#there’s that concept art of Silver being in love with this girl

[leoruby-draws]

Decided to post some more random, mostly minor characters from the DC universe, mostly ones that seemed they would be fun to draw. I guess technically these drawings are all based in my TrWh au, as always. Here they are:

Wanted to draw heroes with wings, I draw Vanessa quite a bit so I had to learn wings and feathers. Still working on it, but its fun. You can see Vanessa there at the bottom middle, looking a little menacing.

The girl with red wings is called...Redwing aka Carrie Levine. I thought she was a sweet kid, so her ultimate fate was pretty sad. Wonder if she'll come back to continuity at some point.

The guy with the mohawk is Northwind aka Norda Cantrell, part of Infinity Inc the earth 2 version of a Teen Titans group. He honestly didn't get a whole lot of focus in Infinity Inc, like the writer didn't know what to do with him. Maybe they should've made him into the magic fighter of the group, almost felt like thats what they were going for him before they wrote him off.

The girl in yellow is Dawnstar, part of the Legion of Superheroes. I haven't read much of LoSH, mostly some 90's issues. But her design is soooo pretty I had to draw her, her costume here is a mix of her various outfits.

Lastly, here's Bluejay aka Jay Abrams again, part of Justice League Europe. Kinda thought JLE was a bit of a letdown, I mean the team's made up of mostly americans not europeans! I think Crimson Fox was the only european, I thought her set-up of being two people was cool.

Little extra Infinity doodle, here's Hector Hall (Silver Scarab) hating on poor Norda, with Lyta Trevor (Fury) looking on with confusion. Hector's just a hater (tho there's reasons for it ig), an archetype you see sometimes in some superhero groups, like Roy Harper or Guy Gardner. The plot-line of Hector's resentment of Norda was kinda interesting, but like with most things in Infinity it didn't get the focus it should've gotten. Speaking of Infinity, here's some more doodles:

There's Rex Tyler (Hourman 1) with little Rick Tyler (Hourman 2), enjoying some father-son time. Apparently Rick's first costume isn't well liked (so says reddit). I thought it seemed cute but maybe it works better as a kid's or sidekick's kinda costume?

In the middle is Jack Knight (Starman) suffering as he interacts with Sylvester Pemberton (Skyman, formerly the Star-Spangled Kid) and Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl, actually she should still be S-SK but whatever). In my au he actually joins Infinity Inc, since everyone becomes heroes earlier he's actually around when the team's still running. I suspect his dad (Ted Knight) forced him into it. Also Courtney doesn't respect Jack at all, he's so annoyed at this. Look at her mini-staff, I presume Ted made it for her.

Also there's Beth Chapel (Dr. Mid-Nite) and Jesse Chambers (Jesse Quick) looking cool. Jesse also joins Infinity Inc in my au, will there be a love triangle going on between Beth, Rick and Jesse? Don't think Rick's gonna survive that, aw well.

Look at baby Jade and Obsidian, Alan is overwhelmed by their antics.

In another post someone asked if I could draw more of the Relative Heroes, a super obscure hero group. So @draculaura1660, this one's for you. Here they are:

I kinda had a hard time drawing this group, cuz their costumes are so complicated! I wished there was a reference/concept art for them cuz it was a struggle trying to figure out the details, the comic art did not help matters at all. You might have noticed I changed details anyways, I tend to simplify costumes for my au both to make it easier to draw and also to signify their younger ages. It's just fun to play around with costume design ig.

Some more characters!

Jinx, who looks very different between her comic and cartoon self. I did like her pink hair, so decide to see how it would look on her comic self. There's Kole, who also has different designs in comic/cartoons. I think her comic costume is so cool, esp that color pallet! But I love her pink hair in the cartoon, so she's got pink hair here! Just like pink hair a lot lol.

The other pink haired girl is Laethwen, love interest of Ray Palmer in Sword of the Atom. I think I made her hair more pink to better differentiate her from Starfire, also, again I just like pink hair. I wished she and her little kingdom didn't die, in my au Ray saves them! Maybe he relocates them to his backyard or something?

Little Donna and Vanessa doodle, did you know they never once interacted on panel? The closest is when Donna brings her stepsister Cindy to talk to Vanessa instead. I wonder how they would even interact, I know Vanessa wanted to be wonder girl (and resented Cassie for 'taking' it from her). Did she look up to Donna, or wanted her out of the way? Funnily enough Donna wasn't even Diana's sidekick when post-crisis started, due to both their origins being reworked and contradicting each other's timelines. It's all very confusing.

Anyways, some bonus doodles:

Had fun making a new outfit for Laethwen, I imagine she took some inspiration from indigenous groups from the Amazon, seeing as that's where her people crashed into.

Kole's costume is just so beautiful but so complicated, maybe that's why she got killed off so soon in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Lastly, here's Bette bugging Dick with Barbara being super amused about it. I said in my post about her that I didn't really care about her crush on Robin, which is true, but I still wanted to doodle something making fun of it. Poor Dick is doesn't know how to get outta of this social situation.

Well that was a lot, hope you liked all that.

[secret-subject]

Is now the WORST time to start a hypno themed content channel? (Yes, but do it anyway!)

So this is going to be a wild ride into hypnosis content creation, inspired a lot by my recent return to making it and how things have shifted over the years. This is in no way trying to deter people from making content, quite the opposite, I want to inspire others to take this as a sign to go for it if you've been thinking about it.

So WTF is going on online?

Welcome to YouTube a platform where anyone with some good ideas can start their own hypnosis channel. A place where you can be a spiral with text, an asmr creator moonlighting as a hypnotist, full cam video or an anime girl with a passion for mind breaking. It's actually wild how things have evolved and I love the shift in the medium. Back in the early days of hypnosis YouTube it really was the wild west, and a lot was able to slip by the community guidelines without a blink of an eye, and I should know, I really did push my luck with some of my own videos. YouTube isn't the only platform in this situation now where you can do hypnosis. You have here on tumblr, twitter (or x, make up your mind Elon), patreon, soundgasm, hypnohub, devient art, twitch. Name a platform or site and odds are someone is doing hypnosis there. This is great because it means the community is growing and the potential reach is expanding but it also means that working as a hypnosis creator is now harder than ever.

Back in 2017 I started a YouTube channel which I had no clue would as of today lead me to 95k subscribers and my entire income being funded through patreon. But if you look at my content from then to now there had to be some massive leaps to keep my name and my work in peoples attention span. Most content creators don't last years, I know I am an outlier and not a norm. This is due to the fact that over time tastes change, the algorithm changes to reflect this audience shift and what you did back then is just not good enough comapred to now. I had to be drastic to weather the storms of mental health, physical health, audience rention and analytics galore, branding shifts, shifts in community. It's all a lot to deal with but if you want to do this in any format you have to be ready to put yourself through it to be a success and even then I look at my work now and I don't think it's truly successful, yet.

I haven't made it and I don't think I ever will because that "made it" feeling, the top of the hill, is such a subjective metric that's hard to describe. Back in 2017 if you'd asked me, "Secret, when will you know that you are a great creator?" and I would have told you, "100k on YouTube, I want my silver play button." I still do want it, but not like I did before. Before it was clout to be quite honest. 100k means you are powerful enough to do what you want to do, to be able to reach brands, to make friends and collab with the bigger channels, to have people look at you and take you seriously as a creator. But none of that matters now. Subscribers are less important than ever. What matters now is attention. Retention. Clicks, engagement and views.

Now back in 2020 I was really rude. I made a video called Seduced into Obedience that blew up my channel. It got half a million views before YouTube made me take it down earlier this year. It's an achievement I could never expect to relive and it was all based on cheating the system. See I knew that back in "the day" people loved doing those audios on YouTube where you would "comment I am a good slave" in the comments. Knowing what I know about YouTube I decided to run a little test, an experiment on my channel. A risk that I thought just might pay off and if not, oh well, worth a try. I made an audio with the aim of making people like it, and comment in the comments. In the same style of those before me, I took a concept that was not often seen and honestly a little stupid, I made it and the worst part is, it worked. It got me seen by huge content creators in the mainstream who memed on me for it. It skyrocketted in views and kept going. It was my first video to hit 100k on YouTube and it is a moment that will never happen again. It was age restricted which killed the growth but the channel kept going and it wasn't a viral hit, but it was a dark horse that built my reputation on YouTube and then I went and changed everything.

Why change if it was going so well?

So one thing about the internet is you have to follow the success where it takes you. I could have made several more Seduced audios for YouTube and in fact I did do that for a little while but, tastes change. I changed. I stopped doing what I was doing and started being a vtuber, a faceless creator and I got into ASMR. At the time ASMR roleplaying was massive so this was a strategy I wanted to try, mix my love of acting and fantasy with my love of hypnosis see what happens. It worked pretty well as those videos also started doing pretty good and now I have a bunch of videos over 100K on YouTube. But this also trapped me in a box. Now I have had time to have a break and come back I noticed, YouTube especially is really hard on ASMR creators. It's hard on hypnosis creators. It's hard on creators because the platform is loaded with content. You have to be unique to stand out. You have to play to your audience. You have to gain people's attention through interest and ideas that are still fresh but not too specific to turn away the people who watch you. It's a battle to keep it going and it's one I have made many, many mistakes in. You have to give your audience the most, but not too much. You have to be avaible to people in the comments, but not too much. It's a fine balancing act and one that will drive you insane if you don't have a great support system.

So why am I sharing this with you?

I'm at a stage in my career as a creator where I am fearless to try new stuff. I am trying not to care about my reputation as a domme or as a person (more on that in a later essay, I'm sure). I'm trying to lead with my creative spirit and not be upset when a video doesn't "hit" or "pop off". I'm not going to leave a livestream anymore and cry because no one came to see me do a thing. I'm splitting my time between making music, gaming and creating fun things for me and making hypnosis and asmr roleplays for the people who want it and not being sad if my song doesn't go viral right away. Because recently after a death in my family, a health scare that nearly ended my career and the loss of a huge opportunity that turned out not to work for me, I have learned that life is too short not to make the fun things I want.

I want to share with content creators that doing this fulltime is scary and it is hard. It is tough to see posts do nothing. It's scary to see that platforms want to ban hypnokink. It's rough to have other creators disown you for being the wrong kind of degen. But if this is your passion and your dream to make this work, you can do it.

How do you get noticed in this challenging environment?

Lead with passion and your own point of view.

I'm not kidding here, it's the best and worst advice I can give you. Too different and you alienate people, not different enough and you aren't memorable. But you have to lead with passion. Passion carries through the screen. People can hear it in your voice, see it in your work. But outside of that, here are some other things you might want to think about if you are going to commit to making content of any kind:

Who is your target audience? If you say yourself, great! What do you like? What do you want? What are you goals with interacting with content? Follow that.

What is your brand (and can you say it in a single sentence) I'm literally not kidding. If you can't describe what you do in one sentence your branding needs work. Eg, hi I'm Secret and I'm a hypnotic nyanpire from New Zealand.

If someone was to see you on the internet, what should they remember? The other day I got a great comment on a piece of art I commed, "I saw this and I immediatly thought of Secret Subject, and then I looked and saw it was posted by her", your branding should be that strong because people see thousands of posts a day. What makes you different? For me, it's purple. It's goth mommy. It's cats and bats. Find your vibe and own it. Do not be afraid to double down and make your entire thing about it. Everytime I get art made, I make it about my character and it must have purple hair because that keeps the brand strong in someone's mind.

What is your purpose? For me without a goal of "this is why I make the content I do" I would be lost and unmotivated. Find your why and write it down, put a post-it on the wall. Tell a friend. Whatever you need to remind you, this is why I do what I do. When times are hard or you run out of steam/ideas go back to this and really hone into what it is you want to say.

Own your mistakes and bad days. We all have them. That thing didn't do well. That video wasn't great. There was a mistake in this thing or I accidentally made a tweet that went viral for all the wrong reasons. It happens. Be honest with yourself but exercise kindness. Own your mistakes and show people you are human even if you play as an anime vampire catgirl online.

Make connections for the right reasons. As an ex-vtuber I can tell you it's hard when people use you or befriend you "for something". It's okay to build business connections and make this all about business but be honest with people, it does go a long way. Have respect for people who are fellow creators and if you seriously are looking for "friends" that's fine but also know that being friends and colleagues in content are not the same and the lines get very blurry at times.

Be persistant instead of consistent. You've probably been told "constancy is key" a bunch here, hell, you may have heard it from me. I used to teach this as part of my content class at cons but it's not as important as just sticking with it. We are not robots. We can't just all schedule tweets to go out perfectly timed and are all amazingly funny all the time. You need time to come up with quality so take it, but do not give up. If you give up and throw in the towel often you won't make it. Especially on social media. Taking a break or hiatus is fine, I just had one myself, but if you everytime it gets too hard say "I'm done" and then come back on a cycle you are just hurting yourself.

Perfection is a creativity killer. Just post that thing. Sometimes just posting that thing will lead to a new classic for the community.

Time to make your mark

I'm still grinding, we all are still out here making it happen in our own ways. I am so excited to watch the next gen of hypnosis creators florish and thrive. I am a huge simp for my friends who take on this challege because they all work so hard and have so much passion for this weird niche kink we all have. I am in awe of people who feel the fear of this journey and keep doing it. I'm in awe of people who started before me and are still here doing it, because it is not easy and I am over pretending it is.

We need diversity in content and especially in hypnosis kink. I am a person from New Zealand, a small country where a lot of us tend not to make a big splash in the world. People like me don't get the kind of platform I am lucky and insanely grateful to have. I encourage you to take your point of view as a kinkster, and make your mark on the world too. Play safe, care about your content and do good. Remember that you don't need thousands of dedicated fans to be popular and you can be someones favorite regardless of how "seen" your work is.

[ouraboras]

Ranking Alucard's Designs, Best to Worst

I've had a rough day and feel like being mean. These are just my opinions. Some rules:

I’m not counting each game a character appears in unless the design is noticeably different. I don’t count different art styles as a different design. I’m not counting the mobile game skins with two exceptions. For the most part it’s just him but purple. However, for your pleasure, joker Alucard:

Symphony of the Night

No surprise. It’s his most iconic design. He’s gorgeous. I enjoy how he wears a mixture of human clothes (the jacket) and more stereotypical vampire clothing like the cape. Same with warm colors with black and silver.

2. Grimoire of Souls

I love this design. I kiss it every night before I go to bed. I pray to it on Sundays. His waist makes me go feral. The only thing that bothers me is the brown lining. I wish they did something like the inside of his SotN jacket.

3. Moonlight Rhapsody – Outfit 3

I know absolutely nothing about this game. However, I love this skin. In my head when I imagine Alucard pre-Dracula betrayal this is it. The collar is a bit silly but I can look past it. I love the sleeves. The only critique I have is the brown and we’ll get to my feeling on Alucard wearing brown. But on this outfit, it’s not too bad.

4. Nocturne

They gave him his gay little neck ruffle back nature is healing. I wish they kept the details on the coat, but I’ll happily take the trade. I like his face.

5. The cancelled Dracula’s Curse movie concept art

I need to know what the context behind this would have been. The skirt, the pauldrons, his bloody hands, HIS HAIR PUSHED BACK. The only thing I dislike is his black nipple.

6. Aria and Dawn of Sorrow

I like the suit. The red pocket square is nice. I think it is a really interesting choice for it to be red rather than yellow as a callback. I love the choice to make him resemble Dracula pre-vampirism. All of his color has been drained and replaced with black and red. I go back and forth on if I hate or like (for symbolic reasons) his tie-neck ruffle thing. But none of that is my real problem with the design. His shoes are hideous. The heel is good.  He deserves a little heel. But what is going on with the white. It's ugly and going to be a bitch to keep clean. His slacks are too long. He’s a government agent, he can afford to go to a tailor.

7. Season 1 & 2 of the show

I dislike the shirt. I’m not a big fan of how they drew his face either. But I like how they gave him Trevor’s chest scar.

8. Captain N

He’s so rad. But to be honest, Captain N Alucard has a special place in my heart. I remember when this was the closest thing to an animated series Castlevania had. It being this high is purely my nostalgia. I highly recommend watching the episode. It is pure 90s camp.

9. Season 4 of the show

Whore.

10. Grimoire of Souls – Blood and Loyalty

I can’t find a better look at this skin. He’s apparently dressed as a samurai. I like this purely because his hair is up. I don’t see enough of that. (artists pls you’d be doing the world a service)

11. Lords of Shadow 2

The only thing I like about this design is the coat. The dark blue with gold looks really good. I don’t like the belts, but I can ignore them. My issue is the armor. I hate the bronze so much. The armor on one hip is ugly. The ONLY thing that salvages this crime is the fact this Alucard is wearing the highest heels. This looks like an MMO armor set.

12. Judgement

I only unironically like 2 of Judgement’s designs. This is not one of them. I dislike it purely because of how boring it is. They put Simon in bondage gear, gave Trevor a boob window, and made Sypha a Catholic magical girl. But Alucard has to be more modest than the actual child. They could have fun with this but didn't. The most interesting thing about this design is they made a vintage couch into his cape.

13. Dracula’s Curse

This is Alucard’s original design. It’s just your standard pop culture vampire. I like his little owl hair tufts.

14. Legends

I’m fine with changing up Alucard’s design. Hell, we got SotN because of changing it. However, why is he blue? It’s not this illustration either he is just light blue for some reason. I like the short hair. I think it’s a cute way to show this game takes place in the past. But again, purple? Really? His necktie is not doing it for me either. It looks really bad.

15. And finally, last and certainly least: Pachinko and Moonlight Rhapsody

The faces? Good. Hair? Good. But for some reason they made his coat brown. At LEAST for pachinko they had some gold gauntlets and brown gloves instead of his sleeve cuffs. But whatever fucked up person at Konami did the design for MR kept the sleeve cuffs. It’s not like there is the excuse of ‘Oh the inside is black’ because it’s yellow. Now you might be asking: Why is this the worst? I have similar issues with other designs. But here is the thing, they all did something new. This is just your standard SotN Alucard with a color palette change. It looks like a recolor skin but it’s the main one. It's a bad change but not one bad enough to not be boring.

[strawberryblueberrypies]

Hi! Welcome to my blog!

My name's what's on the tin, but you can call me SBP!

My blog is primarily Sonic related. Dedicated to my OC's but I really wanted to find other cool OC's hence I'm here!

Expect to see: Sonic, digital art, style mimicking (it's fun!), fondness of less beloved Sonic titles, strong girls and birbs!

I won't engage in negativity, be it towards me, others or the franchise. My focus is on being positive and having fun.

MINORS DNI! I do not want to interact with anyone underage! You will be blocked if you follow me!

I also have a Transformers OC blog! Check it out if you're interested!

Here's a short introduction on my 5 Sonic OCs! Please bear in mind it's a work in progress as I slowly replay the games and learn more! Also yes I was trying to copy Yuji Uekawa's/2000's Sonic artwork.

Name: Heat the Mynah

Species: Babylonian

Related games: Sonic Riders, Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, Sonic and the Secret Rings (AU because I want excuses to draw Erazor Djinn, Shahra, Erazor again, oh and Erazor)

Extreme Gear: Type-H (Speed type)

Rivals: Amy

Personality: Heat is fun loving and impulsive. She might look like an airhead but she has a cunning manipulative side. She's aware she's cute and often uses her charms to get others to do her bidding. She doesn't use her "powers" for evil but she sure has had Storm bring her stuff at 3AM. Heat also has collectionist tendencies, often keeping stolen treasure for herself instead of selling like the others. Though she loves danger and doesn't seem to have fears, two things make her shake in her boots: certain death and existencial/cosmic threats!

Fun fact: Heat's favorite places to race are Metal City, 90's Boulevard and the Gigan Rocks! Mobius Strip gives her bad memories though.

Name: Mist the Tiger

Species: Indochinese tiger

Home: Sol Dimension

Relevant games: Sonic Rush, Sonic Rush Adventure, Sonic 06 (Maybe?)

Friends: Blaze (Ex-rival), Silver, Cream, Knuckles (Rivals?), Heat (Sorry, Riders is too fun of a concept)

Powers: Water control (Unstable; turns into mist/fog without the Sol Emeralds), Super strength

Personality: Mist is hot-headed and very excited to fight others. She values strength very much and wants to fight anything that moves! Before being defeated, she was very aggressive and selfish but after befriending Blaze she became friendship oriented and affectionate, even if she remains imposing. Mist isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and is very impulsive and restless. In fact she's too much of a meathead to really feel fear.

Fun fact: Her blue gem is a heirloom and is what helps her channel water. It changes color in her super form due to it becoming saturated. It acts like training wheels until she fully gains control over time.

Name: Elegy the Cosmos

Occupation/Species: Goddess of Space

Powers: Teleportation, Psychic communication (she doesn't speak, you can only hear her in your thoughts if she's within speaking range), Dark matter control.

Backstory: Elegy is the Goddess of Space and went to visit Sonic's dimension to stop population overgrowth in his universe eons ago. She spent a lot longer in the dimension than intended, staying away from her Home and gradually becoming weaker as a result. After creating The End she expended all her remaining energy, leaving her trapped. She ventured the universe for millenias trying to regain enough power to go back Home but with so much time passing, she grew to resent the dimension she's trapped in and convinced herself that she has to destroy it.

Personality: Elegy is cold and factual, not caring for lies or manipulation. She focuses on the greater picture, seeing mortals as mere puppets in a greater cosmic theater she's in charge of. She often doesn't understand people and her resentment causes her to seem uninterested in learning about them, but deep down she's still just as curious about their little insignificant antics as she was way back when.

Fun fact: Despite seeming emotionless, Elegy can and does feel emotions. In fact, the white tips of her ears and tail change color depending on what she's feeling at the time.

Name: Poise the Viper

Occupation: L.A.N.C.E. Freelancer

Relevant Games: Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic 06 (Kinda)

Rivals: Rouge the Bat

Powers: High flexibility and speed, Hypnotic smoke

Backstory: Poise is the heir to a rich family with high political power, but due to her irresponsible spending she found herself in massive amounts of debt. With her family unwilling to pay her bills, she had to find a high paying gig. Through her fascination with the Space Colony Ark and Project Shadow, she stumbled upon Lovers Against Nefarious Corporations and Entities, or L.A.N.C.E., a once small and peaceful protest group turned independant organization that's heavily against G.U.N. due to the events 50 years ago. She now works as an agent, being frequently tasked with getting in the way of G.U.N's missions and goals.

Personality: Poise is highly vain, caring a lot about her looks and economic status. She's also very petty. She's sneaky and decieving, hiding the fact she's deeply insecure and in need of external validation with an arrogant and smug mask. She likes to feel wanted and on top of things. She also loves romance and beautiful scenery.

Fun fact: Poise can wear accessories ala SA2's upgrades. She's often tasked with some thanks to L.A.N.C.E's aid during missions.

Name: Umbra the Android

Species: Shadow Android

Relevant games: Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog

Allies: Poise the Viper, Invade the Artificial Wisp

Powers: High speed, agility and intelligence. Easy time operating computers. Can't use chaos control but has heightened strength.

Backstory: Umbra is one of the Shadow androids built by Doctor Eggman. The place was found by Poise during a mission and he was retrieved back to L.A.N.C.E. HQ. Upon activation, he was made aware that he was an Android, not the original, and was asked a barrage of questions by L.A.N.C.E. leader, Commander Layla. Her intent was to have him expose through personal account the horrors that happened near the end of Project Shadow, exposing G.U.N. to the public. Despite really having Shadow's memories up until him falling back to Earth, he feigned amnesia, aware that should he give them what they want he'll be discarded just like the original was by G.U.N. 50 years ago. As a result, Layla decided to give him a place to stay in the L.A.N.C.E HQ until he "regained his memory", while also trying to please him due to his high importance. To prevent boredom at being stuck in HQ and possibly help him remember, he was given permission to partake in missions. He was also allowed to customize his body (as long as he uses his original Shadow look during the exposé) and given another top secret L.A.N.C.E project, Invade, to keep company at HQ and help in missions

Personality: Umbra is acutely aware he's a copy of Shadow. Feeling like a "shadow of a shadow", he picked the namd Umbra, his goal being to eventually be his own person. Having Shadow's memories, he's very similar to the original: brooding, serious, stoic, quick to get things done. Where he differs is his attempts to branch out and create meaningful connections, even if he isn't the best at showing affection. He doesn't wish to be alone in the world, aware of his unusual and unnatural circumstance, aware that otherwise he has nowhere to go. Due to his memories, he has tried to create distance from them. But still finds himself feeling rage and grief when remembering Maria and the A.R.K. He hopes to meet Sonic one day, part of him still having that rivalry, part of him hoping he'll be seen as his own person.

Fun fact: Umbra considers Eggman's other robots as siblings. He's melancholic over the fact him and Omega have to fight, hoping to one day be on good terms with him and fight alongside him instead of against.

[relicsongmel]

Alright I figured since I ramble about them so much it's time I made a post talking all about my two darling girls!!! As some of you already know, these are my two (pseudo) self-insert characters; their primary canon is based around the events of Pokemon Black and White and their sequels.

images made using Picrew and Love Nikki (with the latter having the closest I could get to their canon outfits)

Sylvia Goldwood

Gender: female (she/her)

Orientation: pan(demi)romantic demisexual

Birthday: March 10th

Height: 5'8

Hair color: light blonde

Eye color: aqua

Color scheme: light blues, whites, and silvers/grays with occasional darker blues, yellows, greens, and purples

Ethnicity: Unovan (Martha her mother is from Icirrus City, Roger her father is from Driftveil City)

Interests: music (singing, piano, flute, composition), theater, gardening/botany, baking, poetry, dancing, swimming, boating, foreign languages

Fashion is romantic and feminine with frequent floral elements

Born in Nuvema Town and lived her whole life there

Her father was a musician and aspiring composer who died a little over a year after she was born. Her mother is a florist

Inherited Roger's love of music despite never knowing him. Dedicates herself wholly to the musical arts and shows an exceptional level of skill for her age, but develops burnout as a result of her perfectionist nature and harsh self-criticism born from the pressure she felt to succeed. Leaves on a Pokemon journey for a change of pace and to search for the mythical Pokemon Meloetta in hopes of rekindling her inspiration.

Personality: ambiverted, imaginative, deceptively slow to trust, selfless to a fault

Notable Pokemon: Samurott, Cinccino, shiny Gardevoir

Denise Hitoki

Gender: female (she/her)

Orientation: biromantic demisexual

Birthday: September 10th

Height: 5'4

Hair color: blonde

Eye color: dark gray

Color scheme: greens, browns, and other neutral tones with occasional blues and yellows

Ethnicity: half Unovan, half Johtonian (Jennifer her mother is from Icirrus City, Ryuji her father is from Goldenrod City)

Interests: reading, video games/anime, drawing, writing, playing guitar/songwriting, tree climbing, mythology, history

Fashion is minimalist and practical, avoiding unnecessary flourishes

Born in Ecruteak City and lived there with both parents; moved to Aspertia City with her mother at about 13 years old

Both parents are top-class Pokemon breeders who spent their teens and early twenties competing in competitions worldwide; after their marriage her mother starts a business selling various Pokemon care products. Her father assists her but tends to work from home so he can focus on taking care of Denise

Her parents' marriage grows unstable and her father abandons the family when Denise is 10. She and her mother have wildly different responses to this, which becomes a source of conflict as Dena becomes frustrated with her mother's state of denial and Jen is incredibly ill-equipped to deal with her daughter's grief on top of her own while now facing the challenges of being a single mother. Denise has a long depressive period before she leaves on a Pokemon journey to escape her home life and possibly find her father.

Personality: introverted, blunt, logical, fiercely loyal to her loved ones

Notable Pokemon: Ninetales, Glaceon, Zoroark

Other facts about the girls:

Martha and Jen are sisters, making Sylvia and Denise cousins. They are two years apart in age (with Sylvia as the older of the two) and each leaves on her respective journey at 18 years old.

Sylvia started as a Bleach OC and used to be named Lilybell, while Denise was created for an unfinished lineup of characters representing musical keys (she was D minor, hence her name). Both are drastically different characters now than how I envisioned them at the time of their conception.

Sylvia's tag [#little songbird] is a nickname Roger used for her when he was still alive.

Denise's tag [#forest for the tree] is in reference to her last name, which means "solitary tree." It symbolizes her tendency to isolate herself due to recurring abandonment issues as a result of her father's disappearance, even though trees usually thrive in community by nourishing each other through interconnected root systems. However, after letting go of her fears and allowing others into her life (finding her "forest" so to speak), she becomes a source of shelter, strength, and comfort for those around her.

Sylvia can be shortened to Syl and Denise to Dena (pronounced "DEE-nuh"); they have a few other nicknames but those are the most common ones.

The descriptions in this post pertain to the main timeline; that is, Sylvia and Denise's adventures across Unova and a few other regions they travel to with the background details exactly as described above. Several other AUs exist, most notably two PLA AUs (one for each of them), Denise's Paldea AU in which she and her mother move there instead of Unova, and a few different Sylvia AUs in which her confrontation with Team Plasma plays out slightly differently. In addition to these, I occasionally put my girls in the universes of other franchises (Bleach, Stardew Valley and Ace Attorney to name a few), but many details there are far less consistent considering the characters weren't created with those universes in mind. As such I generally don't like to discuss them as much, but they are very fun nonetheless and often help me recontextualize how I view their canon storyline.

And that's the overview! Thank you to anyone who's read this far—my lovely ladies mean the absolute world to me and I hope you found their backgrounds interesting <3

[lamaisongaga]

        FASHION CREDITS: JAZZ & PIANO SHOW 3.0

Lady Gaga finally returned to Vegas to continue the final 12 jazz & piano residency shows, and brought out an entire new setlist and costumes! Make sure to check out the other looks here and here.

The fashion was put together by Tom Eerebout and Sandra Amador with assistance by Kayla Manjarrez and Gianni Catalina.

The show also came with a handful of new visuals, including this one of LG enjoying a round of poker while wearing a dress Marilyn Monroe herself would approve.

The red sequined plunging stunner with halterneck, column skirt and flower belt detail is from Rodarte's Fall/Winter 2020 collection ($1,827).

In the same visual, she wears this absolutely divine plush black velvet column dress with deep nude illusion mesh panel and rows of pearl necklaces from Russian designer Kamilla Purshie’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection.

Let's get to the show! A label I've been eyeing for some time ever since being loved by the likes of Taylor Swift and Kelly Rowland is Taipei-based Nicole + Felicia who whipped out this fun beaded fringe mini dress for their Bridal Fall/Winter 2020 collection that any showgirl would love.

She topped it off with a new Arturo Rios Faux Grass white feather showgirl headpiece 

Dita von Teese, if you please!

The Always Love You crystal-embellished silver hoop dangle earrings ($396) are made by Laruicci...

Shop:

Laruicci “Always Love You” Earrings ($396.00)

…while the Jimmy Choo metallic silver Anouk stiletto pumps provided the finishing touches.

Lady Gaga then devoured in this custom Prabal Gurung rose gold sunburst pleated silk lamé gown with hand-embroidered crystals and ostrich feather-trimmed cape.

Both her Hyperbola rhodium-plated hoop earrings with crystals in different cuts ($600)...

...and matching Hyperbola open cuff are created by Swarovski.

Shop:

Swarovski "Hyperbola" Earrings ($600.00)

The look was perfectly accentuated with these Christian Louboutin So Kate pumps coated in pink satin!

This was one of the, if not THE look most of you have been flooding my message inbox about.

LG stunned the Vegas crowd (and us) wearing a custom couture Rose Blossom metallic plissé gown by recently-gone-viral designer Robert Wun, whose been part of her wardrobe since 2013!

The silver-tone mixed crystal flower linear drop earrings are by I.N.C. International Concepts exclusively sold at Macy's.

The perfect shoe to complete the red looks of the show are by Christian Louboutin, who created the super fun Hot Chick Psychic metallic red leather slingback pumps ($852).

Shop:

Christian Louboutin "Hot Chick Psychic" Pumps ($852.00)

Another fun Robert Wun moment was this full look based on his Spring/Summer 2023 Haute Couture collection which went viral!

Signature peplum corset top in a bonded white satin, enhanced with silk taffeta ruching detail on the bust and lace-up back with matching large stole. Paired with a low-waist technical wool skirt with asymmetrical slit pleating details in anthracite.

Styled with a black & white 3D-printed headpiece with stripped coque feathers and long black gloves.

Hot, hotter, GAGA! Our girl twirled around the stage rocking a custom Garo Sparo fiery red showgirl beaded fringe bodysuit dress with hand-stoned crystal pattern and asymmetrical hem, inspired by old Bob Mackie pieces!

If you look closer, you can see that inbetween her fingers shines the Swarovski Hyperbola cocktail ring ($400).

Shop:

Swarovski "Hyperbola" Ring ($400.00)

Hell-o! Gaga brought out the best of Vegas' spirit appropriately decked out in the master of sexy dresswear: Zuhair Murad. And yes, this is the first time!

LG selected a sparkly fringe number fully embroidered in gold sequins and crystals of various sizes from the Lebanese designer's Fall/Winter 2022 Haute Couture collection, inspired by mystical arts, from Tarot and astrology to horoscopes and palmistry, to dispel the concerns of an unsettled age through the allure of their symbols.

She wore this augmented plummet shawl on stage, which was custom-made for her by Christian Cowan!

"Each ostrich feather plume was individually hand dyed to the warm tone of her exact Haus Labs shade of foundation, and curled to achieve a more dimensional effect before being embroidered individually by hand to a crinoline base also custom dyed to be her exact warm tone- all done in-house by our New York Atelier"

One of Gaga's most stunning Vegas-worn headpieces to date is another one-off-one bespoke Arturo Rios! This time: gold lamé leather orchid bouquet with large crystals peeking out between the leaves and buds.

She finished off with her previously-worn Jimmy Choo Anouk metallic gold pointed-toe pumps!

The finale look of the show sees Gaga wearing a bespoke Topo Studio NY plush black silk velvet gown with attached tails to the wrists, embroidered with over 400 cosmic crystals.

The fun feather headpiece with crystallized cap was custom-made for her by Binata Millinery.

For this look she wore Jimmy Choo's Romy black patent leather pointed-toe pumps.

[morose-magnetrix]

Magneto #3 by J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Todd Nauck (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

I've super wanted to enjoy this series - but it continues to bother me ever so slightly. I adore Magneto, and my favorite period for the classic stuff is when he's Headmaster Magneto, posing as Charles' cousin. On paper, I should be thrilled with this - especially since Max is dead rn in the main continuity.

But it's just kinda... lacking, a little bit. The plot is fine - a young reckless traumatized mutant who worshipped the 60's Magneto, trying to force 80's Magneto to resume his former ways. Great, cool, love it - I even love Irae's design and I don't mind the mildly contrived origin. The art is great too overall, very expressive, and the coloring really emphasizes the emotional mood of the scenes.

I just don't buy the "Magneto was pretending to be evil in the 60's stories." I really don't. I don't think that it was a performance. The logic of it being a performance, designed to make the X-Men more effective... it just doesn't really hold up to me? It reminds me of the fake cover for X-Factor in their first run, that they were mutant hunters by day, and one of Louise Simonson's main points when she took over the series was how fucked up that was. X-Factor ended up just bringing on even MORE anti-mutant hate. So then to me, it seems like Magneto "pretending" to be a mustache twirling villainous mutant who steals nukes and claims he's going to wipe out the human race would only make things worse. Not better. He's giving the humans "reasons" to hate/hunt other mutants.

The real issue I think comes down to the fact that it's really hard to square Magneto's 60's characterization with what comes later, when Claremont establishes a backstory + motivations. It's part of why Grant Morrison has Magneto become a horrifying fascist in their run, as they never bought in to Claremont's Magneto, instead viewing him still as the evil nut from the 60's. I'm honestly not sure it's even possible to really make the character progression from the 60's to 80's make sense, but I think my bigger point here probably is I'm not sure there's even value in trying.

Tons of Silver Age characters didn't really have their personalities, their backstories, motivations, etc etc worked out. The X-Men as a concept didn't even really work until Giant Sized anyways. Jean Grey, for instance, was just the girl - she didn't really get much of a role beyond that! I think it's okay for things to be a little disjointed/disconnected, because we know what we have now (at least RE Magneto's characterization) works. I don't think we need to come up with excuses / explanations for why he behaved the way he did in the 60's. I think you can have him grapple with his past as a villain, without trying to explain it all away.

And like, if you are tackling the 60's stuff, isn't it more interesting if he really did believe all those things - if it wasn't an act? If he was pretending, then he's significantly less complicated as a character. Let him atone for the things he did! Let him have a dark and problematic past!

[max1u3]

Blizzcon 2023 Omg...

First of all here's the video I watched if you want to go watch it yourself, but I'm just gonna outline what I think are the highlights in this post!

First of all, Blizzard actually serving this Blizzcon like?? Woah there, slow down, are you sure you actually want to deliver what the fanbase wants... you've never done that before but slay.

And secondly, I'm late to this cos your girl put off working on a brief deadline for her degree until the last few days and had to draw like a mad woman. So excuse my late reactions to everything haha

ANYWAYS

THE COMP CHANGES?? LIKE SLAY OMG

Let's be honest, even Blizzard knew the 5 - 15 bracket was shit, and now they're finally getting rid of it, and replacing it with this ->

Like are we actually getting ranked on what we do in the match or is this some kind of amazing dream?

As a hard stuck gold/plat support main with an average of 20k heals a match, this is like some kind of blessing from God.

Plus not to mention the rank reset?? Last time I rank reset, aka made a smurf account that I never used, it was two ranks above my main. I'm going to cry literal tears of joy.

Plus, we're getting these bad boys back ->

She looks a little different but it's ok, we still accept her as the placement matches we know and love.

(I am very sassy today apologies, I have borderline carpool tunnel in my main hand and a backache to slay all backaches so I'm feeling slightly unhinged.)

Then they're also tidying up the competitive challenges tab? Like actually slay!

Like look how clean and sexy she looks like omg. Can't wait to actually understand all that information now that it's feasible to read haha

I'm not as hype about these but they still deserve mentioning ->

Tree guns! Oh wait, I mean Emerald guns. Mb. I think they're just like... meh. Like me and my duo have had long and detailed discussions on how we would improve gold guns. We eventually settled on them progressing in rarity and price. We suggested a gun started at bronze and worked it's way up the ranks like you do in competitive, and each rank would be a thousand more expensive. So obviously Bronze for Bronze, Silver for Silver, Gold for Gold, Platinum with like a purple sheen for Platinum, Diamond with a white and blue reflection for Diamond, then either Ruby or Sapphire for Masters and Grand Masters.

If you hadn't figured it out by my grumbling already in this post, but I'm a digital art student in uni, literally studying concept art, and by gods would my lecturers turn their noses up at the green they chose for this promotional ss.

Personally, I would saturate the colour more, it's much too dark. Sure, up close you can see the colour well, but realistically you want to be able to see the colour in game as well, and the green here is much too dark. I would saturate the colour more, but not too much. There's a thin line between it being a distraction or a flex. Next thing I would do is give it a darker sheen so when it catches certain lights it has a muted sparkle. I say darker so that it doesn't cross the distraction line again, because a lighter sheen would defiantly distract a player.

ANYWAY those are just my thoughts on it as someone studying this stuff at uni :)

I'm not a professional and will never be cos I'm never touching the art industry after this course again lol

Next I just wanna briefly look at the two heroes other than Mauga we got a look at.

Which are obviously Venture ->

Who's a dps who digs underneath the ground and launches out to deal dmg to the enemies.

Personally, I think it's a really innovative idea, and a really nice idea lore wise, but realistically I don't think this is going to play well, and I'm sure we're going to see lots of changes to him before and after he's released.

Also that concept art is just chefs kiss. It's so beautiful, with such clean lines and such an understandable concept. The facial expression is so cute and clean as well, and I already love them just from what I can see.

Oh, they are a they/them as well, so they're slaying.

Then there's 'Space Ranger', which is only a code name, and all we can call her so far ->

Again the beautiful concept art is literally making my drool, the lines are clean, it's understandable, conveys exactly what the artist wants.

I also love the unique UI of having the two guns above. It's also really thrilling to get more of a design perspective, for me at least. Even if I'm not going into the art industry (I'm taking a course to become a teacher after I gradate next year) it's still really exciting to be able to see the processes of it all. Now I can't help but imagine what the rest of the heroes concept art looked like when drawn onto the ss like the image above.

She's also a support by the way, so we support mains are being FED.

Next on my little list that I have here, is the hero mastery updates. Which are all for next year, so 2024.

The first point was that we'd be getting D.va, Lucio, Genji, Echo and Mei maps to master. I've 5 stared all the Mercy courses cos she's one of my mains, and my other is D.va sooooo can't wait to spend 20 hours on that haha.

They've also realised that it being solo can be a bit of an obstacle for groups, so they're adding a tower defence 3v3 vs bots mode. Every season the heroes on the roster for the mode will cycle out, as will the special rewards for completing the game mode every season. Basically, they're trying to make it as replayable every season as possible. Even with the heroes and reward cycles, I still have a sneaking suspicion this is going to end up slightly monotonous.

Here's a ss of the tower defence ->

It's not very clear and that's mb, I forgot to ss until too late lol.

Finally, the last big thing that they discussed was the new game mode 'Clash', plus the re-work of the Hanamura 2cp map for this game mode.

They basically described clash as 5cp, and even with this image it took me a while to get my head around it. Disclaimer, I am dyslexic though lol, so you'll probably get it faster than me.

Basically, (from what I understood from the dev's explanation) all five points will be lined up in a row on the map. When the game starts, team blue will posses 2 points and so will team red. Only point C will be available to cap, and it's a race to see who can claim the point first. Whoever claims the point will then push the enemy teams spawn room back a point, and the next point to claim will be either one to the right/left from the middle. The game ends when one team holds on the points, or the time runs out and whoever holds the most points win. The co-streamer I was watching alongside it said it resembled a tft game mode, but since I've never played tft I can't vouch for that.

I actually really like this idea, and it actually does remind me of 2cp quite a lot. It has a very nostalgic OW feeling just to the description.

Moving on, we have the Hanamura re-work, which is last, but not least.

They've adjusted the map in a way that supposedly makes it feel organic and not just a re-work of Hanamura itself. Basically, they've expanded off the main map, left some noticeable features and vibes to the map, and dropped the previous map into the background. It's a very smart way to evolve a map in all honesty.

This map has been designed specifically for Clash and will be called Hanaoko (sorry if I'm butchering that, they didn't write it down anywhere and only said the name).

Normally, I won't be too bothered to write so much about a new map, but bro this is Hanamura! I adore Hanumura, so, so, so much! I miss 2cp and all those maps so badly. It's nice to see them evolving the concept to incorporate those nostalgic elements for OW1 players.

What also interested me was that they talked more about the Hanamura lore. Naturally, there's a lot of it. With the Shimada brothers, the Hashimoto Shimada fight for dominance, and Kiriko with her Yokai gang. They specifically mentioned more lore for those three groups which got my very excited. They also mentioned, and I feel stupid for not noticing this cos it's obvious once it's pointed out), but all the dragons and tigers on the map are symbolic. They represent the struggle between the Shimada (dragons) and Hashimoto (tigers) clans when they're fighting. Like in this photo ->

So, it's official, we are being well and truly fed this Blizzcon. I can't wait for ranked to actually feel rewarding again.

Here's a random Tracer play from OW1 to finish of the post :)

[suelenlasquevski]

"The Idea of Being Seen"

I think it was in September 2022 that I read something about the fanfic "The Idea of You" being in production for the cinema. I wasn't surprised by this, as adapting this category of stories to film is a safe bet. After all, you can't hope for a more niche target and safer audience than that.

What struck me the most was learning that Anne Hathaway was not only starring in the movie but also involved in the production. And the Anne factor was the main reason why I gave this movie a chance a few weeks ago. I am very eclectic when it comes to music; however, I can be extremely picky when it comes to books, especially the ones that make it to the silver screen.

Although I think it is amazing that someone feels such a strong connection with an artist (or even well-known books) to the point of letting their imagination go loose enough to come up with creations of their own, I have this concept that, most of the time, art derived from infatuation for artists or characters tends to have weak plotlines. Since, most of the time, these types of fan art are not interested in telling a story; their goal is to make a fantasy come alive. Usually, the characters are poorly written: there is no emotional depth, there are no psychological traits that explain why they act the way they do. There is only the need to reach the climax: the scene where the ripped guy takes off his shirt because he is soaking wet from the rain that conveniently poured while he was on the way to the girl's house.

Don't get me wrong. I know that there is a big difference between this type of movie and porn. Usually, in fanfics, the "take off the wet shirt" scene comes right before the guy realizes, while he contemplates the emptiness of his life, that he is in love with this girl and he has to see her immediately to tell her about his feelings. They may or may not have sex after it, but this urge to run for the person the hunky character has feelings for and physically express their feelings is what is driving the wheels of the narrative. And right after this peak is reached, there is nothing left to do but to stall for a few more scenes, where usually the bad guys are punished for their actions and the side characters appear one last time before vanishing from the narrative. So, why the hell did Anne Hathaway get involved in a fanfic?

A smile always comes to my face when I think of her. I still remember the first time that I watched her in the movies. The messed-up hair girl who found out that she was the heir to the throne of Genovia. As years went by, Anne's roles in the movies evolved, and she tried on different genres: musicals, action, dramas. My absolute favorite being "One Day". The Emma Morley in me resonated with her interpretation of the British teacher turned-writer, who was forever in love with her best friend. I felt like I owed it to Anne. I had to understand why she decided to seal this movie. And I did.

If you look from the outside, at first glance, the premise of the movie revolves around the cliche of an older woman finding herself involved with a much younger guy. But there are certain nuances in the narrative that made me think about the underlined message of "The Idea of You" and maybe why the story was appealing to Anne.

To make my point, let's just ignore the fact that the character Hayes Campbell is heavily inspired by Harry Styles. That minor detail alone explains why anyone would buy the "take off the wet t-shirt and jump into bed with him" at any sight of a micro opportunity. The truth must be told.

Now, wearing the 40-year-old woman's shoes, which fit me perfectly since, just like Anne, I am also 41 years old, from the comfy gray couch I was watching the movie, I felt SEEN!

At every stage of our human existence, it is implied by society that certain milestones must be reached: college graduation, a steady committed relationship that leads to marriage and probably children, acquiring a house, a car, and making sacrifices to build a successful career. Not all people reach these targets, not all people arrive at these stages in the order I listed them, nor is it mandatory to check all these boxes to find fulfillment in life. However, even though we are a species with the capacity of being aware of our thoughts, we are constantly bombarded with subliminal messages that program us to function in an auto-pilot mode that leads us along this path. And although it is the same road, its traffic conditions can be quite different for men and women.

Who never heard that a certain man "is just like wine, gets better with time." Silver hair makes a man charming, but a woman sloppy. Being a man with high career goals is praised, while trying for that promotion in a law firm when you are a woman might be considered greed. Add a layer of selfishness if she chooses to prioritize her career and not have kids. And God forbid if she doesn't want to get married. What a bitch!

Life is not a video game; however, it is also made of levels, and we might fail and stumble on incredibly challenging obstacles before moving to the next one. Sometimes, we advance to the next phase and forget that the game is still on, and we must keep playing; otherwise, we might find ourselves back into a stage we thought we had overcome. Quite often, we stand still in a comfortable yet, borderline boredom place, and we stay there because we don't know the rules of what might come next.

Anne Hathaway's Solene had advanced and then went back a few levels in her game of life. She had a college graduation, a marriage, a house, a kid, and a job, but the stability that comes along with the doubtful feeling that you are winning the game also brought infidelity and divorce. Now back to the level of finding herself single, Solene had no choice but to focus on what remained from the previous experience: her daughter, her house, her job. And although it seemed that she was willing to play the game of dating again, she was not expecting that someone would deal the love card.

And it was not the usual someone that we are programmed to expect her to choose. It was not the guy who was also divorced with kids. Nor the 40-something serial dater who can't commit. It was someone who, although we are in 2024, might still be considered a "taboo," but only if you are a woman: it was a YOUNGER guy.

Being a member of a boy band was another part of the cliche, and I get it. Hot, rich, and famous equal appeal. But these adjectives only added an extra flavor to the excitement and the butterflies that normally come with infatuation. They were also necessary to "justify" the twists and turns of the narrative: trying to conceal a relationship from the media, the reaction of angry fans, and the jealousy that being happy may cause.

The audacity of a woman in her forties giving herself another chance and breaking free from societal expectations is the film's true conflict. Solene’s journey isn’t just about falling in love with a younger man; it’s about rediscovering herself and reclaiming her desires, regardless of age

The film subtly critiques the double standards women face and highlights the courage it takes to live authentically in a world that constantly tries to confine them to predefined roles.

Watching Solene navigate her feelings and societal judgment was a refreshing experience. It served as a reminder that life doesn’t have to be linear, and personal growth doesn’t cease at a certain age. Anne Hathaway’s portrayal brought depth to Solene’s character, making her struggles and triumphs relatable. The movie underscores that it’s never too late to pursue happiness and that love can come from the most unexpected places, challenging the notion that women over forty should settle for less.

The nuanced narrative of "The Idea of You" goes beyond the clichés of an older woman-younger man romance. It delves into the complexities of self-acceptance and the courage to defy societal norms. Solene’s relationship with Hayes, though unconventional, becomes a vehicle for exploring broader themes of empowerment and self-worth. It’s about a woman reclaiming her narrative and choosing what fulfills her, rather than what’s expected of her.

Anne Hathaway’s involvement in the project, both as an actress and a producer, adds a layer of authenticity and significance to the film. Her choice to back this story underscores the importance of diverse narratives in mainstream media, especially those that resonate with women navigating midlife. Hathaway’s Solene is not just a character; she is a representation of many women who dare to redefine their lives and pursue their passions unapologetically.

"The Idea of You" is more than just a romantic drama; it is a story of self-discovery, resilience, and breaking free from societal constraints. It resonated with me because it mirrored the reality of many women striving to find their own paths amidst societal pressures. The film serves as a powerful reminder that every woman’s journey is unique and that embracing one's truth can lead to the most fulfilling chapters of life.

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A Ideia de Ser Vista

Acho que foi em setembro de 2022 que li algo sobre a fanfic "The Idea of You" estar em produção para o cinema. Isso não me surpreendeu, pois adaptar essa categoria de histórias para o cinema é uma aposta segura. Afinal, você não pode esperar por um público-alvo mais específico e seguro do que esse.

O que mais me chamou a atenção foi saber que Anne Hathaway não apenas estrelaria o filme, mas também estava envolvida na produção. E o fator Anne foi a principal razão pela qual dei uma chance a esse filme algumas semanas atrás. Sou muito eclética quando se trata de música, no entanto, posso ser extremamente exigente quando se trata de livros, especialmente os que chegam às telas de cinema.

Embora eu ache incrível que alguém sinta uma conexão tão forte com um artista (ou mesmo com livros bem conhecidos) a ponto de permitir que sua imaginação se solte o suficiente para criar suas próprias criações, tenho esse conceito de que, na maioria das vezes, a arte derivada do encantamento por artistas ou personagens tende a ter enredos fracos, já que, na maioria das vezes, esse tipo de fanart não está interessado em contar uma história: seu objetivo é fazer uma fantasia ganhar vida. Normalmente, os personagens são mal escritos: não há profundidade emocional, não há traços psicológicos que expliquem por que agem da maneira como agem. Há apenas a necessidade de alcançar o clímax: a cena em que o cara rasgado tira a camisa porque está encharcado pela chuva que convenientemente caiu enquanto ele estava a caminho da casa da garota.

Não me entenda mal. Sei que há uma grande diferença entre esse tipo de filme e pornografia. Normalmente, nas fanfics, a cena "tirar a camisa molhada" vem logo antes de o cara perceber, enquanto contempla o vazio de sua vida, que está apaixonado por essa garota e precisa vê-la imediatamente para contar a ela sobre seus sentimentos. Eles podem ou não fazer sexo depois, mas esse desejo de correr atrás da pessoa por quem o personagem bonitão tem sentimentos e expressar fisicamente seus sentimentos é o que move as engrenagens da narrativa. E logo após esse clímax ser atingido, não resta mais nada a fazer além de esperar por algumas cenas extras, onde normalmente os vilões são punidos por suas ações e os personagens secundários aparecem pela última vez antes de desaparecerem da narrativa. Então, por que diabos Anne Hathaway se envolveu em uma fanfic?

Um sorriso sempre aparece no meu rosto quando penso nela. Ainda me lembro da primeira vez que a vi nos filmes. A garota de cabelos bagunçados que descobriu que era a herdeira do trono de Genovia. Com o passar dos anos, os papéis de Anne nos filmes evoluíram e ela experimentou diferentes gêneros: musicais, ação, dramas. Meu favorito absoluto sendo "Um Dia". A Emma Morley em mim ressoou com sua interpretação da professora britânica transformada em escritora, que estava sempre apaixonada por seu melhor amigo. Senti que devia isso a Anne. Eu tinha que entender por que ela decidiu cancelar esse filme. E eu entendi.

Se olharmos de fora, à primeira vista, a premissa do filme gira em torno do clichê de uma mulher mais velha se envolvendo com um cara muito mais jovem. Mas há certos nuances na narrativa que me fizeram pensar na mensagem subjacente de "The Idea of You" e talvez por que a história tenha sido atraente para Anne.

Para fazer meu ponto, vamos apenas ignorar o fato de que o personagem Hayes Campbell é fortemente inspirado em Harry Styles. Apenas esse pequeno detalhe explica por que qualquer pessoa compraria o "tirar a camisa molhada e pular na cama com ele" a qualquer sinal de uma micro oportunidade. A verdade precisa ser dita.

Agora, calçando os sapatos de uma mulher de 40 anos, que se encaixam perfeitamente em mim, já que, assim como Anne, também tenho 41 anos, do confortável sofá cinza onde assistia ao filme, eu me senti VISTA!

Em cada estágio de nossa existência humana, é subentendido pela sociedade que certos marcos devem ser alcançados: formatura na faculdade, um relacionamento comprometido e estável que leva ao casamento e provavelmente a filhos, adquirir uma casa, um carro e fazer sacrifícios para construir uma carreira bem-sucedida. Nem todas as pessoas alcançam essas metas, nem todas as pessoas chegam a esses estágios na ordem que eu listei, nem é obrigatório marcar todas essas caixas para encontrar realização na vida. No entanto, mesmo sendo uma espécie com a capacidade de estar ciente de nossos pensamentos, estamos constantemente bombardeados com mensagens subliminares que nos programam para funcionar em um modo de piloto automático que nos leva por esse caminho. E embora seja a mesma estrada, as condições de tráfego podem ser bastante diferentes para homens e mulheres.

Quem nunca ouviu que um certo homem "é como vinho, melhora com o tempo". Cabelos prateados fazem um homem charmoso, mas uma mulher desleixada. Ser um homem com grandes objetivos de carreira é elogiado, enquanto tentar aquela promoção em um escritório de advocacia quando se é mulher pode ser considerado ganância. Adicione uma camada de egoísmo se ela optar por priorizar sua carreira e não ter filhos. E Deus nos livre se ela não quiser se casar. Que vadia!

A vida não é um videogame, no entanto, também é feita de níveis e podemos falhar e tropeçar em obstáculos incrivelmente desafiadores antes de avançar para o próximo. Às vezes, avançamos para a próxima fase e esquecemos que o jogo ainda está em andamento e que devemos continuar jogando, caso contrário, podemos nos encontrar de volta a um estágio que pensávamos ter superado. Muitas vezes, ficamos parados em um lugar confortável, porém, entediante, e permanecemos lá porque não conhecemos as regras do que pode vir a seguir.

Solène, de Anne Hathaway, avançou e depois retrocedeu alguns níveis em seu jogo da vida. Ela teve uma graduação universitária, um casamento, uma casa, um filho e um emprego, mas a estabilidade que vem junto com a sensação duvidosa de que está ganhando o jogo também trouxe infidelidade e divórcio. Agora de volta ao nível de se encontrar solteira, Solène não teve escolha senão se concentrar no que restou da experiência anterior: sua filha, sua casa, seu emprego. E embora parecesse que ela estava disposta a jogar o jogo do namoro novamente, ela não esperava que alguém jogasse a carta do amor.

E não foi o alguém comum que esperávamos que ela escolhesse. Não era o cara que também era divorciado com filhos. Nem o quarentão que não consegue se comprometer. Foi alguém que, embora estejamos em 2024, ainda pode ser considerado um "tabu", mas apenas se você for mulher: era um CARA MAIS JOVEM.

Ser membro de uma boy band era outra parte do clichê e eu entendo. Quente, rico e famoso equivale a apelo. Mas esses adjetivos apenas adicionaram um sabor extra à empolgação e às borboletas que normalmente vêm com a paixão. Eles também eram necessários para "justificar" as reviravoltas da narrativa: tentar esconder um relacionamento da mídia, a reação dos fãs raivosos e o ciúme que ser feliz pode causar.

A audácia de uma mulher na casa dos quarenta anos se dar outra chance e se libertar das expectativas sociais é o verdadeiro conflito do filme. A jornada de Solène não se trata apenas de se apaixonar por um homem mais jovem; trata-se de redescobrir a si mesma e reivindicar seus desejos, independentemente da idade. O filme critica sutilmente os duplos padrões que as mulheres enfrentam e destaca a coragem necessária para viver autenticamente em um mundo que constantemente tenta confiná-las a papéis predefinidos.

Ver Solène navegar por seus sentimentos e pelo julgamento da sociedade foi uma experiência refrescante. Serviu como um lembrete de que a vida não precisa ser linear e que o crescimento pessoal não cessa em uma certa idade. A interpretação de Anne Hathaway trouxe profundidade ao personagem de Solène, tornando suas lutas e triunfos relacionáveis. O filme enfatiza que nunca é tarde demais para buscar a felicidade e que o amor pode vir dos lugares mais inesperados, desafiando a noção de que mulheres com mais de quarenta anos deveriam se contentar com menos.

A narrativa sutil de "The Idea of You" vai além dos clichês de um romance entre uma mulher mais velha e um homem mais jovem. Explora as complexidades da autoaceitação e a coragem de desafiar as normas sociais. O relacionamento de Solène com Hayes, embora não convencional, torna-se um veículo para explorar temas mais amplos de empoderamento e autoestima. Trata-se de uma mulher reivindicando sua narrativa e escolhendo o que a realiza, em vez do que é esperado dela.

O envolvimento de Anne Hathaway no projeto, tanto como atriz quanto como produtora, acrescenta uma camada de autenticidade e significado ao filme. Sua escolha de apoiar essa história destaca a importância de narrativas diversas na mídia mainstream, especialmente aquelas que ressoam com mulheres que navegam pela meia-idade. Solène de Hathaway não é apenas um personagem; ela é uma representação de muitas mulheres que ousam redefinir suas vidas e perseguir suas paixões sem desculpas.

"The Idea of You" é mais do que apenas um drama romântico; é uma história de autodescoberta, resiliência e libertação das restrições sociais. Ressoou comigo porque espelhou a realidade de muitas mulheres lutando para encontrar seus próprios caminhos em meio às pressões sociais. O filme serve como um poderoso lembrete de que a jornada de cada mulher é única e que abraçar sua verdade pode levar aos capítulos mais gratificantes da vida.

[devil-doll13]

Graves of The Father

Tw: Angst, Horror, Death, Blood/Slight Gore, Implied Neglect/Abuse kinda?, Descriptions Of Corpses/Body Horrorish, like it gets a wee bit disgusting, Mentions of Birth, Religious Themes

Proceed With Caution!

I’m rather proud of this one, actually. It’s the most horror oriented fic i’ve made for Abigail yet. Some backstory/lore in here. A bit Lovecraftian but only a little. I’m still experimenting here lol.

Horror/Slasher Oc Writing For Abigail Williams

Basically a songfic, lyrics are in italics

Summary: Abigail & Her Father.

Dividers by firefly-dividers

Art by Takato Yamamoto

Sextons of the churchyard

Have seen unblessed things;

Ground no longer hallowed

Has sprouted new graves

Lucina Williams was found dead at 6:27, on a frosty November morning, in Salem, Massachusetts, in an old, weathered cemetery. She lay in the befouled hollow of an aged grave, her glassy eyes rolled back, convulsing in agony. And yet her face was twisted in an unnerving smile, disturbingly serene. She had died in a state of euphoric bliss. Happiness so unnatural, so completely grotesque, that her face had to be covered up in pictures; for the elderly gravekeeper’s state of mind. He had seen many awful things in his lifetime, but none so horrifying as this.

Lucy was buried in that very same churchyard. Her lonely grave untended to, unloved. No mourners or flowers were ever present, for she was disowned for some despicable deed the family would not speak of. Only that they were certain, absolutely so, that she had been taken in by the Devil; Lucy was pure evil.

The child she had given birth to, a pale, frightful specimen, was later christened Abigail. Her conception profane, her birth unnatural, her existence forbidden. A daughter of the grave, a creature born outside of God’s holy light. The wretched girl began her unfortunate life in shame. In the ever looming shadow of her mother’s sins, unable to redeem herself. A blight unto all; the final curse of a dying witch.

(The art of veneficium, Lucy learned from Him.)

Blasphemy made flesh. Ungodly freak, dark defiler. She poisons the family tree. The cuckoo in the nest. The snake in the grass. The fatal tumour.

The holy Father, not her Father, condemns her to eternal damnation, for rotten children do not deserve heaven. To plead for salvation is hopeless; there is no God who could give her purity back.

She simply should not exist.

(All of this, she has been told.)

Her family are repulsed by her, instinctively, but compelled by unknown forces to shelter her. They die one by one, at her unwilling command.

… But as a young girl she lives in merciful innocence. She knows not what she does, lost in her world of make believe. Strange yet wondrous creatures speak to her in the darkened night, as she dreams of flying amongst the glittering stars. Waving silver wands, casting magic spells. Dancing with dryads under the pale moonlight, enchanted by faeries; elven beings only she can see.

For if anyone were to turn their uncursed eye upon such abominations, madness would destroy them.

(Her older cousins, aged seven and eight, refused to speak of the incident. They refused to speak at all. Until death.)

Descendants of a clan

That usurped maternity

Hear whispers in their blood;

This summons of their fathers.

In a loveless home, she yearns for love, as all God’s children do. But cold hearts yield only emptiness, and hateful whispers spur her on to look elsewhere.

The graveyard beckons, begs her to draw closer. An almost desperate compulsion. Homesickness. As she walks amongst decaying tombstones, she hears ghostly whispers call out, and feels wraithlike fingers comb through her hair. A spectral voice cries out for sweet nourishment; she offers it her milk to pacify.

There, in the dark recesses of the churchyard’s ancient yew tree, she begs for comfort. She lies coiled as foul, egg despoiling serpent.

(As in the garden of Eden, she is the great deceiver.)

Inside she feels the thrum of an old God’s heartbeat. It exactly mirrors her own; an inherited resonance.

So powerful is this connection, she sees in her mind’s eye the unearthly form of the Father. The yew tree His outstretched hand, their gnarled, malformed branches His fingers, toxic sap His blood, unending roots His veins from which His dark ichor pulsates.

Her fingers trace the ancient bark, recounting primordial treelore. Her blood stirs with eldritch knowledge. Visions echo from another world far back behind her eyelids and inside her mind, as the Father summons her from deep below.

(Far from God’s condemning eye.)

“Forgive me Father

For I know not what I do;

My grave beckons

As irresistible as drawing breath.”

In the old yew she sleeps and dreams of His majesty. The Underworld, home of the blessed dead. Outside of this mundane plane of existence, his shadowy domain. It is a labyrinth of catacombs, endless and unfathomable. It eternally devours itself, serpentine; the cycle of life and death unfolding. Forever.

She peers into the gaping maw of Hades, in which the Great Gravekeeper resides. He sits upon a throne of misshapen yew, a monstrosity of wood and decayed flesh, and He is wreathed in bloodsoaked thorns and cloaked in an abyssal shroud. Atop His massive head rests His magnificent Crown of Horns.

The spirits of the departed kneel before Him in worshipful devotion, their servile offerings reek foul miasma. They chant in feverish orations, invoking His accursed epithet:

(Father of The Graves. None So Vile.)

His true name is unspeakable in human tongue, yet it throbs deeply in her soul, as familiar as her own.

His countless reptilian eyes turn to watch her in curious amusement. Her body shivers, an instinctive fear. The Father observes His daughter, and in recognition, He reaches out an ashy, skeletal hand for her to grasp. It is kindly, almost gentle. Loving.

… But every time she awakes in tormented screams. Her mortal brain is seized by otherworldly forces. Inside her witchblood boils with poison. She feels unbearably empty. The hollowness is agonising; she does not belong here. But there, by her Father’s side.

(And yet, she serves a purpose here, for He would not create without reason. Between life and death, she acts as His median emissary.)

Nature abhors a vacuum

The same is true to a tomb…

A vacant grave must be filled,

For this the Father’s will.

On Hallowe’en, she prepares for the welcoming feast.

The chosen victim lies screaming on the altar, gutted in ritual sacrifice. Arterial blood fills the chalice, spilling onto her conjuring sigil. A sickly green cloud of smoke emanates from within; The Dark Ones are appeased. She murmurs incantations, praying in an eldritch language. Her Father’s tongue.

Another shrill shriek of pain fills the air as she continues the disembowelment. Unflinching, she rips through soft flesh; carving out her choicest cuts. They cry and beg her to stop, to please god stop and oh god please stop like a bleating, pathetic lamb.

(“Be quiet.” She hisses. She must have silence.)

Candles flicker, wavering in the late October wind. Thunder cracks the livid sky, wild forks of lightning split across a hellish landscape of her own design. Acid rain floods a barren wasteland, corrupting the once fertile soil and disintegrating crops to dust. There is no escape. Under His reign, all will wither.

A gaping chest wound as she extracts the heart, relishing in the final cry of a slaughtered pig. For a moment she holds it, admiring the coveted organ. Dark, warm rivulets of blood flow across her palms and through her fingers. Pure and untainted. So unlike her own.

The first time she has killed with her own hands.

(It felt good to be cruel. To eat her guilt and shame.)

She turns back to her altar, prepares the sacrament:

A black box, dripping vile fluids; her phylactery. Her shadowed grimoire, bound in dark, hard leather. Nightshade, hemlock, aconite. An hourglass of ash, pilfered from a funeral urn. An assortment of bones, human and animal. Her ritual sickle, seeped in gore and entwined in snakeskin. Objects of witchcraft.

Now joined by the heart, lungs, stomach, the entrails, the severed head and the tormented soul. All them are hers now. Her cabalistic hoard. Madness overtakes her then. It spikes in her brain like fever. She grasps the overflowing cup of blood with one pale, bony hand. And, with a decadent sigh, tips it into her open mouth. It trickles slowly into her throat. She swallows it. It tastes like copper, like iron, like death; a flavour gone sweetly rancid.

(She is without mercy. Without compassion. The Father’s will is absolute. She will sow the bitter seeds of His funeral empire and be rewarded in death.)

Sired in blasphemy

In nocturnal obeisance to rotted hearts

Filled with necrolatry

Reverse the life cycle, be reborn through death

Now the time has come. She must reap her harvest.

Autumn’s frost bites her face. A deathly chill pierces her bones, but she does not shiver. She is serene, so oddly calm in her unraveling mind. Twisted, maligned branches of the old yew tree find her again and guide her to the cobwebbed graveyard.

Under the midnight sky, the tombstones appear as a sea of desolate grey waves, blanketed in fog like a funeral shroud. In that misty gloom, she walks amidst weeping spirits. They reach out with icy phantom limbs, offering up sepulchral hymns to their unholy lich mistress, they plead for their salvation; to be granted life once again.

(For the first time she will answer their prayers.)

Tonight, she will pervert life’s sacred order. Tonight, she will defy the righteous fury of God. Tonight, the Father’s will is to be carried out, as the once dead shall be reborn from the womb of the earth and usurp the living. By His will. By her will.

A moment of silence as she contemplates the vastness of her actions now, the end result of a perfect tantrum. She remembers all the faces turned away, all that would sneer at her demise. All of the fear, disgust and hatred, eyes seething and spiteful. Their eyes. Her eyes.

Blackened slivers of ichor drip from her sickle. Her own blood, her venom. So impure, so violently cancerous. It taints the consecrated land below. Theirs. Hers.

(Its blade reflects the moonlight, pale and haunting.)

And so from her lips spills a forbidden spell. Her cursed blood is absorbed into putrid grass, where it slowly coagulates into an obsidian snake. It slithers downward, downward, downward, into the many awaiting, hungry mouths of a thousand corpses.

From below an eerie moan. Singular, then multiplied. A foul odour wafts through the air as the tombs unseal, dark fog swirling in a shadowy haze. The Underworld exhale, from the filth they emerge:

Undead victims of plague, riddled with disease, lift their filthy, maggot-infested bodies from the infected earth. A writhing mass of baleful poxflesh, leaking yellowed pus and choked with vomit. Frenzied, murderous abominations scream in rage and bloodlust, tearing apart coffin lid and shattering tombstone to dust. Withered and shambling corpses groan in despair, ravenous victims of starvation. Their mortal hunger torments them still. They salivate and froth desperately at the mouth, crying in their desire to consume flesh and suck marrow from bone; to devour utterly. The drowned are bloated, soaked in embalming fluids. Their skin is cold and their lips are blue. They are still. Lifeless, glassy eyes stare up at the evil moon. Frozen. Possessed.

(Pestilence. War. Famine. Death.)

Observing her resurrected horde, she is filled with an intense feeling of power. It is intoxicating, so alluring. She reaches up an outstretched hand, as the malevolent puppet master, and they are forced to dance for her on invisible strings. Her magic binds their souls in eternal undying servitude. Pawns of her twisted vision, ensnared in her web, bewitched by her black sorcery. They shall all be as one. Necromantic slaves. Forever in her chains.

The Witching Hour bell tolls, thirteen times, as it did on the eve of her birth. The dead surround her in undivine mass; their vile priestess. They lift her onto many decrepit, rotted shoulders, and upon her head they crown a wreath of thorns, a halo of briar and sin. Her face is white, vacant. She no longer feels pain.

Infernal legions rise. Under her command, they begin their dread march. Onward, towards the apocalypse.

(No regrets. No going back. The end has begun.)

Her tears flow freely now, her body numb with cold. She recites in hushed whispers a final invocation, one final goodbye:

“Forgive me Father,

For I know not what I do;

I leave a void to fill one,

Hear my prayers from far below…”

Once I finally get around to writing that backstory fic it’ll add more context to this one. Thanks for reading!

(Taglist: @rottent33th, @slaasherslut, @the-pinstriped-hood, @goldrose-star, @soupbabe, @vincent-sinclair-deserved-better, @solmints-messyocdiary)

[gr1555]

Decided to branch out a bit and post about my second favorite comics Green Lantern with some of thse genuinely being unpopular opinions.

1. I think the concept is interesting but in the end disliked the Parallax arc and was glad they rebooted it even if it was explained by an evil space bug (that could just be because I love the older comics though) 2. Similarly, I like the concept behind Kyle Rayner but hate him as a character. I can tolerate him as a semi important side character but can't stand the stories where he's the main character or main side character and hated him as the white lantern. (I could go into a whole rant about this because I really do like the concept of Kyle but can't stand him in the actual comics and Kyle fans don't make it any better with the 'he's the most perfect and specialist character' type attitude). 3. I like the concept of Hal being the Spectre and wouldn't mind seeing him as such again, but dislike the execution. It felt like someone was trying to write something biblical without actually knowing anything about the actual bible (take this in a more broad sense of trying to write about something but not quite hitting the mark because I personally wouldn't classify it as biblical). I also wish they showed Hal having some form of connection to it even after he was resurrected. 4. I think Carol Ferris works better as a villain who still loves Hal. 5. Both Hal AND Carol are incredibly toxic to one another. 6. Though some of his stories were kind of rough (which is true for nearly every hero), I never found Hal to be a boring character. 7. Alan, Hal, and Jess are my favorite lanterns. 8. Silver age Hal was a lot more creative with his ring than any modern day lantern even if the art wasn't as creative. 9. Kyle has the most creative designs for his constructs, but how he utilized his ring wasn't any more creative than the other lanterns. 10. John was overrated in Justice League Unlimited but has massive potential in the comics that often isn't used. 11. Alan and Hal is the best lantern team up with John and Hal being a close second. 12. Alan should have the closest relationship to Hal. 13. Teen Lantern was awful (I don't know enough about the others to make my final judgement on them yet but I have seen a few scans with the other girl, Jo I think, and she seems interesting). 14. Jess is amazing. I would love to see more of her and Hal interactions just from how different their relationship with fear is. 15. Hal should be incredibly smart and a good fighter even without his ring. 16. I like Hal and Superman's friendship more than Burce and Clark. 17. The comics should stop with the whole "Batman is the reason Hal stopped being Parallax." 18. Again, Jess is amazing and Hal and Alan make the best lantern duo because both of those need to be said twice.

[ecargmura]

Witch Hat Atelier Volume 3 Review

Between the reviews of volumes 2 and 3, I took a break from reviewing this manga. I fortunately got Volume 3 as a birthday present from my brother back in March! Thanks, bro!

I can’t help but to let out yelps every time I turn the page because this manga’s art is GORGEOUS! Like the cover page for Chapter 14? *chef’s kiss*. The cover of this volume? *chef’s kiss* Immaculate.

Chapter 12 is where Chapter 11 left off. Coco was about to get her memories erased but Tetia and Riche swoop in to save the day as well as Qifrey. They tell off the witch for being too rash with his actions. The witch examined Coco’s hands and realized that she didn’t use any forbidden magic, so they let her go while warning that there will be bigger consequences in the future.

Qifrey was proud for the girls. He even told Agott that she can take a test to rank up. Coco then tells Qifrey about the little vial of ink that she has. He noticed something off about it and holds onto it.

I really like how this chapter was written in the way that it wasn’t just Qifrey swooping in to save the day, but it was him, Tetia and Riche. You’d expect the child characters to be left out, but Shirahama gets them involved and I love that. It doesn’t make it look like they’re sidelined. I also like how Qifrey does his best to not make anyone erase Coco’s memories because he still needs clues to find the Brimhats and she’s his only lead. Coco was anxious about losing her memories because that means she’d lose her memories about her mom and the reason why she is studying magic.

I love that there is serious possible consequences for certain actions and they talked it out with reason instead of resorting to violence or magic.

Chapter 13 has Coco and Qifrey going to Kahln to meet with Mr. Nolnoa as he was the one who gave that little jar to Coco back in the first volume. His grandson Tartah brings them in. As Qifrey speaks with Nolnoa, Coco and Tartah develop a friendship as Tartah treats her wounds. However, it seems as if Tartah has issues of his own. While he is good at organizing magic material, he’s unable to differentiate color. He has silverwash, a type of colorblindness that makes a person’s vision all sorts of shades of silver. Because of this, he cannot become a full-fledged witch. Also, Qifrey did something that caused a bright light and when Tartah questioned Nolnoa, he feigns it.

I’ve always liked the Stationery shop in this story, so to return to it made me happy. I also like learning more of the world and people. Silverwash is an interesting concept and knowing that magic heavily relies on visuals does make one wonder how someone with a condition like Tartah become a witch, if it is possible.

Chapter 14 has the atelier go on a picnic. Coco learns about the five different tests in order to become a full-fledged witch; she took the first one, so she needs to take four more. The apprentices reveal about their goals with magic. Tetia wants to travel the world and help people. Riche wants to make her own magic. Agott wants to be a librarian. Coco just wants to learn more magic. It turns out that Coco’s having nightmares and it’s making her have trouble sleeping.

The picnic was nice and learning about the magic system and the girls’ goals made me feel more attached to them. Coco having nightmares about her mother’s death shows the insecurities that Coco hides within her kindness. She’s working herself so hard because she feels guilty for what happened to her mother.

Chapter 15 has Qifrey tries to uncover the mysteries of the mysterious ink in the vial that he made a mistake, causing him to get entangled in a sudden watery vortex. A Brimhat appears before him. It turns out that the mysterious ink was given to Coco by the same Brimhat watching over her.

In the morning, both Coco and Qifrey are tired. Qifrey wasted some tea leaves, so he goes out to pick some tea leaves. While the girls wait, Coco returns the Sylph Shoes back to Agott. Agott wonders why Coco’s so nice to her despite being mean to her in the beginning. Coco has no mean bone in her soul and just tells her that she didn’t want to give up.

She then faints as she’s sick! Qifrey takes her to the nearby hospital after receiving some help from Tartah.

This chapter was really interesting. Time and time again, we know that Brimhats are Qifrey’s goal because they took something from him. The fact that he missed an opportunity to confront the Brimhat caused him anguish. Qifrey’s not a good person. We’re not sure why he wants his missing item back, but we do know how dangerous these Brimhats are.

Coco and Agott’s conversation was heartwarming in a way. Agott really was mean to her in the beginning, but Coco never tattled towards her. Coco being a kind soul always moved my heart in a way. She’s super nice and all she wants is to learn magic in order to cure her mother. She can’t afford to wallow in petty rivalries and such.

Chapter 16 focuses on Coco and Tartah again. Tartah tries to help Coco after the doctors all ran off to check up on injured people from a nearby fire and they dragged Qifrey to help out. He is also an apprentice witch, but his future’s dark because of his inability to see colors. Despite this, he does his best to do things in ways he knows how. Coco, in her feverish state helps out.

Learning about how strict and prejudiced the Witch world is interesting. Just like in real life, society prefers the able-bodied, “normal” people while people who lack what is perceived as normal would be ostracized. Seeing Tartah working hard despite his disadvantages makes he hope he can become a witch someday.

Chapter 17 continues where the previous chapter left off. Coco and Tartah find the herb the latter was looking for and it helped Coco’s fever go down once a medic was able to come into the clinic wondering where her colleagues went. After Qifrey returns, Tartah asks him about the bright light, but they don’t seem to remember. In the morning, Tartah leaves for witch training, but tells Coco that she’ll become the greatest witch ever, encouraging her to keep going.

The friendship between Coco and Tartah is sweet. Coco made a friend outside out of the atelier. However, it’s not a pointless friendship as Tartah gives insight to what Coco’s missing with her glyph drawings while Coco gives insight to what he’s lacking. They work well together and it shows potential just in case there will be a time where Coco has to train outside the atelier.

It feels as if Tartah is implied to be her love interest, but it probably won’t happen. Tartah is more than just being a love interest with his silverwash storyline. He even promised to make a pen for her, so I’m sure that this pen will be her ultimate weapon. He will be important later on, I can feel it.

Overall, this entire volume was a bit slower. It’s more of a break before the big plot happens as seen at the end of chapter 17. I think this volume was necessary as it gives more insight to the world of Witch Hat Atelier and the concepts and customs. It got me engaged learning more about the lore.

The characters feel more fleshed out too, especially Coco with her inner guilt that’s causing her to have nightmares and tire her out to the point of not sleeping well. I commend Shirahama’s particular way of being very detailed, but also bringing out the whole picture. She gave Tetia some insight. She gave Riche some insight. She gave Tartah some insight. None of these characters feel sidelined and that’s a good thing. She’s giving characters as much spotlight as she can when they are in the story. I just hope she keeps this up when the story keeps going.

I can’t wait to read Volume 4. I hope we jump back into action soon!

[libidomechanica]

And welcoming mild

” “Their silver, or raven’s being.     —The worse below that they nould bewray, while far excell and     wayward melancholy

college light; she sits her brethren     were dead! I have hooted thus holy! In five month became     her down. One gem was lost

a things about whose might turn the     though the way among shephard once more than howl incessant     miseries as Queene in

gold, the snake where she said, and sooty,     and it utterance, bide each beaked promontory.     And wear his gold. Trees do

learn’d aught ease; and his wesand before     eleven; her beauties peece, as free winds best recapture     in strife, she said, My

life—send honey’d rain is or every     spot where and night, the half alcohol, to the swine with     man his nether tongue fault

of all confused to floater, that     July 21st place for thee is but thou dost love doth hasty     accident. She counts and

you in the blind Fury with an     evermore. The lofty loue why he love-lorn hour ago,     on Johnny is not yet

unwish thou when we walke not beguile     makes their first time I vanish: wept they’re give more than the     shining eyes and the ioyfulst

day comes clear well away the     morning, who is here growest: so lost just have your sighs laboure     his hands o’ life that

to vs be false death! I see     the clear elements, ye nymphs that we may giver, the middle     of Wyoming flow,

that’s out of alle wommen my     tears fell from moats and here be more sweet; myriads of rain and     sink admiration of

a bird them master of the voice     was when the breaks the poor dear religion of the lawn in     bare fix’d in little children’s

cries. I will begins to stammer     weather’s clamorings all are blue eyes that man’s art a     girl as much of shepheard

long night, even boys and his westerne     wind like a foule horror free from the earth. No such     as dodge conception be

back tongues were we ourselves to the     adulteration of all the factory cursing, bend     the moss’d her heart, I read

thou mayst thou, all powers I note,     and was their bells and brand his early glistenings matter     must return. Until evening

sate; till the suddenly, whom     nakd the golden shrine, and flush with quilled it struck with     denial vain to me how,

with a bootless fancy.—If Johnny,     every word bringes like in copses green gleams—in what     I must spell of miserye.

[rinoaskyes]

Indie Live Expo - Part 1

Anyone who watches Indie Live Expo from start to finish should receive a Udemy certificate. This year's show was over 5 hours long and hand on heart honesty, I am still getting through it. But just in the first few segments, I've already found some really interesting games I want to highlight so let's get into it!

What is Indie Live Expo?

Indie Live Expo (ILE) is a multilingual multi-broadcast showcase of indie games from around the world. Since it originated in Japan, most of the titles, studios and publishers that participate tend to be Japanese. However in recent years, we've definitely seen a lot of entries from overseas. From the website, it says that ILE has been viewed by over 98 million people with more than 2,600 games introduced.

Here's a link to the YouTube stream if you want to check it out yourself!

There were so many games covered throughout the show with some of them getting prime placement while others barely getting a second a la ADHD flashcards. Below are 10 that caught by eye.

No Case Should Remain Unsolved by Somi

As the name implies, this is a detective game about piecing together fragments of memories to solve a cold case. The case involves a young girl that went missing back in 2012, but is now being reexamined.

I'm really intrigued by what the developers are calling a 'jigsaw puzzle' style reasoning system as it sounds quite different from what I might be used to from games like Ace Attorney or Danganronpa. It seems like it's a really short game too at only 2-3 hours of game play. I really want to pick this title up but I think it would be perfect if it was on the Switch!

SCHIM by Ewoud van der Werf, Nils Slijkerman

This is a 3D platformer about jumping from shadow to shadow! I think that's such a cool concept and I love the calm vibes that the art is exuding. It also has such a unique hand-illustrated look.

Also, according to the developers, a schim is the soul and spirit of an object, thing, or living being. Everything in the world has one. A schim should never be separated from their thing! This does happen to your schim, this schim who is attached to a human being is separated from them early on in the game.

The Star Named EOS by Silver Lining Studio

Just looking at the key art makes me feel so at peace. The Star Named EOS is a story-rich puzzle adventure with a strong theme of photography. You explore the past through photos taken and uncover the truth behind a family mystery. All of the art is hand-drawn and there are puzzles too

It's giving Opus Prism Peak Sigono which I am totally onboard for. I love games that explore meaningful personal stories.

Nightmare Operator by DDDistortion

I don't normally recommend or talk about horror games but the design of the game is too cool to resist! This is a a survival horror shooter about hunting yokai in the haunted ruins of Tokyo. The game has an over-the-shoulder perspective and utilises a low-poly aesthetic that's reminiscent of classic PlayStation games. The locations are inspired by real-world places in Tokyo, tense that's going to freak me out next time I venture outside! DDDistortion is apparently a 5-man team in Tokyo so incredible.

The Many Pieces of Mr Coo by Gammera Nest

This is a surrealist point and click adventure about a character named Mr Coo who is looking for all of his pieces. I really love this genre as it reminds me of old Humongous Entertainment games I played as a kid. The wacky yet lovable vibe of the game also reminds me of comics, Saturday morning cartoons with some fine art touches in the backgrounds.

Ultra Mushroom by TRY GAMES, room6, xemono

"There was once a man who made a billion yen in just three days by running a curry stall here. Our protagonist, inspired by this news, comes to the festival with the ambition of making it big with a mushroom stall (with zero cost mushrooms!)."

How is this not the best intro to a video game ever?! You play as a mushroom hunter/mushroom stall seller trying to make a killing at a festival in the foot of a mountain. There's not a lot of footage on Steam yet but it seems like it'll be a mix of foraging, running the stall and getting to know festival attendees.

There's definitely some psychedelic overtones here if you look at the colour palette of the game and some subtleties (not so subtle) around the special mushrooms you can gather.

Matsuro Palette by SleepingMuseum

A simulation game about surviving seven days with a girl who lives inside a cursed painting. You'll need to successfully paint her portrait by going off cues from past victims. If you make her angry, she'll kill you. There's a lot of painting and art-themed games these days but I haven't seen one that combines some suspense and horror elements.

Just a note that this game came out in 2020, but a remake of it is planned for Spring 2024.

Isles of Sea and Sky by Cicada Games

Set across ancient islands, you start the game as a castaway who must solve puzzles and uncover hidden secrets all without a set path or even any dialogue. The art is very reminiscent of old pixel art games, the music is meditative and atmospheric and the story is said to be deep.

I met the developer, Jason Newman at BitSummit in 2023 back when this game went by a different name. We had a really nice chat about anthropology as this game finds its roots across many different world cultures even if the themes feel universal. The released this month and I've yet to give it a go but I hope to play it soon.

Swappy World by Awakening Games srls

We've seen all kinds of card games but this is the first time I've seen card gameplay be combined with open-world crafting. Each card will help you craft weapons, build your base and explore. The goal is to plan out your resources and interaction points to help you survive for as long as possible. I love how intertwined the cards are with the environment. For example, when the game goes into the nighttime, you'll only be able to see the central card in front of you.

Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis by WSS playground and WHO YOU

Play as a hikikomori girl who is on a permanent high from listening to denpa music in this rhythm-adventure game. Fall into her brain rot as she loses all self-control posting anonymously with the goal of total world annihilation. Yes these are all real words that I riffed off of from the actual game description on Steam.

Where Needy Streamer Overload tries to tell a life lesson about the what it means to seek approval from internet people, YunYun Syndrome seems to go completely all-in insane with this plot and music. Also I think I have a type when it comes to games and it's mental illness and lots of shades of purple.

I'll come back to write a Part 2 after I've made it through the rest of Indie Live Expo!

[360iris]

Bloom & brew coffeehouse: lilac & orchid | florist!steven grant x fem bipoc!oc

➸ 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 17.3k

➸ 𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚜.

cafe/flower shop AU, strangers to coworkers to lovers, slow burn, found family (steven finds love, marc gets the annoying little sister he never had & jake canonically has only one friend), womanizer!jake lockley, mk system as brothers

➸ 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜.

tw for prescribed meds being shared, alcohol use directly followed by nsfw, steven with a pregnancy kink but who’s surprised?

➸ 𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛’𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎.

started this in march 2023 and it has legitimately been the fic of the year for me— shae is the most important character I’ve ever written and I hope people might become as fond of her as I am;;; (i lovingly refer to her as a little chaos gremlin) This is a oneshot !!

➸ 𝚊𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝.

music: shae’s playlist | steven’s playlist

character art: inital design, final design, shae & steven, (+smut)

moodboards: initial concept, final moodboard, all fic headers

part i. late start

day 1.

steven—

Dragging his feet down the corridor attaching the flower shop to The Bloom & Brew Coffeehouse, Steven enters the cafe with his head down, mind racing and stomach empty.

He’d slept in again, and this time was worse than usual, coming in for his shift as the Head Florist working at BB’s a whopping three and a half hours late.

Jake moved around the shops often, handling odds and ends, only to shut himself in the back office to handle placing orders and mull over paperwork nonstop for hours.

As the oldest, he would be unhappy with Steven’s tardiness, but never irate.

The man usually gave his younger brothers more leeway than they often deserved, cherishing what was left of his family the best he could.

Marc on the contrast, even as the second oldest, made his siblings’ problems his own.

The man barely qualifying as congenial on the best of days— but after this morning? It didn’t take a genius to know he’d lose his shit, and that wasn’t a conversation Steven looked forward to having, as he tries to operate at full capacity, on only five questionable hours of sleep.

Raking a hand through his hair, hooking the dark curls between his knuckles and pulling just enough to wake himself up, he paddles up to the register— fully expecting to get an earful the very second he makes it there.

Except that never comes, and when he raises his head, he’s met with an unfamiliar set of dark brown eyes staring back at him.

A young woman was standing behind the counter, no older than twenty, right where Marc usually stood.

With warm beige skin, her charcoal hair was dyed bubblegum pink in sections around her ears and nape, the broad coils braided back into a ponytail of spiraling, chaotic curls pointing in every direction.

A myriad of silver jewelry accented her features. The girl singlehandedly sported more piercings than Steven had ever seen on one person before.

Her septum, cupid’s bow, vertical labret, left brow, nostril, and lip were all pierced— which still only accounted for the one’s on her face. Her ears were even more elaborate in placement.

But despite all of the ornamental modifications, he found that her features still remained soft. Her face appearing youthful, cheeks rounded and chin small.

She was dressed in all black. A plain, short sleeve black tee tucked into matching washed mom jeans, with a small belt clasped at her waist.

He registers the myriad of line art tattoos littering her arms as she leans forward, resting her hands against the counter. Polished sage green nails tapping against the cool surface in short, rhythmic sequences.

The light that glinted in her eyes was playful, bordering mischievous and amused, as she purred out an obligatory greeting.

“What can I get ‘cha, sunshine?” She asked, her voice girlish, with a slight raspy quality to it.

And faintly, somewhere deep inside, he feels a pull.

shae—

Shae locks eyes on his form the second he exits the flower shop.

Watching as his thick fingers dip into his haphazardly styled hair, the coiling strands falling messily along the right side of his forehead.

His face is almost the exact same as the one she’d studied six months ago, when Jake first strolled into her life— as well as the second, she’d seen for the first time last week, when Marc began training her to work at the cafe.

And yet this third variation… Though he shared the same features as his older brothers, he carried them differently.

He was all thick brows and eyes lined with dark circles. Easily appearing as though he were on day twenty-five of running on less than five hours of sleep per night.

His clothes all seemed sized up so that his beige plaid dress shirt, dark denim jacket and light khaki pants slightly hung from his form. The sleeves almost engulfing his hands from how long they were.

His physical appearance very plainly toed the line between thought out and disordered.

Her gaze detaches from his pink cupid’s bow lips, when he makes it to the register, and those chocolatey eyes settle on her.

He looked dazed, brows moving to meet in the middle as he stared.

His mouth opens as though to speak, but no sound comes out, and he blinks back at her owlishly. His mind appearing to have started buffering the second his eyes fix on hers.

“What can I get ‘cha, sunshine?” She greets amusedly, lips pulling into a grin as she taps at the countertop.

He raises his right hand, extending a crooked index finger, when suddenly an arm glides past the left side of her head, extending a capped drink in a thick paper to-go cup towards the man.

“Ignore him, Shae.” Marc speaks up, voice even as he finishes handing over the drink. Pulling open the pastry case in quick succession to retrieve a half banana nut, half blueberry crumble muffin. “He’s a delinquent who sleeps through his alarms, even though I made sure there were a million of them.”

Marc doesn’t offer the baked good just yet. Scrutinizing him with narrowed, judging eyes. “Where were you, man? You were supposed to open the flower shop at seven. What time do you think it is now, Steven? You know, you said you weren’t going to be late anymore.“

Marc’s nagging tirade gets interrupted with a dismissive hand and Steven closes his eyes frustratedly, keeping them shut until he finishes speaking. “Look. Marc, Marc! I know what time it is, I know what I said. You don’t have to get on my case. I’m trying to get a handle on it.”

His older brother glares at him with hooded eyes, holding eye contact as he thrusts the muffin forward with a sturdy fist. Punching through the air between the three of them. “You said that last time, Steven. And you know you’re lucky this wasn’t one of the days Jo visits. Jake and I are sick of coming up with excuses for you.”

Shae watches the interaction with a muted sort of amusement, fitting her bottom lip between her teeth to attempt to hide her growing want to chuckle as Marc continues to nag his younger brother.

Her ears are filled with the sounds of, “You know there’s only so many times we can say you’re taking an early lunch because your head hurts, and you need new reading glasses. She may be old Steven, but she’s not dumb.”

The offending man only answers by dropping his shoulders and bringing a hand to rub across his face, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

“Really? You’re gonna roll your eyes at me? Sorry… is me caring about what time you make it in to cover your shift bothering you? You know what? Okay. Take your drink, and your muffin, I’m done talking.” Marc says maddened, his Illinois upbringing shining through as the vowels in his words begin elongating— the ‘a’s turning to ‘e’s and ‘th’s getting swapped for ‘d’s.

Marc snatches up a kitchen towel angrily before briskly walking away. Shae watches silently as he all but barges into the kitchen, and she’s left with only Steven as a companion at the counter.

With raised brows, feeling a bit awkward in the silence, her eyes slide back over to him.

He stares at the now swinging kitchen doors with a silent, irritated exhaustion written over his face. His head tilting back as he brings his drink to his lips part way, before suddenly deciding against it and turning to Shae.

“I, Uh. I’m so sorry for making you listen to all of that.” He says, setting his drink and muffin down onto the counter for a moment, as he brings his hands to his face. Shaking his head before dropping his arms weightlessly.

He eyes the counter, looking it over as he thinks before raising his eyes to hers again. “He’s just, well, sometimes he can be a lot.”

“No, it’s okay. I have younger siblings, four of them actually. So I understand how it is.” She replies with a soft laugh, lips forming into a smile, and he does the same thing he had done only moments ago. He stares.

Those dark eyes, hooded and drowned of any light just sort of fix on her face. And suddenly she’s subjected to one of the most unreadable stares she’s ever witnessed. Trying not to fidget under the unexpected coolness of them.

Here he was, the physical embodiment of the word disorderly, seemingly agreeable, but she found him more intimidating than she had Jake initially.

Then again, the brooding man had been cradling a kitten to his chest at the time, and there was a limit to how scary you could be in the presence of such unadulterated cuteness.

Shaking his head slightly, Steven looks down to the counter for just a moment before continuing. “Yeah. Um.” He swallows. “He’s been like that since we were kids. Never really got out of it, I guess. And that’s not to say he was wrong. By any means. I just— have a nasty habit of setting alarms and, um…” His eyes meet hers and he trails off.

“Sleeping through them?” She finishes his sentence for him, chuckling quietly as he nods bashfully.

“Yeah. I do.” He agrees. “They’d actually told me before I left last week that Jake had found someone to give Marc more leeway in the kitchens.” Steven eyes the name tag pinned into her shirt at her left collarbone.

“Shae.. niyah.” He quietly and slowly reads outloud.

“Yeah! Shaeniyah Moswen, at your service. Or should I say The Bloom & Brew’s and its customers service. Seems to me like you’re just freeloading.” She say teasingly, nodding her head towards the drink left to cool on the counter.

“Oh.” He sets a hand down across the cap of the cup. “Yeah. This one is free. But I have to eat multiple times a day so Marc just has Jake take it out of my checks. So I am paying, technically. Just not… you know.”

This causes her to laugh. “Right. Of course Marc has him do that. I mean, this is only the start of my second week, but that just seems like something he’d do.”

“So what do I call you?” Steven asks abruptly, interjecting as he looks at her, in that way, again.

“What do you mean?” She brings her hands to her stomach. Fidgeting with the silver rings on her tattooed fingers, pulling them off, and putting them back on again repeatedly.

“Well. It's just that I heard Marc call you by the first half of your name. But you introduced yourself with your full first. And then there’s your name tag, that has your full first as well. So I was just wondering what to call you? Which do you prefer? Oh bugger, I’m rambling. Um, I’ll… stop.”

“Oh.” She says simply before realizing she hadn’t actually responded to his question.

What could he call her? It was a simple inquiry, but for some reason it made her lower stomach flutter strangely. “I mean… whichever suits you, I guess? You could use either, or neither, to be honest.”

“Neither?”

“Yeah, y’know. That's how nicknames come to be. A person just… comes up with one for you.” She answers, looking down to her hands. Finding it oddly difficult to just be under his gaze for this long. The other guys hadn’t even remotely made her feel whatever this was gradually becoming.

“Just come up with one.” He repeats thoughtfully, “How about… Niyah? Yeah, I think that suits you. Niyah.” When he says it again, softly, placing it on the last wind of his exhale— chills roll down her spine and she’s pulled into a state of inexplicable, momentary awe.

Of this man? Of his strange ability to invoke whatever it was she had inside of her that had been, up until very recently, sound asleep.

Until he showed up, three whole hours late for his shift looking like a scruffy kitten in its first few weeks of life. Not much unlike the ones she fostered in her spare time.

“Niyah. Did you know that in Hebrew, it refers to one’s aim, or purpose? And in Arabic, it doesn’t stray too far from that same thought. It refers to the intention in one’s heart, to do an act for the sake of the Abrahamic God.”

She shakes her head in answer to the short exposition. “No, I've never really looked it up before. My dad told me that my mother just sorta got the thought one day. It was for the name Shea. Just a little zap of an idea really. He said she thought that meant something, so she went with it.”

And he smiles at this, face brightening at being let in on this nugget of information.

However the next wave of customers begins entering, and her eyes drift to the opening front doors distractedly.

“Well, I won’t keep you any longer. I’ll get out of your hair.” He says smiling, gesturing largely at her unruly, winding curls before pointing in the direction of the attached shop. “I’ll be opening the other entrance.”

“Alright, Steven.” She responds, biting her lip to hide her blossoming fondness.

part ii. floating leaf

day 17.

shae—

Wiping her hands dry on the black cotton of her work apron, Shae steps back from the counter. Looking over to Marc as he hands the last four drinks she’d just finished making to their owners.

“I’m heading to lunch now, will you be alright on your own?” She asks, looking up at him from under the brim of her baseball cap.

“Yeah, I got it.” He nods, not bothering to look at her as he starts wiping down his station. Preparing for the next inevitable influx of orders to come.

“You sure?” She double checks, although her fingers are already untying the knot of the belt of her work apron.

“Yeah.” Marc repeats, finally throwing a glance her way. “I’ve been doing this for seven years, most shifts alone. Take your lunch.”

“Okay, okay. I asked if you were good, not for a BB’s employee history lesson, grandpa.” She replies, snickering as he rolls his eyes, seeming mere seconds away from throwing the towel he was cleaning with at her.

She’s hanging her apron behind the counter when she hears another voice speak up.

“You’re going on lunch?” Steven asks, looking at her with curious eyes.

steven—

“Yeah.” Her eyes flicker to his jean jacket in his hands. “Were you about to take yours too?”

Marc wipes the coffee machine down, his eyes snapping from his task to Steven’s face just as his younger brother answers with a jerky nod, and back down when Shae pipes up. “Do you wanna come with? Or...”

“Yeah! Sure. Uh- Where are you headed to eat?” Steven asks, trailing after Shae as she steps from behind the counter, slipping her phone into the back pocket of her dark jeans before walking towards the front door.

“There’s a crepe shop a block away from here, they have a lot of different options. Would that be okay?” She says looking up at him, taking off her cap to run her fingers through loose shoulder-length curls before placing it back on, brim pointed back.

And Steven takes a moment to just look at her.

At the way her earrings glint. And how her eyes light up to a warm brown when the sun shining in from the front windows hits her face at just the right angle.

“Steven?” She’s waiting on him to reply, her hand pressing at the main entrance. “Do you want to go somewhere else for lunch?”

“No! No, crepes sound good. Real... good.” He replies, unintentionally jumbling his response together and effectively managing to sound like a right dunce in his eyes.

Shae only puffs out a laugh, grinning brightly as she leans her left shoulder against the door. “Okay.” Pressing it open with her body weight before walking out into the semi-busy sidewalk.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

“Have you been to this shop before?” Steven asks, trailing after her as she deftly bobs past different people on the street.

Shae walked with just a bit of pep in her step, visibly thrilled to have an entire hour to spend out of the shop, while still technically on the clock.

“Um. A few times, yeah. My friend, Dean, runs the store a few days outta the week. Everything I’ve tried so far has been good.”

Steven’s eyes drift from her at that detail.

A man…

He guesses he shouldn’t be too shocked at the knowledge of her having male friends, when she’d managed to befriend Jake, of all people. Especially since their peculiar friendship was what had gotten her the job at BB’s in the first place.

“Off topic but I’m still surprised that you managed to become friends with Jake. I mean, he doesn’t make those often— well, at all really.”

Shae snorts, “I’m not shocked that’s the case honestly. The first time I met him, he kept finding ways to turn the conversation around, so he could try to convince me to sleep with him.”

Steven’s eyes widen, amazed at how easily she admits this, her hands tucked coolly into the pockets of her jeans. “He did? That must have been… I can’t imagine how you felt.” He offers sympathetically, though she waves him off with a buoyant laugh.

“I just remember finding the big guy with the scruffy calico kitten sound asleep in the palms of his hands funny. It’s probably why I volunteered to be the one to foster it, instead of one of the usual go-to’s at the shelter. Even then, he only gave me his phone number ‘cause he thought I’d be a future booty call.”

“I’m missing how you could’ve possibly found him funny.” Steven mumbles with knitted brows, undoubtedly looking as confused as he felt.

“I don’t know how to explain it… I just had the feeling there was more to him than he lets on, and I ended up being right. He’s a complicated guy. Anyway, we’re here!”

The second Steven opens the door, allowing for her to step inside first, his ears are bombarded with the sound of a cheery, but loud female voice.

“SHAE-EEEE!” The woman all but screams in the otherwise unpopulated store.

“Hi!” Shae greets her with a laugh, as she’s promptly scooped into the woman’s arms.

“You said you’d ‘stop by soon’ four weeks ago. Is this your version of soon?” The woman prods, holding onto her captive’s biceps as she pulls back just enough to look at her.

She was a tall woman with olive skin and dark curls pulled into a half up, half down style. The tilt in her brows and the tick in her jaw made her appear a touch mean to Steven, but she was very pretty.

Especially with the way she dressed, in a form-fitting sleeveless black top and black faux leather pants that hugged her figure.

“You should see my ‘later’.” Shae replies with a cheeky smirk.

“Knowing you, that’ll probably be a year from now, you brat.”

“Maybe, that’s the fun of it though.” And it’s now that Steven realizes the way the two women look at each other.

The sly, almost giddy smirks. Hands caressing more intimately than was customary, and the way their eyes flitted about the other’s face.

It was like there was an unspoken game to their interaction. Like the way they looked into each other’s eyes, and then down to their lips was communicating something that Steven couldn’t quite hear.

“I brought my coworker with me today.” Shae prompts, turning to where he stood by the door simply observing. “Steven, this is Dean. Dean, meet Steven. I work on the coffee side of the shop his brother manages, and Steven handles the flowers.”

“I wish you’d stop introducing me like that.” Dean says teasingly before turning her attention towards him. Her green eyes are scrutinizing, as though she were picking him apart before he can even speak. “My name is Nadine. I’ve passed by your shop, I’ve never gone in though.”

“Oh you should, when you get the time. My brother Marc makes all the pastries himself, gets up at 2am almost every morning to get in early enough to bake it all. The coffee’s good too.” Steven rambles, feeling exceptionally nervous under Nadine’s obvious inspection of him.

“I’ll take your word for it.” She replies simply, a silence dragging in the air between them.

“Is Layla in today?” Shae pipes up.

“She’s on lunch…”

“In the break room, right? I have to talk to her before she goes out of town this week.”

“So that’s why you came today.” Nadine muses with a sigh, arms folding. “Yes, she’s in the breakroom.”

Turning to Steven again, Shae smiles, pointing towards the back section of the shop. “I’ll only be a minute, do you wanna order? I’ll pay for the both of us when I get back.”

“‘S fine.” He nods as she begins edging away. “I’ll be here.”

“They’re on me. You know that.” Nadine chimes in with narrowed eyes as Shae laughs.

“I have a guest with me, I have to at least appear civil.”

The moment she’s out of sight, the room becomes almost eerily silent, despite the faint music playing in the shop. There’s a brief five seconds where they stand there like that. Quiet, not speaking, before Nadine releases a long winded sigh and finally turns to him.

“What can I get for you.. Steven, was it?” She asks, walking to stand behind the counter.

“Yeah.. um, Niyah mentioned there were vegan options?” He mumbles looking up at the large menu overhead. All of the items were written in chalk on top of an expansive black board.

“Niyah?” Nadine, in the process of washing her hands at the sink, completely freezes.

“Mhm.” He nods, body swaying between trying to appear comfortable and toeing the edge of on alert before she chuckles lowly, focusing on the task of rinsing the soap suds on her skin away.

“Another nickname. Of course.” She muses, drying off her hands.

“Are you two dating? Or… have you dated in the past?” He blurts out finally, unable to keep that question to himself any longer.

Steven swallows thickly when her eyes meet with his but instead of reacting however he assumed she would, she just shakes her head and leans back against the cabinets behind her.

“No.” She answers simply. “Are you?”

“No.” He replies, blinking at her. Making her laugh dryly.

Zero humor appears on her face, or in her voice.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

And the comment makes him bristle.

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” She corrects, a speck of light dawning in her eyes from whatever it was that she’d come to believe, in that second that they shared. Related in. “It’s just that, that’s how it usually is with her. Isn’t it?”

And he isn’t sure about her meaning, and it feels yet again like there’s a conversation he isn’t all the way in on. “ What do you mean by that?” He asks uneasily.

But then the door to the backroom opens and Nadine pretends that the question never left his lips.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

With their respective crepes in hand, under Shae’s suggestion, the pair makes a detour into a nearby park. Shae instantly gravitating towards a small family of ducks slowly wading through the corresponding pond.

She kneels at the edge of the bank, cooing affectionately when three ducklings divert from their mother to quack up at her from the water.

“They’re so cute. Don’t you think, Steven?” She asks just as the yellow feathered trio rejoin their group.

“They are.” He nods, crepe in hand. Tracing the outline of her face with his eye, from her lashes, to her nose and lips.

At this moment, she didn’t seem complicated. Like an inside joke he didn’t have all the context to.

She was just herself, and he was content with whoever she proved herself to be.

When suddenly a rampant streak of blonde dashes up behind her and presses its front paws against her back with all its strength.

Shae gets knocked off her balance, unable to hold herself up in her current stance, and subsequently falls forward into the water at the edge of the bank with a huge harumph, as Steven watches on in shock. Eyes wide, his lips part before his feet break into action.

shae—

She’d managed to turn mid descent, falling on her left hip, instead of face first into the murky water. Her right arm remains extended, ram straight into the air.

Her mind somehow moving quick enough to save her strawberry mango crepe from becoming drenched duck food, but not fast enough for her to save herself from getting soaked head to toe.

Suddenly Steven’s by her side, heaving her up gently with one surprisingly strong pull. He gets her on her feet again easily, and though her ears register the profuse apologies from the golden retriever’s owner—all of her attention is focused on the man in front of her.

He holds both of her biceps, anchoring her as she looks up at him with wide eyes and parted lips sucking in a shaky inhale.

She’d never been so… close to him before.

Close enough to see each little stubble on his chin, to really appreciate the color of his lips, and the scent of his cologne.

Steven smelled distinctly like… matcha? Like bergamot and sweet orange flowers, with a hint of white chocolate shining through.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt at all?” He asks, brows moving to meet in the middle as Shae blinks up at him dazed.

Slowly, her head turns down, lifting her shirt up to get a decent look at her side.

A red bruise had already begun forming above her left hip where she’d fallen into the rounded rocks. Though nothing felt broken, it would undoubtedly take a few weeks to heal.

The spot was bound to get worse and more tender to the touch before it got any better, but it didn’t seem like anything to write home about.

Swallowing shallowly, she releases her soaked shirt and looks back up at him just as he begins ducking forward. Causing her muscles to lock, and breath to hitch as he edges closer and closer, ultimately bringing a hand to her hair.

Pulling back, he produces a brown leaf. Having detangled it from her curls, he holds it up for her to see, his lips pursing into a pout as he speaks. “Leaf.”

“Hm.” She answers weakly, catching his eye before speaking. “Marc’s going to fucking kill me.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

Marc and Steven’s place is the closer alternative to bothering in going all the way home to change, before returning to work.

It was intended to be a quick stop, to allow Shae to take a shower and grab a change of clothes— nothing special.

And she hadn’t known what to expect, but as Steven opens the front door revealing a spotless apartment, painstakingly cleaned from top to bottom, she thinks that it certainly wasn’t this.

It even smelled amazing. Notes of bay, rosemary and lemon in the air.

“Wow.” Shae remarks in amazement, stepping further inside, allowing Steven to close the door behind her.

“This is... all Marc.” He admits, moving away from the door and making a right turn down a hall near the front entrance.

From where she stood, still dripping on the welcome mat, she could overlook the living room and kitchen easily.

The surrounding area wasn’t overwhelmingly spacious, but it wasn’t exactly small either.

There was enough room in the lounging area for an entertainment center, a nice coffee table and a modest, sectional couch. A sprawling bouquet of goldenrods glowed in the middle of the dark wooden dining table, the yellow flowers stretching out beautifully in the low light.

From down the hall, Steven flips on a light, the warm glow spilling out in an encompassing cone.

Some rustling could be heard. The loud clatter of a closing cabinet, and then suddenly he was bustling back out to the edge of the hall.

Steven looked around, only to find her where he’d left her, small droplets falling from her clothes and wetting the welcome mat in odd succession.

“Oh, right.” He nods, walking closer to her with an outstretched hand. “I’ll get you a towel, yeah? Here’s something for the pain, I usually take them for my migraines, but I think anything is better than nothing. Looked like that fall hurt quite a bit.” —depositing a white, oblong pill into her clammy palm.

Shae stares at it for a moment before looking up at him. “What is it?”

“Naproxen. Same as the over the counter kind, just a higher dosage. You don’t have to take it. I just thought-“

“This is fine.” She interrupts softly, the pair staring at each other before she adds. “Do you have any water that I can take this with?” And he nods quickly, moving into the kitchen and retrieving a bottled water from the pantry.

“And a towel..” He mumbles to himself after handing over the bottle, shuffling down the hall once again. Only to paddle back with a large yellow towel in his arms.

“Thanks.” Shae replies hoarsely, tilting her head back and swallowing the pill whole with a mouthful of water.

“Mm-hm.” He nods reassuringly, staring, again.

“...which bathroom can I use?”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

steven—

The next time Steven hears the bathroom door open, he’s hunched over a basket of clean, but unsorted clothes.

Trying his best to differentiate the long-sleeve dress shirts from the plain, white tees and tangled pajama pants when Shae calls him from the hallway. Wary to poke her head into the room without announcing herself first.

“I’m in here!” He answers, unraveling another infuriating ball of shirts, brows knitted in the middle.

“What are you doing?” She asks, stepping past the threshold and immediately understanding what he’d meant when he’d stated that the state of the living area was all Marc’s doing.

Steven’s room was a seemingly functioning mess of dark wood and potted plants fitted anywhere vast towers of stacked books, clothes and various thrifted items weren’t already occupying.

It took all of a second for her to completely understand that he’d had no part to play in the enchanting and soothing nature of the first room. Save perhaps, picking out which plants were accented strategically throughout it.

“Well, I’m trying to find you something to wear. These are all clean…” —his words trailing off as he looks behind himself to find her with only a towel wrapped around her. “...by the way.”

“I can help.” She offers, her dark eyelashes fluttering softly as she blinked down at the pile, moving to kneel beside him without any further discussion.

Steven tries not to stare. He tries.

But in the end, his eyes make a deal with his brain to settle for ogling the more appropriate zones.

Like her arms, discovering new tattoos he hadn’t been able to see before under the shirts she wore for work. And the slope of her neck, tracking a few odd droplets which rolled across her skin.

His attention shifts towards her hands, small and soft. And he catches the way her fingers fumble with the fabric of his clothes, struggling even worse than he had to make sense of the twisting material.

It’s only when his eyes flit back up to her face that he notices how fuzzy she looks.

Her eyes blinking rapidly to focus on the task in front of her, her hands becoming clumsier and progressively uncoordinated by the second.

“Are.. Are you alright?” He asks, a concerned tone taking over as he observes her further, taking in her frustrated tugs and blinks.

“Yeah. I’m just— I started getting a bit sleepy. I guess the pain pill got to me more than I thought it would, but I’ll manage.” Shae answers, still blinking furiously as though she could simply will the medication to react differently in her system.

“Why don’t you take a rest, yeah? I can handle this.” He offers, but she doesn’t appear particularly keen on heeding his words, her lips fixing into a pink pout as she continues with no avail.

Relaxing his shoulders, he places a large hand gently on top of hers, halting her movements and forcing her to finally just sit with the feeling.

Her shoulders sag as she releases a frustrated exhale through her nose, allowing herself to close her eyes only momentarily.

Tilting his head into her line of sight, he catches her reluctant eye. And he knows he shouldn’t find this as cute as he does, but witnessing such deliberate defiance in such a small girl makes him have to bite back an adoring smile as he speaks, not wanting to antagonize her further.

“Niyah, I’ve got this. Have a rest, okay? I’ll see what I can come up with.”

Looking at him through her lashes, she holds his eye for a moment before breaking away from his gaze, just as her bottom lip becomes fitted between her teeth.

And he’s grateful for her sudden change in interest because his eyes flit to the movement of her lips for just a second, but just long enough to catch the sight for himself before he forces his mind to refocus.

Staring into a far off corner, at nothing in particular, she answers back quietly. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Steven smiles, adoring the way her brows furrow in resistance even as she verbally concedes. Watching as Shae melts into the plush bedding almost immediately, her head sinking into her arms and her eyelids falling shut without any further protest.

Biting the inside of his cheek, Steven forces himself to turn back around.

“What’s your favorite color, Niyah? I might have it laying around here somewhere.” He receives only a faint, questioning hum in response.

“Your favorite color?” He repeats softly.

“Oh.” Her words come out lazily, put together as they come to mind. “Bla— green… No, it’s black. I think.”

“Long sleeves or short?” He asks.

“Short.”

“What about bottoms?”

“Shorts.” She inhales deeply through her nose, settling her face further into the covers. “I want shorts.”

Brows furrowing, his lips set into a pout as he thinks on his wardrobe. “I- I don’t think I have any shorts… Niyah?” And when he turns around again, he finds that her eyes are serenely shut, chest rising and falling evenly as she soundly sleeps.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

“What’s up, man?”

“Heeey, Marc.” Steven greets, moving into the hall and closing the door to his room where Shae slept, burrowing further underneath the blanket he’d placed on top of her.

“Uh, yeah. I’m calling because there was a bit of a dog related incident while we were out. Niyah’s fine, so don’t worry. But she did end up hurting her hip? We’re at the apartment now. I gave her one of my pain pills that I take for my headaches, so she’s sleepin’.”

From the other side of the line, Steven could hear a bit of shuffling, as though his brother had taken the phone from his ear, and then a faint. “It’s Steven. Can you handle the counter for a moment? Alright. Yeah. I’ll be back.”

There was a bit more shuffling before he came back to the phone. “Okay. Help me to understand this. You go out for lunch, that’s fine. Then there’s a ‘dog incident’? What happened?” Marc asks, getting into his serious older brother mindset. Steven could tell, even over the phone that the man’s brows were knitted, eyes narrowed and waiting.

“We got crepes. There was a park nearby, you know the one—“

“Yeah, I know it.”

“Well, Niyah kneels down to look at a group of baby ducklings, and suddenly, a golden retriever comes out of nowhere. It pounces on her, she loses her balance and gets knocked into the pond. It was a complete shock really.”

Marc sighs heavily, “Yeah, I’m sure it was. So you got her to the apartment, then what?”

“Uh, yeah. Her hip was starting to bruise really badly from where she’d knocked it against the rocks, so I gave her one of my naproxen.”

“So you, a man who weighs a good, let’s say, thirty pounds more than her— gave her the medication which was prescribed to work well with your system specifically?”

“Yeah.” Steven takes a moment of pause, nodding his head as he realizes what he had done. “Yeah, I hadn’t thought of it like that exactly.”

“I know you didn’t, buddy.” Marc replies tiredly.

“Well she’s just sleeping now. I can come back to the shop—“ Steven begins, running a hand through his hair.

“No. No!” Marc interrupts quickly, his voice rising briefly as he speaks.

“What? Why not?”

There’s more shuffling on the other side of the phone, Marc’s voice muffling briefly as though he were rubbing a hand over his face. Faintly in the background, Jake could be heard taking orders.

“You can’t just… leave her alone in the apartment like that, Steven. Look. Jake and I will handle closing tonight. Just… keep watch of her. Make sure she’s still breathing.”

“Wot?” Steven promptly pipes up, his neck craning as he processes his brother’s words. “Sorry… What? Is there actually a chance she could stop breathing?”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

01.28.2021 - 1:45PM

shae—

Shae’s eyes open slowly, vision fuzzy, brain vaguely registering the warm hand that ghosts over her shoulder before promptly withdrawing.

“Hey, sleepyhead. I spoke with Marc. You don’t have to worry about him, he knows that this- well. It’s pretty much my fault, innit? He and Jake will close the shop, we just want you to rest this off, okay?”

Blinking up at him she faintly nods, eyelids falling shut only to flutter open repeatedly.

“I brought you some clothes. I’ve got the heating on but I doubt sleeping in a towel is very comfortable. I’ll step out to give you some privacy. Pop back in, in about ten-ish minutes.” Steven says softly, patting the bed one last time before shutting the door behind him.

With one eye open, Shae huffs into the blankets surrounding her, glaring at the articles of clothing that stand between her and falling back to sleep.

Sitting up is a draining task, but she manages it. Both eyes closed, head bobbing to the side as she pulls the covers off haphazardly. Quickly discarding the towel wrapped around her waist and allowing it to rest at the foot of the bed.

Yanking the change of clothes into her bare lap, she finally opens her eyes again. Relieved to find a simple white tee which would prove much easier to put on, unlike the many button downs Steven seemed to own.

Tugging on the shirt, she brings the bottoms closer to her face to inspect. Squinting at the article of clothing that appeared to be pajama pants cut at the mid thigh, the ends folded and offhandedly sewed to keep the edges from fraying.

Laying on her back, she folds herself in half, bringing her knees to her chest, feet dangling in the air as she struggles almost drunkenly for a moment to angle her feet into the openings before finally succeeding.

Falling back flatly against the bed and allowing her heavy eyelids to shut once again.

3:15PM

Slipping back into consciousness, Shae’s ears are met with gentle words. The voice soothing and sweet as he speaks, “I’ve adjusted the heat a bit more. I hope you’re warm.”

A hum resonates from her throat as she slips back out again.

5:27PM

In a few moments of wakefulness, Shae registers the empty chair where Steven had been sitting for the last… Well, she didn’t really know how long it’d been, if she was being honest.

All she knew, in this quiet moment of empty silence, was that he was no longer by her side. That fact, the glaring lack of his presence seemed to eat away at her peace of mind. Bothering her more than she could even fully understand.

Her voice when she goes to use it, is only semi cooperative, words forming and coming out just fine but the volume not quite carrying the way it normally would.

Her jumbled words fall past her lips low and faint, though she doesn’t stop. Eyelids fluttering open and shut as she mumbles incessantly.

Then suddenly he’s slipping past the door, water splashing from the mug he was holding and onto the front of his shirt as he slides into the room, eyes wide. A half eaten eclair propped between his lips, a little chocolate smudged on his mouth.

“Are you okay?” Steven asks, setting down his mug on the dresser closest to the door. Running a hand over the now dampened fabric of his shirt.

“Yeah.” She answers, feeling significantly soothed as he settles back into the chair beside where she lay.

11:11PM

A flash of blaring white bleeds through her eyelids, jarring Shae awake as she hears bodies shuffling into the room.

Bringing a hand to shield her eyes from the overhead light, she squints at the open door just as Jake sits onto the edge of the bed. The man bumping against her legs initially before adjusting, so that he wasn’t nearly sitting on them.

Marc stood in the doorway, arms folded, looking on with his usual severe expression. Watching unamused as Jake waved a to-go container in the air celebratorily.

“Got your favorite, lamb curry. Extra garlic naan, extra lamb.” He says looking down at her as she simply squints back. Her mind worked slowly, attempting to blink the sleep from her eyes.

“Not hungry.” She replies hoarsely, rubbing at her face with clumsy fingers.

Her dismissive statement however does little to sway the older man. Jake simply popping open the plastic top, before setting to work to free a spork from its wrappings. “That’s too bad, because you’re gonna eat. You’re not laying in here all night with nothing on your stomach. Now sit up, Mos. And don’t make me repeat myself, chiquita.”

01.29.2021 - 7:57AM

By morning the room is washed in a cool blue and Shae wakes up with a start. A feeling of implacable urgency hums through her as her eyes settle on one of the many clocks in Steven’s room.

The bright red numbers take a moment to process in her brain before she’s actively panicking, urgently propping herself up against the mattress.

Peaking over the edge of the bed, she’s met with the rare sight of Steven asleep.

Laying on his back, with his head thrown back against the blankets, he’d formed into a makeshift pallet. A pillow is wrenched in between his arms.

He’s all knitted brows and pink lips parted as he inaudibly breathes. His head of curls were even more of a mess than usual, black tufts pointed every-which-way, sticking up in any direction they pleased.

She’d heard by now how hard it was for him to get to sleep, but as she looks around the room again, unable to catch sight of her phone, she reaches a reluctant hand from underneath the covers.

Resting her palm tentatively onto his shoulder, to gently tug at the dark blue cotton long sleeve he’d worn to bed.

Steven stirs after a another persistent pull, his dark lashes fluttering open and an adorably groggy hum of acknowledgment sounds from his chest to meet her ears.

He looked undeniably pretty in this state. All pouty lipped and furrowed brows, clearly disgruntled to be suddenly awoken. But then his eyes shine with a glimmer of sleepy recognition upon waking up only to find Shae looking back at him and his face, still adorably pouty, visibly softens.

“Hey.” He greets in a whisper, resting his head back against his pillow as his eyes open and close gently, going back and forth between wanting to go back to sleep and wanting to hear what she had to say.

“It’s almost eight, the shop opens at seven. We’re late for work, and I don’t know where my phone is.” She answers, pulling off the covers to throw her legs over the side of the bed.

“Jake gave us til eleven.” He mumbles back in reply, closing his eyes and readjusting under his blankets. And lazily, he extended a finger towards the dresser near the door. “Your phone’s there, you left it on the bathroom sink yesterday.”

At this information her shoulders sag, her panic easing somewhat as she stares at him, his chest rising and falling evenly as he appears to already be slipping back into his dreamworld.

The only sound to be heard throughout the blue-lit space was that of his calm breathing, and that's when the events of yesterday begin to flood back into the forefront of her mind.

She’d been utterly humbled by a random canine, who apparently had been called to act upon some animalistic vendetta that had been placed on its dog heart.

And it’s at this moment she reasons that both dogs, and large ponds, will forever be on her own personal ‘avoid at all costs’ list.

Steven notably being excluded from said list, as she watches him quietly from her place on the bed-frameless mattress in his room. The box spring being the only thing separating the bed from the dark hardwood floor.

The pill had clearly been a bad idea on both of their parts, incapacitating her in a way neither of them had expected it to, or even remotely accounted for. But all in all, he’d taken care of her.

Steven had waited on her hand and foot, for nearly nineteen hours straight, never straying too far out earshot and kindly keeping her company as she repeatedly went in and out of consciousness.

Showing her a level of attentiveness she could honestly say she hadn’t experienced since she was 16 years old and her mother was still alive.

The internal admittance leaves her solemn in the morning quiet.

“Steven?” Shae speaks up, purposefully breaking the stillness and the train of thought her mind was going down.

A moment passes and she wonders if he’s already drifted back to sleep when he answers with another languid hum.

“Thank you.” She says earnestly, her voice faint as she’s not sure he’s even really listening. “For yesterday. You took care of me. I appreciate it… A lot.”

“You deserve it.” His words come out slurred, his heavy lidded eyes still shut, but he replies nonetheless. The nickname he’d crafted for her proceeding to fall off his lips in a way that makes her heart twinge.

Shae’s eyes remain trained on the man’s face as she doesn’t make a move for her phone. Instead choosing to fold herself back onto the bed, her nose sinking into the covers.

part iii. denial and familiarity

day 251.

steven—

“Hey.” Shae greets from the hallway, eyes mischievous and a pleased smirk forming on her lips as Steven pulls open the front door.

“Hi.” He answers faintly in return, stepping aside to grant her entry into his and his brother’s apartment as if it were second nature. Which it practically had become such since she’d begun assisting Marc in his role as the head baker.

Acting officially as his pastry sous chef, his second in command— which only meant, wherever Marc was nowadays, Shae was bound to never be too far off.

Steven could only vaguely recall how anxiety inducing it’d been to invite her into his dwelling for the first time.

Now, if he thought on it long enough, the space was more peculiar when she wasn’t gracing it with her wily presence and her intoxicatingly sensuous scent of rose, hyacinth and clover.

Perfuming their air with that rich, clean fragrance on early mornings like this to ride to work with Marc. Or just spend hours loitering in their kitchen, and on their couch.

Claiming a space in their lives with that same lazy surety a cat has in picking a home and simply deciding it wasn’t a stray anymore.

“Marc’s getting his work bag together, he’ll be out in a sec.”

“That’s cool. Y’know, I’m surprised to see you up so early. 2AM might be your personal best.” She comments, faintly trailing after him as he returns to his room, watching from the doorway as he places the last of his things into a duffel.

Steven was the only one of his father’s three remaining sons that bothered to go home regularly.

Although, maybe it was more of the fact that he was the only Spector boy that possessed the ability to stomach it all. That could survive the lengthy trip from Queens, NY to Chicago, walk into their childhood home and still be able to function in that space for a week, every other month.

Especially when the halls were haunted with memories of not one, but two familial ghosts.

“It’s not if you never actually go to sleep.” Marc comments in passing, setting his bag by the front door before heading towards the kitchen.

Steven’s eyes roll as he zips his duffel closed.

“What time’s your bus?” Shae asks as he moves to retrieve his shoes from the top shelf of his closet.

“4:15.” He replies, settling down on the edge of the bed. “Both Dad and Marc like getting the drive out of the way early. Whole family’s early birds except for me.”

“Well, I don’t know about your dad, but I’d say that Jake and Marc are just allergic to having downtime.” Shae says snickering as Marc speaks up from the kitchen.

“I heard that, smartass.” He calls dryly from the other room, not picking his head up from fixing his and Steven’s meals for the day.

“What do you think you have ears for, dumbass?” She snipes, causing Steven to release a soft huff of amusement.

“Wait!” Shae suddenly exclaims, making him pause just as he grabs ahold of his shoelaces. “Steven… Are those Chucks?”

Frozen like a deer in headlights, Steven looks back wide eyed, fully exposed.

He honestly hadn’t meant to grab the grayish teal converse. Wanting to have broken them in, instead of letting her see them practically fresh out of the box— brand new and so clearly influenced by the fact they were the exact brand she consistently rotated in her daily wardrobe.

“Yeah, I got them last Wednesday… for the trip.” He answers self-consciously, lying through his teeth about the last detail. Unsure and contemplating if he wanted to continue tying them, or switch them out entirely for a different pair, when she speaks up.

“They look good.” She comments appraisingly, lips pursed approvingly and head nodding as she adds, “They suit you.”

Steven continues tying up his laces, mumbling his thanks into the space separating them as he folds himself over his bent knees, busying himself with the task to keep his face momentarily hidden. Fully hoping the heat he was feeling in his cheeks wasn’t visible to her.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

day 293.

shae—

Standing behind the register, Jake whistles lowly as he eyes the figure of a woman walking past the cafe’s front windows, smirking widely as the stranger makes her way to the main entrance.

“Heads up, Mos. I’m shooting for cutie number 88 today.”

Tearing her eyes from the organized rows of flavored syrups, Shae focuses on her small stature and flowing brown curls with bleached blonde highlights peppered throughout.

She was beyond cute, Shae thought. Sitting somewhere between pretty and absolutely gorgeous.

All warm, glowy skin with glossed pink lips, dressed in a pastel pink bikini top with form-fitting jeans, the strings of her bikini bottoms tied into bows on either of her hips.

Moving her shades to sit at the top of her head, she approaches the register before Shae can formulate a reply to his statement.

“Welcome to the Bloom and Brew. What can I get for you today?” Jake greets, expression softening as he makes eye contact.

“One large iced mocha and a small nitro cold brew to-go, please.” She answers, the silver bracelets on her wrists sounding gently as she pulls her phone from her tote. “You guys take Apple Pay, right?”

“We do.” He answers with an easy nod, typing in her order before placing his undivided attention back onto her. “And… you got a name, honey?”

Her hazel eyes crinkle at the pet name, lips moving into an amused smile as she chuckles. “Cali.”

“Ah, entiendo.” He hums, finishing typing it in so that Shae could begin making the drinks. “Do I have a Columbian or a Californian girl on my hands then?”

“Columbian.” She’s smiling widely, happy for the opportunity to talk about her heritage. “My mom’s from DR though, what about you? Do you have a name, honey?”

Jake taps at the nametag pinned into his shirt with an extended finger in answer and noticeably only to Shae, not replying to the first question. “Though I wouldn’t be opposed to a few other things. I’ll respond to anything you’d like.”

The line makes Shae roll her eyes so hard it actually hurts.

Thoroughly annoyed, but equally amazed as it appears to hit its intended mark with Cali. The girl looking progressively pleased the longer the interaction endured.

“That’ll be $13.55, sweetness.” He prompts, extending a thick finger to guide her to where she’d tap her phone. “Two drinks. Are you orderin’ for someone else by chance? Maybe… Me?”

Cali laughs again, narrowing her eyes playfully as she shakes her head.

She returned the favor as she merely pointed to one of the front windows.

Another young woman was waiting outside, preoccupied with her phone as she tapped at its screen. With a curly pixie cut slicked down, she was dressed in a black bikini set, a white beach shawl tied at her hips.

“It’s for my friend.”

“Then I’m guessing your friend wouldn’t be too hurt if I gave you this then.” He speaks with an intentional drawl, writing on the back of her receipt with a black ballpoint pen before handing it over to her smoothly.

She accepts it quietly, flipping it over to view the back side where he’d written it before looking up to catch his eye. He was looking back at her smugly, expectant and proud.

Fitting her bottom lip between her teeth, she holds his gaze as she unlocks her phone.

Jake’s smirk only grows as she quietly enters the number into the device, pointing the front camera towards him to snap a quick photo before sliding the receipt back over to him.

“I chose no receipt for a reason, sweetness.” She says, moving to accept the drinks from Shae with a smile before sending a final wink his way.

Jake watches her leave, waiting for the door to chime closed before he turns to Shae with a wide smile.

She audibly groans, slipping her fingers into her apron pocket to retrieve a clip of neatly folded cash. From the metal clip, she removes a single, crisp five dollar bill and extends it towards him.

He accepts it smugly.

“You can’t argue with results, Mos.” He says as happily as he was capable of. Tucking the bill into his wallet looking exceedingly self-congratulatorily.

“No. I can’t. But I stand by my belief, that one of these days... you’re gonna get turned down.” She says turning away, moving to clean her station. “And I’ll be there, laughing my little head off for every second of it.”

“You call that globe sitting on your shoulders little?” He asks rhetorically with a scoff, rolling his eyes.

“You’re competing with the fucking Epcot ball with that dome— la puta madre!“ His sentence is cut short as Shae suddenly rounds back in half the time, hopping up to wrap her arm around his throat and tugging him down harshly into a headlock.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

day 300.

steven—

“Do you ever get the impression that Niyah might be into girls?” Steven asks suddenly, breaking the silence in his and his brother’s apartment.

The noise of Marc rearranging the fridge to make room for this week’s groceries stops as the man freezes.

“Why are you asking me that?” He asks, voice apprehensive.

“Was just curious… I guess.”

“You know, normally you get that kind of information from the person themselves.” Marc says, face still, expression unreadable.

“I just thought you might know…” Steven watches as Marc sighs, the man resolving to return to his task.

“She’s queer, Steven. There's your answer.”

“Queer… right.” He replies, pretending he knew what the term fully meant.

“It sorta means she likes everybody. No matter what they identify as— Girl, guy, anybody. At least she has the capacity to. Doesn’t mean she’ll actually have a thing for everyone that breathes.”

“Right.” Steven nods, the silence resuming for a brief moment before he breaks it again. “What type of guys is she into? If you know.”

“I don’t know, man. We don’t really talk about that kind of stuff.”

“Well, what do you talk about?”

“Baking. Who’s going to break first. How annoying she is. Baking again. Those kinda things.”

“Other than work.” Steven clarifies with knitted brows.

“I don’t know. Stuff?” Marc replies, shrugging his shoulders, quickly becoming frustrated. “Look, I answered your question. Let’s drop it. Alright? You wanna know so bad, ask her yourself. I doubt she’d mind talking about it.”

Steven purses his lips, stopping himself from rolling his eyes before resolving to turn back to unbagging the vegetables.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

day 328.

Rewrapping a bundle of twine, Steven looks up at the sound of footsteps, prepared to launch into his opening greeting when his eyes settle on Shae entering the flower shop.

“What’s up?” He asks as she shuffles forward, looking over her shoulder quickly, shielding a cinnamon roll on top of a napkin. “What’s this?”

“Snack heist.” Shae says in a stage whisper, a mischievous smile already on her face. “Heard from Marc that you came in a little later today and I know you never grab anything to eat so… I brought you this.”

“Oh, um, yeah. I really am working on it—“

“No, it’s okay, Steven.” She interrupts hurriedly, holding up the roll. “I made the batch this morning. So it’s not Marc’s handiwork, but it’s the same recipe. Tell me what you think when you can, huh? I can’t stay long, he already nags me enough as it is.”

“Okay.” He nods, accepting the treat with one hand before extending the other to stop her from leaving. “Thank you, by the way. It means a lot.”

And her eyes scan his face for a moment, irises glimmering a bit before she gives a shrug. A warm, lopsided grin replacing her usual playful expression. “Don’t mention it.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

day 488.

shae—

“How long are you going to keep this up?” Marc says suddenly, stirring a pot of cream of chicken soup and cooked rice. Breaking the comfortable silence that had taken over the apartment in Steven’s absence, effectively startling Shae out of her trance of watching him do the prep work for the cheesy chicken casserole they were having for dinner.

“What?” She asks confusedly, moving her hands from her lap to rest on the counter she currently sat atop. “Watching you cook? Do you want me to do it?”

“No.” He shakes his head, eyes stationary on the task in front of him. “Steven.”

“What am I doing with Steven? He’s not even here right now.”

Marc doesn’t answer right away, stirring the pot slowly as it begins to lightly bubble. “How long are you going to ignore that you like him?”

And maybe, if she were a better liar or more disingenuous, she’d have found something to say.

She might’ve laughed. Found some key way to have changed the subject.

Instead she just stares. Her ears, neck and cheeks erupting with illusionary flames of embarrassment as she processes the gravity of the statement.

Lifting his gaze, Marc immediately recognizes the abject fear clouding her eyes.

“It’s okay to like him, Shaeniyah.” He says plainly, watching the way she appears visibly thrown for a loop. “Come on, you can say something.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.” He answers, causing her to roll her eyes irritably. “I didn’t really think this far into the conversation.”

“What was the point of even bringing it up then?”

“Because you like him. I see how you look at him, talk to him. I mean, you bring him snacks when you think I’m not looking.” Shae’s stubborn grimace effectively melts away at that, craning her neck, eyes wide as he speaks.

“You- You know about that?”

“My brother practically wears his food from how messily he eats— of course I noticed. I’m not the one giving them to him, and it’s definitely not Jake. But that’s besides the point. You should trust him.”

“I trust him plenty.” She pouts, looking away.

“Then trust him with the truth.”

“You’re one to talk, Marc Spector.”

“Yeah, I know.” He nods, turning back to the soup and rice he’d been neglecting to stir. “Must let you know that you’re fucking up big time if I’m the one who felt the need to talk to you about it.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

day 561.

They’d gone out for drinks. Just a casual, friendly outing. Innocent really.

She’d just left him for a moment, venturing to the bar for extra maraschino cherries when she turned to the sight of him sitting in his seat, listening patiently as a blonde leaned against the table, positively beaming at him.

And for a moment he catches her eye before going back to whatever conversation he could possibly be having.

Shae turns back to the bar, breathing heavily through her nose as she places her hands on the wooden countertop, her thoughts running at a million per second.

There were a number of truths. First being, Steven was single. He wasn’t hers to demand the time of, there was no verbal agreement between them, demanding his attention and affections remain solely on her.

And second was that the same could be said for her.

Although before Steven, that fact had always brought her a modicum of relief. Now it just made her insides stir uneasily. Steven wasn’t hers… Steven.

He was the man she always wanted to see. The man whose voice made her smile and her stomach jump at the worst of times. He laughed at her lame jokes, never said no when she was having a bad day and made her feel at peace just by standing next to her.

Marc was right. She thinks, virtually kicking herself.

Marc was right, Steven made her life better. More exciting, vibrant and fresh— and here she was, with her back turned like an intimidated child while he got hit on. Frozen in place, second guessing everything.

If she could just turn around… if she could just get her limbs to cooperate.

“Gonna stand here forever?” Sounds a voice from the left side of her and her shoulders instantaneously sag. “Did you order somethin’ else?”

Shae merely shakes her head in answer as she feels life start back again. Watching as she seems to obtain control of her body and the things around her regain their color and focus.

“What are you waiting for then?” Steven pries.

“You looked busy.” Her tongue feels heavy, is that normal? “Didn’t want to intrude.”

He laughs airly, “Intrude? Oh, she was nice. I don’t think she would’ve minded. I mean I came here with you. If anyone was barging in, it wouldn’t have been you.” And that makes her feel better, despite herself? In spite of herself?

“Regardless, she looked like she was happy to talk to you.” Shae says, still pointedly looking at the various bottles on the shelf behind the bar.

“Yeah?” He asks, voice almost hopeful.

“Yeah.” She replies weakly.

“Well if that’s what you think. You might be right.” He continues, reaching a hand into the pocket of his dull, olive green corduroy pants like he was searching for something. His head tilted downwards. “Y’know before she left, she gave me somethin’ weird.

“It was a napkin. I thought she was just being polite since I’d spilled a bit of my drink but after she left, I noticed there was somethin’ written on it in blue ink.” Shae’s head turns on a swivel towards him, her body betraying her as her mind races. Did she—

Steven’s face is still tilted downwards, leaning a smidge towards the left as his eyes instantly meet with hers. Oh.

He was pulling her leg. Intentionally.

Shae’s head lulls back slightly in awe, in pure shock.

“You asshole.” The words fall past her lips in a faint whisper before she can even think better of it, watching dumbly as the corner of Steven’s lips tilt upwards for just a millisecond.

Removing his hand from his pocket, notably empty, Steven edges closer. All of his attention now focused on her. “I didn’t think I would be right, but I am, aren’t I?” He asks, his eyes tracing every inch of her face. Staring, in that way, again.

“About what?” She answers, looking up at him suspicious and wary. Her words coming out a bit mean, but he doesn’t appear swayed in the least.

“That you’re jealous.” A smile was working its way onto his face.

“Wha-“ She sputters defensively but he doesn’t give her a chance to find a way to work herself out of this.

“You were. You are.”

“I don’t know where this is coming from, Steven. But—“

“So you wouldn’t have minded if she had made out with me?” He asks suddenly, causing her to squint bewildered at him.

“Would you have even let her? I mean here? In front of all these people?”

“Not her.” He says simply, eyes clearer than Shae had ever seen them before. “There’s someone else who I’d prefer to do that with. And why not here? They’re just strangers.”

“Really?” She asks, unbelieving.

He nods. “Only if she’d have me, of course. I wasn’t so sure she would. But now…”

“What about now?”

“Now,” He takes one of her curls between his fingers, fitting it behind her ear. Eyes drifting to her lips, effectively putting her body on edge. “I’m thinkin’ maybe she’ll have me after all.”

And Shae chokes down a whimper. This didn’t feel real, maybe she’d wake up and this will have all been one long, tortuous dream.

Steven leans closer, “Will you?”

“Hm?” She hums noncommittally, entirely enraptured.

“Will you have me, Shaeniyah Moswen?”

Her face is twisted, pure agony written in the way her brows are tilted upwards, moving to meet in the middle. Her lips fixed into a grave downturned pout.

The average onlooker would be virtually unable to guess the exchange was anything in the realm of a love confession. With the way he’d fitted himself over her, cradling her jaw, she looks up at him as though she were physically pained by the weight of it all.

Her chest rises and falls heavily as they stand in a momentary stalemate. Steven, ever patient, watches her with gentle affection. Gliding the blunt tips of his nails through the hair above her ear in a soothing motion, lulling her into a feeling of security and safety.

“Will you have me, Niyah?” He repeats softly and she breathes shakily in through her nose before nodding quietly in agreement.

“Yeah.” She appears so innocently unaware in the way she simply blinks up at him when his face breaks into a loving smile of relief.

Steven chuckles softly, bending his head forward and bringing his chin to his chest, his eyes fluttering shut for just a moment. “Yes.” He whispers more to himself before looking back to her.

“Can I kiss you?” He asks, and maybe it’s silly, they’re already so entwined into one another’s space— his right hand cradling her jaw, the other ghosting against her left hip. Both of her hands were holding onto either of his arms, loosely clinging to him as they practically breathed the same air.

“Please.” She says in a nearly inaudible whisper but Steven catches it just fine.

Leaning forward, he holds her gaze right until their noses touch. And despite the silent whimper that sounds from her as their lips meet— Shae leans into the kiss.

Her fingers tug and pull at the fabric of his jacket, light gasps and inhales finding their way into the exchange as they play an odd game of give and take with their mouths.

Steven pulls back reluctantly, quietly chuckling at the way she chases after his lips, earning herself an additional chaste peck in direct reward for her sudden, unabashed neediness.

Resting his forehead against hers, he notes the fuzzy look in her eye, a smile growing on his face as he wraps his left arm around her waist to pull her in closer. Cherishing the quietly surprised but equally pleased, airy moan that slips past her lips.

“Feels like I’m dreaming.” He admits, breaking the relative silence between them. “I know that I’m not but.. I’ve thought about this moment for so long. I’m havin’ a hard time realizing it’s real.”

“You’ve thought about this before?” She asks softly, eyes not settling on one part of his face. Happy to finally be able to ogle as she pleased.

He nods against her, “Haven't you?”

And her brows furrow as she replies honestly, “All the time.”

part iv. brandy kisses & blush

day 662.

steven—

Standing at the flower shop’s cash wrap, Steven eyes the screen of his phone intently. Pressing the play button every fifteen seconds to restart the video from the beginning again.

He’s lost track of how many times he’s replayed it, how many times he’s ogled his girlfriend’s form from top to bottom.

Girlfriend, he could say that now— or for the last three months to be more precise. He tries not to be downright obnoxious with the term, doing his best to only use it when he deems it necessary. But sometimes he finds himself slipping, saying and thinking it multiple times a week, or day.

Although Steven doesn’t think anyone should be able to fault him for it, especially when said girlfriend was as much of a catch as Shaeniyah Etta Moswen was. He’d found out her middle name during a sporadic game of two truths, one lie and had held it close to his chest ever since.

He wholeheartedly adored her, catering to and indulging her a tad bit more than Jake and Marc thought he should most times, but she never asked for more than was well within his limits to give and Steven was always eager to please.

Today however, seemed to be the first time he considered that perhaps he’d been too easygoing, too forgiving.

The video she’d sent was innocent enough, just a short clip of Shae on her off day, kneeling to better angle her front camera towards one of the three cats she owned.

“Steven’s gonna stay the night, Margo. Did you know that?” She asks in the sweet voice she reserved primarily for her pets, running her free hand along the multicolored fur of the calico cat that only butts its head against her bare knee in answer. “Ohh, you’re excited aren’t you? Say ‘Hurry Steven, hurry!’”

It was short, adorable beyond belief really. And he couldn’t even enjoy it, thanks to the top she was wearing.

The dull olive fabric draped along her chest in an expansive V, nearing her midriff before dipping into pools around her folded legs. The garment was just long enough to keep her lower half covered. And on his fifth watch, Steven becomes convinced that she isn’t wearing any bottoms underneath.

“New shipment of bouquet wraps came in this morning.” Jake announces suddenly, placing a large cardboard box down onto the counter with a low thump.

“Sorry. What was that?” Steven asks, instantaneously locking his phone, having a hard time shaking the cloud that’d drawn over him.

“Bouquet wraps.” Jake repeats incredulously. “The ones you kept nagging me to order, remember? From last week.”

“Oh, right, right. Yeah.”

“What’s got you all spooked? Don’t tell me you’re nervous about tonight.”

“How do you know… about tonight?” Steven asks surprisedly.

Jake rolls his eyes, “How many people fucking work here? Everybody knows everything about everybody. You could tie your shoes a different way and I guarantee you I’d hear about it.”

“N- Not always.” Steven says quietly, not willing to admit that his brother was right, he wanted to at least maintain the illusion of privacy.

“Right...” Jake nods despite looking apprehensive, taking a moment to stare with narrowed eyes.

“What. What are you doing that for?”

“I’m looking at you because you look like you’re strung up. No, don’t shake your head— Your shoulders are to your ears, you can’t go over Mos’ like this.”

“Since when could you tell me where I can and can’t go?” Steven questions with knitted brows.

“Since you were born my fuckin’ brother. And no brother of mine is going over his girl's house looking like a pendejo. We’re going out for drinks before you go, me and you.”

“First off, that was a bit harsh, yeah? Second, um, no? I’m supposed to be at Niyah’s by-“

Jake interrupts him promptly with a dismissive hand. “She’s your girlfriend, not your parole officer. We’re going out for drinks. You’ll feel better about it later, you’ll see.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

shae—

Stepping up onto her tip-toes, Shae catches sight of Steven’s disorderly curls through the peephole.

He’s running a hand over his face when she settles back down onto the balls of her feet, moving to unlock the door. Triple checking to ensure none of the cats were near before opening it just wide enough for Steven to slip through.

She catches a whiff of him as he enters, pressing the door closed with her right shoulder as she looks up at him. A note of alcohol rang through the usual mix of floral scents that he generally sported due to his job— just a hint of brandy shining through.

“I thought you didn’t like brandy.” She comments with a pleased smile, looking over his clothes. He was wearing all dark tones today, an oversized plaid jacket over a button down and jeans folded at the ankles.

“I don’t.” Steven answers simply with a sniff. “It reminded me of you.”

“Yeah?” She asks, her smile widening as he steps close enough to lean over her. “How’s that?”

He doesn’t respond right away, eyes dark and clouded as he looks down at her top, rubbing the material between his fingertips. In person, he notices a detail he never had before. His attention settling on four tiny metal balls just barely visible through the paper thin fabric.

“You’d ordered it the night we first kissed.” He mumbles, dragging his eyes back to her face. Continuing before she can form a reply, resting both of his hands on her hips. “Do you remember that text you sent me earlier today?”

Shae’s expression waxes playful as he begins guiding her backwards, coaxing her further into her apartment. “I know of it.”

steven—

He hums at her response, his solemn features remaining composed and unreadable as he marches her backwards, step by step.

Once inside Shae’s room, he nudges the door closed behind them with his foot. Messy curls falling forward against his forehead, spiraling and twisting in whatever direction they pleased.

He’d grown accustomed to these four walls, the mix-matched fabrics of the curtains, rug and bedding. The space livened with pops of color in every corner, the windows lined with starter plants he’d assured her were failproof, even for beginners.

Steven sits at the edge of her bed, pulling Shae until she stands in front of him, her fingers carding through the soft curls at the base of his neck.

“Been thinking about you all day.” He confesses in a soft tone. “I mean I always think about you, but today it’s mainly because of this number right here.” And he tugs lightly at her top.

“You like it?” She asks, massaging his neck and shoulders.

“Yeah.” He nods, holding her eye as he leans forward, his mouth making contact with the skin exposed due to the low cut of the shirt. Lips warm as he mouths the valley of her chest messily, leaving a wet trail along her torso as he explores with his tongue and teeth.

Shae gasps sharply when he extends a hand, gently tweaking the bud of one of her pierced nipples through her shirt.

She cradles his head to her as his hands dip further down, the tips of his fingers easily slipping underneath the waistband of her underwear, holding steady as he looks her in the eye.

He grants her a pause long enough for her to object if she’d liked, but as she stares down at him, expression hiding thinly veiled desire, she gives a nod of her head and he’s slowly tugging the undergarment down her legs.

Steven detaches his mouth from her sternum, raising the hem of her top high enough to reveal her vulva.

Shae kept her mound neatly trimmed, the small patch of hair that was present was lined into a precise landing strip. He chuckles momentarily at the reveal, leaning forward to press an indulgent kiss against the plot of pubic hair, moving to kiss at either of her hip bones.

It happens quickly, one moment she’s standing in front of him and the next, she’s fallen face first into her duvet. Hooked under Steven’s right arm, her legs are thrown over his thighs as he runs his hands along her skin.

He hums shakily, a pleased sort of sound releasing from his throat. Grabbing handfuls of her ass, pulling and kneading as he saw fit.

“Thought about this part of you, too.” He admits, running the pad of his index finger along her entrance. “You, nice and spread out... Making you pay for having me work when all I wanted to do was get my hands on you. Do you think that’s fair, love? Hm?”

She’s at a loss for words, too caught up with the tantalizing prospect of Steven spending his entire shift thinking about her when a yelp is ripped from her lips.

Steven had… spanked her.

It was a swift but firm swat, one that had her reeling more from how unexpected her enjoyment of it was, than the actual intensity of the hit.

“I know you like giving me a hard time.“ He massages the afflicted spot, running a warm palm over the smooth cheek. “It’s okay. I like seeing you happy, it’s cute. But I’m still a man, love. Can’t always control how you make me feel.”

“Could only think of you.” He repeats, alternating how firmly and lightly he caressed the backs of her legs and thighs. “Wondering what shade of red I could get you… down here.”

She moans audibly, balling her hands into fists in her duvet as he slaps her ass again.

He does it again, and again, and again.

“You’re enjoying this too, aren’t you?” Steven asks after the seventh smack, the whole of his right palm colliding with her now blossoming skin, a steady heat rising to the surface.

“Ooh, you are.” He muses, dragging a thick finger through her folds, the digit coming away coated with her arousal. “Is this why you act up, love? Because you know you’ll like your punishments too?”

Shae tries in vain to restrain her voice, the attempt made difficult from the way he starts off by pressing his middle and ring finger inside of her cunt.

Beginning with a firm but languishing pace, he practically bends himself over her. Craning his neck forward to get a good view of how she takes him.

“Would you look at that...” He marvels outwardly, muttering more to himself than to Shae. Pulling at her entrance, he leans in even closer. “Are you closer to a pink amaryllis, or an oleander, I wonder.”

The room fills with erotically wet squelches and sloshes as he works her open with his fingers.

Steven has an inquisitive nature, inherently having the desire to become intimately aware of the limits of his new toy. Pulling and pushing her to new heights so that he could learn what made her melt in his hands.

He swiftly becomes intuitive with Shae’s body, learning how close he could rile her up without making her climax. Massaging her walls into malleable complacency, noticing how she constricts and pulses around him, not minding the way her limbs jolt underneath him.

By the time he removes his fingers from inside her, his wrist and forearm are drenched.

Shae rolls over onto her back when he releases his hold of her, airy hiccups sparking from her lips as he kneels onto the bed. She accepts him into her arms easily, despite her puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She apologizes weakly, voice made raw and hoarse from her cries.

“Oh, I know. I know.” Steven coos sympathetically in reply, settling on top of her, peppering her overbitten lips with kisses. Pouring his affection from her mouth to her chin, neck and temple.

“Want my cock, darling? Think you’re up for it?” He asks, unable to fully conceal his amusement in wake of her newfound pliability. “I’m sure you want something to come around now, don’t you love?”

Their foreheads are near touching as she nods blearily, sniffling into what kisses he initiates, her arms weakly thrown around his neck.

“Oh, dear.” He all but swoons, capturing her mouth with his after a particularly powerful pang of affection courses through him.

shae—

She shuffles underneath him, moaning at the taste of alcohol on his tongue as he licks into her mouth unabashedly.

There’s a noise of rustling between them, a faint clinking of his belt as he unbuckles it.

Steven unzips his pants, moving his bottoms and underwear aside just enough to get his cock comfortably out. Allowing the material to bunch at his ass as he situates himself above her.

Hooking her legs around his hips, he lifts her lower half from off of the bed, elevating her cunt slightly as he tugs at his length.

Her clit aches at the mere sight of Steven, at the way he rests on his hackles, hair unruly and clothing disheveled as he prepares to fuck her.

“Hm?” He asks, eyes rising to her face in question and it’s only then that she realizes she’d spoken.

“Want you.” She confesses, trying not to feel overwhelmed with emotion.

“You’ve got me.” He reassures her with a lopsided smile that does little to necessarily calm her.

“Want you, want all of you.” And she can only guess that she looks as pained as she feels inside. Loving Steven resembled a wide set of claws, lashing around in the very center of her being. It didn’t feel like something that could be satiated or placated to— she just wanted him to pour into her and never stop.

Shae reaches a hand out and he quickly accepts it, bringing it to rest over his heart to feel the way it thudded in his chest.

“You got me, Niyah.” He whispers, leaning forward until he’s nuzzled into her neck.

“For good?” She asks amidst fresh tears, he was rubbing the tip of his cock along her entrance now.

“For as long as you’ll have me.” He answers pressing into her, the stretch has her gasping for air.

“I’ll always want you. I…” Her rambling gets cut off as he continues working his way into her, inch by inch. “Fuck.”

“You’re taking me so well, Niyah.” He praises her breathlessly, moving to rest his sweat lined forehead against hers. There was still a good three to two inches to go, the sheer girth of his length making it more challenging as she got closer to his base.

He thrusts once, twice, testing the glide— unable to wait until he’d filled her all the way. The tip of his cock was already rubbing along her g spot, curving slightly upward.

Steven gasps as she clenches around him, a warm gush of arousal easing the push and pull. He can’t help but thrust a little further, his hips moving on their own as he begins to get progressively lost in the feeling of her around him. “You’re so… feels so tight.”

Unsure where to settle them, Shae’s hands wander as he fucks her, drifting from his chest, to his neck and inevitably into his hair. Needily tugging at anything and everything she could get a decent grip on.

He breaks her down quickly, his thrusts gradually increasing in speed.

“Sh-, fuc-.” Shae pants, her moans nearing high pitched cries as the force behind Steven’s thrusts push her further up the bed. The woven headboard beginning to knock into the brick wall with each push of his hips.

“Needed this.” He says fully blissed out, messily mouthing at her neck. Soothing himself by biting at the skin there and she’s too far gone to warn him against leaving any marks. “Should’ve gotten you on my cock sooner. Would’ve fucked this needy cunt just how you wanted. Would’ve taken care of you—”

His fingers dig into her hips, with his cock buried as deep as it could go, he fucks her into the mattress at a pace so relentless, she’s seeing stars. “You’re not gonna let me go til I give you my cum huh, love? You’re squeezin’ me like you want it.”

“I wa-, I want it.” Shae whines out through choked gasps of air. “Cum in me, Steven. Wan- wanna feel you, baby, please.” And she swears she hears a noise oddly similar to a growl rumble from within him that sends a shiver down her back as he moves swiftly to capture her lips.

He’s kissing her less than he is panting into her mouth, sharing what little air they could. “You first.” Is all he says in answer, fitting a hand between them to rub at her clit with his thumb.

His touch is firm, borderline disorienting as he matches rotating circles with his thrusts.

Throwing her head back against the sheets, her ability to form sentences of any kind is misplaced. The man on top of her flooding her senses into overdrive, taking her beautiful working mind and putting it away for safekeeping, merely reducing her to a conduit for pleasure.

Black curls stick to his brow in coiling loops as he pulls their hips together repeatedly with ease. “Ah, that’s the look.” He comments appraisingly, taking in her blown pupils and glazed over stare.

“Let go, sweetheart. It’s okay, you can let go.” He encourages gently despite the unyielding force of how intensely he pounds into her, the room filled with the sound of their skin meeting. “Don’t you want to show me how you look when you cum?”

She sucks one good inhale in, her mouth fixing into an ‘O’ as her eyes fill with tears, but no sound leaves her lips as she comes undone.

Her hearing actually cuts out for a moment, the feeling wrecking through her is similar to a silent, steady rocking. An overwhelming blast of euphoria and serotonin assaulting her senses all at once.

And he fucks her through it, unable to contain his load as she convulses around his cock, squeezing him for all he was worth, down to the last drop.

Even as she comes back to herself, his hips are still moving, his eyes focusing down at where they met.

Without even having to look, Shae could feel it as he fucked his own cum from out of her. The man undoubtedly transfixed from the way their arousal mixed, the thought makes her walls clench around him and it’s only then that he looks up.

“Took me like a champ.” He praises, voice hoarse, leaning forward to pepper her cheeks with kisses. “You’re full of me.”

“Wanna stay like this.” Shae mumbles amidst the barrage of kisses, her voice barely there as she attempts to see through her tear matted lashes.

He smiles tenderly, kissing her on the lips again. “For as long as you’d like.”

“If you say that, I’ll have you end up moving in.” She answers, hooking her ankles at his back.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆

Shae wakes up the next morning thoroughly swaddled.

Steven was fitted along her back, pressed as close as he physically could be. The heat generated from his body rolled off of him in waves, though she appreciated it in the freezing climate of her air conditioned room.

Carefully, as one would fear disturbing a resting kitten— she extends an arm from underneath the covers, reaching for her phone that lay abandoned on the nightstand. Picking up the device with the maximum amount of delicacy.

The screen flashes on and she squints at the brightness, the time reading 10:16AM. Her shift wouldn’t start until 2PM, but she figured that getting the shower out of the way early couldn’t hurt.

She makes it six inches away before the hand around her waist tightens and she’s pulled right back to where she started, her back pressed flush against Steven’s chest.

“What time is it?” He asks groggily, nuzzling his face into her neck, his curls tickling her ear and cheek.

“Quarter past ten.” She replies with a sigh, twisting in his arms to face him.

He’s all messy hair and eyes closed as if he was still half asleep— he simply hums in response. Half in answer, half due to the hand she brings up to his chin, massaging the pad of her thumb over the more than present stubble growing in.

“Need to shave. I’ve been putting it off.” Steven mumbles despite the fact she hadn’t actually commented on it.

“I should get you one of those mechanical trimmers. Y’know the ones that spin? They get close but don’t completely get rid of the hair. I think it looks nice on you.”

“Aw, love. You don’t have to buy that for me.”

“Never said I was gonna buy it. I said I was gonna get one for you.” She corrects with a grin. “Could probably take one off of Jake’s hands. He seems like the type to have a bunch of different ones for no reason.”

“So you plan to steal it?” He asks, cracking an eye open amusedly.

“Um, I think the term is ‘redistributing wealth.’ It’s not like he’ll miss it, or anything.”

“Uh-huh. Or anything.” He smiles softly, unconvinced but doting as he leans in to pepper kisses at her cheek and neck. “Call it what you will, Robin Hood. You’re talking about committing premeditated petty theft.”

“You’ll never convict! You have no proof!” She laughs as he presses his lips to her face, pulling her closer to him just because he could.

Shying away from his wet kisses, her fingers drift up into his hair. Carding through his curls, her knuckles catch on a few strands, unintentionally tugging with enough firmness that he releases a low groan.

The sound insights butterflies, exciting her more than she thinks it should.

“Pull it again?” He asks and her brows crease at the request.

“Your hair, honey?”

“Yeah.” He answers with a nod.

Holding his gaze, she slowly closes her hand into a fist, scooping a clump of his hair into it. Experimentally, she tugs again, watching as his lips part.

“Do you… like that?” She asks quietly, in awe of him, which seemed to be quickly becoming a regular occurrence for her. There was always something new about Steven that left her reeling.

Leaning in, she presses a kiss against his lips before moving to sit up on her knees in bed. “Gotta get ready, baby” and yet again he stops her, hands grabbing her hips.

“Steven.” She laughs as he guides her to straddle him, lazily massaging her legs and waist.

“Just once...” He says a tad shyly and it's only then that she notices he’s urging her hips forward still, applying pressure to her lower half to get her where he wants. “Just once, love. And then you can get ready. Please?”

The implication leaves her stunned as she allows him to coax her forward until her knees were on either side of his head, her core mere inches away from his face as he eyed her rather greedily for someone who’d woken up only moments prior.

“I don’t wanna hurt you.” She mumbles distractedly, catching the way his tongue darts out to wet his lips.

“You won’t, I’ve got you.” He reassures, guiding her heat the rest of the way to his mouth.

“Steven—“

He wraps his lips around her clit immediately, lathering up the bud lovingly with his tongue in such a way that has her hands darting forward to grab onto the headboard for support.

It takes a moment for her to relax into the feeling of his mouth attached to her, the tip of his nose planted against her mound as his hands coax her into a bucking rhythm.

Though she could only see a small fraction of his face, she thinks he looks nice like this, with his pupils dilated and cheeks gaining a slight flush to them.

He gives her bundle of nerves an overwhelming amount of attention. Dutifully maintaining eye contact with her as he stops sucking, instead fanning out his tongue into a wide strip once he notices she no longer needs his help rutting into his mouth.

Her mouth parts, eyes beginning to sting with the beginnings of tears as the pleasure only seems to mount. Removing her hands from gripping the headboard— her right hand reaches behind herself, for one of Steven’s resting on the swell of her ass. Entwining her fingers with his, her left hand finds purchase in his unruly hair as she slides against his wet tongue.

steven—

Steven releases muffled groans at the way she pulls and tugs at him as she chases her climax. His mouth and chin thoroughly soaked with her arousal, stray droplets rolling down his jaw, leaving him drenched in her and there’s no other way he’d prefer it.

He looks up at her teary eyes, parted lips and spiraling curls curtaining the sides of her face— and his chest swells with unyielding affection and pride.

He was the one who got her this wound up. He was the one pleasuring her, loving her. That was something that brought him great satisfaction.

As she comes, her hips still but he keeps the same pace, working her through it with firm licks until she’s curling into herself and actively pulling away from his mouth.

Her breathing is ragged, cheeks flushed and limbs temporarily uncoordinated. He plants one final kiss on the inside of her thigh before helping her slide back down his form just enough so that he could sit up against the pillows.

Shae nuzzles into his chest the first chance she gets, cupping his shoulders and neck before the palm of her right hand comes up to wipe at his lips and chin. He allows her fuss over him momentarily, eyes trained on her every move, fully enamored.

He takes her chin between his right thumb and index finger, quietly bringing her mouth to his.

Her lashes flutter open when he pulls away slowly, her head tilting downwards, attention shifting to look at where she sat in his lap.

His cock twitches against the restraints of his boxers, hardened and throbbing as a patch of wetness gradually grows where the head lay.

“Can I?” Shae asks, looking up at him shyly. He nods in answer, watching as she pulls his underwear down just enough that his length springs free, slapping against his stomach.

Head falling back against the pillows propping him up, he releases an airy sigh when her hand wraps around him. Tentative and curious fingers gripping at his shaft to pull back his foreskin, smearing a new bead of precum along the reddened cap with the pad of her thumb.

“You don’t have to do anyth-,” He abruptly trails off, distracted by the way she presses his length against her puffy folds, wetting him with the warm mixture of saliva and arousal slick between her legs.

Shae moans when the tip of his cock briefly catches against her entrance. The prospect of having him inside her again, even after such a small window of time, appears to excite her as her breathing quickens.

“Would it be okay to…” She asks, occupied with the feeling of teasing her hole with the head of his cock. Steven groans at the way she clenches around nothing, seeming so desperate to be stretched open again.

“I’ll give you anything you want, Niyah. Anything.” He confesses, chest rising and falling in great heaves he was attempting to calm, wanting to let her know that he’d be fine even if she didn’t go all the way. She, however, accepts that as a means to continue, releasing a seemingly pleased sigh as she lowers down onto him.

Steven bites harshly into his lower lip, brows knitting and hands hovering hesitantly at her hips as she sinks further down. It became increasingly hard for him to form comprehensive thoughts when she squeezed and pulsated around him so desperately.

A gush of arousal slides along his length, and he just manages to hold in an almost pained wail, his muscles straining from this ultimate display of restraint. There was still a good three inches to go but he focused on his breathing, purposefully ignoring the urge to pull her down onto him the remaining distance that licked at his heels.

He allows her to set the pace that worked for her, her thighs tensing as she rides him, settling more into a wanton grind than moving in an up-and-down motion.

Her hands wander, from his chest, to his face, to the headboard behind him— unable to settle in one spot for long.

“Is this alright?” She asks breathlessly.

“Perfect.” He nods, dark curls beginning to stick to his forehead. “You’re a dream. Still not too sure you’re real.” He says, kissing her cheeks wherever he feels so inclined. The affection makes her whine.

“Nev—” Her words momentarily interrupted when the head of his cock nudges her walls at just the right angle. “Never done this before. ‘Ts my first time.”

“You’ve never ridden anyone before?” He asks stunned, eyes widening as she shakes her head, more arousal flooding his shaft.

“This is my first time, wanna make sure I’m doing it right.”

And perhaps he could’ve taken this information better, but Steven’s brain short circuits, and he’s unable to stop himself from wrapping his left arm around her shoulders.

With his cock still inside of her, he flips her down onto her back so that she’s tucked into his left side as he begins thrusting feverishly.

“Wanted to ride you more.” She indignantly protests amidst the moans he fucks out of her, her brows attempting to furrow unhappily. Although he watches as the euphoria appears to prevail and her face becomes racked with undeniable pleasure.

Left arm cradling her shoulders, he presses her knees to her chest by wrapping his right arm around the backs of her thighs, effectively locking her into a fetal position as he fucks her.

“I know you did, love. You were doing so good too. This cunt is so good for me, only fucked it twice now and it’s opening up for me so nicely.” He begins to ramble as the sounds of his bare hips meeting hers fill the room alongside her cries.

“You’re such a good girl letting me fuck you like this instead of getting ready for work. Didn’t you want to get dressed a moment ago? Want me to stop, sweetheart?” He asks with no real intention to follow through with it, fully enjoying the way she begins clinging to him desperately at even the thought of separating from him now.

“Want you, Steven! Wanna cum!” Shae speaks through warbled breaths, it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to speak from how fast he was slamming into her in this bent position. Her whole form getting rocked in his arms as he worked her onto him— pussy now sloppy, wet and wholly malleable for him to do as he pleased with.

“You’re already soaking me, are you gonna wet it more? Fuc-, I can feel you gripping me everytime I pull out.” He continues, pressing kisses into her hairline. “You can do it. C’mon, give it to me, Niyah. Cum for me, lovely girl.”

Her orgasm seems to hit her all at once, eyes screwing tightly shut as he works her through it with firm thrusts and a soothing voice rumbling near her ear. “That’s it, that’s it. So good for me. So good, let it all out, love.”

He doesn’t think she realizes that she’s squirting, too thoroughly wrapped up her climax to register the waves of arousal that shoot out of her in turrets. “Feels good, doesn’t it? Squeezing me so tight... Want more, don’t you?” He pants heavily, looking over her face. The pleasure had washed out her features, leaving only his beautiful, needy girl behind.

His thrusts don’t halt, instead slowing into a lazy jerk of his hips as he feels his limit approaching as well, sitting on just the horizon for him.

“Gon-“ His breath hitches. “Gonna cum, where do you want it?” He asks as she presses kisses against his lips and chin, missing the mark a few times.

“In, hah- Inside. Want it inside.” And he moans. His lips smearing against her cheek, their foreheads touching as he holds her to him desperately, his hips beginning to pick up speed again. Fully chasing his finish now with reckless abandon.

“Favorite, favorite girl.” He mumbles borderline deliriously, rambling needily again. “Gonna have you full of me… Fuc- fuck. You’d look so pretty with a swollen tummy. Don’t wanna even pull out when I’m done, wanna keep you under me. You’d like that wouldn’t you, love?”

Shae whines at the prospect, holding onto him as the only stable thing available to her. Walls clenching around him one final time before he’s spilling into her, sheathing himself fully as he fills her til he’s empty. Hips stuttering when he’s done.

“I should get a plug for you.” He mumbles, eyes closed and face buried in her neck. “Have you going to work with me still inside of you, no one would know but us.”

“Steven.. fuck.” Her fingers find their way back into his hair.

“You like that idea, don’t you? Can feel you squeezing me everytime I mention it.”

“I like it…” She admits demurely, eying the ceiling. “It’s just that it’s a little embarrassing.”

“That you like being full of me?” He asks, lifting his head to look at her.

She clenches again.

“Steven-nnn.”

And he smiles. “Nothing embarrassing about that, love. ‘Ts just me.” His fingers tracing her hips lightly.

“If it was up to you, I bet I’d end up pregnant by next month.” She huffs with a laugh, bringing her hands to her face. And although it’s starting to soften, his cock gives a faint jump, just noticeable in her sensitive state.

She freezes, peeking through her fingers at him. He offers only a bashful smile.

“I know it’s a bit soon,” he starts.

“A bit, yeah.”

“But I can’t lie that I’m into it. It’s just a thought though.”

Shae purses her lips, biting the inside of her cheek. “Maybe… eventually.”

“Yeah?” He asks, eyes widening a bit. Hopeful. “You think so?”

“Yeah.”

[timelessamritsar]

Gursimran Kaur, Delhi

Catalogue for Art Expo-Amritsar Summer 2023

(15 june - 30 aug) | Curated by: Vulcan Art Gallery | 📍Timeless Amritsar,8, Queens'Road, Amritsar

Artist Statement

Born & brought up in Delhi, Gursimran Kaur is a self taught artist & an art educator, commonly known by her art name - That Colourful Vibe.

She truly believes that art has some supernatural powers to heal us. It’s a meditative process through which one can manifest, heal, let go & affirm everything in his/her life.

She chooses her subjects from life itself, only to layer them with a spiritual essence. She believes that one can create art using anything & everything and her forte is Mainly Abstractionism. Thus, Her art takes you through a journey of inquisitiveness .There are many stories untold and many songs unheard same is the case with her art, it connects immediately to find the unknown.

-gursimran kaur

Naari Shakti

Mixed Media

2’x3’

₹11,000/-

Women supporting women. The Naari Shakti. Today’s strong women are the ones you see building one another up instead of tearing each other down. There’s no competition now. It’s just pure love, passion & support. The artwork is a mixed media abstract work which has Naari written in The National language “Hindi” to showcase the belief that this concept is not just worldly famous, it is something now Indian women are doing too. When women are supported by fellow women, there’s this sense of security & Confidence that lifts them up. This is what I want to portray. It is an abstract artwork which can also portray different narratives.

Resilience

Mixed media

2’ x 2’

₹10,000/-

This painting depicts the elasticity of a person, the capacity to recover from any difficult situation and being flexible to change their course of life as per life. Thus, through different shapes (form & illusionary) it portrays the process and outcome of successfully adapting to such situation. The color effect used also give the power to stand themselves in these situations. It’s an abstract artwork which can be displayed in any manner and can have different outlooks.

Brahmastra

Mixed media & acrylic

2' x 2'

₹7,000/-

Through the colors & patterns of this artwork, we want to portray The fire astra - The Most powerful weapon. The divine beauty is portrayed through the colors used. This is an abstract artwork which can displayed in a variety of manner & is open to different outlooks.

Aurora

Acrylic

2’x3’

₹10,000/-

This is an abstract artwork which has a play of textures, colors & patterns. It is created on the concept of how dawn looks like in the parallel universe. Radiant, powerful, alluring & bright. The colors used in this stand for power, devotion, manifestation, glory, freedom & love. The silver lining portrays that it’s always darkest before the dawn but then light occurs. Same happens with life. This artwork is completely abstract & can be displayed in a variety of ways.

Qayamat

Mixed media & Acrylic

2’ x 3’

₹11,000/-

This artwork portrays today’s Girl power. How confident, fearless, Brave & strong she is. The way she handles all zones of her life with ease & smartness. The different textures and colors represent her moods. Thus, Qayamat is all busy conquering the world & is never going to look Back. This is an abstract surrealism and is open to different outlooks.

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