#uhhh this style is GORGEOUS

[kideternity]

My not really being a visual novel guy versus my desire to play through digimon survive at least twice so that I can become mega ultra besties with Ryo

[ningvory]

good girl — kim chaewon

g!p meangirl!chaewon x f!reader

CW: college au, the fimmies are sick perverts, public humiliation, lowkey kdrama bullying, readers a virgin and a loner, choking, blackmailing, dubcon, reader wears glasses, pussy eating, slight pussy slapping, recording, degration, dumbification, backshots, sorta public sex, voyerism

wc —> 3.1k

nabi’s messages: GUESS WHO’S OUTTA WRITERS BLOCK!? WE CHEERED!! finally on summer break so hopefully i’ll be writing more frequently 🤞🤞 uhhh also not fully proofread but when is it ever proofread!?

you hated her.

kim chaewon, the rich, gorgeous, athletically and academically talented, and of course she’s drop dead gorgeous. everyone either wanted to be her or be with her.

whenever she’d roam the halls with her clique; sakura, yunjin, and kazuha people would stare in awe but as well as fear. after all, she is the school’s bully, a wolf in sheep’s clothing you may say.

and you were her favorite target.

you, were unfortunately chaewon’s favorite person to torment ever since the first year of college. you were easily an easy target to pick on by her. your style was apparently too old and not up to date with what’s the style now and your glasses were just entirely too big for your face.

so of course you stuck out to chaewon. it was so shocking that it was basically like comedy to her that you even got in a place like this, in a crowd full of the rich. she’d mock you to her friends and it brought her to tears from how long she laughed at you cluelessly trying to figure out where your classes were. she couldn’t wait to make you her plaything in more ways than one.

the bell rang for lunchtime to start. something that you really didn’t enjoy due to the loudness of the area.

you tried finding a empty table, just so you can sit down and enjoy your meal and luckily, you found one and you sat down about 4 seats down from a group of girls

you felt eyes on you, turning your head to see who it was, meeting the eyes of a girl with short blonde hair who had a undeniable look of disgust on her face.

“who told you to sit at our table?” she scoffed, before looking you up and down. you looked at her confused, its a table? a school lunch table at that, who was she to tell you that you couldn’t sit at the table?

you rolled your eyes and ignored her, tending to your food. you kept taking bites of your food, going to unlock your phone as you heard loud giggles from besides you.

“did you hear me, bitch? who told you to sit at this table?” she smirked, snatching your phone out of your hand, making your attention go to her, trying to get your phone back.

in a swift motion, you snatched your phone out of her hands, “the fuck is wrong with you? the table is for anyone to sit at, bitch.” you remarked, giving her a judgmental look.

her smirk was completely whipped off, “are you seriously talking to me like that? you’ve got some guts, little girl.” her lips curled up into a cocky smile before she stood up and pulled your hair with a harsh grip, pulling you off the chair before she shoved you, making you loose balance and fall to the hard floor of the cafeteria. the goosebumps began to rise on your uncovered legs and arms from the coldness of the floor.

“ow— a-are you fucking crazy!?” you screamed at her, caressing the spot of hair which she pulled on, making everyone’s attention fall on you and her.

she snickered at you, looking down at you like you were some dog before she grabbed your bottle full of milk and crouched down to your height.

“tsk. next time watch who you talk to, dummy.” she speaks with that tone full of disgust and grabs your chin to look at her.

a sinister smile appears on her face watching how your face was laced with fear before she poured the milk on your head. completely soaking your body with the cold liquid, your hair that took you hours to do was ruined, your face was soak in it, your glasses had spots of milk on it, and your white uniform top was soaked and exposed your bra under your top.

all eyes were on you. you heard the sound of cameras clicking and people laughing and murmuring with their friends about how pathetic you looked shaking and drenched with milk. until chaewon arose and gave a stare that shut everyone up and divert their attention away from you.

that was the first ever encounter and was definitely not the last, especially since the teachers were so pathetically helpless. but even if they tried, she could bribe her way out of any situation she’d be put in, or she could blackmail the teachers if they ever thought about stopping her, she had everyone’s secrets.

after the first situation, it just got worse for you. it seemed like everywhere you went she was right there, it was like she was obsessed with breaking you down to nothing but her personal pet. from forcing you to do her homework or else she’d physically assault you until you complied, to dragging you out of your lesson without a care in the world to force you to get on your knees while she used your mouth to get off.

you’re currently in your junior year of college still being tormented by chaewon and her clique, you learned now that they go by ‘the fimmies’ — sometimes you liked to joke and called them ‘the dummies’ due to the fact that they force you and others to do their homework. like seriously, you can’t do the work yourself? eventually the pain they’ve inflicted on you for the past two years, you’ve grown used to it, not having the energy to fight her back as much as you did before. you’ve been given the name by the students, ‘chaewon’s feisty bitch’ or ‘the fimmies’ pet’ and everyone knows you for that, not your actual name.

now you were currently in the garden of the school, doing your homework. the only place you felt safe from chaewon and her harassment, that was until the devil herself appeared infront of you.

“yah..” she said relatively relaxed and soft, alarmingly soft. which made your blood run cold, but you ignored her, continuing to try and focus on your work.

“yah! i know you hear me, look at me.” she said, gripping onto your jaw and jerking your head to her direction.

“ow—what is it now?” you wince at her grip on your jaw, looking at her in her eyes.

“be a good girl and do my homework, since you like doing homework so much. it’s past school hours, why the fuck are you still here?” she questioned, bringing your face closer to hers.

you could ask her the same thing, it’s not like she’s in any sports or afterschool activities.

“you don’t have to be so aggressive about it..” you whine. the following silence was odd, especially when it’s chaewon, the usual bitch who makes a big deal about literally anything.

nothing was heard but the few birds chirping and the cars driving by.

“follow me.” she said completely monotones with a unreadable expression on her face, she let go of your face, letting you put your stuff in your bag, surprisingly. before she’s dragging you along to wherever she’s taking you.

—

she pushed you into a classroom, professor kim’s classroom to be exact, your favorite professor. your eyes widened with horror when you saw her usual clique in the room, laughing at your expression.

“what’s wrong, ynnie? not happy to see us?” sakura, the eldest out of the clique asked. before sadistically smiling at you, which made you shiver.

“let’s play a game, ‘kay?” chaewon walked to you, making you walk backwards, trying to get away from her, but soon your body comes in contact with the wall, causing her to grin.

soon her lips are come in contact with yours, cupping your face and hungrily making out with you. you were caught completely off guard, giving her easy access to slip her tongue in your mouth to fully make out with you. it was sudden and she’d never make out with you, what changed now?

she pulled away when she felt herself become breathless, you opened your eyes and caught your breath. desperately trying to catch her breath, “here" she tossed the keys behind her back. "lock the door."

the color was drained from your face when you let those words set in. “hey! w-what—what do you—”

your sentence was cut off when your neck was gripped so tight it left you speechless. your hands instantly went to claw at her hands on your neck, trying to get her to ease up.

she brought her mouth to your ear, “the game is simple. it’s called, ‘how to be a good girl’ it’s only one simple rule, do everything i tell you to do without fighting back and it’ll be easier for you, ‘kay?” she brought her head to its original position, using more force on your neck.

you nodded your head letting out a chocked out, “alright” before she finally let go of your neck. making you gasp out, gasping for air once more.

her friends were highly amused, each of them had a sinister smile on their faces before cracking up in laughs. kazuha even pulled her phone out, which made you look at her, silently pleading for her to put the phone away.

“kazuha—please d-don’t record—” you go to say, tears threatening to fall from your eyes, your reputation was at risk and she knowing her, she didn’t care.

the girl in question, kazuha, scoffed before giggling, “relax ynnie. if you're a good girl and listen to us, i promise i wont post it anywhere.

you could only trust her words, but you already knew they were 9 times out of 10, a bunch of lies, to calm you down.

“now strip, puppy.” chaewon added, lips curling up into a grin, pushing you in the center of the room.

you hesitated, looking at all of their faces that were laced with anticipation to see you strip. what sick perverts.

“tsk—you’re already breaking the one rule, strip.” she repeated herself, sternly looking at you.

you scrambled to unbottom your uniform top, in front of you, meeting chaewon’s eyes which earned a smile from her.

her clique, began to cheer and clap when you unclasped your bra, revealing your plush tits. they’ve never been this invested in you before, their cocks we’re starting to harden under their skirts at the sight. you were vulnerable to her close friends, none of them had never seen your body under your clothes.

you moved down to your skirt, sliding it down your plush thighs, before standing in the the pool of your clothes.

“good girl.” she praised, “now, bend over professor kim’s desk.” she smiled at you.

she was sick for this, but you were terrified so you complied. you shamefully walked over to the desk, walking past kazuha who gave your ass a light slap, making you flinch in shock.

you kept you head down, too embarrassed to look up. you heard the sound of walking, walking closer to you and feeling kazuha’s camera on you.

you saw hands slide a sheet in front of you, it was chaewon’s homework and a pencil right beside it.

you felt a hand carefully caress your ass, flinching slightly from the sudden movement. “complete my homework, and don’t you dare move.” chaewon ordered.

you nodded, picking up the pencil and writing down the answers. it went smoothly for a few minutes, only feeling her presence behind you which made you worry. there was always a catch with her, what was she was going to do to you?

it was like you said it out loud. you soon felt her hands slide your panties down, feeling her breath blow on your cunt, shivering at the sensation.

kazuha immediately brought her camera closer to your face, caring all the expressions and noises you made when chaewon would blow on your cunt. yunjin, immediately brought her camera to get a good side angle of what chaewon was doing under the desk.

chaewon couldn’t resist it anymore, her mouth watering at the sight of your pretty cunt on display for her. “fuck it” she whispered before her tongues jutted out of her mouth, and into your tight hole, gathering your juices on her tongue before drinking it down. you whined at the sensation, squirming under her tight grip on your legs almost giving out on you.

when she started, she really couldn’t stop. she immediately got addicted to your sweet pussy on her tongue, it drove her crazy and craving for more. she began sucking on your clit, letting go with a loud pop which had you covering your mouth, trying to conceal your loud squeals and moans.

“don’t cover your mouth, we wanna hear you, puppy.” sakura moaned, you didn’t even realize she pulled her cock out and started jerking off to the sight right in front of her.

kazuha moved your hand, unmuffling your cute noises. the camera caught the sign on your eyes threatening to roll back, hands shaking, still trying to finish her assignment.

yunjin caught the glimpse of chaewon behind you on her knees, griping on your legs that are threatening to give out while she’s basically making out with your spit covered cunt. yunjin couldn’t believe that her leader was getting pussy drunk but she wasn’t complaining, you were honestly a cute girl with a pretty body. she’ll get a taste of your cunt one day.

you tried your best to not move under her touch like what she ordered you too, but your body was so weak from her mouth on your cunt, you were squirming under her hold.

she pulled away and landed a slap to your puffy cunny that makes you scream and jolt from impact. “hgnnn—chae-chaewon—” you tried turning your head to look at her but kazuha quickly grabs your jaw, and brings it to look at her.

“fuck..don’t look at me like that pretty. focus on the assignment or else she’s stopping again, alright?”kazuha softly speaks to you, earning a whine from you.

chaewon dived back in to your fat cunt, slurping up all that your cunt gave her before tongue fucking your cunt. giving your ass a slap when she feels your body shake under her. she speeds up when she hears your pretty and erotic moans. she’s suddenly pushing your body to the desk, shaking her head in your cunt which had your moans becoming high pitched.

“hey baby, ynnie~ look here—cmon.” kazuha’s camera was shamelessly in front of your face, she makes you look in the camera’s lenses before she’s pushing her fingers in her mouth, which you sucked on almost immediately. you’re brain was scattered that you wouldn’t care less about the camera, eyes rolling back, making kazuha groan.

“does chaewon’s tongue feel good, tell me.” she adds on, pulling her fingers out of your mouth.

“chaewon—chaewonie~ please—please let me cum—i’ll be your good—hngg— i’ll be your good girl!!” her friends are amused by your words and how her tongue had reduced you to a obedient slut.

finally, she had you right where she wanted you. a crying obedient mess, what she wanted everytime you have the nerve to talk back to her.

“please!! m s-sorry for bein a bitch—oh fuck! g-gonna— nghh—cumming—cumming!” you babbled incoherently. she nuzzled her tongue into your sweet hole, bringing her fingers to rub your clit which had you cumming all over her face, body shaking, eyes rolling back, and tongue lolling out for her friends and the camera to see. your legs were like jelly and the only thing keeping you up was her grip on your legs and the desk holding you up.

she cleaned your sweet cum up, drinking up all you gave her before standing up. to unbutton her pants, her boner was bulging out of them, painfully.

her hands groped your ass cheek, giving it a hard spank, ripping a moan out of your chest from the impact.

“stupid slut, you think i’m done? you said you’re gonna be my good girl right? that’s exactly what you’ll do.” she smirked, pulling her boxers down before she’s pushing her cock inside. “fuck! you’re a fucking virgin?” she grunted, watching you struggle to take her thick cock in your cunt.

she didn’t even let you get adjusted, tears falling out your eyes from the feeling of your cunt getting stretched out.

chaewon had you just where she wanted you. bare ass on display and watching it juggle when she pushed herself into your cunt, whining at the feeling of your tight cunt squeezing her cock deliciously good.

she leaved toward, her tits pressing against your bare back, she found a pace that had you moaning uncontrollably, she rested her chin on your shoulder, looking at your fucked out face. her lips tugged into a grin, “ynnie, who’s pussy does this belong to?” she asked, loving the way you’ve been brought to a crying mess by her alone.

“y-yours! only—nghhh— only yours!” you babble out, you’re so fucked out you can’t even comprehend what your saying.

“yea? this sweet lil pussy is all mine? mine to use and play with whenever i want?” she grins, looking at the camera infront of her, speeding her thrusts up, ripping out high pitched squeals and moans.

“as much as i love your pretty little moans, you’re so loud, do you wanna get caught?” she covered your mouth, muffling your moans.

her friends were obsessed with the way you were to whiny, if you were like this all the time…fuck. they would’ve fucked you a long time ago.

“fuck! g-good fucking girl—gonna take my cum right? gonna cum inside this pussy and y-you’re gonna take it!” chaewon moaned, thrust growing sloppy, unclamping her hand that was once on your mouth before loudly moaning, shooting her load inside your cunt.

when you felt her cum shoot inside your cunt, your eyes began to roll once again, back arching into her thrust before your body shakes, your mouth open to let out a silent moan before cumming all over her cock still inside you.

you couldn’t even register when one of her friends pushed her cock in your mouth until your glossy eyes met hers.

sakura, if you were in the right sense of mind you would’ve immediately tried to get her away from you, but you let her use your mouth until she shot her loat in your mouth.

“swallow it, puppy.” she whimpered, petting your messy hair.

she finally pulled out of your mouth, letting you catch your breath from your intense fucking session.

you whined when chaewon finally pulled out of your cum filled cum, leaving your hole agape until she pushes a dildo inside your cunt.

“keep this inside of you and don’t let nothing spill.” she threatens softly, was this the same chaewon you knew? she’s slipping your clothes back on along with hers. maybe under that mean girl facade of hers she was an ok person.

whys she telling yunjin to pick you up and bring her to your car, where was she taking you? you wish you knew but the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion took over your body, putting you in a deep slumber.

[nikoco11]

hii, first of all your art is absolutely gorgeous and you are so talented 💞!! i was just wondering if you had any advice on how you draw curly and textured hair? no worries if you don’t have the time to answer this!!

hi thank you!!! sorry this took me forever HAHA i wanted to put together a coherent detailed thing but realized i uhhh honestly don’t think that hard abt it when i draw

i tend to just plan out the hair parting n hairline

and then i just simplify n stylize curls by only drawing the front half of the curl? like this ^^ i like drawing them in an implied sort of style

rest of advice i’d give is to just observe how real hair sits (ie looser curls being more visible from further away n coming off as bigger etc etc) n how other artists draw hair !

[eyrieofsynapses]

why Aurora's art is genius

It's break for me, and I've been meaning to sit down and read the Aurora webcomic (https://comicaurora.com/, @comicaurora on Tumblr) for quite a bit. So I did that over the last few days.

And… y'know. I can't actually say "I should've read this earlier," because otherwise I would've been up at 2:30-3am when I had responsibilities in the morning and I couldn't have properly enjoyed it, but. Holy shit guys THIS COMIC.

I intended to just do a generalized "hello this is all the things I love about this story," and I wrote a paragraph or two about art style. …and then another. And another. And I realized I needed to actually reference things so I would stop being too vague. I was reading the comic on my tablet or phone, because I wanted to stay curled up in my chair, but I type at a big monitor and so I saw more details… aaaaaand it turned into its own giant-ass post.

SO. Enjoy a few thousand words of me nerding out about this insanely cool art style and how fucking gorgeous this comic is? (There are screenshots, I promise it isn't just a wall of text.) In my defense, I just spent two semesters in graphic design classes focusing on the Adobe Suite, so… I get to be a nerd about pretty things…???

All positive feedback btw! No downers here. <3

---

I cannot emphasize enough how much I love the beautiful, simple stylistic method of drawing characters and figures. It is absolutely stunning and effortless and utterly graceful—it is so hard to capture the sheer beauty and fluidity of the human form in such a fashion. Even a simple outline of a character feels dynamic! It's gorgeous!

Though I do have a love-hate relationship with this, because my artistic side looks at that lovely simplicity, goes "I CAN DO THAT!" and then I sit down and go to the paper and realize that no, in fact, I cannot do that yet, because that simplicity is born of a hell of a lot of practice and understanding of bodies and actually is really hard to do. It's a very developed style that only looks simple because the artist knows what they're doing. The human body is hard to pull off, and this comic does so beautifully and makes it look effortless.

Also: line weight line weight line weight. It's especially important in simplified shapes and figures like this, and hoo boy is it used excellently. It's especially apparent the newer the pages get—I love watching that improvement over time—but with simpler figures and lines, you get nice light lines to emphasize both smaller details, like in the draping of clothing and the curls of hair—which, hello, yes—and thicker lines to emphasize bigger and more important details and silhouettes. It's the sort of thing that's essential to most illustrations, but I wanted to make a note of it because it's so vital to this art style.

THE USE OF LAYER BLENDING MODES OH MY GODS. (...uhhh, apologies to the people who don't know what that means, it's a digital art program thing? This article explains it for beginners.)

Bear with me, I just finished my second Photoshop course, I spent months and months working on projects with this shit so I see the genius use of Screen and/or its siblings (of which there are many—if I say "Screen" here, assume I mean the entire umbrella of Screen blending modes and possibly Overlay) and go nuts, but seriously it's so clever and also fucking gorgeous:

Firstly: the use of screened-on sound effect words over an action? A "CRACK" written over a branch and then put on Screen in glowy green so that it's subtle enough that it doesn't disrupt the visual flow, but still sticks out enough to make itself heard? Little "scritches" that are transparent where they're laid on without outlines to emphasize the sound without disrupting the underlying image? FUCK YES. I haven't seen this done literally anywhere else—granted, I haven't read a massive amount of comics, but I've read enough—and it is so clever and I adore it. Examples:

Secondly: The beautiful lighting effects. The curling leaves, all the magic, the various glowing eyes, the fog, the way it's all so vividly colored but doesn't burn your eyeballs out—a balance that's way harder to achieve than you'd think—and the soft glows around them, eeeee it's so pretty so pretty SO PRETTY. Not sure if some of these are Outer/Inner Glow/Shadow layer effects or if it's entirely hand-drawn, but major kudos either way; I can see the beautiful use of blending modes and I SALUTE YOUR GENIUS.

I keep looking at some of this stuff and go "is that a layer effect or is it done by hand?" Because you can make some similar things with the Satin layer effect in Photoshop (I don't know if other programs have this? I'm gonna have to find out since I won't have access to PS for much longer ;-;) that resembles some of the swirly inner bits on some of the lit effects, but I'm not sure if it is that or not. Or you could mask over textures? There's... many ways to do it.

If done by hand: oh my gods the patience, how. If done with layer effects: really clever work that knows how to stop said effects from looking wonky, because ugh those things get temperamental. If done with a layer of texture that's been masked over: very, very good masking work. No matter the method, pretty shimmers and swirly bits inside the bigger pretty swirls!

Next: The way color contrast is used! I will never be over the glowy green-on-black Primordial Life vibes when Alinua gets dropped into that… unconscious space?? with Life, for example, and the sharp contrast of vines and crack and branches and leaves against pitch black is just visually stunning. The way the roots sink into the ground and the three-dimensional sensation of it is particularly badass here:

Friggin. How does this imply depth like that. HOW. IT'S SO FREAKING COOL.

A huge point here is also color language and use! Everybody has their own particular shade, generally matching their eyes, magic, and personality, and I adore how this is used to make it clear who's talking or who's doing an action. That was especially apparent to me with Dainix and Falst in the caves—their colors are both fairly warm, but quite distinct, and I love how this clarifies who's doing what in panels with a lot of action from both of them. There is a particular bit that stuck out to me, so I dug up the panels (see this page and the following one https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-30/):

(Gods it looks even prettier now that I put it against a plain background. Also, appreciation to Falst for managing a bridal-carry midair, damn.)

The way that their colors MERGE here! And the immense attention to detail in doing so—Dainix is higher up than Falst is in the first panel, so Dainix's orange fades into Falst's orange at the base. The next panel has gold up top and orange on bottom; we can't really tell in that panel where each of them are, but that's carried over to the next panel—

—where we now see that Falst's position is raised above Dainix's due to the way he's carrying him. (Points for continuity!) And, of course, we see the little "huffs" flowing from orange to yellow over their heads (where Dainix's head is higher than Falst's) to merge the sound of their breathing, which is absurdly clever because it emphasizes to the viewer how we hear two sets of huffing overlaying each other, not one. Absolutely brilliant.

(A few other notes of appreciation to that panel: beautiful glows around them, the sparks, the jagged silhouette of the spider legs, the lovely colors that have no right to make the area around a spider corpse that pretty, the excellent texturing on the cave walls plus perspective, the way Falst's movements imply Dainix's hefty weight, the natural posing of the characters, their on-point expressions that convey exactly how fuckin terrifying everything is right now, the slight glows to their eyes, and also they're just handsome boys <3)

Next up: Rain!!!! So well done! It's subtle enough that it never ever disrupts the impact of the focal point, but evident enough you can tell! And more importantly: THE MIST OFF THE CHARACTERS. Rain does this irl, it has that little vapor that comes off you and makes that little misty effect that plays with lighting, it's so cool-looking and here it's used to such pretty effect!

One of the panel captions says something about it blurring out all the injuries on the characters but like THAT AIN'T TOO BIG OF A PROBLEM when it gets across the environmental vibes, and also that'd be how it would look in real life too so like… outside viewer's angle is the same as the characters', mostly? my point is: that's the environment!!! that's the vibes, that's the feel! It gets it across and it does so in the most pretty way possible!

And another thing re: rain, the use of it to establish perspective, particularly in panels like this—

—where we can tell we're looking down at Tynan due to the perspective on the rain and where it's pointing. Excellent. (Also, kudos for looking down and emphasizing how Tynan's losing his advantage—lovely use of visual storytelling.)

Additionally, the misting here:

We see it most heavily in the leftmost panel, where it's quite foggy as you would expect in a rainstorm, especially in an environment with a lot of heat, but it's also lightly powdered on in the following two panels and tends to follow light sources, which makes complete sense given how light bounces off particles in the air.

A major point of strength in these too is a thorough understanding of lighting, like rim lighting, the various hues and shades, and an intricate understanding of how light bounces off surfaces even when they're in shadow (we'll see a faint glow in spots where characters are half in shadow, but that's how it would work in real life, because of how light bounces around).

Bringing some of these points together: the fluidity of the lines in magic, and the way simple glowing lines are used to emphasize motion and the magic itself, is deeply clever. I'm basically pulling at random from panels and there's definitely even better examples, but here's one (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-16-33/):

First panel, listed in numbers because these build on each other:

The tension of the lines in Tess's magic here. This works on a couple levels: first, the way she's holding her fists, as if she's pulling a rope taut.

The way there's one primary line, emphasizing the rope feeling, accompanied by smaller ones.

The additional lines starbursting around her hands, to indicate the energy crackling in her hands and how she's doing a good bit more than just holding it. (That combined with the fists suggests some tension to the magic, too.) Also the variations in brightness, a feature you'll find in actual lightning. :D Additional kudos for how the lightning sparks and breaks off the metal of the sword.

A handful of miscellaneous notes on the second panel:

The reflection of the flames in Erin's typically dark blue eyes (which bears a remarkable resemblance to Dainix, incidentally—almost a thematic sort of parallel given Erin's using the same magic Dainix specializes in?)

The flowing of fabric in the wind and associated variation in the lineart

The way Erin's tattoos interact with the fire he's pulling to his hand

The way the rain overlays some of the fainter areas of fire (attention! to! detail! hell yeah!)

I could go on. I won't because this is a lot of writing already.

Third panel gets paragraphs, not bullets:

Erin's giant-ass "FWOOM" of fire there, and the way the outline of the word is puffy-edged and gradated to feel almost three-dimensional, plus once again using Screen or a variation on it so that the stars show up in the background. All this against that stunning plume of fire, which ripples and sparks so gorgeously, and the ending "om" of the onomatopoeia is emphasized incredibly brightly against that, adding to the punch of it and making the plume feel even brighter.

Also, once again, rain helping establish perspective, especially in how it's very angular in the left side of the panel and then slowly becomes more like a point to the right to indicate it's falling directly down on the viewer. Add in the bright, beautiful glow effects, fainter but no less important black lines beneath them to emphasize the sky and smoke and the like, and the stunningly beautiful lighting and gradated glows surrounding Erin plus the lightning jagging up at him from below, and you get one hell of an impactful panel right there. (And there is definitely more in there I could break down, this is just a lot already.)

And in general: The colors in this? Incredible. The blues and purples and oranges and golds compliment so well, and it's all so rich.

Like, seriously, just throughout the whole comic, the use of gradients, blending modes, color balance and hues, all the things, all the things, it makes for the most beautiful effects and glows and such a rich environment. There's a very distinct style to this comic in its simplified backgrounds (which I recognize are done partly because it's way easier and also backgrounds are so time-consuming dear gods but lemme say this) and vivid, smoothly drawn characters; the simplicity lets them come to the front and gives room for those beautiful, richly saturated focal points, letting the stylized designs of the magic and characters shine. The use of distinct silhouettes is insanely good. Honestly, complex backgrounds might run the risk of making everything too visually busy in this case. It's just, augh, so GORGEOUS.

Another bit, take a look at this page (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-15-28/):

It's not quite as evident here as it is in the next page, but this one does some other fun things so I'm grabbing it. Points:

Once again, using different colors to represent different character actions. The "WHAM" of Kendal hitting the ground is caused by Dainix's force, so it's orange (and kudos for doubling the word over to add a shake effect). But we see blue layered underneath, which could be an environmental choice, but might also be because it's Kendal, whose color is blue.

And speaking off, take a look at the right-most panel on top, where Kendal grabs the spear: his motion is, again, illustrated in bright blue, versus the atmospheric screened-on orange lines that point toward him around the whole panel (I'm sure these have a name, I think they might be more of a manga thing though and the only experience I have in manga is reading a bit of Fullmetal Alchemist). Those lines emphasize the weight of the spear being shoved at him, and their color tells us Dainix is responsible for it.

One of my all-time favorite effects in this comic is the way cracks manifest across Dainix's body to represent when he starts to lose control; it is utterly gorgeous and wonderfully thematic. These are more evident in the page before and after this one, but you get a decent idea here. I love the way they glow softly, the way the fire juuuust flickers through at the start and then becomes more evident over time, and the cracks feel so realistic, like his skin is made of pottery. Additional points for how fire begins to creep into his hair.

A small detail that's generally consistent across the comic, but which I want to make note of here because you can see it pretty well: Kendal's eyes glow about the same as the jewel in his sword, mirroring his connection to said sword and calling back to how the jewel became Vash's eye temporarily and thus was once Kendal's eye. You can always see this connection (though there might be some spots where this also changes in a symbolic manner; I went through it quickly on the first time around, so I'll pay more attention when I inevitably reread this), where Kendal's always got that little shine of blue in his eyes the same as the jewel. It's a beautiful visual parallel that encourages the reader to subconsciously link them together, especially since the lines used to illustrate character movements typically mirror their eye color. It's an extension of Kendal.

Did I mention how ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL the colors in this are?

Also, the mythological/legend-type scenes are illustrated in familiar style often used for that type of story, a simple and heavily symbolic two-dimensional cave-painting-like look. They are absolutely beautiful on many levels, employing simple, lovely gradients, slightly rougher and thicker lineart that is nonetheless smoothly beautiful, and working with clear silhouettes (a major strength of this art style, but also a strength in the comic overall). But in particular, I wanted to call attention to a particular thing (see this page https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-12-4/):

The flowing symbolic lineart surrounding each character. This is actually quite consistent across characters—see also Life's typical lines and how they curl:

What's particularly interesting here is how these symbols are often similar, but not the same. Vash's lines are always smooth, clean curls, often playing off each other and echoing one another like ripples in a pond. You'd think they'd look too similar to Life's—but they don't. Life's curl like vines, and they remain connected; where one curve might echo another but exist entirely detached from each other in Vash's, Life's lines still remain wound together, because vines are continuous and don't float around. :P

Tahraim's are less continuous, often breaking up with significantly smaller bits and pieces floating around like—of course—sparks, and come to sharper points. These are also constants: we see the vines repeated over and over in Alinua's dreams of Life, and the echoing ripples of Vash are consistent wherever we encounter him. Kendal's dream of the ghost citizens of the city of Vash in the last few chapters is filled with these rippling, echoing patterns, to beautiful effect (https://comicaurora.com/aurora/1-20-14/):

They ripple and spiral, often in long, sinuous curves, with smooth elegance. It reminds me a great deal of images of space and sine waves and the like. This establishes a definite feel to these different characters and their magic. And the thing is, that's not something that had to be done—the colors are good at emphasizing who's who. But it was done, and it adds a whole other dimension to the story. Whenever you're in a deity's domain, you know whose it is no matter the color.

Regarding that shape language, I wanted to make another note, too—Vash is sometimes described as chaotic and doing what he likes, which is interesting to me, because smooth, elegant curves and the color blue aren't generally associated with chaos. So while Vash might behave like that on the surface, I'm guessing he's got a lot more going on underneath; he's probably much more intentional in his actions than you'd think at a glance, and he is certainly quite caring with his city. The other thing is that this suits Kendal perfectly. He's a paragon character; he is kind, virtuous, and self-sacrificing, and often we see him aiming to calm others and keep them safe. Blue is such a good color for him. There is… probably more to this, but I'm not deep enough in yet to say.

And here's the thing: I'm only scratching the surface. There is so much more here I'm not covering (color palettes! outfits! character design! environment! the deities! so much more!) and a lot more I can't cover, because I don't have the experience; this is me as a hobbyist artist who happened to take a couple design classes because I wanted to. The art style to this comic is so clever and creative and beautiful, though, I just had to go off about it. <3

...brownie points for getting all the way down here? Have a cookie.

[clowns0up-felix]

I was here once asking about the Reversal of Fates au and I'm back again!

But uhhh, could you do a EoW Zelda!! I'm really excited for the new game! (if you're not to busy of course😅) I love your art so much and your Skyward Sword Zelda and content is so pretty!! Also I stan with you Groozelink fan🙋‍♀️ :D <3

Fanart for you <3

Inspo from your Zelda design in my style since yours is to pretty to be butchered by me :) alsoooo CONFETTI FOR YOU!!!! You beautiful person :D

God that drawing of Zelda is so gorgeous,,,, I’m honored you used my design as inspo 🧡🧡 and thanks for the confetti yipeeee haha !!!

Here’s some eow Zelda (and Link),,, I’ve been working on trying to make a cute design for her and this is where I’m at rn (still basically the canon one i knowww)

[delulu-with-wandanat]

International Affair

Welcome to my shameless self-insert series🤭 Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Last

Reader Description: Masculine style, They/He, AFAB, International Student, 20 Years Old. Sometimes will be describe using masculine terms (man, boy, handsome, etc)

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff x InternationalStudent!Reader

Warnings: Specified age gap (Wanda is 34).

Summary: For their summer break, Y/n decided to spend it in a little town called Westview. It was there when they met Wanda Maximoff. A woman in her 30s with two kids, who seems to be attracted to the college student despite being married.

New York University's tuition was fucking ass. It really is, at a whopping $64,000 tuition fee per year. And that's only the tuition fee, the total estimate of studying in NYU plus living cost was probably over $90,000. Exactly it's fucking insane. Despite receiving a sponsorship from their parent's good friend and also financial aid from NYU, he still needed to figure out how to pay it back.

Sometimes they feel like smacking their head for choosing to study in a city where it's known for its back bank breaking living cost. Can you blame him though? Those tall buildings, shining lights, bustling nightlife, sounds of gunshots, and a huge opportunity for a creative person such as themselves, along with a dash of capitalism. Y/n couldn't help but be fascinated. That American dream that he had been chasing since he saw the Devil Wears Prada.

It was now summer vacation. Instead of going home for the summer, Y/n decided to join this Homeshare Summer program. Basically an elderly person provides home for students to share during the summer. The benefits are plenty, but most notably, cheaper housing rent. His roommates also joined this program, together they sublease their apartment. Adding extra funds to their breaking bank account.

In return, the students must help their elderly host with basic domestic needs. Mostly light household tasks; preparing and sharing meals, tidying up, chores, walking a pet, etc.

Y/n ended up matching with someone in a small town called Westview somewhere in New Jersey. As much as he loves New York, he wanted to spend his summer somewhere else in America.

He matched with a lovely widow named Melina Vostokoff. He learned that she has 2 daughters, both whom are adults with their own respective career. She needed a companion, understandably so, and Y/n was more than happy to assist her in anyway she might need.

"Y/n." Melina called.

"Yes, Mrs. Vostokoff?" Y/n looked up from their laptop, they were sitting on the dinner table editing some footage.

"Oh dear, please, I told you to call me Melina."

"Sorry, Melina. Force of habit." He said with a smile. "What's up?"

"Would you please send all this batches of cookies around the neighborhood? I already have a list of houses on where you can drop them." Melina is known for sharing batches of cookies for free around the neighborhood. Why? Out of kindness.

And also the fact that she loves baking, but ended up not being able to finish it all. So she shares them around the neighborhood.

"Sure, Melina! I'll do that right away."

So he sets of to drop off delicious dessert for Westview citizens. Melina had told them that this was a good chance to ask around for a summer job as well. Which is what he had initially planned to do anyway. Finally they reached the last house, Maximoff Household. They weren't so lucky with the other neighbors, but last one's a charm right? He rang the doorbell.

A person then opens the door. "Hello, I was just-" Holyfucking shit. This woman was absolutely gorgeous.

"May I help you?" She ask, god her voice is sexy.

"Uhhh..." Snap out of it! "Sorry! I'm Y/n, I'm the student staying over the summer at Mrs. Vostokoff. She told me to drop off her Bi-Weekly batches of cookies."

Wanda wasn't stupid, she noticed their nervousness and found it adorable. "Lovely to meet you, Y/n. I'm Wanda, Wanda Maximoff." She offered her hand.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mrs. Maximoff." He shook her hand.

"Do you go to Westview University?" She was rather intrigued by the younger one.

"No, ma'am. I actually go to NYU, I'm studying film production."

Wanda raised an eyebrow and smiled. "How impressive. Though I must ask, why choose to spend your summer here?"

Damn... her smile.

"Mainly a much cheaper living cost, other than that I figured It'll be good for me to explore other parts of America. New Jersey is not far so it's a good place to start."

"Ah, an International student I see. Is it one of those Homeshare programs?"

"It is!" The student beamed.

What a charming smile he has, Wanda thought to herself. "Say, how old are you, Y/n." She ask while leaning against the door frame, her tone was... rather flirty.

"Um... I'll be turning 21 this year." Wanda hummed at the answer. For what reason Y/n doesn't know either. "Here are your cookies, ma'am." Well shit, he was getting nervous again. Obviously, Wanda staring at him with a look he can't quite pin.

"Oh! Thank you, dear. My sons absolutely love Melina's cookies." She took the container from them.

"Well that's no surprise, I could live off from those cookies alone." They said while laughing lightly. "So I take it you've lived here for a while?"

"Yes, I've lived here for years with my twin boys and husband." Damn it, they thought. "Anything you would like to know?"

"Yes actually! I've been looking for a summer job, but I haven’t had any luck."

"Well, lucky for you, a friend of mine who owns the Cafe in town is looking for a new Barista. She just recently opened the position."

"That's great news! Thank you so much for letting me know, Mrs. Maximoff." They said with a smile, Wanda had another idea in mind.

"However, I think they're only offering part-time. If you're looking for some extra work, I may need a few... help around the house. Would you be interested?" She asked with a devilish smile.

Y/n, being too excited at the possibility of finally landing a job, failed to notice the flirty undertone in Wanda's sentence. "Absolutely!"

"Splendid! Come over to my house tomorrow and we'll discuss the details."

"I will see you tomorrow, Mrs. Maximoff. Thank you again!" The young man said with a bright smile, he started walking backwards onto the sidewalk.

"See you tomorrow, Y/n." Once they turned their backs on her, Wanda bit her lip. She had multiple things in mind for Y/n to help her with.

I did a quick research on the law of international students working in the US. I didn't get into detail but it basically said yes but there are restrictions. So ignore the actual laws, and y'know just - whatever man it's a fanfic :') When I saw the estimated cost of studying in NYU i almost cried-

Also I hope you guys don’t mind I go with a more masculine reader for this one (i really want to be called a good boy by Wanda)

I hope the reader description doesn’t confuse you guys, if it does. Its ok, i self inserted myself and im very confused abt my gender-

[bunniekittiee]

Could you do headcanons for Syzoth and Raiden with a fem!reader who’s in a band?

Pairings: Syzoth x Fem. Reader | Raiden x Fem. Reader

A/N: Of course! I’ll do a fem! reader in a glam metal band. I hope you don’t mind that! I thought it would be a little interesting to go that route, especially with how the glam metal look can be dramatic. Also this is my first time writing for Syzoth so I hope he isn’t too ooc. And these are super long so I apologize, I was setting up the entire backstory to it!!

Summary: Reader is in a band. Syzoth and Raiden have never heard of the genre “glam metal”. When going to one of her shows, they fall in love with her and want something more with her.

(Y/N is used once)

Syzoth-

Johnny had convinced him to go out with him and Kenshi to a small show on Sunset Blvd.

Syzoth did not know the significance of this place, nor did he care. He was not an Earthrealmer. And he was worried the Earthrealmers would catch on and see that he is not human.

Johnny told him to loosen up and have fun. He knew who was playing at the concert as they were good friends. She got them the tickets actually.

Syzoth was a little claustrophobic with the amount of people in the building. He had almost lost Johnny and Kenshi a few times.

He did get a little annoyed when someone stepped on his feet and people were pushing past him.

It just made him want to eat the next person alive who ticked him off.

But after some time, the lights began to dim and the music started to play.

Now, Syzoth was not familiar with much music, let alone Earthrealm music. So this was all new to him.

The guitars blared, the drums were booming, and the singer was belting out notes like crazy.

The crowd was going wild, loudly screaming and singing along as they continued to play.

From what Syzoth could understand as Johnny yelled at him, the guitarist was the one who gave him the tickets.

He studied her from afar, watching her headbang and play her guitar like it was second nature. Her hair was teased up in a hairstyle that Syzoth had not seen before.

It was quite poofy and long. The band’s style was also different than what he has seen before. She was wearing lots of leather with ripped garments.

To top it all off, she wore makeup to accentuate her features and give her what Syzoth guessed went along with the style of the band.

Quite frankly, he thought she was absolutely beautiful. She was different. She was her own character. And Syzoth liked that about her.

After about an hour and a half, the show had concluded, but the men’s night was not. Johnny snuck them backstage, knocking on her door.

She opened it, grinning at the actor. “Johnny! It’s nice to see you!” She hugged him and let them inside, looking at the new faces.

“This is Kenshi,” Johnny motioned to the ex-Yakuza member. “And this is Syzoth.”

“Nice to meet you both, I’m Y/N!” She replied. She looked at the Zaterran. “I like your name. I think it’s pretty cool.”

“Thank you.” He responded with a small smile. “As yours is as well.”

She tilted her head slightly at his style of speaking, but Johnny quickly distracted her by complimenting the show and asking more questions.

Meanwhile, Syzoth was able to get a better look at her. She had a nose piercing in silver/gold. Her eye makeup was green (teehee), and she was gorgeous.

Deep in thought, he did not realize that they were all staring at him.

“Uhhh, what’s going on?” He asked with a confused look on his face.

“I asked about your tattoos.” She motioned to his face. “Did it hurt badly around your eye?”

He shook his head and explained that it wasn’t painful. She complimented his tattoo, saying how it was really interesting how it went down the rest of his body.

He thought it was sweet. She was sweet. He wanted to get to know her more. But their time was up together, and they had to leave.

Returning back to Outworld, Syzoth could not get her out of his mind. She haunted him every single day. He wanted to see her again.

Johnny noticed the changes in his friend and asked him what was going on. Syzoth opened up and spilled his feelings about her.

Johnny grinned. “How about I set you two up on a date? She’s been talking about you too, Sy.”

Feeling relieved yet accomplished, Syzoth agreed to going on a date with her. Although he could not stomach human food, he could try to. Just for her.

When the date came, Johnny made sure they were together before he left to do whatever he had planned. He winked at Syzoth before leaving.

Her look was a little toned down. It was not as dramatic as the day of her show, but she still has her own character.

They decided to go to a small cafe where not many people went. She liked the quiet as she told Syzoth this. As much as she was surrounded by loudness, she truly liked the quiet.

At the cafe, they ordered coffee and small pastries. Syzoth felt his anxiety rise a bit as he realized he would have to force down his croissant.

But while waiting, he was so enamored by her. She talked about her band, playing guitar, her interests, and even asked Syzoth about how he liked the genre and what his favorite music was.

But truth be told, the lizard did not have a favorite genre. He was a little lame when it came to music. So he fumbled over his words telling her this.

Eventually, their snacks were ready, and Syzoth felt himself sweat as he stared at his croissant. It was revolting. But he needed to look normal. He had already got the tea down (which he was used to having), so the croissant couldn’t be too bad, right?

Wrong, he was suffering. Eat bite he took was hell. He had asked her the history of glam metal to which she was talking about a few bands that he could hear through his intense nausea. Motley Crue, Hanoi Rocks, Skid Row, Cinderella, Dokken, and something about a White Snake had caught Syzoth’s attention.

As she was explaining George Lynch’s twelfth fret discovery, Syzoth felt his stomach lurch. He tried to play it off, but his pallid skin and almost green cheeks seemed to give it away.

“Are you okay, Sy?” She asked him, concerned for his health. “You look really sick.”

“I am… just fine.” He replied with a faint smile. “You were saying about the twelfth fret?”

“Sy, let’s get you to the bathroom.” She said as she got up. She grabbed his wrist and led him to the bathroom. They had a few looks shot at them, but Syzoth did not even realize it.

He tried to keep it to himself as he did not want to expose to this lovely woman that he just met that he was not human. But Zaterran bile was never too nice to porcelain toilets.

She realized that there was something off when his bile was a bright green color and was steaming. But she wasn’t scared.

She gently rubbed his back as he threw up, his body rejecting the human food very quickly. He could not last well.

After cleaning up and realizing that there was no way to fix the now melting toilet, they decided to leave and get fresh air at the park.

It was a silent walk as both of them were unsure of what to say. But when they sat down on a park bench, she turned to him.

“I know it’s none of my business, but Sy, what are you? Your puke melted a porcelain toilet. Humans can’t do that.” She looked concerned for him.

He wanted to tell her the truth. But it was difficult. He sat there quietly, his eyes darting around.

“Please tell me the truth. I want to know.” She pleaded.

He explained to her that he was not of this realm. He told her about the different realms and how he was from Outworld. He was Zaterran, meaning he was a reptile. The human form was something that he was gifted but shunned for.

She listened intently, nodding her head here and there to show that she was listening. She looked at him with wide eyes.

After he was finished, he waited for her to call him a freak. To yell at him. To tell him to never come around her again.

Yet she did not. She reached out to grab his hand. “Syzoth, this date has been really good. And I don’t care what you are. To me, you are perfect.”

His heart warmed up. How sweet of you. He could almost kiss you. But not with that bile mouth of his.

She suggested an idea to improve their date and for Syzoth to feel uncomfortable. And he was fully on board.

“So, what’s a Petsmart?” He asked her as they arrived. She told him they sold bugs that he could snack on if he would like. This perked him up.

After buying 35 large crickets and a container of mealworms, the Zaterran was set. On the way to her house, she bought herself a burger and some fries with a milkshake.

They had a pleasant, yet better date at her home as they watched TV together and ate. She tried not to look at the bugs as he munched on them.

He felt his condition improve. Although the natural ones tasted better, these sufficed for the time being.

After the first date went wrong yet got better, her and Syzoth kept in touch. They both liked each other a lot, and he visited as often as possible.

Eventually, they announced they were together. Johnny asked for kudos but they rolled their eyes at him.

He may be a little butt hurt.

When she has a show going on, he comes to every single one. But this time, he isn’t in the crowd, he’s standing on the side of the stage.

He has a better view of her and doesn’t have to worry about the tons of people surrounding him. Johnny and Kenshi will sometimes tag along as well.

Before most shows, he watches her get ready and she will match her makeup to his outfit usually. Which is mainly green. And she also started to incorporate more green into her style.

Syzoth becomes very familiar with glam metal bands and eventually has his favorites. He also picks the music in the car as well. She is happy to see that he enjoys it and caught on to it quickly.

She introduced him into a different lifestyle that was opposite of his in Outworld.

She had visited Outworld a few times, and it was extremely different to say the least.

Sometimes she got weird stares and glances, but it wasn’t all too bad. It was just foreign to her.

Syzoth is grateful that Johnny had dragged him to the show that one fateful day. His life changed for the best.

Raiden-

Extremely similar to Syzoth, Raiden meets her at one of her shows that Johnny had him tag along to.

Raiden is not a fan of rock music. So this is a little torturous to him. But he’s not saying a word about it.

He’s too nice for that.

After being bumped into by sweaty people and pushed around, Raiden wants to go home.

But his eyes catch someone onstage.

Johnny had explained to them that the guitarist had given them the tickets. She was good friends with him.

Her hair was teased to the maximum extent, her clothes were ripped and skin-tight, her makeup was a little heavy with dark liners and blue eyeshadow, but she was beautiful.

Her bandmates looked a little similar to how she was dressed, so Raiden assumed it was the style that went with the music.

After the show, Johnny led them backstage where many greeted him. Guess his fame got them in.

Reaching her door, he knocked. When she opened it, she smiled at the actor. “Johnny! It’s great to see you.” She hugged him, and she waved at the men behind Johnny.

Up close, Raiden had a better view of her. She was beautiful. He tried not to stare for too long as to not seem creepy, but she truly was gorgeous.

Even though he wasn’t a fan of the music, he really liked her style. It was something new he had never seen before.

Johnny introduced them to her, and as soon as her and Raiden made eye contact, it was almost as if electricity had run up his back.

Kung Lao noticed his friend straightening up as if he was hit by a bolt of lightning and side eyed him.

She introduced herself to them. Johnny invited her to dine-in with them to which she agreed. She was always with her bandmates. She needed a break.

Shooing them out, she changed out of her show attire into something a little more comfortable. She still had the same look, but it was much more comfortable to her.

Sometimes, the clothes made her feel itchy and a little weird.

She quickly touched up her makeup and poofed her up one more time before returning to the boys. They waited patiently.

Raiden fell more in love with her.

Johnny decided on going out for burgers. He said he knew one of the best places that was near them.

But Raiden was hardly listening to him rave about the food. He was deep in his thoughts and glancing at her.

She noticed this but she stayed silent. Maybe he had never seen a glam metal artist before?

Plus, he was really cute.

They arrived to the burger joint and ordered their food, sitting down together afterwards. She sat next to Raiden and Kung Lao.

Johnny talked her ear off about glam metal and the music, making her giggle at his word vomit. He could go on for hours.

After a little bit, their food was ready. She was starving. And so was Kung Lao who inhaled his food like a human vacuum.

Raiden ate slowly. He wanted to talk to her, but he felt a little nervous. She was so pretty. So different. But he was just your average Mortal Kombat Champion.

He was the Champion. It didn’t dawn on him until now. How could he forget that important part of him?

Raiden eventually mustered up the courage to speak to her. He asked her more about the music. Her band productions. The questions that most people didn’t ask.

While she was distracted, Johnny winked at Raiden.

After eating their meals, they decided to go their separate ways. But not before she boldly kissed Raiden on the cheek as she bid them farewell. Johnny hooted at them.

Raiden was in awe. His entire body was in shock after she had kissed his cheek. It was all he thought about.

Everyday at training after the show, Raiden about the kiss. Her wonderful personality. Her kind demeanor. He wanted to see her again.

Yet, he was so busy it was hard to find the time.

Eventually, Johnny had came up to him and suggested that he and her go on a date. When Raiden found the time.

And Fate worked well, Raiden ended up with a free day. And he immediately told Johnny to set them up on a date.

When they met up again, Raiden was again, in awe. He remembered her beauty, but she looked even more beautiful than the last time he had seen her.

“Wow… you look amazing.” Raiden told her with his eyes slightly wide. She giggled and thanked him for his compliment, telling him he looked good as well.

They decided to go to the zoo! What better way to spend a day? Besides, she had been wanting to go for a while now. But she didn’t want to drag her bandmates along.

Her and Raiden carefully looked at each exhibit, pointing out the animals and commenting on how cute they were or interesting they looked.

Sometimes he would glance at her and admire her beauty. The way her eyebrows would scrunch, the way her mouth would curve into a smile, the way her eyes were shining bright.

Was he the only one who noticed these tiny details?

Raiden mustered up the courage to hold her hand, to which she held back and he just about combusted on the spot. He was really shy.

They entered the gift shop where Raiden bought her a cheetah stuffed animal. She hugged it close to her and thanked him for it. He wanted to make her happy and remember this special day.

After spending most of their afternoon at the zoo, they decided to eat at a lowkey place that was not full of people. The zoo was a little busy, and they wanted a break from the crowds.

“It’s something you can never really get used to.” She told him as they sat down. “Even I’m not used to it. And you’ve seen the venues I play in!”

They talk about music, and Raiden admits that he isn’t a fan of rock, but he would give it a try. She chuckled. “Maybe I can convince you.”

Raiden listens intently as she talks about many different bands that he had never heard of. Some had very interesting names.

He asks his own questions here and there. Mainly about playing guitar and how long she’s been playing. He’s interested in what she does and what she likes.

Eventually, their conversation had progressed for so long, it was night. Raiden took her home, but not before he kissed her on the cheek. “To repay you back.” He told her with a smile. She smiled back, a blush forming on her cheeks.

They developed into a relationship fast. And although the genre had clashed with Raiden’s presentation, he truly didn’t mind it.

She was the most important person to him. He would never let it bother him.

He liked all of her outfits that she went out in or went to shows in. They were all different from each other. And he would watch her put on her makeup and do her hair.

Sometimes he helped her tease her hair up or spray the hairspray in it.

She wore blue eyeshadow a lot more to intertwine Raiden into her glam life.

Although Raiden doesn’t enjoy the genre a lot, he will sit and listen to the music with her in the car or whenever she’s playing music.

Sometimes he will sing along, he’s just memorized the lyrics. And they will repeat in his head at the worst of times, especially when he’s training.

It’s not easy trying to do a takedown when you hear “in my dreams, it’s still the same” and a screeching guitar solo.

Raiden made sure to go to most of her concerts, but sometimes he could not make it at all. It made him sad when he couldn’t. He loved to watch her play.

Seeing her in her element was a favorite of his. He got to see what she loved doing most.

She did visit the Wu Shi Academy a few times. She did in fact shock the trainees a little bit with her bold style, but Raiden always made sure no one looked at her the wrong way or made fun of her.

He almost electrocuted Kung Lao when he decided to make a comment about Liu Kang running a part-time brothel.

Liu Kang was not amused either, and he rolled his eyes.

But she thought it was hilarious.

[l3viat8an]

HWAAAAHHH HEY ROOOOO ♡

A not so quick thought I've been dying to shareeeee ahhhhh

Omg- so yk how Mc has that long table in their room??? Imagine setting up a craft station each week for the boys to do a lil craft.

Beel, Asmo, Dia, Simeon and Luke are super excited for crafting. Barbie, Mamms and Levi are excited too even if they won't admit it. But Luci, Satan and Belphie need a little bit of convincing. They're not children! But after your first successful chaotic crafting session they start to like it.

𖥸 Luci is surprisingly artistic. Even if it seems silly, this little crafting session is very relaxing and it gives him time to bond with his brothers. He likes to follow the model closely first before experimenting a little bit with his technique and style

𖥸 Mamms + Levi are trying to 1 up each other the whole time. They will hate on each other's projects and will fight over supplies. Mammon will swipe the scissors from Levi mid-cut even though there are 5 other pairs currently not being used. Then Levi will try to get them back and a fight will break out. Mc has to use "stay" before Levi summons Lotan.

𖥸 Satan bbg I'm so sorry. He will make something beautiful that he's proud of but it will get ruined. He'll just be putting the finishing touches on his craft when Levi and Mammon's fight will cause something to ruin it. A paint cup got knocked over and now there's paint water soaking his hard work. Or the glitter got spilled and now there's sparkly bits clinging to the undried glue. Mc is gonna have to use "stay" again to keep him from wringing his older brothers' necks.

𖥸 Asmo's crafts can be described in one word. Shiny. He's using all the glitter, gold leaf and sequins available to him. He especially likes those gold and silver detailing pens. But don't mistake sparkly for tacky because even if his crafts are sparkly they are still tasteful.

𖥸 Beel + Belphie will make adorable little projects but Beel will try to eat the supplies duh. Please for the love of Dia get the nontoxic supplies. He can't help it though. That shade of pink looks just like a poison strawberry tart and the colors Simeon mixed look exactly like Madam Scream's Macarons! He just wants a little taste. Belphie will be busy trying to stop him from drinking paint. If he keeps a few extra snacks on hand then it will keep Beel at bay.

𖥸 Diavolo is just absolutely enamored by all the cool crafts. Like woah you made that little scarecrow!? And you made a pom pom pumpkin? He's so excited to try out all the crafts and is that one weirdo that is absolutely covered in 8 different colors of paint somehow even though he only used white.

𖥸 Barbatos will also create the most gorgeous crafts. Like excuse me sir, you're telling me you made that out of construction paper, pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks???? There ain't no way. 100% the chillest crafter at the table but he will snap Mammon and Levi's necks if any of the mishaps of their fight ruins his project.

𖥸 Simeon and Luke will probably work together on a craft. Like Asmo's projects, Simeon and Luke will add lots of pastel colors and shiny bits to their project mostly in the form of gold flakes or those metalic paint pens.

𖥸 Solomons crafts are similar to his cooking. They never end up being what was intended. Like today we're making kites and - Uhhh Solomon made an abstract Mona Lisa with construction paper shapes?? Alright then... You do you man

HIIII CHERRY!!! Omgg okay- this is all so cute <3 finally giving that silly table a good use too jsjsjsj besides homework 💀

Lucifer being good at everything doesn’t even surprise me anymore- but he’s genuinely very into it and it’s nice to see him try to relax and do something with his brother that’s just for fun!!!

Mammon + Levi- I wouldn’t expect anything else honestly- those two can’t stop for five minutes and they almost ruin it for everyone. (Until MC calms them down and fixes everything) also the fact Levi’s better at traditional drawing them Mammon is probably another reason they fight hskshsj

Poor Satan. Tho depending on how annoying Levi & Mams have been it might be fine to let Satan smack them up a bit- jkjk bad idea ik- MC needs to help him calm down and maybe start a new project together? (That’ll at least perk Satan up and piss off Levi ‘n Mammon which again will make Satan feel better :))

The first thing Asmo used was a pick glitter gel pen and his artwork is absolutely gorgeous~ (definitely something super shiny!!! but still gorgeous and he’s careful to stay at the other end of the table away from Levi and Mammon helpsjsj)

All the supplies have to be non-toxic and absolutely no one can try drawing or making anything resembling food- Also just imagine Belphie taking the paint water away from Beel and putting it by his drink….so a little later sleepyhead accidentally drink some instead lolol also anything Belphie actually makes looks like it’s out of a horror movie while Beel’s is just…abstract :)

Diavolo’s feels like a callout as the kid who was always covered in paint but he’s so happy with his little somewhat lumpy pompom and little painting!! Just look at his sweet smile!!!

Barbatos doesn’t even need to threaten Mammon or Levi- they take one look his way and see that smile and know they better knock it off and behave- also how??? Sir it’s gorgeous but how??? Hell he probably made a fully functioning little model of MC XD

Simeon and Luke are adorable as always!! It’s definitely something sweet, yet a little more simple, but still very cute! The shiny bits are perfect and they definitely made it with the intention of gifting it to MC when they’re done <3

Solomon……Solomon wtf why?….you could’ve drawn a stick man and it would’ve been better that…uhhh that- But he’s happy!! Also very, very proud of it and when you ask what it’s supposed to be he looks a little offended-

[sabh0]

uhhh hey can you call off your fanbase they’ve been groveling at my feet for about half an hour asking for me to befriend you so uh. i think we should do that. so they’ll leave me alone. it’s not like…..i think your art is absolutely fucking gorgeous and your chuuya is sexy asf and i actually go insane when i see your work bc of the colors and the style and your animations add years to my lifespan and uh………………yeah. whatever. mutuals? i guess? if you want? i’m holding my hand out

HELLO IM SO SORRY FOR THE TROUBLE OH MY. THIS FEELS SO AWKWARD IDK WHAT MADE THEM 'ATTACK' U LIKE THIS 😭😭 guys y'all r getting a detention, no skk art for a month

EITHER WAY THANK U UMMM idk shakes ur hand while still crying bc i really have no idea what's happening and my mom is asking me if im okay

[the-sinful-voice-witch]

Eh... Ah... Iii... Eje... Jaja... Uhhh 😶😳🥵🤯🥴😍

IS SHE A VALKYRIE???!!!

Ok ok I'm fine, I'm ok I just... Ofuuuuu 😖😖WOW🥰 I just wanted to say how grateful I am that the Sonic games aren't following that unnecessarily covered to the neck and flat Sonic Prime's Rouge design and they are still loyal to her gorgeous sensual stunningly beautiful style and fashion sense!!!😍😍😍😍 Omg, way to make me a hard furro lesbian so suddenly, give my heart a break❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 🫠🫠🫠

[thewhumpcaretaker]

this is random and probably not worded the best but do you have any tips on writing men? I tend to struggle writing them.

This is such an interesting question because writing men is not really something that I think about. It comes more naturally to me than writing women (maybe because my own masculinity was left unexpressed for so long that I now just find it pouring out of me). But this gave me an opportunity to think about it.

I think my first piece of advice would be to not think about them as men at all, but instead think of their character traits, the way that you would when writing anyone. What do they desire? What is their biggest fear? How do they want other people to view them? What are their blind spots or weaknesses? That should be the starting point, the heart of the scene.

But there are some differences in attitude/expression, and I think they tend to arise around social expectations. Men are less likely to touch each other in public, for example (at least in contemporary American culture) because that's just not expected. So if you see a full-on hug or kiss or hand holding, especially if it's between two men, that's a bigger deal and it's likely to be a sign of either a confident person who doesn't care what others think, or a lot of emotion.

I also think that in general, shame is likely to be something that's a factor in the character's story. Men are shamed pretty much no matter what they do, just like women are - everybody is shamed under sexist social structures, just in different ways. They are expected to be providers, to be strong, to take action in any crisis, to hide their emotions. If they fail, they are shamed for "femininity". And yet if they succeed in these overt shows of power, they are feared, and are shamed for inspiring fear in others. Imagine the shame of passing a woman on the way home in the evening and seeing her cross the street to avoid you - the shame of knowing that just your body was enough to frighten someone. This is not at all to minimize what women experience in that situation (in many ways that's worse), but men feel something negative too, and their shame has a different nature to it. Now imagine that shame amplified to the extremes of a person who has actually killed others to try to maintain his image, and you get an idea of why I tend to write such self-loathing male characters in the John Wick universe (besides the fact that it's fun to write self-loathing and watch it turn to self-love...)

For the same reason, loneliness is a bigger factor. There's near-constant, competitive social performance going on for men, especially men in high-profile positions within organizations that have a lot of tradition, like the mafia stuff that I tend to write. So there's not a lot of room to be themselves and form deeper connections in that situation.

All of this adds up to mean that when a man experiences connection, whether it's mental or physical, it's such a relief, such a big deal. And if he cries in front of someone, it's like a distilled symbol of everything that men don't normally get to express. It's a taboo, and how the characters (including the one who's crying) respond to the tears says a lot about them. This is probably why I tend to write male tears as the climax (sexual or not) of a lot of my stories. It's this proving point - can someone step out of the social expectations set for them and accept this man as a person for his genuine emotions? Can he accept himself? If so, it's an incredibly satisfying victory.

Okay uhhh...after all of that heavy stuff, here's some superficial things to mention in descriptions and such:

Facial hair. Do they like or dislike shaving? Do they have some meaning behind the way they style it? If your characters are on the run or in captivity, it will grow out unless they have a shaving kit. Unless they don't have much facial hair to begin with. Not everyone can grow a beard.

The walk. Men walk so...so...uniquely. It's gorgeous. It's not stiff, but it's solid. "Swagger" and "saunter" and "strut" are good words. Just look at men walking sometime and try to describe it.

Sitting. Unbuttoning a single coat button to sit when wearing fancy clothing. Arranging their legs differently if they're a penis-haver. That thing men do when they rest one ankle on the other knee.

Aaaaaaaa I have a lot of feelings about men, if you couldn't tell. Anyway, I hope that helped! If anyone wants to chime in with other thoughts (especially people who were raised as men growing up, because I didn't have that experience), please let me know. I'm sure I missed a lot - this is just the first few things that came to mind.

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

Matchup for bg3! Please! 💜

She/they, bisexual

I have blueish-gray eyes with red hair that's in a side shave (like one side on my hair is shaved). I am chubby, I have tons of freckles except on my face. I like wearing emo style clothes or comfy clothes like hoodies and sweats. I hate dresses and shorts, I don't like showing off skin.

Likes: anything with drawing/painting, games including board games.

Dislikes: uhhh spiders, driving (I refuse to get a driver's license it's a huge fear of mine.) I'm not scared of being in a car just driving it.

Isfp-t, I am a cancer. People say I have rbf (resting bitch face). Though I am really nice to people, unless they mess with the people I care about then I couldn't care less about them. I try to be helpful when I can. When I am around people I know, I can be loud and talkative (the loud part isn't on purpose it's just when I'm happy or excited). I tend to put people a lot before myself. I don't really like talking about my personal issues to anyone and can be known as the therapy friend. It's the opposite though when I'm around people I don't know, I'll be quiet and not wanting to interact. I have adhd, depression and anxiety (wonderful I know). When I do get upset I don't talk and won't interact until I have calmed down. I do cuss a lot though I'm more careful when I'm around kids/people I don't know. If I have a fight with someone I prefer to sit and talk it out and hate it when they walk away from me when I'm just trying to talk to them.

If you need more info just message me! Thank you! 💜

A/N: You didn’t specify which gender result you’d prefer, but since you mentioned you’re bisexual, I included my top male and female picks below! I hope you enjoy!!!

For you, @veethewriter , I think you’d be a great match for either Halsin (Male) or Shadowheart (Female)!

ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ Halsin would be a great fit for you! He’s kind and very artistic himself. And while he enjoys woodwork the most, I think he’d appreciate an afternoon of drawing or painting with you outside in the grove. Many Wood Elves, like Halsin, have either red or brown-hued hair, so he’s used to seeing such a color on people. However, he swears no other elf can compare with how gorgeous your hair color is. And he finds your side shave particularly alluring. He also adores your figure. He is a big guy, he’s tall and very muscular, and can’t help but want to hold and pick you up and squish you (if you’d let him that is). Your supple shape reminds him of nature’s bountiful harvest.

And while he himself has absolutely no qualms about showing off his skin, he respects your desire not to. Not everyone is as comfortable free of the confines of clothing as he is, this he’s well aware of. He’s always on the lookout for organic, comfortable elven clothing he could gift you.

And the good thing about Faerun is the fact that there aren't any cars. If you want to go somewhere, you’ll need wheels, heels, or a spell of some sort. (Or if you’re lucky, a druid boyfriend who can transform into different rideable wild animals. Can you imagine, strolling up to town on the back of a big brown bear? No one would mess with you! lol)

I’m not 100% decided on Halsin’s MBTI. Part of me feels he’s introverted, then again, he’s very willing to meet and work to help others- strangers even, so long as they’re kind and help him in return. I do, however, feel pretty confident that he’s a Feeler as well, so you have one letter out of the four for sure in common. And the two of you are also very open-minded, which he loves. Halsin can’t see himself in a romantic relationship with someone if they were to be angry and close-minded. An on/off sexual relationship? Sure. But for him to have that deeper kind of love, you’d need to be tolerant- which you are!

I also imagine him to be a Taurus, which furthers how compatible he is with you- a cancer. You two are so in love, it’s almost spiritual, like a soulmate sort of connection. No matter how sad or moody (or emo as you said) you can get, his steady and stable temperament will help comfort you, and ground you in times of great emotion.

Halsin, as an archdruid, is kind of the “Dad friend” of the Grove and his Party. He’s the one people turn to for advice and mentorship. You being the therapy friend understand the toll this can take. You’re able to support each other and lavish each other with much-needed rest and recovery when the demands of everyone’s emotional sharing/dumping become too much to take.

Halsin is a very focused and rather positive person, which can be a direct contrast to you with your ADHD and depression. But that’s a really good thing because, for all the things you forget, he remembers. And for all the times your illness and life get you down, he’s right there to pick you back up, or even just ride it out with you until the feelings pass. His presence radiates calm- he’s like a walking talking security blanket. If you’re feeling anxious, you can grab his hand, or have him lay on top of you for some compression therapy (don’t worry, he’s supporting 95% of his weight himself so as to not accidentally crush you lol).

He appreciates how mindful you are around the little ones. It makes his heart flutter. And he can’t help but think what it would be like to be in a family of his own with you one day.

♥ ♡ ♥ Shadowheart is quiet and determined. She’s reserved, especially around strangers, and she puts on a good front, but deep down she’s a sweet girl with a traumatic past. She doesn’t like talking about it too much (that is of course, if she remembers it), but for some reason, she’s more okay sharing such things with you.

She’s not very extroverted or loud, but she can appreciate it when you are. Your joy is infectious, and it’s something she hasn’t felt in a while, so she wants to do everything in her power to make you happy because when you’re happy- she’s happy.

And oh boy does she need therapy! As the therapy friend, she greatly appreciates your ability to listen and not judge when she does talk about her past or her feelings. Being raised in a cult is complicated, and there’s A LOT to process there. It’s gonna take time, and thanks to your open-minded demeanor, she feels safe enough to do a fair amount of it with you.

As a cancer, you and Shadowheart are very compatible romantically as I see her as an Aquarius. Both of you are smart, and devoted, and have a lot of feelings. The main difference is in how those feelings come out. For you, it’s easier to emote than it is for her. But that’s good. When you’re too emotional, she’s ready to reel you back in. And when she’s being too cold, you can help pull her out of her shell.

Shadowheart also has a ‘resting bitch face’, but that doesn’t mean she’s judging everyone. Okay, maybe she’s judging everyone a little bit, but to be fair there are a lot of peculiar characters out there and one can never be too safe! The two of you rarely get any trouble from strangers because you are too tough to mess with. From your more emo style to her ‘dont-fuck-with-me’ attitude, absolutely no one’s gonna be crossing you!

Shadowheart herself probably has a slew of health concerns and mental illnesses that she has yet to address. I imagine, that once she comes to learn the truth of her past, she is at increased risk for anxiety and depression. So weirdly, it’s almost a blessing her partner knows what it’s like living with these things. Your experience shows her that life can and does go on. And she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her with anyone other than you.

[lost-in-reveriie]

OMG IM SORRY FOR REQUESTING MORE THINGS BUT I JUST SAW THIS AND IT SEEMS SO FUN 😭

★ fluorescent adolescent- you describe yourself and ill give you a charcter you remind me of!

okayyy uhhh so im short, i have long brown hair with shorter front pieces (literally just outgrown curtain bangs lol), brown-green eyes (they look mostly brown u can see the green only in sun), my style is mainly 2000s inspired and i mostly wear dark green, dark blue, black, dark red, baby pink and white, i LOVE flared jeans and leather jackets, i also love listening to music if thats something that describes me haha, im very shy irl but i love meeting people (even tho my social battery runs out quite fast), im quiet but when u get to know me i will talk your ear off lmaoo im sorry, im smart but burned out but still trying to be on top of my class, i love giving compliments but i usually shy away 😔

uhhh okay i cant think of anything else so yeah

but omg thank you so much!!! (and flourescent adolescent is SUCH A GOOD SONG LITERALLY OMGGGGG) (flourescent adolescent and do me a favour >>>>>) (underrated but maybe its for the better)

no feel free to request as much as you want (it might take me a while tho lmao)

ahhh idk your fandoms so this was kinda tricky 😭

ok first off you sound so goRGEOUS OMG AHHHHHHH!!! you kinda remind me of mary macdonald from marauders era (except shes a bit more extroverted). im sorry i couldnt come up with anyone else, but if you tell me some of your fandoms maybe i could pick something better? (also if youre not a marauders fan, i want to convert you hehe)

YESSSSS omg i love both songs so much!!!

[our-death-means-flag]

Floral Scented Hugs

Ship: Stede Bonnet x Reader (ambiguous, could be romantic or platonic) Notes: You ask Stede for a hug. He goes all out.  There needs to be more Stede love out here! He’s a darling. So, I wrote out the whole scenario from the Headcanons: Hugging the Revenge Crew post. Warnings: none

“Uhhh… Captain?” You questioned softly. You couldn’t help but feel kind of anxious. All you’d done was ask Stede if he wanted a hug and he’d gone silent. “You… uh… Don’t have to… I mean… If you don’t want-”

“NO!” Stede cut off, making you both jump at the unexpected volume of the request. “I mean…. Yes, I do want a hug. Just… I need to prepare!” Stede seemed to snap out of his stupor and was immediately rushing off. He made it all the way around the corner before seemingly remembering that you’re still there and excitedly peeked his head back out of his cabin with a huge smile. “Come back to my cabin in two hours! After dinner, alright?” You nodded. Stede grinned wider somehow. “Great! Fantastic! That’s… Great!! See you soon! Toodle-loo!”

Then he fully disappeared into his cabin leaving you standing on the deck, very confused. “Okay?” You mumbled, more to yourself than anything else. “Okay.”

Two hours later you found yourself standing at the door of the captain’s cabin. You weren’t really sure how to prepare for a hug but you had changed into something softer than your usual sturdy clothes. You weren’t really nervous per se. You doubted you could mess this interaction up so badly you’d get hurt (not physically at least, that wasn’t Stede’s style) but it was very strange. Then again, having Stede as a captain had generally been really strange. He didn’t really act like any captain you’d served under or even any you’d heard about. 

You took a moment to compose yourself, then knocked on the door. Then almost jumped out of your skin when the door opened almost immediately and without any warning. Had Stede been standing just inside the door? 

“Ah! Y/N! Good to see you! Come on in!” He beamed, smiling brightly as he quickly ushered you inside. You couldn’t help but notice that he’d changed out of the bright blue suit he’d been wearing earlier into something that looked more like pajamas with a very soft looking golden banyan on top. (Admittedly you had also changed, though it had been mostly in order to save Stede’s fancy clothes from getting dirty.) Being in the captain's cabin was still odd. You felt so terribly out of place amongst all the finery.

“I made tea!” Stede explained excitedly, passing you a small but gorgeous porcelain tea cup. With Stede looking at you almost expectantly you took a quick drink and found it was actually really good. “ It’s  chamomile. Supposedly helps you relax!” He explained before quickly, going into a really unnecessarily ramble about that particular kind of tea and where he got it.

You listened politely, regardless, letting him ramble for a bit and took note of the fact that he was very rapidly drinking his own tea, downing gulps like a drunk in a bar. 

After he seemed to finish his rant, you were about to say something, but we’re very quickly interrupted when he decided to run off to his closet. At this point you were so used to Stede’s strangeness that you didn’t even blink at the fact that he had a secret closet. He emerged moments later holding armfuls of banyans and robes. “Oh! You can borrow one of these if you’d like!”

You gently set down your tea cup and looked at the fabric Stede was holding. All of it seemed incredibly soft and comfortable but also expensive. “Are you sure you don’t mind if I borrow one?” You were already gently holding onto one, a soft ocean blue one with subtle details, but you had to double check. That one article of clothing was more expensive than anything else you owned.

“Of course! You’re more than welcome to!” Stede smiled as he spoke. “I mean, I’ll admit I’m a bit of a clotheshorse and I can hardly wear them all at once!” He gently took the robe from you and draped it over your shoulders, still smiling.

Stede immediately jumped into another monologue. You couldn’t help but notice that it seemed more stilted than usual. Sure he talked a lot, but it was usually some kind of passion behind what he was saying but he seemed very nervous. It sounded oddly formal.

When he paused, you finally got the courage to say something, “Stede, are you doing alright? You seem kind of nervous. We talk things through…” you prompted. 

“… as a crew.” Stede seemed happily surprised by you using his own catch phrase against him. But he sighed, busying himself by refilling his own cup and topping yours off. “I suppose I did get  a tad carried away. I’m not quite sure myself what one does before a hug… I wouldn’t know…”

That made you stare. What? Stede, the guy who’d gotten you a care package when you joined his crew, who’d been so eager to invite you into his luxurious cabin and who (despite his lack of experience) clearly cared about his crew, had never been hugged?

He seemed to notice your surprise. “I’m aware it sounds odd. You see in the circles I’ve lived in my whole life it’s been seen as rather improper.” He sounded almost ashamed, like a part still thought it was improper. “Not that I had many friends, even if it wasn’t…”  He was breaking your heart out here. Stede took a deep breath. “ I’m sure I’ve already fumbled this. This is ridiculous. I-I’m so sorry for wasting your time.”

You were quick to jump in to comfort him. “Hey no, don’t worry you haven’t messed anything up nor have you wasted my time.” You gave him your best comforting smile. “ Besides we’re pirates, and last I checked, pirates don’t care what’s improper.” He gave you such a soft hopeful look that you had to keep talking. “Honestly, I’m kind of looking forward to whatever you have planned.”

He looked up at you with huge puppy dog eyes. “Well, then.” His voice cracked a little bit but he continued confidently anyway.  Quickly jumping to his feet and offering you his hand. “I can hardly disappoint you at this point can I?”

You smiled. “Would be rather rude to do so, yes.” You replied as he took your hand and pulled you up. He sat down on the bed and patted the mattress next to him. Stede’s bed was undoubtedly the softest thing you’d ever touched in your life and it took self control to not sink into it.

After a pause, Stede chimed in with a strained but chipper, “So! Hugs? What… erm… How does one go about that?”

You smiled. “Well, may I take the lead, Captain?”

“By all means!” Stede seemed nervous but was still smiling.

You adjusted a little then gently pulled him into your arms. He tensed, his own hands resting against your back as little as possible. You were a little caught off guard by how strong Stede’s whole body felt, with how clumsy he usually was and how many layers he normally wore, you’d never noticed. You feel him relax. After a moment or two he breathed a deep sigh of relief and just melted into your arms, holding onto you tighter, not enough to be uncomfortable.. You realize that you’ve been running your hand up and down Stede’s back the whole time. You consider stopping but he hasn’t said anything about it so you don’t. 

“This…” Stede mumbles into your shoulder and if he wasn’t so close you definitely wouldn’t have heard it. “This is very nice.” He hummed in contentment, rubbing his face against your shoulder. 

After a nice long hug he pulls away. He’s smiling and his hair is a bit messy. It actually looks really cute on him. “Thank you!” He pats you twice on the back, probably a bit harder than he meant to, considering that you stumble a tad and almost fall in his lap. “Eek! Sorry!” He apologizes immediately, clearly looking concerned. 

You laughed a little. “Of course, happy to help, captain!”

“Stede, call me Stede.” He said quickly, eyes widening as he said it. 

You smiled. “Well then, thanks for all this,” You motioned at the banyan and the cabin in general. “Thanks for the lovely hug, Stede.”

He beamed wider than you’d ever seen. “Of course! I’m glad I didn’t mess it up.” He was almost sheepish.

“I’m no hug expert, in fact I doubt that exists, but I can say that it was a very good one.” You complimented. Stede puffed his chest out a little, clearly proud of himself. “Just say the word if you’d like to do this again.”

“Of course! Have a lovely night, Y/N!” You nodded and stood, already slipping the banyan off. “No, no.” Stede fussed standing alongside you and gently moving the fabric back in place. You raised a brow. “Keep it.”

You stared, stunned, as you toyed with the end of one of the sleeves. It was incredibly soft and comfortable. “I… Are you sure?” You could tell that just this one garment was worth more than everything else you owned combined. It was shocking enough that he let you borrow it but now he was letting you keep it?

“Yes, of course! It suits you incredibly well.” Stede patted you on the shoulder. “I insist!” His voice wasn’t commanding but you could tell that he wasn't going to take no for an answer. It was a very nice banyan.

You smiled. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.” You made your way across the captain’s cabin, clutching your new banyan to yourself tightly. “Good night, cap- erm… Good night, Stede.” You fumbled, all your instincts telling you to call him captain. 

Despite that, Stede didn’t seem annoyed. He simply waved. “See you tomorrow.” 

“Of course! See you tomorrow.” You closed the door to the cabin carefully, not wanting to make too much noise and risk waking anyone. Luckily the crew was all asleep already so you wouldn’t have to explain why you were wearing the captain’s clothes sneaking out of the captain’s cabin after dark. The jokes that Lucius would make… But you could see him, fast asleep against Black Pete’s side. The only one awake was Buttons, who gave you a nod of acknowledgement which you returned (while keeping your gaze averted), and you doubted he’d care.

You made your way back to your cabin. You hadn’t expected to have your own cabin but the ship was huge and Stede was Stede so you ended up with one. It was definitely nice to have your own space. You gently took the banyan off and folded it nicely (even rubbing the spot on your desk where you were planning on placing it down as if to clean it). Sleepily, you changed into your sleepwear and almost collapsed when your attention was pulled back to the soft fabric on your desk. Before you could talk yourself out of it, you grabbed it and put it on before climbing into bed.

As you got comfortable, you realized that everything smelled nice. Like a soft but not overpowering floral smell. You confirmed your suspicions when you sniffed the banyan. It smelled like flowers.

You smiled and fell asleep surrounded by the smell.

[felondese]

Meet My Rook!

I don't have any fandom friends to recruit me, so I'ma tag myself in here because I wanna play tooooo. At the same time, I'm too shy to tag anyone else, so if you want to play along as well, let's just pretend I tagged you. If we're mutuals, I've actually already tagged you in my heart, but again am very shy.

picrew links

Name: Beren "Rook" Laidir Nickname/Alias: Rook! Pronouns: he/him Lineage: Dwarf surfacer Faction: Lords of Fortune Class: Rogue (Duelist, possibly Saboteur specialization) Potential Romance: Davrin (ain't no potential, baby. the wedding is on). I had thought Lucanis for a minute but on further consideration, Rook is very shallow, and Davrin is gorgeous. Rook is also bull-headed and determined, so I don't see him giving up once he sets his sights on the Warden, which will be immediately. I'm so so sorry, Drayden Kiel, for taking your man. Rook isn't tho. He got there first and he won, damnit! Potential Friendships: Lace Harding & Varric Tethras (buddies pre-DAV, because dwarf rogues stick together). Friendly with all the Veilguard members because he's just that type of guy. Potential Rivalries: Lucanis (but in a fun, light-hearted kind of Legolas/Gimli rivalry-friendship way, at least from Rook's pov, and yes he will try to count off their kills. he will lose because he's very enthusiastic and hard working but uhhh... we'll say *slightly* less skilled as a rogue), Taash (also more competitive than anything. look, he's very competitive but very friendly. he's also delusional and will challenge her to shots competitions and try to drink the Qunari giant under the table. he will fail, vomitously) Tattoos/Scars: Dwarven-style facial tattoos (i need to look up the tattoo options and decide I guess, but I am thinking something in heavy black around the eyes, loud and impossible to ignore, give my boy some juggalo vibes) Notable Appearance Details: Bright flaming ass red hair. Never wears a full shirt, so his top surgery scars are proudly displayed as much as possible. Plenty of other scars, which he's just as proud of, and will readily tell the stories of how he got them. Probably other body tattoos, but I gotta check out the cc options. Short even for a dwarf, which is an advantage for a rogue, thank you very much. He's got no strike zone, damnit, and yes, he will run between your legs. Anything Else You’d Like To Share: See here and here. Chaos incarnate, which feels fitting for a Rook, based on what we've seen. He has a green & yellow budgie (look the picrew had limited options and cockatiel was the closest I could do) named Lady of the Skies - technically it's a boy bird, but who the hell knows how to sex a goddamn parakeet? He found out after the fact, and Lady also being trans seemed fitting, actually. Fuck AGAB, 'tis but a mere suggestion. I never would've guessed I'd end up playing a dwarf LoF first (initially planned for elf Veil Jumper like the elf-nerd I am), but he has burrowed his way into my heart and I love this little gremlin dearly. Also, he is a disaster and it is very in-character for him to make poor decisions, so I think he fits well for a starter Rook on my first playthrough.

[maystarrs]

hellooooo!!! i am judas :) u have THE coolest vibe and i would like to be friends so consider this my formal application to do so <3 i have a lot of interests, including poetry and writing in general, bees, van gogh, the cooking reality show master chef, dragon city mobile app, astrology, and cooking! im also trying to get back into art so ive been making lots of silly little doodles. uhhh i consider myself a good listener! i love hearing ppl ramble abt their day or their interests or just anything rlly!! it's so sweet and helps me not only learn abt the thing, but also the person talking abt it by extension. i love seeing other ppl's world views and i just think humanity is the most beautiful and fascinating thing of all. i also will send lots of pictures of cute animals. good luck w the phone interview btw!! u will do great <3

omg omg!!!!!! i got the biggest excitement boost seeing this, i love your poetry!!!!!!!!!!! your interests sound super cool and i would absolutely love to call you a friend :D van gogh's art style has always been so gorgeous to me and i used to be OBSESSED with dragon city omg. im so thankful for the ask you seem like such a delightful person!!

also i did end up getting the job offer so im STOKED about that hell yeah!!!!! thank you thank you for the ask!!!! :D