan, and, of course, the show would be better without Ronan. (You’ll note that the VERY FIRST fic I ever published on AO3 was Solène/Olympe. Why? Because I knew it would be a safe option to test the waters. That. And I really did just write it the night before my GRE.) But, at least I wasn’t a Ronan/Olympe shipper, right? I was safely gay. (Biphobia, thy name is fandom.) When I talked about Ronan, I talked about him as gay, I talked shit about Ronan/Olympe whenever I had the chance. All properly tagged, of course, in the proper channels. I’ve never been the sort to actively hurt someone who DID ship it, I just took pains to not associate myself with the Icky Het Ship. When I talked about Ronan, I talked about him as GAY, VERY GAY, not a hint of bisexuality to him. Because if he was bi, that might mean that Ronan/Olympe had a leg to stand on, you see? You’ll note that, to this day, I almost never acknowledge Ronan/Olympe as a thing that HAPPENED in any given fic continuities, because it was so much easier if he simply fell into Lazare’s arms instead. Wiping that little spot clean. And. Well. Here I am. About 5 years after I first got into 1789. And, looking back, I wonder if it was REALLY that bad, or if I just nodded my head because it was easy at the time, since it’s only been in the last year that I really, really began to develop my own spine. (Honestly, props to Marie Antoinette the Musical and, specifically, Morléans as a ship for that one.) For the most part, I’m proud of how far the fandom’s come in the last five years, and I’m proud of the work that I, individually, have done to help get it there, whether it was streams, gifs, or fanfics. But sometimes, I do worry that anyone coming in who ships Ronan/Olympe, like I used to…might feel out of place, and I never want to treat them like I was treated back in the day.

Do I ship it? Not really. That ship’s sailed for me (I didn’t mean to make that a pun but here we are). I’m fairly firmly Lazare/Ronan and Solène/Olympe (though I’m not as firmly pro-the latter as the former, simply because I REALLY don’t have as much material to go off of there.) Not just because of the old pressure, but just because…looking at it in, say, the French cast…there’s really no chemistry there. At all. The Takarazuka Olympe looks mildly terrified to be in Ronan’s presence at any given moment. I DO actually kind of like it in the Toho production, especially with Teppei Koike and Sayaka Kanda, since the two of them fit together SO naturally and their voices are like two pieces of the same puzzle, but I’m not sure it’s something I’d particularly want to create content for. In fact, when I tried to write Ronan/Lazare/Olympe as an OT3, my HARDEST dynamic to write and justify was Ronan/Olympe. I do think that “La Guerre Pour se Plaire” is a stunning song, musically, it’s probably one of my favorite French musical songs. I do kind of tend to see Ronan as gay, simply because Takarazuka Ronan in particular is………..forceful, to the point that I can see him forcing himself to believe he’s in love with Olympe in order to distract himself from Lazare. I feel like the French cast, while arguably realistic in it showing Ronan/Olympe’s relationship having problems, also shows a couple that, really, beyond the physical attraction, couldn’t have made it work had both of them survived. And I feel like fandom, back in the day, was far too willing to take Olympe’s side over Ronan’s in that dispute, ignoring how Olympe’s own relationship to her side of the conflict is…kind of toxic to her. And while Ronan went about it in an ass-backward way (“I will kill your friends and family! To remind you of my love!”)……..he did make some Points. And Toho Ronan/Olympe, particularly Teppei/Sayaka, are more two kids in love who just want to give it a shot. (Kato Kazuki/Nene Yumesaki were more….forceful, manly hero/prim and proper governess with a spine of steel. Which is OKAY, but not really personally as interesting to me.) I do give the Toho credit for really, really making me see that, okay, it might not be for me, but it CAN work on stage. Mostly. (I still hate that forced kiss.)

I will say that there are times where I find myself writing Lazare rather similarly to Olympe in terms of him going through the same feelings of guilt, shame, and duty, and I’m just like “....hm. What have I really changed? Did I just substitute Lazare’s face for Olympe because it was easier? Or copied the existing dynamic and pasted a dude’s face over Olympe’s?” (I do think that there are definitely DIFFERENCES to Olympe VS Lazare, it’s just...eerie in those individual moments.) I do think, at the end of the day, the story of forbidden love during the French Revolution....we’ve HAD it before, in the La Revolution Française musical, and in my opinion it does work best as a queer narrative. And, unfortunately, Ronan/Olympe just...isn’t developed particularly well enough on stage to justify it as an EPIC ROMANCE.

Overall, I think that I’m fairly settled in my ways at this point, but I also don’t hate it to the extent that I once did. It’ll never be my favorite, I can’t really see them getting married and having kids, and, frankly, the relationship just isn’t as interesting to me as the alternatives since we’ve SEEN it played out on screen, and I can’t really see myself making content for it or really engaging with it in any meaningful way outside of reblogging gifsets/reading fics, but like. I don’t HATE it anymore. I’m neutral to its existence. And, when it comes down to it, I have read fic/engaged in content for it, because, at this point, it’s STILL part of my favorite musical. If I could have done things differently….maybe I would have stayed with it more, for longer. Maybe I’d have written that happy country babyfic (you know. In 18th century France. Where raising babies in the country was so painless). Maybe I’d have gone over to Peyronan earlier and not looked back. Maybe I would have written Ronan more consciously as a bisexual man instead of a gay man. Who knows? Maybe I’m just a tired bitch these days and so am hyper-dissecting everything. But I definitely never want anyone coming into the fandom to think there isn’t a place for them just because they ship Ronan/Olympe.

#vierschanzentournee

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