#the text will be bolder in future posts!

[thebramblewood]

When your witchy, scatterbrained grandmother secures you a possibly condemned old manor and forgets to send the cleaning service ahead.

Beginning / Previous / Next

Micah: Time to bust the dust.

Naomi: Ugh, gross. Good luck with that. I still say we should book a hotel.

-

[Text of email]

From: Netherworld Department of Death

To: Naomi Uchiyama

Subject: Greetings Grimterns!

Dear Grimterns,

We once again extend a hearty welcome to this year’s cohort! Your grimternships begin Monday at 9:00 am. Scythes and robes will be provided. The Head Reaper has kindly made himself available for day one orientation. As you can imagine, his time is valuable; do not waste it.

Once you have proven your mettle, you will be expected at NWDD five days a week. Each morning, you will be assigned your daily duties at the Scrying Bowl. While field assignments are always top priority, you may also be asked to perform tasks of a more clerical nature...

-

Naomi: [grumbling] Why did I let Grandma sign me up for this shit?

Micah: Because you're a penniless, couch-surfing burnout with no real prospects in life?

Naomi: You're one to talk, sis. You're hardly making a fortune on obituaries. Meanwhile, that San Myshuno Times best-selling novel won't write itself.

-

Pizza Delivery Person: Whoa, you're actually going to live here? This place has been abandoned for years.

Naomi: On account of the creeping mist and other eerie shit, I presume?

Pizza Delivery Person: Yep! Good luck!

Micah: [dry heaves] Do I even want to know how old that fruitcake is?

Naomi: Lookin' snazzy in here!

Micah: Yeah, no thanks to you.

Naomi: Hey, I picked up those groceries!

Micah: Only because you needed more cigarettes.

Naomi: I ordered the pizza!

Micah: And sat there watching me while you wolfed half of it down.

-

Micah: This is good pizza. I should really take a shower, though.

Naomi: You might actually want to burn those clothes. Better safe than sorry.

[hncproject]

ᚐ҉ᚐ✦⸻ Initial Designs

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✦⸻ Similar to the innovate project, I started planning the colours first. I found it's what works best for me - choosing the colours first and then taking it further is what inspires me and give me a vision for the future of my brand.

✧ I made several rows based on my favourite colours, and colours I think represent me. I tried lots of green and blue, but that wasn't enough. I needed something more vibrant, something with a "zing" to it. Bolder. Brighter. I am not just calm, collected and boring all the time. I'm impulsive and exciting too. That's when I tried adding more reds, pinks and saturated blues.

✧ Even with all these choices I still wasn't inspired. I didn't know what to pick! I tried something I did last year that worked really well for me: making a collage by putting all the colours together! The pictures below show this process. I displayed he logo I made using this method, to prove it was an effective method of working.

✧Putting these pictures side by side made me realise the flaw with my process... I don't like all the colours I chose for this current project as much.

✧The previous colours were chosen from characters I made and love. They were already thoroughly planned, so of course all the colours look good together. That's not the case for this project. The colours I chose came from nowhere, and with the lack of planning, it looks a lot messier. I needed a different approach.

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✧I thought I should narrow my selection of colours. I could even make gradients with the smaller selection perhaps. I love gradients and it's not hard to make them look good. I made several shapes with this smaller selection of colours in hopes to get that spark of inspiration. When this didn't work either I knew it's time to switch my approach again.

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✦ I steered away from the colours completely and turned my attention to fonts. In a previous post I mentioned words that describe me. I started writing them out, both with and without capital letters to inspect what looks better. I combined some words into almost-nonsense. (eg. "cluster", from cute and flustered + "shysilly" from, well, being shy and silly)

✧I tried combining the words indifferent daughter too. I used the word daughter because that's what I am. I'm a daughter. I also thought this word combination would be relatable to all the girls who feel like they aren't good enough for their parents. I scrapped that idea though, since it's just a little too sad. I wanted something more exciting and happy.

✧Now that I explained the choice of words I should explain the choice of fonts. There are two reasons I chose these fonts. Contrary to appearances, there is planning behind it

The font is very gothic and "goth" aligns with my brand.

It also relates back to my previous post that states L Lawliet is a relatable character. While anonymous, L is represented by an "L" in the font "Old English Text MT Regular". "Cloister Black" is also a similar font but it's not a perfect match since the lines are thicker.

✧ I loved this font ever since seeing it in the anime. I really wondered what the name of it is but I didn't look until now, when I needed it.

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✦ That's the fonts done, but now what? I looked through my moodboards again to get some inspiration. Then, it hit me.

˗ˏˋ Checkered wristbands! ˎˊ˗

That's my source of inspiration! Checked wristbands have been prevalent in emo fashion, and is an actual emo staple. I started by making a checker pattern using pink and black. They're 2 very contrasting colours. This combination looks fun and energetic, just like I wanted. I want my brand to have a bit of energy.

✧ I tried a few more colour combinations, like purple, for something more goth, red for an even more classic emo look, and electric blue for even more contrast and energy. I made some attempts with earthy colours but they didn't look as good and didn't deliver the same feeling.

✦ I kept trying several colour combinations, placements, patterns, and letter trackings. Still, I liked the purple design the most, with the original tracking. It was easier to read than the original bright pink design, and gave a better vibe than green or blue.

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✦ Since I had a few colours sorted, as well as the fonts, I thought I could move onto a mascot. I tried to digitalise some of my owl sketches, refining and adapting them onto a digital medium.

✦ Out of all attempts, the picture below is the design I liked the most. I tried my best to make the shape look like a heart, while also maintaining the soft curves of an owls face. Nothing too drastic or sharp besides the crack down the middle. I really like the marks and shadows around the owl's eyes too, so I made sure to add it.

✧ The design isn't symmetrical, and it was never supposed to be anyway. It's perfectly imperfect, just like there will always be flaws in the world, and flaws within myself.

✦ Surprise! Here's a variation of the mascot. The face has a clipping mask using my marbling experiment. I edited the marble print in photoshop to be this magenta colour. I know I lowered the opacity of the clipping mask but I'm not sure by how much. I'll remember to be more careful and check next time.

✦ This is the mask, along with the original print next to it. Besides changing hues, I raised the contrast. I needed something bold, no silver/grey dullness.

✧ This edit was mostly inspired by sassy scene:

Sassy Scene is an electronic music album, featuring sassy lyrics and following the emo scene aesthetic, as the name suggests. I wanted to achieve a similar bright pink feel.

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✦⸻ Conclusion

✦ I was really worried about my progress at first, since it felt like I dug myself into a rut. Although the pace of my progress may seem fast in a single post, it took a few days to even think to check my mood boards. It was a standstill that discouraged me.

✧ Checking the mood boards is really what pushed me forward! I'm ready to make fast paced progress from here.

✦ I'm so very glad I got to reuse my marbling print too. I promised myself I would use it in the future and I stayed true to my word. I really like the new colour of it too. Although it's not close to the original colours at all it has the same patterns. I believe that's enough to still feel authentic.

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[summerslobstersposts]

Graphic Design trends for 2023

Found some articles about graphic design trends for 2023 and those were informative to me so I wanted to share it with others there are links below so you can check original texts and visual examples

Designing for the Future by Looking to the Past

Designers may look to the past for inspiration and comfort as time marches on. With many people feeling fatigued by the constant barrage of bright and flashy designs, we will likely see a resurgence of historical and nostalgic elements in graphic design.

This could take the form of baroque-influenced typography, the ’60s and ‘70s-inspired identities, and even references to the ’00s in digital experiences.

Using nostalgic elements in design can provide a sense of familiarity and comfort in a world that often feels uncertain and chaotic. By drawing on past design styles, you can create a sense of nostalgia that can resonate with audiences and help them connect with their memories and experiences.

Additionally, using historical and nostalgic elements from design trends like Y2k can also provide an opportunity to reinterpret and update these styles for the modern world.

Overall, the trend toward nostalgic design in 2023 is likely to be driven by a desire for comfort and familiarity in a world that often feels chaotic and unpredictable. By embracing the past and using it as a source of inspiration, you’ll be able to create designs that resonate with audiences and help them to connect with their memories and experiences.

From the resurgence of classical styles from the past to the increasing importance of compelling visual storytelling, you can explore many exciting new avenues to help you differentiate and innovate your work.

Memes

Memes have become an increasingly popular tool for brands looking to engage with consumers and build a stronger brand identity. By leveraging the power of humour and relatability, they help to humanise a brand and make it more companionable to consumers.

One example of a brand that has successfully used memes in its branding is Wendy’s, a fast-food chain. It has gained a positive reputation for its humorous and relatable social media posts, often featuring popular memes with its target audience. This approach has helped to build a solid and loyal fan base and has been instrumental in driving sales and revenue for the company.

We all will see more of this in 2023 by brands creating humorous and relatable content shared widely on social media. It will help them increase their visibility, build trust, and ultimately drive sales and revenue.

Typography

Typography is the most essential part of any design but designers are now more open to exploring its boundaries.

This trend uses bigger and bolder typefaces in hero section, followed by a minimal or complementary colour scheme at the back.

Layout and structuring different bodies of text here are the key. A user’s eyes should glide through the design with the help of just texts and colours which clearly tell the product’s message.

Most of the time, the typefaces are sans-serif but to bring more elegance and establish a unique feel serif & slab serifs might replace it.

Expressive Typography

Expressive typography refers to using font and design elements in text to convey a specific message or tone.

First, it can help build brand recognition by repeatedly using the same fonts and design elements across all brand materials. Consistency creates a visual identity that is easily recognisable to customers. A designer can create a strong emotional connection with customers by choosing fonts and design elements that reflect the brand’s personality and values.

For instance, a bold, modern font can convey a cutting-edge, forward-thinking brand, while a more traditional font might express a sense of heritage and tradition.

Looking at the future, as technology advances and new ways of displaying text emerge, companies will need to find creative and innovative ways to use typography to stand out from the competition. For example, companies might use augmented reality or virtual reality to create interactive, immersive brand experiences that incorporate expressive typography.

Dark Mode + Gradient Overload

This style is comprised of gradients of colder tones (blue, purple) blended on dark UIs to make designs look more alive with sans serif typography used for indicating a futuristic and cleaner look. This style started gaining momentum after almost all web3 landing pages adopted it and kind of did an overkill with poorly planned execution. But web2 designers will be the next to jump onto this, and since their designs actually have a use-case — the style will go mainstream and set a new standard for dark mode UIs. However, this doesn’t imply the end of light mode at all.

Crafting interactive, multi-sensory experiences

The field of graphic design is undergoing a significant transformation, as designers are now expected to be skilled in both physical and digital spaces. While this is not breaking news, this shift is driven by the rapid evolution of technology can help create new and exciting opportunities for designers to create fully immersive brand experiences.

One key area of innovation is the use of augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR, VR, MR) to create fully immersive brand experiences that blur the lines between technology and reality.

It allows brands to convey their message more effectively. It captures attention with a lifelike image or video of its product or service, which will be remembered for longer than traditional advertising.

By combining our traditional design skills with a deep understanding of these emerging mediums, we can create truly innovative and impactful brand experiences that capture the imagination of consumers.

Everything In Motion

Motion design plays a crucial role in making any design more interactive and separating it from the already existing crowd of static UIs. These can be micro-interactions or video loops on your screen, moving objects stimulates your brain more and helps you focus. Interactive 2D illustrations can already be found in many apps and full-page animated videos on websites have become a trend with advancement in page optimisation.

Such products with a focus on motion can be spotted frequently on design curation sites like Awwwards.

Illustrations

Illustrations are poised to become indispensable for companies looking to create a memorable brand experience.

However, Stock illustrations don’t add any real value to a product other than occupying an empty screen. They are easily forgettable and lack the personality that customised illustrations can add.

Designs that have too many stock illustrations often come across as low quality, that’s a set perception now. It’s always a good idea to spend extra bucks and get customised illustrations to increase your design quality.

In recent years, many companies have embraced custom illustrations as a key component of their visual identity, with their distinctive styles becoming instantly recognisable to consumers. By incorporating illustrated characters and graphics into their creative strategy, businesses can improve user engagement and build empathy and effectively communicate their brand story, which will ultimately lead to higher conversion rates.

However, it is important to note that creating practical custom illustrations requires careful preparation and planning to reflect the brand’s values and ethos accurately. These bespoke graphics will help to imbue a brand with a sense of individuality and add a touch of whimsy that is crucial for building customer empathy and engagement.

3D images

Many websites and apps use 3D designs for showing complex ideas in a simple & accessible way to users, found in key areas such as 404 screens, infographics, onboarding screens or just to add more personality in blank spaces.

3D objects with great lighting, sculpting and colours act as visual triggers which help in establishing an emotional appeal for a design. And it does this job way quicker than a long block of text can, because people don’t like to read much.

Maximalism

Maximalism is a design style which is opposite of minimalism, it comprises of less white space, absurd typography & patterns, defying basic design rules and is rather off-putting for an average user.

Its history dates back to 1800s when it was used for art & crafts before being revived and adopted in 1960s again for usage in advertisement campaigns targeted towards the youth of that era.

Maximalism can be effective for brands. In a world where everyone is trying to be sleek and minimal, going big and bold can help you stand out and grab people’s attention. Plus, it allows you to showcase your brand’s personality and individuality, which is crucial for building consumer trust and loyalty.

Many can claim it’s well suited for graphic & advertising design only but it won’t take long before it blends into web design. However mobile design looks a bit unlikely, due to the lack of space on screen.

[naps-and-lemons]

Masterlist 🦑

hey sexy. so sorry you ran across my writing blog, but welcome. come inside, the water's nice.

*not-so-serious, not-so-cannon character writing. don’t come at me lol. ooc commercial breaks.

Started: 08/09/2021

Last updated: 01/31/2022

oldest-newest fics (writing improves as you go down haha)

tom riddle

blurbs/fics/imagines

exposing riddle part two

where you expose riddle and his not so tom riddle like hobbies

exposing YOU part two-(hp characters with phones)

where tom has been exposing you long before you have been uncovering his extracurriculars

no texting in the library (+slytherin gang)

where the boys help you initiate conversation with the fine transfer student (hp characters with phones)

now say sorry (+harry potter)

where tom can't say no to you

tom riddle is in the hospital wing (+slytherin gang)

where the boys make an excuse for you to see your crush

back to the future 

where you show tom his future if he keeps acting a fool

but those two hate each other (+slytherin gang)

where (y/n)’s besties investigate who she’s been ditching them for (hp characters with phones)

nice try, now move aside malfoy (+slytherin gang)

where you ask the boys to keep tom from seeing you after an anxious moment

abraxas tell you that? (+abraxas malfoy) part dos (+slytherin gang)

where jelly tom still holds affections for you and maybe you do too

kobe!

where rosier is being a chad and tom is not having it

joe mumma

where tom is like ugh fine i’ll help reader out ig 🙄 (+slytherin gang)

got beef?

where calm cool collected husband tom and a son that takes after his mama. lots of face punching in this one.

what a waste of a monologue...

where reader decides to be bold but is surprised with tom being even bolder (+chad rosier)

the hangover

where tom says “story time: kidnapped with my enemy?”

happy christmas tom

where tom is being a lil grinch

diary of a witchy kid

where you end up with tom marvel riddles diary (+slytherin gang)

instant family

where dad tom dad tom dad tom

super spyyyy (short spy/assassin au)

where tom misuses a modern saying

texts (+slytherin gang)

good evening

where you text the cute guy from the book shop

screenshot?

where you send a screenshot to the wrong person

finsta/twitter

comment section (+slytherin gang)

where tom decides to reply to everyone who commented on your ig post

rip that dobby ayyy

where tom is a boomer when it comes to text abbreviations

draco malfoy

blurbs/fics/imagines

smell my shirt

where you make malfoy smell you

my friend hugh

where draco swearsss he can work at a minimum wage job (hp characters with cell phones)

texts (+slytherin boys)

ellen degeneres

where malfoy texts the wrong chat

finsta

comment section

where dracos followers comment on his thirst trap

other

group chats

but first, coffee (+slytherin boys)

where theo shares his morning with the rest of the groupchat

[aristidetwain]

Wait, the War King actually IS the Man with the Rosette? I thought they have no connections other then both being ~something~ of the Master (I have presumed them to be biodata clones from the hatchling projects), I’ve seen ppl connecting them but thought it were just fans canon-welding, but you ARE a FP writer,, sooo… asking

This is a complicated question to answer. I'll do so in three parts (after the cut!).

I. The War Magistrate with the Rosette: one character

What can be confirmed with utmost solidity is that, even ignoring all the hints about either of them being the Master, there are clear connections between the War King and the Man with the Rosette within EDAs and FP lore.

To wit, in The Taking of Planet 5, the Lord President (who is the very Lord President later identified as the War King) mentions as an event from his own life something which happened to “the Magistrate” in The Infinity Doctors, namely his conversation with General Sontar about the origins of the Capitol as a military citadel. Later, Jacob Black's The Story So Far…, which can be read for free on Obverse Books' website, mentioned the Magistrate as wearing the rosette.

(The Infinity Doctors is notoriously weird, because it's kind of a mashup of several periods in the Doctor's life, all happening at once. But the period in the Master's life gestured at by “the Magistrate” is generally agreed to correspond to the not-yet-War-King's time as an advisor to the Presidency on the Homeworld immediately before the War, so that's what I'll go with here.)

As to whether these exist linearly, rather than as various alternative futures and pasts of one another… that's a more complicated question.

II. The “Conventional” Timeline of the War in Heaven Master(s)

The default reading of the Man with the Rosette in The Adventuress of Henrietta Street is that he is the Eighth Doctor's contemporary. He never fought in the War in Heaven, because the War in Heaven has been unhappened by this point by the events of The Ancestor Cell. Instead, he is the version of the Master who would have fought in the War in Heaven, had the War not been brutally erased from history by the Doctor's actions in The Ancestor Cell.

Here, then, we have a ‘fork’ in the Master's life. At the point in History when the War in Heaven is meant to start:

if the War happens, he becomes the Magistrate on Gallifrey, and later becomes the War King, ultimately being felled by Lolita.

after the War is unhappened, he instead becomes the Man with the Rosette before eventually making his way to the Needle, where he also, in an echo of the other timeline, becomes "the Magistrate".

There is, however, an alternative reading, and one which may be hinted at in the text — not so much by what is said, as by what is not said.

III. The Bolder Hypothesis: Rosette as pre-War King

In The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, the Man with the Rosette, who is as we have seen the Master caught flat-footed by the sudden disappearance of Gallifrey as part of the erasure of a War he never fought in, makes an oath to try and put things right and restore the universe to the way it ought to be. He pledges to bring a temporary end to his usual petty power-games with the Doctor for as long as it takes to put things right.

We then lose track of the post-War Master until the Needle era, when (as per The Story So Far…) he is still wearing his rosette, but has taken to calling himself the Magistrate. As per the Miranda comics, the bearded man with the Rosette then disappeared from the Needle at some point before the Emperor's assassination.

But…

The Book of the War tells us that the not-yet-War-King returned to Homeworld pretty much out of nowhere from his existence as a Renegade, with reliable yet unspecified knowledge about the Enemy and the War that was to come, and then made an uncharacteristically selfless effort to actually leverage the Homeworld's resources to save the universe.

Many of us writers, fans and assorted theorists have thus arrived at the notion that after disappearing from the Needle, the Man with the Rosette/Magistrate broke the Protocols of Linearity in the worst way imaginable, and returned to the early stages of the War, still under the guise of the Magistrate, hoping to avert it or at least help the Homeworld's chances in the conflict.

So the Master's War in Heaven timeline ends up going like this:

The Master reemerges after the events of the “TV Movie” in a Gallifreyan body. As you say, perhaps he is not really the original, but rather a hatchling created by the Homeworld in expectation of the War.

The Homeworld is destroyed before the War had properly begun, as part of the Eighth Doctor's attempt to avert the War altogether. (The Ancestor Cell)

The Man with the Rosette hangs out on Earth in the Post-War Universe, trying to piece together what happened to the Time Elementals. Having figured out enough, he pledges to try and fix things. (The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)

As “the Magistrate”, the Man with the Rosette leads the post-War Doctor and two other Surviving Elementals in an effort to retake control of History at the Needle. (The Gallifrey Chronicles, The Story So Far…)

Using the Needle's control over the Web of Time, the Magistrate returns to some decades before the War broke out. He becomes an influential politician on Gallifrey. (The Infinity Doctors, The Book of the War)

He replaces the Presidency and becomes the War King. (The Book of the War)

However, his schemes fail to give the Homeworld enough of an edge. Realising Lolita's been one step ahead of him the whole time, the War King gives up and lets Lolita absorb him. (The True History of Faction Paradox)

I like this picture an awful lot. So do @doctornolonger and @rassilon-imprimatur. It's never been made explicit — but there are hints, and without giving anything away, I will be adding one more hint to the pile in one of my upcoming FP works…

[tbhsoft]

life bar

idol!haechan x idol!y/n

summary: after the legendary interview was released, you and haechan began dating and have been getting an overwhelming sense of support.

genre: fluff

length: 2.1k

a/n: ah! i didn’t think the first post would gain any traction but it did! thank you so much for returning for a part two :)

this is modeled after the korean variety show, life bar. it’s a great show where celebrities aren’t subject to formal interview settings. please check it out! (mark did appear on the show with xiumin and changmin)

i’m not entirely sure of the hosts’ (other than heechul & yura) popularity outside of korea so excuse me for just labelling them as hosts.

if you missed part one, click here!

originally dnghycks’ gif

[the atmosphere is lively and filled with joy] host: how long have you been dating again?

heechul: oh, haechan! you’re dating someone?

haechan: ah, hyung! let’s not act like no one knows.

[heechul, dejected, grumbles to himself]

johnny (laughing): haechan didn’t fall for your bait.

[haechan winks at heechul, making heechul go into mock rage]

host: so, it’s been about 4 years?

[haechan plays with the glass in his hands, smiling to himself]

haechan (shyly): ya, just about.

heechul: are you guys still in your honeymoon phase?

host: do you still get butterflies when you see them?

haechan (nodding): of course! it hasn’t been that long.

heechul: it’s difficult to have a successful relationship as an idol. how did you guys handle it after that interview went viral?

haechan: it was very different to what i expected, you know?

haechan: first of all, we were preparing for the award shows and i was super focused.

haechan: i think it was during our water break that notifications were blowing up all of our phones.

johnny: we were so confused and thought it was from our managers.

haechan: i didn’t react immediately but i could hear the other members reacting, saying things like “no way” or “holy crap”.

haechan: everyone turned and looked at me. i felt like an imposter.

haechan: i was like “what? do i have something on my face? did someone send a meme of me?”

haechan: that’s when mark hyung showed me the news articles.

haechan: i blanked out for the rest of the day if i’m honest, barely remember anything from that day.

haechan: the only thing i remember was the pit in my stomach growing every time i stopped practicing. so, i kept pushing myself so i didn’t have time to think.

johnny: haechan actually fainted that day. he worked himself so hard that we had to rush him to the hospital.

haechan: luckily, it was just exhaustion and i could still perform. but, when i woke up, they told me to rest as much as possible.

haechan: the managers made sure i didn’t leave the house and told me to rest up.

haechan: it forced me to process what the news articles were saying.

haechan: once i did, all i was worried about was how y/n might be handling it.

haechan: was jyp going to give them a hard time?

host: did you text them?

haechan: because we were both focused on the award shows, i thought it best to avoid contact with them until it was all over.

johnny: even when it was all over, he still couldn’t text them.

johnny: i remember haechan pacing our room, trying to decide whether or not to call them.

haechan: i wanted to offer comfort but i wasn’t sure if it would aggravate the situation.

haechan: i think it was a few days after the last award show that i had an official meeting with lee sooman and the press team.

haechan: my eyes were wide the entire meeting.

haechan: lee sooman started the meeting by saying “congratulations!” and i was confused.

haechan: he went on to explain that he liked y/n for me and would support this relationship publicly as long as it didn’t affect my work.

haechan: i couldn’t really articulate my feelings so i think i just nodded.

haechan: he continued asking me about y/n after it, asking if we had made it official yet.

haechan: when i said no, he said that he would issue a buffer statement so i had time to ask them out.

haechan: the meeting concluded and, on my way home, y/n texted me.

heechul: what did they say?

haechan: “can we talk?”

heechul (dramatically rubbing his arms): oh no! the chills!

[haechan chuckles and takes a sip of his beer]

haechan: i told them we should meet in person to talk about it as professionals and adults.

johnny: when he tells it like that, it makes him seem tough. he was tearing up while he was getting ready to go out.

[haechan throws dried squid at johnny]

johnny: yo, thank you! i was hungry!

haechan (rolling his eyes): i wasn’t tearing up—

johnny: you’re right! you were sobbing. my bad!

johnny: you were so scared that you were gonna lose y/n.

[haechan balls up his fist in playful anger]

haechan: if only…

haechan: anyways, i was scared that i was going to be entering the new year without my best friend.

haechan: i asked johnny to drive me to our meeting spot so our manager wouldn’t know.

haechan: once we got there, y/n was already waiting on the bench for me so i told johnny to just chill in the car.

johnny: this is when i snuck my phone in his parka so i could wiretap the conversation.

[haechan pinches his nose bridge]

haechan: ah, hyung! privacy! no wonder your guesses were so accurate.

haechan: anyways, we sat down and talked like we always do. then, we got together!

johnny: in the end, y/n asked him out because he kept stumbling over his words.

johnny: y/n was giggling the whole time. it was very wholesome.

[haechan facepalms while the hosts laugh]

heechul (facing the camera): y/n, please take care of haechan! i know he lacks courage sometimes but—

haechan: really, now? after 4 years?

[johnny laughs while patting haechan’s head]

host: do you hold any resentment towards your interviewers?

[haechan takes a swig of his beer]

haechan: i did at the beginning? i don’t think y/n or i were ready to confess our feelings to each other’s faces just yet.

haechan: but, it’s not entirely their fault either.

haechan: i think, because we kept it a secret for so long, we wanted to tell someone and it was the first time we were prompted to talk about it under the veil of false security.

johnny (understandingly): and it’s easier to tell strangers than your closest friends, right?

haechan: for sure. i think a small part of me did hope they would see the entire interview at some point and that’s why i was so transparent.

heechul: and, because of that, you’re in a beautiful relationship now!

haechan (grinning): thank goodness for that!

host: what did they say when you told them you were coming to our show?

[haechan throws his head back in laughter]

johnny (chuckling): they told him that his taste in alcohol sucks and that they felt sorry for the hosts.

heechul: but, all the drinks you recommended are so good!

haechan (wiping away tears): that’s because they’re their recommendations. i don’t really drink for taste, only the social aspect.

johnny: y/n doesn’t like alcohol. so, if they think something tastes good, then it tastes amazing.

heechul: let’s raise our glasses to our hero, y/n!

[everyone happily raises their glass and cheers to you]

host: did you take them on a date immediately after the statements were released?

haechan: well, i wanted to… but, busy schedules and the fact that we hung out so much beforehand made it near impossible to have a good first date.

johnny: he was looking up “good date ideas” online and kept complaining that he already did those.

haechan: it wasn’t intentional. i guess y/n and i just liked to do couple things unironically.

heechul: i can’t believe you guys never got caught.

haechan: i think it’s because we were dressed so plainly without any disguises.

haechan: only a few people ever recognized our bare faces.

haechan: so, i decided to take them to jeju to see my mom after she called me.

johnny (laughing): i remember that call! she was like “now, bring my future in-law or else i’ll beat you up!”

haechan: when we got there, my mom totally ignored me and went straight for them.

haechan: she told them “i knew donghyuck liked you! he’s such a loser for not asking you out sooner.”

[haechan massages his temple and sighs]

johnny: on the record, haechan’s mom definitely loves y/n more than him.

[haechan nods in agreement]

haechan: so, after my mom babied y/n enough, i took them where you could see the stars perfectly.

haechan: i was really nervous and i didn’t really know what to do until y/n grabbed my hand.

haechan: they looked at me and said “as long as you’re with me, every passing moment is perfect. so, stop trying so hard.”

heechul: woah, y/n is so cool.

haechan: they really are. so, we spent our first real date stargazing and just enjoyed each other’s company.

[the host introduces the next dish and haechan helps set the table] heechul: why don’t we call y/n?

haechan (hesitant): i don’t know if they’re awake. they’re always taking naps at this time.

heechul: i’ll call them.

[heechul rings you up]

you (groggily): hello?

heechul: y/n! it’s heechul with the life bar crew. if you could introduce yourself.

[shuffling is heard through the phone]

you (clearer): all in us! hello, i’m y/n from itzy!

heechul: we were just talking about your relationship and wanted to hear your perspective.

[heechul motions haechan to say something]

haechan (sweetly): hi, darling. i’m sorry we interrupted your nap.

you: no, it’s okay! my alarm was about to go off anyways.

haechan: i was telling them about what happened after the interview and our first date.

you: ah, those were interesting.

heechul: oh? interesting, how?

you (giggling): if you know haechan, you know he doesn’t really cry, much less sob. but, when he showed up to talk, his eyes were puffy from crying so much and he had tear streaks on his face.

haechan (pouting): let’s not expose too much, y/n!

you (teasingly): what are you gonna do? cry on me?

[haechan sits back in his chair, frowning]

you: anyways! i vividly remember feeling bolder after the interview, not that i wasn’t nervous about public opinion.

you: however, i was actually talking to jyp when everything blew up.

you: he reassured me that he didn’t mind and he would support any decision i made.

you: just like that, he removed a whole weight off of my shoulders.

you: so, i was able to perform with confidence and complete reassurance.

you: but, whenever i saw hyuck at the award shows, he looked like he was about to implode so i thought it was better to wait for him to text me.

you: i’m sure johnny told you how frustrated the whole group was. i was the exact same.

[haechan blushes and buries his face in his hands]

you: i just wanted to be able to call him mine but he wouldn’t text me.

[everyone laughs and quietly teases haechan]

you (laughing): honestly, i was really impatient but i didn’t want to push him. so, i waited for a whole week after the last award show.

you: but, he was avoiding me really well! i even had to text johnny to make sure he was still alive.

you: so, i decided to just reach out to him first.

you: during the meeting, i tried to act like normal and tease him about his puffy face but he was having none of it.

you: “y/n, this is serious. this is our careers we’re talking about.”

you: i was scared for a moment until he was stumbling his confession out.

you: “the interview! i meant it. everything. i do. i would really like it if— i mean if you feel the same way— of course you do! you said it in the video. you do feel the same way, right?”

haechan (whining): you’re making me sound lame!

you: no, you were cute! but, also, slightly lame.

[you cackle through the phone]

you: so, i just asked him.

heechul: how about the first date?

you: he was so worried about being romantic and having that perfect first date that he forgot that i’m just a simple person.

you: when we went to see the stars, he was so nervous and was getting frustrated with himself.

you: to me, the effort he went through in itself was romantic to me.

you: i didn’t need the most spectacular first date because him being by my side was more than perfect.

you: so, i just let him know my thoughts and, when he finally relaxed, it became the most memorable first date ever.

heechul: what happened after he relaxed?

haechan: i listed all the little things that made me fall in love with them time and time again.

[everyone awes]

you: he made me feel like the most beautiful being in the universe.

heechul: okay! before this turns to sappy, y/n! thank you so much for joining us today!

you (laughing): it was my pleasure! invite me next time so i can expose haechan!

haechan: ya!

heechul: will do, bye!

[heechul hangs up the call]

host: you can definitely feel the love between you two.

haechan (in mock anger): i’m going to jump them the next time i see them.

heechul (grinning): well, i wish you guys nothing but happiness. host (raising his glass): to haechan and y/n’s beautiful relationship! [glasses clink as a bright grin appears on haechan’s face]

a/n: if i’m completely honest, idk how relationships work so idk if the way i wrote about this situation was done in a healthy way :P

pls feel free to give me feedback because i’m always looking to improve!

thank you so much for reading once again!

also, idk really know how taglists work so... @wownajaemin​, hello!

[shinjaeha]

itsay ep 3 (thoughts + spoilers)

itsay ep 3 fucking obliterated me so here i am with some more thoughts on this episode (drama) in general. this is just me being an incoherent mess bc my mind is basically just one long !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! after having watched this (once raw and again subbed). this isn’t an analysis, it’s literally me just gushing over the ep as i watch it bc boy oh BOY.

WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT EVERYTHING HITTING DIFFERENT AFTER THE BOAT SCENE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if i thought the tension in the boat knocked the breath out of me, this whole ep was that x10000.

they really started us off with a bang having continued straight off from last ep with teh smelling oh-aew’s hair, huh?? teh rubbing his face with the coconut paralleled with oh-aew smelling his coconut scented shampoo?? excuse me as i cry into my hands.

teh wasn’t willing to wake up early for tarn when she wanted to draw early in the morning, but when he sees that oh-aew wants to wake up early to study, HE’S the one that makes sure that oh-aew wakes up (and he stays up to keep oh-aew company, even if it’s just over the phone). then again when they’re at the resort...love that tarn realises that too. boy ain’t subtle. also, how is it even possible that they can have that much tension just speaking over the phone?? they’re not even in the same room and the tension between the two of them is so thick i can barely breathe.

the “let me know when you’re home”!!!!!!!!!!!!! BOYFRIEND BEHAVIOUR. as soon as oh-aew asked teh why he always asked tarn that, i KNEW they were gonna put that in there for him and oh-aew and i’m glad i wasn’t disappointed :))) the look on oh-aew’s face when he saw the text!!!!!!!!!!! the way he stopped in his tracks!!!!!!!!!

i already had a feeling that oh-aew was going to be the first one to properly realise and accept his feelings for teh based on the teasers (makes sense since he already knows he likes boys...he’s more sure of his sexuality, which would of course make it easier for him to accept based on that). seeing the way he used the ‘if you get close to him and he doesn’t move away it means he likes you’ theory that teh initially told him to try on bas with teh too was really cute. and the jealousy over tarn. i LOVED that we got to see a more petty side to him when he announced he was going to room with bas partly bc of how lowkey jealous/mad he was about teh and tarn talking over the phone. it left teh so unsettled and confused (the piano music was PERFECT in that scene), and is 510% something teh would have done too (based on the previous two eps). they really are a perfect match huh. but poor bas being caught in the middle of the two of them ;;;

i liked that a lot of this ep was from oh-aew’s perspective. i feel like we got mostly teh’s pov in the first two eps, so it was really nice to see things from oh-aew’s pov too. gave us all more insight into his personality and he’s honestly SO MUCH more flirty than i thought he was going to be omg. the potato chip scene where he just crawled over to teh and ate that potato chip all the while staring straight at teh, then lying on his lap?????????? teh was (understandably) flustered after that AND SO WAS I. i was not expecting that whatsoever. i was also really impressed with how honest oh-aew was about his feelings. i love that he’s stayed true to their previous heart to heart in the boat scene last ep where he basically told teh that he wanted transparency between the two of them. he’s sticking to that, and i admire him so much for being able to be that vulnerable and true to himself. i thought there might have been more confusion with bas, but it looks like as soon as he realised his feelings might have faded/that he was feeling things for teh now, he just went with it. i know in my last text post i said that oh-aew is usually the more cautious/pragmatic of the two, but i feel like when it comes to his feelings, he seems to be really in tune with who and what he wants (more so than teh). this of course makes sense bc he’s likely had more time to come to terms with his sexuality...which is what teh’s figuring out for himself now. on top of that, oh-aew’s feelings for teh are a lot stronger than the ones he has for bas. and since he’s also more certain that teh likes him back, he’s so much bolder in how he approaches teh. and teh, to his credit, returns that honesty too when oh-aew basically pushes him into acknowledging that there’s ~something between them (hammock scene). i was kind of expecting him to push away from that/deny it, but he didn’t. he’s obviously just a lot more confused with his feelings and still needs some time to understand them and process them fully. on a related note, hammock scene was so loaded and SO well acted by the both of them. the fact that they can move from playful in one scene too achingly intense in another always throws me for a loop.

another thing i really love about the two of them is how they push one another to be better. it’s that rivalry that makes their bond even stronger, but it’s also something that worries me for future eps ngl...

but i honestly feel SO BAD for bas...clearly, he likes oh-aew, and although oh-aew was initially confused with the two of them, he’s definitely more convinced when it comes to his feelings for teh. but when bas essentially asked oh-aew out, and oh-aew said let’s invite the rest of they guys?? he looked so sad and my heart kind of broke a little. it’s like watching the poor second lead in a kdrama. and tarn too :( i really hope that when teh accepts his feelings for oh-aew, he doesn’t keep her hanging on the way that most BLs tend to do. she deserves so much better than that. my heart really hurts for the both of them, but at the same time teh and oh-aew are just magnets being pulled together at this point. they can’t stay away from each other.

the scene where teh rubs the smell of oh-aew’s coconut scented pen (from what he’s written) all over his face bc he’s at his limit and can’t stand all those pent up feelings anymore, only to race out to their special meeting place on the beach????? the moment he sees that oh-aew’s there too and he chases after him entranced (and the smile on oh-aew’s face)????? the way the instrumental ost just swells the moment they see each other????? the way they tease and dance around another yet again?????  PURE ART. A CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE. THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DRAMA I HAVE EVER SEEN. this whole sequence has to be my fave scene in this ep. god, that part where the camera closes in on them and they’re face to face before oh-aew steps away again had my heart trying to flutter its way out of my CHEST. THEY HAVEN’T EVEN KISSED IN THE SERIES YET AND THEY CAN REDUCE ME TO THIS. honestly, their power is something else. the fact that they can stir so many emotions in all of us just by the way they glance at one another, by the way they dart around one another barely touching...there are dramas/movies with multiple kiss/love scenes that can’t even create that tension and longing. it’s the kind of chemistry that burns you inside out. it’s so palpable.

the thigh massage scene had me CAPTIVATED (like all their scenes tbh) and then teh’s mum came to wake me (and the both of them) up haha. but for real, there’s just something so tentative about what’s happening. these feelings are new to them, and they’re easing their way into it. always toeing the line, but not overstepping it yet. it’s primal. they keep letting those feelings build up more and more and more. and you can always feel the way it’s leading to something else. and of course it leads into the next scene where teh’s tutoring oh-aew again but the atmosphere is so incredibly heavy, so tight, that they can’t contain it anymore (i mean, the fact that they contained it for so long when they’re teenage boys with feelings for one another is already astounding enough to me). teh tries so hard, but then the back scratch happens and...THIS ICONIC SCENE...i thought they were going to kiss then (before oh-aew turned around), but then we got something else entirely and the intimacy of it all. just wow. literally not a single kiss and it was one of the most sensual scenes i have ever seen in a BL. it’s just the way they get so caught up in one another. THE YEARNING OF IT ALL. this whole ep was just pure anticipation, and i have never ever wanted two characters to kiss more than i do these two. it’s the build up that gets me (idk if this can be considered slow build since there’s only been like three eps but it sure as hell feels like it!!!!!!!!!). then teh pulls away and it’s like a smack in the gut...but at the same time, i get it. he’s not ready yet. there’s so much for him to take in and he’s not there yet (not the way oh-aew is), and just like oh-aew, it keeps us all hanging on, so close but not quite there yet.

so much of this felt like this cat and mouse game between the both of them where one of them would advance, then retract...it makes the tension between the two of them even MORE overwhelming bc you keep anticipating something, and you get fleeting moments of it, but then it’s over by the time you blink. they keep toying with one another, but not crossing the line YET bc they know that that’ll change everything the moment they do. it’s such a testament to the writing AND the acting bc it’s the chemistry that bkpp have with one another that creates all of that push and pull dynamic, that yearning and desire. having to wait a whole week again is just devastating...i think next ep seems like it might be the climax?? i’m pretty sure it’ll be the ep where teh accepts his feelings (or at least won’t be able to hold himself back physically anymore), where all the build up finally properly erupts, but at the same time, i just know that the angst is going to start piling up and idk how to feel other than terrified bc i’m way too invested now tbh.

anyway, this drama is absolutely magnificent, and all i want to do is rave about how damn good it is. so high quality. it feels so fresh, like they’re reinvented the tried and true coming of age tale in a way, and we’re all just along for the ride. it transcends the typical thai BL story (and i now understand why they were hesitant to label this as BL when it really feels like it encompasses so much more than the usual BL tropes and story). one of my fave dramas of the year by far (BL or otherwise). it’s just a class apart from any drama i’ve watched before and ticks every single box for me. stunning in every way. down to every detail and every feeling and emotion. it’s so raw and real and i can’t praise what nadao and the team have done with this enough (and we still have 2 more eps to go!!). there’s just so much meaning in every little thing, and in all those little things you can see the time and care it’s taken them to make this.

[bentbliley]

i would just like to say that i’m a big fan of galactic man but there isn’t a lot of lore behind the toy(s) and since i’m probably the most knowledgeable person on the lore of galactic man who didn’t actually write the toy bios, i figured i’d compile my research into one place. i might also put an addendum w/ the short bts history of the original galactic man toy (which would also include a bit of tandy, radio shack, transformers, and transformers generations selects history) but for now, here’s my research into the lore of galactic man. if you just want the blurb of lore, scroll down until you see a bolder paragraph.

#long post #hyperfixation #fantasy firearms

ok so this is practically headcanon but there’s no canon so i’m just piecing together what i can from backs of boxes and 2 product catalog listings but here’s what i believe to be the story of galactic man.

id: the original galactic man, a monotone cycloptic robot w/ a bulky chest, a red eye on a hexagon head, and a gun barrel for a left hand. end id.

so let’s start w/ galactic man, he’s a metallic humanoid who can manipulate parts of his body to become weaponry. his three weapon modes are handheld laser gun for assisting in one-on-one battles, vulcan base destroyer to keep evil enemies from conquering the universe, and anti aircraft gun for protecting his outpost on an alien planet.

id: the back of galactic man’s box. the first galactic man logo is at the top and fades down from green to blue. a subtitle describes him as an “electronic space robot slash gun.” then 4 pictures of his 4 modes are shown. clockwise starting w/ top left, they are robot, hand gun, anti aircraft gun, and vulcan base destroyer. 5 bullet points under the pictures that describe the features of the toy. “twist and turn galactic man to create three menacing-looking galactic weapons,” ”anti-aircraft gun protect’s galactic man’s outpost from attacking invaders,” “vulcan base destroyer helps you keep your evil enemies from conquering the universe,” “handheld laser gun lets you battle one-on-one in thrilling space duels,” “exciting rapid-fire and long-beam sound effects with pulsating light for super galactic action.” end id

this product catalog tells us a little more about galactic man. not much but just enough. there’s a mystery as to whether he’s a man or machine implying that he is human sized and shrinks for the handgun mode and that other inhabitants of this universe don’t know either.

id: black and white high contrast print ad for galactic man. only his robot mode can be seen. the text that’s important to this post: “is he a man or machine? twist and turn to create an anti-aircraft gun, vulcan base destroyer or laser gun. exciting sound effects. seven inches tall.” end id.

so w/ all this, we can tell pretty clearly that galactic man is in an outpost on an alien planet and that the aliens who are trying to attack the outpost are called vulcans.

now, i can hear you all asking “what about robocop?” so here’s robocop. he was sold in 2 colour schemes, red and silver and then grey. the back of the box says “team up with galactic man” and basically says this is galactic man, not the robot that we associate w/ the name. this in addition to the lack of any mentions of vulcans and the new logo make me believe this is a completely different galactic man unrelated to the vulcan fighting machine or man. there’s a chance he’s like, the second galactic man or galactic man is a group which explains the pallet swap. this galactic man was supposedly released around 1990, a full 5 years after the original hit radio shack shelves, so it kinda makes sense that they wouldn’t be connected.

id: left: red and silver robocop galactic man holding a golden machine gun. right: grey robocop galactic man holding a yellow laser gun. end id

id: the entire left half is robocop’s face w/ a bright red lit up visor. the top right corner has the second galactic man logo. the flavour text reads as follows: “team up with galactic man to defend the universe! he has three mighty weapons to choose from - laser gun, machine gun and light sword. press on if the eight buttons on his back for exciting sound effects!” end id

i did find two other galactic blank toys sold by radio shack that could be related but idk. gonna talk about them anyway.

the galactic walker is probably a knockoff of tomy’s starriors strazor runabout. the logo for the galactic walker is different from either of the galactic man logos, the box doesn’t mention vulcans by name, and it’s totally out of scale as the gold pilot is about the same size as diaclone pilots at the time. i don’t believe the galactic walker is related to either of the galactic mans but i also don’t know if it was released in 1985 or 1990 so it could have been intended to be part of either galactic man toy “lines.”

id: galactic walker in dynatron mode which can best be described as a white robot sauropod w/ blue limbs and an orange cockpit face. end id.

id: side of galactic walker box. six bullet points describe the toy and are as follows: “conquers the enemy four different ways,” “motor power creatures over the toughest terrains,” “durable plastic body,” “leads the fight against evil space monsters,” “provides hours of fun for children of all ages,” “quickly changes into new shape,” end id.

lastly, the galactic space pistol which has a fourth logo style and doesn’t mention vulcans BUT it was released alongside the original galactic man as seen in the full page the earlier print ad came from as seen below. again, neither the box nor the ad mention vulcans, it’s really just by association.

id: blocky white sci-if pistol. missing battery cover on grip. end id.

id: the full page of radio shack ads. end id.

id: side of the galactic space pistol’s box. three bullet points reading: “defend your territory against the aliens,” “red and green pulsating lights flash in unison with the sound,” “rugged, milder design for hours of action.” end id.

so what have we learned today? that tandy really likes reusing the word galactic and they really don’t care because at the end of the day, mass market toys are just meant to take money out from parents’ wallets. the story, if any, is secondary and any comic, cartoon, or book made to go w/ the toys is purely advertising material and tandy didn’t care enough to actually make a story that could be easily found. but i think i can scrounge a quick summary of what the story might be, feel free to chime in w/ your own interpretations but mine is just a rearrangement of the bullet points on the boxes for reader digestibility.

so, galactic man is a mysterious robot who may be human or may just be a simple machine meant to protect the inhabitants of an outpost on an alien planet from the creatures known as vulcans. galactic man can change shape and size to turn into weaponry for the outposters. an anti-aircraft gun for protection from the vulcans’ aerial assault. a handheld pistol for limited space mono e mono (in the english misinterpretation, not the spanish translation). and lastly, a weapon designed specifically to take down vulcan bases of operation. a pistol is also available for the outposters for protection when galactic man isn’t available.

NOTE: i can’t tell what the outposters are. is it an apocalypse setting? are they colonisers? are they scientific researchers? hard to say. could be all three, who knows? do i really want a galactic man comic or cartoon or something? h*ll yes i do. will i write fan fic for galactic man? maybe nebulously in the future when i have time. i know for a fact i definitely want that gens selects galactic man just for my love of all this, i’m debatably the biggest galactic man fan so it’d be weird if i didn’t wanna get it at some point. it’s also the perfect intersection between my love of shapeshifting robot toys and 80s computers as the tandy that owned radio shack at the time is the same tandy that produced computers in the 80s.

[mydarlingklaus]

The Confrontation

So this is the second part of my “the merge” drabble which you can find part one here! I highly recommend you read part one first so it makes sense. This is going to be a 3 (or 4) part drabble that I’ve enjoyed writing about and hope you enjoy reading. I’ve already gotten great feedback for it. Leaving reviews on my ff.net account are appreciated. thanks :)

Summary: Aftermath of Klaus finding out that the twins have to merge. This is now the confrontation between Caroline and Lizzie.

(I will die on the hill that Klaus is Lizzie’s dad and no one can tell me shit!)

******************************************

"Mom?"

Caroline instantly lifted her tear-stained face from the palms of her hands to meet Lizzie's worried gaze from across the room. She didn't even realize how fast the school day went and it was already lunch time—nursing a second glass of scotch that had been beside her elbow since morning.

"Hey sweetie." Caroline greeted with a sniffle, wiping away the tears underneath her eyes. "I thought you were studying during your lunch break?"

Lizzie swallowed, taking in her mom's appearance of puffy red eyes and tear coated cheeks.

"Why are you crying?" She wondered.

Despite her distress, Caroline had to push it to the side and seeing her daughter reminded her of that. She still had a school to run and daughters to raise—-chalking up Klaus' absence as a 'time away for work in NOLA' with a quivering fake smile each time they asked. 'Fake it till you make it' was a phrase Caroline knew all too well.

"It's nothing." She brushed off with a hesitant smile.

"Obviously it's something." The braided haired witch challenged.

"What do you want Lizzie? I really don't have time to just talk. I'm very busy." Caroline snapped.

Lizzie scoffed. "Yeah, I can see that." Nodding her head towards the booze. "But fine we can skip the mother/daughter chit chat and cut right to the chase. I want to know why you've been lying to us."

Caroline's eyes grew and lump in her throat jumped at the abrupt—-and accurate—- accusation.

The charade worked, the first day, but Lizzie only grew more persistent. Constantly pestering and pointing out the holes in the fabricated story, mainly Klaus dodging her phone calls—he's never done that since she was able to use a phone.

"I—I don't know what you mean—"

She shook her head. "Don't do that, please don't make an idiot out of me more than you already have!"

"Keep your voice down. School is still in session." Caroline demanded in a hush tone.

The young witch telepathically slammed the door shut behind her, earning a glare from her mother.

"I want to know what happened to Klaus, and I know it was something because he's never ignored my phone calls or texts before. And he definitely never goes back to New Orleans without at least saying goodbye—emergency or not."

Three days.

Three long and antsy days had gone by since she last seen or heard from Klaus. She called all of his siblings but they to not have heard from him either.

Caroline couldn't get that look out of her head. His face full of such disgust and betrayal he could barely suppress his boiling anger—he hadn't looked at her like that since their first days of knowing each other, when he was the enemy and she didn't know what he'd mean to her.

Not that she didn't deserve it, but he didn't even say goodbye before she had to find out on her own when his things were packed and car missing. He was big bad hybrid Klaus, so she wasn't necessarily concerned for his safety, but not knowing where he was and if he was mentally stable caused just as much anxiety.

Caroline gave Alaric an earful for informing Klaus before she had the opportunity to, which only resulted in her feeling worse than she already did. She never expected Klaus to take the news about the merge lightly, but she underestimated how hurt he'd feel. He's feeling as helpless as she now does.

After hundreds of failed calls and texts, the only thing Caroline could do was impatiently wait for this return—whenever that would be. She didn't even know where he was, crying herself to sleep every night. Missing him, yearning and worried about him. Subconsciously reaching over to the cold vacant spot on the bed beside her where his warm body usually lied to embrace her in his arms as they caught slumber together. He was her refugee and security—now he wasn't. Caroline never felt more incomplete and unsafe.

It was driving her crazy not knowing his whereabouts or his well being—she couldn't pretend that the fragility of their relationship wasn't also packing into her anxiety.

Caroline sighed, standing from her office chair. "It's complicated—"

"It always is with you." She muttered.

"Hey!" Caroline sternly pointed her finger. "I don't care how you're feeling or how upset you are, you won't disrespect me."

"You have to give respect to earn it, and lying to me about where Klaus has been when you've seen me going crazy over it isn't exactly role model behavior."

"Lizzie—"

"What happened? Where is he!"

"I don't know!" Caroline blurted.

She felt all she could do in this moment was scream. As if her anxiety wasn't already thriving on Klaus' sudden disappearance her own disgusted wasn't making it better with her accusations.

"I don't know..." Caroline repeated, looking up at her beautiful daughter who's tear-filled eyes matched hers.

Lizzie cautiously approached her mother who was now holding her hand over her mouth to suppress her sobs. She pushed her hair back anxiously, swallowing her nerves while taking a seat and crossing her legs.

"Um, did you and Klaus like break up or something?" She asked, fearing the response.

Caroline shook her head, wiping under her eyes again. "No, nothing like that."

- Right?

Lizzie let out a subtle breath of relief.

"But it is something. Bad enough for him to leave out of nowhere. Please mom." Scooting to the edge of the chair. "What happened between you two?"

The obvious concern in her daughter's voice only worsened Caroline's guilt.

There was no one in this scenario she was more angry with than herself and she hated not having the answers Lizzie wanted, but she was scared. Scared to tell her the truth of why Klaus fled in the first place—possibly losing him was devastating but losing Lizzie or Josie would be soul crushing.

Caroline took a deep breath, leaning against her desk while grabbing both of Lizzie's hands. Her beautiful and smart Lizzie, with so many aspirations and goals for her future. How was she supposed to explain that in just a few years there's a 50/50 chance she won't have one?

"Um, me and Klaus had an argument."

Lizzie's eyebrows scrunched. "But you guys never argue, and if you do it's over dumb stuff like when he wanted to fly me and Josie out to Tokyo for our sweet 16 during a school week."

Caroline sadly laughed, thinking back on all of Klaus' outrageous and ridiculous gestures that made her love him so much.

"Yeah..." She sniffled. "Um, Lizzie there's something I need to tell you and I really wish Josie was here because it's actually something I need to tell both of you."

Lizzie gulped, suddenly feeling a shiver of panic run down her arms as Caroline continued.

"Jo, your birth mother, was a descendant from what is known as the Gemini coven. When you girls were first born I didn't know what that meant or the significance until your fifth birthday when you began developing your magic...that's when your father explained it to me."

"Dad?" Lizzie questioned.

- What did he have to do with it?

Licking her lips nervously, Caroline resumed. "Being apart of this particular coven comes with a price, a curse known as 'the merge', for every new set of twins. When Gemini twins turn 22 years old the merge forces you to participate in a duel against one another to determine who will lead the coven until the next generation. Only one of you is meant to survive..."

The young witch gulped again, as she tried to process what was being told to her. This was impossible information to digest and she felt any second she was going to puke.

"So...what you're saying is that, one of us will have to kill the other?" Lizzie asked, feeling more sick and confused with every burning question popping into her head and how it led to Klaus' departure.

- Did he know about this?

She wondered.

"More like absorb." Caroline clarified. "Whoever is to win the duel would acquire the other's power. That's part of why I was doing so much traveling a few years back, why I was away from home all those long and tortuous months. It was to find a cure or some type of loophole. We were hoping this would be something neither of you would even have to know about, let alone experience."

- What the hell?

Was all Lizzie could think. She felt frozen in the uncomfortable chair, barely listening anymore to her own mother justifying her reason to keep her death sentence a secret her entire life—their lives.

Josie.

How was she supposed to break this down to her sister when she didn't fully understand it herself? Lizzie's entire life felt like a lie. What other secrets were her parents keeping from them?

How did her life take such a drastic turn in a mere of a few minutes? Just yesterday she was brainstorming prom dresses and venue ideas for the dance. Post-graduation plans of going off to New York for college and stressing over if Sebastian would follow her wherever she went. Would their relationship even make it to graduation? Would she live in dorms or pursued Klaus to pitch in for an apartment? Design school or major in literature? She was supposed to be thinking about the beginning of her life, not the ending.

"I know this is a lot to take in at once and you must have a million questions that I'm more than willing to answer." Caroline said, making Lizzie blink—-one, two, three times as she mentally jumped back into the conversation. Her face still blank as the words spewed.

The letters G-U-I-L-T couldn't be bolder on her mother's face if they tried. Her pleading blue eyes and quivering bottom lip did nothing to sway Lizzie from her state of shock.

"You can't imagine how sorry I am we didn't tell you girls sooner, but it's what we felt was best at the time. We wanted to wait until your 18th birthday with the hopes we'd find a solution by then, and you girls would be old enough to understand..."

Lizzie still said nothing.

Caroline squeezed her hand. "Sweetie I know this is scary and overwhelming. Believe me this wasn't easy on me or your father having to keep it from you and your sister, definitely not how we wanted to tell you. It wasn't our intention to lie. This was an impossible decision to make, everyday it killed me that you girls didn't know but...how do you tell your children that there are things you can't protect them from, not even each other?"

One tear fell down each of Lizzie's cheek, unsure if she was more angry or sad—maybe a lot of both. Her life was flipped, disintegrating, literally hanging by a thread and the only person she wanted to console in and seek advice from was MIA.

"You should have told us..." Lizzie finally said, coldly, when she eventually found her voice. Abruptly snatching her hands from Caroline's and placing them in her own lap.

The small—-microscopic—-understanding part of her brain was quickly being dominated by her burning rage.

Her lips quivered as she stood to her feet, stepped outside the chair to increase the distance between them. Seeing Caroline's face dramatically drop made her stomach turn, briefly, then she was reminded why she looked so distraught in the first place.

She shook her head frantically. "You—you should have told us, way before now. Way before you encouraged us to live our abnormal life as greatly as possible. Remember that?"

"Lizzie—"

"Instead of giving me and Josie false hope that we had any chance of getting out of this shit town to do anything we desire, you should've just told us the damn truth!"

"Elizabeth Saltzman!" Caroline stomped her foot powerfully, enough to shake the ground.

Lizzie knew she was crossing the line but her anger piled on top of each other until it became its own monster. But she didn't care about, not anymore.

"I had dreams, real goals for my future mom." Lizzie sobbed. "For the first time in years I felt normal and was genuinely happy. My mental health was managed and I was actually looking forward to living. I was going to leave Mystic Falls, did you know that?!"

Caroline gasped. "Wh-what?"

Lizzie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Of course you didn't, why would you? But yes I had a whole plan mapped out to leave this place after graduation. Go to school somewhere new. I wanted to stay stateside for now, probably New York with Auntie Rebekah or Los Angeles with Uncle Kol. Just to start a new life, my own, in a big vibrant city where no one knew who I was. Where I wouldn't be the neurotic witch, the bipolar freak, Josie's sister, or Caroline Forbes' daughter...I'd just be me. Attending whatever college I wan and make new real friends and finally live my life!"

Lizzie looked heartbroken, as the hot tears dogged her vision.

Caroline opened and closed her mouth. This was brand new information. It never occurred to her that either of the twins desires to flee the small town they've known as home—-neither ever brought it up. This reminded her a lot of herself at their age, stores she's told them multiple times in disguise of bedtime stories. Which only pained her more that Lizzie didn't think she could confide in her about these incredible dreams.

"You—you never told me about that."

"You never asked." Lizzie fired back, crossing her arms over chest defensively.

Caroline nodded. "You're right, I should've. I've been so invested in so many things lately I allowed them to overrun you and I'm sorry. I should be more involved in your future as well as your present—"

"Is it because you know only one of us would have one?"

Caroline's eyes narrowed offensively.

"Lizzie, of course not. I always had hope we would find something by now and I'm sorry we didn't. I'm sorry this is how you found out and that all of this is happening. You have to know this is the last thing I wanted for either of you." She pleaded, reaching for her daughter who instantly pushed her hand away.

Her chest tightened at the blatant rejection.

17 years, neither of the twins had ever been genuinely angry with Caroline before, besides basic teenage angst. Never were they full blown hateful or disrespectful, not that she blamed her but the justification didn't lessen the pain. The way Lizzie was staring at her, with such disgust and hurt pulsing through her bloodshot blue eyes made Caroline's stomach turn. She was taking the full beating for something initiated by both her and Alaric—-she'll relay the anger towards him later.

It was the same way Klaus looked at her.

Pulling a tissue from her bag Lizzie wiped her nose, biting down on her bottom lip. Growing more enraged by the second as the realization settled in and raised her eyes.

"He didn't know either, did he?"

Caroline licked her dry lips anxiously.

"Answer me." Lizzie demanded through her clenched pearly white teeth, huffing out a puff of air when her mother responded.

"No, he didn't."

Pacing, back and forth, in her corner—pinching her bottom lip between her shaky index finger and thumb Lizzie felt she was at her wits end. Despite her shattered exterior, it was comforting to know Klaus was just as in the dark about the situation.

She was certain she wouldn't be able to handle Klaus of all people lying to her too.

The young witch eventually stopped pacing, hanging her head low with her hands firmly on her denim clad hips. Trying to gather all her thoughts best she could but every conclusion had the same tragic outcome. Lizzie loved her mother, with everything she had, but this was a life decision she and Alaric made about she and Josie's life. This was a huge secret they voluntarily kept from them since birth—no matter the intentions it was wrong and harmful and drove away the only person in her life who's ever been honest with her.

Quite frankly she was too hurt and confused to care about anyone's feelings but her own.

Caroline stood patiently by her desk, waiting for her daughter to break the tension any second now.

Lizzie sniffled. "Klaus, um—Klaus wasn't an easy adjustment when he officially became apart of our lives. I didn't know what he was supposed to be to me and Josie, what Hope was supposed to be. There was a moment, brief, but a moment where I didn't want either of them around. I never told anyone that."

The baby vampire felt all her emotions bottling up in the base of her throat at her daughter's shocking admission.

"Klaus quickly became one of the most important people in my life—probably the only person I could depend on fir anything, but especially when life became overwhelming." She explained, blinking away her thick tears. "He was always the one who told me to dream big, to never limit myself no matter how far fetched it seemed. He encouraged all three of us—me, Josie and Hope—to get away from this small town the first chance we got if that's what we wanted. He wanted us to live. He was the most constant thing I had and you took that from me, you took everything from me..." She shook her head side to side, still not entirely processing the devastating news.

Caroline's chest caved and heart fell to the pit of her stomach. Hearing all of this—-what Klaus meant to Lizzie and vice versa—broke her heart more than anything she's ever encountered in her 25 years of living. All the death and tragedy that's surrounded her since knowing the existence of the supernatural held no water to the familial bond she broke between father and daughter.

Seeing Lizzie so distraught was gut wrenching, and knowing nothing she could say would make her pain go away. Caroline had to admit she underestimated the reactions from a kept secret fueled by good intentions.

Swallowing back her tears, she tried reaching her hand out again. "Lizzie please—"

"Klaus left because of you. He abandoned us and it's your fault!" Lizzie screamed, aggressively pushing her away and unintentionally blowing out the lights in Caroline's office and the outdoor hallway.

The ground shook—like a mini earthquake—but enough to rattle around everything in the large office space. No doubt the rest of the school felt it just as intensely. Caroline covered her ears and slightly lost her balance, tripping over her feet as the shaking wound down. Her initial mortified gaze now stunned and proud at her girl's amazing abilities but Lizzie wasn't letting up—leaving now room for praise.

"He left because he couldn't bare to stare at your lying face anymore than I can." She said exhaustedly. Voice hoarse, face blank and wet with tears.

Her body was present but it seemed she consciously wasn't. She had no more energy to give. After all the cries and yells she was mentally drained, not even enough to show a reaction to Caroline who was practically sobbing in front of her. Maybe there was a rational side to this, maybe, somewhere deep inside her core surely there was a justification. But Lizzie didn't have it in her to search for it, not now and she wasn't sure if she ever would.

Caroline pressed her quivering lips into a tight line, staring up at the ceiling to clear the glassy film over her eyes before fixating on her daughter again—no such luck. The rage, understood, the grief—valid. But the blatant disrespect was exceeding a level of inappropriate she didn't think was possible.

"Lizzie." She said sternly, approaching her with an equally reddened face. "This is a lot, I get that and your anger is beyond justified. I love you, and Klaus, and I really wish he was here right now but he's not. I don't know where he is yet. I don't know when or if he's coming back anytime soon and I'm sorry I can't provide you all the answers you want, but what I do know is that I'm still your mother. No matter how upset you are that is never going to change and you will not speak to me anyway you want. Is that understood?"

Lizzie swallowed audibly. Her body still facing forward as she grabbed the doorknob and twisting it with her shaky wrist. Staring Caroline down with a glare so sharp, it defined the phrase 'looks can kill'.

"You're not even my real mom. You're just the surrogate, remember?"

- Wow.

Caroline's stomach dropped, knees buckled and face drained of color and emotions. Her undead heart grew colder and weaker and body shriveled like a flower during Winter time, as Lizzie's haunting last words repeatedly stabbed her in the chest, over and over again. Her mouth opened and closed but no words came out—-there were no words to explain how Caroline was feeling. Even if it was a heat of the moment outburst, the blow couldn't have been any lower.

She didn't think anything could hurt more than watching Klaus walk away, until her distraught daughter stormed out the door without another look.

*****************************************************

Night time came quicker than anticipated. The school day came and went, and an exhausted Caroline couldn't be more relieved to be in the comfort of her home. Thankfully the house was empty, giving her all the alone tone she craved. Throwing her keys on the marble countertop after closing the door behind her—immediately making her ear upstairs to her room to drop off her bags and laptop.

After the horrific confrontation with Lizzie, the remainder of the afternoon Caroline was stuck with paperwork, phone calls, meetings and delinquent students. Never her favorite moments of the day but it was the perfect distraction from her personal life. The last thing Lizzie said still ringing in her ear and making her bleed by the lobes.

You're not even my real mom.

- Yup, still stings.

Still in disbelief Lizzie had it in her to say such a thing—to want to hurt her that badly. Bringing back the negative memories of when the twins were first born and everyone referred to them as Alaric's instead of theirs. Having to fight and prove she was worthy of the title as a mother, as if she wasn't the one who carried them for nine months and nearly died from it.

Her past frustrations beginning to mingle with the new.

She hadn't seen Lizzie around campus since and didn't make any attempts at calling or texting. Caroline figured she needed some space, it was a heavy case load of information that she was nowhere near prepared to drop yet. She wondered if Josie knew yet, or even Hope.

Caroline heavily sighed—-wanting nothing more than a warm bath, jazz on vinyl and a Cosmopolitan to was it all down.

Now in her bedroom, she prepared for just that. Her leather jacket, black pumps and laptop bag suffered the same fate as her house keys—carelessly thrown on the nearest surface. Running her fingers through her golden blonde curls with another sigh leaving her lips, taking as many breaths possible.

Looking down at the freshly made queen sized bed, she briefly paused, realizing this would make night four of sleeping in its comfort alone. No more safe and warm arms wrapped around her waist, holding her body snugged against his front. Light kisses and seductive licks up her exposed neck. Humming to sleep with a lazy smile as he whispered dirty confessions and sweet nothings on her ear. No more whispered 'I love yous' shared in the dark when basking in their mutual glow after making love.

She missed him...god did she miss him. Everything about Klaus made her feel so whole—never feeling more loved in her entire life. It amazed her how quickly he became a focal point in her life and how, just as quickly, he wasn't there.

This was the longest they've gone without speaking to each other and it was pure torture.

With that thought Caroline sat up on her bed, legs tucked under each other's and pulled her iPhone out her purse.

Her throat tightened—biting down on her bottom lip apprehensively as her thumb waved over his name in her contacts list. If she had a heartbeat she would've heard it pounding crazily in her ears by now. Giving their recent track record, the likelihood of him answering her at all was slim to none...

- What the hell.

Realizing she had nothing to lose, Caroline sucked in some bravery and pressed the 'call' button with a shaking thumb. Holding the device against her ear impatiently but, per usual, she was directed to his automatic voice message system. She wasn't too surprised he turned his phone off but more by his other skills.

Even for being centuries old and, usually, technologically challenged Klaus had enough knowledge on modern technology to disable the tracking feature.

Caroline smiled to herself at the sound of his distinct and seductive voice for his voicemail, remembering when she begged him to record one and how it took 15 minutes to persuade; nearly bursting into tears before the beep.

- This is so pathetic. You look pathetic and needy but if you just hang up now you can redeem some of your dignity.

Going against her own subconscious, she remained on the phone and quickly composed herself while clearing her throat at the sound of the beep.

- Shit.

"Hey, it's me but you already knew that because my number is in your phone." Caroline began with a sad smile and picking at the fabric of her pants with her fingertips. "Um, so I know your phone has been off the past couple of days and you're not exactly in the mood to talk to me now which I understand but um...I hope you're okay. You're on my mind everyday and...well I've had quite the day, a pretty shitty one actually and all I wanted to do afterwards was come home to you. Whenever I feel horrible I go to you, not because it takes one shitty thing to know another or anything like that. I just—" She smacked herself on the forehead.

Now she was a rambling mess, per usual when put in nerve racking situations but she caught herself. Closing her eyes for a second to release a long exhale before continuing.

Her blue eyes already welling up like the sea.

"You always make me feel better because, well you're the love of my life. That's still surreal to say, um, but it's true. You make me feel safe and valid, even when I probably don't deserve it. You're my greatest supporter, shoulder to cry on. You give me comfort, and I could really use some of that right now." She sniffled into a smile, shaking her head. "I'm so sorry, for everything. I regret keeping that from you when all you've ever done was be honest with me, but even more I regret letting you walk out that door. I didn't realize how much you were the glue keeping his family together until you were gone. We need you home, I need you. I miss you, and I really wish you were here."

The minute she hung up the phone, with a final tear streaming down her face, Alaric appeared in the doorway with bugged eyes and frustrated expression on his face.

Caroline's eyebrows pulled together in concern as she stood from her bed.

"What's wrong?"

He sighed, leaning one hand against the threshold. "It's Lizzie, she's gone."

*******************************************************

Klaus stared intently at the wall of his dark studio—sketchbook resting on his lap and a glass of bourbon in his hand. Everyone else in the house were in their respective rooms, likely asleep, but he was wide awake and alone.

He didn't intend on staying in New Orleans longer than a couple of days—-fleeing wasn't in his plans either—-but every night he'd close his and an image of the twins lying lifeless in the dirt flashed before him and jerking him awake. The news of the merge wasn't something he wanted to accept, nor something he could avoid—Caroline avoided it long enough.

Caroline.

His Caroline. His light, his love, his everything and more—who he now couldn't look at without feeling immense anger. With all the progression they've made through the years, from a friendship to blending their families he couldn't fathom why she didn't think she could confide in him. Why she didn't trust him with the truth about the girls—their girls! Now it felt too late, not enough time to be there for them the way he promised. Five years were nothing. They'll fly by in a blink of an eye, which one of them would be dead and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Despite his animosity towards her, Klaus missed Caroline the longer he stayed away. Over a decade she played a crucial role in his heart and finally having her in his life intensified the already burning love. He missed kissing her before going to sleep and distracting her from work responsibilities. Everything about her made him happy to be alive. They never went more than a day without speaking, let alone him abruptly leaving and not at least informing her of his whereabouts.

He transformed into a wolf that first night, running wild and free in the dark woods of Mystic Falls for the whole night. Desperately trying to but out his frustration that never left. The urge to rip apart anyone who stood in his way was strong. All he saw was vibrant blood shot red as the moon washed through his dark brown coat, howling to himself in despair. Klaus was usually incapable of controlling his beast but demonstrated remarkable self control as he regained form any kills and turned back to a two-legged man when the sun began to set. Getting dressed and driving off to New Orleans like his life depended on it. Compelling his way through speeding tickets and hitchhiker's blood for the road, before finally arriving to his home.

Living under the same roof with Elijah, Freya and Hayley again wasn't an arrangement he missed in the slightest. Just as nosy as ever with their millions of inquires when he arrived on the front door. Thankfully all his irritants of siblings didn't live together anymore, but it didn't take long for word to spread to Rebekah and Kol who bombarded his phone with invasive questions. Hayley was probably the most respectable. After receiving the reassurance that Hope was safe, they spoke briefly while he unpacked. She knew his surprise arrival was Caroline related but didn't press him for information like the rest of the Mikaelson clan—Klaus appreciated the discretion.

Eventually he turned his phone off, not just to ignore his siblings but to also fight the temptation of reaching out to a certain blonde. He was in no shape to speak to her right now, and their last confrontation wasn't pretty either. Instead he buried himself into his art and community to distract from the shenanigans known as Mystic Falls.

Klaus' ears perked and eyes shot up when he sensed a presence outside the mansion—his suspicions confirmed at the sound of the doorbell repeatedly ringing. He threw his head back with a groan, certainly not in the mood for any surprise company—not to mention it was the middle of the night.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

"Fuckin' hell." He mumbled, rolling his eyes.

After finishing off his drink, Klaus slammed it on the table and stood from the chair with murder on his mind.

Storming towards the front door he yanked it open with as much force as he could muster, fangs out and vampiric eyes already golden and threatening.

Klaus' body stiffened.

His jaw clenched and stomach dropped as he held the door open. A mix of emotions ran through him as he stared in awe at the blonde girl before him who was looking back at him with the doest of eyes.

"Lizzie?" His voice almost a whisper.

"Surprise!" She hesitantly waved. Her half lip-glossed smile made his chest jump and hands soften.

After the initial shock faded, his eyes observed her appearance to make sure she was at least in good condition before he lashed out.

She had an overnight bag hanging on her arm and backpack thrown across her back. It was a fairly warm night, so her washed jeans with a cropped black sweater and tennis shoes was perfect attire; however, not typical Lizzie-like attire. Her wavy blonde hair was still perfectly in place.

Klaus nearly cried at the sight of her angelic face, for more than one reason.

- What the hell is she doing here? How did she know I was here? Is she here alone?

She was safe, good, now he can be mad.

"What—what are you doing here in New Orleans, at bloody 2 A.M. no less?"

"Klaus I—"

"How did you even get here?" He asked.

Lizzie gulped. "I—I flew."

"You flew, alone?" Klaus' eyes widened with his assumption.

She nodded.

He shook his head in disbelief while running his fingers through his curls irritably as if he felt a migraine coming along.

"Are you mad!" Klaus stepped closer towards her. "You drove through the French Quarter, on your own for the first time in the middle of the night. What were you thinking? Anything could've happened to you Lizzie do you realize that!" He growled.

"But nothing did. As you can see I'm fine!"

Words couldn't describe the amount of fear running through his body and blood rushing to his brain, at just the thought of anything going awry during her journey. Whether it be through the airport or on her way to the mansion. Lizzie's safety being compromised in his own city. He didn't even care that he was yelling.

This was New Orleans, boundaries were obsolete. He's seen what can happen to girls wandering around the city alone—he's had his fair share of sins. Knowing he'd paint the entire state of Louisiana red if anyone even thought of touching her.

Klaus rubbed his hand over his face, taking a deep breath while trying to calm himself.

Licking her lips nervously, Lizzie sighed.

She knew he'd be shocked to see her but maybe she overestimated how much.

"Look, I know you're like really pissed off with me and I get that. There's an actual explanation which we can talk about all of it inside but...you wouldn't by any chance have $60 to cover my cab? I kinda already told the driver you were good for it."

Just when he thought his night was uneventful.

**********************************************************

part 3 coming soon!

[zhantesblog]

52)Presentation Slides

OPENING SLIDE

To begin our presentation, Charlotte is going to introduce our brand; create a warm welcome and set the pace of the presentation.

Charlotte – “Good Morning, we are group one, and throughout this presentation we will be introducing you to our new brand Gaia.”  

INTRODUCTION SLIDE

Charlotte will continued on to the next slide to communicate what our overall brand story is.

The brand story is something that we have been working on as a group pretty much since the beginning. I like our story as I think it clearly reflects our brands message and mission statement. I love the layout of this slide as its simplistic and elegant and I think it really reflects are target demographic. The slide is overused by text but goes into enough detail. The font choice is also good because it is clear, concise and eligible for the audience to read- its also a nice contrast from the Amalfi Coast font used for the brand name.

Charlotte

– “Our brand story is, here at Gaia, we want you to feel like the true Earth Goddess you are. With our size inclusive, stylish and elegant designs made both ethically and sustainably. We aim for our loungewear to leave you looking great and feeling empowered. We are diving deep into clean production that is not only beneficial to you but for the earth as well.”

VISION AND PURPOSE SLIDE

Heather will then pick up from where Charlotte left off and will go into detail about what our brands overall vision and purpose is and explains each point and what they mean for us as a brand. Again the information on this slide is kept to a minimum and focuses on the 3 main key components of our vision and purpose, which will allowHeather to go into more detail without overwhelming the audience.

Sustainability, responsibility and inclusivity have been the main focus of our brand since the very beginning, so I am glad that they are highlighted as our main focus points and support our brands message.

Heather

– “Sustainability-

All of our fabrics, yarns, trimmings and finishings are either organic and sustainably sourced or are made from 100% post consumer recycled material. This means we never deplete our planets natural resources faster than we can produce them.

Responsibility-  

Everybody who works at Gaia are insured a competitive wage and our places of work are regularly inspected to guarantee safe working conditions.

Inclusivity-  

We want all women to feel comfortable and confident when they shop with us. Our sizing ranges from a UK size 4-24 with hopes to increase this in the future.”

CUSTOMER PROFILE SLIDE

Following up from the vision and purpose slide, Narnia will begin to talk about our customer profile. 

I love the layout of this slide as I think the collage of images on the side really bring it together and communicates our customer/demographic of 25-40 year old, professional women. I think it adds a contemporary feel as Narnia pointed out that our customer is an ‘Art lover’. 

I think Narnia did really well at pinpointing exactly who our demographic is by exploring their hobbies, interests, psychological make up and consumer habits as this was something we were told is important to explore and communicate.

Narnia – “Although at GAIA we pride ourselves in our inclusivity we do find our main customer audience to be a woman between the ages of 25 to 40 years old who are at a middle-class economic level. Demographically, we at GAIA want our customers to be economically aware, professional women earning a sufficient wage of 30k a year and above, who while wanting comfort also seek fashionable and classy loungewear that can be dressed up and worn out as well as dressed down.  

The psychological makeup of our customer is an art lover who is fashion conscious, a discriminating buyer, university educated with occupational accomplishment and an economic activist.    

The habits of our customer include shopping, reading, walking, yoga, watching movies and spending time with family.  

In terms of their consumer habits, our customers enjoy shopping around once every month or two months at middle to high profile retail establishments, fashionable good quality products, consciously seeks out sustainable and economically friendly brands.”

BRAND IDENTITY SLIDE

Following on from the feedback we received in our previous group meeting, the brand identity slide and to be altered. The colour palette has since been replaced by what the logo would look like as a social media icon and a little bit of information on the font used for the logo is highlighted as well as the origins of the name to add some context. During the presentation Me and Narnia will discuss why we decided to call our brand Gaia and how the logo was formed and how it fits into our overall identity.

I think that this slide clearly explains our brand and logo and how the colour palette used for our logo reflects the elegant and refined look of not only the presentation but our demographic as well. We felt that it looked more professional along with the script font used for the logo.

Narnia - “For our brand we decided to call ourselves Gaia. Gaia was venerated as the goddess of earth or land in ancient Greece. We think the name clearly reflects our goals of being sustainable and inclusive- supporting women empowerment through the use of a goddess accompanied with our ‘all goddesses welcome’ tagline.”

Zhanté - “The logo is formed with Amalfi coasts cursive text that projects a feminine tone overall. Partnered with that is the alchemical symbol for the earth element, which further helps us to be identified as a sustainable brand. Both elements are identifiable to our brand and can be separated and used as standalone logos across our collection and promotional front.

We decided to keep the colour palette quite simple as the black and white creates a more refined, elegant and professional look as it reflects our target audience of professional women aged 25-40 and we also want our collection to speak for itself.”

TREND SLIDE

Charlotte and Molly worked on the trend slide together. We decided as a group to look into two S/S 22 WGSN trends and blend them together. Charlotte will discus the Home Comforts trend and created a moodpboard to showcase this and Molly looked into our colour palette which is inspired by WGSN’S Euphoric trend.

I love the overall look of this slide as the mood-board really adds a pop of colour and contrasts well with the black and white theme we’ve been consistent with. It just further highlights the bright and bold colour palette of our products.

Charlotte - “Our trend is a combination of the colour palette from the spring summer 22 euphoric and the concept of home comforts from spring summer 22 connected, both from WGSN.  

The concept of home comforts is based around comfy, loungewear home styles lasting long after lockdown. Loungewear isn’t just about comfort anymore it also needs to look into wellbeing with health being a consumer priority. Home comforts is relevant for loungewear and sets with cocooning adaptable silhouettes and adjustable features including elasticated closures and button-down finishes. The recommended materials for home comforts are organic fabrics including hemp, linen and cotton with hypoallergenic, rejuvenating and deodorising benefits. We have taken away aspects of home comforts for our brand including the loungewear home styles, organic materials and adaptable and adjustable silhouettes with elasticated features and tie-waist closures. With a future plan to look into smart fabrics.”

Molly- “The reason why we decided not to keep the home comforts colour palette is because we wanted something bolder and brighter. We went with the forecasted trend euphoric and the colour palette is inspired by the trend board colour me happy.   The colour palette consists of lavender Silk, Fresh Ginger, Nectar, Daylight Blue, Turquoise Tonic, Orchard Flower and Red Glow.”  

PRODUCT SLIDE

Both Lisa and Charlotte worked on this slide, discussing our collection and the type of products/ styles we’ll selling as well as the materials that will be used. Charlotte will begin explaining the garment shapes and design details of our first range and then Lisa will discuss the colours and fabrics.

Charlotte - “The first loungewear collection for Gaia consists of three outfits designed for release in the spring of 2022. We’d like to consider ourselves as an inclusive brand to all and offer all of our products in sizes XXS to 4XL.  

The first outfit in our range is a plunge V neck sleeveless full-length dress, with an elasticated ruffled waist. The dress is paired with a collarless full length quilted coat with wide sleeves, complete with a long sash belt. The second outfit consists of three items including elasticated paper bag style lounge pants, a sleeveless tank in the same style as the dress, these are paired with a quilted wide sleeved crop jacket with a tie waste. The third outfit is a pair of elasticated paper bag shorts with a cropped square neck t-shirt with ruffled sleeve detailing matching that of the bottoms and dress. All of the outerwear and bottoms from this collection have seam pockets and there is a paper bag style detail running across all three looks of the collection.”

Lisa - “Looking at the garments we create, we plan to use recycled polyester and organic cotton. Which would be coloured through a natural dye process and use of sublimation for the polyester fibres which wouldn’t be as harmful or wasteful. And with the jackets and coat we would use cotton batting.” 

PRICE SLIDE

After getting feedback from our initial slide, Natalie pointed out a pricing issue and miscalculations as it was initially too inexpensive. Heather worked really hard to correct this issue in such a short amount of time and has made sure to cover all the points including; labour costs, fabric costs and price comparisons with our competitors and taking into account the sustainability factors.

Heather

– “Our first clothing line is priced from £47 - £428. Being a sustainable and ethically inspired brand it is expected that our products may cost more than less ethical companies on the market. As an example we pay all of our employees an average wage of £12 an hour including everyone involved with the production of our garments. Compared to one of our main ethical competitors girlfriend collective, who pay the living wage for seamstresses in Vietnam, our employees earn over 10x the amount they do. We believe that this will not deter our customer base as they care far more about the impact they have than how much things cost. Our pricing is based on a direct to customer market. We hope to operate a circular economy in the future so at this time we are not taking on wholesale options to keep things simple.” 

PRICE SLIDE

Molly and Pranil worked together on this slide. I think they were really clear with their research. Molly focused mainly on the online stores and was able to bring reference to the pandemic and how this will affect consumer habits and what this would mean for us and our brand. Pranil then went onto talking about our idea of a pop-up store and went into detail on the costing of the pop-up shop location that we had decided on as a group. 

Molly- “Our clothing will be predominately sold online and you can purchase the items through our website or through our Instagram shop. We decided to open an Instagram shop as well as just our website because Instagram is a massive social media platform where we can gain a large following, we will also be able to reach a bigger target market of customers. One other reason why we wanted to promote and sell through Instagram is due to the current pandemic, as more and more people are now shopping online and turning to Instagram to pass the time so we hope our brand reaches a wider range of customers through our posts and advertisements. we also plan to set up a pop-up shop in the bull ring in Birmingham city Centre, where we will also sell our products.”

Pranil – “As for our pop-up store, we had scouted out a location that we had deemed perfect for our brand, and we had found an open and well-lit store for hire in the heart of the Birmingham, within the Bullring. This store is ideal for our brand as the Bullring is a highly populated area, and we feel customers going in and out the building will be inclined to help local businesses in the area, and our demographic will surely be around the building. The price for this renting out this store totals out to £132/day and we all agreed that having the store up for a month would be enough time for people to notice us, which come to final cost of £5,160, for 31 days.”

PROMOTION SLIDE

The promotion slide was my responsibility to create and I really wanted to ensure that I had tangible promotional ideas that were relevant to our brand; taking into consideration the sustainability factors and our target demographic of 25-40 year olds. I looked into every aspect; from giveaways, to collaborations, catwalks, possible magazine features and even created a mock up billboard to help promote our brand more publicly. I then went on to create a separate influencers slide as I thought that was an important way to help get our brand more publicity on the social media front.

Zhante

– “Looking at the ways in which we can get Gaia as brand out there and create a sense of validity around us, we will be using such means as reaching out to sustainable fashion bloggers like the sustainable edit and magazines such as KeiSei and more commercial magazines like vogue for featured interviews so our consumers can get to know Gaia as a brand better and to answer any unanswered questions as well as write and review our products spreading our message across a wider audience. We will also be looking at future collaborations with other sustainable brands which support our ideals, such as girlfriend collective as an example to help gain international recognition. We will also be hiring out billboard spots across the UK to visually promote our collection and to create further interest eventually moving this worldwide. In addition to this, we will also be working with the fashion of nature exhibition to display our collection within a live event as well as taking part in the first ever sustainable fashion week, sporting our collection on the runway later this year in autumn 2021. In the near future we will be looking into partnering with campaigns and charities surrounding the idea of sustainability and slow fashion and hopefully create our own campaigns and produce panel talks that support and help spread our message even further.”

INFLUENCERS SLIDE

Narnia will take over from me on this slide as it will give me time to prepare for the packaging slide. This slide showcases the influencers that we would like to promote our products. Each influencer has a good reputation and online following and are all focused on sustainable fashion. Its important to note that these influencers will more than likely be in our long term goals as we have to think about how much it would cost.

Narnia – “As Instagram is a big platform to promote brands and is the easiest way to garner attention, we will be reaching out to instagrammers, sending PR so they can review and promote our collection through Instagram stories and reels to their audience which will create more traffic to both our website and Instagram page. Through this we can then run giveaways and competitions.

And as Gaia gains more and more attention we will be looking into eventually expanding our group of influencers which can eventually lead us into celebrity brand endorsements and possible collaborations.”

PACKAGING SLIDE

The packaging was again, my responsibility with the help of Narnia. 

I tried to cover everything from bags, to box packaging, clothing tags, thank you notes with promotional codes that will be inside the packaging as well as gift cards. I had to do extensive research as I wanted to make sure that the packaging reflected our brands goals of sustainability. The only thing that I couldn't find details on, was the pricing of the packaging as a lot the sustainable packaging manufacturers haven't publicly stated their prices as its based on quotations.

Zhante – “We tried to be as thoughtful about the materials we use for our packaging as we are with our collection and are constantly looking for innovative ways to minimise the use of single-use packaging.

We recognise that single-use packaging exerts an impact on ecosystems at their extraction point, during production and in disposal.

Therefore, we have worked with companies like TIPA and Iggesund who are manufacturers known for their bio based, fully compostable, flexible and sustainable packaging solutions to create the perfect blend.

Our BPI certified packaging is 100% sustainable, 100% eco-friendly and is 100% good for the planet; made from a selection of paperboard box packaging which can either be recycled or composted. Our garments will be protected and wrapped in clear TIPA plastic made from vegetables, which is designed to breakdown into compost, replacing the overuse of industrial cast film packaging.

This is great as it allows us to be consistent with our sustainability without compromising on the aesthetics.  

Our thank you notes that will be inside every packaged delivery will be made from 100% recycled and plantable flower seed paper as well as our tags for both our bags and clothing.

The bags will then be a combination of sustainable paperboard and again coated with a plastic film wrap-created using things such as cellulose and compostable gloss.

And our Gift cards will be plastic free and made from a similar material called invercote paperboard.

We have consciously decided not to include any unnecessary extras within the packaging such as tissue paper as we believe this will just create more unnecessary waste and recycling in the long run. 

We recognise that this is a more costly approach than typical packaging and would likely have to bump up the delivery prices to help compensate for this, but we believe that the cost of this is cheaper than the cost of damaging the planet.”

THE FUTURE SLIDE

Our future slide focuses on the future goals of the brand. The slide has been split into short/mid-term solutions and what the brand hopes to be doing in the long term, which will be discussed in further detail by Lisa during the presentation.

We were initially planning on wholesaling our products, but because we wanted to be circular in the future we thought that that might be difficult to achieve and counterintuitive, is we decided ti scrap that idea completely.

Lisa – “After establishing our brand, in the short midterm we plan to open a physical store including the expansion of our range for a more inclusive collection through sizing which we plan to use CLO3D technology which would allow us to reduce the waste in pattern making and thus being more sustainable.

In the long-term we aim to use self-healing fabric as it would reduce the damage on the garment and less waste as well as encouraging customers to return the clothing that we would then recycle into new clothing so that this creates a more circular ecosystem.”

CLOSING SLIDE

For the closing slide we kept it simple and directed it at the audience so that they can ask us any questions. We, as a group tried to anticipate what questions might be asked at the end of our presentation. As pricing was something that was brought up in our feedback tutorial, I decided to look into the prices of such things as how much a billboard would cost, and how much influencers tend to charge- which was pretty elusive as it depends on the individual.

Overall, I am very pleased with our presentation. I think everyone did extensive amounts of research and worked really well on creating their individual slides.

[remywrites5]

I was wondering if you could do a bartender/Starbucks or YouTube AU, I seem to have a weird carving for those lately, they make me feel happier

           Sirius sat down in front of his camera and turned it on. He took a deep breath and began to speak. Talking in front of a camera wasn’t exactly difficult for Sirius since he had always had a bit of a dramatic flair. “Hi everyone!” he said, giving a small wave. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good and I’m going to tell you a super embarrassing story. You’re going to like this one.”

           Sirius ran his fingers through his shoulder length hair and smiled before continuing. “So people have been asking me about this because a few weeks ago I tweeted something stupid out like ‘just met my future husband at Starbucks’ not sponsored by the way, I’m just a slut for their coffee. And I would be a slut for this one guy that works there but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to ask him out.”

           Sirius let a slow smile curl his mouth before biting his bottom lip. He could picture Remus so clearly in his head as he spoke about him. “This guy is just…ugh…he’s just fucking adorable. Cutest. Guy. Ever. I’m not going to say his name because some of you get a little too into my personal life. Not that I blame you, my lovelies, because my life is fabulous, but I don’t want him harassed or anything. He’s getting enough of that from me, trust me.”

           Sirius sighed and did a quick zoom to do a close up on his face. “Stalking is bad kids. Do not try this at home.”

           He zoomed back out. “Hold on, I need something to drink.”

           Sirius cut and came back holding a Starbucks coffee cup. “This is from this morning where I made a complete arse of myself. It’s gotten to the point where this guy knows my order. I don’t even have to say anything to him, which is also frustrating as hell because I want as many excuses as possible to talk to him. So I’m there, barbeque sauce on my titties – do people even remember that vine – anyway and I ask the guy if he needs my name and he’s like oh no I know it. Which fair enough, Sirius is a pretty weird name and I’m pretty unforgettable. And I decide to be all smooth so I’m like oh do you need my number?”

           Sirius took a long sip of his coffee while looking directly into the camera. “And then he goes, ‘oh no just your name is fine.”

           Sirius face palmed and shook his head. “Now I don’t know if this guy is oblivious or maybe he’s just not gay. I usually think I have a pretty good instinct for that kind of thing. James said maybe he just wasn’t interested in me but like come on, bitch please. I’m fucking fabulous.”

           Sirius did an exaggerated flip of his hair for emphasis. “Well I’m definitely going to see him again because I’m addicted to coffee and kind of addicted to seeing this guy too. I’ll keep everyone updated if anything happens but for now I am completely mortified. That’s the awkward as fuck story behind that tweet. Hope you enjoyed my suffering. Love you all. Until next time – mischief managed.”

                                                           ***

           Sirius switched on the camera and sat down with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting for his audience. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good and I’ve got an update on Starbucks guy – still not sponsored, like come on Starbucks give me a brand deal already. I’ve decided we’re going to call Starbucks guy Moony. Don’t ask me why I have my reasons. So apparently Moony watches my videos. I don’t know if he did before I posted my last one about him but he definitely saw it. I mean I told him once I did Youtube and it can’t be that hard to find me with my name.” Sirius quickly did a search on his phone. “Yup, I’m the first thing that comes up. Fuck.”

           Sirius dropped his head back and groaned at the ceiling dramatically for a moment before straightening back up to look into the camera. “So the next time I go into Starbucks I see Moony quickly ducking into the back room. And this redheaded devil woman is completely rude to me when I ask about him. Of course my best friend James is already in love with her because he apparently has no standards. But yeah, she’s telling me that it’s none of my business where Moony is as if I’m not the one fucking gone on him.”

           Sirius scrubbed his hand over his face. “Moony, if you’re watching this and I hope you are, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I’d like the chance to apologize face to face but I don’t know if you’ll keep avoiding me.”

           Sirius zoomed in on a close up of his face. “Come on, who can say no to this face?” Sirius did his best pleading puppy dog eyes at the camera. “Until next time my lovelies. Mischief managed.”

                                                           ***

           Remus was in the middle of restocking the lids when he saw a familiar head of long dark hair. “Oh shit buggering fuck,” he cursed under his breath, ducking behind the counter. “Lily!”

           “What is it?” she asked, in the middle of making a latte.

           “He’s back again!”

           “How long are you going to avoid him?” she asked in exasperation. “The longer you hide the more I have to deal with him and his obnoxious friend.”

           “I’m sorry,” Remus said sincerely from where he was crouched. “What the fuck am I supposed to say to him?”

           “How about I saw your videos and while I’m not exactly comfortable with an extremely public relationship for the whole internet to see I’m also super gay for you and would like to suck your cock?” Lily shoved the sleeve onto the cup. “Mobile for Henry.”

           Remus let out a small whine. He could see Sirius getting closer and he was paralyzed with indecision. He’d been attracted to Sirius since the first time he’d come in, of course he had, in fact he’d watched Sirius’ videos online and had a bit of a thing for him. He knew Sirius lived in London as well but had never imagined he would actually run into him and they had had a nice chat. But Sirius was intimidating in the way all unfairly gorgeous people were. When Sirius had offered up his number, Remus had been in such a panic that he couldn’t even think of accepting it.

           He stood up when someone else approached the counter to order. He couldn’t just make Lily do everything while he hid like a frightened child. “Hi, what can I get for you?”

           He could hear the door open and glanced over, already knowing it would be Sirius. He shuffled his feet awkwardly and ignored the urge to dive under the counter. He rang up his current customer and then took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare himself.

           “You’re here!” Sirius said excitedly, his grin so large it looked like it might hurt to smile that big.

           “I work here,” Remus said, cringing internally. That wasn’t exactly new information, was it? It wasn’t like Remus to state the obvious.

           “Look, before you say anything I want to apologize. I’ve gotten so used to living my life online that sometimes I don’t always think about it. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable with my bollocks. I swear I didn’t mean to.”

           “I thought you were normally swearing to be up to no good?” Remus managed to gently tease, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

           Sirius laughed. “So you do watch my videos!”

           Remus blushed and ducked his head down. “Yeah, I have for years actually.”

           Sirius took his phone and placed it on the counter. “Please for the love of all of creation give me your number. Or I can give you mine if you’d rather. I promise I won’t push for anything more than what you’re willing to give.”

           Remus chewed his bottom lip as he stared at Sirius’ phone. “And what would you use my number for?” he challenged, pretending to be a bit bolder than he felt.

           Sirius huffed, his breath rustling the long hair falling into his face in a pleasant sort of way. “Texting you, calling you, setting up dates, swearing my undying love and devotion. The usual reasons people want other people’s phone numbers?”

           Remus picked up the phone and added in a new contact, programming his number in under Moony. Despite himself, he’d actually grown rather fond of the nickname, even if hearing Sirius say it in his videos made him go all hot and red.

           “Thank you,” Sirius said, taking his phone back and clutching it to his chest as if it were something precious. “You’re wonderful.”

           Remus rolled his eyes. “You hardly know me.”

           Sirius winked at him. “The point still stands.”

           “Undying love and devotion, huh?’”

           “Only if you want it, Moony.”

           Remus rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “And what would you get out of it?”

           Sirius smirked and leaned over the counter. “Any chance you get an employee discount here?”

           “Ah so now the truth comes out,” Remus said, chuckling softly. “Just using me for cheaper coffee.”

           They were so close it would hardly take anything at all for Remus to close the distance between them and kiss Sirius. In that moment he wished he were someone a little bolder. Sirius was biting his bottom lip seductively as if he knew exactly what Remus was thinking about.

           “Well I have been spending a fortune on Starbucks lately just for an excuse to come and see you,” Sirius said teasingly, looking up at Remus through half-lidded eyes. “The least you could do is lighten the financial burden.”

           Remus reached out and tucked a stray piece of hair behind Sirius’ ear, his fingertips just barely brushing against Sirius’ soft cheek. The small gesture had taken every ounce of Remus’ courage. “You getting your usual, then?”

           “Nah, I got what I came in here for,” Sirius said, standing up straight. “You don’t mind if I tweet out that I got your digits, do you? It’s just my subscribers have been following our epic love story. I want them to know it has a happy ending.”

           Remus laughed softly. “As long as you don’t tweet out my actual number then it’s fine.”

           “I wouldn’t do that,” Sirius said, his fingers tapping away quickly as he composed his tweet. “I’m much too selfish. Want you all to myself.”

           Remus couldn’t help the flutter of his stomach when he heard that. “Mischief managed, then?” he joked, trying to ignore the blush creeping up his neck.

           Sirius tapped his finger against his lips as if considering it. “Oh Moony, Moony, Moony,” he said, biting his thumb as he smiled. “Our mischief is just getting started.”

                                                           ***

           Sirius turned on the camera and then dropped into the chair next to Remus. They looked at each other for a moment and then both started laughing. “Do you want to say it?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow at Remus.

           “It’s your catchphrase, love.”

           “I wanna hear you say it,” Sirius whined, putting his arm around Remus’ shoulders.

           “Fine,” Remus said with a heavy sigh. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

           “Damn right,” Sirius said, kissing Remus on the cheek. “For those of you painfully out of the loop, or don’t follow my Instagram where I post about a million pictures of you, this is Moony. Say hi, Moony!”

           “Hi everyone!” Remus said, tucking himself further into Sirius in embarrassment. Sirius couldn’t help finding Remus being camera shy infinitely adorable.

           “So we’re a little bit pissed because it was the only way I could get Remus on camera,” Sirius explained, lifting up his gin and tonic and taking a sip. “You all have been asking me to do a video with him since we started dating three months ago and I am finally giving in. On twitter I asked you to send me questions and of course we got a fuck ton of people asking who tops and who bottoms because ya’ll nasty.”

           Remus snorted. “Do you want to answer that or should I?”

           “Bitch, you know I’m the bottom, why ya’ll playing?”

           “Not all the time though. We do switch it up on occasion.”

           “True. Next question! Is Remus going to start a Youtube channel of his own?”

           “Fuck no,” Remus said, shaking his head. “Do you see how uncomfortable I am right now?”

           “Aw baby you’ll get used to it,” Sirius said, pulling Remus into a kiss.

           “Still not starting a Youtube channel though,” Remus said, breaking the kiss after a moment or two. “What would my content even be?”

           “You could do a channel on knitting or coffee or whatever the fuck you want.”

           “I’m good.”

           “Moony, give the people what they want!”

           “Absolutely not.”

           Sirius pouted and it made Remus laugh. “Fine, I’ll slowly wear his down everyone, don’t you worry. Next question! What was your first impression of me?”

           Remus grinned. “I thought you were barmy but gorgeous. You kept making me blush the first time you came in because you were flirting shamelessly.”

           “Guilty as charged! Gorgeous and shameless, you were pretty spot on.”

           “You’re never anything less than resolutely yourself,” Remus said, gently running his fingers through Sirius’ hair. “It’s something I admire about you.”

           “If you keep complimenting me like that we’re going to have to pause the video so I can ravish you.”

           “Later love,” Remus said, pressing a kiss to the corner of Sirius’ mouth.

           “I’m going to hold you to that,” Sirius said, chasing Remus’ lips when he went to pull away. “Next question! Are we going to get married? I mean yeah probably.”

           “Really?”

           “Some day,” Sirius clarified, rolling his eyes exaggeratedly. “I don’t mean tomorrow. You’re like the fucking love of my life though. Why wouldn’t I want to marry you?”

           Remus was staring at Sirius and Sirius worried he might have said something wrong. He could always cut that part out of the video if it made Remus uncomfortable. He was just about to suggest that they move on to the next question, his mouth opening to speak, when Remus attacked. He kissed him hard, open mouthed and needy. Sirius moaned softly and let himself be dominated by his boyfriend’s insistent tongue.

           “Yeah, we’re going to need a minute,” Remus said after breaking the kiss. He turned off the camera and dragged Sirius towards the bedroom.

                                                           ***

           “And we’re back. Sorry about that but we had to cut or this whole video would get demonetized.”

           Sirius looked at himself in the reflection of the camera lens and knew he looked thoroughly fucked. A large purple bruise was already blooming on his neck and his hair was nowhere near as tame as it had been, curling around the ends from the sweat and heat. This time instead of sitting in different chairs, Sirius had made himself comfortable on Remus’ lap.

           Remus cleared his throat. “Next question?”

           “Is there an animal you think represents you?”

           “I have no idea.”

           “I think you’d be a wolf.”

           “A wolf?”

           “Yeah. Total pack animal. Wolves are intelligent and friendly. They take care of their own. Loyal. But like can also fucking kill you.”

           “Huh.”

           “You’re a total wolf. What would I be?”

           “Probably a dog.”

           “Hmm, I do like the way they fuck.”

           “Also loyal, friendly, easily trained – “

           “You know it,” Sirius said with a wink to the camera.

           “Need for attention from your owner. You also love being petted.”

           “Fuck, you’re right, I’m a bloody dog,” Sirius said, his eyes widening as he took that information in. He let out a bark and then licked a stripe up Remus’ neck.

           “Oi! Behave yourself!”

           “Never!”

           Remus shoved Sirius playfully. “Next question?”

           Sirius picked his phone back up and looked for a good one. “Am I going to Vidcon this year. Fuck no. America is a scary place. Has Remus ever knitted me anything. Yes the beanie I wear all the time. Do we live together? Yes, obviously, London is fucking expensive. Which one of us likes to cuddle more? Me.”

           “Definitely you.”

           “You’re just so soft I can’t help it,” Sirius said, kissing Remus’ temple.

           “You won’t hear me complaining.”

           “You’d better not,” Sirius shot back with a knowing grin. “You can’t shag someone the way you do and not cuddle them afterwards. There’s another reason I called you a wolf.”

           Remus blushed bright red. “Okay, I think one more questions before I go die of embarrassment.”

           “No dying, Moony, I’d be lost without you.”

           “Just ask the stupid question.”

           “What is one thing that drives you crazy about each other?”

           “Good crazy or bad crazy?”

           “Do both.”

           Remus rolled his eyes. “Bad crazy I would say your tendency to be dramatic. He breaks a nail and it’s the end of the fucking world. You also steal my clothes a lot and never wash them. Good crazy I’d say the hair. And your smile. And your arse. And those leather trousers you have.”

           Sirius tucked his hair behind his ear and grinned. “That was sweet. For you I’d say bad crazy is your tendency to leave your bloody books all over the flat where I trip on them. Good crazy I’d say your lips and your eyes. And the fact that you come home smelling like coffee. And your soft jumpers that are very fun to steal and wear and never wash.”

           “Prick.”

           “You love me.”

           “God help me.”

           “Love you too,” Sirius said, kissing Remus deeply. “So that’s it for this video. I hope you guys are happy that you got properly introduced to Moony. Will you say it with me?”

           “Fine.”

           “Mischief managed,” they said together, ending the video.

[lovedlovingly]

something i learned as a kid was to "never use the word never" and that applies to any variation, and idk if this is actually.... true??? but I still feel it 😅😅😅 what it means is, if u want to say "this wasn't my fault" the brain won't fully register the word "wasn't" because you're still focusing on the [fault]. idk like this doesn't have to be that™ deep I've just been thinking about it lately - as in recent years - while using this website

following trauma recovery blogs to try and deal with my own stuff and yeah content for my sideblog:) i get a lot of posts on my dash that like, try to repeat a sentence over and over. ex: "trauma was not your fault" in bolder and bolder text - do others find comfort in this? because for me it makes me highly uncomfortable. it feels like trying to convince myself of something i can't believe. even tho i understand the sentence and the message. because of the words "trauma" and "your fault", that is what the brain reacts to and focuses on & skips over "wasn't" in the bigger picture.

it's 5am so I'm not gonna articulate this specifically brilliantly but this is also what I feel when ppl always put so much emphasis on "terfs don't interact" "racists not welcome" "no homophobes" in their posts, headers or abouts. and ppl have said this before and by now a lot of these words ring hollow, because... they are. when the focus is on what we don't want. that's still our focus. that's still what we put energy towards. this is why I'd like to see "trans friendly/inclusive" on things instead etc. switch the focus.

for trauma i think the focus needs to be more on being understanding and kind towards yourself. yes it's good to know the trauma was none. of. your. fault. because in most cases it is true!! but if that's where it ends or where you're at in your recovery... it's just not enough in the bigger picture. and most of us won't even believe it's not our fault so it just becomes an inner struggle. wouldn't it be more healing to hear that you can do things, that you're loved and worth existing as u are, that you do have a future and just because they™ refused to see it and refused to love u (or told u it was love when u know its bullshit) it is their fault and their shortcomings.

isn't it better to hear these things than "you can do things despite your trauma, your trauma doesn't define you, trauma doesn't mean u don't have a future and just because they™ didn't see it or refused to love u it wasn't your fault" idk man again i know some things aren't "that deep" but I also do believe in the power of words. we do use them for a reason, and maybe it would be nicer for ourselves and others to hear what we can do instead of what we should try and do despite everything we are zzz

or are others uncomfortable with what I'm more comfortable with? and why is that?

[glamourzombie]

Welcome to the first post of the year. I devoted my January to goal setting, planning and lots of work. Now that February is here, I am back to blogging! I have lots of things to share (though I don't know how often I will be able to share them). I want to start the blogging year with the Cosmic Cards by Julie Catona at Future Illustrations, a wonderful oracle deck with two magical expansions for the seekers out there.

This is a 50 card deck with two holographic expansions (10+11 cards), so a total of 71 galactic art pieces. In Julie's words, this is "a unique deck that is inspired by the wonder & magic of the cosmos [that] contains original artworks [which] are paired with a powerful & loving mantra, inspirational quote, angel or guide". Though there's the possibility of having the non-holo version of the expansions, I wanted the mix in the deck to add even more variety and mystery – and since the backs are the same in both versions, there’s no problem when laying them down!

It has a great modern vibe with a mix of illustration styles (from solid colours to magical gradients to photo manipulation) where stars and space environments abound, but which feel very familiar and close at the same time. There’s diversity in the characters that are present, including famous people as pop culture references are common. I like the contrasts that can be found: worldly and cosmic elements, natural and human-made elements and structures, and vintage images with futuristic elements feel like they were made to exist together. This entire harmonious clash is like a bridge between our conscious selves, or higher selves and the wisdom of the world (and beyond). It features a broad palette with rich saturated colours that catch your eye, which is more accentuated in the foiled cards.

The artwork is framed by a white border, which is wider at the bottom to hold the titles of the cards and the accompanying messages - and some cards actually include text within their artwork. I appreciate how the main titles are bolder and the messages are subtler, because that way I can choose to first approach the cards at a more intuitive level, and then expand if I wish to. And obviously, no guidebook is needed. The decks come in plain white sleeves and tuckbox, kimono wrapped in pink-purple paper, with palo santo and a few ephemera in a sturdy black box. My favourite addition is the Seed of Life Crystal Grid (with an illustration in the other side).The cardstock is nice and flexible, and though the edges of the holo version are slightly greyer, that is the only difference you can find - which is not noticeable once all the cards are shuffled.

The Cosmic Cards are a wonderful and visually striking oracle deck, with expansive images and messages that allow us to be open to receiving - but which also feels like an affirmation deck in the sense that it is supportive, assertive and reassuring. It reminds me of two beautiful verses by Antonio Machado: Caminante, no hay camino; se hace camino al andar ("Wayfarer, there is no way; make your way by going farther"). It gently nudges you to not follow a path, but to create your own. If you want to know more about Julie Catona's work, be sure to head over Future Illustrations!

[mirokloses]

this is a niko support text, don’t read if you don’t like him.

ok. i wasn’t going to say anything because well… i spent last season all quiet just ranting to my friends, but i think nicole and carol just had enough of my $h*t, so i’m going to post here and be ignored like it should happen after all i’m just putting things out of my chest…

ok

ok

it’s just the beginning of the season and there are people already saying “kovac out”, and i guess you don’t like niko etc etc, but seriously??? BAYERN HAD SOME BAD GAMES AND YOU STARTED ALL OF THIS CRAP AGAIN?

let’s remind you guys that even before the pre-season niko said that he needed at least 6 new players – a striker, a number 6, a winger and two more players for depht. what he got was lucas (who is a good player but is prone to injuries), pavard (that i still don’t get why, just because he won the world cup doesn’t mean a thing, mustafi and schürrle also won with germany, so?), arp and cuisance (both aren’t ready to play, so sorry) and perisic & coutinho aren’t 100% in “bayern mode”, especially because these two wasn’t in the pre-season.

just here you see that at least two positions that niko wanted new players he just didn’t got, because müller (who isn’t playing well for some seasons already i love you thomas but that’s the truth) and gnabry could play as a striker, and javi could play as a 6.

i believe there’s some major problems with bayern, one of them are the players that aren’t tHAT GOOD ANYMORE. the club spent 7 seasons depending on basically just 5 players, never got a rotation or new faces to mix the team and make a transition between one dinasty to another, so they’re paying hard for this by now. when you look at bayern last games you can’t see at all a good transition between the defense to the midfield, because the player who should do this isn’t doing properly (this goes for thiago and javi), and that’s why when kimmich played in midfield the team was more stable. the answer to this is playing goretzka and tolisso together in a 4-2-3-1, or javi-goretzka-tolisso in a 4-3-3, this may change because of opponents. reasons?

bayern almost doesn’t shoot outside the box, and when they tried they scored some (kimmich, tolisso);

goretzka plays beautifully the role of a box-to-box midfielder and i believe this is something that could be better explored;

after some time on bench, colisso is playing regularly and if he keeps the pace this could be really good for the team

and i’m just talking about midfield, up front it gets worse since the only reliable players are lewandowski and gnabry. coutinho has class and if he gets in his old form he can really help the team, but i can see this happening soon. perisic still pretty much unknown, he could play a bigger role? yes. will he? have no idea. müller is just playing for his name. like seriously, the best trait of thomas last season when he was marking because of his tactical role, no more than that, offensively he was basically useless. coman i don’t even know how to start, he’s too selfish and most of his attempt to cross are $hitty. also he loses lot of BIG CHANCES.

on defense apart from niklas, manuel, kimmich and alaba, the other position is up to anyone, because well… said it earlier. and the “thing” that happened with mats, he just wanted to be sure on the starting eleven, as he didn’t got this at bayern he went for dortmund who was thirsty for a good defender. i can’t say much more, if you just look at them right now you’ll understand.

as for now you can see how many problems bayern has with this players. maybe is a good squad for bundesliga, but i don’t believe they can win the champions league like this, i miss the passion and power of will… and this isn’t something that came with niko, but an old problem.

OH, for not make room for someone to say that i’m trying to clean niko’s mess, which i’m not because i always criticize him when i think he’s wrong, i really believe he could make some subs faster and try to be a little more bolder tactically. some even dare to say niko doesn’t know tactics or strategies, but he did an amazing and beautiful job in eintracht being really bold and witty, yET HE CAN’T SHOW THIS ON BAYERN SINCE THE BOSSES DOESN’T APPROVE AND THE PLAYERS SAID HE WAS TOO FOCUSED ON DEFENSE (look at this mess right now lol)

this actually reminded me of something lol because since i spent so much time on twitter i can see a lot of hate niko receives (and i’m only thinking about the replies from iMiaSanMia acc) talking about the lack of rotation, but well… last time niko tried to make a healthy rotation on the team everyone was saying he shouldn’t.

pLUS A LOT OF THIS HATE HE RECEIVE ARE FROM NEW-BAYERN FANS WHO ACTUALLY ONLY CARE ABOUT TITLES AND SUCCESS, WHEN FOOTBALL IS WAY BIGGER THAN THAT. there’s even a video from DW where bayern fans really talk about this and they recognize this is a problem (if you ask me i can send to you). as a chelsea fan for a long time i can understand what’s going on since i saw this happen to my team, and the very first time something bad or disappointing happened, these so called “fans” (plastic fans for yall) walked away and are now supporting another team. this happened twice actually, after the champions league and after the booming first season with conte. now there are way less chelsea supporters on social media (and i saw so many of tott*nham, c*ty and liv*pool appearing out of nowhere kk plastic fans everywhere). this is happening with bayern and probably in the next trip they’ll be supporting another team.

if you disagree with me and can’t actually see what’s really going on with bayern, just look at united and how bad they’re right now. a big club? yes. but they haven’t prepared for the future and are so far trying to find themselves, trying to get their dna back. chelsea also had some problems, but we got some key players from one generation to another (azpi and now lamps and cech) so things are going smoother and we still have our dna of not giving up.

bayern has changed the manager in the past seasons because they’re only thinking about now instead of trying to pave the future and get back even stronger, and this will probably cost them a lot. guardiola left not just because it was an easy league, but also because the board wasn’t singning any big names, they only got thiago for him and that was it. also, don’t forget the fact that pep has to change the way he wanted bayern to play because of internal issues (being honest pep football was ugly and boring). ancelotti, my dear… you deserved so much more – he had to deal with this crap all over and i still get to see some fans saying now that ancelotti was good (even tho they were trowing hate at him at time). now it’s niko turn to get all the hate not only for his mistakes, but also for the board and players mistakes. i even got to see someone saying niko doesn’t have any sort of mentality nor passion/desire, and this makes me so angry because they’re just saying things without even get to search a little bit about niko and his carreer, specially as a player and the things he did. he inspires me to be better everyday, i really can’t stand these kind of comments. you can say whatever you want about his late subs, but doesn’t dare to say a thing about his character, especially when you don’t know a thing at all.

i’ll end this huge text here because i’m tired, but feeling a little lighter. nobody’s going to read all of this, but i really needed to put it out. i’m just watching and following bayern because of niko as i did since he was croatia’s coach, but the treatment he’s receiving at the moment really pisses me off in so many levels that i couldn’t just keep quiet. honestly, i really dislike this fc hollywood.

i believe in niko and the fact that he’ll turn things around. but i also hope from the bottom of my heart that he leaves bayern and go to a club where he’s appreciated. i don’t believe he’ll get back to eintracht, but maybe b04? (i can only dream of)

ps: remember that dortmund fired klopp after a bad season and two years later he was in live*pool winning the champions league and probably this year the premier league… firing coaches is easy, but you can’t see what’s going to happen next.

[farinsystems]

Good design is good business

Design is transforming the way leading companies to create value. Most companies are optimized to execute and solve the stated problem. Creativity is about finding the problem worth solving. An absence of a scalable the creative framework encourages incremental innovation instead of disruptive innovation.

Good design is one that is tailored for human use and not one that is only functional or usable. A good designer knows how to get into the mindset of his users, and turns their needs into a meaningful, desirable, and easy-to-use product or service.

“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.”- Don Norman

Good Design vs. Bad Design

Good design is one that is tailored for human use and not one that is only functional or usable. A good designer knows how to get into the mindset of his users, and turns their needs into a meaningful, desirable, and easy-to-use product or service.

Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.  are some examples of good and bad design in different businesses.

Slack Mobile App

Navigation bar

Being a chat app for businesses and teams, there is a very big chance to get overwhelmed by the vast amount of messages being posted.

But the navigation bar minimizes this by dividing messages into Channels/Private Channels/Direct Messages. I can easily switch between different channels without feeling overwhelmed.

Create a Saving Goal

When you tried many times to set a Saving Goal, but every time you do it, you get an error messages that say “Invalid Digital Signature”. The task itself does not ask for a digital signature, and the error messages do not give me any guidance or suggestion on how to obtain a valid digital signature.

There are some rules you can obey to avoid a bad design:

    simplicity goes first

The best choice is to keep everything simple when the users’ needs are too complicated to handle. Not everyone likes durian, but most of us won’t deny candy. Simplicity is the eternal truth in design. 

    Know your audience

 First, to learn the culture, and second, you should be familiar with the business goals of this enterprise. The best way to make it is to communicate with the staff in an enterprise voluntarily. You should understand what they want to realize. Anyway, users don’t have to learn your design language but you must be able to understand what they are talking about.

    Be an educator and advocator when necessary

In the second rule, we mentioned that designers should know the demands of enterprise staff clearly. But this doesn’t mean that you should follow them completely. The managers in an enterprise must know more about the business goals than you but when it comes to design, you are the one who has a say. At that time you need to be the educator and advocator and explain to them your design ideas clearly.

5 stunning graphic design trends for 2020

With the year 2020, graphic design trends have reached an important milestone. It’s the dawn of a new decade, and graphic design is poised to reach new heights as designers begin to define the era. There’s a feeling in the air that anything can happen—that we are about to witness the next evolution of graphic design as we know it.

Although it might take a few more years for the 20s to hit their stride, designers are already showing us glimmers of what is to come. Let’s take a look at the reigning graphic design trends 2020 that are already starting to characterize this new decade.

1.   Cyberpunk color schemes

2020 will feature brighter & bolder colors than ever before! As the value of design rises, brands are going crazier and wackier than ever with colors to attempt to stand out from the crowd. 

- Ryan Hayward, designer & founder of pitch proof.

In graphic design, futuristic themes are often expressed with color—especially bright and oversaturated hues that we don’t typically see in nature. These colors are associated with cyberpunk, a sci-fi genre that usually depicts dark, futuristic, neon-infused cities, like in the movie Blade Runner.

Expect color schemes in 2020 to get even more vibrant and luminous.

2.   Street art styles

Over the past decade, learning design has become more accessible than ever before. That means there are a lot of new kids on the block who’ve had to make a name for themselves on their own, an ethos that fits well with the DIY aesthetic of street art.

With its inherent edginess (given its association with vandalism), graffiti is also a movement of jubilance and freedom, of breaking bonds and protesting convention. That’s what makes the photo backed by street art in Anton Siribaddana’s design feel like it’s going to leap off the screen. All in all, the street art trend is the perfect aesthetic to get us feeling like the future is in our hands.

3.  Ultra-thin geometry

This design has a modern, futuristic and mysterious feel. Thin lines can only be displayed on digital media, something that left the age of the printing press with paper. - Jack Begosian, Top Level designer at 99designs.

 In 2020, we are seeing designers merge these line styles to achieve impossible shapes. These designs are based on stable geometry, but they still manage to feel transient and ethereal. They look metallic but drift like smoke.

4.   Paper cut-out collages

Designers are always trying to craft authentic experiences for viewers. What better way to do so than with literal arts and crafts?

My bet is on collage, because just by means of cut fragments, this technique easily opens up to new sceneries and unexpected relationships among the graphic elements. - Agnesema, Top Level designer at 99designs.

Many colleges try to trick the eye into seeing one cohesive image where several exist. But the collages of 2020 have nothing to hide. Designers are mixing images that clearly do not belong in the same universe, such as illustrations and photographs. Ditching seamless photo manipulation, they are leaving images with the angular edges and white outlines that come from quick-and-dirty cutting and pasting. The effect is to straddle the line between contrast and harmony, bringing together these disparate elements in a kind of asynchronous beauty.

5. Hand lettering with a big personality

Typography has always been a critical element of graphic design. In the digital age, when everything must make immediate sense to new users, typography became very functional by necessity. But in recent years, the type has become bigger, bolder and more experimental in ways that we have not seen since print ads and magazines of days gone by.

Designers are proving that even a composition that limits itself to white space and text can still be adventurous with bold typographic forms.

Type is continuing to steal the show with bigger, bolder & more inventive uses. 2020 will continue to feature designers experimenting with the craze of typography to seek attention. 

- Ryan Hayward, designer & founder of pitch proof.

[trinuviel]

The Rose of Highgarden. On Margaery Tyrell (part 5)

This is the fifth installment of my analysis of Margaery Tyrell and her narrative arc in Game of Thrones (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). In this post I’m going to take a look at her costumes in season 3. I have previously analysed her costumes in season 2, which were rather unconventional when compared to what was worn by the other female characters of noble birth. Margaery’s season 2 costumes were bold, provocative and rather avantgarde within the sartorial profile of the female nobles of Westeros. The costumes also caused some controversy among the audience of the show. At least one particular costume (the infamous cone dress) was deemed ridiculous and anachronistic since it was obviously inspired by contemporary fashion, more specifically the iconic Bell Dress that Alexander McQueen created for Björk.

While the costumes do serve to as part of the world-building, their function goes beyond looking pretty or period-specific, especially in a fantasy show - even if the world of Westeros is loosely based on medieval Europe. 

Clapton approaches costume design from a narrative stand point. What the characters wear is part of the visual language of the story as well as a reflection of the characters and their narrative arcs. 

This is something that Clapton repeated stresses in her interviews:

I always try to make the clothes visually tell something. (FIDM Museum Blog) 

I always try to tell that story — the costumes for me are narrative and you should be able to look at them [the characters] and understand where they are mentally in their journey. (Insider)

“I don’t think any costume should be looked at in isolation, rather, through the arc of the character. Each thing will tell a story. It might look like a costume is wrong, but actually it’s supposed to look like that. It’s telling you something about the character at the time.” (Winter is Coming)

The costumes are part and parcel of the visual narrative - they echo the psychological journeys of the characters, both in terms of how the characters see themselves or what they want to project, but sometimes they may even  subtly foretell future plot points (x).

GIRLISHLY SEXY

As the betrothed of King Joffrey, Margaery sports a new and slightly changed wardrobe in season 3. Gone are the the avantgarde shoulder pieces and gowns. Instead, we are presented with a number of dresses cut from the same template: 

A sleeveless wrap-like bodice of patterned cloth with a deep v-neck, a bare back and discretely structured shoulders.

Flowing skirts of lightweight material.

The waist is emphasized by beribboned borders or a metal belt in the shape of a rose on a thorny vine.

The necklines have become less revealing than they were is season 2, though she still shows a bit of cleavage. However, she still shows quite a bit of skin with her sleeveless dresses that also feature cut-outs that bares her back and sometimes her midriff and shoulders. 

Hogan McLaughling states the issue quite succinctly:

With Joffrey, Margaery’s approach is the polar opposite of the avant-garde mindset with her now-murdered husband Renly.  Her gowns are still beautiful feats of fashion, but the focus is less on the dress and more on her body. (Watchers on the Wall)

The cut-outs offer tantalizing glimpses of her bare skin - these are the dresses of a seductress, and seduction is what Margaery is about in season 3. She is not content with being just a pretty face next to her kingly husband. She wants influence! I have previously discussed how she employs a feminine form of soft power through charity in order to make the people love her - but her sexual charm is another weapon that she strategically deploys in order to bind Joffrey to her. Seduction is another form of soft power, a very intimate one. Cersei is certainly right on the money when she tells Joffrey that Margaery dresses like a “harlot” for a reason. 

The sexy silhouettes of Margaery’s dresses are tempered by the soft baby-blue colour, which is carried over from season 2. The baby-blue colour adds a girlish aspect to the flirty dresses, which perfectly corresponds to the studied way that Margaery performs the role of the innocent, bashful and unambitious maid. I have previously mentioned how Clapton used a very similar shade for one of Sansa’s northern dresses in season 1. However, unlike Sansa, Margaery’s maidenly innocence is simply a facade. She might claim to be a virgin in public but the previous season made it clear that she is a confident and sexually experienced woman.

A NEW POLITICAL PLAYER IN KING’S LANDING

As mentioned above, Clapton designs the costumes in relation to character arcs, so the costuming evolves subtly. One of Clapton’s patterns is to reuse a costume from the end of the previous season in the beginning of the new one in order to create a sense of continuity. 

Thus, in Margaery’s very first scene in season 3, she’s wearing the dress she wore in the season 2 finale - but with a little tweak. In this case, she wears light blue wrap over her seductive blue dress, which conceals the plunging neckline and serves to introduce a Margaery who is a bit more modest in her attire than the last time we saw her.

She keeps to the light blue colour but as the season progresses, the discrete silver pattern on her bodices is replaced by a bolder floral pattern in bright gold. 

The decorative elements become more bold, more golden and more ostentatious - and all of this signals the wealth of the Tyrells. That wealth, based on the agricultural bounty of the Reach, is one of the reasons why they are poised to put their favoured daughter on the throne as Queen Consort. The visual prominence of the golden details on the Tyrell costumes reaches its zenith at the wedding between Sansa Stark and Tyrion Lannister in episode 8. 

Now the Tyrell gold almost rivals the famed Lannister gold - and thus the costumes visually highlight the conversation between Cersei and Margaery where Cersei not very subtly warns Margaery about what happens when upstart Houses presume to rival the Lannisters. 

At the wedding Margaery, Loras and Olenna Tyrell share a colour palette of dusty blue and bright gold in heavy, patterned fabrics. Visually, they create a coherent whole - a united front, politically, where all the family members work together towards a common goal. Thus, their familial and political unity is expressed visually through the costuming.

Clapton makes another highly symbolic addition to Margaery’s costumes in season 3. The sigil of House Tyrell is a golden rose and throughout the season we see her wearing accessories that feature the Tyrell rose. She wears rings in the shape of a rose - but her metallic belt with a centrally placed rose on a thorny vine is perhaps the most ostentatious example of Margaery adorning herself with her House sigil.

One would think that a noble wearing their family sigil wouldn’t be a big deal but in this case it is - because Margaery didn’t wear the Tyrell rose when she was married to Renly Baratheon, a man who called himself king. She only begins to wear her House sigil in the form of a silver pendant when she arrives in King��s Landing in the last episode of season 2.

So Margaery’s rose shaped accessories only make an appearance after she’s betrothed to King Joffrey. This is not a coincidence! This is not just a case of some pretty accessories, this is a subtle political statement, highlighting that Margaery is working not just for herself but also for the interests of her family. The entire marriage is an expression of Tyrell ambition. 

Sure, Margaery wants to be Queen but her father is also pushing hard for this marriage. Neither is Margaery the only Tyrell to wear those rose: both her brother Loras and her grandmother Olenna wears the golden rose. Loras wears a beautiful pin whereas Olenna wears a belt much like Margaery’s (only with more thorny vines) as well as a beautiful golden pattern on one of her blue brocade dresses. Throughout the season the Tyrells have made their presence as new power players felt in King’s Landing - a daughter of their House is poised become Queen, they are feeding the people, winning public affection and their wealth is helping the Lannister regime stay afloat. The prominence of the rose on the Tyrell costumes articulates their status as political power players visually - the golden rose looks set to challenge the golden lion.

A GAME OF CLOTHES

During season 3, Margaery emerges as a political power player in King’s Landing - something Cersei Lannister finds particularly aggravating. Margaery and Cersei stand in opposition to each other since they both seek to influence, even control the king - and Cersei constantly complains about Margaery manipulating Joffrey. She isn’t wrong but she’s the only one who thinks this is a bad thing. The opposition between the two women also finds an expression in the costume design, which costume designer Michele Clapton jokingly refers to as a “costume stand-off” between the two ladies (x).

The costumes of Cersei and Margaery are designed to contrast each other. Where Margaery’s dresses are sleeveless, Cersei’s dresses have long and trailing sleeves. Where Margaery’s dresses are made from light, floaty fabrics, Cersei’s are made from heavier velvet and brocades. Even the colours clash as the picture above proves - the soft baby blue of Margaery’s dress stands in a vivid contrast to the deep crimson of Cersei’s gown. According to Clapton, Margaery’s style ought to be seen as a calculated response to Cersei’s style:

But over the seasons she [Margaery] has refined her look as she has learned how to wield her body to her benefit, explains Clapton. “She honed this look that was girlishly sexy because she could see that it was exactly what Cersei couldn’t do. The more armor and more regal Cersei got, the more girlish and simple Margaery became–very knowing.” (Michele Clapton)

Where Margaery bares her skin, Cersei quite literally covers herself in armour. This particular aspect of the costume design even makes its way into the text itself! In the first episode of the season, Margaery and Loras attends a private dinner party with Joffrey and Cersei. When Joffrey praises Margaery’s rather daring gown, Cersei sees an opportunity to slip in a sarcastic dig at Margaery’s revealing dress:

Cersei: I imagine you might be rather cold.

Margaery deftly deflects Cersei’s snide remark with a sexually charged double-entendre when Joffrey offers to have a shawl brought for her.

Margaery: I’m touched by your concern, Your Grace. Luckily for us Tyrells our blood is quite warm.

Then Margaery returns the “favour” by praising Cersei’s gown, especially the metalwork, i.e. the armour.  

Cersei: You might find a bit of armor quite useful once you become queen. Perhaps before.

Cersei’s armoured dresses visually expresses how beleaguered she feels now that Margaery has arrived. Cersei is on the defensive as she can see her already diminished influence over Joffrey disappear. She feels threatened by Margaery, which becomes very clear throughout the season. Curiously enough, the wide boat-neck of Cersei’s gowns in season 3 looks very similar to the neckline of Margaery’s infamous cone dress from season 2. This was a dress Margaery only wore twice, and in both situations she were in a defensive position, either deflecting Petyr Baelish’s prying into the state of her marriage or trying to do damage control after Renly’s murder (x). 

Margaery’s dresses might seem deceptively simple but when we take a close look at the costumes in relation to the character and the story, these garments say a lot more than what was initially thought.

To be continued....