#and had the right face shape and the easiest way to map a face onto it and know it'll look Right when embroidered...

[shirogane-oushirou]

[cw vent: chronic illness, general world politics mention w no detail)

"man. i'm so tired. i feel like i can't do anything selfship related. is it because my energy's been sapped from family visiting and everyone wanting to do ~summer activities~ nonstop? am i so in my head about "getting ren's story right without stepping over any lines" that i've backed myself into a perfectionist corner? is the world just going to shit so hard that i can't have one (1) minute of escape on this blog before going back to working through the political hellscape we're in? god even trying to make this plushie pattern is killing me even though i want to hold my guy So Badly AUGH."

/finishes the plushie pattern after trying multiple body bases and literally buying a japanese ebook about plushie face and hair design/

"actually what if i lived forever and spent all of that time making an army of these fuckers to swim in? what then?"

[hawksward]

Wolves in Sheep's Clothing Ch. 1: Push/Pull (Childe/OC)

Since being granted a vision at the tender age of 10, Irina has owed her life to the Tsaritsa and dedicated herself to rising through the ranks of the Fatui. In becoming a top-ranking diplomat she's received her easiest assignment yet: ensure the 11th Fatui Harbinger remains ignorant of La Signora's plan to obtain the gnosis of Rex Lapis. A simple task for someone who's made a career out of lying.

Unfortunately, even the simplest tasks can go awry when feelings get in the way.

Rating: E (For eventual smut)

Warnings: None that I can think of for this chapter, there will eventually be smut

Banner credit goes to @shinsotired because I'm incapable of art.

Prologue:

Cold. She couldn’t remember the last time she wasn’t cold. At first, the nerves in her fingertips were screaming, the skin exposed through the holes in her worn gloves. But now it was different.

The cold had faded into warmth as she laid on the ground in the alley. At first, it was uncomfortably hot. So hot she wanted to strip off her already thin winter coat and hat. But now it was pleasantly warm. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this way.

But it wasn’t right. It couldn’t be.

The snow seemed to fall in waves, flakes occasionally falling into her eyes. The girl flexed her fingers before closing her eyes, they were becoming harder and harder to move.

I’m dying

The thought echoed in her head. She couldn’t decide if she was scared or relieved. If she died there would be no more suffering. Tears slipped out of her eyes, freezing on her cheeks.

I can’t. Not here. Not like this.

She curled herself into a ball. Clenching her fists as tight as she could to stay awake. She desperately tried to conserve what little body heat she had left.

The voices were faint at first, two men engaging in idle chatter as they strolled through the alley. One man’s footsteps stopped short when he saw her, much to the dismay of his partner.

“Leave it Misha. Street kids die every day here.” His foot pushed her from her side onto her back. She could barely open her eyes, any energy she had for defiance long gone. She immediately knew the man by his mask. Fatui.

“She’s holding something.” Misha reached down to pry open her clenched fist.

Her palm was soaked in blood around an object she knew she wasn’t holding before. Although she couldn’t quite make out what it was from her angle, she noticed the man’s eyes go wide.

“How many street kids do you know who have been blessed by the Tsaritsa?”  He plucked the object from her hand and held it to the lamplight. A cryo vision.

“What’s your name, child?”

Her voice came as a whisper

“Irina”

Ch. 1:

The wind in Liyue Harbor was far milder than the chill winds in Snezhnaya. The boat journey was amicable, albeit long, and she would be in Liyue for the foreseeable future. Even from the docks, she could tell. The whole city was in chaos.

Only a day passed since the Rite of Descension, a disaster of epic proportions, and it was clear there were still no answers.

Irina leaned over the side of the boat, watching the fish scatter as the anchor plummeted into the sand below. Men hurried into the boat the moment the gangplank fell, eager to unload the crates of liquor shipped from the motherland.

Pushing herself off the rail, Irina made her way down the gangplank. She knew next to nothing about her assignment. Only that Rex Lapis was dead and there was now a sea of red tape between the Tsaritsa and the gnosis.

“I trust you’re our new diplomat?”

Her attention was brought to the man before her. He had half a head of height on her with bright auburn hair and even brighter blue eyes. It was clear from what he was wearing that he was Fatui.

“Yes. I’ve been sent by Her Majesty, the Tsaritsa, to aid in the issue with the exuvia.” She held out her hand for a handshake only for the man to hold her hand to his lips, placing a small kiss before releasing.

“I’m Childe. We’ll be working closely together while you’re here in Liyue. Not like I needed the assistance, I have the situation under control.”

She wasn’t surprised that he was less than excited for her arrival, she didn’t climb through the ranks to take easy assignments.

“Aster.” It was an alias of course, she couldn’t remember the last time she used her real name. “You must be Tartaglia then. Don’t mind me. I’m here to help grease the bureaucratic gears. I won’t be interfering with your bank loan operation.”

Irina knew that the Northland Bank was a large source of revenue for the Tsaritsa in Liyue. She also knew that their interest rates and collection practices were less than ethical. Not like it was any of her concern.

The smile on Childe’s face faltered for only a second, but it was enough to betray his false hospitality. He was a harbinger, most Fatui agents and diplomats alike wouldn’t dare talk to him in that manner. But most diplomats weren’t hand chosen by the Tsaritsa herself.

“Well Aster, I’m sure you’re tired from the journey but why don’t I show you around and get you acquainted with the members of the Northland Bank, where you’ll be stationed. As your superior officer allow me to give you the grand tour”

His words weren’t lost on her. Although she wouldn’t be reporting to him on her assignment she needed to appear like she was. She couldn’t have him asking questions.

“Of course, Lord Tartaglia ” the words rolled off her tongue like venom “Please lead the way.”

——

It was clear from the endless amount of stairs he had her climb to the Yujing Terrace that he was looking to torture her. Nothing about the tour was optimal and only served to exhaust her further.

“Don't tell me you’re getting tired already!” Childe was beaming from ear to ear

She wanted to stab him. They had gone back and forth to a new landmark, each somehow across the city from the other, for the better part of 3 hours. And while she was in shape, she didn’t have an elite soldier’s stamina. Nor did Childe have to make the trek in heels.

“Of course not, I’m ready to experience all the city has to offer” She put on her most charming smile. She wouldn’t let him best her, especially not so early in the game.

Childe laughed before waving her over to the nearby railing. The view from the terrace was beautiful. From the top of the city was a view of the harbor. The streets below just beginning to light the lanterns for the night.

“I see you know how to make an impression” Irina smiled to herself as she drank in the view.

“What can I say? I have many talents.” He leaned against the rail, his eyes trained on her. “One of them is sensing bullshit. So why don’t you tell me why you’re really here.”

Irina raised an eyebrow, turning her attention to the man before her. “I’m here because the Tsaritsa is unimpressed at how long it’s taking you to complete your mission. Signora obtained her gnosis within a week of arriving in Mondstat.”

“Signora didn't have to contend with a dead Barbatos.” He countered

“If you think you can do this on your own then by all means be my guest.” Irina pushed herself off the rail, “But as of today all matters dealing with the Liyue Qixing will be handled by me. If you take issue with that you’re free to look through the paperwork I brought with me.”

Childe had no retort, but it was clear that she struck a nerve by comparing him to Signora. It didn’t matter. She would complete her mission as soon as possible and then leave Liyue for her next assignment. which would hopefully not involve the 11th harbinger.

“Well then. Allow me to escort the lady to the Northland Bank. Ekaterina has prepared the small office for your arrival.”

——

Childe didn’t lie when he said the office was small. Her office was a glorified storage closet on the upper level of the bank, barely large enough to fit a reasonably sized oak desk already stacked with paperwork. She knew when she wasn’t meeting with the Qixing she would be expected to help out with administrative work for the bank.

She didn’t expect for her superior  to drop all of his work on her as well.

Before he left for the night he tossed a map her way, a large red x marking where her accommodations would be. She was mildly surprised he hadn’t offered to walk her to the inn to keep tabs on her. Then again the Fatui presence in the city was nothing to scoff at, someone would see her eventually and most likely report back.

Thankfully the inn wasn’t difficult to find, centered in the middle of the merchant district. Accommodations weren’t large by any means, but the warm wood and red bedding were lush and inviting.

What little luggage she brought on the boat was tucked away in the corner, next to a small bathroom. She never carried much, even a small suitcase seeming excessive after growing up with nothing.

Irina glanced at the clock sitting on the dresser. Currently 11 pm. She needed to be at Liuli pavilion in 3 hours. She changed out of her clothes for something that didn’t scream ‘Fatui agent skulking around at all hours of the night’.

—-

Liuli Pavillion definitely looked closed. Irina passed maybe two people on her way from the inn to the restaurant, both of whom were definitely too drunk to remember anyone who passed them by.

Irina checked her surroundings before knocking on the door twice, followed by a brief pause, followed by four more times. She could hear footsteps coming from inside before unlocking the door.

“Can I help you? We’re closed” a middle-aged man looked her up and down, a scowl on his face

“I’m here with the jueyun chili order.”

“Already got it last week.” He barked

“Yes, but this order is a special delivery from Qingce Village.”

The man gave a curt nod before stepping out of the way. The windows in the restaurant were tightly drawn shut, locking in the dim candlelight. Irina made her way to the voices coming from the adjacent room.

The room held a small square table, one seat was filled by a dark haired man in an expensive looking suit. The other was filled with none other than the 8th harbinger herself.

Signora.

“You’re late.” She didn’t bother to look up as she took a sip from her glass of wine “Sit down, we don’t have much time.”

Irina sat down as the man from the door placed a glass of wine in front of her. She took a small sip, locking eyes with the dark haired man across the table. Was Signora going to make an introduction or not?

“This is my subordinate, Aster. She’ll be your point of contact for all things related to the contract” Signora began “Aster, this is Zhongli, you may know him better as Rex Lapis”

Irina nearly choked on her drink. She knew the anemo archon, Barbatos, had taken on a human form before having his gnosis taken. But she never imagined she’d see another archon in the flesh. The Tsaritsa living among her people wasn’t exactly common.

“It’s an honor to meet you, sir.” She wasn't sure how to respond. Clearly he didn’t want many to know if he was going by a different name. But was it alright to treat him like a normal person?

“None of that. In this form, I am simply Zhongli, consultant for the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.” He gave a small, polite smile before sipping from his wine “Not to mention going forward we’ll be colleagues.”

“Listen closely because I’m only going to explain this once.” Signora reclined back in her seat, her fierce gaze not once leaving Irina, “The Tsaritsa has signed a contract with Rex Lapis for procurement of the gnosis. Since I can’t be in the city without drawing attention, you will be my proxy. You will tell absolutely no one of the contract nor about Zhongli’s identity. Do you understand?”

“Of course Lady Signora. I will maintain the utmost discretion.”

“Good. Since you’ll be doing it anyway, I want a report on anything you can discern from the Qixing as well.” The tall blonde woman stood from her chair, turning her back momentarily before returning her focus to Irina. “One last thing. If Tartaglia so much as develops an idea of what’s happening here consider yourself out of a job.”

Irina rose from her chair to give her a nod and a salute before the other woman left the restaurant. She had no intention of failing a mission, but it was clear that Signora would rip her entire life out from under her faster than she could blink if she did.

“Please, enjoy the glass of wine with me before you leave.” Zhongli motioned for her to return to her seat “We should get to know each other since we’ll be working closely together. Not to mention it is a vintage.”

[likecastle]

Oh, anon, thank you for this! I am really loving these Witcher femslash asks! Please keep them coming, I am steadily working my way through them.

This one took a little longer than intended because I spent a long time trying to reinvent the wheel, got stuck, then decided to go back and just use exactly what’s already in The Time of Contempt. This was intended to be a light little romp, but it turns out I don’t know how to do that, and this got kinda sad. I blame Sapkowski, because sexy Tissaia/Rita “and there was only one bed” scenarios pretty much writes themselves after that scene in the Silver Heron, but unfortunately the whole context is kind of heavy. Sexy, but a bit of a bummer. Spoilers for the books behind the cut!

“Well!” Rita drops heavily onto the edge of the bed with the air of someone who hasn’t been at her leisure for the better part of the day. “What a to do.”

Tissaia makes no reply, her thoughts on the days ahead. She sits at the dressing table and absently begins to unwind the dark coil of her hair. Strands of damp hair cling to her cheeks and throat, cloying like an unwelcome touch.

“Do you suppose Yennefer will ever forgive me?” With her humid blonde curls and her full cheeks still pink from the wine and the lingering heat of the baths,  Rita looks utterly blameless, the sort of person one could forgive anything.

“Eventually.” Tissaia arranges her hairpins on the vanity, and picks up her comb, which is enchanted to dry her hair as she combs it. Tissaia could never abide sleeping with wet hair. As a girl she’d always despised waiting for her hair to dry after bathing. It had taught her patience, she supposed, but those long, chill hours had felt like a trap she could never quite escape from. Magic solved that problem for her, like so many others—though not all, never all.

Rita sinks back onto the mattress, and Tissaia grimaces, knowing the pillows will be damp from the sprawl of her wet hair. When she offered to share her lodgings at the Silver Heron, she didn’t anticipate how much Rita would make herself at home. Her various jars of cosmetics lie scattered across the vanity, her stockings draped over furniture, and she seems to prefer to lounge around the room half-undressed at the best of times, despite Tissaia’s disapproving comments.

“The girl has plenty of spirit, at least,” Rita muses, directing her thoughts to the canopy over the bed.

“Though perhaps less sense than she ought.” With nimble fingers, Tissaia works her hair into a long plait.

“Oh, don’t tell me you were never young and reckless.” Rita’s tone is teasing, but Tissaia is in no mood to jest. She’s tired, and worried, and she has a headache from Yennefer’s carrying on.

“Certainly not,” she says, and it’s the truth. Young, perhaps—so long ago she could barely recall it—but reckless, never.

“Really?” In the mirror, Tissaia watches Rita sit up slightly to get a better look at her. Her robe has slipped to one side, exposing a soft thigh. “You never did something foolish for someone you loved?”

Tissaia averts her gaze, focusing on tidying the mess on the dressing table. “So just because you made a fool of yourself over Lars, you assume the rest of us lose our heads at the sight of a pretty face?”

Rita laughs—a warm sound, round with pleasure. Yes, she really is drunk, Tissaia thinks. There’s no other reason why she would be so charmed by Tissaia’s ill humor. “I refuse to believe it,” Rita says, her voice rich with amusement. “There’s no way you’ve never done something even slightly ill-advised in your entire life. I simply can’t credit it.”

Tissaia stands up abruptly and extinguishes the lights with the flick of a wrist. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be content with disappointment,” she says, more curtly than she intended. In the privacy of darkness, she removes her dress and stockings, folding them carefully atop her traveling trunk before crossing to the other side of the bed.

The cover of night is made imperfect by the moonlight shining in through the suite’s open windows, and Tissaia can make out Rita’s shape atop the covers—clearly enough to see that while Tissaia’s back was turned, Rita shed her robe and now lies naked on the bed. As Tissaia stands there, Rita arches her back in a slow, sinuous stretch.

With a heavy sigh, Tissaia climbs into bed and turns her back. Rita’s attention-seeking is nothing new, and Tissaia has endured more wanton provocation than this without allowing herself to be moved. Besides, Tissaia has bigger problems than Rita’s lascivious teasing to contend with. She cannot afford to allow herself to be distracted now.

“Oh, you really are cross tonight, aren’t you?”

Tissaia focuses on her breathing, wishing she’d had the foresight to take a sleeping tincture before getting into bed.

From behind her, there comes the rustle of fabric and Rita edges closer atop the covers. “Is this because I criticized you in front of Yennefer’s ward?”

Closing her eyes, Tissaia tries not to feel the warmth of Rita’s bare skin so close behind her. She’s radiating heat, and Tissaia resolutely does not imagine what it would feel like to have Rita her pressed flush against her back.

Rita, undeterred by her silence, slides one hand along Tissaia’s shoulder, in a gesture that is surely intended to be soothing but only makes Tissaia tense. “Is this because I said you were indecisive?”

“You’re drunk,” Tissaia snaps.

Rita’s hand rubs slow circles around the cap of Tissaia’s shoulder, setting her tingling at the touch. “So?”

“So,” Tissaia says fiercely, turning over to look Rita in the eye, “I won’t be another one of your bad decisions.”

Rita’s eyes are wide in the dark. Turning to face her was a mistake, Tissaia realizes belatedly. She isn’t sure she has the strength to withstand that look of earnest, injured surprise, not when they’re mere inches apart.

“Is that all you think of me?” Rita’s voice is hardly more than a whisper. “Some frivolous novice, still sowing her wild oats?”

How can she explain? How can she tell Rita how much hangs in the balance now, without giving it all away? “I can’t do it,” she says weakly.

Rita’s lip bends in a perfect, disappointed pout. “I wish you would.”

It’s easy to give in—one of the easiest things Tissaia has ever done. Rita’s cheeks are soft and round under her palms, and her lips are softer still. Her mouth opens so prettily against Tissaia’s, her tongue quick and seeking. The noises she makes as Tissaia kisses her, so terribly full of yearning, only make Tissaia want to draw more out of her.

Rita’s skin is impossibly smooth under her hands, and she responds so eagerly to Tissaia’s touch as she maps her throat, her waist, her full and perfect breasts. “Please,” Rita breathes against her lips.

Tissaia slides one thigh between Rita’s legs and Rita rocks against her. Tissaia can’t help but moan at the heat of her—every bit as intense as she imagined. Working her hips in a steady rhythm, Rita manages to insinuate one of her legs between Tissaia’s own. The pressure against her cunt is enough to make her shake. Even with the fabric of her shift between them, the sensation is almost too much to bear.

Desperate hands draw her closer, until they’re so tightly sealed together that even the slightest movement of one’s body wrings pleasure from the other. They writhe as one, their breathless gasps indistinguishable from one another. Rita’s hands on her backside crush her closer and closer, until, at last, her kisses go aimless and she comes in a fierce pulse against Tissaia’s thigh. Even panting and shivering, she keeps urging Tissaia against her, and when the tight inward flux of her pleasure crests, it shocks through her, throbbing hard between her legs and coursing along her limbs.

The sob that rises up in her then is a surprise, and she has to bury her face in Rita’s neck to ride it out. Rita, still tangled up with her and breathing hard, pets her hair and utters soft, cooing noises that make Tissaia’s eyes burn hot.

“It’s all right,” Rita murmurs—just like she might to comfort one of her overwrought students.

The thought is absurd enough to take Tissaia out of herself a little—enough that she can steady the rhythm of her breathing and untangle her limbs from Rita’s.

“Don’t.” Rita twines an arm around Tissaia’s waist and draws her close again. She drops a kiss on Tissaia’s lips, and then another. “Stay like this a little longer.”

Tissaia knows it can’t last. It’s completely foolish, beyond ill-advised, and yet, despite herself, she stays.

[halothenthehorns]

All in the Family

Chapter 83: The Egg and the Eye

They really should have enjoyed those other landings while they hand the chance, as every one of them groaned in painful misery upon impact in the most uncomfortable way possible across hard, cold tile floors. Peter got the worst of it, he landed with an echoing bang upon copper pipes that left the walls themselves vibrating as he finally came to a stop face down in the bathtub beneath.

"Everyone still alive?" James called miserably, rubbing at his head and staring blearily around, but his vision wasn't coming back into focus.

"More or less," Sirius answered as he began looking around for Prongs' glasses.

Remus peeked over the edge to see Peter curling onto his side now, whimpering in pain, several fresh bruises likely to come of it. He hopped down and offered him a comforting pat on the shoulder while performing a minor healing charm to at least help take the edge off the worst of the pain, allowing him to sit upright at least.

Lily had gotten it the easiest, landing on the wooden towel rack and knocking the whole thing over, now tangled up in them. Frank went over to help get her out, while Alice got uneasily to her feet, holding the golden egg curiously.

"Where are we?" Lily demanded as she finally pulled the last, thankfully dry and clean, towel from off her head while Frank tugged the fluffy white one free where it had tangled her legs.

"Prefects bathroom," the lone Prefect of their group answered as he pulled his friend out of, what the others now realized, was indeed a swimming pool sized bathtub.

She looked around with admiration at the grandeur of every gleaming tile, the picture of a mermaid more reminiscent of her youth than any textbook she'd found in this castle, and the diving board as she grudgingly made her way to Potter and handed him his glasses she'd somehow acquired in her mess.

He set them back in place and she immediately regretted her moment of kindness as he beckoned her to follow. "Come here Evans, you're going to love this."

"Last time we ended up in a bathroom it wasn't exactly pleasant," she grumbled as she watched him regardless, bolting right past everyone to the available taps each with a different jewel inset, and turning two on at once.

She, Alice, and Frank edged forward to see one pipe shooting out rainbow glitter, the other had lavender scented, flower shaped bubbles dripping down. Lily knelt and stuck her hand in curiously, to find it the perfect temperature.

"This thing's a damned miracle worker if you need to relax, I've spent ages in here this year before a Quidditch game thanks to Moony sharing the password. Really helps relax the muscles," he said with an open grin at her, she was pretty sure he wasn't even imagining her in the tub yet.

"I'll bet even Snivellus would take a bath in this," Sirius Black muttered from behind his best mate, who laughed in surprise. Lily scowled hatefully and stalked away. James watched her go with an unrepentant smile, he'd never grow tired of her tenacity.

"Passwords Pine Fresh, it never changes," he called to her retreating form.

"You ever think you're taking the wrong approach there," Alice was frowning at the pair of idiots, Potter didn't even seem to realize he'd done anything wrong.

"When I want your advice, I'll ask for it," he said in all cheerfulness.

Frank scowled at the idiot, took Alice's hand, and led her away without argument, joining Lily near the door now, the three of them inspecting the egg with curiosity and discussing if Harry would actually work out the clue in this place like Cedric Diggory had suggested.

James watched the three with longing, he'd love to go over there, take Lily's hand so casually, just shoot the breeze and talk amongst her and her friends all day. He was genuinely happy for her she finally had decent people to talk to, she'd never given herself the chance always hanging around Snivellus, and he hoped it stayed that way. From what he'd known of Smith and Longbottom before all this they were decent people, always stayed on the fringe of classes, but for two purebloods they certainly never got involved in the nastier students he did know of their houses.

He knew if he tried now she'd spurn him again, he really shouldn't have laughed at Sirius' joke and he knew that, but didn't she get that's what it was? A joke? If Padfoot had said the same about Regulus or even himself James would have laughed. She was always so diligent about everything in her life, it was one of the many aspects of why he loved to watch her. The way she always thought through a question so long before answering, she often missed her opportunity in class, she studiously stuck to what she was doing despite his best attempts, be it hanging around a waste of space like Snape or her homework, he only wanted to give her a bit of fun in her life she really needed. She'd get that eventually.

James turned back to see Regulus was trying to pick a fight with Sirius, again. There was another lad who needed more fun in his life, as well as that stick removed from his arse.

"You really don't have anything else to say to him?" Regulus demanded.

"What's there to say?" Sirius forced casualness in his voice without looking up, clearly intent on looking for his favorite tap that would give the foam the consistency of a snowball. "He'd say he could never do it, again, we believe him, I guess, and we move on." His hand was trembling so hard by the end he didn't seem to know which way he was trying to twist the tap anymore, but it wasn't moving regardless. "Guess we'll all find out what's what eventually, yeah?"

Peter and Regulus exchanged an uneasy look. It wasn't a solution as far as they were concerned, Sirius had managed to avoid the question, but it was...progress?

James clucked his tongue and jumped in to stop anything else happening, so long as they were all stuck together he would not rest until he got some enjoyment. "Tell me you lot aren't actually going to spend the entire time we're in here, of all places, talking!"

Then he shucked out of his clothes in record time once more, boxers alone covering him as he dived head long into the water. Sirius grinned and quickly mimicked him, with a cannon ball off the diving board splashing the mermaids painting. The two caused water to immediately start sloshing over the edges as they began a rowdy game of tag.

Peter did not feel like joining them, but he dutifully sat on the edge of the pool next to Remus, who was smiling and laughing at their antics and egging them on. He summoned the book to him, which bizarrely came shooting out of one of the pipes that had yet been turned on, and flipped it open before looking around and seeing Regulus hovering uneasily. He beckoned him over and smiled when he did with only a bit of hesitation. None of them felt up to talking anymore it seemed, and if asked they would have blamed it on how close they hopefully were to discovering Harry's egg clue.

"The Egg and the Eye? What's an eye got to do with this?" Lily shivered in disgust at the idea, wondering for a wild moment if the egg was going to somehow get Harry put in the hospital wing for hurting his eye or something.

"Maybe Moody makes another grand appearance," Frank offered, "helps him out again."

Lily nodded this made sense, admittedly more distracted than she would have liked to admit as she eyed Potter and Black in the pool. It seemed for every step she took to actually try and be civil to him, more in pity than anything for this mess so thoroughly and repeatedly having an affect on him, he took seven back. Reverting back to the same loathsome toerag at the first chance, would the idiot never learn his lesson?

She listened intently as Harry made his way here, enjoyed himself for a few moments with the pool as well, and then nearly had heart failure when Moaning Myrtle appeared. Her popping eyes stayed on the Marauders, none of whom batted an eye at this development. Only little Regulus Black was spluttering in surprise, and he got a mouth full of soapy water from his brother for that before he could say anything.

"Well, this bathroom just lost a bit of appeal," Alice shivered in revulsion as she hugged herself for a moment at the idea of a ghost peeping in on her.

"It's never occurred to me they can just appear in the bathrooms, of anywhere in here," Frank agreed with a grimace. Lily looked around hopefully, and spotted Harry's copy of the Marauders Map. It must have been, as it was several years older than the one she'd seen in said Marauders possession inside Honeydukes, which was currently still in one of their pockets. This one had aged parchment, was crinkled, and dogeared. Yet the enchantment to activate it still worked just as well, and she scanned it carefully now for their place, finally spotting their eight little dots, but not another soul except Mrs. Norris several floors down.

She showed the other two, who only looked slightly less queasy, as that didn't change how often it likely still did happen.

Harry's unendearing encounter with her was almost worth it though, as she helped him work out his clue, and they all listened open mouthed at the mermaid song.

"Damn, that's brilliant," Frank was smiling now at the prospect of hearing this in person but still eyeing the water, and the two rowdy boys in it, without much hope.

James and Sirius had been listening, and were quite pleased at this new development, but now that it had come to pass what Harry would be dealing with, they refused to let it sink down their groups spirits as much as it was Harry's. Yeah, how would he breath underwater for an hour? It was a valid question, and one they could deal with later. For now James heaved himself out of the pool and went padding over to them, but they'd clearly been so distracted they didn't realize any such thing until he said right beside them, "are you really not going to get in?"

Smith dropped the egg in surprise, it did indeed clatter around before opening with a painfully loud racket before he went chasing after it to close it. The three were left with more aggrieved looks than ever on him, so he shrugged and said, "have it your way." Prize now in hand, he jogged back and did a flip into the water.

Sirius waited for no such thing as permission, he'd taken the eggs noisy distraction to swim over to Remus, grab his legs, and jerk him in. He came up trying to splutter curses through the soapy water and swatting at him to Sirius' unrepentant smile. "Now if only we were the only two in here," he whispered into his ear, reaching through the water to squeeze the inside of his thigh before taking off again.

Remus swallowed another mouthful and was now grateful nobody could see below his waist, and the water really was rather warm, that's why his skin was suddenly so flush.

"Well then you two, are you going to have a listen?" James called, pushing his hair out of his face to eye Peter and Regulus, but both had been reexamining the mermaids song and barely looked up long enough to shake their heads they didn't want to get in. "How on Earth did we get saddled into this mess with such boring wankers?" He demanded of Sirius.

"Beats me Prongs," Sirius nodded, before taking a breath and ducking under the water. James quickly followed, and Remus rolled his eyes before acquitting.

By the time they came up, Harry was stuck in the trick stair and witness to the strangest of nighttime scenes even they'd never been privy to.

Lily watched as Potter laughed himself silly at his sons misfortune, then rolled onto his back and began floating peacefully in the water like he could take a nap to the sound of this mess. It infuriated her to no end, Harry could get into so much trouble if he was caught now, did he really not care at all? She reflected back if she'd just seen this back before this mess started she would have thought him the most uncaring heartless person there was, but she knew better now. That was him fidgeting, not just kicking his legs around in the water at the idea of Harry getting caught. He kept dumping his head back into the water and then sitting up and ruffling his hair into messy spikes rather than show his concern why Barty Crouch was so weirdly involved in something to do with Severus' office.

It wasn't as if he was afraid to show any other emotion, like brash carelessness or obnoxiousness, why then did he feel the need to smother such things?

Regulus watched over Peter's shoulder as Moody saved Harry yet again from getting caught by Snape and fixing this mess for him, he couldn't blame the auoror's intensity over the map either when he got his hand on it. While Sirius and his two friends continued splashing each other wildly, with no hope of hearing the warning the chapter was almost over, he reached over and grabbed the two idiots clothes and held them firmly against his chest. He wouldn't wish that mess upon anyone.

[beauvilliers]

first of all, love your blog i’m a super big fan! second, can you please tell me how you made your icon? i’ll love you forever!

thank you so much darling!! i’ve never done an icon tutorial before, but i’ll leave one below if anyone else is interested 🥰 beware, it’s gonna be pretty long and image-heavy. unfortunately i can’t show you how i made my exact icon, since the copy i have of it is on my unfortunately still broken hard drive, but the process i use is pretty much identical for all my icons!

I’ll be showing you how to make this icon:

PART 1: FINDING IMAGES

I find pretty much all my pictures on gettyimages! You can just google them if you want, but I find that getty has the best image quality and also a wide variety of photos. (Also, if you’re making an icon of Tito, as I am for this tutorial, google images will just result in a lot of pics of Tito side by side to Anna Kendrick, which is not ideal for an icon). If the watermark is in the way then I just use this website to remove it. It decreases the quality slightly, but when you’re just making icons it’s not a big deal since they’re so small anyway.

I’ll be using this pic of Tito and I have already removed the watermark:

It can be kind of hard to find good pics of hockey players since they tend to make ridiculous faces constantly, so unless you’re making a Tyler Seguin icon (he’s always camera ready) it might take a few mins to find a good pic. I chose this one bc 1) I love Tito and 2) this isn’t a super awkward pic, like it’s clearly between play so while he’s attentive he doesn’t look strange and he’s not making a weird face.

PART 2: CUTTING OUT

I cut Tito out using the quick selection tool. Make sure to get all the little bits bc this tool can sometimes forget to highlight dark parts on their helmets or parts of letters or whatever, so just be observant.

I then right-click on my selection and click select and mask. This allows you to edit the selection and make the edges smoother and such. I pretty much just move the sliders around until I like the way the pic looks, there’s not a trick to it. These are my settings for that: 

So apply your settings and then right click on the picture and select layer via copy. This will leave an original layer so if you mess up you still have the original picture. So now the pic will look like this:

However, there are still some parts that I wanna touch up. To do this I just add a layer mask to the pic and I add a solid color layer beneath. The solid color layer just helps me see what I’m doing a bit better, and I always use some pink/red variant bc that’s just what’s easiest for me. You could also always use the eraser tool instead of a layer mask, but I prefer a layer mask bc it’s not permanent. 

So after adding the background layer, my pic looks like this:

and my layers look like this:

After making some small touch ups with the layer mask (mostly around the mouth & helmet strap), this is what it looks like:

PART 3: COLORING

The first thing I do is uncheck the pink layer. I don’t remove it all together bc I’ll be using it as the background later, but I just don’t want it to be visible right now. Then I add a curves layer. For this first curves layer I just select auto and let it do what it will.

Next I add a second curves layer. For this layer I use the white and black dropper tools to select the white-point and the black-point of the image. For the white point I select around his shoulder, and for the black-point I select the dark area of his hair. 

Next I add a third curves layer. I know this seems excessive, but I use each of them for different things and I find them all helpful. For this curves layer I select the downward arrow that says RBG and I adjust the red, green, and blue curves. Just grab the middle of the curve and drag it in either direction. I tend to increase reds, decrease greens, and increase blues. 

I know it looks like I did nothing but I promise I did! It also depends on the image, sometimes you don’t really need to use this last layer but I always do the same steps while making icons so I just add it anyway. 

Next I will add a levels layer. I just use the middle slider and increase it from somewhere between +1.05 and +1.15. 

Next I add a selective color layer and go to the blacks, where I increase them somewhere between +5 and +15. This adds dimension where some of the other layers have taken it away.

Then I add a gradient map, set it to soft light, and put the opacity somewhere between 10-15%. This also adds some more dimension.

Now moving onto actually playing with the colors and not just brightening the image! First I add a selective color layer. I like to keep hockey players faces somewhat pinkish, bc they are exerting themselves so I think that looks most natural, but Tito’s face is a little too red for my liking here. I edit his face using the red, yellow, and magenta colors.

Next I add another selective color layer and edit the blues/cyans. I like to keep the layer where I edit their faces and the layer where I edit their jerseys separate, but this is just a personal preference, you could do it all on the same layer if you wanted. 

One of my favorite “tricks” when editing hockey jerseys, especially ones that have a lot of white, is to add a new layer, change the layer type to color, and use a white brush to color in areas that should have no color to them (ie. the white of the jersey, helmet, etc). I just think this makes the icon look more clean.

There’s not too much of a difference, but you can tell that the bottom right corner of his jersey is not so pink anymore, and the helmet strap is white instead of yellow, and I also colored in the visor, which will be important later.

Now I’ll show you a few final coloring steps that I do to make the image really pop, in my opinion!

First I add another new layer and I use the eyedropper tool to select a skin color from Tito’s face. I ended up choosing #f6b9b0 here. Then I color over his face with this color and set the layer type to color.

Now I know it looks weird, which is why I then change the opacity to somewhere between 10% and 20%. 

This wasn’t super necessary for this pic because Tito’s skin looks pretty good here, but it helps to even out the skin tone and bc I do it on other icons I thought I would show it here.

Next I add blush! I add a new layer, and same as I used the eyedropper tool to select a skin color, I focus in on either a pink part of Tito’s face or his lips to find a good color. I ended up selecting #e6687e.

I then lower the hardness of the brush to zero, and click twice on Tito’s cheek.

Obviously this looks weird, so I change the opacity of the layer to soft light to create a kind of glow.

Next I move on to lips. Now for most players I do this bc their lips look pale or weird or whatever, but Tito has the most luscious lips in the league and so I wouldn’t normally do this for him specifically. However, since this is a tutorial I’ll show you anyway!

Exactly the same as the skin and the blush, I select a pink color from his lips. Here I used #df5c7c. Then I changed the layer to soft light and lowered the opacity to 50%.

Finally I added a vibrance layer to finish off my coloring!

(He looks a lot more red here than he does on photoshop, I promise.)

These are all my layers up to this point:

STEP 4: MAKING IT INTO AN ICON

Now we have a lovely edited picture of Tito, but we need to turn it into an icon! First I select all the layers I’ve shown above, right click, and select merge layers. This conglomerates all the layers into one layer, which is a lot easier to edit than like 12 different coloring layers. 

Now I finally cut my icon into the shape I want it. I know a lot of people do this at the beginning, but I like to save it for the end since I like to see all my coloring on it first.

So I click on the cut tool and make sure that the ratio is a square, and I pretty much just move it around until I find a position that I think looks good.

Next I will be adding the background! I once again use the eyedropper tool to find an orange from the letters on his jersey, and I ended up with #f8791c. I change the color layer that I had at the beginning to that color instead of that random pink one, so then it looks like this:

This looks pretty flat, so I add a gradient fill layer (not a gradient map) over the background and set it to a black and white gradient. I then toggle the angle so that the light looks like it’s shinning onto his face.

Then change the layer to soft light, so the background looks like this:

One small touch that I think really helps to bring the icon and background together is to color the visor on the helmet. I use the eyedropper to select an orange right by that part of the helmet, color the visor, then change that layer to color. I also decreased the opacity slightly to make it blend in better.

Honestly you could leave it like this, but I don’t really like square icons and so I’m going to turn it into a fun circle! Here are a bunch of icon templates that I really love!

Imma use this one:

First I merge my layers together. I merge the top two layers into my icon and then the bottom two into my background. I’ll explain why later.

Then I change the image size to 250x250px. I know this is big for an icon, but I like to be able to see what I’m doing. I also open the icon template above in photoshop and change it’s size to 250x250px. Add a layer mask to the background layer, and then copy the template over onto your icon.

Click on the template layer and click command + A (Mac) or ctrl+A (Windows) to select all, and then once that layer is selected press command/ctrl+C to copy it. Click on the white square of the layer mask and press alt.

Then press command/ctrl + V to paste the template in the layer mask.

Once you’ve done that you can delete the extra template layer at the top. You should have something like this:

Now the reason that I keep the Tito and the background separate is because I like to move the person around within the icon and position them where I think looks best. If I merged all the layers together I wouldn’t be able to do this, therefore I keep them separate. 

To actually put Tito in the bounds of the icon (if that makes sense), just add a clipping mask. Now I click command/ctrl + T to move him where I want him, and I also resize him a little along the way.

This is just a little trick, but do you see that part of the circle under Tito’s shoulder that is orange but should be white? To fix that I just color in a little bit of white on the icon.

Ta da! No more weird orange bit! The final step is to convert for smart filters and smart sharpen.

And that’s it!!! I know a lot of my icons come in different colors, but that’s mostly just me playing around with a combination of selective color, hue/saturation, and layer masks to change the colors around and I don’t think it’s super hard so I’m not going to explain it here bc this is long enough!

You can find this icon and all my other icons here!

[little-fae-hero]

Death would be better ch.1

Who loves angst!! linked universe mixed with the fallen timeline. Warning for philologically abuse and mental manipulation (also some light reference to attempted suicide) 

-

Link struggled very weakly as he spat up a bit of blood, the demon king likely destroyed one of his organs with the throw he was just given.

‘The demon planned for this’ Link thought as he struggled to move trying to raise his head to glare at the bastard. He had been waiting in the temple, and Link hadn’t even noticed until it was too late. By the time the stones were put into place, Link found himself being thrown across the room, hitting one of the pillars.

The Gerudo king went into a room, likely what held the Triforce from what he heard from Zelda. However when Link felt the burning in the back of his hand in the shape of a triangle he knew his fate was sealed. Link would die at the hands of Ganon, the little glow on his hand says it.

“Navi, find Zelda. Tell her what happened. Please.” Link begged his little fairy friend to abandoning him; he knew he wouldn’t be able to get up in time and make his escape.

Link had to smack Navi to get her the courage to run away. Ganon finally came back into the room, glaring at the little hero who just glared back. This was the hero's death but he wouldn’t give Ganon the satisfaction of knowing he's scared.

Just then the Demon King glare becomes a smile, making Links glare falter; Navi had taken this moment to try to fly out towards the window.

Ganon snatched the fairy as she tried to fly secretly by the king…...Then he crushed the fairy.

“NAVI!!”

-

“NAVI!” Link screamed jumping up out of bed, breathing heavily trying to catch his breath.

‘It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream’ Link tried to say to himself, trying to calm himself down….’but it wasn’t a dream’.

Link could feel the heavy chain around his ankle that’s other end was hooked to the bed, a measure that was taken after Link had tried to jump out of the window.

Link didn’t know why Ganon hadn't killed him, honestly he wished he had been killed, it was better than the hell he was in now.

Ganon had been playing the role of Link’s ‘adopted father’, caring for him, trying to keep him to eat. He knew that Ganon was planning something big by keeping up his act. If it wasn’t for Link's fading memory maybe the traumatized child would have believed him.

The thoughts of his memories made Link curl back onto the bed trying not to cry. There are things he should remember, places and people that seemed so recognizable but yet their names escaped him, and soon after the faces would become a blur as well.

His latest frustration came in the form of a goron, a big chief with a big belly laugh that could shake death mountain but yet when he tried to remember his name it came up a blank; the details of his face slowly blurring in his mind. There was no doubt that if Ganon brought end for another ‘healing session’ the gorons and death mountain would be nothing more than wisps of memory, begging for attention from the back of his mind.

Link curled up into a tighter ball, the movement irritating the wounds on his arms showing the many attempts to end his personal hell.

‘Why couldn’t Ganon just kill me?”

-

“Why do you bother keeping the kid around?” “Yeah you should have just killed him” Koume and Kotake muttered to the Gerudo king from their brooms, as the gerudo king did everything in his power to ignore his mothers. He deals with their whining everyday so the ignore was par for the course.

“Answer before we poison the boy” Koume said, flying closer to her son, who glare intensified with threat. 

“You know damn why, if we kill the brat his soul will just be reborn. It will be impossible to get rid of him, like a cockroach” Ganon said with a sneer.

“Then why are you playing house? Why waste all these resources?” Kotake joined in obviously plotting to kill the child.

“Because imagine what will happen if that little brat is on our side?” Ganondorf said with a twisted smile “A young scared child toss by the side by the goddess. Eventually he will question what’s real, he will eventually give in and accept what fate has in store. Can’t you just imagine it?” Ganon said stretching his arms wide across the map of Hyrule. “Power and Courage both under my control, and my would-be-killer taking my word as law”

“So how long are you planning on playing house?” One of his mothers asked but Ganondorf had no idea which one.

“Until his mind finally breaks and he accepts his reality” Ganon said turning around to glare at his mother “It would be easier if two certain witches didn’t keep overloading his brain, nearly killing him” The two witches just rolled their eyes.

“Leave me be” Ganon said, turning back to the map as he gestures for his mothers to leave him be. Being left alone with his thoughts he started to review his plan. It would take a little more to break the little one’s spirit, but he knew he was on the right path. Grabbing the Triforce of power gave him a glance into the timelines, he could see what that child would become. That child's fate if he doesn’t die was to become a great warrior, something that could defeat a god. Why not mould that would be hero into his army's most powerful general? 

Speaking of which it was time to visit his son.

-

“Wake up my prince” Nifari said, throwing open the curtains of the room. It had been pleasant being moved into the wonderful castle, however her job had been assigned looking after the young adopted hero.

The young hero curled up under the covers trying to hide away from the world. The Gerudo smiled as she put down the breakfast porridge on the side table as she pulled the covers off the child.

The young warrior smiled as she physically helped the child move into a sitting position, it slightly broke her heart. Their king told us the story of them taking their rightful place in the castle. However she couldn’t help her heart breaking when Ganon told us the story of this little child. The child was cursed by the hylians to only see the evil in the world, filled with paranoia and fear. Maybe her smile and kindness could help break the stupid curse.

“Come on, it’s time to eat” Nifari said as she grabbed the bowl offering a spoon full of porridge to the child. Sadly the child moved away his face away, making the gerudo face drop; she had noticed how much weight the little boy lost. “Come on our little sun, eat”

The young gerudo words were cut off by the sound of a door opening, she looked up to see the king entering. She sat down the food and bowed towards her king.

The King all but ignored her and went to his adopted son. 

“Hey Link, how are you feeling?” The male gerudo asked as he went to go put his hand on the boys head. Link quickly moved away as best as he could, avoiding eye contact. The king just seemed to sigh before taking a glance over the boy.

“Has he been eating?” Ganon asked the gerudo in change of the prince.

“No sir, I’ve been trying to get him to eat but he won't,” Nifari said with her head down wondering what punishment might await her. However the king didn’t give her a punishment, instead turning back to the child.

“You need to eat, Link. Why aren’t you eating?” Ganon said in the softest voice he could, however that didn’t stop the kids from flinching away.

"I don't like it" Link whimpered out in a gravely voice that just sounded like it hurt his throat. Ganon expression read of shock, he had been convince the hero was mute, after his scream for his fairy the boy hadn't said a word, not a peep. However to Ganon this was progress.

"Well we can make something you like. What do you want to eat?" Ganon said in a voice used for kids, not knowing how insulting the little hero found it.

"I want meat. Steak, chicken, meat" The hero stated as he stares at the king. The king noticed how the boy scratched at the wraps on his arm, his past attempts with anything sharp.

"No" Ganon states clear as day "Your past behavior shows you can't be trusted with sharp objects. You will stay on soup and portage until I know you won't hurt yourself" Ganon lost the harshness in his voice trying to take on a softer tone "I'm sorry I can't do that. Is their anything else I can do to make you happy?"

Link's face just held a glare in a way Ganon couldn't read.

"I want Navi" Link states with as much confidence as he could. He knew what he was doing, he was trying to poke holes in Ganon's story, trying to make him mad. Maybe in the end Ganon will finally just snap and end his torment.

"Alright, I'll asked her mother if she can spend the night at the castle, I know you miss-" Ganon went off happily, as if it was the easiest request he had heard.

"No!" Link screamed "I want my fairy!"

Both Ganon and Nifari were taken aback.

"Link...there was never any fairies. Fairies don't exists" Ganon said softly.

"No!" Link screamed out jumping up from the bed "She was my fairy! My Guide and you stole her from me! You killed her!" Link made a jump at the Gerudo king however Nifari had grabbed him trying to hold him back.

The boy screamed many different things, mostly horrible names towards Ganon as tears ran down his face.

"Your majesty what's wrong?!" Nifari screamed out in a panic as she held the screaming boy to her body.

"This might be from the curse the Hyilans cast. We need to get my mothers in here" Ganon suggested.

At the suggestion of Ganon's mothers Link screaming turned up by 50%, full out flailing crying and screams for help. It had gotten so bad that Nifari  had to take some steps back or risk Link breaking out of her hold.

Right next to the bathroom's glass door

Link saw his opportunity so he reached his head to one side before swing it into the door.

CRAAASH

Link felt warmed and light headed, he could hear screaming around him but he didn't care as the darkness took hold.

Somewhere in the land a portal open up and 9 adventures with the same name stepped through.

The Link's walked through the portal, confused on which world they were in now.

"Does this look familiar to anyone?" Legend asked as they took at the dark sky. Many nodded no.

Time couldn't help a gut feeling he had as this hyrule looked so similar to his after his 7 year nap. But something in his mind was telling him it was much worse.

[nominnation]

Shard of Broken Things

Author's Note: This has been posted on NCT Amino and a03. It was made specifically for NCT Amino with the Writing Club as we make our way writing fics for every member of NCT.

Pairing(s): Renjun x Jaemin

Synopsis: Renjun and Jaemin went to high school together. They were the best of friends, but after high school, they went their separate ways. Now, Renjun is investigating the mysterious deaths in the city with his partner, Jeno, and Jaemin is piercing veins with his teeth and dumping the bodies in dumpsters at midnight. What happens when they meet again? Will Renjun discover Jaemin's secret?

Genre: angst, slight fluff, supernatural

Warnings: major character death, crime, insanity, minor blood

Hwang Renjun trailed his eyes over the body of the male laced in black garments, lying face first in the mud-caked asphalt, money and identification long plucked from the confines of his leather wallet.

Renjun rubbed his brow in frustration before carefully nudging the body of the male over, mentally choking when he realized how young he was. The male was no older than 25, long, dingy brown hair matted in clumps, obviously someone who had been homeless or had been held captive for a long time. He knelt down and brought his gloved hand up to push back the hood, searching for something he hoped wasn’t there. His hopes weren’t answered as his eyes zeroed in on the very familiar signature markings. “Well?” Detective Lee Jeno asked from his place by the garbage bins, evidence camera hanging loosely around his neck. “Call Chief Qian. We’ve got another,” he replied before stepping away, letting the coroner step forward to bag the body. Jeno shook his head with a drawn out sigh and pulled the phone from his police issued jacket, only pressing one button before raising it to his ear. “Bite marks on this one too,” he spoke into the speaker. Whatever was said on the other side was inaudible as Renjun passed his partner to slide into the passenger side of the black SUV.

~ Shiny black shoes silently hit the cobblestone floor as the owner led them down the narrow hallway, lit by fire lanterns along the windowless hall. When the torches came to an end, they were replaced with a metal winding staircase that creaked with every step, leading up to a heavy black door, beams of yellow light creeping around the creases. Pulling on the cold metal handle, he opened the door without so much as a groan at the weight before slipping inside, pulling the door closed. “You’re late!” an annoying “sing-song” voice greeted him. “Put a sock in it,” Jaemin muttered grumpily, kicking off his shoes off by the door. “Where’s Boss?” he asked, not looking at the younger male, hands plunged into elbow-high soapy water. “I think he’s in the office with Doyoung,” the male said, looking back down at the water as he pulled up a white ceramic plate, placing it in the dish drainer. Jaemin gave a nod and headed toward the open kitchen door before the younger at the sink called out to him. “Tell Tae that we need a dishwasher! I’m tired of doing it by hand!” Jaemin shook his head, a smile finding its way to his red lips. “That’s kinda the whole point of probation chores, Hyuck,” the male said, strolling out of the room, sock feet meeting laminated hardwood. He walked through the mostly unused sitting room and up another, narrower set of stairs, three stories high, getting off at the second story. A long hallway covered in white tile greeted him as he rounded the bend. He strolled down the hall, nose picking up strong whiffs of mold and Doyoung’s poisonous musk. The office, Taeyong’s office to be precise, resided at the end of the long hall, 10 doors down from the stairs. Jaemin brought a fist up to rap on the bullet proof, metal encased door, when said door swung open, a tearful Chenle walking out. Jaemin shot him a confused glance but dared not utter a word as the smaller male rushed from the door, nearly slipping on the tile as he hurried to the end of the hall for the stairs, most likely to the comfort of his room a floor below. Jaemin pushed through the half ajar door, letting it close with a heavy clang behind him as his eyes habitually squinted in the dark room, only lit by a single lamp, highlighting two shadowy faces that Jaemin didn’t need to see to know they were there. “Did you complete the task?” “Yes. He’s been taken care of,” he responded cooly. “Where?” “The alley of 5th street.” “Isn’t that where you dumped the last one?” Doyoung chimed in. Jaemin rolled his eyes, meeting Doyoung’s honey brown ones briefly before nodding. “It’s the closest to the dumpsters! Easiest place to put them!” Taeyong’s lips pursed at the comment before tapping a pen on the mahogany desk. “If you’re not careful, you’ll lead them right to us!” Doyoung hissed. Jaemin tried to make it seem like the words didn’t affect him, but the truth was, the thought of leading the police back to him, back to them, was not a thought that had crossed his mind before. The realization hit him in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t see all that well in the poorly lit room, but the inhale from Doyoung meant he wasn’t finished and he was getting ready to cut into Jaemin’s resolve once more when Taeyong raised his hand. “That’s enough.” His voice soft like honey, but held such command that Jaemin’s eyes met the floor and Doyoung’s mouth snapped closed. “Jaemin is a new recruit. He cannot be expected to know these things without being told,” he began. Doyoung scoffed, but the sharp look Taeyong sent his way had him hurriedly shutting up. “With that said, Jaemin, you may continue feasting, but when it is time to get rid of your meal, someone will escort you until you learn the ways of disposing,” he said. His tone was sharp and hard, digging into Jaemin’s resolve even more, because it wasn’t what he said that hurt, it was how he said it. Jaemin gave a curt nod, clasping his hands in front of him stiffly. Taeyong’s eyes flicked to him and then back down to the stack of papers in front of him. Reading glasses perched on his

nose where he’d eyed the scribbles and curved writing on the paper that oddly resembled a map. With a simple flick of his hand, Jaemin’s stomach dropped to his toes, scrambling for the door anxiously, throwing it open and hurriedly bounding into the hall. He didn’t realize until he got there, that his chest felt odd. A dull aching feeling that he faintly recalled from his earlier years. As the door slammed behind him, he pressed his back against the wall, breathing out a long sigh of relief before staggering his way back down the hall, heading to the staircase. As he trudged, it didn’t occur to him that someone was likely going to be watching his every move, sticking with him like glue, and assisting on every dumpsite to criticize whatever he’s doing wrong. It also didn’t occur to him to think about who that person would be. There were only a handful of people living in this house, that would be able to assist. And there was no likely way that Taeyong would select someone from a different house unit to come live here just so Jaemin had a partner. As he made his way back into his room, he flopped on the massive King sized bed, flawlessly made up in the perfectly organized room. Who would they send with him? It couldn’t be Donghyuck or Chenle. Both were too young and Chenle was still a probationary member. Taeyong and Doyoung were both far too busy to deal with something so miniscule. Mark wouldn’t be any better than Jaemin himself at disposing of a body. Hendery was far too busy capturing the “prey” to be of any assistance. As he ticked them off in his head, his stomach churned and his brow creased, a habit from the days when he’d once sweat. That left only two possible options. And neither of them were desirable. Nakamoto Yuta, otherwise known as Prince, or Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul, also known as the Ten of Spades. There was no lesser of two evils. No better choice. Both were equally rotten. He was trapped between a perverted asshole who had more in common with Jaemin than he’d like to admit, and a crazy, combat thirsty devil with a dark sense of humor. His goose was well and truly cooked. ~ Jaemin’s fate wasn’t revealed until later that night. An unknown number popped up on his phone and his stomach tightened. They never gave out their cellphone numbers. And only a unit knew everyone’s real names. This unknown number was most certainly his new “partner.” He hesitated in answering the call for just a moment before, letting out a sigh, he pressed the green answer key and pressed the device to his ear. “Meet me in the catacombs.” With one instruction, the call ended, and Jaemin’s heart would have been beating impossibly fast, but all he received was another dull ache that slowly got stronger. That could have been anyone. The voice was too indistinguishable. Driven by curiosity or the ferocity of receiving an order, he slid out of bed and strolled across the hardwood floor, slipping his feet into soft leather black boots that flexed with his movements. He grabbed a small jacket from his closet, not because he was cold, but because normal people would wear jackets this time of year, and headed for the door, pain in his chest intensifying as he walked down three flights of stairs and headed through the kitchen where Mark and Donghyuck stood, glowering at the nearly broken microwave. He opened the heavy black door he’d come out of earlier and slid himself onto the creaking metal steps. The door slammed behind him as he slowly made his way down the steps, invisible pulse accelerating now as he awaited to see who this impossible partner would be. As he reached the bottom, he expected to see the silhouette of someone, but was met with only the familiar musty air that tickled the back of his throat as he breathed in. His boots silently swept across the dusty concrete as trekked down the hall of the century old tomb beneath the frontfort mansion. It didn’t take him long to locate the shape of someone’s shadow bouncing off the rocky walls by the glowing torch light. As the shadow came into view, at first

he was confused. This was neither of the men he feared, but as he got closer, a shock ran down his spine, and he had half a mind to turn the other way. He’d been wrong. There was a worse one out of his two options. And he’d gotten the worse of the two. Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul stood alert in the middle of the tomb hallway, back to Jaemin as he studied the curvature featured along the ancient pebbles creating the wall. The pain in Jaemin’s chest grew less of a dull ache and now to full blown panic as his feet drew him closer, half hoping his silent footsteps would creep up on the other, giving him an advantage. There was no advantage when the Ten of Spades was involved. “Look who finally decided to show up!” his lips curved into a sinister smirk as he spun around to face the younger. Jaemin tried not to look startled, and failed miserably if the other’s laugh was anything to go by. “For a Bloodsucker, you sure do startle easily,” he cackled. Jaemin could feel his face burn in embarrassment, the stoniness of his cheeks rippling at the pressure, a side effect from not actually being able to blush. The other’s laughter quieted finally with a shake of his head, returning back to his normal posture. The Ten of Spades was a small, thin male that was often underestimated for his height. He looked like a tiny, frail boy that was no more than a damsel. Common belief was totally incorrect. He may have been a full head shorter than Jaemin, but he could take down a typical, full grown body guard with a few swift moves. In fact, he had. He was a master at fighting, always able to locate someone’s weak spots even before they knew what they were. “Are you going to stare all day? Or are we going to get started?” he asked. Jaemin shook his head. He hadn’t realized he’d been staring. “Started on what?” he asked. Ten shook his head with a dark laugh. “Romeo brought someone else back. He’s being held in the usual place,” he said. Romeo, or as everyone else knew him, Hendery, was the units drug dealer. Except his job didn’t stop there. He was also the main man to capture and bring back individuals for Jaemin, or occasionally Yuta, to feast on. Usually, it was people who couldn’t or refused to pay for their product. Rarely was it a random civilian that had simply seen too much. Ten led them further down the tunnel, down the same cobblestone stairs he’d seen dozens of times and down into the creeping darkness that would lead to the dungeons. The brass cage door came into Jaemin’s view first, before his eyes landed on a male of about 30 or so, overweight, in ripped, bagging clothes with a trail of blood dripping down his arm. “Help me… please,” he muttered hoarsely, brown eyes filled with hope. Ten stared at him, features turning soft as he gently reached a hand in to grasp the man’s hand. Jaemin could hear the man’s heartbeat slowing as he calmed, relaxing as he finally had someone to rescue him. Or so he thought. Sharp nails dug into the chubby skin of the males arm, drawing blood to the surface in the tight grip, the male crying out at the pain as Ten’s sweet smile turned wicked. “Only death with help you now,” he hissed. Jaemin felt the familiar gnawing in the pit of his stomach as the back of his throat burned in thirst. Ten turned to look at him, giving him a wink before opening the cage door. Jaemin threw off the jacket he’d been wearing, having no desire to get stains on it. He crouched down low enough to step through the door, eyes meeting the flesh of the male before traveling up to his eyes. He was terrified. Jaemin’s eyes flashed bright red as he moved closer until he was crouched right beside the male, the delicious smell of warm blood filling his nostrils, making his stomach groan in want. “Type O. My favorite,” his voice came out as a raspy hiss. The male trembled in fright as Jaemin moved closer, placing his now parted lips on the males neck, two sharp teeth piercing the tender flesh, shooting straight into his artery. A loud, bellowing scream ripped from the males lips as he writhed and

struggled, held down by Jaemin’s iron grip as the hungry male swiftly guzzled his meal. ~ Jaemin wiped his mouth on his arm, letting the lifeless body drop to the floor as he stood up and turned around to find Ten staring at him. “Did you even leave a drop?” he asked, voice laced with humor. Jaemin shrugged in response and easily lifted the drained male, throwing the body over his shoulder and stepping out of the cage. “So are we going to go dump this thing now?” he asked. Ten gave a little chuckle somewhere between a squeak and a bellow, and nodded. “Sure, let’s go.” With that, the two made their way back up the tunnel hall they’d strolled down. “So when you drink from Haechan or Mark, what stops you from draining them like you did him?” Ten asked. Jaemin shot him a look. Since when did they have casual conversation? “Um… Well Yuta is usually there if I go too far. Not to mention, they’re some of my best friends. I keep that in mind and only drink a bit,” he said. Ten gave a humph and led them to the end of the hallway, to another black metal door. He pushed it open and stepped out first, holding the door open for the younger. When Jaemin stepped out, he was met with the blackness of the night in a back alley between the local Chinese restaurant and the Japanese manga store. Both owned and operated by members of their unit. “Now, if I weren’t with you, where would you put the body?” Ten asked. Jaemin looked around as he thought. “Maybe on 6th?” he asked, pointing with his free hand in that general direction. Ten clicked his tongue in disapproval. “And then you’re leaving bread crumbs for those stupid cops to follow,” he proclaimed. Jaemin looked down in embarrassment. He didn’t mind the killing. He didn’t mind the torture he knew some of the captives endured. He didn’t mind sleeping over an old tomb. He didn’t even mind disposing of the bodies. He just wasn’t good at it. “Come with me.” Jaemin didn’t object. He swiftly followed behind the lithe form of the smaller male, gracefully walking without a sound. “Now since you’ve been leaving bread crumbs, where do think would be the most obsolete place to dump the body without leaving a trail?” he asked. Jaemin had no idea. Up until that afternoon, he was led to believe that everything was fine with his technique, and now everything was skewed. “How about somewhere near the police station?” Ten said, a wicked glint in his eyes. Jaemin’s eyes widened. “That’s too dangerous!” he gaped. Ten shook his head and began leading the way in the opposite direction, careful to stay in the shadows of the alleys so as not to draw any attention to the boys carrying a large body. The police station was three streets over and would almost certainly be crawling with night guards, although most of them were usually alert until about 2 am. Then they’d be snoozing when they thought no one was watching or lurking. This time of night though, they’d all be wide awake, at least for another hour. And Ten seemed to think that that made the job exciting. One thing was for sure, though, Jaemin did not find this exciting. Not even a little bit. When they finally reached the back alley across the street from the police station, Jaemin could practically feel the nerves crawling over his skin. “Why do we have to do this?” he asked, voice trembling. Ten rolled his eyes and shoved Jaemin slightly, making the younger glare at him. “Relax! It’s not like we’re marching him up the steps of the station. We’re dropping him in the dumpster!” Jaemin’s eyes zeroed in on the dumpster. It was right near the entrance of the alley. Barely concealed by the shadows of the alley and the night. “No! I can’t do it!” Ten huffed and pushed Jaemin forward. “Throw it in the dumpster and run if you’re that scared!” he whispered sternly. Jaemin found his footing quickly and crept forward. He didn’t like this, but Ten would never let it go if he didn’t do this. Not to mention what Doyoung or Taeyong would do to him if he couldn’t succeed. As he got closer, he could feel the hairs on the back

of his neck stand up. He kept his eyes trained on the police station, hoping no one would see him creeping around in the dark. Taking cautious steps, he slowly raised the metal lid. Once it was open wide enough, he used all of his strength to maneuver the body off of his shoulder and down into the metal bin. As soon as the body hit the trash below, he let the lid fall, wincing as it gave a loud clang, no doubt getting the attention of all of the officers roaming the street. He wasted no more time and turned back toward the direction they’d come from and bolted as fast as his legs would carry him, not even caring if Ten could keep up or not. Jaemin let out a small groan as the phone near his head continuously buzzed, demanding attention. He rolled over, swatting around the mattress and sheets before finding the phone, answering the call without bothering to look at the caller id. It was probably an unknown number anyways. To his surprise, a familiar voice greeted him on the other side, causing him to shoot up in the bed. “Renjun?!” he asked in complete disbelief at hearing from his high school best friend again after three years. “Hey Nana, how are you?” he asked. Jaemin felt his insides turn mushy at the voice. “I’m good Renjunnie! How are you?” He heard a small laugh on the other side of the speaker. “I’m wondering if you will meet me in an hour at our favorite coffee shop. I miss you,” he said. Jaemin felt the same dull ache as the night before fill him, but this time, it was pleasant. “Ok! I’ll see you soon!” With that, the two hung up. A smile stitched itself across Jaemin’s face as he toppled out of bed, excited jitters flowing off of him as he pulled open various doors, pulling out a pair of jeans and a nice green shirt for this outing. He slid into a pair of black Vans and was out the door as soon as he could be. He bounded down the stairs with such an excited energy he was practically radiating it. “What’s got you so jittery this morning?” Donghyuck asked as Jaemin pranced into the kitchen. Jaemin couldn’t fight the smile on his face. “Renjunnie called! I’m going to meet him at the cafe!” he cheered. Donghyuck’s amused face fell. “But you haven’t seen him since… you know… the change,” he said, gesturing with his hands. Jaemin’s face fell. He hadn’t thought about that. Both boys had gone to high school together, along with Donghyuck, Mark and Chenle amongst others. Renjun and Jaemin had been stuck together practically all through high school. They never did anything unless the other was close behind. Both made good grades and stayed out of the limelight as much as possible. Keeping their heads down and never getting into trouble. After high school, Renjun had gone off to school and Jaemin had stayed behind, unable to afford the luxuries of further schooling. He was happy in the mafia. Happy with how his life had turned out. He had food and friends and shelter. But then there was the minor complication of his… new self. The one Renjun didn’t know and most likely wouldn’t approve of. Just like everyone else. Jaemin took a deep, unneeded breath and shrugged. “I don’t care,” he said coolly, strolling out the door. Upon arriving at the cafe, he strolled inside, hoping to seem as nonchalant as he possibly could. He spotted Renjun sitting at a booth near the back, dressed perfectly professionally in a tan button down shirt and tan pants that looked eerily familiar. Jaemin was gleeful as he got closer, plopping down in the booth across from his friend and giving him a wide smile that Renjun returned. “I ordered your favorite!” Renjun beamed. Jaemin’s face fell. How was he supposed to explain that his high school best friend that he no longer drank the coffee he drank every day for four years? How would the male ever understand without knowing the truth? Maybe this was a bad idea. “I um… I actually don’t drink coffee anymore,” he muttered. Renjun gave him a questioning look, a cover for the slight hurt that crossed his features. He’d tried to wash it away but Jaemin could still see

it. Well that came out of nowhere. “Um… just down the street. I have a few roommates,” he said, not telling a complete lie. Renjun nodded and hummed as he tapped his fingers on the table. “What have you been up to since high school?” he asked. Jaemin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It wasn’t like Renjun to ask him questions like that. “Well, I’ve had a few jobs here and there,” he said. Renjun nodded and tapped on the plastic coffee in front of him. “What about you? What have you been doing since high school?” Jaemin asked. Renjun gave him an inquisitive look, glancing down at his own attire as if it should have been obvious. And it was. If Jaemin had been paying attention. The badge on his shirt was a dead giveaway, and Jaemin hadn’t seen it. “Oh… I see… That’s awesome!” he exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. “Actually, my job is why I wanted to meet with you,” he began. The pain in Jaemin’s chest intensified. Why else would he want to talk to him as a police officer if he hadn’t done anything wrong. Suddenly flashes of the night before filled his mind. What if they’d seen him? It was dark, but what if they’d seen him throw away the body? “We found a body in a trash bin last night. Probably 30 or so.” Here it comes! Renjun would surely be crucified now! “Whoever is doing this apparently is a vampire, judging by the saliva we’ve gotten off the bodies.” He froze in his seat. They had his saliva! “This person seems to have a thing for young people. So please, try to be careful. I don’t want to find my high school crush in the trash.” A load removed itself from Jaemin’s chest. They didn’t know it was him. But they would have to be more careful. Wait. Did he just say- “You had a crush on me?” A blush found its way up to Renjun’s cheeks, the once sturdy male now looking like the shy boy Jaemin remembered from early high school. [C] “Had is a little untrue… I have a crush on you,” he said, muttering the last bit. Jaemin’s eyes widened. All this time he’d been pining after Renjun, and now, he finds out after the horrible accident that Renjun had been pining after him too! “I kinda still have a crush on you too…” he said. Had he had the ability, he would have been blushing too. Renjun’s eyes lit up. “So maybe you’d like to go on a date sometime?” Renjun asked. Jaemin looked around the restaurant, eyebrows creasing. “Aren’t we on a date right now?” he asked. Renjun grinned. “If we were, I certainly wouldn’t be in my work clothes. And we’d be doing something a little classier than getting coffee.” Jaemin fiddled with his thumbs beneath the table, a shy smile worked its way onto his lips. “You’ve changed a lot, you know,” Renjun commented. Jaemin glanced up at at Renjun. “What do you mean? I haven’t changed.” The male across from him let out a sound somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. “A few years ago, if I had said a comment like that, your face would have been as red as a tomato.” So Renjun did remember. And if he wasn’t careful, the male would piece together just how different he was. Once Jaemin opened the big heavy door from the tunnels into the house, he was almost immediately bombarded by questions. “Why would you go out like that?!” “What did you do?!” “Does he know anything?!” “Why the meeting?!” Jaemin brushed them off as best he could, opting to walk past the questions and out of the kitchen, until of course, a small, but firm arm grabbed his elbow, tugging him back into the kitchen. “Jaemin’s friend is a cop,” Ten’s voice snarled. Jaemin’s knees locked in shock and surprise. “How do you-?” “I followed you. Now I understand why you didn’t want to dump the body near the station! You didn’t want your boyfriend to see you!” Jaemin shook his head rapidly. “No! I didn’t even know-” “Maybe Jaemin’s working for them!” Jaemin’s body shook. Why would anyone accuse him for that?! Let alone, Chenle! “No! I swear!” “Get out Jaemin.” Doyoung’s voice was snarled and low. A voice he was used to hearing, but never directed at him. His feet moved on their own, head ducked low,

feet shuffling up the stairs to his room to await whatever doom was being decided upon him. Something like this had happened only once before. Jaemin had been in the vampire transition then to fully comprehend and understand what was going on. He did remember Yuta though. Bent over the trembling body of a male in their colors. Vaguely, he remembered the name. Taeil maybe? He’d obviously been someone special to Yuta. He’d never been the same since. That changed him into a ruthless, bloodthirsty killer. The door to his room flew open. Surely they hadn’t decided his fate already! It’d only been a few minutes! But when Jaemin caught Yuta’s eyes, he knew what he’d be forced to do. And it shattered him. Yuta’s arms locked around Jaemin, holding the younger in front of him as he was shoved through the dark catacombs, feet never making a sound. Jaemin struggled, a feeble attempt at getting away. And had it been anyone else, he would have succeeded. He and Yuta shared far too much in common. “You shouldn’t have gone. Then this wouldn’t have happened. But you are a fool,” Yuta hissed in his ear. If Jaemin possessed the ability to cry, he would be bawling. Instead, he was stuck, hands trembling, mind reeling, stomach hardening. Yuta shoved him through the familiar room with the cages. A room he visited almost on a nightly basis for his meals. Usually, the room had no affect on him. If he was particularly thirsty, this room brought him great joy. Now, all he felt was fear and hate. Renjun’s body was bruised badly. His arm was bent back in a way no arm should ever be. His left eye was blackening and puffy. Jaemin had hoped that at least he’d be passed out, that this could be just a little easier. But of course, this was the mafia. Great when no one had wronged them. Ruthless when someone had. Renjun’s eyes zeroed in on Jaemin. His one good eye widening then scrunching into betrayal. “I knew you were hiding something,” he hissed. Jaemin’s eyes cast to the floor, chest tightening in pain. “Well get to it. We don’t have all day.” Taeyong’s voice came as a shock. He expected Doyoung to be here. But not their usually soft-hearted leader. The cage opened and Jaemin was shoved inside. His eyes roved over Renjun with pity, fear, and sadness. Love and pain filling his chest. “I knew there was something different. I just didn’t know you were a killer.” The words pierced Jaemin’s unbeating heart. “Please don’t make me do this,” his words were a hoarse whisper. “Pathetic,” Ten’s voice muttered, stepping forward. He reached through the cage with a pocket knife and cut a large gash on Renjun’s arm, Renjun yelped out in pain. Blood beaded down Renjun’s arm. As soon as the smell hit Jaemin’s nose, his eyes glowed the familiar red. Renjun let out a strained laugh, eyes trained on Jaemin’s. “So much for our date,” he muttered. Jaemin got closer, knelt beside the male, staring at him hungrily now. Eyes bright red as the blood wafted to his nose. “I have always loved you,” he whispered, leaning closer and pressing a kiss to Renjun’s neck. Renjun sucked in a harsh breath of air. Jaemin could hear the males heart thudding in his ears. Jaemin grazed his teeth over Renjun’s vein, his brain muddled with the sounds of Renjun’s heart. He faintly heard the quiet squeak of the cage opening. Most likely a hungry Yuta coming to help Jaemin finish the job. But Jaemin had other plans. He waited for the door to open completely, and when it did, he snapped around, finding Haechan standing at the door, wide eyed. Jaemin’s mind was too addled to coherently see Haechan. He pushed his body into the elder, sending them both barreling into the floor. “Run Renjun!” He screamed, sinking his teeth into the tender flesh of Haechan’s neck, the other letting out a loud scream, thrashing around. He heard the cage rattle as feet scurried around him, attempting to yank him off Haechan, who’s blood pooled into his mouth deliciously. He didn’t get to indulge long though. Arms wrapped around him, encasing him against a chest as fangs bore into

his own neck, ripping the flesh. “Get him out of here!” he heard Taeyong bellow somewhere close by. He assumed Doyoung and Hendery had carried Haechan out before Yuta attacked the young one too. “Shit! He got away!” Ten yelled angrily, stomping the ground before walking over and slamming his fist into Jaemin’s jaw. “You little traitor! You are not better than Yuta!” he screamed. The teeth in his neck retracted. Jaemin knew what that meant. He took one last breath, looking around the room calmly, relieved that Renjun had got away. “I can’t help that I loved him,” he whispered hoarsely. His body felt so very heavy. Venom trickled down the holes in his neck as he succumbed to the weight. Renjun perched right outside a window in the tomb. He hadn’t been able to go too far in his beaten state, but it was away, somewhere they’d never be able to get him. He watched with tearful eyes as Jaemin’s body was dropped callously to the floor, eyes wide but without movement. No breath entering his body. He watched as the body thinned, stomach sinking in on itself, ribs revealing themselves. Taking him back to the same state he’d been in before he was turned. And he realized it then. Renjun had gone to college because his parents could afford it. Jaemin’s family couldn’t afford food. He’d slowly starved to death. “Get him out of here,” the smallest of them all muttered, kicking Jaemin’s body and stomping away as the other vampire picked up the body. Renjun’s heart broke in two places. One side full of sadness and sorrow. The other full of pure hatred and anger. He would avenge Jaemin’s death. He wouldn’t stop until everyone in this Mafia house were dead.P

[magma-paint]

Tutorial Tuesdays: Heads Up!

It’s been a long time, life is a jerk. Anyway, drawing heads! Before continuing, I recommend reviewing the last Tutorial Tuesdays post on pencil pressure and drawing with basic shapes since those are going to be put into effect. Ready to go? Alright, since this is going to be a long one, click the Read More link and away we go!

The head is likely the part of any character you’re going to find yourself drawing the most. Expressions, headshots, closeups, busts, you name it. So let’s start by drawing a basic head and start with the most common view, the 3/4 view.

This is the most basic process condensed into four steps. Lightly sketch a circle and a guideline, the former typically is the form of most of the skull and the crosslines will help with placement of the eyes, nose, and ears. Then define the shape of the face, including the cheeks and jawline, with a bit stronger pressure  but still keeping pretty light. Sketch in the ear and the curvature of the back of the head, as well as the neck. The furthest line of the neck will be relatively close to where the jawline and ear connect. Then sketch in the features; very lightly sketch in circles where the eyes are--above the horizontal guideline but no further down than touching it--and sketch the eye shape and pupil/iris, alternating sides with each stroke to alleviate the frustration that comes with “drawing the other eye”. You know what I’m talking about. The nose will be close to the guideline intersection, if not actually on it at certain angles. And viola, a basic head at 3/4 view. This same process is used when facing at 3/4 the opposite way.

For a profile view, or looking at the head from the side, same basic four-step breakdown:

You’ll notice that the nose sticks out and you can see where the head connects to the neck at the back. Another guideline helps with ear placement. I should have put the guideline for that on the 3/4 view, but I find that the main guideline and jawline contour work better for me. Use the additional guideline for the ear if it will help with the spatial relation of that feature. More experienced artists may tweak areas to fit their signature style. For example, placement of the lips. In anime, especially more realistically styled anime, the lips appear as very small peaks with the valley between them being there the mouth is.

Now onto probably the second most common view, the front view. Also using the same four step condensed breakdown:

(Some of it cut off, oops) Now you can see how the face is arranged when looking at the viewer straight on. This is the easiest to practice, followed by 3/4, then profile. You can even cheat  by using the Symmetry pen in digital programs (just make sure you anchor down the point of reference first with Control+Click!). While basic, this works for just about any human character, though using references is highly encouraged to get a feel for the anatomy before messing with it to fit a particular style.

“I draw anthro animals, does this still work?”

Yes. For both super cartoony stylized characters and more realistically built and furry styles. Let’s start with looking at the fastest thing alive:

See? Circle, guideline, map out the features, and soon you got a cool boi.

Furries or more realistically styled anthros will tend to have more shapes and forms in their facial construction to better adhere to the anatomy of the animal they’re based on. JKU, my friend Elliot’s fursona, is an alien but the anatomy is based on a dog or a wolf. Study the animal you’re drawing if you need help or even to make a basic breakdown of the shapes you would need.

“How about object heads, like Cuphead?”

Absitively-posolutely! I personally use the circle foundation when drawing the Cup Bros or even just for general mapping the direction they’re looking, but once you master it, you can take the basic shape of the object you’re using, like this candle girl, and manipulate it to get it where you need them to face without relying on the circle.

Alright, now that you understand the basics of drawing a head, let’s move onto

Hair is a total mess and if there’s one thing I will warn beginning artists right now, DON’T DRAW STRAND BY INDIVIDUAL STRAND. It helps to think of hair and draw it in larger chunks and forms as a whole than by each individual one. As I shall demonstrate with my boi Guzma:

Okay, now that we have removed accessories from the picture, let’s set this up.

The process goes by starting with a basic head and the respective features of the character. Now we add the hairline, a visible boundary where the hair coverage begins. You‘ll sketch it for the forehead, the sideburns, and the nape of the neck if you’re in rear views. Now, piece by piece, we sketch the hair; I started with the floof at the top, then the right side of the sketch, then the left. If you have a character with a symmetrical hairstyle/haircut, remember the technique to avoid “the other eye” (or cheat by using the symmetry pen in digital).

The hairline itself varies from character to character or style to style, sometimes more seasoned artists won’t use it since it becomes hidden anyway. It does come in three basic shapes: flat (as seen on Guzma), protruding (it comes out a little bit in the front but following a smooth contour), and a widow’s peak, as seen on Equius:

The hairline is also useful in drawing and styling a character’s bangs or even indicating how the hair parts. Know what else it’s nifty for? It’s actually one of the most noticeable indicators of age. And you knew this example was coming and you probably even saw it coming from a mile away so let’s get it over with.

In 2018, Ace of the Gangreen Gang from The Powerpuff Girls became an official member of Gorillaz, temporarily taking up the role as the bassist while Murdoc was in jail. Since the band members age in real time, the same applies to Ace. Besides the addition of a couple wrinkles, the most noticeable effect time has had on him is the receding hairline and decreased volume/body his hair has compared to when he was within spitting range of becoming a legal adult. I could even do an entirely new tutorial on hair by age, but this is just the basics.

So we talked about hairlines and drawing in large chunks. What about characters with hair accessories or their hair pulled into ponytails or pigtails? Allow Plumeria and Bubbles to demonstrate:

Take your basic head and define the hairline (though it may be impractical on any angle on the PowerPuff Girls). Draw in the part and bangs if applicable and define the volume of the hair close to the head. Lightly sketch a circle on each side where the hair gathers on the head and map out the length of the hair. Define the pigtails first and then the hair accessories. And you good!

For specific textures of hair, look for references or additional tutorials. Bald characters such as Russel Hobbs or Dr. Eggman don’t really need much of a tutorial, but you do want to make sure the head is constructed very well to make it convincing. And on that topic...

TROUBLESHOOTING

These are some traps that beginning artists fall into or rookie mistakes seasoned artists shouldn’t be making on prime pieces. Let’s break them down:

Balloon Heads and Painted-on Faces

These two are beginning (more pronounced for anthro) artist pitfalls and tropes that were very common among the Sonic fandom back when Sonic X was at the peak of its popularity online in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Ohohoho... man, those were some times. Now, I do like Sonic X and even Sonic Underground, but it’s frustrating how prevalent balloon faces are in these professionally--well, mostly professionally--made shows put to television. As demonstrated here:

On the left, the example keeps all the features of Amy’s face within the basic circle with no indication of volume. Nothing that would indicate what parts of the face are supposed to stick out and it’s not exactly in a style that makes it simplistic enough to slide. The right, while not perfect, could reasonably be translated to 3D or CGI and the anatomy would check out and make it more convincing. At least, in 3/4 view or front view and some frames of Sonic X can be brushed off as an odd camera angle or going into a moving frame or just being too far away from the camera to properly discern some features. In profile view it’s less forgivable and more common to Sonic Underground and beginning artists.

In profile view, balloon heads/painted-on faces are a very noticeable mistake derived from keeping all the features inside the circle. At the very worst you can have the inset in the middle, where the nose is inside the guide circle and looks very much like it was just painted on. This is something that most artists usually grow out of in their last years of elementary school (or for those who use the metric system, primary school). At best, the mistake is just sticking the nose on the outside of the circle without accounting for convincing shape of the face, such as the Amy sketch on the left. On the right, the muzzle and, if you can see it, “eyebrow” stick out to convey how the eyes are covered based on the Mobian skull and the muzzle sticks out to accommodate the internal structure of the face. As seriously as you can take a cartoon character’s anatomy and biology, anyway.

Really the only case I could see these mistakes being fine or harmless is on object heads like Lucius (a billiard ball) and Claire (a sugar bowl) in the rubber hose style. However, the style is deceptively easy in which it may look simple but you have to have a good grasp on the style or it falls into the uncanny valley. Balloon heads and painted on faces seem to be more common to stylized anthro characters, but I’ve made a number of fluffy anime creatures and anime-styled human characters in seventh grade that fall into the trap.

Lopping

More common to human and humanoid characters, lopping is a mistake in which you draw the face alright but the hair at the top of the head really doesn’t look right to the point that the head itself doesn’t look right.

You’ll notice in this drawing of Lapis that the face shape looks okay, the eyes and nose and mouth are where they need to be, the hair is the right style, but it looks... off. Sketching a dotted line to outline the head at its most basic form shows that the hair placement defies the rules of anatomy. Such a mistake is what I call lopping, as it looks like the head was lopped off and the hair is trying to cover it. This is why I stress starting your sketch with basic shapes and then constructing details around the foundation.

Looks much better, right? And since in Steven Universe the gems don’t really have ears (at least, that’s my observation), you can lightly sketch in an oval where the ears normally are (in 3/4 and profile views) to help draw in the face shape and jawline.

As always, practice drawing these regularly and don’t shy away from references if you need something to study or a visual aid or guide. Happy drawing!

Next episode: No plans, but will take requests or suggestions in my inbox/Discord.

[welcometophu]

Into the Split: Evolution 1

Twinned Book 3: Into the Split

Evolution 1

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The library at PHU is fascinating.

Everything about PHU is fascinating, really, and terrifying at the same time. There are so many people, going about their lives as if nothing else exists, and Nikolai feels off-balance just to be around them. People smile and say hello to him and Seth, friendly and comfortable even though they know nothing about them. Nikolai isn’t sure how to handle it.

He’s thankful that Pawel was able to give them access to a smaller library within the library. They have little identification cards made of plastic that Pawel gave them after a day spent trapped in his house, and they’ve spent the two days since in the library. There is food available, as long as they hand over the card to get it, and they have this one room to retreat to when they need it.

Nikolai needs it often, Seth even more so.

The library is a riot of emotions, a rush of anxiety and random notes of pleasure. In their first few hours in the building, Seth had moments where he reached out to grab on to Nikolai and clutch his hand tightly. Even now, when they venture out of the special collections room, after a time Seth’s eyes squeeze shut and Nikolai can feel the way he centers himself, the warm, soft blanket of calm that settles over them both.

Then they retreat.

This one room is a treasure trove. The door locks behind them; Pawel explained that only Magical Studies majors can access the room, and then with his permission. The room is filled with books about Talent. Old books and new books. All hand-written or small runs from a printing press. A valuable history of this world’s version of how Talent works.

It doesn’t always match up with what Nikolai learned as a child, but it offers an interesting counterpoint.

They read a lot, while Nikolai drinks cocoa and Seth discovers a strong love of bitter coffee. At first Nikolai dislikes the bitterness on Seth’s tongue when they kiss, then it becomes something that is a part of kissing Seth, a part of his taste.

They adapt, slowly but surely.

Their ID cards show them as visiting scholars, and while the librarian on duty gave Pawel a dubious look when he first introduced them, she is kind enough moving forward. It makes it feel as if they have one ally in the library, someone who won’t look strangely at them for their questions. When Nikolai’s stomach rumbles on Wednesday afternoon, they gather their few things and make their way down to the front desk and ask directions to Teas Please.

That makes her smile, and she prints out a map and highlights the route. “Everyone loves Teas Please,” she says. “If they aren’t in the coffee shop here, they go there for tea and crêpes.”

“We’ve been, right after we arrived,” Nikolai tells her. “It was good, so we figured we’d go back for dinner tonight.”

“Are you at loose ends? There are some other good places around campus, and I can mark them off for you.” The librarian holds out her hand, and Nikolai gives her back the printout so she can highlight and label several addresses.

The names of the restaurants go over his head, but he figures they have time to investigate eventually. Pawel gave them other cards as well, ones for money in this world, with instructions to buy what they needed. One of these days they really need to just go explore.

Nikolai tries not to think too hard about assimilating their way into this place. They’re leaving, someday. It just doesn’t seem to be coming quickly.

He and Seth link hands as they walk along the pathways that wind through the campus, heading for one of the roads that leads out. It’s a warm spring day, and there are people everywhere. The sun hangs low in the sky, there’s a low breeze, and the lawn looks almost like a beach. There are knots of people sitting on blankets or towels. A few are wearing bathing suits, stretched out despite the air being still too cool for that little amount of clothes. A frisbee sails by, and a girl apologizes as she darts past them in order to grab it and send it back to her friend.

The atmosphere is full of joy, in an entirely different way than the sugaring festival had been. Nikolai has heard the darker news of this world—killings and famine and water so dead it could poison people—but at the same time, these students feel innocent. Like they have no idea how different the world could be.

Seth squeezes his hand, and Nikolai squeezes back. This isn’t their world, and it never will be. Even if they find a way to stop the Shadow invasion back home, they won’t see their world become like this in their lifetime.

When they reach Teas Please, they don’t recognize the hostess that greets them. She has two menus in her hand and is about to mark down something on a sheet in front of her when a waiter swoops in. He has his hands on her shoulders, leans in to whisper something in her ear, and she looks at Nikolai and Seth, wide-eyed.

“Oh,” she says, handing the menus off to the waiter, then marking a different spot on her sheet. “Nate will show you to your booth.”

“I’ve heard you’ve been here before,” Nate says cheerfully as he leads them through the restaurant and into the back again. The u-shaped booth at the back is empty, and seems far too large for just the two of them, but Nate drops the menus there anyway. He waves for them to sit. “You’ll have company soon. Alaric asked me to keep an eye out for you, and I figure if Alaric’s coming by, that means you’ll have a crowd before you know it. It usually seems to work that way.”

Seth slides in along the back wall, and Nikolai sits carefully next to him. “Thanks,” Nikolai says.

“He sent me pictures. That’s how I recognized you.” Nate shows an image of them on his phone—they’ve been having lessons in how these phones work ever since they arrived, and they’ve posed for several pictures along the way. “So hey, I’m Nate, and I’ll be your waiter. Do you want any tea or water to get started? Any advice on the menu? Or,” he lowers his voice, “Mallory’s in the kitchen, which means if you want a chef’s special, today’s the day to get it.”

Seth’s brow furrows as he closes the menu. “What’s the chef’s special?”

“It’s where I tell Mallory a little about you, and she makes whatever seems like you might want it. She reminds me of the mother of a friend of mine. A teammate of Alaric’s actually—the friend, not the mother.” Nate slides onto the bench opposite them, leaning on the table. “Similar Talents, I think, although Mallory swears she’s not Talented. She’s just good at reading people. So. Advice, time to look, or a Mallory special?”

“I want something I haven’t had in a while,” Nikolai says. “Something that reminds me of my childhood, and doesn’t have anything that comes from a can or a jar or something else that was in a safehouse.” He assumes that Nate’s heard their story, since he seems to know who they are.

“We’ll share. So, you have those tiered things.” Seth raises his hand above the table, then gestures at another couple at a smaller table with two of the three-tiered setups on their table.

“Afternoon tea, yes. You get any two of a crêpe or sandwich, salad, and soup, plus a dessert. It’s extra for some of the things,” Nate explains.

Nikolai digs into his pocket, pulls out the money card Pawel gave him. “If we have this, we should hopefully have enough, right? Pawel said he put money on it and to use it, because it’s easiest for now.”

“Should be good,” Nate agrees. “So you guys want to share a—”

“Not sharing,” Seth said. “Not like you’re thinking. We each want one of those tea things, and we’ll split between them so no duplicates. He opens the menu and looks down at, frowning intently as he holds up his hand in a clear signal for everyone else to pause.

Nikolai leans in, points at a couple of options, and Seth nods his response. Nikolai doesn’t mind letting Seth make the choices here, and he likes the idea of getting lots of things to share.

In the end, it’s going to be one savory crêpe, a bowl of lobster bisque, a simple green salad, a pilgrim sandwich, a sweet crêpe with raspberries, and a slice of marbled tea cake.

It sounds like a lot of food between the two of them.

It also sounds like bliss.

Alaric arrives before their food does, with a girl in tow. She has a silver bar in one eyebrow and cluster of five silver rings at her temple. A nose ring peeks out, and when she reaches across the table with one hand to introduce herself as Sera, Nikolai stares at the intricate black ink tracing across her entire hand and up her wrist.

Alaric leans in and murmurs something, and Sera thwacks his chest with the back of her hand.

“We brought you phones,” Sera says, sliding two devices across the table at them. “They should be ready to run through a setup routine, and we’ve already gotten them online for you, on a network, and you have email addresses and numbers.” She gives them each an envelope of information. “Memorize that, don’t let anyone else have it. Security is everything around here, and if someone gets that information, they can essentially become you. A virtual you.”

None of that makes any kind of cohesive sense, but Nikolai knows the polite response. “Thank you.”

“I’ve put in a bunch of numbers for you already,” Alaric says.

Sera puts a hand over Alaric’s as he reaches out. “Slow down, let them get their phones set up first.”

She walks them through answering questions on the screen of the phone by tapping, then pressing their fingers to the little buttons in order to set a fingerprint, then finally letting the phone somehow recognize their face. It’s nonsense but Nikolai follows all the instructions and in the end, he can at least get into his phone and lock it up when she tells him to do so.

“There are a lot of apps, and you probably won’t really want to use most of it for a while, but you’ll need to learn how to make a call, get a call, and deal with texts,” Sera says.

Nikolai stares at the thing in his hand. It’s cold, and weirdly small to try to read. He’s not sure he likes it. “Okay,” he agrees.

“Touch here,” Alaric instructs, and both Nikolai and Seth touch the same place on their respective phones. It opens up a screen with a list of names, and Alaric shows them how to scroll through. Nikolai spots Seth on his list, and his own name on Seth’s list. Several of the other given names are familiar, even if the surnames are not.

Seth mumbles something under his breath, and Alaric huffs. “Szczek,” Alaric says. “It’s Polish.”

There are names Nikolai doesn’t know—Drea Herne, and someone named Corbin. Dayton. Susan. Lucy. He wishes he could just get rid of all the other names, but maybe Alaric put them in there for a reason. Maybe Nikolai needs them. He can’t think why.

Seth touches something on his screen, and Nikolai’s phone vibrates, then sings out with music Nikolai doesn’t recognize. Seth’s name flashes on his screen, and Sera reaches across to show Nikolai how to answer.

It’s been a long time since he’s used a phone, and never one quite like this. He remembers mobile phones as being more awkward. A little clunky, and something only his parents or older brothers had.

On the other hand, he’s the same age they were when they went off to college, too, right before the Split.

That’s a hell of a thought.

“Hey everyone!” Nikita sings out, waving as she slides between two tables to reach them. She hip checks Sera so that she and Alaric slide down the bench, all the way around until he’s on Seth’s other side. That leaves room for Nikita and Heather to slide in.

Carolyn stands with Serina, the server from the other night. Serina has her palms on either side of Carolyn’s face, thumbs light against her cheekbones as they rub their noses together. Carolyn tugs Serina in, arms wrapped around her for a long moment before Serina withdraws and presses a kiss to Carolyn’s cheek.

“I’ve got to get to my shift,” Serina says, waving with a little flick of her fingers. “Nice to see you, Nik and Seth! Is Nate serving you? I’ll make sure he brings food out soon. Oh! Do the rest of you know what you want? I can bring your orders back and get that started.”

Everyone shouts orders like they’re used to being there, and Serina just nods, then reels it all back to them in order to confirm that she’s got it right. She runs off and the newcomers shrug out of their jackets.

“This happens all the time,” Nikita says. “It’s like one person comes here and then suddenly we have a crowd, and seriously, if we sit here long enough, half my floor will show up.” She wrinkles her nose, then clarifies, “Half the people who live on the same floor of my dorm as me.”

Carolyn pulls something out of her pockets, and unwraps and lays her deck of cards on the table. She looks across at Nikolai. “I was thinking that since we seem to have moved into and possibly through some of your last reading, a small three card reading might be nice for focus.” There’s a soft flush on her cheeks. “Also, Serina said you were talking about the cards with her the other night, so I was thinking maybe that’d be a good thing.”

“No Death,” Seth says firmly. “We’ve had enough change at this point, I think.”

“I think we’re still in for a lot more change,” Alaric rumbles. “I’ve been talking to Dayton—”

“Who?” Seth asks. Nikolai remembers the name from their phones.

“One of my Clan allies. You have her number, just in case. Things are changing in the Clan world, at least in this area,” Alaric explains. “We’ve always been traditional. What you saw in Havenhill isn’t like my home now, but it’s what I’d like to see. More relationships with other Talents. Opening us up so we can grow. We can’t stay the same.”

Sera knocks into Alaric. “Look at you being all grown up and everything.”

He bares his teeth and growls at her; she just grins in response.

Carolyn idly shuffles the cards in her hand. “Anyway. I don’t have to, if you don’t want. Or we could just do a general reading, for everyone. It might lock on to one person here, accidentally, or it could just be generically about the future we’re all working towards. Because we are all working on something, right?”

“We need to work on building networks,” Nikita says. “A Dreamwalker network and a Technopath network.”

“I love that you have a name for me now,” Sera murmurs. Her gaze has shifted, staring into the air somewhere over Carolyn’s head. “I’m working on that. It’s going to take time. It’s not like any of us have been trying to either hide or congregate so I need to figure out a way to get the word out without causing all kinds of entertaining trouble. Doesn’t help that I don’t know a single other Talent like me.”

“And we can’t get multiple Dreamwalkers in the same place, which is going to make that part difficult, too,” Heather says.

Seth gestures from Nikita to Nikolai. “Yes, we can,” he says firmly. “Your Dreamwalkers need to learn control. Because in case you haven’t noticed, we have two of them right here. And didn’t we have three the other day?”

“We also had an ice storm and now we have 70 degree weather just three days later.” Heather leans forward, her hands clasped on the table. “Maybe in the future they can all be one place, but right now, anything more than the two of you is asking for trouble.”

This is definitely going to take a while.

“Pawel said he’ll reach out to the few Dreamwalkers he knows, like the one I was training with, and they’ll reach out, and we’ll try to get together online and by phone to start talking,” Nikita says.

“Where is our erstwhile leader?” Sera asks, gesturing at the table. “If we’re talking saving the world, shouldn’t he be here?”

“He’s still walking a weird line socializing with his students,” Carolyn says quietly. “I think we’ve all spent more time with him lately than administration would say is appropriate.”

“Mac said he actually had an appointment or something,” Alaric says. When Carolyn makes a face, he adds, “Don’t think we’re exactly typical students and a professor anymore.”

“I think it’s a tricky line right now,” Heather adds softly.

Nikolai and Seth’s food arrives, three plates high in a little tiered cage. The scent of raspberry catches him first, followed by warm turkey and cranberry. Memories twist in his gut, and he reaches for the sandwich first. He breaks it in half, handing one part to Seth before taking a huge bite of his own.

Carolyn is still shuffling her cards, and probably still waiting for an answer. Nikolai ignores the question, letting the conversation flow without him for a time as he shares first the sandwich, then the bowl of soup, both he and Seth alternating as they dip their spoons in and carefully taste it.

Carolyn sets her deck aside when the rest of the food arrives along with Nate bringing a chair to the end of the table and a plate of his own. “I’ve got a thirty minute break due,” Nate says easily. “I’ve been going since the breakfast rush, and never took either of my fifteens. Serina will handle my tables while I hang out with you.”

Nate’s easy to talk to. One of his eyes drifts slightly inward, and Nikolai finds himself staring at it, but when he apologizes, Nate waves it off. “I’ve had a lazy eye since I was a kid and by the time anyone really noticed, it was too late to fix it. Doesn’t really affect much anymore. It’s not like I’m trying to catch a football or hit anything. I just want to run a long way as fast as I can, and I can see the distance just fine.”

“You’re a runner,” Nikolai says. “I think Mikhail did that for a bit in high school. He wasn’t very good at it.”

“I’m really good at it.” Nate’s gaze is far away, like he’s seeing a horizon in the distance. “When I get out there running, it’s me and the track or the road, and I can feel it in my feet. There’s a cadence to it, and it mixes with my heartbeat, and I just keep going. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid, and it’s how I have a scholarship to PHU.” He jerks his chin towards Alaric. “His teammate, Dax, is doing it now, too. Just started this spring, and he looks like he might be pretty good once he really finds his rhythm. We started training over break in March, and he and I have been doing a lot of extra training. He’s used to running drills for football, and distance running is different from the kinds of sprints he does on the field. It’s impressive to be as good as he is at both.”

Seth nudges a plate in front of Nikolai. The plate holds half the sweet crêpe and half the slice of tea cake, and both smell amazing. Nikolai nibbles while Nate keeps talking about running; when Nate talks about it, it sounds almost attractive, rather than a horrible thing you have to do in order to survive.

Carolyn pushes her empty plate away and shuffles her cards again, the cardboard making a soft zip in her hand.

Nikolai lowers his fork, watches the cards slip and slide together. “Okay,” he says finally. “Last time your cards warned me I was going to walk between worlds. Let’s see what they say this time.” It doesn’t look like she’s going to back down. She may not be saying anything, but the shuffling is a stronger hint than words would be.

“Three card reading,” Carolyn says. “It could be three potential paths, but I think this time I’m doing  a standard past, present, and future layout.” She stops shuffling and holds out the deck, offering it to Nikolai. He waves his hand, but Seth reaches out to take off the top few cards and set them aside.

Carolyn nods, and starts pulling from the card left on top. The first card, on the left and upside down from Carolyn’s perspective, is labeled Temperance. A topless woman stands by a stream, pouring water from cups as she looks away. “This is your past,” Carolyn says.

“I have never been a half-naked woman,” Seth says dryly.

Carolyn continues as if he didn’t speak. “It’s a card of carelessness and indecision. It’s about giving up rather than moving forward, or about spinning in place without making the kind of decisions you need to do in order to stop going in circles. She’s pouring the water into the stream and it’s just washing away. She’s not even looking to see where it goes.”

Seth’s brow furrows. “Okay, go on.”

She lays down the second card, and Nikolai remembers it from the reading she did for him. “This one is about balance,” he says, and she smiles at him and taps it.

“The six of swords, and yes, it is. This was your thoughts about yourself last time,” she says. “It’s about balance, but it’s also about finding that new way to think that helps you achieve balance.”

“Like coming here is a shift in how we think,” Seth says slowly.

“Possibly,” Carolyn says, as she turns over the final card.

It looks joyous. The man on the card is grinning, leaping across the sky with eight wands shooting through the air around him.

Seth touches the cards in turn. “Okay, so just from the pictures, this looks like we go from wavering indecision, to balance, to leaping forward into the bright unknown.”

“Pretty much,” Carolyn agrees. She lifts the final card to show it to them more clearly. “This one isn’t just about moving, it’s about those big, sweeping changes that also result in big successes. If you weren’t taking chances in the past, this recommends taking huge chances in the future.”

“Like laying all our hope on things that have never been tried, and might not even work,” Nikita says quietly.

“This says it’s worth it to take a chance,” Carolyn says. She sweeps the cards back into her deck, glancing at Nate when he looks like he’s reaching out. “Did you want a reading of your own?”

He retreats, pushes himself to his feet. “Maybe later. It’s busy tonight, and Serina’s on her own, so I should probably get back. Besides, I know I’m not leaping into the unknown. I’m just running, steady and true and as fast as I can keep a good pace.” Nate gathers up his empty plates, stacks a few more on top. “I’ll be back to clear up for you guys. Anyone want any dessert while I’m heading to the kitchen?”

Everyone calls out at once, and somehow Nate manages to sort that into a coherent order. Nikolai’s already had his dessert, so he takes out the phone Alaric gave him and looks through it instead.

They’re balanced right now, yes, but it feels like any little thing could knock them off course. Hopefully it really does send them shooting forward into success. Nikolai’s a bit more worried about plummeting off a cliff and falling into the abyss right now.

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[magicianapprenticelyra]

Onward, Upward & Downward (The Roots)

Summary: A young magician's trek toward Vesuvia for a better life is unexpectedly waylaid by entering the magical realms in her sleep.

The following TWs apply: past references to abuse, blood, references to having been/lived in the middle of a war-zone, falling from immense heights at various speeds, falling through a void/space, temporary loss of one's voice, the unpredictability of magical realms, and nausea caused by aforementioned unpredictability.

O*O*O

It’s getting late. The sun is sinking into the horizon.

Keep heading northeast, I tell myself. Northeast, northeast, northeast. Northeast, northeast north-

I pause a moment to catch my breath. My knapsack digs into my back, full of my necessary supplies. 

I look down at my bandaged hands. Some of the strips are cut from my old clothes, long since worn out. The cloth strips are wrapped here and there over my fingertips, palms, and the backs of my hands. Some cloths can be easily replaced; other scraps of them I need to either throw away, or wash...

If I even can wash them at this point. One of the strips is an ugly, slightly damp brown over dried blood. The brown’s from the dirt and sand all around here. The injuries beneath, the dried red, were from laboring under my cousins’... ‘charitable’ mercy upon me. Mercy from them to take me on a long journey to my destination.

The ‘simple favors’ I had to do for them in turn were menial and backbreaking.

In the end, my cousins had taken me about ninety percent the way to Vesuvia. Since then, it’s just been me taking my sorry soul the rest of the way ever since. ‘Just follow the compass and go Northeast’ they said. ‘Northeast, phù thủy’.

I’m relieved I don’t need to rely on them anymore. I’m sick of being helpless, and being called names just because I know some magic...

I look to the left and right of me: golden fields. I look to the back of me: golden fields. I look to the front, and finally there is some differentiation: golden fields, but I think I see the faint outline of Vesuvia in the distance.

It has to be. I want it to be...

I’ve seen nothing but fields of gold for the past two days. It’s not exactly a desert, but are mirages from golden fields a thing? I don’t know! If there is, I really hope with all my might that the outline of the city ahead of me is not a fucking mirage!

Mind made up, I wobble over about ten to fifteen steps off the road and into the tall fields around me. My legs finally give out, and I fall flat on my face.

“Ack...”

I push through the pain, through my aching everything, and unburden myself of my knapsack. Much to my chagrin, most of the contents of my knapsack drop and roll out into the dirt. I painfully crawl around, pulling my supplies back to myself as the sunlight fades.

When the stars finally shine and moon glows, I need to squint. My eyes are not the best in terms of seeing clearly. Trying to see at night is tedious, even with the moon above me.

I shift the formerly wayward items into the moonlight, checking to see if I have everything.

There’s my compass, a raggedy old map to Vesuvia from my last pit-stop, a tin of salve, a messy pile of bandage strips made from my old clothes, a canteen of alcohol, two canteens of water, one slightly damp washcloth, and a heavy tome, covered in strange symbols.

I smile at the tome, gently patting the top cover in greeting.

In response, the arcane text flutters its pages. A soft, raspy voice from between the sheets within ask:

"̸̲̍͌D̵͓͒̏o̵̝͋̍ ̵̫̑y̷̱̣͊͋o̷͕̘u̵̦̰̿͘ ̶͉̀r̶̞̮̈ḙ̸̗͋̆q̷̗̤ư̸͌͜ͅî̵̮r̵͚͘e̸̺͍͝ ̶̳͂̍à̶̭͐ş̴̌s̴̞̯̀̃î̴̳s̴͓̑t̵̩̠̋̚a̷̤̯͐ň̸̺͍c̵̛̪̘̈́ȅ̴̪͕̾?̶̰̓̆"̸̮͛

“No Umbrae,” I say to the tome. “I got it. Rest up in the moonlight; we’ll be in Vesuvia by tomorrow.”

"̶̞̩͝V̸̱̯́ĕ̵̱͠r̸̡̺͒̏y̴̲̐ ̷̫͒̐w̶̤̆́è̵̗l̵͎͈̔͛l̶̥̄.̶̱̇ ̵̤̌̄S̸͓̐͗l̶͕̒̃e̴͍̅͑e̷͎̼͗p̵͖͓̈́͝ ̸̡̥͐͂w̴̳̞̉e̷̬̅l̵͉̀l̵̹͛͒,̴͖̎͆ ̷̝̓y̴̞͕̾o̸̳̣̐͠u̷̮̚n̴̺̔ḡ̷͇ ̸̝̀͜ó̴̞n̵̩̖̈́e̴̞͊.̸̘͐̉"̶͓̋̕

With that my magic teacher’s form settles down, looking like an ordinary book yet again.

I swallow, looking at my hands. There are open cuts and sores that are split open beneath uncomfortable strips of cloth. Eyes narrowed, I gather the items I need in order to change my bandages.

With an exhale, I settle back, grit my teeth, and begin pulling them off.

****

Well, to say it didn’t hurt like hell would be lying. I used the rest of the alcohol and the salve in my knapsack to clean my wounds. My hands sting something fierce, but the cool, minty smell is soothing.

It’s a struggle to even toe off my shoes, but I’m settled on the dirt now, eyes to the sky. My peripherals are surrounded by tall stalks of grain.

It’s strange, really. The stalks are so different, and yet not. I know they bear grains, like the fields back... back...

No, not home. There isn’t home anymore. Home is Vesuvia... or at least going to be home...

I think...

...

I’m not so sure yet. I hate to admit it, but I’ve heard nothing but bad and wild stories about Vesuvia. Mẹ said that her brother was irresponsible to settle in a place such as that. 

At least... at least I’d be with Cậu Bảo. He’d be a familiar face in a strange place, even if we haven’t seen each other in...

Ten years?

His letters to the house were always months and months late, but he has kept us updated on how he was doing. Mẹ read his messy script, saying that he really needed to work on his penmanship more, tut-tutting as if she were his mother, and not his younger sister.

Letters aside, I knew he was someone I could go to in case anything went wrong back at the house. Our village was right in the middle of two warring territories after all. The village was a neutral spot, which had been agreed upon by the warlords because of our position in the river. It was one of the easiest access ports in order to buy, trade or barter for food.

I just never expected it to go so wrong for me, the way it did...

I shake my head vigorously, getting my mind in the present. Right. No need to get caught up in that business now.

That was then, and this is now.

That was then, and this is now.

And here I am, at most two hours away from what is, hopefully, Vesuvia.

I move to rest my head on the low slope of my knapsack, adjusting every so often so I have some sort of support for my neck and head.

As the wind blows, the stalks around me rustle. They play a chorus of shh shh shh, the semi-repetitive sounds lulling me to sleep.

O*O*O

When I wake up, it takes me a moment to realize I’m somewhere impossible.

I’m floating in midair, surrounded by a sea of unfamiliar stars.

I bolt upright, and my body feels out of sync with my mind. My eyes see multiples of the same orbs of light all around me.

When I collapse back onto what feels like the ground, stars gather under where my hands and feet are planted. These things... they’re keeping me afloat...

Slowly but surely, the place around me finally stops spinning. Or rather, my vision stops bouncing around like a rabbit.

My breaths are shaky, but I slowly stand to my feet. Once fully upright, I look around.

As far as my eyes can see, there’s nothing but stars. They’re an assortment of colors and sizes, but the stars are spherical in shape. They shine like precious gems.

I am filled with a sense of awe.

A sound like a tree trunk snapping in two jolts me out of it. I’m suddenly aware that a path is assembled before me. Layer upon layer upon layer of stars gather together, creating a path. It looks like it’s a way forward... but forward to where?

I pause a moment, thinking.

The stars haven’t failed me yet. The stars for the past year and a half have not failed me. The only times they failed was because of human error. The gods placed them in the sky and we mortals are the ones that are supposed to follow the directions with the tools we have in order to navigate.

And these stars... say go forward.

With one more exhale, one foot in front of the other, I head onward.

****

I don’t know how long I have been walking, but it’s been an oddly pleasant experience. The stars not beneath my bare feet subtly hum and ring in greeting as I pass them by.

Before I can take another step, a deep, resonating rumble cracks the walkway ahead of me. The sheer force of it—!

I've been thrown off, backwards. I am flailing my arms about, trying to reach for the starry road, but I miss.

It dawned upon me that I'm falling.

No! No, nononono-!

I'm screaming, but nothing comes out. My voice... it's stolen from me.

I hurtle past a hundred thousand things. I glimpse dying stars, whorls of stars with fields of blue and skies of green, spheres fit to burst with fire and ink, and bubbles full of nothingness.

It's more than I can comprehend, more than anyone can possibly comprehend.

O*O*O

Eventually, I've slowed down. I'm not in danger of losing my limbs if I flail about now, but I'm frozen. I'm curled up into a ball.

I'm crying; silence is still taking hostage of my throat.

If the tears I cry drip past my chin and miss my sleeves, they lazily wobble down into the darkness, dotted with glittering stars. It's above, it's below...

It's everywhere. Everything and nothing is the same.

Despite being semi-blinded by my tears, I began to take stock of what's around me. I've been rationalizing my thoughts ever since I slowed to the speed I'm at now.

I know I'm dreaming. None of this, this all around me, could be possible in the waking world.

Umbrae mentioned to me that was possible for humans to travel to realms in their dreams...

The bubbles I passed before... were they the realms Umbrae spoke of?

Despite my neck being sore, I lift my head to finally look around. Even if I squint, eyesight is still crap. I can't make detailed assessments.

After a while, I can make out that there's something below me. I'm too scared to move, so I just let whatever force is pulling me down take me there.

****

I can finally make it out: it's another bubble. A massive one at that.

I spot a smattering of white from my position. Spots of browns and greens peek through gaps of that top layer in that massive sphere.

Before I can process it, and to my alarm, I make contact at the very top—

—and I breach through the bubble.

An immense force overtakes my body. I'm pulled down, down, down, past a layer of what I realize are clouds. Faster, and faster and faster I go, heading for a blur of brown and bright green below-!

My voice finally kicks in as I scream. It’s the only thing I can hear aside from the wind whistling past my ears as my body falls.

  I'm sorry, Mẹ.

O*O*O

...

....

.....

I'm flat on my front, eyes still shut. Dirt is in my eyes and my short, severely asymmetrical hair, but somehow, I'm alive. I’m alive.

Slowly, I wiggle my extremities. Finger by finger, limb by limb, I realize nothing's broken.

Blearily, I open my eyes. Everything is fuzzy, but I can feel that I'm in something that's like grass.

Tilting my head up, I'm greeted by a sky that is a confusing mix of hundreds, if not thousands, of colors.

I gag, my stomach lurching. I end up dry heaving into the grass...

...

....

.....

Once my body runs its course with nausea, I manage to wipe the dirt out of my hair and eyes.

What... what the hell is going on with me?

I want to wake up. I beg silently. Please, let me wake up...

I freeze as a bush just off to my right starts to rustle. I fall back onto my bottom, my blood rapidly pumping through me as I'm face to face with that bush.

... There's something in it.

If it's hostile, I'm screwed. If it's friendly, it might be able to help me...

What am I going to do? What  should I do?

[ Investigate the bush || Run ]

~To Be Continued~

EDIT ABOUT 5+ HOURS AFTER INITIAL POSTING: Hello readers! I failed to note that this is NOT a choose your own adventure!

Lyra has chosen both options, but this is where her path from being an NPC turns onto the path of The Apprentice, or turning to the Love Interest AU.

You’re gonna get both! (In time. I’m still working on this and other things in real life).

Thank you for reading!

A/N: And also a disclaimer: I am not in anyway bashing on the devs’ decision to change the prologue to the way it is currently. I am merely explaining how I reached my decision in terms of *where* Lyra is coming from (location wise) to get into Vesuvia, based on the map the devs released a while back for Vesuvia.

Now then:

In the prologue, previously to version released on May 21st, 2019, there was a maze test Nadia gave MC to perform in order to find Doctor Devorak (Julian). There was an option to escape the maze, and you’d end up meeting Julian that way.

He notes that MC came out of The Palace from the Southwest side, and the background graphic that was shown upon exiting the maze was The Fields during the day.

This is where I have gotten my head canon for how Lyra came to Vesuvia, heading Northeast from the edge of the Fields. There is no way Lyra would’ve *survived* crossing from The Fields into The Forest, and passing out in The Forest is high on the ‘you’re most likely going to die’ route.

And with that, disclaimer & A/N done! Thank you for reading.

[brightlyburning1]

Wow, people are really into this little AU of mine! First part is here. I’ve added onto it below; I’ll work on getting the first chapter done and posted on AO3 this weekend. Expect huge amounts of Shiro pining and a lot of discussions of trust. Possibly some fantasies on Shiro’s part?

"I'm Takashi Shirogane. Please, call me Shiro."

Keith nods, his gaze direct, no flinch or retreat in him, no anger at the man who lost Kerberos. It hits Shiro all at once - this man doesn't know him, doesn't look at him and see a wreck, a revenant returned from the grave, or a victim. Just a man. A hard black clot in his chest eases. He breathes.

"I'm Takashi Shirogane. Please, call me Shiro."

Keith nods, his gaze direct, no flinch or retreat in him, no anger at the man who lost Kerberos. It hits Shiro all at once - this man doesn't know him, doesn't look at him and see a wreck, a revenant returned from the grave, or a victim. Just a man. A hard black clot in his chest eases. He breathes. Asks,

"How'd you know to find me?"

Keith's attention moves past Shiro to the shack, and Shiro turns in time to see three heads duck out of the window. Honestly, they could at least try to seem stealthy.

Keith leans back against the bike in an easy sprawl of long limbs, one hand settling into what seems to be its customary position on a knife at his belt. His jaw works before he speaks, and his eyes scan Shiro's face as if searching for cruelty. "Been hunting an energy source that led me to some carvings in a cave. They talked about an arrival when the stars were right, as they were last night. I followed the directions and found you." His mouth twists, attention dipping back to the house below. "And them." "They said you were a great pilot," Shiro offers, as if to defend his... friends? comrades? with bribes of compliments. "I know these hoverbikes, they're not easy to control." He smiles, a bit rueful. "Especially when overloaded with three other passengers and one dead weight."

Keith's gaze warms, a tiny crack in his veneer. "The dead weight was the easiest part. The passengers were the ones that strained the ion engines."  Shiro glances at the rearmost engine and winces. Scorch marks trail upward along the hull from the ion ring, signs of the hoverbike struggling to compensate for the excessive weight and gravity.  "Going cliff-jumping didn't help, I'm sure. Sounds like an incredible maneuver, though; wish I'd been awake to see it. How'd you learn to pilot so well?"  Wrong question, or a step too far; the crack in Keith's composure seals over, a hint of heated annoyance washing across his face. "Nowhere."   Shiro has to be careful - he casts about for something to say, finds inspiration in the excavated depression beneath the bike, the shape of a human form. "Did you have to sleep out here?" There's only the one cot, and Shiro had taken up all the space. "I'm sorry."  Keith snorts. Even the way he wrinkles his nose is absurdly charming. "Don't be. They're so loud, I slept better outside. Done it before." The corner of his mouth twitches upward, as close to an expression as Shiro's gotten from him. A flicker of warmth in his dry voice. “Besides, they slept better without the cannibal around.”  "Oh. You, ah, heard that."  "Hard not to." Keith frowns. "How long were you in space?"  An odd question; his shack is within driving distance of the Garrison, so shouldn't he be aware of Kerberos? Still, Shiro shouldn't judge.  "About a year and a half; five months out to Kerberos, and then a year with the Galra, but I don't remember what I was doing with them." A pause. "Did you... not hear about the Kerberos mission?"  A beat of silence. Keith's level gaze, the drum of those elegant fingers against the steel hull of the bike. "No."  Well. That's definitive. What to say, how to keep the conversation moving-  "Shiro!" Lance calls from the porch below. "He hasn't killed you yet, has he? We just got you back!"  Shiro winces, and Keith takes pity on him. "Let's go inside." He pushes off the bike and walks in a wary arc past Shiro, careful, still, to stay just out of reach. As they descend the hill, gravel rolling beneath their boots, Keith's stride shortens, his shoulders hunching inward - no surprise, really, that a hermit isn't looking forward to returning to his despoiled sanctuary.  Shiro feels an obscure guilt that isn't helped by Lance's questions the moment they climb the step to the porch.  "Dude, how long have you been out here? That map is intense. What's this energy source? Why're you out here anyway? There's nothing around for miles! Pidge can barely get a satellite signal, and I've literally never seen that happen before. Also Hunk tried to open that can of baked beans in your cabinet and he mayyy have snapped one of your knives. Just a teensy bit."  "I'm out here to avoid stupid questions like that," Keith snaps, "and I- what? What knife?" He shoulders Lance out of the way and storms into the cabin to find Hunk whimpering and clutching his bleeding hand, beans strewn across the kitchen floor.

[mi6015clairecarr]

un_earth'd

Final Project Production Analysis

This film idea truly started after I had set out to complete the experimental motion graphic piece at the end of year two, using the same base raw copyright-free track I used for this piece. I thoroughly enjoyed planning out abstract shots and scenes to the exact second, connecting meanings based on various material layered over each other before I truly knew what I wanted to do once my degree had finished. Unfortunately, after Covid commenced with other unfortunate circumstances, I did not end up completing the project. Instead, over the summer, I spent time thinking about what was right for me.

I found that by the start of the third year I could better my original ideas to more specifically suit the modelling, texturing, creating path I wanted to go down after realising in the first semester that Houdini was not for me. I established that modelling and texturing is something that I can retain my concentration on for an extended period, unlike animation and rigging. I have also always been fixated on realism while creating fine art and wanted to carry this over now that I had the foundational skills to a few industry-standard software. So, for this semester, my goal was to focus on these things.

 Wanting to create a full-blown, realistic character up from the design up until the peach fuzz hair on her face was the most challenging part of my whole project, and also turned into the main part. Originally, I was going to attempt to make the character in time for the “Search for a Star” competition back in January. Unfortunately, this was not the reality. The workflow was too big and too unknown for me to complete at the time. Having been advised to complete a simpler part of my film to get back into the workflow easier, I think this was the correct advice for me to follow. I started on a few scenes including the chess pieces and the nanobot before I worked my way up to the character. This meant I started to familiarise myself with the back and forth between Maya, Z-Brush, and Substance Painter again, which was half the battle. The most difficult part was the clothes. I had never used Marvellous Designer before this module and decided to use it to make a realistic character, so this took time to learn and utilise. I do feel proud that I came out of this with more knowledge. I taught myself the basics of Marvellous Designer and am now able to create more using it. At the design stage, I refused to come up with a design that included flowing, overlapping fabric with a repeated texture on it. I could not understand how this would work until I got into Marvellous Designer and tried it myself. Now I know to transfer both the retopologised mesh of the un-simulated cloth and its UV map onto the simulated one. I used all the software for their purposes and got to an outcome. Despite this, I still feel that there is much more to learn about workflow than what I composed through countless YouTube videos and tutorials.

The easiest part of this project was the last few scenes I created. I was just utilising tools and methods that I had learnt in my previous modules to fill in the remaining scenes, but faster. I had time to play with MASH slightly more than I have previously. The whole child drawing scene only took me between one day to two days. It was easy and quite satisfying to build on foundational skills like hard surface modelling, rather than attempting to understand difficult tutorials.

 I have learnt so much this year that I did not know previously. Most importantly, I figured out what I would be happy to do as a career. Morally, I learnt about the importance of researching your character's background in depth, and as a result, I learnt about the importance of Afrofuturism. I also learnt other unexpected technical details about nanobots and butterflies, which is fascinating. Technically, I learnt about Marvellous Designer and how to utilise it in both an animation workflow and a modelling workflow, how to use alpha brushes in Z-Brush working faster with Z-Brush in general and moving towards a more flexible workflow in SP using masks and paint layers. In Maya, I learnt how to further optimise my scene, the possibilities of MASH in Maya, and more industry-standard techniques for modelling under variations of circumstances.

I would like to learn more about the ideal workflow for designing a working character from start to end. I would also like to learn how to build from a skeleton/muscle mesh to create something scientifically accurate. I will still always continue learning about making neater meshes and reducing the polycount where possible.  

 The most enjoyable part of the process was sculpting the body and face of the character. I loved using the alpha masks as well as hand sculpting in bits of detail and seeing how the shapes came together over time. As mentioned in the beginning, I also loved coming up with the animations to slot into the correct time, and their abstract meanings. The least enjoyable part for me is notorious for being hated by the animation community, which is rigging! I created three rigs for this module, by the butterfly rig there were much fewer mistakes, so I have learnt more about creating them, yet they are tedious to work with, sometimes go wrong and take a long time to correctly weight paint yet they are so important.

 Looking back at my project, I think I was most successful at analysing objects or shapes and recreating them within a 3D space via modelling or texturing. Despite not making all the models I wanted to make, I was able to produce the ones I did make to a high quality. Quite clearly, going off the original plan and comparing it to the final film produced, I think that the thing I will most need to improve is time management as I had to re-plan my time spent on various parts of my project multiple times. However, I planned an ambitious piece originally, and despite it not being the original plan, I was able to adapt and re-create a new and detailed animatic and time plan once I figured something else out. I still plan to create the original piece while re-doing and improving everything I had mentioned about my final film in my design document in my spare time.

 To conclude, I believe that I have successfully completed the brief. My two and a half minute animation shows off all the skills I have learnt in the past three years and despite it not being what I had originally set out to do, I can say that what I did do was completed to the best of my ability rather than it being rushed. There was a lot of analytical research that went into this before semester two and after, which helped immensely further down the line with designs. I was able to adapt to the time I had to come up with new design solutions which fit the brief so that the film made sense after changes. I also believe I can continuously learn by finding my resources and understand what is good about my project, what could still have been improved and ways how it could be improved. For the future, I will be focusing on time management, further ways to improve my modelling and character design as well as optimising my After Effects scene when composing scenes together. It would also be interesting to try out some compositing using real-life footage in my spare time. 

 My main takeaway from this project is to focus primarily on what is important to you personally and your career, doing so in a healthy, inspiration fuelled, way. I found what I like doing and what to take with me on the next steps in life. Thank you to the lecturers that have taught me and given me advice along the way. 

[lmfmp2021]

Creating My Own ‘Fantastic Voyage’

Now that I have researched into Rhonan McGarry’s work, I will be moving onto creating my own. My initial thoughts for what I’m going to include in the design is to have an orangutan on the right where I will try to have it looking sad and then have a couple of trees with lots of tree stumps on the left. This is where I will put some small people in position like McGarry does. At the time, this was my plan that I was going to try and aim for. In my head, I thought this was going look really striking to the viewers as it shows two perspectives of palm oil in one design. When doing this task, I will be learnt and using new skills that I have never done before. This might mean I will take longer then expected to produce an end result. 

To start, I will be using Illustrator to create my objects that I will then be placing into Photoshop later on. So to do this, I selected the ‘pencil tool’ where I would trace around an image that I wanted. I found mine picture on Pexels to which I felt it was going to work well as the image was showing the whole orangutan. When scrolling through, I discovered that a lot of the images were close up, meaning I didn't have the whole body. Also when I was tracing around this picture, I went in a continuous line as this was then going to easier later on when changing it to a 3D shape. Although, I found I couldn't do the whole shape so I chose to do it in sections. So instead, I did the features of the face first, then the head and lastly the body. When drawing, I didn't take too much care in how it looked as I knew it would completely change when adding the 3D settings to it. 

After this stage, I then had to change these lines into a 3D shape. To do this, I clicked on a certain section of my drawing and went to ‘effect’, ‘3D’ and ‘extrude and bevel’. This should bring up this tab that is shown below. It has many different options that you can change to which I started by just going through them all to see what difference it does to the lines. I started by trying out the ‘plastic shading’ option which is under ‘surface’. I thought this looked really interesting as I could add lighting to make it seem realistic. Also I changed the ‘shading colour’ too. On my first attempt, I chose to have it as ‘plastic shading’, although I found in the later stages when placing everything together, that it looked very weird and didn't fit in at all. I then went back and changed it to ‘wireframe’ which gives a completely different overall look. The screenshot below is showing the settings I ended up choosing. I think this looks really attractive as it isn't too bold but has darker areas that will hopefully catch the viewers attention. 

Here, is the final effect to which I felt was the most effective when going through all the settings and options. One problem I had with this end result was that on the ear and finger the lines have gone further out. I didn't draw this but for some reason when changing the ‘bevel’ setting to anything but ‘none’, it has this showing. I feel it looks slightly weird but I ignored it as I felt it probably wont look as noticeable when bringing all the element together.

Like I mentioned at the start, I was going to have trees on the left hand side, which means I will need to gather a couple of images to trace again. I searched up ‘palm tree’ and found a few that were going to work. When looking for images, I wanted to be able to see the whole object where it wasn't too bent over. This is because it would then take up a lot of room on the page. I previous said how I tried using the ‘plastic shading’ setting when turning it 3D and at the same time, I did it on a palm tree too. I actually though this looked really impressive as I managed to get the angle just right. As well as this, I added a brown colour which matched so well. I placed this into my design and found it didn't look too bad.

However, I though that having two types of surfaces could look quite odd and might not have the same effect as it all looking unified. Below, is showing how I ended up having it. I managed to get the angle very similar to the ‘plastic shading’ where I chose the ‘bevel’ to be ‘complex 2′. I thought this had a slightly messy look, that I was really drawn to.

I then chose to do another palm tree where it would be on a different angle. This is because I could then place another tree into the design that wouldn't look the exact same. I found this tree which was very tall and dint have as many leaves on the top. At the time, I was worried that it was going to be too tall and look very odd. However, I went with it as I thought I would be able to change it later on if needed. 

This is then the result to which I feel it has ended up even messy than before, but this didn't matter to me. When I have been producing all of these elements, I have had to do each one individual where I couldn't have more than one page open at at time. The reason or this was because the 3D settings struggle a lot so having another page open could crash it. I found even having one open would struggle at times and wouldn't always be the easiest to use. Also to note, I have been exporting all my design along the way too. To do this, you need to go to ‘file’, ‘export’ and ‘export as’. This brings up a tab where you should then change the ‘format’ to a ‘PNG’. and click the box saying ‘use artboards’. The click ‘ok’ and another will pop up. You ned to have the ‘resolution’ at ‘high (300 ppi)’ and the ‘background colour’ as ‘transparent’. 

The next thing I did was to create a random object that I could add to my design. I could use this to fill a gap or add to the overall design. To do this, I firstly drew a random wiggly line on the page using the ‘pencil tool’. I then went to ‘effect’, ‘3D’ and ‘revolve’. I then changed the ‘surface’ to ‘wireframe’ and just played around with all the settings again. After doing this, I found I had created this really interesting shape. 

Then to add more details to this previous shape, I decided to create some symbols. I went onto the ‘rectangular square grid’ and drew across the page. Doing this will make sure your drawing goes into the symbol section. After this, you can delete the object where I then went to the ‘pencil tool’ again and drew some random wiggle lines. Below, I have drawn 3 lines. After that, I selected all the line and went to ‘object’, ‘blend’ and ‘blend options’. I set the ‘spacing’ to ‘specified steps’ and the number to 60. Next go back to ‘object’, ‘blend’ and ‘make’. Doing this should create this very interesting effect. Now go to the symbol tab at the side and click ‘new symbol’. This brings up a new tab where you will change the ‘export type’ to ‘graphic’. You should now have this in your symbol bar. 

This is then another shape I created where I have crossed over the lines. I felt this gave a very striking look. I would definitely say this looks more realistic than the previous. 

I then went back to the previous shape I created where I would then add these random shapes I have just created into the surfaces. Doing this gives it a slight shade. To add these you would go back onto the ‘revolve’ setting and click ‘map art’ which is located at the bottom of the tab. I then clicked the arrow in the top right corner and found a certain surface that I wanted to place my symbol onto. After this, you would click the symbol section in the top left corner and chose the one you want. Next, I would reposition the object, until I was happy. After this, I would then do this with a couple of other surfaces on the shape and then click ‘ok’. 

This is now the end of creating objects for my design, which means I will then be moving onto producing the perspective grid. This will be the platforms and background of the piece. 

[beyondlimitsonfoot]

First day we ascended 1 mile vertical; make sure you train before doing this. The trail is in the San Gorgonio Wilderness; the area is a rare treasure only 75 miles away from congested Los Angeles.

Location Mileage Elevation Gain Type San Gorgonio Wilderness 22.4 miles 6,530 feet Loop

— What’s in this Guide —

1. Background – If you’re interested in a little history, some fun facts, trailhead info, map of hike, water sources (important to know for this hike). 2. Itinerary Options – Some ideas following 1-3 day options for you to choose from. 3. Trail Camps – The quick run down of where you can stay the night; I recommend staying close to a water source. 4. Weather – Always important to check the weather before you head out. 5. Permits and Passes – This section includes how to put in for a permit and the need for different passes. *Permit is required to hike in this area. 6. Directions – how to get to the trailhead. 7. Maps, Books and Gear Recommendations – A source for important maps that you should take on a hike, reading material before the hike and some recommendations on gear items that would be great for the hike. 8. Hike Stats – Quick overview of the mileage and elevation for points of interest on the hike. 9. Description – My favorite part is the recollection of the hike and the awesome pictures that I can share with you guys. Be sure to check out my rambling and photographs in this section.

— Background —

Did you know that the word Momyer means more up? Of course you didn’t because it doesn’t mean that, but this loop is definitely more up all the way. Momyer Creek Trail is actually named after Joe Momyer, a retired San Bernardino postal superintendent and also a founder of the “Defenders of the San Gorgonio Wilderness” group. The word is that contractors wanted to make San Gorgonio area a ski resort. He amongst other advocates of the preservation were contributors to a new Wilderness Act that hits the spot of for those hikers who care. “Secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of Wilderness… an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Thus the San Gorgonio Wilderness was born.

— Trailhead Info —

Momyer Creek Trail Just like the sgwa.org website states this is one of the most underused trails. We ran into only 7 people during the entire two days. This is the route we took to do the 22+ mile loop for training. The trail is quite steep and not to be taken lightly, make sure you train before heading out on this trail. First water source on this trail is Alger Creek Camp about 3.7 miles in; but if you are doing the loop don’t expect any water until 8 miles in.

— Map of Hike —

— Water Sources —

High Meadow Springs is one of many natural springs in the San Gorgonio Wilderness area. “A spring is any natural situation where water flows from an aquifer to the Earth’s surface” and in this case, High Meadow Springs was our reliable source of water. Sgwa Water Sources: Here is a list of water sources in the area. Notable water sources for this hike:

Trail Fork Springs: This is more than 8 miles into the journey, so be sure to have enough water until then. If you don’t need water just yet, High Meadow Springs Is just about 3 more miles away and you don’t have to take the downhill to Trail Fork Springs and stay on the higher route on the San Bernardino Peak Divide Trail.

High Meadow Springs: The springs are a bit downhill from the camp area, but a year-round spring and quite the view as the sun is setting.

Plummer Crossing: There are two places here one did not have any water, find the crossing where the water from High Meadow Springs. This was one of the better creek crossings and the water was perfect cold. We filled up our bladders here.

After Saxton Camp Spring: There is a small spring after passing Saxton Camp; there was barely any water here (May 2018).

Dobbs Camp: This is not on the trail and a bit out of the way, but does have a water source.

Alger Creek Camp: This is one of the most reliable sources of water on the trail unless it is a high drought year. There was plenty of water during our hike (May 2018)

— Itinerary Options —

One Day Do not attempt this in one day unless you are in very good hiking shape and take your essential gear for the day and in case of emergency.

Hike ~22.4 miles; ~6,350′ elevation gain the whole loops

Two Day This is what we did! The first day was very tough and the second day was even tougher.

Day 1 – Hike ~12 miles; ~5,600′ elevation gain from Momyer Creek Trail to High Meadow Springs

Day 2 – Hike ~10 miles; ~850′ elevation gain from High Meadow Springs to Momyer Creek Trailhead via Falls Creek Trail

Three Day

Day 1 – Hike ~8 miles; ~5,100′ elevation gain from Momyer Creek Trail to Trail Fork Springs

Day 2 – Hike ~8.5 miles; ~750′ elevation gain from Trail Fork Springs to Dobbs Creek Camp

Day 3 – Hike ~5.9 miles; ~700′ elevation gain from Dobbs Creek Camp to Momyer Creek Trailhead

*There’s many camp spots along the trail that you can pick.

— Trail Camps —

Most of the campsites along this trail are marked high above on a tree and easy to find except for High Meadow Springs Camp.

Trail Fork Springs Camp – ~8 miles

Anderson Flat Camp – ~9.8 miles

Shields Flat Camp – ~ 10.3 miles

High Meadow Springs Camp – ~11.7 miles (Where we stayed!)

Red Rock Flat Camp – ~12.2 miles

Saxton Camp – ~14.7 miles

Dobbs Camp – ~16.5 miles

Alger Creek Camp – ~18.7 miles

— Weather —

The weather can change at any time in the mountains, be sure to prepare. This area is known to get very hot in the summertime; hike early to minimize impact of any heat illness. Forest Falls – Elevation 5,643 feet Anderson Peak – Elevation 10,840 feet

— Permits and Passes —

— Backcountry Permit —

Day Hikes: You are not required to have a wilderness permit for a day high, but they are highly recommended for your safety. Be sure to leave your itinerary with your family as well in case anything happens.

Backcountry Permit is required to hike overnight in the San Bernardino National Forest. To obtain a permit you can obtain it in person at the Mill Creek Ranger Station and the Big Bear Discover Center. The other option is to mail or fax the Wilderness Permit Request up to 90 days in advance. Just like most trails in there is an overnight quote, so planning ahead is advised.

Fill out the Day Hike or Overnight Hike Permit Request Form. *Allow up to a minimum of 5 business days to process the request.

Submit the form by either: *I recommend emailing it, quickest and easiest

faxing it to (909) 794-1125

emailing it to permits@sgwa.org

mailing it to: Millcreek Ranger Station, Attention Front Desk, 34701 Mill Creek Road, Mentone, CA 92359

There is no fee to put in an application.

— National Forest Adventure Pass —

To park at Momyer Trailhead you do not need an adventure pass. If you park at Forest Falls or Vivian Creek you will need an adventure pass. To obtain an Adventure pass find the closest Forest Service location or go to a major sporting goods store. The fees are either daily ($5 per day) or annual ($30). If you’d like to know more about the pass, read on the USDA Forest Service Recreation Passes & permits Website.

— Directions —

Moymer Creek Trailhead Address: 40560 Valley of the Falls Dr, Forest Falls, CA 92339 From Los Angeles, take I-10 E. After passing I-215, drive 7.8 miles and exit onto University St (exit 80). Turn left onto N University St. Drive 1 mile and turn right onto E Lugonia Ave. Continue on CA-38 E/Mill Creek Rd for 9.4 miles take a slight right onto Valley of the Falls Dr towards Forest Falls. Drive 2.8 miles and the destination will be on the left a dirt parking lot. If you reached the entrance to the Falls Picnic Area you have driven too far.

— Maps, Books & Gear Recommendations —

— Maps — 1. Trail map of the San Gorgonio Wilderness: Waterproof, synthetic paper – My favorite type of maps are the Tom Harrison Maps. This is the perfect one for this hike. 2. Caltopo Momyer Creek Trail – Falls Creek Trail Loop – This is a map I created on CalTopo of the exact route that we took. I also have a photo of it attached above. 3. San Bernardino Mountain Trails: 100 Hikes in Southern California – A book about other hikes in the San Bernardino Mountains. I usually look here, then go online and then plan the hike.

— Some Gear Recommendations — 1. Patagonia Trucker Hat – The area is known to be sunny most of the year, be sure to take a hat to cover your head and face. Don’t forget that sunscreen either. 2. LifeStraw Mission Water Purification System – A water purification system is very important and ever since we got this one, I have not been happier. We can grab over 6 liters of water, hang this up having it pour into our bladders and completely forget about it. But don’t forget about it, because of course it will overflow – it takes time but it’s perfect if you gather the water and then set up camp while it fills up your bladder. 3. Black Diamond Trail Pro Shock Trekking Pole – I recommend hiking poles on this hike because it is very brutal uphill and downhill. I relied on them to give me support on the downhill for my knees and to help me get a rhythm on the uphill portion. 4. Honey Stinger Organic Waffle – Best snack in the world; I had a banana with it for breakfast what a good mix before we started out on our way. 5. GU Energy Hydration Electrolyte Drink Tablets – Add these to your bladder before you go; gives you a boost of energy and keeps you hydrated throughout the day.

— Hike Stats —

Point of Interest Mileage Elevation Momyer Creek Trailhead 0 miles 5,440 feet San Bernardino Peak turn-off 2.9 miles 7.010 feet San Bernardino Peak Trail 7.1 miles 10,250 feet Trail Fork Spring Junction 7.9 miles 10,580 feet Anderson Flat Camp 9.8 miles 10,560 feet Shields Flat Camp 10.3 miles 10,320 feet High Meadow Springs Camp 11.7 miles 10,320 feet Red Rock Flat Camp 12.2 miles 10,080 feet Dollar Lake Saddle *No Camping 12.4 miles 10,000 feet Saxton Camp 14.7 miles 8,560 feet Dobbs Camp turn-off 16.4 miles 7,250 feet Alger Creek Camp 18.6 miles 7,040 feet San Bernardino Peak turn-off 19.5 miles 7,010 feet Momyer Creek Trailhead 22.4 miles 5,440 feet

— Description —

I’ve wanted to do a hike in the San Gorgonio Wilderness for some time; the plan was to make this more of a training hike instead of summiting any of the local 10,000+ peaks. I mapped out the hike on the Tom Harrison Map and decided we would do a loop hike that would require us to hike about 1 mile vertical gain in the first day and same back down the next. We woke up at 5:00am, we had already packed the backpacks and food the night before made some coffee and we were on our way just before 6:30am. Took us about an hour and 30 minutes to get to the trailhead, with a short pit stop for some chap stick (forgot it at home) and cornuts (wanted a salty snack for the trail).

There were only a couple cars parked, which meant this was going to be nice quiet hike, even though normally a lot of the Los Angeles Mountains are not as inviting because of the crowds. From the parking lot you have to head down into the riverbed and cross the river. There are some safe spots, we found a log to go over; again check for safety as at different times of year will be difficult to cross as easy.

The first portion of the trail was very rocky; almost like the river roared through this area once. First couple miles till you hit the junction to turn up towards San Bernardino Peak are are a gradual up; at least that’s what if felt like on the way up. We climbed about 1500 feet the first 3 miles; at the junction (around 2.9 miles) turn left towards San Bernardino Peak. I was having trouble on this portion of the trail all the way up to 10000 feet because my legs were tired from running all week and playing beach volleyball the night before.

Tough switchbacks, ton of bushwacking and after many breaks we didn’t reach the height of our ascent until 1:30pm. It felt like forever, but I was so happy that we were done with the up portion. My legs were jelly and I couldn’t wait to get to our campspot. We checked our water and it looked like we had enough till we reached High Meadow Springs Camp.

This is the hill where High Meadow Springs was. The view was absolutely gorgeous especially as the sun was setting. My favorite time of day is right before the sun sets.

Once we got back to camp, first thing we did was go find the springs to make sure we knew were they were. Thanks to gps and maps it was actually pretty easy to find. There were a few good areas where we collected the water; we used our favorite filter: LifeStraw Mission Water Purification System, High-Volume Gravity-Fed Purifier for Camping and Emergency Preparedness, 5 Liter. We walked back up to camp and while our water filtered into our Osprey Hydraulics Reservoir, 3 Liter we set up camp and everything in our tent for the night.

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It was getting quite cold outside, so we decided to get into the tent and cook our Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup from inside the tent. I peered out and quickly got the pot ready to boil; closed the tent doors to keep it warm inside. I could hear it get a little louder so I checked on the water to see if it was boiling. We threw in the couple of packets of Lipton Chicken Noodle Soup, mixed and waiting for about 5 more minutes. We use a Jetboil and an MSR Cooking set if we are making bigger soups.

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The next morning we woke up around 7:30am and started to put everything out into the sun as it got cold overnight and some things were damp. Made a coffee, had half our wrap for the day and filtered the rest of the water we had gotten last night at the springs. We had about 3 liters between the two of us and I was quite sure we were going to pass some water sources along the way down from looking on the map and being that it was early in the year before the summer’s heat dries out our Southern California water sources.

The way down was uncomfortably brutal on the soles of my feet. Took several breaks: one longer break to filter water from the springs and the others were just for our legs to take a break. Even though it was sunny, it wasn’t too hot for us and by the time we descended about 3000 feet we were in the clouds that we saw below. We reached the car around 1:30pm and boy were we happy to get changed into flip flops and grab something to eat.

Note to self: Pack extra water in case as this hike can take a long time.

*Originally hiked on May 13-14, 2018

Momyer Creek Trail is a trail less travelled in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. There’s a good reason, it is a tough trail, be sure to train before you attempt it. Sore feet and tired bodies accompanied after hiking this. First day we ascended 1 mile vertical; make sure you train before doing this. The trail is in the…

[dragonasheswrites-blog]

The Heaven We Didn’t Choose, Chapter 12: In Which Leaves are Crunched

...And Sans starts to realize just how lost he is.

First: Chapter 1: In Which a Child Makes a Friend

Previous: Chapter 11: In Which Dinner is Delivered

Next: Chapter 13: In Which Nothing Good Lasts Forever

Click here for the story overview.

Saturdays, Sans decided, were breathtakingly beautiful when caring for Attie.  Not quite as good as Sundays, but amazing all the same.

He was laying on his bare mattress, eye sockets barely open, looking at his phone.

“9:05,” said his phone screen.

Beautiful.

He didn’t have to go to his hot dog stand (or any of his other jobs) because he was watching Attie.  Boss and Undyne did something with the Royal Guard on Saturday mornings, so they were both occupied. ��Attie hadn’t had a nightmare, so she was still asleep in Boss’s room.  It was just Sans, his phone, and a lazy Saturday morning.

He quickly crushed the thought.  He had too much bad karma for it to last-

Ding!

Aaaand there it was.  He reluctantly tapped the message notification on his phone.

Bundle of Joy 9:06 AM Hello Mistr Sans!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You 9:07 AM Hey kid

Bundle of Joy 9:08 AM Are you awake?????

You 9:11 AM Nah

Bundle of Joy 9:12 AM Okay!!!!!!

There was a long pause.  A few reckless birds that hadn’t flown south for the winter were making some kind of racket outside the window, but he decided to consider it a comforting reminder of being on the surface rather than an annoyance.  His eye sockets had started to slide shut again when-

Tap tap tap tap taptapTAPTAP

He curled in on himself, willing away the sound of tiny approaching footsteps from the hallway.

The door to his room creaked open slowly.   Painfully slowly.  He could feel Attie’s eyes on him, but she insisted on opening the door one millimeter at a time.  It was an amateur mistake; there was no way he could see the door in his current position so sudden movements weren’t a concern, and opening the door slowly made the squeaking long, loud, and obvious.  She would’ve been better off opening it quickly, hiding, then sneaking in through the open door when his guard was down.

The urge to tell her all this faded after a moment.  He just hoped she’d go away.

“I know you’re not really sleeping, Mr. Sans,” she whispered.  She whispered like Boss did: loud enough to raise dust.

He stayed quiet.

“Okay.  I’m gonna go make a peanut butter waffle like you showed me yesterday.”

“Yer not allowed t’use th’ toaster without a grown-up,” he grumbled.

“Then you should probably come and help me?”

“Not the way it works.”

He knew she was pouting.

“Hey.  Why don’tcha give me...hmm...another five minutes, then we can make breakfast.”

She made a funny noise that sounded excited, but he wasn’t curious enough to figure out how she did it.  “Okay!  I’ll wait back in Mr. Papyrus’s room!”

The pitter-patter of little feet disappeared back down the hallway.  Sans noticed that she’d left his bedroom door pointedly open.

Exactly four minutes and fifty-two seconds later, he rolled himself off the mattress.  He landed on the floor next to it with a dull thump and a clatter of bones, and gingerly pushed himself upright.  A beeping noise from down the hallway made him grin; he’d shown Attie how to use the timer function on her phone for cooking purposes, and she used it for everything she could now.

The kid herself appeared a moment later.  “Are you awake?” she asked, cocking her head at him.

“Ugh, yeah.”

“Great!!”  She bounced on her toes.

“...Let’s go make you peanut butter waffles.”

“Okay!”

Sans still felt half asleep, but he managed to get a pair of waffles out of the back of the freezer (where he’d hidden them from Boss) and into the toaster.  Attie had perched herself on the counter with the peanut butter, eating it by the spoonful.

“Attie, I’m pretty sure your mom wouldn’t be happy about you doin’ that.”

“But you’re not my mom.”

“...Fair enough.  But you hafta eat all your breakfast.”

“Okay!”

He started a pot of coffee.  The human internet was a wonderful source of information: he’d been able to find clear instructions (with pictures!!) on how to operate and clean Boss’s fancy coffee machine within seconds of searching for it.  Coffee went a long way towards improving Undyne’s mood, so he’d been getting up a few minutes early to start a pot before she showed up each morning.  It was a self-defense measure.  The idea of having a whole pot of coffee to himself, instead of sharing it with a fish-faced Royal Guard, was tantalizing.

“Can I try some coffee?”  Attie asked.  She’d started asking every morning after Undyne praised the benefits of caffeine once too many.

Sans responded as he always did: “Gotta ask your mom.  Besides, I think you’re crazy enough as it is.”

“Okay!”

The waffles popped out of the toaster and Sans put them on plates.  (He would have happily eaten his right out of the toaster, but Attie insisted on the plates.)  His little helper spread peanut butter on each waffle, then handed one to Sans.

“Bone appetit,” she said, face solemn.

“And to you.”  He saluted her with his waffle.

He finished his quickly and texted Frisk a picture of Attie, slightly melted peanut butter oozing through her fingers and onto her plate.  A good four texts in, he remembered that Frisk was actually conscious now and reading her messages, and by then he’d already rambled on about peanut butter and waffles longer than any self-respecting monster would admit to.

The advantage of having the house to himself was that Attie could take her time getting dressed.  He’d figured out last Saturday that she liked wearing strange color combinations that even he - a complete fashion heathen - knew looked bad together.  He indulged her for most of the morning until she got tired of changing clothes and wound up in a red and blue striped shirt and jeans.

“How do you want your hair?” he asked, once she was dressed and bouncing around the living room.

Attie was prepared for this question.  She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jeans, opened a web page, and showed it to him.  “I want this one!  ...Please.”

“That looks a little complicated.  Sure you wanna sit still that long?”

“Yyyyep!”

“Okay, but you asked for it.”

The hairstyle was the most intricate one she’d asked for yet.  The picture showed a little girl’s hair braided along her hairline in a kind of circlet shape.  ‘Crown braid,’ the instructions called it.

Sans gave a mental shrug.  It didn’t look like any crown he’d ever seen, but humans were strange.

It took half an hour of pulled hair and false starts, but he managed to get Attie’s hair woven and pinned into the desired shape.  “Done,” he said, collapsing back onto the couch.

“Thank you!” she yelled over her shoulder as she dashed down the hallway to the bathroom.  A squeal told him that she’d seen herself in the bathroom mirror and either really liked his work...or was very upset.  He was willing to bet on the former, but there had been that incident with the French braid...

The smile on her face when she finally reappeared was contagious.  “Thank you, Mr. Sans!” she said.  “I look really beautiful like a real princess!”

“Uh...aren’t you kinda a princess?  I know your mom is, ‘cause her parents are the king ‘n queen.”

She tilted her head to the side.  “I don’t know.  I don’t get to go to the big parties and everything, and no one calls me ‘your highness’ or anything like Mommy.  Do you really think I’m a princess?”

“You sure look like one today.”

“Yay!!  Oh, should I wear a dress, then?”

“Woah, hey, didn’t you...uh...just get dressed?  Yeah, you wouldn’t wanna get your pretty hair all messed up changing clothes again, right?”

“Okaaaaay.  But will you at least take a picture and show Mommy?”

“Sure, kid.  I do every day, don’t I?”

Once the picture and nothing else was sent to Frisk, they sat down on the couch with their phones.  “Okay,” he said.  “Same as last week.  You pick a place and show it to me, and I’ll check with Undyne.”

Attie hummed happily in agreement and got to work.  After a moment, she handed her phone over.  “This one?”

The map app on her phone was displaying a huge wildlife refuge at the base of Mt. Ebott, winding between monster territory and the city itself like a fat slug.  “That’s...I’m not sure that counts as a park?”

“Look at the name!”

He did.  ‘Mt. Ebott National Park,’ the phone said.  “Well.  Huh.  I’ll check.  But you know there won’t be other kids at this “park,” right?”

She shrugged.  “Most kids are weenies.  The kids at the embassy are okay, but mostly other kids don’t want to play tag or wrestling or capture the human.  And they cry if you push them over, and then parents get mad.  The kids at the embassy don’t cry when they fall over; they just get back up and keep playing.  ‘Cept the really little kids, but no one pushes them over on purpose because we’re s’pposed to look after the little kids.”

“...Welp, okay.”

He texted Undyne about going to the park Attie had picked.  She texted back almost instantly with a slew of questions, but since she gave her approval he ignored those.

“Undie says we can go.  She’s busy, but since there shouldn’t be anyone else there we don’t need an escort.  We just can’t leave trash and stuff behind, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Now.  What do you want for picnic lunch?”

Attie wanted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  That was fine.  What threw a wrench in the plan was her desire to make the sandwiches, and despite how much she practiced spreading peanut butter on bread it still seemed to get everywhere.  Sans resigned himself to following her around with a wet dishcloth cleaning up as she splattered peanut butter and dripped jelly across the kitchen.

“Done!” she finally declared, brandishing two lopsided sandwiches at the skeleton hovering behind her.

“Woah-hey!  Watch where you swing those!”

“Sorry!”

The sandwiches were wrapped and packed in Sans’s inventory, along with a bag of apple wedges (the easiest snack aside from popato chisps, which Boss didn’t allow in the house), a water bottle for Attie, and as many napkins as he could fit.  By some cruel quirk of the inventory system, each napkin took up an entire inventory slot.  He reluctantly removed his trombone and stashed it in his room to make space for the blanket Attie wanted to sit on.  Hopefully they’d be back before Boss, anyways.

“Okay, kid.  You ready to go?”

“Yyyyep!”

“A’ight, then.  C’mere.”  Once Attie was secure, Sans concentrated on the map he’d been shown of Mt. Ebott National Park and took a step forward.

Long-dead leaves crunched under his sneakers, and Attie wiggled almost out of his hold.  He kept his fingers tangled in the kid’s jacket as he evaluated his surroundings.  Only leafless trees, interspersed with the rare pine, surrounded their clearing.  They were alone.

Seasonally-challenged birds aside, Sans considered the area he lived in to be pretty quiet.  Sure, the neighbors and the traffic from the nearby highway made some noise, but it was a background hum he didn’t notice anymore.

He certainly noticed the lack of it, standing there in the middle of the wilderness.  He could barely hear any sounds, actually.  He was tempted to check his hearing, but the sound of Attie’s feet kicking up leaves confirmed that he wasn’t falling down just yet; it was just unnaturally silent.  There were no birds or other animals that he could hear.  The slight breeze ruffled no leaves.  A few dry branches clattered somewhere in the distance, sounding a little like bones, but it was distant and gone in seconds.

“Can I make a leaf pile and jump in it?”  Attie asked, wiggling harder.

“Eh, sure.  But stay where I can see-”

She had already bounded off.  Sans followed at a much lazier pace.  He gave her about an hour - an hour and a half tops - before she wore herself out and needed to eat to refuel.

Eventually, Attie collapsed into her giant pile of leaves and declared herself hungry.

“Oh thank the stars,” Sans groaned from under the neighboring pile.  She’d buried him - he checked his phone - an hour ago when he’d gotten tired of helping her gather handfuls of leaves into piles.  It was surprisingly cozy…

...until little hands began shoving the leaf pile off him.  “C’mon!”  their owner said.  “It’s lunchtime!”

He spread out the blanket and handed Attie her sandwich, the apple slices, and all the napkins.  He wasn’t really an outdoors-y person, not like some monsters he could name, but he had to admit that there was something kinda pretty about this place she had picked.  The trees were varied enough that it wasn't a copy of the pine forest near Snowdin, but the atmosphere reminded him a little of his old home.  He’d hidden in that forest often enough to have an appreciation for trees in general.

“The trees are really pretty even without their leaves,”  Attia said between bites.  “Did you take pictures and send them to my mommy?”

“I took pictures, but I don’t have reception out here.  Gotta get back to town to send them to your mom.”

“Okay.”

They sat in silence for a bit longer.  Sans gathered up the trash in a bag and found - to his amusement - that once categorized in such a way, he was able to store all the leftover sandwich and apple bags and dirty napkins in a single inventory slot.  Magic was weird.

“I wish we could stay out here forever and ever,” the little girl said, sounding half-asleep.

“Oh?  Wouldn’t you miss your mom?”

“She could come out and live here with us too.  She has to go to work, though.”

“What about, uh, school?  And friends?”

“I do school from books, silly!  And I could visit my friends.  They all work at the embassy, at least sometimes, ‘cept you.”

It was a strange thing, that tingling that spread outwards from his soul at those words.  When was the last time he’d had a friend?  Had he ever?  Sure, it was just a little human kid, but...well, it made him regret not being a little nicer to the kid’s mom a few years back.  Had Frisk been this carefree and innocent once upon a time?  Had monsters taken that from her?

Had he…?

“Mr. Sans?”

“Yeah, Attie?”

“Am I your friend too?”

He leaned back onto his leaf pile and closed his eye sockets.  “Yeah, kid.  You’re my friend too.”

She sighed and laid down beside him, her fingertips tapping on his in a strange rhythm.  For once, he didn’t mind the contact.  He knew with absolute clarity in that moment that he would willingly die for this obnoxious, precocious, brilliant little girl.  Laughter bubbled in his empty chest at the thought.  There was no reason to suspect that they would ever be in a situation where that would be necessary, or would actually do any good, but that was the first thing that came to mind.

She was going back to her mother as soon as Frisk was released from the hospital, probably in a few days.  Granted, it could be a few weeks with how bad Frisk’s luck had been lately, but the fact remained that eventually Attie would go home.  She would go home to her mother and move on with her life.  Would she even remember him?  She’d only known him for a week and a half.  Sans himself couldn’t remember much from when he was seven years old, and considering what he’d gone through at that age it both relieved and frightened him.

Attie would forget him, someday.

“Mr. Sans?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re thinking too hard again.”

“Oh.  Sorry.”

“It’s okay!  I just don’t want you to be sad.”

“Uh, thanks.”

She hummed a little.  “Mr. Sans?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we go back to your house now and call Mommy?”

“Sure, if she’s awake.”

He hauled himself upright and held out a hand.  She took it without hesitation, smiling so wide her eyes squinted.

She...trusted him.  It was almost inconceivable, after less than two weeks, but she did.

Sans knew with a sinking feeling that he’d betray that trust somehow.  The thought made his shortcut a little more bumpy than usual, but instead of complaining Attie immediately demanded that he always make his shortcuts that “fun.”

“...No promises.  Now don’t you have someone to call?”

She squealed and ran off to locate her phone.

You 2:14 PM *12 picture messages sent Picnic at mt ebott

There was no response.  Was Frisk alright?  He caught himself worrying that she hadn’t eaten anything since the mac ‘n cheese, but forced the thought away.  She wasn’t his problem.

...But what if she had eaten something, and it had been poisoned?  Humans were weirdly susceptible to poison.  He curled his twitching fingers into a fist to keep them from drumming on the table.  This kid and her mom were going to be the death of him.

“Mr. Sans?”

“Yeah, Attie?”

“I can’t call Mommy.  She isn’t picking up her phone.”

“Yeah, she hasn’t texted me back, either.  Whaddaya wanna do while we wait for her?”

She thought hard for a long moment.  Sans braced himself for anything.  “Friend” or not, this kid had a downright disturbing sense of humor sometimes.

“How about we play…TEA PARTY!”

Disturbing, indeed.

By the time Undyne vaulted dramatically into the apartment several hours later, Sans had resigned himself to his fate.  He’d been forced to ‘dress up’ (in nice clothes, which meant he had to do laundry, which Attie - the little goblin - absolutely loved) and was wearing his single formal outfit: a button-down white shirt and black slacks.  Attie had changed into a flowery skirt and top, and had insisted on finding an old bedsheet to use as a tablecloth for the skeleton brothers’ stained dining room table.

What made all that worth it was the look on Undyne’s face when she realized they had raided her ‘secret’ tea stash.  Coffee may have been her one true love, but tea came in a close second.  Boss kept some on hand for emergencies.

“WHAT THE EFF?!?” she screamed, waving a spear wildly.  “SANS, WHY?!?”

“Attie wanted to play tea party.”

“Yeah!” the girl piped up, taking a tiny sip from her coffee mug.  She’d been pretty upset to find that the skeleton household didn’t have any proper teacups.

Undyne looked more conflicted than Sans had ever seen her.  On the one hand, she was known to be extremely protective over her property, which automatically included all caffeinated beverages within arm’s reach.  (And she had a surprisingly long reach.)  On the other...she had a proven fondness for Attie, and Attie was obviously happy.

To his surprise, fondness for the little human won out...this time.

“Well you’d better pour me a cup, nerd,” she said, dispelling her spear and throwing herself into the chair across from Sans.

Attie giggled and dashed into the kitchen for another mug.

“So,” the captain said, eyeing him, “You’re still alive.”

“You saw me literally yesterday morning.  Why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s an ongoing surprise.  I thought the kid’d run you ragged after a day or two, especially after you collapsed the first time you worked out with us.”

He shrugged.  It was a fair assessment.

“You’re not half bad at this, y’know.”

“What, at tea parties?  You know me, Cap’n; never one to pass up the pretty dresses.”

Undyne took a point of HP off him with her swat.  “Don’t be cheeky with me.  No; I mean you’re good with Attie.  It’s downright weird.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” he drawled, winking.

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by Attie prancing back into the dining room with another mug of tea balanced carefully between her hands.  It was made more complicated by the fact that she was wearing oven mitts.  Sans braced himself to mitigate the almost-inevitable splash of hot liquid, but she managed to get the mug onto the table in front of Undyne without incident.

“Thanks,” Undyne said after a gulp of piping hot tea.  “You’re becoming a real chef.  You’ll give Papyrus ‘n me a run for our money someday, huh?”

“Yyyup!  I’ll beat you both, and then Mr. Papyrus will have to be nice!”

“He’s still gettin’ mad at you?”

“No, but he yells a lot.  Mr. Sans usually sends me to a different room when it starts so it doesn’t hurt my ears.”

“...Well, as long as you’re both okay.”

All three sipped their tea in silence for a moment.

“WAIT!”  Undyne slammed her mug down on the table with a firm thud.  “I almost forgot!  Attie!  Your mom’s getting out of the hospital!”

“YAY!  ...When?”

“Tomorrow or Monday, we think.  We’re waiting on some tests; don’t think they’ll let her go tonight, someone’s being a real ass about things.  It’s stupid.  Now that she’s awake she can pretty much take care of herself.”

“Wow!  That’s great!  Then I can visit her at my house instead of the stinky hospital!”  She hummed to herself a little.

Sans shared a glance with Undyne.  “Hey, uh, kid...don’t you wanna go home?”

“Yep!  But Mommy’s still sick, right?  I always have a babysitter when Mommy’s sick or I’m sick, so we don’t get germs all over each other.”

“I don’t think germs are a big concern here.  Appendicitis isn’t contagious.”

“...What?”

“Nevermind.”  He turned back to Undyne.  “So, uh, when’s the kid goin’ home?”

“We’ll see.  Frisk might need some time to get settled.  We’ll arrange something.”  She sighed, downing the rest of her tea.  “Well, it’s been great, nerds.  Gotta go check on the Dogi; Dogaressa might be going into labor.”

She left in a whirlwind of color and sound only marginally less intense than the one she arrived in.

“Mr. Sans?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“What’s a labor?”

“Work.  In this context, it means...uh, it means she’s having her puppies.  Y’know how they’re inside her right now?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, they’ve gotta come out.”

“Oh.”  She pondered this for a long moment.  “Does that mean they’re getting born?  Mrs. Dogaressa promised that I could pet them when they get born.”

“Uh, sure, kid.”

There was a blessed moment of silence, before:

“Mr. Sans?”

“...Yeah?”

“How did the puppies get inside Mrs. Dogaressa?”

“Just...finish your tea.”

[imagineswriting47]

A What? Part Two

A/N: This is for @rikersgirl22 who asked Can I have a hurt/comfort with Magnus. Hope you like part two!

This is NOT Beta read. So all mistakes are mine and mine alone

Summary: Finding out that she might be what Magnus called a Warlock she runs only to find her way back to Magnus

Warnings: None

Paring: Mention of Magnus/Alec

Part One    

“You are a Warlock.” Magnus states to me as if it is the simplest thing in the world. But I have no idea what he is talking about. What he is implying can't be real those are just stories right? Stories told to children at night to either scare them or teach them life lessons.

“No I’m not. I’m just some freak that can't do anything right. I can't even be a normal human. Look I'm sorry for what happened but I’m not what you say I am.” I pull my arm away from him before turning and running away from him as fast as I can. I don't want to believe him even if what he is saying might make some sense to me and its not the craziest thing ever to happen to me.

I manage to get away from him and to a place that I stay at on occasion when I am in this part of the city. Its under an underpass that has some barrels that I can use to build a fire. I have also found that people don't seem to like it down there. Its a great place just to be alone. And I have never really been one to be around a lot of people. Even the other kids like me I never wanted to get to know. I learned early on that you can never trust anyone and you should only count on yourself.

I set to work finding things that can burn. I don't find a lot but it will be enough to keep me warm for most of the night. Setting some of it in the barrel out of the line of sight unless you were looking I pull out the book a matches that I keep in my pants pocket. Happy for the first time that I didn’t put them back in my bag after last night.

Once the fire is glowing nice and hot I warm my hands that had grown numb from the fall. It is then that I notice for the first time that I still have on Magnus’s jacket. I didn’t mean to keep it but I didn’t mean for that creature to attack me also. Deciding to see if he has anything in his pockets I search them.

I don't find anything until I get to the pocket on the inside of the jacket. I find his cell phone. I hit the unlock button finding that I don't need an unlock pin or pattern I try to see if I can find away to get him his jacket and now his phone back to him. I go through the phone not finding much. His pictures don't help I can't identify anything from the background of them.  The people in them are weird; I don't really know how to put it but I know that they can't be completely human. Are theses the Warlocks that he had mentioned before? But I don't have anything like theses people so it can't be right. I can't be what he said I am.

It isn’t till I go through his text messages that I find my first clue onto where he might be living. It is a conversation between him and a man named Alexander it would seem that the two of them are dating. But at one point an address as exchanged between Magnus and Alexander; deciding that I would try to find it tomorrow I settle on the ground to try and get some sleep.

Sleep is elusive that night. While I am used to sleeping on the ground I normally have a blanket to sleep on and one to keep me some what warm and cushion the hard ground some. Its early morning by the time that I finally fall asleep. I sleep late into the morning only being waken up when the noise from the overpass gets too loud for me to sleep.

I stand from the ground and stretch out my sore muscles before wiping my eyes getting rid of the grime that is in the cornor of them. Making sure the fire is totally out I make my way back to the heart of the city. Once I have my bearings once more I make my way to the subway. Sneaking my way into the platforms I get onto one of the trains and start looking over the map that shows the lines and how to get to Brooklyn. Looks like I’m gonna be on this train for a couple of stops before switching trains for a few more stops.

I find a seat near the back of the car and just enjoy watching the people that come and go even if I don’t care for being around people. It is one of the things that I love about this city the people here and the kind of people that they are. You have all kinds of people, people that are not afraid to be themselves. Mothers and Fathers and children just going about their lives; living day to day. Having no idea what is really out there in this world nor the hardships that I have been through. I wish that I could be like them happy and carefree for the most part. Hell I would even like to be able to go to school.

I had always had this thirst for knowledge wanting to know everything and anything about people and this world. So when it came that I could no longer go to school my heart broke. And some of my spirit died too a lot more of me has died since that point. I lost so much of myself that first few years that I was on my own now I am just trying to survive I’m not living anymore.

Trying to learn the do’s and the don'ts of living on the streets was not the easiest thing to do; most people won't help you and those who do are going to want something in return. Once I had my understanding of how life on the street works I started to spend my time at libraries reading every book that I could get my hands on. And they were warm on those cold winter days.

The train ride doesn’t take as long as I thought that it would and I soon find myself walking around Brooklyn trying to find the address mentioned in the text messages. Its not till the sun is high in the sky that I find the right road. Once that happens it does not take me long to find the building. I walk up to it and find that it has a list with buzzers on it of the people that live there. I find the name Magnus Bane before walking away from the building.

I find a spot from which I can watch the building to see if the Magnus that I meet the other night does in fact live here. I spend the rest of the day watching the building and people come and go but not Magnus. I am about to give up when I see a group of people with theses weird tattoos show up. Sitting up straighter I watch them enter the apartments. They don't stay long before leaving once more with Magnus with them.

Deciding that it would be safe to take the jacket and cell phone back to Magnus I quickly walk to the apartment building. Looking at the list of buzzers I find Magnus's name once more and his apartment number. Now just how to get into the building?

I try just opening the door hoping that I would find the door unlocked but I don't have such luck. I pull one of the bobby pins out of my hair that I use to keep my hair up and out of my face; I set to picking the lock; something I learned how to do from ome of the books from the library.

I am out of practice at picking locks because it takes me longer than what it should to get the lock open; not that i have spent a lot of time picking locks. Pushing the door open once I get the lock undone I am shocked at how nice it is in here. Feeling more out of place than ever before I quickly make my way down the hall looking for the right number on the door.

Not finding that number on this floor I make my way up the steps hoping to avoid people. I skip the second floor figuring that it would not be there I make my way up to the third. Not finding it once more I go to the last floor.

Once I am standing in front of the door a debate if I should pick the lock or just leave the jacket and phone at the door. Not wanting to take the chance of him getting back with me trying to pick the lock I fold the jacket and and place it on the floor where he will be able to see it before setting the phone on top of it. Wanting him to see it and not step or leave it out once he gets back.

I step out of the building once I am finished leaving his things behind. and go to walk down the street in a different direction from which Magnus and the others that were here went when I hear.

“You!” Yelled from down the street. I turn to see who yelled only to find that Magnus and that group of people making their way down the road back towards the apartment building that I have just left. Magnus seems shocked to see me; using that to my advantage I take off running once more away from him in the direction I had intended to go in the first place.

Only this time I can hear footfalls behind me and more than one at that. I try to outrun them but its not long before my lungs are burning along with my legs and I get hopelessly lost on the streets. I manage to run down a dead end alley which is just my luck lately.

Breathing hard I turn and watch them all running down the alley to me stopping about ten feet from where I am standing. Noticing that I am not the only one breathing hard makes me feels some what better about the shape that I am in. Even with everything I had going against me I still am able to make these people feel just as out of breath as me.

“Look just leave me alone.” I rasp out past my harsh breaths. I'm begging really. I just want to go back to my life. Even if it was not the best and I had weird things happening to me. I knew what I was doing I knew what I was getting into even if I was not happy with it life was predictable in its own way.

“I only want to help you.” Magnus says as he takes a step towards me. I take a step back even knowing that I don't have anywhere to go; but wanting to keep as much space between as as possible. I hope that by keeping the distance I still have a chance to get away if I need to but I also know that it is a vain hope.

“Look you are not only a danger to yourself but to others around you.” The tall one says to me from where he stands behind Magnus. He has dark hair and hazel eyes and I must admit that he is quiet intimidating to be around. But at the same time there is an air of kindness maybe even love around him.

“I am thankful for what you did Magnus don't get me wrong but I am better on my own I always have been so just please leave me alone.” I beg him completely ready to beg on my knees just to get him to go away.

“But you don't have to be alone; me teach you. I can help you and teach you how to fight the demons.” He says but he is not making any sense to me. Which is something that I am not used to. I am  so used to being one of the smartest people in the room but the fact that demons might be really scares me.

“Demons?” I can't help but ask needing him to clarify what he is talking about.

“Those creatures that you managed to save us from are called demons. You need to know something Y/N all the stories are true. Demons, Angels, Nephilim, Warlocks, Vampires and Werewolfs are all true. You’re a Warlock Y/N.” Magnus says with a look on his face that just seems to be begging me to believe him. And apart of me does for something in me know that this make sense. But the larger part is still denying it not wanting to believe in such stories.

“Ok say I believe you with everything that has happened in my life this would not be the craziest thing that I have ever been told. But if am am a Warlock than what are you?” I look them all over needing this answer if I am to believe anything he says.

“I am a Warlock and they are Shadowhunters.” Magnus says as he motions behind him at the others that stand there.

“What are Shadowhunters?” I say as I motion to the people that are standing behind him.

“Shadowhunter are the Nephilim they protect the human world from the demon world.” He tells me as he looks back at them once more. Seemingly to be having a silent conversation with them.

I don't say anything as I stand there. I take in the people that are standing in front of me and try to decide if I trust them, Magnus I want to trust him so bad and I do want the help that he could give me. But life has not been kind. I know that life is difficult for everyone at times but life has dealt me a really bad hand.

“I’m willing to listen to what you have to say but I make no promises to stay.” When I say this Magnus seems to relax some the tension that was in his shoulders melts away. Like when he found out that I might be a Warlock that I became his responsibility right then and here.

“Come back to mine. We can get something to eat and you cleaned up and into some clean clothing.” Magnus holds his hand out to me and I take it with a nod of my head. The others that stand behind him move out of the way and let us down the alley. They don't say anything just look at me I girl with long dark hair smiles when I pass her and I try to smile back but I can't seem to get on on my face.

The walk back to the apartment is quiet but neither Magnus and I let go of each other's hand. Magnus wanting to make sure that I don't disappear again and me wanting to remind myself that this is not a dream. I don't even notice that the other are walking behind us.

Once back at the apartment Magnus seems shocked to find this jacket and cell on his door. He just looks at them before looking back at me then back down at them.

“I was bringing it back. That's why I was here in the first place.” I tell Magnus as he lets go of my hand as he reaches down to pick it up. Once the door is open and I have stepped into the room my jaw drops. Everything is so colorful and you would think that it wouldn’t work all these color together but they do. I spin once in the middle of what appears to be the living room just taking it all in.

“Here I’ll go get you something clean to wear then you can get cleaned up Y/N.” Magnus walks quickly from the room leaving me alone for the first time with the others. I look around at them taking them in. they seem nice but they have this air about the that makes me believe that they think they are better than me.

“Hello, I’m Izzy.” The other all go around and tell me there name Clary, Jace, Simon then Alec. It is that name that makes me pause and take notice of the names being told to me.

“Alec as in Alexander?” I ask him.

“Ya.” He seems shocked when I ask him that.

“I was just wondering. I remember seeing your name in Magnus’s phone. I was trying to find out where he lived so I could give him back his things.” I say looking down at my feet not really feeling comfortable to look at them or really comfortable at all. There is just something about them that I have not figured out yet.

“Here we go.” Magnus says as he walks back into the room stopping the possible conversation that could have happened. I follow him to the bathroom. He turns the water on for me before leaving the bathroom.

I take my time in the shower enjoying the hot water. A luxury that I normally don't have so I take advantage of it. I watch as the dirt runs off my body before grabbing the rag that Magnus left for me. Washing my body till it turns pink not only from the temperature of the water but from me scrubbing my skin clean.

I wash my hair last more than once to make sure that all the dirt is really off of me. Finally deciding that I have used enough of his water I get out of the shower. I grab the clean clothing that Magnus left for me I unfold it and take a look at it for the first time. Finding that Magnus has grabbed me some yoga pants and a black v-neck that is about two sizes too big. I pull back on the only pair of panties I have and forgo the bra before pulling on the clean clothing.

I tie the shirt up some before leaving the bathroom. Happy to be wearing something clean for the first time in months. I find that the others have left leaving only Magnus and I.

“What would you like to eat?” Magnus asks once he sees me as he take a seat on the couch across the room from me.

“Whatever you want is fine.” I say as I walk over to the bookshelves and look over the titles of the books. Finding something interesting I grab it off the shelf before walking and sitting down next to Magnus.

“Do you mind?” I ask him as I show him the book. He nods his head before he waves his hands and a pizza is in front of us.

“That was cool.” I say before grabbing a slice of it. I eat in silence not saying anything as Magnus talks to my about everything that he seems to think of at the moment. When he asks me about my Warlock mark is when things get confusing even more.

“I don't have one that I know of.” I state to him. I have never seen a Warlock mark on me or on any one else that I can remember.

“Nothing.” He seems shocked when I tell him this.

“No just the weird things that have always happened that you explained to me as my magic trying to protect me.” knowing now that my magic has been looking out for me even when I had no idea was comforting in it’s own way. Like a friend that I never knew I had nor never knew I wanted.

“Its getting late I’ll show you to your room and we can talk more in the morning.” Magnus says as he stands from the couch after he looks over to the wall and sees that it is late into the night or really early in the morning. With another wave of his hand the things on the table disappear to where I don't know and I really don't want to ask. But it was cool.

The room that he shows me to is spacious and comfortable but not what I am used to. I find that the bed is too soft after spending so much of my life sleeping on the ground. I pull the blankets off the bed and settle on the ground finding that sleep once I do that is so much easier to find. Warm for the first time in months I sleep better than I have in a long time.

Morning comes faster than I want when I am woken up to voices in another part of the apartment. I stay there trying to hear what they are saying but I am not able to. Its not until Magnus raises his voice do I find what they seem to be arguing about.

“I couldn’t just leave her Alec!” I hear Magnus all but yell out. Making me feel guilty that he is fighting with someone I know he cares about because of me.

“I know that!” I hear yelled when I open the door. I purposely close the door loud so they can hear me before walking back to where I remember the kitchen to be. When I don't see anyone in the kitchen I look for a glass opening cupboard after cupboard trying to find one. Once I find I get myself a glass of water before jumping up and sitting on the counter waiting for Magnus to come and find me.

It doesn’t take long for Magnus to walk into the room by himself. I hear the door slam closed making the both of us jump. I feel even more guilty than before. I had hoped that they would be able to work it out but it doesn’t seem to be going that way.

“Is everything okay.” I ask setting the glass down before jumping down and walking over to him. I know that everything isn’t ok but it seems the be the thing that I need to ask.

“Ya, Alexander….” He doesn’t finish the sentence and I don't force him to. Wanting him to know that he can talk to me when he is ready.

“Why don't you teach me some more.” I say to him hoping to get him to feel better. He take the option and runs with it. Diving right into everything, teaching somethings I had no idea about or that they could even happen.

I don't try to do any of the things that he is showing me. Content to just watch it and take it all in. Happy for once to not feel like I’m not alone nor the freak that I always believed myself to be.

A/N: If you liked his please hit that heart. If you really liked this hit that re-blog.