#not to say i started a thing . but the face gradient nose thing i draw on riz + fig is because of moomin/cr fan

[fakesorbet]

I’ve noticed a thing

[saxandviolins77]

Would you be open to talking about your process and art style a little bit? It's so impressive how you use shapes in your art in this expressive and non-naturalistic way ~arceespinkgun

Of course!

I started drawing Transformers in early 2023 but only started posting at the end of said year, aaand this is going to sound a little embarrassing and VERY self-defeating, but... my art sucked. A lot. No use saying otherwise. I had a really hard time adapting my style to drawing mecha (or at least robot-shaped people), and the fact that I had a really rough transition to using a drawing tablet didn't help (I used to draw using the trackpad, my finger, or just traditionally).

Most of the art I'll use here will be old, since that represents my capabilities at the time better than my old Transformers art does. It's also an honor for y'all because I purged all my art from my socials way back in 2022, ahahaha.

I'm self-taught, so most of my explanation is vibes-based. If a professional artist were to read this, they'd hurl in agony.

First off. My thought process behind how I draw things... I really like drawing things flat.

That's it, basically. When I draw, I try my best to show the least possible volume, and even when I show volume, I still think of it as a flat shape (it's psychological). This applies when I think about faces (the flattened facial features thing I talked about a few months ago). I think about shapes as 2D planes stacked on top of each other rather than shapes existing in a 3D space. You see this when I draw Hook's nose when he's facing forward; I keep the dorsal hump. Or when I draw side views (I LOVE drawing side views), this was actually inspired by Mickey Mouse's ears and how they're always facing forward, so he can always have his iconic marketable silhouette. I thought it was genius at the time.

Some of my main inspirations are UPA animated shows (put Clone High here too), Bruce Timm's character designs for Freakazoid and BTAS, phase one Gorillaz art (that's Jamie Hewlett), Rebecca Sugar's work on SU, and Vernon Grant's magazine covers. I also have been getting into medieval art, so let's see how that'll turn out

Things I try to avoid like a plague are thick line art and organic shapes. If I'm going to draw a square, it needs to be a polygonal shape, not just a suggestion of a square shape (this sounds confusing, ik).

Here's some art from March 2021 and how I'd approach it today. I had a somewhat distinguishable art style, but it still needed polishing and a clear vision of what I wanted to do. I kept it a very unpolished sketch so you can see a little bit of my thought process when I draw (and because I'm lazyyyyy). Notice how I try to do singular lines and defined shapes anywhere I can. Also, a stronger line of action and silhouette—silhouettes were/are a very weak spot of mine.

Around 2022, I had already hit a very nice spot with my art.

Ignore just how stiff my poses were and the awful proportions (eugh), but see how I push the shapes and the obnoxiously thin line art. I did change my rendering to be gradient-based instead of this vector shading approximation. I like both, though.

It's not JUST about having an angular style; it's about the flow and consistency of the strokes. I really like this little doodle from 2023, made almost entirely out of curves, BUT they are DEFINED curves. That's the thing.

My current process consists of: rough drawing (gesture) -> sketch -> clean sketch -> line art -> flats. When I'm feeling fancy, I render it using gradients.

Some things I really improved in 2024-2025 were the same-face syndrome, drawing detail, HANDS, and 3D shapes + perspective. Still haven't gotten over my hangups with drawing lineless art... IT LOOKS BAD WHEN I DO ITT.

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: A feminine mime in the vein of the webcomic Cirque Royale. They have lavender skin, short black hair, pointed ears, clawed hands, and blue eyes. Their nose is a little black circle and black heart and star markings are under their eyes. They are wearing pink circular glasses, a black and white striped t-shirt, a black jacket with white accents, black shorts, black and white striped tights, and black boots with pink zipper pulls. They are holding their hands up and smiling with visible razor-sharp teeth. The background is a pixelated radial gradient of white and grey, with a soft pink aura around the character. End ID.]

-----

A familiar face, but something's a bit different about them! Yeah, I've been following the webcomic Cirque Royale for some time, not too long after I started being a mime enjoyer iirc, and I wanted to draw Muette like the mimes in that comic! Of course "Muette" feels like kinda a weird name for that universe as all those mimes have actual people names, if some being fairly obscure due to the chosen naming scheme being specifically references to painters, so I decided to give 'em a new name for this look: René Courtois. Idk off the top of my head if there's a painter named René, but it works for me XD

I changed their outfit to a mimey take on what I normally wear since their normal outfit seems like something more for special occasions going by the recent Lantern Day storyline and the unused outfits, while keeping the tights of course because they're fun, also I made their glasses pink to keep that accent color pop in the general head area hehe :3 Idk what their mime powers would be tho, that's something to think about for later if I wanna turn René into a proper OC I guess. I also can't imagine them getting wrapped up in something that would land them in the... *ahem* situation that a lot of Circue's mimes unfortunately find themselves in, but considering the wide range of what seems to get people in trouble in Mimopolis...yeeaaah I'm just not gonna think about that possibility so that I don't get sad cuz I just want them to be happy and live their lil mime life in peace okay (:

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~Likes are appreciated, but reblogs are preferred as they let more people see my artwork! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Cirque Royale and related concepts © Brittany K. / @cirqueduroyale René Courtois (aka Cirque!Muette, in any form) and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[handsome-edvard]

Well, I did finally look into my WIP folders and the Don Judy fic I started in freaking 2022 was sitting there waiting for me like 👁️👄👁️ ma’am why would you leave me here for so long.

So here’s chapter one UNEDITED and ROUGH but finally freeeee (idk if I’ll finish this fic tbh).

~~~

Love Came With All That It Brings

The sky looks different where they’ve stopped for a break, a soft iridescent blue, fading into a gradient of lavender and pink which makes the alien moons more prominent where they seem to hang. To Don, they look as though they’ll tear through the atmosphere at any moment and fall on their heads. It wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen today, a thought which birthes a sardonic smile on his face.

The sound of footsteps approaching tear his attention away from the unsettlingly beautiful sky. Judy sidles up to him but she does not meet his gaze.

“How’s he holding up?” Don asks, a part of him still reeling from Evan’s accident earlier.

If Judy is also shaken, her face betrays nothing. “He’s stable,” she answers. “I didn’t want to scare him but I don’t think he’ll walk again.” She draws a shaky breath and it rattles past her lips. “I really thought I could save him.”

“You did,” Don says. “He wouldn’t be alive right now if it wasn’t for you. Hey—” Finally, Judy’s eyes are his, and Don can see that this whole thing is a lot for her. Sure, she kept her cool with someone’s life on the line, like a real doctor, but the pressure must have been immense. Evan is her third patient, ever. “You did great, Dr. Robinson.”

The title seems to have the intended effect and Don sees a small, grateful smile settle on her lips. Victor Dhar may not see her as a doctor yet, but after today, Don would rather be with Judy in the event of a medical emergency. He can even get past her ‘anger issues’, though to her credit, she placed his nose cleanly back into place. A precise fix for a precise break.

“We should get him back,” Judy says. “I can treat him further and his brother will want to know what happened.”

Don agrees and inclines his head for Judy to follow him back to the Chariot. Evan is asleep for most of the ride back, yet Judy hardly leaves his side, diligently checking his vitals every so often. When bumps on the road jostle the patient awake, Don hears Judy speak softly to Evan, comforting him by distracting him from the pain and the heaviness of his fate.

It seems five degrees warmer out once they reach camp. Don helps transport Evan to a supply tent that officially becomes their new medic bay. He clears out a few pieces of heavy equipment to give Judy more space to work. Aiko is there to help setup the medical supplies and once there isn’t much left for him to do, Don figures it’s best if he keeps out of the way. Yet he finds himself lingering hesitantly at the entrance of the tent. It feels like he should stay but that is foolish, as he can’t actually help with any of this stuff.

“Don?” Judy calls, breaking his idleness. “We need to tell Evan’s brother and I need to find my mom.”

The look she gives him is clear enough. It’s partly why he hasn’t left the tent yet. Smith is out there still and Don isn’t quite confident Judy should be dealing with the dangerous fraudster with everything that’s happened to Evan. Another part of him wants to deal with Smith himself.

“I’ll handle it,” Don says. “Comm me if anything.”

Judy acknowledges him with a nod and Don departs. He finds Evan’s brother after practically going in circles all around camp, but of Maureen and Smith, there is no sign. By the time hunger prompts him to give up, it’s dark out. Most people have retreated to tents, vehicles, or the odd Jupiter. Don forages for rations and heads back to the medic bay. Something tells him the doctor hasn’t left her patient. He finds Judy almost exactly where he left her.

“Didn’t find your mom and there’s no sign of Smith either,” Don declares to make himself known. “I think your folks might be on a little excursion of their own. We’re down a Chariot.”

“Alright. Evan’s doing okay,” Judy replies, her eyes glued on the vitals. “I told his brother I’ll need to keep him here a few more days, until he fully stabilizes.”

“Did you tell him about the…?”

Judy turns to look at Don. She nods somewhat sadly. “I told Evan too. He said he can still surf with prosthetics.”

Don huffs somewhat mirthlessly. “Well think fast,” he says, and tosses Judy the food ration. “Have that before you end up being your own patient.”

“Thanks.” Judy walks past Don, sitting on the crates just outside the tent. The way her head turns slightly toward him is an open invitation, so he takes the spot beside her with an exaggerated groan. “You know, you saved Evan too today. Thank you for doing that.”

Don tears into the food ration and takes a bite of the sandwich which is mostly synthetic food. The moment Judy refers to is not lost on him. In fact, this whole day and the one before have been rollercoasters. It did not take him long to accept he has more in common with the Robinson than perhaps either one of them could see.

“I know I said some things about your smuggling,” Judy goes on after a minute, and Don partly wishes she hadn’t continued with that. “I still disapprove of it and of your… deal, but… I also think you’re a good man.”

He can’t help the laugh that surfaces. It’s not forced but he can’t explain it either. There is nothing funny here but it still flows, before ending abruptly. “You don’t know anything abou me, Judy.”

“Maybe,” she answers. “But I know no one else would have moved that tanker if you hadn’t. I also know you’re a big cry baby.”

Don turns to meet her eye. She is smiling, he can see it, and a part him thinks that even though she disapproves of what he stands for, they can still be friends. So he smiles too. She knows a lot more about him than most people in this large camp of survivors, which is just as well, seeing as it wouldn’t do for so many people to be able to get him to throw away a perfectly reasonable business deal, lose fuel, yet save a life.

Somehow, only Judy can do that and he’s not quite sure what to make of this realization he most certainly does not wish to have.

“That mean we’re friends again?” Don says.

“I guess we can skip to that part.”

Her teasing smiles forces him to break eye contact and happily finish his food. His chest feels warm and it’s nice. He tells himself it’s because he hasn’t actually got any friends, though John Robinson may be a contender.

“Well, if you want the real Don West saga,” he nearly bellows, “I suppose I could spare a few hours to indulge you. It all begins with the nuns at my primary school…”

When he looks, Judy is smiling, and that makes Don proud of himself.

Chapter 2 and 3

[plush-rabbit]

Simeon's Angelic Form

A/N: I really love designing like monster-esque forms. I have one that I’m designing for Levi for his like demon/monster full form so if you requested that (gen you, not specific you) be patient cause wow!! Demons are hard to design for (also since this is different than like a x reader, it’ll be worded diffs)

-

Edit: I believe that since he is an archangel, but also plays guardian for Luke- even being referred to as a grandfather figure to Luke by Solomon, I still see it that he has a rather modest look to him. I believe that he would be rather human in his appearance. He could be exceptionally thin, slender around the waist. I also believe that he would keep a rather similar fashion sense to what he already has minus his cape/poncho.

Okay, so head wise, his eyes would have no whites or pupils. It would be full iris of his eye color mixed with a bit of opal. So maybe, a cloudy pale blue with hints of dark blue. He’d keep the same hair style, maybe a bit longer, but around the same style, maybe a bit floaty. There’d be a thin smile and he’d have a sort of mask like color on him. So he’d keep the same warm brown skin, but only middle of the nose and up while the bottom half would be a dark blue similar to the one on his human outfit.

Around his head would be four small floating wings. Which would be a mix of soft milky white and pearly white, the tips of the wings iridescent and shimmering with gold at the tips. On the front and back of his wings would be large eyes with pupils- similar to his eyes when in his human appearance- that emote rather than his face eyes.

He’d have broad shoulders, a bit of armor like pads around him that are white with cold lining, the insides of it a gradient of blue to green much like his sash/poncho. Around his elbows, that's when his arms start to slowly disintegrate. So his elbow is gone, large breaks floating where a bit of his bicep and forearm would be. They’d be gold, mixed with maybe other gemstones like diamond or opal. His fingers would be long and spindly, the tips of them being inked in blank, obsidian like, shiny and beautiful.

The same thing with his arms would follow with his legs. I’m keen on either him having deer like legs or sticking with human legs that end with deer hooves. But if it were the case, around his calf area would be a weird mix of feathers/fur. The colors would be a dark brown speckled with white. I want to say that the hooves are a similar color to his finger tips; being very bright to the point that it almost hurts to look like.

On his back would be one set of wings that go floor length. Believe that these sets of wings would be similar to eagle wings. I’m stuck on them either also being white similar to his head wings but the inside folds of it being a mix of the blue to green ombre effect or just a full white akin to his head wings. When folded, there would be a sort of effect where large eyes could be seen, unblinking and with an intense gaze.

He’d also be incredibly tall, to the point of having to hunch over when speaking to you. I think in terms of monster loving, he’d be just around ten feet whereas to be biblical, he’d be a lot taller but I’m also very short so anything more than 5’4 is tall to me.

His halos are something that I struggle with. I’m stuck between him having a regular halo with sort of rays coming out the outside like spikes, if that makes sense. Or a halo that starts from his head and curves into one, so a circle coming from his head. But around would be symmetrical like antler edges coming out. The halo would be gold, sort of a sun that emanates from him.

I feel as if this form is sort of a release for him. It’s comforting. Sort of like coming home from a long day and just sinking into the bed type of comfort. I think rather than being a more warrior type of angel, he’d be a homely type, tending to younger angels and such. I feel as if the only time it would come out would be more of a sort of anger type. Maybe someone got too close to someone he loves in a negative way.

That’s my thoughts!! I hope it made sense!! I had to draw him out so I could get things done but even then I don’t think it was enough?? He would be tall and spindly and thin. I think he would have like gold foil and he would definitely keep his brown skin.

[gojology]

Teddybears and Shitty Cards.

back to homepage pairing : yuuji x gender neutral reader warnings : minor cursing, fluff wordcount : 1529 a/n : i hope i did u yuuji stans justice .. probably not but this is rlly good for my characterization :) also i thought that gojo wasn’t as well loved as megumi/yuuji/nanami etc but holy shit i thought wrong. my megumi and nanami fics got little to no attraction, or maybe i write them horribly, idk. is gojo satoru the best husbando in jjk? (the answer is yes.) also uh.. i didnt proof read this ████████████████  100% Complete. Enjoy your game.

     “Itadori!” you yell, panting, cupping your hands together around your mouth to amplify your voice. He had asked you prior to meet with you for Valentines in this particular park, most likely because it was Valentines day.        You had to admit, his selection in nice places was clearly defined. The views from the hill you and him sat upon was spectacular, you could see the city in it’s whole. This was amplified with the setting of the sun, a hazy beautiful orangey-yellow gradient was all the eye could see from up here.       It was definitely worth the walk up the steep hill, and you took a much needed seat and breather on the painted wooden bench, pulling out your water bottle you take a long swig, wiping the sweat off your brow as you did so.       You took a quick sneak peek at Yuuji, who was humming a tune, earbuds in. Shielding your eyes with your hand, you leaned closer into his shoulder. His thumbs were fumbling with something, which you now realized was a Nintendo Switch.       “Watcha playing?” you ask, breathing in his scent. Remnants of candy and baked goods filled your nose.        Yuuji didn’t say anything back, instead continuing to hum and mumble a few lyrics, lost in his own world.       It was only until you impatiently tapped at his broad shoulders to pay attention to you. He jolted up, looking left and right before finally realizing you were sitting next to him. Taking a deep breath in, he cheerfully smiled before taking one of his earbuds out.       “Hey! You came early~ are you excited to see me?” he questioned, setting his Nintendo Switch into his backpack before picking up what seemed to be a bag right next to him.      “Of course! Why wouldn’t I be, baby?” you reply back, grinning, deciding to pay no mind towards this bag. Yuuji was quite popular, especially revolving sports or something along the lines of that. Many famous coaches had said that he possessed super-human strength, and he had been showered in contracts with sport teams not long after those few words.       In return, this caused Yuuji to be insanely busy with many interviews and pelted with multiple adult-y stuff to do, which had hurt you exceptionally. It greatly hindered the relationship between you two. Weekly visits turned into monthly, and you couldn’t bare to see him drown in all his work. He was a busy guy, but yet always so carefree, and you didn’t want that carefree childish aspect of him to disappear. After all, that was something you loved about Yuuji.       He looked up at you with a reassuring beam, and you felt yourself melt under those warm eyes. “Aww, that makes me happy, (Y/N). Scratch that, you make me happy!” facing you, he gave you a quick peck on your cheek. Your heart bursts, it had been too long since you felt that specific thing, and you give him a gentle kiss back, running a hand through his fluffy hair.       “I missed you. It’s been too long since I’ve talked to you, lovebug. Schedule is jampacked. But I met some nice friends along the way, and my coach is super nice!” he rambled on, fumbling with the handles of this mysterious bag.       “Oh? How so?” trying to make conversation, you want to appear as interested as he talked about his coach, but you were focused on his outfit and how he looked in general.        He had gotten way more stronger, you noted. He was much more scrawnier when you two first started dating, and you wondered how his cuddles might feel like. Something that didn’t change though, was his horrible fashion sense. Wearing a turquoise t-shirt with a lemon yellow jacket over it, you almost winced. Yuuji dressed like a 6th grader who had their mom pick out clothes for them.        “...And he annoys the absolute shit out of his co-worker, Utahime. It’s funny! I also met this guy named Nanami and I have no idea how my coach and Nanami are friends. Nanami always looks like he’s on the verge of murdering him whenever he opens his mouth to speak! Oh and also me and my coach made Valentine cards together and I worked really hard on it and I just know you’ll like it! Also-”       “Alright, alright. That’s a mouthful.” you sang sarcastically, Yuuji awkwardly laughed and rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, looking at you like you had caught him stealing a cookie out of a jar at 12 AM.       “Sorry. I get carried away a lot.” he says, peering into the bottomless pit inside the bag. You couldn’t quite see what was inside of it.       “No, no. I think it’s cute, Yuuji-san! I didn’t forget how you acted in the span of 1 month, why would I be dating you if I thought you were annoying?” hoping this’ll knock some sense into him, you closely examine his body language for any changes, hoping that went through his mind.       You had to make sure, the guy was dumb when it came to social cues.       “Ohh, really?” he looked up, pointer finger on his chin, a confused expression covering his features. “I didn’t know, I’ll act more annoying for you then!”       Smacking your forehead, you studied your shoes, too giggly to look at him eye-to-eye. “That’s not what I meant, idiot.”       “...What did you mean then?” Yuuji quizzed, tilting his head to the side. You really couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, you’d think that all sport players would be brutes and be masculine and perhaps... Not stupid? But here you were.       “No bother.” waving your hand as a dismissal of the conversation, you instead lean towards the bag he was holding, fluttering your eyelashes. “What’s this?”       “It’s a surprise~” he responded, obviously giddy. You felt yourself soften once more, how could someone be so cute just answering a question?        “Hey, come on!” tugging on his arm, you try to yank the bag away, curiosity killing you. His grasp was firm, and he laughed as you did so, it felt good to hear him laugh like that again.         “Okay, okay! Fine. Here, go at it.” handing you the bag, you practically ripped the handles off, ecstatic to see what could possibly be waiting to be discovered.          Inside was an incredibly large teddy bear, soft. The color was almost exactly the same shade of Yuuji’s, and you squeal, hugging the plush.          “Awww! This is so cute! I woulda never believed you’re smart enough to get a good gift for me!” you joked, he caught the sarcasm this time, giving you a confident grin. He liked the compliments.          “It’s supposed to be me.” placing a hand onto his chest dramatically. “I don’t know if you realized though.”          Scoffing, you put the teddybear to the side. “Of course I’d realize! I’m not dumb, Yuuji-san!”          “Why not? We could be dumb together! Also, there’s something extra at the very bottom that I think you’d like.”          Blinking, you realized that you had completely forgotten about the bag between your legs. Looking back down and rummaging for what possibly could be there, you pull out a card.          On the front, there’s a tacky lopsided heart, made with glitter glue. It seems there are also many failed attempts of starting this large heart at the sides of it. At the top, there’s a large, “Happy Valentines Day!” in red marker that was also uneven. Underneath the heart? A stick figure drawing of you and Yuuji, which was also... Pretty horrible.         Stifling a giggle, you open the card, eyes scanning the left for anything, you turn to face the right as soon as you deem it clear. That’s where the writing is.         Dear Y/N,          I love you very much and I know I do not spend that much time with you anymore but you still make me very happy. My coach was very nice and gave me Valentines day off because he felt bad.      I had to run to the nearest drugstore to get you this teddybear, but me and Mr. Coach decorated this together! He says he’s a very good drawer and I agree. I think the drawing is very detailed. He also helped me with the heart (we picked out the color together) and we had a lot of fun decorating. He says my handwriting looks really bad (is that true?) can you please help me fix it later? :(                                                                           With a lot of love,                                                                              Your Boyfriend and Gojo Satoru (his cool coach that helped him write this, thank me later. I have no idea how you handle this guy, but God is he such an amazing kid.)      Looking back up from the card, you look at Yuuji, who is looking at you back, squeamish. Without another thought, you kiss him, soft and light ones on his forehead, his cheeks, his lips, everywhere on his face. When you finally pull away, both of you are staring at each other fondly.        “Yes, I’ll help you fix your handwriting, dummy.”         Yuuji gave you a toothy smile that he only saved for the special ones in his life.

[ilguna]

Anteric - Chapter Five (f.o)

summary: secrets have more worth than you gave them credit for.

warnings; swearing, BLOOD MENTION, GORE, FIGHTING, TECHNICAL GUN USE.

wc; 14.6k

NOTES; I give reader a last name to fit the world.

–

In the darkness of the dormitory, the only electronic that produces light is the alarm clock. Numbers that are bright red and glowing, casting a soft ring of light onto the floor. Each time you look, the numbers burn into your eyes temporarily, and taunt you. It’s beginning to feel like time isn’t moving at all, especially now that you’re paying attention to it.

You stare at the ceiling for a couple of seconds, secretly missing having your own room with a window to tell you when it’s an acceptable time to get up. With mornings like these, you had a rule; if the sun was up, then you were allowed to be too. It’s not easy to follow that rule anymore, Dauntless is underground. The only way to tell is if you go to the Pit to see for yourself, which defeats the whole purpose of just rolling over and looking.

Speaking of which, you carefully roll onto your side to take a peek around the bedframe to see the clock again. It’s only been a minute. At this rate, you’re not going to fall back asleep. You should probably stop with the wishful thinking, and just take advantage of the early start.

The pain isn’t as prominent today, your body just aches. You see this as a good sign. It might have only been a day, but progress is progress.

You sit up on the bunk, dig your clothes out from beneath your pillow, and then neatly make your bed as quietly as possible. You swing your feet in the air for a couple of seconds, liking the feel of freedom before you place your clothes off to the side and carefully lower yourself down. You’re careful to look out for Finnick’s leg so that you don’t step on it.

The bed sinks beneath your feet, you scoop up your clothes, and step off. To make sure that you haven’t woken up Finnick, you pause and watch him for a split second. He’s rolled onto his side, facing away from you. His hair is all over the pillow, blanket pulled up to his shoulder.

Thyme is almost the same way, except she’s on her back. Neither of them seem to have woken up, which means that your mission was successful. You disappear into the bathroom to brush your teeth and change, skipping out on the shower. If there’s anything that causes too much noise, it’s the squeal of the shower while it warms up.

You throw your dirty clothes back onto the top of the bunk, hook your shoes around your fingers, and leave the dormitory. As soon as the door is shut behind you, you feel like you can breathe a little louder and officially think to yourself without worrying that you’ll accidentally make noise in the meantime.

You don’t get very far down the hallway without shoes. The ground is too uneven, and the rock cuts into your feet uncomfortably. You stomp your shoes onto your feet, tie the laces tight, and then leave before someone comes to investigate the sound of your escape.

It’s a little after six, so you have a whole hour to find what you want to do. A few things come to mind, but the most prominent one is breakfast. You’re not entirely sure if the dining hall is open this early, though it doesn’t hurt to swing by real quick on your way to the Pit.

On the way, you find yourself running your fingers over the jagged wall in the dark. With no Finnick here to walk in front of you, it’s much harder to make your way through the long stretches of black. At every corner, there’s a blue lamp that gives off the same gentle glow that the clock in the dormitory gives. It’s just enough light to keep you from falling on your hands and knees.

The rock wall pokes into your fingers, occasionally catching on a particularly sharp rock. As long as you don’t start bleeding, you don’t find a reason to pull away. Not until there’s no wall to touch anymore because you made it to the hall. The lights are on, suggesting that it’s open, but there’s not the usual roar of the Dauntless. You suppose that you all normally get up at the same time, then.

Despite this, you go ahead and go in to check it out. It’s weird to see all the tables empty, no sea of black clothes and brightly colored hair to make you feel at home. It’s almost been a week since the Choosing Ceremony, and you can’t picture yourself in Abnegation anymore. No matter how hard Dauntless initiation is, you know that you’d rather be here, than anywhere else.

You’re only a couple of steps into the room when you realize that you should probably come back later.

Gathered in a small group of five, sits what you recognize as two of the Dauntless leaders, and the two trainers for the initiates. The fifth woman sitting at the table is older, with greying hair and wrinkles in the corner of her eyes. The moment your eyes land on her, you realize that she’s the first old person that you’ve seen the entire time that you’ve been here.

You move to back up and return to the original plan that’s been brewing in your head, but someone looks up at your appearance. You’re not surprised when you lock eyes with the one and only Caspian. You are when his face lights up and he motions you over, causing the others to realize that you’ve intruded in on their meeting.

Caspian sits on the left of the older woman, tongue playing with one of the piercings that run through his lip. The older woman sits in the middle, she doesn’t have any holes in her face, only an excessive amount in her ears. Tattoos are drawn up her arm, all following the theme of water. Fish, seaweed, bright blue waves with white foam that make it look like the tattoo was done just yesterday. 

On her right side sits Damon, the man that you had met on the first day you got here. In fact, he was the one that cleared the way to allow you to jump off the building first, securing your title as First Jumper. Initially, when he looks at you, it’s like he’s staring right through you. As if you’re just another forgettable initiate. And then his eyes focus, and he sits up a little more.

Laurel and Pleurisy have to look over their shoulders to take a look at you. You saw Laurel just yesterday, during the volunteering, but you haven’t seen Pleurisy since the first day, either. She gives you a polite smile.

You stop near the table, your hands finding their ways to your jean’s pockets. You don’t feel as vulnerable with them there. However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is awkward.

“You’re up early,” Caspian says, motioning for you to take a seat.

“Early is an understatement,” Laurel scoots to the right, giving you more room, as if there isn’t a whole empty table for you to have.

You sit to her left, trying not to tense too much when you feel the coldness of the wooden bench beneath your thighs. You place your hands between your legs before crossing them.

Caspian is sitting directly across from you, which was a total accident. You think this is the first time you’re seeing his tattoos up close, though. Caspian has a habit of hiding his arms beneath the table, on his lap. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say that he’s ashamed of the tattoos in the first place. But that can’t be the case, especially since he’s so open about his lip piercings. There’s no way that he doesn’t realize that playing with it, draws attention to it.

Red and orange flames dance up his arms, taking on various shapes that each have their own meaning behind them. They’re beautifully inked, the gradients perfect, the shading placed nicely. As you admire, all you can make out is an eye, before he’s moving his arm. It must be on purpose, as he places it below the table.

You briefly look at him, and then to the older woman because she starts speaking, “You’re one of the transfer initiates, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” You say.

“I remember her, she was the first jumper.” Damon says, “(Y/n), isn’t it?”

You nod, trying to give him a smile. It doesn’t feel confident at first, you have to lean into it to feel more natural. You’re not sure if you like your title, that now you’ve got two Dauntless leaders with their attention on you.

You should’ve just skipped out on the breakfast idea. You would have, if you’d known that you'd land yourself here. At the table, intruding on what feels like an important meeting that you were definitely not anticipated for.

“What are you doing here?” Caspian plays with his fork, the metal gently scraping against the plate.

“Breakfast.”

“Oh!” Pleurisy pushes a couple of plates toward you. You’re able to deny, because this food was made for them, but Laurel has already set up a plate for you, “Help yourself, this is all leftovers.”

Okay, no reason to feel guilty after all.

You go ahead and evaluate the options first, hash browns that’d cooked a golden brown. Eggs tinted orange because of cheese, and small pancakes. You take a small portion of each, figuring that you’ll grab more if you’re really that hungry.

“What’s her ranking?” The woman looks between Caspian and Laurel.

“Top five,” Laurel plays with a ring on her finger.

“She lost her last fight.” Caspian volunteers the information, “But it was by a hair. If she didn’t have the opponent that she did, (Y/n) could’ve won.” 

Your face feels hot, especially when the woman looks you over. You’re sure she can see the evidence, the bruise that’s on your jaw is pretty hard not to stare at. Plus your nose is discolored at the moment too.

She hums.

You quietly each the hash browns, which are seasoned and make your mouth water. Back in Abnegation, it’s oatmeal and toast for breakfast. Here, there’s a lot more variety than you thought there would be. But you suppose that Dauntless doesn’t follow the same rules as Abnegation.

As you chew, you try to come up with a name for the woman in the middle, searching. You have a vague remembrance for the leaders of the other factions. Elysia Petalsong leads Amity, you only know this because you have a vivid memory of seeing her face during your brother’s Choosing Ceremony. And Haymitch Abernathy belongs to Candor, you saw him less than a week ago

You know that Abnegation is led by many people, one of them being Naida’s husband, Amon. It’s practically impossible to remember all of their names, only that they exist in the first place. As for Erudite and Dauntless, it was a complete mystery to you. You’ve only been to three Choosing Ceremonies in your life, one of which you partook in.

You think that Abnegation was in charge of Reed’s ceremony. It would explain why you don’t know much about Erudite and Dauntless past the fact they have leaders in the first place. Factions rotate leaders all the time, so it’s hard to keep track of them after a while. Especially with Amity, since they take down the elected leader if they believe that they don't follow their values anymore.

Either way, you can’t cough up a name for the woman. You’re just going to have to narrowly avoid using a name when it comes to her. At least until one of the people at the table addresses her directly.

“She won her first fight, then?” she asks, looking up at you.

“Yes, she barely took any hits.” Laurel says, “But if you think that she’s good, you should see her friend. He’s won both of his fights in less than five minutes each. Took—how many hits did Finnick take during his last round?”

The question is directed to Caspian, you can tell by the way she waits patiently, staring at him. But you clear your throat, “Two.”

Caspian motions, “After that, the fight was over because he took the girl down.”

“And he’s also a transfer from Abnegation?” The woman asks, eyebrows raised.

“Yes, he was the second to jump.” Damon traces a figure eight on the table, “And after him was the Amity girl.”

Caspian nods, “Yeah, they’ve formed their own clique.” 

“Happens every year.” Pleurisy says, waving it off. She raises a mug to her lips, drinking from it.

“Okay, but the last time I checked, your initiates aren’t clumped together in groups of twos and threes.” Laurel says back, “And it’s interesting to see who comes together.”

“How is it surprising that the Amity and Abnegation transfers found comfort in each other?” Pleurisy turns her body toward Laurel.

You have a feeling this might get ugly, so you don’t stare for too long, and find a special interest in your hash browns. The conversation ensues just as you expect it to, with Laurel trying to hold her ground, and Pleurisy trying to point out that she’s just boring. While they’re talking, you quietly take note of what they say in the meantime.

The first, which you already know, is that Laurel designs clothes. She owns her own shop in the Pit, it’s the one you were initially too afraid to approach because of the vibe that it was giving off. The name of the shop is ‘La Lune’, the inside is--naturally--moon themed, but not in a way that makes it overwhelming. 

This matters to the conversation because Laurel doesn’t typically train initiates, this would be her third time doing it inconsistently. Which then makes Laurel point out how Pleurisy only ever trains the Dauntless-born initiates, so how would she ever know anything about the transfers? Pleurisy goes to say that transfer initiates are annoying--

“You are a transfer!” Laurel suddenly bursts, “I am a transfer! In fact, everyone sitting at this table is a transfer.”

The three leaders are either smiling, or quietly laughing to themselves. You raise your eyebrows, a little surprised to hear that none of the people leading the Dauntless faction, are Dauntless-born. But you guess that’s just what happens in all the factions, when one person is better than the rest.

And you guess that to some extent, you transfers are working harder to solidify your place in Dauntless, because you’re afraid that the initiates that were born here, are automatically better than you. Basically, you’re all overcompensating for something that isn’t nearly as hard as you’re thinking it is.

It does make you wonder where they all came from, though. You know Caspian is from Abnegation, obviously. But for everyone else… well, you thought that the older woman, Damon and Laurel were the Dauntless-borns. Pleurisy talks a certain way, fun but lighthearted. She’s not brash… she’s either Abnegation or Amity, you’re calling it.

“Anyway.” Pleurisy tries to change the subject, “Go on and tell us about the clicks, then.”

“No.” Laurel says, “Not after that. How about I inform you on how much of a moron you are?”

Pleurisy sticks out her tongue.

Since you’re done eating, you neatly place everything back onto your plate, the handle of the fork hanging off. As much as you like being here with them, you think you’re ready to move on, to continue to your final destination. But you’re not entirely sure how you can squirm out of this. It feels rude, somehow.

“They’re like this all the time.” Caspian says, you give him a smile. He pauses for a moment, and then leans in, “If you’re done, you can just go, you know. Don’t have to wait to be dismissed or anything.”

Slight attention is turned to you.

You give a half-shrug, “Old habit, I guess.”

“Run, kid.” Pleurisy says, you slide off the bench, “Before Laurel can question you why you’re hanging around the people you are--”

“You bitch!” 

You let out a laugh, “Thank you for breakfast.”

“In the training room by eight!” Caspian tells you.

You leave the dining hall before you can be pulled back into their antics or questions. You go to the Pit first, feeling more awake than you had initially. There are a few people that are roaming around, all varying in different degrees of awake. You take the uneven steps of the Pit to the glass building above it. Your legs are still fairly sore.

Golden streams of sunlight move through the glass, reflecting into your eyes. You shield your face slightly, wanting to see where you’re going. It seems like you spent a little too much time in the dining hall with Caspian and the others, because you’ve missed your chance to watch the sunrise.

Really, you just wanted to be able to see the run come up. To actually see the light for once, and realize that it is a new day. You push the exit doors open to leave and stand out on the grass, feeling a rush of cool air wash over your skin. For a compound that’s underground, the Dauntless headquarters are warm.

You take a seat in the grass, criss-cross your legs, and sit here while you stare at what you can see of the city. It’s not much. Besides Amity, Dauntless is one of the factions that’s pretty far from the heart of it. Candor, Erudite and Abnegation are all clustered together, though.

Yesterday, after helping the Abnegation initiates, Laurel said that the fights would resume today. She had to yell it over the wind of the train, standing right in front of the doorway. The only thing that had kept her from falling out was the one hand she had on a handle overhead. The other was firmly placed in her pocket.

She wasn’t in a very good mood during your entire encounter with the Abnegation trainers and initiates, and you have a feeling that it’s because the work had lasted more than just a couple of hours. It took two trains to get there, and there had been a lot more to carry and lift than they said there would be. At one point, Laurel had to jump down and help too.

You can’t blame her for being irritated. You were too, with the sun beating down on the back of your neck, sweat glistening. Finnick’s face was a beet red for the longest time because of how much effort he was putting into it. And when it came out that Trink, Eytelle and Allio weren’t pulling their weight, they got reamed by Laurel in front of everyone.

You tried your hardest not to laugh in front of them.

The whole process finally sped up when the Dauntless-born initiates and Pleurisy showed up for extra hands. They had this whole plan for yesterday, that the Dauntless-born would have the morning to practice with shooting guns by themselves. So that when you guys came back, you could switch with them. But when you didn’t come back on time, and wouldn’t be coming back for a while, they were sent in to help.

It was all heavy lifting, and it was constant to make sure that the job got done in one day, rather than having to go back again today. The Abnegation initiates weren’t much help, either. They tried their best, like they always do, but they aren’t as physically prepared as the rest of you are. And that would have been you too, had you stayed with them.

You got to see some familiar faces, though. You don’t think most of them recognized you, but there were a few who’s eyes lingered just a little too long. You’d see them out of the corner of your eye. It was only when they wouldn’t stop looking, would you stare back at them, a smirk as a challenge.

One of the initiates was your neighbor from the right side. You wonder if he’ll go on to tell your brother that he saw you. Face bruised, swollen in some areas, nose crooked and pierced. Or you wonder if he’ll keep it to himself, so that he doesn’t cause discomfort.

Either way, you don’t dwell on it for too long.

When you’re sure that it’s nearing eight, you get up and brush your pants off, watching the loose grass blades float to the ground. It’s easy to get back into the building, and you take your time for the most part. There is no Finnick here to ask you what you think today will look like, so you’ll just have to fill in this gap by yourself on the way there.

While you sat watching the city, you had more than enough time to review what you’ve done so far in this past week. And you thought over the fights more than anything, trying to come up with some sort of solution to the problem that you’ve created. You think you’ve finally begun to see the pattern that’s emerging with Caspian’s pairings.

The most obvious part is that Finnick is always paired with a winner, but not of anyone he’s fought already. He went up against Eytelle and Thyme in the last two fights. Trink and Ossie sat out on the last one, which you think would make them losers. And you obviously lost your fight to Allio, as Amos lost his against Eytelle. So really, the only person that’s available for Finnick is Allio. All on the assumption that your theory is correct.

After that though, you’re unsure. Caspian and Laurel might think to pair the only two initiates that aren’t hobbling in pain. That takes out Thyme and Eytelle all together, even though their height difference isn’t by any means fair. But neither was pairing Eytelle and Amos in the last fight, so you’re not sure if height is even a factor anymore. 

In the end, that only leaves four of you. Trink, Ossie, Amos and you. You fought Trink already and won, she’s out of the question. The only options left are Ossie and Amos, the same options that Trink has. There is only one thought that comes to your mind at that, cruel and unwavering.

You hope you’re placed with Amos.

You shove the doors to the training room open, spilling light into the dark hallway that you’re coming from. Inside of the room are the rest of your fellow initiates, all standing in their little clique groups, as Laurel called them. Caspian is in the middle of speaking when you enter, but he doesn’t stop to address you. Him and Laurel give you a nod, no mention of the fact that you’re a few minutes late.

You take your stand next to Finnick and Thyme.

“So, again, tomorrow is a training day. You will meet Laurel and I in the gun training room. The day after tomorrow is your final fight. Winning it is important, especially if you are not ranked highly at the moment.” Caspian looks over at specific faces--Amos, Ossie and Trink. “We will also be joined by one of the other leaders of Dauntless.”

It’s quiet for a moment, before Trink leans forward, venom in her tone, “Damon?”

Caspian shakes his head, “No, Damon will be overseeing the Dauntless-born fights. You will have the pleasure of seeing our only old member of Dauntless at the moment, Mags.”

The bell in your head rings. Mags is her name. You recognize it, but you can’t place your finger on why. You had never seen her before today, you’re sure. So why is she so familiar?

No one says anything in turn.

“Let’s get to it.” Caspian moves out of the way, showing the names on the chalkboard.

Finnick and Allio. 

Thyme and Eytelle.

Trink and Amos.

You and Ossie.

Your hope deflates like a balloon. You try to tell yourself that it could always be worse, you could’ve been paired up with Eytelle or Thyme. Both of them are considerably worse than Ossie. But you can’t draw yourself out of this black hole of apprehensiveness. This is not how today should go.

Finnick wants to talk to you, you can see it in the look on his face before he leaves for the ring without being prompted to. You and Thyme wish him luck, Allio separates from his trio too, meeting your best friend in the middle of the room. You think Thyme is trying to say something to you, but you’re staring right at Caspian, hoping that he’ll see the worry on your face.

He doesn’t look at you, and neither does Laurel.

Finnick hops on his feet lightly, fists raised. The moment that Allio starts shuffling in a circle, Finnick follows, moving in. He looks a lot more serious today, eyebrows drawn in so close that they almost touch. He’s not up for playing around, not that he is normally, anyway.

Finnick fakes a jerk at Allio, causing Allio to overreact and jerk back too. It gives away the fact that Allio is antsy about the fight. That’s all Finnick needs to know before he’s moving in. The back of Allio’s foot touches the white circle, Caspian shouts a warning loud enough to startle him, catching him off-guard.

Finnick launches, fist flying across Allio’s mouth in a blur. A distinct crack fills the air, whipping his body to the right. He falls, unmoving from the floor. Finnick slides his hands into his pockets, staring down at Allio. Without any question, Caspian circles Finnick’s name, and motions for someone to get Allio out of the circle.

Less than three minutes.

Eytelle and Trink go to collect their friend, Finnick comes back towards you. His hard expression softens considerably when he looks at your face. You have to manually wire your mouth shut to keep it from falling open again. 

Allio is dragged across the wood floor, only Trink goes to wake him up, while Eytelle goes to the ring with Thyme. 

Finnick mutters out a good luck to her.

You stare at Finnick, suddenly feeling distant. That raw power move is new to you. Normally he waits a little while longer to get a feel of his opponent before pouncing like that, but he didn’t. He just… went for it.

And you guess that he saw Allio fight Ossie, and then you. So he might have picked up on a few things. But even then, you thought he’d be a little more careful just in case Allio is a magician and had more tricks up his sleeve.

“Where’d you go?” Finnick asks, his body turned toward you when he stops.

You give him a half-hearted shrug, watching Eytelle get cocky because of her height advantage. You can’t blame her, you’d be the same way if you were paired with Amos. It’s hard not to have a power trip when there’s such a distinct difference in strength between two people.

Your eyes snap to Caspian, the gears turning in your head. This must be why Caspian didn’t put you with him, because he knows that you would easily win against him. It’s not much of a challenge, and it’s hard to measure rank when you’re fighting against someone who has lost all of their fights.

Although, to be fair, Ossie hasn’t fought past the first day. So, you’re not entirely sure if she’s even on the same wavelength as you. Of course, you did lose the fight against Allio, but you also beat Trink into the ground. Plus, now that you’re thinking about it, the only similarity that you have with Ossie is the fact that you both had gone up against Allio and lost. 

“(Y/n)?” Finnick asks.

“What?” Your eyes begin to focus, you look at him.

“Where’d you go?” He repeats.

You guess the shrug wasn’t a big enough hint that you don’t want to talk about it, “Watched the sunrise. Why? What’d you do?”

“Look for you.”

His lips are turned downward, a knot forms in your stomach. Guilt. You guess you didn’t consider the fact that your disappearance would cause a little bit of trouble. You and Finnick have been attached at the hip since the Choosing Ceremony.

“Finnick, I’m sorry,” you give him a gentle smile, “I didn’t wake you because it was six, I thought I’d let you sleep in. And I really needed a moment to myself.”

Finnick opens his mouth to speak, but the sound of skin-on-skin cuts him off. The two of you look over to see that Eytelle is wincing on the floor, propped up on one elbow while she rubs that shoulder. Her eyes are locked on Thyme, who’s breathing heavily, shuffling still.

“You seem to be needing a lot of those lately.” Finnick murmurs.

You press your lips together, body slowly heating up. You’re going to pretend that you didn’t just hear him say that, for his own sake. Otherwise, he’s not going to like what you have to say about his recent attitude with the initiation. The streak, the bragging, Thyme acting as his own personal fan. But it’s hard to, especially when he has the guts to be so open in the first place.

You have to remind yourself that you only have a few friends here. You can’t afford for Finnick to turn on you. Even though it looks like he’s already slipping through your fingers, despite your efforts on trying to keep the peace. Which he doesn’t even seem to realize.

You grind your teeth.

It’s hard to pay attention to Eytelle and Thyme's fight. And it isn’t because of the shit-stirrer standing next to you. Really, the two in the ring are just a blur of skin and clothes, moving faster than you think is possible. Eytelle will swing, a perfect shot for Thyme’s head, until Thyme ducks her head when she uses all her force to uppercut Eytelle’s stomach.

They go back and forth, but Thyme seems to be dodging more hits than taking them. Eytelle doesn’t have the height advantage after all. She might be skinny, but since she’s tall, Thyme has more to work with. She can aim practically anywhere, even if it’s not directly Eytelle’s face.

If there’s one thing for sure; you’re glad that you’re not going against Thyme today, because she is determined. And if there’s anything that’s dangerous in fights like these, it’s willpower.

Thyme swings her leg between Eytelle’s, twisting at an awkward angle to force Eytelle to lift a leg to balance. It works, Thyme grabs and yanks, ultimately bringing Eytelle back to the floor, again. This time, instead of hovering over her, Thyme pounces, specifically with her foot. 

Like she’s kicking a soccer ball across the field, Thyme swings her foot back with grace, and slams the toe of her shoe right into Eytelle’s chest. When Eytelle falls back, Thyme moves forward again, going for the same move, landing the kick on her stomach. And then to her ribs. And again to her side.

Your eyes slowly drag off to the side, to Ossie. She’s chewing on her nails, watching the match in front of her. She’s nervous, not a good sign. You remember what you said about overcompensating, so she’s going to give your guys’ fight her all. And considering that she really needs a win…

To be fair, so does Amos, but he’s like a little dog. Small, feeble, doesn’t know how to fight back properly. All you could do is blow air and he’d fall over. This is why you want him. Plus, the way that Ossie fought the first time was so irritating to watch. She likes to tease, wear on patience. And you’re running thin on that lately.

Thyme kicks Eytelle’s shoulder blade, causing a shout of pain to sound from her. You ball and unball your hands. You want to run from this fight when you know that you should be leaning into it. Ossie is considerably smaller than Trink, you should have an advantage. But Allio has fucked you up, and Ossie has had two and a half days to recover. You’ve had one. This isn’t fair.

“Alright!” Caspian calls the fight, he circles Thyme’s name. 

She backs off of Eytelle, her black shirt is wet, darker because of the sweat. It sticks to her like a second skin. Thyme’s hair is stringy, in small ringlets, she brings her hand through it to get it out of her face. 

Eytelle’s face is bloody, swollen in some places. She gets off the floor with a drag, joining Allio off to the side. Two out of three of the smartmouths are currently beaten to hell. There’s a special hope in your chest that Amos somehow comes out on top against Trink, so that all three of them could be put in their place together.

Trink saunters to the white ring, picking at her nails. Amos appears opposite of her, not as cool and relaxed. His whole body screams tense, his fists pulled so tight that his knuckles are a pale color. He breathes through his mouth, eyebrows downward. He needs to chill out before he self-sabotages.

Her blonde hair is pulled into a ponytail today, and it swishes from side to side as she bounces. Her fists are up, one higher than the other. You hope that Amos sees this mistake, because it’s the same one that you saw and took advantage of, in turn. It leaves her stomach open, a small gap that Amos will have no problem targeting.

Thyme stops on Finnick’s left side, confirming your theory that she prefers to stand by him, instead of you. Finnick’s always in the middle, but he’s normally on your right side, and she’s on the right of him, making her closest to the exit door. Today you’re the closest, a change that you don’t like. 

Trink starts, throwing her fist straight at Amos’ face, joining the many forming bruises from his previous opponents. Amos jerks out of the way quickly, making him stumble to the side. Trink swings her other hand, prepared for this, and catches his cheek. His head knocks back.

He catches his footing in time, not giving up. He raises his hands again, staring at Trink, but doesn’t move in. It looks like he likes to wait it out to draw the other person to him. Reminds you of a certain person you should be fighting within the next ten minutes.

When Trink finally heads towards him, wanting to punch the living lights out of him, Amos tries to slip past her. She moves just as fast as him, bringing her knee into his stomach. Honestly, Amos pales for a moment, making you think that he’s going to lose this morning’s breakfast all over the wooden floor, but he persists past Trink anyway.

And grabs a fistful of her hair.

There’s only three gasps that fill the room. Two of them being Eytelle and Thyme, who have both fought against Amos already and one. And the third being from Trink herself, outraged and turning an angry shade of red. 

She grabs a hold of the wrist that has her hair, and as if she has claws, digs her nails in, hard. In an instant, she’s drawn blood, and Amos is shouting for her to let go. His hands finally release her hair, and she swings him around with too much force. He hits the wooden floor, skin squealing against the polish.

The way she stands above him is predatory, circling her prey. Her ponytail is now ruined, no longer flat and pristine. You have a feeling that out of all the options he had, that was by far the worst to take. And she proves this when she lands on top of him, and her arm is nothing but a blur.

In no time, there’s blood leaking down his face, and he’s screaming in pain. A beg for her to stop, for someone to call the match over. Caspian circles Trink’s name, but he doesn’t call the match over. Not until Trink finally rocks backwards on the heels of her feet, going to stand up. And before she leaves Amos there, she sends a wad of spit onto his face.

“Pig.” she snarls, “That’ll teach you.”

She yanks her hair tie out, joining her friends again. No one goes to move for Amos, so he has to get up by himself. It seems like you’ve all stumbled across an unspoken rule: hair-grabbing is not allowed.

Amos sits against the wall, near the exit. You think you can hear him heaving sobs, you can’t draw an ounce of sympathy or pity for him. Although, you’re sure that you would prefer hair-pulling over whatever fucking situation you’re about to find yourself in.

Finnick and Thyme say nothing to you when you leave, no luck to be given to you.

It’s okay, you don’t need them.

You crack your neck first, despite the pain that blossoms through your jaw. And then your knuckles, one by one. Ossie watches you in silence, her short hair is tucked behind her ears. If you want this fight to be quick, you’ll have to target her head somehow. Picking her up isn’t an option, she’ll be too heavy. Which means that you need a good punch to her jaw, once and for all, so she can fall in a heap on the floor. 

You raise your fists.

It’s a dance between you two while you try and spot her problems. Her face twitches each time she lands back onto the floor, so her head definitely isn’t recovered. Other than that, you can’t see a problem with her. Which makes you remember the fact that the fight between her and Allio was brief because he got a hold of her early on, and the fight ended right after that.

Compared to you, she’s practically got a clean slate injury-wise.

You’re going to have to work for your win.

You move in on her, being careful where you step and how close you get. You don’t want to be within hitting distance, but you’d like to back her up against the circle as much as possible. If she’s cornered, it means she’ll only have a few places to go.

Ossie rotates her elbow before she makes her move. You move out of the way, feeling the air get blown on your cheek. Cool and refreshing against the heat. You use your left fist as a drill into her jaw, steering away from her chin. You don't need two bruised hands. They might not be broken, but they still feel like they are.

Ossie backs off, but she moves too far. The heel of her foot is clearly outside the ring, Caspian sucks in air to yell at her. You move forward again, blocking her path from getting back inside. You wonder if she’ll get in trouble for this, completely eliminating this match. Like a forfeit. 

A win is a win.

“Get back in there!” Caspian shouts.

Ossie doesn’t jump at his tone of voice, even though it’s filled with annoyance. When she moves, you move, until she lowers into a crouch, going to dive. You’re out of the way before she can hit you. She slides across the floor, giving you more than enough time to get on top of her.

She scrambles to her feet, hands a bright pink color in patches. Floor burn, you can’t imagine how badly that stings. Not your problem, though. She moves from side to side, almost as if she’s pacing. Which makes you think that she’s looking for an opening.

You’re right.

Pain explodes across your jaw, causing aches to begin in the nerves in your teeth. At the rate you’re going, you’ll be lucky if you aren’t toothless by the end of the first stage of initiation. You have to resist the urge to grab your face, returning your hands to their positions just a little too high.

She catches this, and the next pain blossoms in your bruised stomach, too loud to think. You dodge her next attack, breathing through sharp gasps between your teeth. You use your right hand to punch the other side of her face, her cheekbone, but she moves out of the way.

You try to move as quickly as her, knowing what’s coming before it happens. You can see her arm drawn back, taunting you, aimed toward one special place on your face. The area that two people haven’t been able to resist since you started fighting.

You hit the floor hard, black overcoming your vision. The explosions of pain in your nose keeps coming, pulsing with your body. You blink fast, trying to ignore the feeling of blood rushing down your face. 

You have to be careful when you stand, slowly rising from the ground. The entire room is spinning around you, too quickly for you to focus on one specific thing, except for Ossie. You watch through squinted eyes, hoping that the world will stabilize but it doesn’t. It just keeps spinning.

A sick realization sprouts, telling you that you will not be winning this fight. You can hardly keep upright without falling over, and with the blood coming from your nose, you need to see Cleo, from the infirmary.

You don’t want to quit. This is admitting defeat.

But then you can hear your history teacher’s voice in your head, loud and clear: “Sometimes you’ve got to lose the battle to win the war”. Who knows how many days there will be between now and the next fight, all you know is that you need those couple of days of recovery.

You will lose now, you just have to win the next one.

You have to.

“I’m done!” You say, backing away from Ossie.

Your feet are dragging, heavier than you remember. Your hand sticks out for balance, your eyes casted toward Laurel and Caspian. You’re not sure if you’ll survive the punishment they have in mind. Not with the blurriness of their faces.

Except, Caspian isn’t totally blurry. You can make out the disappointed look on his face. 

“You’re done?” He repeats.

You remember his hopeful look this morning, telling Mags that you had lost your last match by just a hair. Like he was trying to salvage her first impression of you. You even think you vaguely saw a glare get shot toward Laurelafter she told Mags.

And now here you are, forfeiting a fight. 

“Yes.” You breathe, pressing the back of your hand to your forehead. You can’t tell if you’re going to pass out or be sick.

“Fine.” Caspian spits, anger peeking through, “Come.”

You think that you’ll be able to take your time following him, but he harshly grabs a hold of your upper arm, yanking you with him. You can’t help but to think of the fact that he’s so moody. Happy in the morning, content during the other fights, angry now that you're barely hanging on.

You want to ask him to loosen his grip, afraid that he’s going to give you a bruise, but you bite your tongue on this one and pretend. You continue to pretend.

Caspian drags you out of the exit doors, you can hear the shuffling of everyone else’s feet behind you, scuffing against the black rock. Cool and unwavering, there's a desire to lay your face against it and sleep until you feel better. Whenever that may be.

Caspian takes you to the Pit, and you begin to grow concerned. Almost resistant to where he’s taking you, afraid that you’ve just made a mistake bigger than you realized. If he starts to take you toward the stairs, you’ll full-force stop him, you will not be dragged and thrown out in front of everyone. 

He doesn’t, instead he keeps walking, straight into the darkness. He takes you all the way to the bridge that connects one side of the Chasm to the other. Below you is the river, the one you went to see the other day. Then, this place seemed so private and secretive, like your own little escape. No one would come here to bother you, but now it’s like your dirty laundry is out to dry. 

Caspian lets go of you, almost throwing you. Your hand immediately grabs one of the railings now that he’s not here to hold you upright. You stare at him with droopy eyes.

“Get on the other side of the railing.” His voice is hard, mean. Just like how it was when you both were still in Abnegation. The type of mean that forced Reed to finally step in and tell Caspian to leave you alone.

Reed is no longer here to protect you.

This doesn’t bother you as much as it should, now that Caspian’s got the authority to abuse. No, it’s the fact that he’s telling you to go on the other side of the railing. Laurel said on the first day that a jump into the river would be enough to kill someone. So what makes him think that you’ll just willingly go over it.

Is he trying to kill you?

You hold onto the railing a little harder.

“I am not jumping off.” You snap at him.

“I’m not asking you to.” He’s much calmer this time around, “Get on the other side.”

This is a bad idea, but you’re not left a choice.

You slowly climb over the railing, pale-knuckling it the entire way. One little way could send you falling off. You grit your teeth hard. You can’t see the bottom below you, you only know that it exists. 

“You can hang by your hands for five minutes and continue initiation, or you can leave Dauntless and become factionless.”

You were wrong, you do have a choice. You always have a choice, but it’s one you won’t take.

You swallow the regret rising in your throat, carefully getting down to just your hands without saying a word. You feel the unmistakable urge to cry when your first leg falls off, followed by the other. Your fingers curl into every crevice possible, some too small for them.

It is only open air beneath you, and further down is the rushing river and the jagged rocks. You hang low, not straining to hold your head above the metal floor. You know that you’ll need the energy to pull yourself up. Plus, you’re bracing for the inevitable. 

It happens, and it’s not you falling. There’s a particular gush of cold, salty air that appears in your nose. Now you tense your body, keeping your legs out straight beneath you. You grip on harder, closing your eyes. You can hear the water hit the wall, and the sound of it shooting in the air.

A spray is thrown over your head, landing on the bridge, soaking your hair and clothes. This is what you were afraid of, the sensation of the metal slipping from beneath your fingers. You’ve got wiggle room, your entire hands are still here, but all it’ll take is more water.

You breathe through your nose. 

You have to admit, if it weren’t for the circulation in your fingers and the ache in your shoulders and wrists, you would think that you were suspended in the air, jumping off the train and onto the roof. Permanently fixed in time, a picture in a book for all to see.

Another bout of water comes over you. Your hair and shirt stick to your skin, you picture Thyme the same way. Only, she’d won her fight. And you gave up on yours.

You huff out, and then freeze when your fingers begin to slide. Your eyes open in a panic, looking up to see if you’re just imagining it. You’re not, your fingers are coming out of the tiny holes in the platform as if you didn’t struggle to get them in there in the first place.

You really hope someone is keeping track of the time.

Gritting your teeth harder, you swing your body from left to right to build up momentum to bring your hands up higher. In short bursts, you can see the black shoes of your fellow initiates, and the polished one of Laurel, and Caspian. But you can’t see their faces, only their shoes.

Water drips off the metal, landing on your face. You can feel tears appearing in your eyes, pain stabbing your stomach. You want to be on solid ground again.

“Time’s up.” Caspian says, “Get up here by yourself.”

You take in deep breaths through your nose, swinging yourself from side to side, slowly pulling yourself higher. Your right hand grabs a hold of the bars, tight and slippery. The other uses the little room on the platform that you have, to pull yourself up. Only one more wave comes up the wall, like a final goodbye.

Your shoes slip multiple times, not being able to grip onto the ground. You barely get yourself upright, fumbling because of how much your hands are shaking. But the moment that you’re on the other side of the railing, you feel slightly better. Now that the threat is gone.

“Break for lunch.” Caspian stares past you, and then his eyes land on you, “Go get your nose fixed, don’t come to evening practice.”

You press your lips together, a tight feeling growing in your throat, tears threatening to swell over your eyes. You watch Caspian leave in a blur, the initiates going with him. Not even Finnick stays behind to check on you.

You stand there for a moment, holding onto the railing, staring after your best friend. In the next, you’re leaving in the opposite direction, heading toward your quiet corner, near the silver railing in the abandoned hallway. The part of the river that hadn’t tried to kill you.

In the silence of the dark, unlit hallway, you burst into tears, collapsing. Your teeth ache, your fingers are just returning to normal color, your shoulders hurt, your heart hurts. 

You want to be normal again. You don’t want this, you don’t want to be fighting others. You thought coming here would be fun, that it wouldn’t be this bad because you’re supposed to have someone to lean on. You were wrong during the Choosing Ceremony. Finnick is not an even trade for Reed and Alyssum, he doesn’t even come close.

At least with Reed, he’d have moments in the living area where he’d just listen to you. No judgement, no Abnegation ideals, no scolding, he would listen. And of course, it wouldn’t be all the time because you were getting older and needed to rely on yourself more, than others. But he was there when you really wanted him to be and…

And you were so focused on the bigger things that you forgot to look into the little things too. The smaller reasons why you should have stayed. The ones that seemed so insignificant at the time of the Choosing Ceremony, that they just disappeared from your mind.

You want to tell Reed that you’re sorry for doing this to him.

You hope he comes on Visiting Day.

--

You stare at the ceiling, making out what you can in the darkness. Despite today’s strenuous activities, you’re not tired. If anything, you’re wide awake and dwelling over all the mistakes you’ve made in the past twenty-four hours. And how you’re going to keep them from happening again a couple days from now.

After the Chasm, you had Cleo set your nose straight. You ate lunch after you were sure the rest of the initiates were gone, and you came straight here, figuring that you could skip out on dinner. You’re not really in the mood for talking. And even if you did, the only person you have left to rely on anymore is Laurel. 

Since she’s the holder of your secret, you don’t want to burn that bridge. You’d rather have no relationship than a ruined one. At least then she won’t be able to hold a proper grudge against you.

Right when you go to roll over to face away from Thyme, the dormitory door opens. Streams of light fill the room. You sit up, which causes one of the beams to land on you. You hold up your hand to block it, eyebrows drawing in as you squint through it.

“Everybody up!” A voice cuts through the peaceful silence, there’s a groan that sounds across the room. It’s Trink, face twisted into an angry expression, but she stands up.

You slide off on the left side, landing on your feet. Finnick spares you a glance, you can’t see much, now that your eyes have readjusted to the light. But if it was a look of unhappiness, you’ll personally give him a real reason to give you a look like that. As far as you’re concerned, this is his fault.

You can only name a few faces that hold flashlights, but the first three are Caspian, Laurel and Cleo. You recognize the man who pierced your nose, and a few others that wander around the Pit or sit together in the Dining Hall during lunch or dinner. Other than that, the rest are strangers.

“You have five minutes to get ready and meet us by the tracks.” Caspian snaps his fingers, “Get to it.”

You half expect him to tell you to stay here, since he has no problem shaming you in front of the others. Instead, his eyes don’t even land on you, as he turns away and leaves with the rest of his friends. On the way out, he slaps the lightswitch, causing a few complaints. He chuckles, and the door shuts behind him.

You let out a sigh, before digging out your everyday clothes to pull on. With no shame, you strip in the middle of the aisle between bunk beds. You don’t have enough time to run back and forth between the showers and the beds. Once you’re dressed, you pull on your shoes quickly, double-knot them, and you’re out the door before Finnick and Thyme.

You jog the entire way to the Pit, following behind Trink. She didn’t bother to wait for Allio and Eytelle, which you find funny. For a group of three that seem so close sometimes, they’re not. But you suppose the same can be said for you, Finnick and Thyme.

Needless to say, you and Trink are the first two transfer initiates to make it to the train tracks. There’s a cluster of Dauntless-born here already, standing around talking to each other. You run a hand through your hair, trying to catch your breath. 

As you look to the left, trying to see if you can spot the train coming, you catch sight of the city lights, which are sparse but bright. You move forward, toward the tracks to get a clearer view. The buildings remind you of stars in the sky.

“That big one is Erudite Headquarters.” Trink says, stopping next to you, “I can tell because it’s glowing blue.”

She’s not wrong, you’re sure. Considering that was her home, she’d be able to spot it the easiest. Plus, if you were to begin to make guesses, that one would've been labeled Erudite anyway, blue glow or not. You have a feeling that Erudite is the biggest consumer of electricity out of all of the factions. It would make sense that they were the biggest. Just how Dauntless is probably the least.

“It’s not possible to see Abnegation from here.” You mutter, “It’s too far.”

“Yeah, I heard you guys are secluded in your neighborhoods,” her voice is getting tense, “Like you guys are planning something.”

Leave it to her to not be able to keep the peace for one minute. Also, you’re not sure why she’s referring to you as if you’re still in Abnegation, because you’re not. It’s been a week now, that ship has sailed.

You let out a sigh, wondering if you can salvage this conversation, “Trink, you act like all the other factions aren’t secluded too. Dauntless is all the way out here, Amity is all the way out there,” you point toward the fence, “Even Candor isn’t anywhere close to Erudite, so why is it Abnegation specifically that’s the problem?”

When you look at her, she’s got her mouth screwed shut, but she’s thinking it over.

“It doesn’t make sense, does it? Erudite says Abnegation does all these things, when the same can be said for the others. Why isn’t Dauntless suspicious, when they hold all the guns? Why isn’t Candor suspicious, when they’re the ones that decide right or wrong? What about Amity? They provide all this food, and they go outside of the walls, and there has never been a finger turned toward them. So why Abnegation?”

Trink shakes her head, “They’re in control of the government.”

“Which all of the factions had to agree to at some point, right? And if Erudite is supposed to know better for this city, then they should know that the government will be in good hands with Abnegation.” You cross your arms, looking back out to the city, “I just don’t think it’s smart. There’s no evidence of what they’re saying either. So they’re just creating problems with no backbone and it’s working.”

Trink hums, quiet for a moment.

You rock on your feet before turning to her, “I’m sorry for taking my anger out on you during the first fight.”

She shrugs, “I would’ve done the same if I could’ve.” she gives you a smirk, “So, where’s your friends?”

“Where’s yours?” you ask back.

She lets out a small laugh. The two of you can hear the exit doors open behind you, revealing the rest of the initiates. Before you can automatically go to join Finnick and Thyme, Trink grabs a hold of your sleeve.

“You can hang around us, if you want to.” she lets you go, “Not right now, but during whatever we're doing. I don’t care.”

You give her a smile, “I’ll see if it benefits me.”

Trink gives you a look, and then laughs, “So the Abnegation girl can be selfish!”

“And the Erudite girl doesn’t have a stick up her ass.” you retort, making her laugh a little louder.

You and the rest of the initiates gather around a black pile. You have to squint in the darkness to make out anything about it, and you’re not surprised when you figure it out. It’s a pile of guns, but it’s not the pistols you’ve been shooting for the past weeks. These ones are much longer, maybe for rapid fire?

Next to the pile is a box that reads ‘PAINTBALLS’. Must be the ammunition that you’ll be using during this. It’s not something that you’ve used before, but the name practically speaks for itself, you think. It can’t be that complex, and it’s probably better to be shot with than actual bullets.

“Everyone grab a gun!” Caspian shouts, causing everyone to move forward.

You and Trink are some of the first to get your hands on a gun and the ammunition. This gun is definitely heavier, so you’re lucky that a strap comes with it. You pull it over your head, let the gun hang by your side, and grab a box of paintballs. It’s big enough to slide into your pockets, so you carefully slide it in.

“Train will be coming any minute!” Caspian says, a smile on his face, “Don’t miss it!”

At least he seems to be in a good mood. You thought that he’d spend the rest of the day like an asshole, afraid that it would eventually trickle into tomorrow too. You remember the long periods of time of grumpiness with Caspian. And it would be the worst stretch of days to experience ever, because he couldn’t directly say his feelings. He’d only be passive-aggressive about it.

You’re not sure what version of him you prefer just yet.

“(Y/n).” Caspian says, motioning for you to go over.

A few people move out of your way, not really paying attention. Caspian walks a few paces off to the side and reaches into his pocket. You watch in silence as he pulls something out of his pocket. You’re not sure what it is at first, until he’s insisting you take it.

You can’t read what it is, but it’s food.

“Protein bars, you skipped dinner.” Caspian’s voice gets quieter, as if anyone is listening in, “The next fight is in two days, Mags will be overseeing it, so don’t lose.”

His face is grim, which starts a sick feeling in your stomach, “Who am I against?”

Caspian shakes his head, which you take as him not going to tell you, not the fact that he doesn’t know. He’s one of the Dauntless leaders, and Laurel might be running training, but Caspian has more power than she does. They’re probably been working together to figure out who goes against who.

“Okay, well, thank you.” you hold up the bars, “Can I ask what we’re doing?”

Caspian’s face lights up, a grin coming over, “You’ll see on the train. And speaking of which--”

He motions behind you, and you turn to see a small ring of light in the distance, coming up quick. The train blares it’s horn only once, alerting everyone who hasn’t noticed yet.

“Put the gun on your back.” Caspian says.

You adjust it to follow what he said, the black strap goes across your chest.

Caspian starts running first, almost going the same pace as the train. You’re right behind him, not wanting to wait. Caspian pulls himself in, and immediately turns himself around to help. You grab a hold of his hand, he yanks you in, and moves onto the next initiate. You stand off to the left, but quickly switch to the middle once you realize it.

In the hours you’ve spent in bed tonight, you’ve decided that you don’t have a side anymore. But the sudden change in Trink’s attitude tells you that it could all just be misunderstandings. Which you’re sure is the case with you and Finnick, but how do you explain to him that his personality is getting on your nerves? You’ll just sound like a jerk for asking him to tone it back.

And how do you tell him that Thyme rubs you the wrong way each time she hangs around?

Once everyone has gotten inside, with no one uncounted for, Caspian motions for Laurel to speak.

“We’re playing capture the flag!” she shouts over the voices, making them slowly quiet down, “We’ll divide into two teams, with Caspian and I picking who we want from the transfer and Dauntless-born initiates. It should be an even divide. When we get there, one team will get out and hide their flag, then the other team will when they’re done.”

“This is a Dauntless tradition!” Caspian yells, “Don’t fuck it up!”

“Transfers first! Go ahead, Caspian.” Laurel raises her eyebrows.

“(Y/n).”

Caspian motions for you to head towards him, you do.

“Thyme.”

Already at odds, you’re not surprised. You crack your knuckles in the meantime.

Caspian hums, “Trink.”

“Ossie.”

“Allio.”

“Gonna collect them all?” Laurel asks, looking at him, “Or should I take Eytelle before you can?”

“Leaves me Finnick, if you want Amos. Then you’ll have two losers.” Caspian gives her a smile.

“Finnick.” Laurel says lowly, eyes staring into Caspian’s.

On the contrary, Caspian looks pleased to have Eytelle, “Eytelle.”

“Amos.” Laurel says, “My team on the left!” 

There’s shuffling in the car, until your entire team is on the right side, the Dauntless-born initiates in the middle, and Laurel on the other side. You catch Finnick’s eye for a moment, he’s the first to look away.

“You pick first!” Caspian shouts over the howl of the wind.

“Fine, Blare!” she yells.

You go to think that Blaire is one of the tallest boys in the Dauntless-borns, but there are multiple others that have him beat. Blaire easily clears six foot, just like Finnick. Except, Blaire has curly black hair, a ringlet is curled around his finger at the moment. When he smiles at Laurel, it’s contagious.

He joins Finnick and Thyme, and hits it off immediately.

You grit your teeth.

“Lennox.” Caspian says, no hesitation. He must have everyone figured out already.

Lennox is also tall, he wears a tank top that shows off his arms, which are completely muscular. He’s got brown hair that hangs in his face, and almost a hook nose. You say almost because the bump isn’t noticeable at first, not unless you’re staring directly at it. He stops next to you and Trink, arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

Laurel looks dead at Caspian, “Horace.”

Horace is the tallest of them all, a giant compared to initiates like Amos. He’s got dark skin, long dreadlocks that hang loose. You’re fairly surprised that he wasn’t a first choice but to be fair, Finnick wasn’t either. You and Thyme were the first two picks.

“Ameer.” Caspian says.

“Mirza.” Laurel retorts.

It isn’t until they move, do you realize that they’re twins. Ameer comes towards you guys, bouncing on his feet, excited. Mirza lets out a groan, “He’s been waiting for an opportunity like this for forever.”

“Yeah, and now I can do it without getting in trouble.” Ameer high-fives Lennox, stopping beside him.

Ameer and Mirza look strangely familiar, actually. You just can’t place your finger on it. 

The last couple of people don’t nearly seem as important, because Caspian and Laurel take too much time deciding. And each time they think they have it, they change their minds.

The final list for Caspian’s team, though, is you, Trink, Eytelle and Allio from the transfer initiates. And Lennox, Ameer, Sydney, Nestor and Claris.

For Laurel, it’s Thyme, Ossie, Finnick, Amos. Then Blaire, Horace, Mirza, Cass and Hallie for the Dauntless-borns.

During the decision, you’ve all finally made it to the arena that you’ll be dealing with. Caspian and Laurel stand across from each other, discussing who will get off the train first and who will get off second. For a while, it seems like Caspian is set on going first, until he resigns in an instant and motions for Laurel to go.

“Now I know you’re up to no good.” she says, motioning for her team to go, “Don’t underestimate me, Caspian, you might just end up regretting it.”

“Yeah?” he says, but that’s it.

You turn your body away when Finnick passes through the door. You’ve also come to the conclusion that Finnick should be the first to apologize, and not you. He was the one that suggested you couldn’t have moments to yourself, which you’re accustomed to, thanks to your house in Abnegation. You’d have hours alone to think, and now your thoughts no longer belong to you.

As soon as the last person is out of sight of the train, Caspian backs up to take a look at you guys. He doesn’t say anything for a long while, and then he smiles, “We’ve got a good ass team. We have ten minutes to decide a strategy before we need to pick a place for our flag.”

He holds out his wrist, the one with the watch on it, and sets a timer.

You move away from the others for a moment, standing in the doorway of the train. Your eyes search, going over the land that’s offered. The more you stare, the more you realize that it’s the marsh that’s near the city. The lights are much closer now, the blue-tinted one has to be less than a mile away from you are now.

“Where do you think she’ll place her flag?” Trink asks, she’s tying her hair up when you look at her.

“Her team will probably pick the carousel, Mirza’s pretty familiar with it.” Ameer says.

“I think you mean that you both are pretty familiar with it.” Sydney says, she looks like she belongs in Dauntless. She’s pale enough to be a ghost, and her black hair is such a stark contrast that it makes her creepy-looking, instead of balancing it out.

The boy standing next to her, Nestor, looks a lot like her. But his skin is more tanned, and he’s only taller than her by a hair. Out of all the Dauntless-born boys that you inherited on your team, he’s the shortest. Nestor doesn’t say anything, only plays with the trigger on his gun..

“Whatever.” Ameer says, “Either way, we’ll be heading off in the other direction. It’s more stable over there, tall buildings and all.”

“Tall buildings?” You ask, suddenly interested. You look at Caspian, “Can I step out?”

“Don’t go far.” he says.

You only go out far enough to see the buildings against the sky. He’s not wrong, they’re pretty tall, maybe fifteen stories or less. They’d be a good advantage point against the other team.

“Okay, I say we station ourselves on top of the buildings, and place our flag on the tallest one so that they have to work for it.” you point, eyes on the furthest one, which also happens to be the tallest.

Trink comes out to join you, seeing the building that you have your eyes on, “Oh! And there’s a street in-between, so we can ambush them if they come through. We just have to make sure that we spot them so that we know they’re coming.”

One by one, everyone else comes out of the train so that they can see the buildings for themselves. Once you’re all staring and figuring things out for yourselves, adding onto the plan, murmurs of agreement begin to sound. Just like that, you guys have a solid plan on how to defend the flag.

Now what about getting to it?

Caspian’s watch goes off a couple of minutes later, while you’re still thinking over the next part of the plan to yourself. You’re sure that two brains, or multiple, would be better than one. But you think that you should at least have an outline or an idea before you present it to anyone--especially Trink. 

Caspian walks in front, gun in front of him, finger on the trigger. Behind him are Ameer, Sydney and Nestor, who all seem to be really good friends. Lennox is caught between talking to them, and turning to talk to you guys. As for Claris, she’s quietly playing with her hair, taking up the back.

There’s ten of you in total. Four transfers, five born, and Caspian. You’re pretty sure that Caspian is participating, considering the fact that he’s got a gun and agreed on your strategy. You’re just not sure how hands-on he’s going to be in the end.

“I’m surprised you sabotaged Mirza so quickly.” Sydney says.

“If you guys really wanted me to, I could tell you exactly what he’s thinking right now, because it’s the same strategy every time,” his voice drops quieter, “And I’m tired of him winning each time we play out here, just me and him.”

“I heard that.” Caspian says without turning around.

Ameer straightens up, but he doesn’t seem concerned, “You’re cool Caspian, as long as you don’t tell my dad. Then I might have to kick your ass.”

Ameer raises his hands in time for Caspian to turn around. Caspian struggles to press his lips together so that he doesn’t look amused, but it doesn’t work. He lets out a laugh, and shakes his head.

“Your dad?” you ask.

“Yeah, my dad is one of the leaders,” Ameer gives you a grin and wiggles his eyebrows, “He says that one day, I’ll be the one to replace him.”

It clicks instantly, his dad is Damon. That’s why he looked so familiar on the train, because he looks almost exactly like his dad, “Oh! Right!” you say, he smiles and nods, turning back to Sydney and Nestor.

The buildings that you looked at from faraway, are clustered together, and there’s only one walkway that Laurel’s team can possibly go through. The fences around are too high, and some of them have remnants of barbed wire at the top. It would be too risky to try and go over, and too long to go around. 

The first two buildings that lead into the mouth of the alleyway should definitely have people at the top. Since there’s ten of you, you’d like to say that you can spare two on each. As you keep walking though, you can see that the tallest building isn’t that far back. Really there’s only four buildings.

You stop walking, staring up at them.

Four buildings, ten of you. And there needs to be enough left over to scout out the other team and break their defense. There’s a lot you need to take into consideration with this.

“Caspian.” you call, making him come to a slow stop. You’re in the back now, half-facing the way you just came, “Do you oversee the Dauntless-born training?”

He makes a face, tilting his head from side to side, “Sometimes, Damon mostly does it when he can.”

“Have you at least seen them shoot? Or their rankings right now with the fights?” 

Caspian comes closer so you aren’t speaking as loudly, which begins to create a circle between you all, “Yeah, do you want me to list them?”

“From best to worst, starting with guns.” 

He nods, “For transfers, Trink, you, Eytelle and Allio. For Dauntless-born, Ameer, Lennox, Sydney, Claris and then Nestor.”

You hum, “Okay, and from best to worst fighting-wise?”

“You,” he starts, which immediately doesn’t sound right, “Allio, Trink and then Eytelle. Lennox, Ameer, Nestor, Sydney and Claris.”

You press your lips together, “Here’s what I’m thinking--we station two people on each of these buildings. Let’s say Allio and Eytelle on one, and Nestor and Claris on the other.”

You turn to face the building that’s to the left of the tallest one, “We place only one person here, and it’s Sydney.” you turn to the final building, “We place the flag on this one, Trink, Ameer and Caspian will be here to protect it.”

There’s silence, and you really hope that you don’t have to explain your thinking. Caspian is already nodding, humming, “You want the worst in the front and the best protecting it.”

“Yes.” you say.

“What about me and you?” Lennox asks, raising his eyebrows.

“We go for the flag. We’re second in guns and first in fighting, both. We might have to get physical, which is exactly why we need to be good.” you pause for a moment, looking to the others, “Any problems, or holes?”

You’re looking at Trink, who’s thinking it over. She shakes her head slowly, “No, I don’t think so.”

“Good, okay.��� you throw out your arms, “Let’s get shit set up!”

There’s a roar of whoops that come from your group as you load guns and split extra ammo. Caspain, Trink and Ameer take the flag with them to the tall building, while Trink, Eytelle, Nestor and Claris head to the front two buildings. Sydney hangs around for a minute, before deciding to go too.

“Have you been to the carousel before?” you ask on the way with Lennox.

He nods, “Yeah, we play every year. Normally we get creative and hide the flags in less-obvious places, but Mirza can have a pretty big influence. Ameer wasn’t lying when he said that they play between them a lot.” Lennox shrugs, “Mirza wins every time with the carousel. Why fix something that isn’t broken?”

“True.” you say.

There’s a few seconds of silence, “What do you think that they’ll do?”

You shrug slightly, “I mean, Finnick might want to rush in, he’s top ranked in both guns and fighting.”

“What makes you think that?”

You look at him, “He’s a natural with a gun, and he hasn’t lost a fight yet. And it’s nearly flawlessly, he’s only been hit twice, and they were minor stuff.”

Lennox whistles slightly, slowly grinning, “I’ve won all my fights too, my last one was against that big guy--Horace.”

Your eyebrows draw in as you turn to Lennox, “How tall are you?”

“Six foot, but I’m still growing. Horace is six inches taller.”

“Damn!” you push his shoulder, “You must be proud.”

“I’ve been bragging about it.” he admits.

“Who do you think they’ll send out to scout?” You pull the gun in front of you, and Lennox follows. You’re far from the buildings now, which means you need to start thinking of being stealthy.

“Probably Cass, she’s the closest person we have that’s super quiet when she does anything. Have anyone like that?”

“That moves quickly? Probably Ossie. I’m not sure about quiet, though.” 

“Thinking about it, they’ll probably send their entire team.” Lennox says, “Let’s go this way.”

Lennox leads you through a dark building, it’s abandoned. The building is actually pretty vacant, there’s not even shattered glass on the floor, only dust. You’re about halfway through the building when you can hear voices, immediately making the two of you duck.

You press your hand to the floor, finger on the trigger of the paintball gun. You hold your breath to hear better, but you’re not sure if it’s even needed, because Laurel’s team isn’t trying to be quiet at all. Their voices are loud, echoing through the building.

“Are you sure about this?” It’s a girl, but it’s not Ossie or Thyme, you look to Lennox to see he’s holding up his finger.

“Cass.” he mouths.

Okay, makes sense, but there’s a lot more people than just her. You hold out your fingers to count them all.

You can hear Thyme, her voice might be soft but it’s distinct in a crowd. She sounds exactly like how you imagined an Amity transfer would sound like. And then there’s Finnick, you pick his voice out immediately. You close your eyes and duck your head, trying not to get distracted.

You don’t hear Ossie or Amos, but they do tend to be pretty quiet. This would all be so much easier if you could see them…

Your head shoots up, and you press your fingers to your lips, going out the back doorway of the building, since there is no door. Lennox follows behind you, making no noise except for the very gentle taps of the soles of his shoes against the cement floor. 

The two of you creep around the corner, being sure to hold your guns to make sure that they stay flat against your body. Your eyes sweep over all of them as fast as you can before one of them turns around. You count six, notice that there’s no Ossie or Amos amongst them, and then flatten yourself against the brick wall.

There’s six of them.

“What are the rules, again?” You look at Lennox.

“Color them and they’re out of the game.” Lennox says quietly, “Why?”

“Because the competition is right here.” you say, “Go on the other side of the building, we can do this.”

Lennox gives you a grin, and then moves inside of the building and disappears. You creep around the corner again, watching the group of six slowly get further away. As you rise to your feet, you firmly place your index finger over the trigger.

Lennox is the first to first, a puff of air sounding from his gun.

You aim the gun the best you can, trying to get as many people out as possible before they realize what’s happening. You get one, and then two. You think you can see Lennox hit a few people too, maybe the same people that you’re targeting. All you know is that Horace, Cass and Thyme are out.

You hold up the gun a little higher, bringing it to your face to see better. You follow Finnick for a moment, and when you pull the trigger, you watch blue paint explode over his blonde hair. His head jerks forward, turning to face you.

You pull it again for good measure. You know, just in case he didn’t get the memo.

Lennox narrowly avoids a paintball, shooting at Blaire, following him around. But so is Mirza, both of them fixed on Lennox, and not so much you. But then Lennox gets Blaire, turns towards Mirza, and they pull their triggers at the same time.

You lower your gun, not being able to see at first. You have to peer around Mirza’s, only to see that he’s got a pink splatter right over his heart.

You are the only survivor of this raid.

And you’re not even sure where you’re going.

They all stare at you, and you make sure to look around your body to double-check that you’re paint free.

“Her, really?” Thyme’s voice cuts across the silence, whiny.

Finnick’s face twists, and you can’t decide if it’s in disgust or not. But Mirza, Blaire and Cass seem to be pretty impressed.

“The Stiff made it through.” Mirza murmurs, mouth forming into a smirk, “Good luck.”

“Luck?” you ask, “You left Ossie, Amos and Hallie to guard the flag, luck is the last thing I need.”

“I can’t go with you any further.” Lennox says, “But keep going straight, you’ll see the Ferris Wheel eventually.”

You give him a thumbs up, and then you look at Thyme, “And by the way Thyme, intelligence beats brute force every single time. Enjoy your walk back to the train, bitch.”

You turn around, practically skipping. But it isn’t until you’re over the bridge and out of sight, do you begin to get nervous. There’s only one of you, and three of them. If it were only one person stationed at the carousel, you’re sure that you’d be able to take them out easily.

You can see why Mirza was smug.

Either way, you don’t have much of a choice.

This part of the city is even more abandoned, but the buildings begin to die out the closer you get to the swamp. You manage to spot the Ferris Wheel, exactly like Lennox has promised. You’re sure that the carousel will be someplace close to it. 

When you get closer, you see it.

The flag.

Ossie is sitting on one of the horses, the flag is tied up high on the pole. Hallie is patrolling, her gun in hand as she wanders around the area, eyes searching for you. Amos is sitting on the edge of the carousel, feet on the floor. His knees are pulled to his chest, and he rests his arms on top. The gun is placed next to him, the strap off completely.

You circle around the area for a little, trying to spot a way you can get in, but it’s too risky. You could be caught and immediately shot because of it. The only possible scenario where you get the flag is if you shoot all three of them.

But then you hear the crackle of a shoe against the street, making you jump and point your gun in the direction. You nearly pull the trigger, but thanks to your stumbling, you’re forced to take a closer look. It’s half of your team, here to help.

Ameer gives you a smile, his eyes fixated on the flag. Sydney has her knee placed to the ground, gun slung over her back, and Trink is twirling a strand of her hair around her finger. Nestor stands behind Sydney, but he’s hunched over so that he’s hidden behind the bush with you guys.

“Nice job with the others. You got three of them by yourself?” Ameer says.

“Yeah, but it’s nothing special.” you give them a smile.

“What’s your assessment?” Sydney says.

“We just go in and fucking shoot them?” Trink proposes, “I mean, Ossie and Amos are the two worst initiates in our group.”

“I want to grab the flag.” Ameer moves to the side to look at it again.

“Okay, it’s settled. We go--” Sydney tries, but Trink has moved out from around the bush. When you go to warn her about giving Ameer a head start, you realize that he’s already gone. 

The rest of you emerge too. Four against three, and you’re all pretty good shots. You manage to get Ossie in the ear, her head slamming against the metal pole hard enough for it to make a sound. Trink screws her mouth tightly, standing above Amos when she holds down the trigger, spraying paint all over his hair. Sydney takes a single shot at Hallie, but then Nestor shoots too, and suddenly a competition starts.

All while Ameer has snagged the neon flag, holding it up to display it to you guys. Cheers sound from you five, high-fives going around. But the three that were sat to wait here, don’t look so happy.

Amos shoots up from where he sat, “Fuck you--”

Trink’s already got her hand coiled back, and she slams her fist across his face. He falls back to sit where he was seconds ago. And without missing a beat, Trink turns to Ossie, “Got something to say too, or are you going to keep your mouth shut?”

Ossie doesn’t say anything, only walks past you guys and out of the fair grounds. Amos and Hallie go to follow behind her.

“Good choice.”

On the way to collect your team, you realize that you hadn’t seen Laurel. But Trink clears that immediately, saying that Laurel went to get Caspian and them. All you guys have to do is meet them back at the train. So really, you aren’t going to collect them. 

Your entire team is waiting there to celebrate, and the moment you’re in sight, their voices fill the air. You watch as Ameer holds the flag up high with one hand, and pumps his fist with the other, a cheer leaving his throat. The rest of you follow, before erupting into laughter.

There’s pats on your back, voices in your ears. You know that your entire team is proud, excited that you have an achievement to put on your records. Caspian congratulates every single one of you on the way inside of the train, before you’re heading back to Dauntless.

When the train really starts going, everyone has to yell to hear each other. Caspian makes a small speech about how he knew that we were the better team from the beginning. The entire time, Laurel flips him off with a straight face, not amused at all. It got better when he called on Ameer to make a small speech too, and he immediately chose to bash on his brother, Mirza.

“When’s our next day off?” Ameer shouts over the wind.

“Three days from now!” Caspian says, “Why?”

“We should do this again!”

“Haha.” Caspian says.

“No, I’m serious!”

“What will you do for me?” Caspian asks, he’s leaned up against the wall. 

Ameer thinks for a moment, and then lights up.

Caspian cuts him off before he can speak, “And it can’t involve the word ‘cool’!”

Ameer deadpans, “You’re no fun!”

--

ANTERIC IS A SPIN-OFF DIVERGENT AU //MASTERLIST//

add yourself to the TAGLIST

@amixedwitch / @justthatfangirloverthere / @fnnshelbys / @neenieweenie / @vxntae / @liaaacantwrite / @tereuzasworld

[klapollo]

Hey I just wanna say I really like how you shade, especially on faces, do you have any tips for how you do it?

Ahh, thank you! Tbh I'm still grappling a lot with color theory and I'm not a visual artist by trade so take my advice with a grain of salt but here's how I do it:

I color in pieces. So let's use that Trucy drawing as an example. I'll have one layer for her skin, one for her cape, etc. For that drawing, I started with her skin layer. When I color skin, I start by laying down a base color. Then, I move to a slightly (VERY slightly bc if not I can change the whole color mood) warmer tone on the wheel and lay down a gradient effect across the face, more saturated from the forehead and dissipating around the middle of the face (I recommend looking at characters in a game like Trauma Center UTK2 to get an idea of the effect I’m going for here) I blend until it's smooth. I then lay down a saturated shade that I usually blend along the bottom of the nose and the cheeks to accentuate coloring in the face.

This next part is tricky bc I'm honestly terrible at it, but pay close attention to your light source, bc that dictates where the shadows and highlights go. In the Trucy drawing, the light is more concentrated towards the left side of the picture. I shade and highlight based on this. This means that the bridge of the nose and the upper parts of the cheeks, which protrude and thus get hit somewhat intensely by light, get highlighted while the underside of the nose, which is generally away from the light, gets shadows. This obviously varies based on the light source, of course. A character illuminated from the bottom might typically have the underside of their nose highlighted and the bridge shadowed, for example. I also put a thin strip of saturated, bright highlight on the very edges of the body that directly face the light source (ie the side of Trucy's arm, the outer edge of her cheek)

An important thing to remember is that different parts of the composition call for different shading methods. I'm trying very hard to learn how to properly shade clothes right now, because fabric is very particular when it comes to shading and different materials require different strategies to invoke the proper texture.

Something I also do when shading that I started to do during Slate was to make a celshade-esque blob of shadow, and then lightly run the blur tool ONCE along the very edge of the shadow to soften it just enough without muddling the color.

I hope this helped/made sense LOL

[accursedkaleeshi]

You mention how where the Kaleesh are from affects their appearance somewhat-can you elaborate more on that?

Yeah dude! More long post baseless conjecture for you!

TL:DR: Regional variants seems like a logical conclusion I came to bc I started drawing some Kaleesh with more developed noses but I still really liked the slit reptile nostrils too much so why not both.

A lot of the time in fantasy & sci-fi alien species look largely the same for the sake of simplicity but y’know. Kaleesh are the primary sentient species on their entire ass planet so surely there are different ethnicities just like humans. We have exactly 1 image of Kalee as a whole planet (thank you based Wookiepedia authors) & a lot of the locations of things are vague so I took that to mean I can just make shit up & no one will mind. So, uh here are just my large general colloquial ethnic areas.

Northern: -Oldest populations. More primal features in areas like coarse hair/bristles, scales/spines, &/or proto-feathers (think Argonian hairstyles). -Lower canine tusks still in some populations. -More pronounced skull crests. -Ears are most dramatically pointed, like they evolved from scales/spines. -Red, brown, ruddy colors in varying gradients as they hailed from clay cliffs initially. -No intricate color patterns, mostly uniform scale shapes. -Warm eye colors, yellow to red. -Usually get the largest. (Bentilais georg is an outlier & is not directly northern.)

Eastern (largest cardinal region, mostly in the northern hemisphere but extends into southern hemisphere a ways): -Largest modern population, really took to tropical jungles as ambush predators. -Kind of the standard of Kaleesh representation. -Course, textured hair. -Bright warm eye colors. -Incredibly varied scale shape & color patterns that broke up their outlines in foliage. -Usually warm ruddy colors, populations getting darker toward the equator.

Western (smaller than east but encroaches further north): -Kind of an amalgam of Eastern & Southern features. -Thin nasal folds, minimal nose structure. -Ears often fold partially inward from the forward edge. -Kind of spry & springy builds as opposed to compact muscle of East, or any Northern tanks. -Lighter colors of various saturation depending on the area.

Southern (meets East & West but is a comparatively small chunk that is nearly entirely in the southern hemisphere): -Most independently distinct -It’s kind of weird down there, there’s a large arid canyon environment that separates the west from the south that is a pain in the dick to navigate so they just didn’t. -Not often seen north of the equator. -Long faces. -Long, thin frames on a species that is already gangly in general -Ears folded, like bunny ears, right? They curl inward. -No nose structure, just slit lizard nostrils -Darker colors. Rumored iridescent population (see brazillian rainbow boa)

Side note about Grendaju: Grendaju is not included in the colloquial south & is it’s own thing. Grendaju is like Antarctica & the planetary population at large didn’t think people actually lived down there in the ice tundra. So Ronderu legging it around the mainland looking ethnically ambiguous, no one else ever with her before Qymaen, saying she was from Grendaju & descended from gods really absolutely scared the shit out of most people. (omg I love her so much?)

[nightingiall]

head in the clouds: part i

Rory Bhatt hates lifeguarding, hates the Shack kids, and hates Niall Horan. All she wants is to have a peaceful summer minding her own business and hopefully be able to find some much needed inspiration so she can finally start sketching things that look good again. But Niall Horan appears, with that annoying grin and a problem on his hands, and of course that plan goes out the window. 

A story about tired lifeguards, a stolen cat, wild imaginations, and lots and lots of parties. 

There is not a cloud in sight today. 

The sky is endlessly blue, starting with a light, nearly white, color from the horizon that blends into the soft azure right over where Rory is sitting. It’s beautiful, she thinks, how one simple color can blend seamlessly into the gradients that make up that sea of vast nothingness above her. But today, she wishes that there was at least one cloud floating by. 

She sighs to herself, turning her gaze to the large resort pool in front of her, also a shade of blue, but one caused by the blue tiles at the bottom and not nature itself. There are two children near the shallow end bickering with each other. They couldn’t be more than five and three years old. The oldest, a girl, shoves the youngest, a boy, causing him to wail in the direction of a woman who is presumably their mother. When she doesn’t give him the attention, the boy turns back to the little girl, and even from the distance, Rory can see the angry flash in his eyes. She places her whistle between her lips, readying herself for what he might do next. 

Sure enough, he charges at the little girl, jumping on her with such force that her head gets submerged under the water. Rory’s whistle sounds off loudly, everyone’s head jerking towards her, and when they are assured her warning is not for them, they return to their poolside shenanigans. “No dunking!” Rory yells at the two children, removing her sunglasses so they can see her eyes trained on them. “This is your first warning!”

Their maybe-mother notices this exchange and quickly breaks them apart, dragging them towards the pool stairs and scolding them all the way. By the time Rory pushes her sunglasses back up her nose, they’re already walking towards a lounger where a man, presumably their father, is already watching them disapprovingly. 

“No drawings today?” comes a voice from beside her, and she turns towards it only to find blue eyes that are entirely too close for comfort. 

Niall Horan laughs when she flinches, and she rolls her eyes at the sound. But of course he cannot see that through her sunglasses, so he laughs even louder at her frown. He’s standing on one of the rungs of her lifeguard chair, his face level with hers, and she has half a mind to reach out to shove him off. 

She doesn’t.

“Not inspired,” is what she mumbles instead, turning her attention towards her sketchbook, which stares back at her, the open page unbearably blank. She brought her nice charcoal pencils with her today after waking up feeling like sketching the clouds. But when she looks up at the sky again, the endless chasm of blue taunts her. 

Niall Horan, for his part, simply grins in that wide, obnoxious way of his and hops off the rung to round the corner to the front of the lifeguard chair. He always offers a hand when she steps down and she never takes it, and the same thing happens today. She’s glaring at him now, as she always does when he does that, but she knows he can’t see it through her sunglasses. He must know it’s there though, because this exchange happens every single time, like clockwork. 

Literally. 

Niall has been behind her in the rotation for two whole weeks now, meaning he’s always the one nudge her out of this mind numbing job every twenty minutes when they have to move on to the next lifeguard chair. 

“Well I’m sure you’ll come up with something!” he says cheerfully, just as she’s about to turn away to head over to the next chair. She chances a glance at him just in time to see him swing himself up onto the seat she just vacated, his sunnies, as he calls them, falling back onto his face. She rolls her eyes again, wondering how he manages to make everything seem so effortless yet so insufferably annoying. 

She heads to her next post without another word. 

***

Rory cannot stand Niall Horan. 

She cannot stand him and his loud laugh and his annoying grin and his stupid jokes. She cannot stand him and the way he’s always peeking over her shoulder into her sketchbook and reaching out to trail his fingers along the pages, smearing her nice charcoal work that she’d meticulously smudge to her own liking. 

Rory cannot stand him but there are still 60 days left of summer and she has no choice but to deal with him. 

***

“You totally have a crush on him.” 

Gigi is laughing and Rory is glaring and this is nothing new for the two of them. 

Rory wonders how her roommate can be so cheery all the time. Her dark ringlets bounce with her giggles and her dark brown eyes glitter from the light hitting the tears that are starting to build up near her lashline. Leave it to Gigi to cry laughing at Rory’s expense. 

“I do not,” Rory bites out. The sheer insinuation is so annoying that she can feel an angry heat spreading across her cheeks. “I don’t like him. At all.” Gigi is still cackling, hand clutching her tummy as she bows over on their tiny kitchen table. “Gigi! I don’t!”

Her roommate, after wiping her laughter induced tears from her face and taking a deep breath to calm herself, simply smiles at her, watching her knowingly. “Wow,” is what she says, shaking her head slightly as she leans back into her seat, arms crossed over her chest. “You are in such denial.” 

Rory, for her part, attempts to send her as menacing a look as she can manage, because truthfully, she is absolutely fuming. Seething. Blindingly angry. All at the assertion that she could have a crush on the most annoying boy on the planet. “Gigi…” Her voice is dangerously low and measured. A warning for them to drop this subject before her anger gets out of hand. “I do not have a crush on Niall Horan.” 

There’s a tense silence as they both stare each other down. And, if anything, the way Gigi is calmly smiling at her only makes her more upset. Regardless, a truce is drawn when Gigi brings her mug to her lips, sipping slowly from her coffee and shrugging her shoulders, effectively letting the topic go. 

“So,” is what she says, all nonchalantly, as if they weren’t just having a heated conversation. “What are you wearing for the party this weekend?” 

Rory lets out a sigh of relief, gladly accepting this change in subject and having no interest in giving Gigi any reason to return to the previous topic. So they drink their coffee together and talk about this party. 

***

Rory has worked at The Hightstown Resort every summer since she was a sophomore in high school. 

It’s a tradition at this point, and she feels like it’s not summer unless she’s at Hightstown. It feels like home, familiar in a way she needs to feel grounded sometimes. And for all the crap she talks about it, she always looks forward to coming back and seeing all the knowing faces that played a part in the story of her youth. 

Her mom worked at Hightstown when she was younger too, so all the long-term staff knows who she and her family are. This is especially helpful after hours when she feels like having a midnight snack and the kitchen staffers will gladly let her into the pantry to choose whatever she wants. 

Of course she is not the only returning seasonal employee of Hightstown. Gigi has been her roommate for the past three summers, and there are a few other high school to college-aged people who call this place their summer home too. But Rory likes to think that the rest of the staff likes her best. 

Hightstown is a place that’s rife with tradition. For the seasonal kids, anyway. 

One of those rituals is the summer bash up at the Shacks. Rory has always wondered which snob named the most glorious and expensive staff quarters at the resort the Shacks. Perhaps they thought they were being clever, because there is nothing grungy or shack-like about it at all. There are hot tubs and private chefs and room service and, most importantly, an endless supply of hot water. 

Rory hates the Shack kids. 

Not because they can afford the luxurious accommodations. She has nothing against rich people. But she does have something against rude rich people. 

That fact doesn’t stop her from going to the summer bash, though. 

Gigi made her change her clothes twice so Rory walks into the party sporting her signature snarl because she’s annoyed and her best friend is too preoccupied with worrying over how she’s going to impress one of the Shack boys she has a crush on to notice. “Just because you had a bad experience with one of them doesn’t mean I will,” was what she huffed at her as they walked out of their suite. “Loosen up, Rory!”

Rory hasn’t spoken to her since. 

Now they’re in the Sunset Villa where the bash is always held and she’s long lost sight of her roommate. Somehow, Rory manages to find two people she can actually tolerate, standing near the makeshift bar area, and she heads straight towards them. 

“There she is!” is what Harry says when she smiles at them, throwing an arm over her shoulders to pull her into his side and she gladly reciprocates by slinging an arm around his waist. “I feel like I never see you anymore!”

“Yeah, Rors, where have you been hiding?” chimes in Leslie. Her long, dark hair is pulled up into what looks like a very intricate crown braid and Rory nearly gets distracted admiring it. 

She shrugs. “You know me. Not the social type.” They both frown at her because they know that a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been true at all. Rory was always the one dragging them to the parties and begging them to sneak off the grounds so they could go exploring. But she’s different now. The fact of it makes her heart twist strangely in her chest. So, she changes the subject. “Love your hair, Les! You need to teach me how to braid like that.” 

They launch into a conversation about hair while Harry goes to get them all drinks. Finally things are starting to feel normal. After the rough way summer ended last year, Rory wasn’t sure she even wanted to come back to Hightstown. But Harry and Leslie, because she’s known them forever, can always be counted on to pull her out of a funk. They all started working at the resort in the same year and have stuck together ever since. Lately, though, they haven’t been able to spend as much time together because of all of their different placements: Rory’s a lifeguard, Harry’s in the kitchen, and Leslie does all the kids programming. 

Harry comes back with beers and they catch up for a while. But somehow, the night transitions in such a way that they end up taking shots with some Shack kids, and then more beer, and then someone procures a joint from somewhere which they end up sharing on the back patio. By the time the night starts to wind down, Rory is pretty drunk and maybe a little high and she needs to get back to her room because she’s had enough of the socializing. 

She waves goodbye to Harry and Leslie, leaving with a promise that they’d catch up again soon. Despite technically being outside the entire time, as she walks back through the villa and out the front door, she finds that she can breathe better the further she walks from the party. The breeze feels cooler on her heated skin and her head clears a bit. She briefly wonders whether she should have gone to look for Gigi but figures that she’s probably having fun making out with her new Shack boy toy somewhere so she decides against it. She also may or may not still be upset with her. 

She’s halfway down the trail when she realizes that her head feels like it’s a disco ball spinning out of control, and before she knows it, she’s plopping down onto the curb rubbing her fingers against her temples as though that would help in quelling the beginnings of the headache she can feel coming. The night is quiet though, the air feeling all light and floaty around her, and she doesn’t mind relaxing here for a bit. The grass is soft against her hands as she leans back against it, her head lolling back until her eyes are trained towards the sky. 

The darkness is a stark contrast to the beautiful blue she had been staring at this morning while perched atop her lifeguard chair. There are definitely no clouds in the sky now, but the beautiful thing about Hightstown is that it’s so sequestered from the city that the stars seem to glow a bit brighter here. She smiles, admiring the way they twinkle, almost wishing she could reach up and pluck one right out of the sky to keep. 

“Rory?” comes a voice ahead of her, and when she rolls her head upright again to find its owner, she finds blue eyes that sort of glimmer just like the stars she was just looking at. 

Then she blinks a few times and realizes it’s just Niall Horan emerging from the darkness. 

Her smile falls, then she sighs. She may not like him, but she’s not a bitch, so she mumbles, “Hi, Horan,” in response. 

He’s dressed all nice, like a typical Shack boy: dark wash denim jacket with the sleeves cuffed to his elbows, slim fit t-shirt, and some jeans. With his dark hair, pale skin, and bright blue eyes, he reminds her of last summer. Reminds her of big brown eyes and a smile that can light up the whole resort. Reminds her of searing kisses and warm touches and giggling into a different denim jacket in some hidden away corner of the grounds 

He reminds her of a different Shack boy who broke her heart.

As Niall makes himself comfortable on the curb next to her, she vows to herself that she will not allow a repeat of last summer to happen. 

Just as a scowl is starting to form on her face, Niall turns to her, his own lips curling into that megawatt grin of his, and she has to stop herself from wincing because something about it makes her stomach turn. It reminds her too much of another her, in a different summer, where she might’ve been in this exact position with another boy who she didn’t know would rip her heart out of her chest and stomp all over it. 

“Were you just at the party?” he asks, voice all soft and sweet and lilted in that Irish accent of his. Ugh, she thinks, internally rolling her eyes, because she’s drunk and that accent just made her heart stop for a second and she hates herself for it. Hates him for it. 

She’s just about to say something snarky when she’s interrupted by a strange sound. It startles her for a moment. It sounded so nearby but her alcohol-muddled brain had been too distracted to determine what exactly it was. It happens again and Rory thinks that it sounds a lot like a cat meowing, which in itself is odd because Hightstown has a strict anti-pet policy. 

She looks around to find the source when her eyes land on a rather large duffel near Niall’s feet. She hadn’t noticed it before and when she looks up at him to ask him about it, she finds that his face is flushed a bright crimson, visible despite the fact that they’re sitting in the darkness. “Horan,” she says slowly because she’s slightly suspicious now. “What’s in that bag?”

He chuckles nervously which only makes her narrow her eyes at him. “Uhh,” he gets out as he rubs his hands on his jeans, and Rory would bet her life that it’s because they’re sweating. “Nothing.” 

He tries to move the duffel away discreetly but she notices. She couldn’t care less about what Niall Horan, of all people, was up to. But her interest is piqued now, so she can’t help the way she reaches over him to grab the bag. “You’re hiding something—”

“No!” He blocks her from being able to close her fingers around the strap, and when she looks at him again, there’s a bit of alarm swirling in his eyes. “I—uh...it’s nothing, I swear!”

Rory simply blinks at him. Honestly, the fact that he’s resisting only makes her more curious, so she says, “Niall Horan. What are you up to?”

She watches as he visibly gulps, chewing on his lips as he mulls it over. Finally, he takes a deep breath and says, “Okay. But if I show you then you have to promise not to say a word to anyone.” 

At that, she actually laughs and rolls her eyes because that’s so dramatic. But when he doesn’t even crack a smile, doesn't even try to defend himself, she realizes that he’s totally serious. So, to placate him, she goes, “Yeah, okay whatever.” 

He gives her a look and it looks a bit funny on him because she’s never seen him act in any way except obnoxiously bubbly all the time. “I mean it, Rory. Not a single soul.” 

She groans, rolling her eyes again because this is ridiculous and she’s beginning to wonder whether this back and forth is even worth seeing what’s in the duffel. “Okay, I promise! Unless it’s something illegal like drugs. Then I’m snitching.” It’s telling how drunk she is because she grins at him before her next words leave her mouth. “Unless you’re sharing.” 

Niall simply huffs, shaking his head. But he seems convinced enough because he reaches behind him for the bag and places it gently between them. He’s visibly nervous as he unzips it, constantly glancing up at her as if he’s afraid of how she might react. When the bag is finally open, he tosses the flap back and just looks at her. She shrugs him off, leaning over to peer inside. At first, she sees nothing interesting, but then, she catches movement and immediately recoils with a gasp. 

“What is that!” She knows she’s drunk but damn it seems a bit crazy for it to be what she thinks it is. 

Niall doesn’t have to reply to her because the creature is emerging from the bag. First, its head pops out, then, as if realizing it’s free from its confines, it attempts to step out before unceremoniously flopping over until it lands on the grass between them. It has muted orange fur with black stripes. Its eyes are pulled downwards, mouth—or snout?—curved in a way that resembles a frown. And it’s huge. Rory has never seen one that big and didn’t even know they were able to get to that size. 

“Whoa,” is what leaves her mouth as she stares dumbly at it. She almost wants to laugh. She has to be absolutely wasted because surely her eyes are deceiving her. “That is...a big cat.” Niall is grinning stupidly at her, reaching out to nuzzle the creature’s face. It purrs at his touch but its frown seems to remain intact. Rory tilts her head at it. “Actually...is it really a cat? And not like...a baby tiger or something?”

“Nah, he’s just a regular ol’ cat. Reckon he’s just a bit big-boned or something.” The creature—Rory thinks she’ll just call it a cat—putters towards her and she leans away from it slightly which makes Niall laugh. “Go on, pet him! Isn’t he a cute little fella!” Niall is absolutely beaming now and Rory huffs. She wouldn’t call that thing little, but she reaches out regardless, cautiously rubbing a finger on its head. The cat closes its eyes and purrs at her touch. “Awww,” Niall coos, reaching out too, “he likes you!” 

The shock is wearing off and her senses are finally coming back to her. “Uhhhh. Where did you even get this from? You know they’re not allowed on the grounds right?”

He shrugs, gently grabbing a hold of the cat and placing it back into the duffel. “Some lady left the poor little thing in her car out at valet. When she finally got back she got mad at him for leaping out.” Niall is looking at her all imploringly and all Rory can think about is how he really needs to stop calling that thing little. It is definitely not little. “She even raised her hand on him!” He huffs, getting all heated over it. “So,” he says matter of factly, “I saved him from her.”

Rory stares at him. “You stole a cat?”

He shakes his head at her. “No. I saved him.” He nuzzles the thing before apologizing to it softly as he closes the zipper again, leaving a small portion of it open, probably so it could breathe. “Besides, I’m sure the Dree-foos lady won’t miss him anyway.”

Now she’s gaping at him because she recognizes that name. She nearly hopes she misheard it because he’s in deep shit otherwise. “You stole Mrs. Dreyfuss’s cat?!” she asks in disbelief, eyes widened at him. All he does is shrug and she brings her hands to her mouth. “Horan!” she hisses, “don’t you know who she is?”

Niall gives her a look, reaching into the duffel to pet the stolen cat absentmindedly. “I don’t know? An animal abuser?”

Rory shakes her head, huffing exasperatedly. “No, dummy. She’s on the freakin’ board of directors!” She can see the exact moment the weight of this situation dawns on him, his eyes widening slightly. “If you get caught,” she says, because she feels like he needs to hear it verbalized too, “you’re not just getting fired. Dreyfuss will throw a fit and get the whole company in trouble.”

Silence engulfs them for a moment as Niall mulls over her words. “Damn,” is what he finally ends up saying, eyes glazed over in thought. Then, he turns to Rory, spirit all brightened now like he’s just gotten an idea. “Will you help me hide him from people?”

Rory makes an affronted sound because he is so delusional if he thinks she would ever do that. “Absolutely not! I am not getting fired over your stolen cat-tiger thing.” 

He frowns at her, and she ignores the little swoop her tummy gives. “Please? You know the grounds better than anyone.” 

She gets up from the curb, wobbling slightly because she’s still tipsy and this is all just ridiculous. “No,” she says firmly, turning around to face him only to realize that he’d gotten up too, the duffel now slung over his shoulder. But then, she feels bad because deep down, she knows he means no harm. Even if he’s being absolutely stupid. So she says, “I’ll walk you to the Shacks. But no more. I want nothing else to do with this.” 

He grins at her, thanking her profusely as she starts to lead him through the alleyways to the Shacks. And all she can think about the entire time they’re walking is that if she were sober, this would have never happened.

***

Rory thinks Niall Horan is way in over his head. 

She’s always been a dreamer, and her mom was always yelling at her to get her head out of the clouds, but no one, she thinks now, is more delusional than Niall Horan if he thinks he can just steal a gigantic cat and keep it safely in his suite at the Shacks. 

But she supposes he has 56 days left of summer to deal with that.

--

tell me what you think! :)

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

How I make book covers + tips for you!

Hey people of Earth!

Around this time last year, I mentioned I would have a video up on how I make book covers/cover making tips, and to summarize: I did not do the thing, and this year old script is still sitting in my drafts.

SO, I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and post a written version of these tips! Going to get straight into this because I imagine this will be rather long!

This post will be divided into 6 parts: finding inspiration, concept art, incorporating elements of design, composition, tools and software, and resources. Feel free to skip around to whatever section interests you most!

***Before we get started, really quick disclaimer. I am in no way a professional cover designer. Cover design is merely something I picked up on my own, and I don’t have any formal education/credentials in graphic design. So of course take my advice with that in mind. These are also just my personal thoughts and opinions. So take everything with a grain of salt!

1. Finding Inspiration

What’s the deal?

A really great way to start out in design

Finding cover designs or designers you admire may help you see what works technically

Helps nail down a style you like

In turn, can help you find your cover design style

What should you do?

Look at covers in your genre!

Whenever I design a cover, I take a scroll through Goodreads to pick up some inspiration in designs I personally love

I also love walking around my bookstore and taking a look at physical copies

Find a cover design you like, and point out the specific reasons you like it

Example:

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was actually not an inspo cover for this edition of I’M DISAPPOINTED, but as you can see, things I liked from it spilled over into my own design. By pointing out aspects of graphic design you like, you’ll better be able to understand your style as a cover artist. 

Some personal thoughts:

I like covers that include a textured backgrounds, as seen in the collage below: 

So for the I’M DISAPPOINTED cover above, I included a textured background. I also love handwritten fonts/lettering, which I include in almost all of my book covers.

What I did:

Off-white colour from A List of Cages and Holding Up The Universe

Silhouette from Painless and previous cover design of I’m Disappointed

Speech bubble from Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Say What You Will

Marker texture from A List of Cages

Obviously my thought process wasn’t to put 4 covers in a blender and thus create my product, ha, this is just an example for the ease of understanding!  

2. Concept art

What’s the deal?

Coming up with concept art is a super important part of designing a successful book cover. 

Acts as the skeleton of your book cover

Your book cover’s roadmap

Saves time/effort

Similar to an outline for a novel. 

Can be a very quick sketch, or full fledged design

I like keeping my concept art quick, but if this is your first cover, making a more detailed mockup can help. 

What should you do?

Sketch out book cover ideas once you get them/take notes of concepts you’d like to explore

If you can’t come up with concepts, take a look at your inspiration folder and pull concepts/ideas from covers you love

This does not mean copying another book cover (this is notttt a good idea!). BUT, pulling inspiration from elements you like on a cover can be helpful in generating your own concepts

You don’t have to come up with concept art (sometimes winging it works!) but I do recommend jotting notes down, and drawing out loose sketches when applicable!

Keep a list of ideas for book covers as you accumulate them (almost like a little vault of concepts lol) and reference them in the future!

Take a look at as many book covers as you can and make a list of elements you like and don’t like

This is one of the easiest ways to accumulate ideas/concepts!

Example:

^^^ Concept art for two book covers 

Likes and dislikes in book covers:

Of course this list is not my be all and end all (nor should it be), and obviously, I still use these things (besides clunky composition I hope!) in some designs!

3. Incorporating the elements of design

What’s the deal?

There are 7 elements of design: line, shape, texture, form, space, value, and colour. 

These sometimes vary depending on where you look, but this is what I was taught, so I’m going to be working off that!

Examples:

I’m going to go through them really quickly via an assignment I did for my comm tech class

Keep in mind this assignment is 2 years old and is only meant to give you an idea of what these elements are 

1. Line

Line is probably the most important element of design as every piece of art starts with one. 

There are various types of lines. You can have curved lines, straight lines, vertical lines, horizontal lines and so on.

2. Shape 

You can have more mathematical, geometric shapes, or more abstract, free form shapes. 

3. Texture

Texture is the feel of a particular surface. 

Texture in my opinion is one of the most important elements when it comes to graphic design, especially book covers. 

My favourite thing to see in book covers is texture, whether that be paper textures like construction paper, crumpled paper, wallpaper, lace, wall textures, paint textures, or marker textures

Texture adds depth to designs, and if there’s any element of design you focus on in this post, I’d highly recommend it be this one. 

(i’m biased but still)

4. Form

Form is almost like shape, except instead of flat objects, we’re dealing with 3-dimensional objects. 

I don’t often use it in my covers since I like drawings and flat shapes in my designs, but if you want to include objects on your cover, or any sort of 3D shape, this would be form. 

5. Space

The distance around an object, to put it simply

Space in covers can help emphasize what’s important, and what is less important, or can draw attention to a particular piece of your design. 

Examples of space:

Colour coding: yellow = space, teal = focal point/movement of viewer’s eye

In Twilight, the black space helps emphasize the main image, the hands holding the apple. 

This also occurs in the Red Queen book covers. The empty space around the crown draws attention immediately to the focal point

You can also lack space. In The Duff, the girl’s face is the only thing you can see on the cover. 

6. Value 

Is determined by how much light or dark is incorporated into design. 

Example of value:

A great example of value in book covers is on Alexandra Bracken’s Passenger. As you can see, the green at the top fades down in a gradient as more white is added to the centre. 

7. Colour

Light reflecting off objects

Can make certain elements of your design stand out

Why should you incorporate the elements of design into your designs?

Adds layers of depth to your work

Thus can take your cover-making skills to another level

Can help in producing ideas

4. Composition:

What’s the deal?

In my opinion, can make or break a design

Can mean clutter of things, OR too much or too little space between elements

Title placement  

Composition is sometimes subjective from design to design

What you can do:

Pay close attention to detail and spacing

Look out for natural shapes in your design you can fit elements into

Watch the linked video from Mango Street (one of my favourite photography channels) on composition

While photography and design are two different things, the tips in this video can also be applied to various ideas in design such as headroom and leading lines

Examples:

*Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that these examples are exaggerations for the purpose of showing you good and bad composition. If you make these mistakes, that doesn’t mean your design is bad, and again, I’m no professional. This comes from what I believe could be considered bad composition, but trust your gut. 

Example 1: Stick People

doesn’t effectively use space

no headroom for text

text is covering 200 element (looks very clunky)

text is cut off

No focal point

Can’t read the title

Textual elements are better spread out

Title is now focal point

Slightly imbalanced

200 element is distracting 

Addition of stick figures balances out cover  

Text follows natural shape of photograph

Removed 200 element makes cover look less clunky

Example 2: Sixteen Cents

Half the title is on a dark background

Lacks readability

Last name is cut off by window

Uninteresting composition (everything is on one line)

No movement

Title placement is better

Better readability

‘A novel’ fits under windowsill

Last name is smaller to avoid cutting it off

Still slightly boring

Uses free space of wall wisely

Title is easy to read

Text is shaped around photo elements

Gives the cover some movement

Example 3: Fostered

Title is covering the focal point (the girl)

Title doesn’t seem to be incorporated into the design

By moving title down, we’ve made space for the subject

Title placement makes cover look less clunky

Same composition as prior but image is colour-graded

Embossed title adds texture/depth

I’ve mentioned this a few times in this post: focal point. What is it?

FOCAL POINT:

Is defined as the main attraction of your book cover

This is where you want your readers’ eyes to focus

Focal points can sometimes define themselves in areas where more contrast happens to be

Doesn’t have to be the centre of the page. 

Keep focal point in mind for composition because if you put it in the wrong spot, you could end up drawing your readers’ attention to the wrong area of the cover. 

The point of most interest in a cover is the focal point, so if you want a particular subject of your book cover, such as a person, to stand out make sure you don’t make the other areas of the cover too high contrast or busy.

Framing subjects also helps, so be creative!  

The human eye tends to focus on areas with increased contrast so keep this in mind

Examples:

The Host

The camera has focused on the eye of the model, with the nose bridge and forehead shadowing each corner of the cover

Helps lead eye to focal point (the eye)

The Girls

Blue around the edges encircles the focal point (the girl), leading the viewer’s eye directly to her

Girl is also scarlet in colour, contrasting the background

The Hunger Games

Grey outlines on the cover lead straight to the mockingjay

Mockingjay is bright gold in comparison to the black background

Creates contrast, thus viewer’s eye is lead there

The Female of the Species

‘Straight’ composition

No particular focal point, viewer’s eye instead moves horizontally across the design

What should you do?

Use the natural shapes and outlines in your design/photo to fill your cover

Use your space wisely (see examples above)

Use leading lines to draw attention to your focal point

Manipulate text to fill empty spaces

5. Tools and software 

You do not need Photoshop to make a good book cover

I made my first book covers in GIMP, a free image manipulation program (kinda like Photoshop’s little brother)

This is the stick people cover I made in photoshop, and the same cover made in GIMP. 

Other tools you may want to use are CreateSpace’s cover templates. 

You can find these through CreateSpace OR Bookow (my personal fave)

OPTIONAL (what I use):

Graphics tablet

I use the Huion H610 which I really enjoy! 

I use this to hand letter, draw silhouettes, create concept art, and so on

Paper and my Faber Castell India Ink Artist Pens. 

These are fine tip markers, and are what I used to create the text on I’m Disappointed 

Thin sharpies and pens will also do the job, and you can always clean any mistakes up in photoshop or gimp.

A scanner so I can transfer what I’ve hand drawn onto my computer

If you don’t have a scanner you can take a clear photograph on a camera or phone 

I also use a few custom marker brushes that now come with the 2018 version of Photoshop

The main one I use is Kyle’s AM - Watercolour Paper from the art markers set (you have to load these into Photoshop, but if you have PS 2018, you should have access to ‘em). 

(I’ve lettered everything in this post with that brush)

6. Resources

Here’s a list of amazing resources you might need when making your own book covers!

1. Stock image websites

Check out THIS post for a master list of my favourite stock photo websites!

Stocksnap.io

Unsplash.com

Pixabay.com 

2. Dafont

Is my main source for finding fonts

3. Goodreads

A huge resource I use to find cover inspiration

I’ll often browse the new releases section to look at new covers and so on

Easy way to narrow down the genre of cover you’re looking for, as well as the age category

4. Keyboard shortcuts 

Check out a masterlist for Photoshop HERE

GIMP masterlist HERE

Makes workflow super efficient

My fave I highly recommend in Photoshop is ctrl > shift > alt > e (merge all layers into new layer) 

I’ve made TWO custom shortcuts: ctrl > shift > o is now open as layer, and ctrl > shift > alt > r is now rasterize layer (these save so much time!)

So to conclude this post, I’m going to list out some of my favourite tips when it comes to cover making (sort of a reiteration of this post)

Add texture!

Texture is a super easy way to add dimension to your book cover

Try lettering with a paper and marker when starting out

I find this a lot easier than digital lettering!

Google is your friendddd

If you can’t figure out how to do something in Photoshop or GIMP, the internet is a vast depository of information!

Pay attention to detail

Cover design is alllll about the small details. Making sure you’ve centred something properly can seriously help in making your cover go from amateur to whoaaa who made thatttt

Get a second opinion

Been looking at your screen for 8 hours straight? Ask someone you know what they think of your design! I find this has sparked a lot of secondhand ideas!

If it doesn't work out, doesn't mean it was a fail

If a particular concept just doesn’t work, don’t worry! As you practice you’ll get better, and you can always revisit the concept for another novel!

EDIT: a really great suggestion from @sarahkelsiwrites: print out your design if you need a fresh perspective! You’d be surprised by what you notice on screen VS off!

So that’s it for this post! I hope this was helpful for some of you guys, I know it was looooong overdue. If it helped you out, let me know, and if you have any questions, feel free to send ‘em my way! :))

--Rachel

[argentdandelion]

Why You Should Read: The Anomaly

Introduction & Disclaimers

The Anomaly, by Coffeelemental, is simultaneously the "Saturday Morning Cartoon of Undertale sequels" and the Sistine Chapel of Undertale fan comics in its tone, dedication, polish and detail.

(In this work, Frisk is referred to as “she”. As such, the review will refer to Frisk with corresponding pronouns. The comic also has a major character death, in case one really, really dislikes that. The following review may contain minor spoilers.)

Art

Few other comics compare to its consistent precision, polish, and detail. That said, The Anomaly's sheer amount of content (128 pages, five playable segments, several lore posts and a few animations) and dedication over the years (it started on June 19, 2016) makes the work incredible even among those few.

Its great attention to detail and polish is especially obvious because of all its human characters. Many find humans hard to draw properly: there are so many ways they can look “off”. Yet, even in the comic's relatively crude early pages, humans have perfect proportions and poses. More impressive still is how Coffeelemental draws perfect humanlike anatomy (e.g., humanlike hands) even for characters where she could easily dodge the challenge.

What the Sistine Chapel does not have: a before-and-after (left and right) comparison of turtles in business suits.

In short, The Anomaly is basically the Sistine Chapel of long-form Undertale comics. As Coffelemental points out herself, in the first fourteen pages quality and style varies. But she improves very quickly: there's a jump in quality at Page 9, and it just keeps getting better.

As per its realism/detail, characters look somewhat more biologically plausible and, for lack of a better word, more monstrous or bestial. Undyne has scales in some places, as well as (this may come as a shock) a nose, though in most shots her face is largely flat with slit-like nostrils like Lord Voldemort. (well, some fish do have tiny nostrils.)

Indeed, as impressive as it is, its stylistic approach is so unique it takes some time to get used to. Furthermore, it seems the sheer dedication to precision and detail has its downsides. In Coffeelemental’s first animation attempt, she had to slightly simplify and adjust the antagonists' designs just to make animation possible, and then she could only do it in choppy 15 FPS (frames per second).

While its overall quality is rather consistent, the style/format shifts in tone. Akin to the original Teen Titans' anime-like exaggerations, characters are drawn in a simple style for comic effect a few times.

One particularly stylish element is how Coffeelemental blends in-game mechanics (such as literal buttons) with a somewhat more realistic style and tone. Referencing how battles in Undertale are in black-and-white, the pages are monochrome when Frisk resolves conflicts. Indeed, as it’s revealed later, Frisk can only see in black-and-white ever since falling into the Underground.

Plot & Themes

“Frisk is using her personal control of the timeline to ensure monsters have a peaceful return to the surface world – but the seven who sealed them underground in the first place have some problems with this.” - The Anomaly’s About page

It's clear The Anomaly's plot is carefully planned out, as is suitable for a work of its length. That most of the work takes place after an eight-year time skip, its mentions of other timelines, and its timeline-jumping might seem like risks to a simple, comprehensible plot: it's certainly complicated other works' plots. Nonetheless, in The Anomaly these are kept balanced, leading to a plot that's the perfect blend of simplicity and complexity.

(Pre-game foreshadowing, from this page. If one looks closely, the brown goat has barely visible pink blush stickers...just like Chara. Art by Coffeelemental)

In the comic itself as well as the game, there's foreshadowing aplenty---even for the events of the game itself. One of the playable segments is even an entertaining flashback sequence in itself.

Sometimes consequences are delayed across pages; characters make plans to deal with other characters later. Given the antagonists are immune to reload-related memory loss just like Frisk, they must resort to stealth, trickery and subterfuge when interacting with her.

As befitting a work with several immortal characters, it has extensive historical lore, contextualizing the human-monster conflict and immortal characters' motives. One piece of lore even neatly resolves one big problem in the game’s background: if humans can’t use magic, how did “humanity’s seven greatest magicians” create the Barrier?

The story brings up intriguing questions and mysteries. Why are monsters losing access to their magic? What is the mysterious thing connected to Frisk? Some have been resolved at time of writing, and others have been resolved in a fascinating way that just leads to more intrigue.

While some of The Anomaly's themes (e.g., "With great power [over time] comes great responsibility") are pretty common in Undertale works with a Frisk-based, Post-Pacifist timeline premise, The Anomaly nonetheless deals with those themes in an interesting way. Its biggest theme is "Are you [Frisk] strong enough to protect humanity?"

The theme is manifold. Frisk feels obligated to protect monsters (and humans) from human-monster conflicts, but a secret confidant worries the pressure of her role is mentally running her ragged. Then there's moral strength: as the antagonists fear, despite her goody-two-shoes persona Frisk has used her power for evil, selfish, frivolous or just silly ends a few times. (e.g., flirts and jokes backfiring and leaving others aghast)

Characterization

The characterization is so widespread, so outstanding, that the reviewer figuratively can’t say enough good things about it. (But, literally, will have to do so, or this post will get awfully long)

From the first playable part. Note Undyne's higher LV. Also note she eventually joined the U.S. Coast Guard (which is technically military) here sometime eight years after the Pacifist ending, so whether she gained the LV then or earlier is ambiguous.

Characters from the game itself hew closely to their original, nuanced personalities. (This is especially remarkable for Sans, given how often his character is distorted or misinterpreted in the fandom.) It pays attention to even tiny, easily-missed quirks and variations, such as the fact Sans always takes Frisk out to eat before a serious talk (Genocide Route aside) and Undyne’s military(-esque) background and combative nature. Like in-game, characters have “portraits” when talking in the playable segments, but these ones are small full-color digital paintings with a wide array of expressions.

Many works give Frisk an undefined or pretty bland personality and background. That's easy to do, given Frisk's ever-neutral expression, rare and indirect dialogue, and only faint hints of personal preferences. Yet, in The Anomaly, Coffeelemental made the rare choice of giving Frisk a particular ethnicity and background, vague it is. (Her entire pre-Underground backstory is told within two pages) It contextualizes why Frisk was such a goody two-shoes pacifist from an early age, that one (spoilers) timeline deviation aside.

Speaking of Frisk's friendly and pacifistic ways, while Frisk is indeed as described, it's not her whole personality. Though playful, flirty and, well, “frisky”, she feels responsible for the safety and happiness of a people she brought above-ground, and has kept her role as a “time-space hero” secret. Her duty has made her something of a control freak; after a major character death she rewinds time to prevent the most minor of conflicts. But that absolute control over the timeline may yet corrupt her: she selfishly reloaded just to fix a bad grade on a test.

The Anomaly is impressive not only for its seven antagonists at once working together, but for them all having distinct personalities, approaches, and relationships with each other. Though they broadly agree on particular courses of actions, their motives and level of monster sympathy differ. Regardless of their species, it's remarkable just how humanized they are as villains.

Playable Sections

At a few points in The Anomaly, Coffeelemental chooses to convey the story in a way that is “hopefully more fun and more practical than using a comic format”. Namely, in playable downloadable games.

At time of writing, it has five playable sections. While the reviewer, unfortunately, cannot play the playable sections (the reviewer's computer is rather old), I’ve seen playthroughs on YouTube. The level of characterization, worldbuilding and general atmosphere in this playable segments are excellent. It adds lovely details that simply wouldn’t fit into a comic within a playable narrative.

The author says she’s chosen speed over polish for the sake of regular updates; nonetheless, they are impressive. Four of these sections even have a turn-based battle system, and two are so in-depth they take an hour to fully explore.

Coffeelemental says she tried really hard to emulate Toby Fox’s style and sense of humor...and she succeeded. The quirks and jokes in things like item descriptions would fit right in. Indeed, when looking out the window in the first playable section, one gets the famous phrase “It’s beautiful day outside”, in a non-threatening context, long before Toby Fox did the same thing in Deltarune.

While Coffeelemental didn’t make the music for these segments, she nonetheless curated the music for the playable segments well. Often music from Undertale is used, but for situations where Toby Fox’s music doesn’t suit the situation, she’s contacted composers.

Conclusion

This gem of a multimedia work seems rather under-appreciated on Tumblr itself, or even its dedicated YouTube channel. Truly, it boggles the mind to wonder how a long-running work of such quality could stay obscure.

[drbriangay]

Hey, so a little bit ago someone asked me if i would do a tutorial type thing on how to achieve realistic drawings and although this would probably fair better as a video my voice is shit and i can make sure i get everything down if i type it out.

I think the best way to do this is take you through one of my drawings? My latest Brian drawing i saved a decent amount throughout it so i can kind of comment on each process of the drawing. For the this drawing i drew it on Photoshop CS5 which is important bc i do utilise a lot of the tools there so if you use smth different then im sorry but im sure there are alternatives! I’m going to talk you through this drawing:

Because i dont use natural skin colours in my drawings i start drawings in black and white because i find that easier to control the tones? and then i can colour the drawing afterwards in whatever colour and play about with it instead of sticking with a colour from the get go. 

I start with painting the entire background a light ish grey because 1) its nice to work highlights and shade into a mid tone and 2) having pure white as a background can be a bit uninspiring? even with my sketchbooks i always make backgrounds before i do anything on them.

I then take a large brush, i use a mid-dark toned grey for this, i don’t like going in super dark super fast, and kind of mark out where everything goes super loosely, precision and proportions really don’t matter at this point, it will probably look bad but that’s fine! you’ll refine it as you go on!  the brush i use for this stage is usually just a soft non textured brush, but i don’t think the brush you use at this point really matters. My drawing will kind of look like this at this point:

I then go in with a smaller brush with a darker colour and kind of refine the face a little bit, i really take in the shapes of the face i’m drawing and try and get a good base to then really work on the shading/highlighting. Again, although this is your base to work on the proportions aren’t super important, it may still look bad but whatever is wrong with it you can just draw right over it to correct it! This is why i try and not give up on drawings even if they aren’t going the way i’d like it to because you can always correct it! my drawings never look amazing when i start them but i like to work into them as much as i can and i usually end up with something i’m proud of! anyways lmao, this is what my drawing will look like at this point: 

This is when i start the proper like working into the drawing with highlighting and shading and things. I also change my brush at this point! Honestly any brush will do but i really like the aesthetic of having a super textured brush, I do sometimes change up my brush every so often but the brush ive been using more often than not is this brush:

Also at this point i try and not use pure black or pure white, if you’re trying to go for a realistic look then i feel pure white n black really don’t factor into a face.I also think if you use more mid tone colours then there’s more of a natural gradient? which looks more realistic i feel. Of course if you like the aesthetic of having a high contrast then go for it! this is just how i personally like to do it.

I know a lot of people work by gradually working the whole face, like do loose highlights and dark tones on the whole face and then refining it but i like to do each part of the face one by one and i usually always start with the nose, this isn’t important lmao i just enjoy drawing noses so it’s what i start with. i think the use of highlight is super important to utilise when drawing the nose because its what suggests form,, this is my drawing will look like at this point:

I do end up darkening the shadow on the right side of his nose and the bottom of his nose but i usually get to this point and then move on and then once i do more ill go back and try and bring more dimension to the drawing.

Also! one of the best tools on photoshop that you can utilise and in some of my drawings it’s my saving grace is the liquify tool. Basically if you do the drawing and get to a point it would be hard to paint over then u can use liquify, as i was doing other parts of the face i realised that the nose was supposed to be a little to the left and the eyebrows had to be lower down so you if you open up liquify you can just click and drag the nose to where you want it to be so:

it’s a super helpful tool that really helps you get the facial features exactly where you need it, i used it a couple times throughout this drawing. I don’t think sai has it but you can use the lasso tool and rotate it or whatever and just draw over the little break it makes in the canvas:

so the next thing i do is the eyes and eyebrows. I’m usually not the greatest at getting the exact eye shape but again, liquify is your best friend. An important thing to note is the angle of the eyebrows in relation to the middle of the nose, Brian’s eyebrows are quite straight so i tried to keep them that way. I also started darkening up the drawing, i didn’t quite go full black, the darkest colour i used is like just off black. This is what i have so far:

Also another important thing to remember is the lighting of the image, in the image the right side of his face is more shadowed so the shadow on the left side of his nose wont be as intense as the right side and things like the bags under his eye on the right side would be slightly more prominent. Also because of the brow bone, theres more highlight on top of the brows and usually a shadow underneath because the brows are more elevated and the eyes are sunken in a lil bit. There will be a lil bit of highlight on the inner corner of the eyes though. 

In the next part of the drawing i just add a little bit to the forehead and cheeks :

I think by this time i had adjusted a couple of things like the angle his face was at was a little bit too tiled in my original draw so i just free transformed it and fixed the angle and the face i think was a little bit too wide so i just pulled it in a little bit. I think another thing to remember that places like the cheeks and forehead wont be pure highlight, especially with like men and older faces there will be more subtleties, with Brian he has highlight on the top of his cheekbones but the highlight is kind of broken up with the line that comes down under his eye and the forehead isnt a smooth bump above the eyebrows, especially with the lighting of the image the highlights get broken up a little bit. 

The next drawing is a little fast forward, i forgot to save in between but ill try and talk through everything:

When finishing up I realised the left eye/eyebrow was a little too high so i liquified that baby up to bring it down just a little bit. Another thing i sometimes struggle with is getting the exact shape of the face and angle of the jaw but you can just keep on drawing on top of it until it looks vaguely right. 

For the lips and mouth i think its kind of just a matter of trying to get a sense of the shape, look at the cupids bow and the length between the top lip and the bottom of the nose and how far the lips come out in relation to the nose as well, i think as well the shadow underneath the bottom lip is usually all you need to suggest the shape of the lip, it doesnt look all too natural if theres like a solid like to show the shape of the lip, the top lip though, because of the way the light is sitting on his face is almost completely shadowed, so the highlight on the cupids bow that goes down to the edge of the mouth is what helps give the mouth form. With teeth because they’re in his mouth so they’re not going to be super bright so i didnt add any highlight to them and just used a dark tone to outline the shape of them at the bottom and used a little bit of shading in between them to differentiate between them. 

For the eyes i usually just leave them without the pupils because it’s my brand but it wasnt looking quite right to me so i added a little outline of the pupils, i didnt want to do the full pupil because i like adding a lil smth interesting in the eyes but i like the way they turned out!  

The jaw you can usually bring out with the shadow of the neck. I didnt really feel like drawing the outfit so i kind of just did a couple of lines so show that he was wearing a shirt with a collar.

 Also for brian because he has so much hair i more often than not just use flat colour for his hair and because his hair is so dark it usually works fine but with people like Roger who has lighter hair is doesnt usually work out well? especially with a more realistically drawn face. I was originally going to keep the entire background that colour but it wasnt looking quite how i wanted to. I coloured first though, and tbh my colouring process really doesnt take me that long, the longest part is just working out what colours id like to use and what looks good with the drawing I've made.

So for colouring i use the gradient tool, you have have a gradient thats two colours that will make your drawings look like this

but recently ive started using the gradients with three colours so the highlighted sections will be a different colour to the base colour, i really like the way this comes out, without any other editing itll look smth like this:

I like to play about with the settings a little bit because i do enjoy the way this looks but it’s kind of a bit overpowering and i think sometimes the details of the drawing can get lost when you overdo it a bit? 

If you go through this itll give you many different versions of that gradient and i like to go through it and see which i feel compliments the drawing

heres a couple examples

The one i ended up going for was dissolve but it was a bit too intense so i turned the opacity down to 57%

which gave it a kind of static feel which i was in to, to finish it up i added a tiny bit to show some shoulders and then i wanted to add a tiny bit of a background so i used a flat pinky colour and put that around his hair and then on top of the background i added a little bit more into the hair.

and added so more vibrant pink into it as well just to spice her up a little bit.

[kornyo]

Oh i didnt know you used clip studio!! im just a beginner and i love your art, do you have any tips for coloring on clip studio?

why on earth doesnt tumblr notify me about asks at all lately…. hellsite >:|

i just started csp this year ! all of my art before that was done in photoshop (except for october till december 2018, paint tool sai started to work for me miraculously and i doodled a lot there. lacked a lot of things i need so i dropped it again)

to be honest i feel like im a bad person to ask about coloring because i just… cant shade really. struggle a lot with choosing colors and stuff. what i can recommend, however is:

- i feel like the “oily” brushes work best if you dont want cell shading but a more smooth & rendered finish. play around with the blending stats in the brush settings tho, i feel the default blends too much

- dont blur/blend every shadow you make !!! some areas of the faces will have soft, gradient like shading (cheeks, chin) but some shadows will almost always have hard edges (under the nose, brows)!

- if you draw with lineart, make it a dark color and not black. like dark brown or purple. you can also try coloring the lineart according to the colors beneath (like white tshirt has grey lineart while a red shirt has dark red)

most importantly just experiment !! and thank u for the compliment aaah uwu <3

[bb-8]

@bb-8′s icon tutorial 💙

Okay I’ve had countless asks to do an icon tutorial and I’ve finally sat down and done one! It’s a bit unconventional, so I hope it’s not too hard to follow, but I’ll be going from this:

to this:

Some basic photoshop knowledge is required because I’m horrible at explaining things. Tutorial is under the cut! :)

I start with picking out a screenshot to use (I got this one here). Try to choose a screenshot where you can see the top of the person’s head, both shoulders, and some of their torso. In this pic of Harley, I’m going to edit her bat and hand out, so it’s just going to be her torso. 

Movies/TV shows are often stupidly dark and sometimes icons just don’t work out in certain scenes. So here I just lightened up the image and adjusted the contrast and colour balance to make sure it will look alright once I’ve edited it some more.

Begin by ‘smart selecting’ your person. You basically just draw around them and extend the selected area until she’s highlighted (if you go too far, it’s alt + click to go make select inwards).

Once selected, I go to Select > Refine edge:

I tend to smooth and contrast my picture before I cut it and paste it into my icon file. Here’s what it looks like for this one:

Once I hit ‘okay’, I then cut that layer and paste it to my icon document, which is set at 200px x 200px (don’t worry, the edges are going to look sloppy). You can also go to the ‘output to’ drop down menu and select your desired location. You can also do 100x100px, but I like mine to be a bit larger so people can use them in sidebars:

I then resize the image for the icon. I tend to have my screenshot sit over just half of the icon (I also tend to sharpen the icon here, too. If the sharpen selection is too drastic, go to ‘smart sharpen’ and adjust accordingly):

From there, I play with the levels, colour balance, contrast, brightness, etc. It’s different for each picture, but I try to make it as contrasted as I can without it looking too dark and too bright without it being washed out. I tend to just adjust the levels for POC to avoid white washing, but there are loads of tutorials on how to do that correctly, but make sure you add a vibrance layer. So here’s what my adjusted image looks like:

After I adjust the contrast, I clean up the edges with an eraser tool:

This is where it can be slightly unconventional. After that, I draw on my own hair to make it look more “natural” with less clean lines. Totally optional though.

After I have my hair, I always make a new layer where I try and even up the colours a bit. So here I’m going to the colour dropper tool and highlight the most saturated areas of her hair:

With both colours, I draw over them on a new layer and select that layer to the ‘colour’ option (with normal hair, you won’t be able to pick a colour like this, so if it’s brown hair, for instance, I’d pick a dark but vibrant brown to do this process with):

It then looks like this (there’s not much of a difference here but it evens up the tones and I find that it just makes the image look cleaner and a bit more saturated in a lot of cases without over-saturating the face/clothing):

The next step is to smooth out the skin. One of the problems with so many colour/brightness/sharpening adjustments is that it can be a bit pixelated now that it’s at 200x200px. So I take the smudge tool and set it to a round brush at 2 or 3px and at 4%, and just smooth over the skin (not touching the eyes, jawline, nose or lips). So if you do do this, just be careful not to smudge the face:

After that, I try to even up the skin tone again, sort of like what I did to the hair. I colour drop an area of skin and make a new layer to colour roughly over the face. I change the layer to ‘soft light’ and change the opacity to ~30%:

So the skin tone is a bit more consistent and it gets rid of shadows a bit:

From there, I add a colour/gradient in the background.

I like my clothing to match the background, so I make a new layer, colour drop the most saturated area of the background, and draw over the clothes. I then I set that layer to ‘colour’.

You can choose what you want to colour/not colour, but once you change the layer style, it should look roughly like this:

I also like to have textures. So I use the colour from the gradient to make a new layer (layer 59 in this pic -- you won’t have as many layers, I like to merge a lot of mine together, but this is in my super big icon psd where I have all of my favourite textures and gradients saved). I fill the layer with the fill tool and I set the new layer to ‘colour’ and place it above the texture I want.

And then the final product should look like this! 

I do ~5 textures per colour (it’s super easy to find textures, just google them). I save a lot of the ones I use to my resource blog, @chewsbacca

If I want to change colours, I change the colour of the clothing and the ‘colour’ layer over: (so I change the blue fill layer to pink and make sure that it’s still set to ‘colour)

(so I changed the background colour and then you can see that I coloured over the clothing to match the background and then did some textures.)

It seems like there’s a lot here, but the whole process (say 30 icons in total) probably takes me about 15 minutes. I’m sorry this is like a half-assed tutorial and I’m probably terrible with explaining things, but at least you guys might know my process a bit more!

Also, you can find the Harley icon post here to see more colours!

[soaringlanddormitory]

⏏ Keiko/Yuriko, ✎ Killian/Yoko, ✿ Manami/Ichiro (This is actually true btw) :3

I love all of these??? So much?? Thank you so much!!!! I hope you like it!!

⏏: Our muses decorate a new apartment together - with new paint and all!

It was actually unexpected, but both girls didn’t mind what was going to happen! They were chosen to be temporarily roommates for a while and they had the freedom to paint the the whole room! The two were already close friends since they were part of the NGM, but it was rather surprising that from all possibilities- they were still able to be a pair chosen to live in the same room!

Keiko was currently carrying all the paint brushes and also some other decorating materials which was going to be used for the room. “Yuriko!” She began smiling brightly before placing the stuff she was holding down on the floor. “Our room will look so great once we finish!” The girl with glasses was very enthusiastic about the whole thing, and it would be a lie if Yuriko didn’t feel the same way.

She began tying her hair up into a high ponytail to make sure that her hair won’t get in the way while she’s making the room look better with one of her closest friends. “It will, I’m sure of it~!” She playfully nudged her new roommate. “We’re going to make this so pretty that even Koichi has to admit something in this world is prettier than him!”

Keiko laughed at the tiny joke she made and she watched as Yuriko began carrying the paint buckets to bring it closer to Keiko. The next thing the taller female did was pick up the ladder to bring it closer to them in case they wouldn’t be able to reach some parts by themselves. Once everything was ready, Keiko jumped in happiness. “I’m so ready for this!!”

Yuriko had a tiny smile on her face. She always loved this little ball of sunshine, and if anything happened to her- she’s sure that she’s going have to fight a bitch. “I am too~!” Yuriko had to admit, the excitement the other girl was showing made her feel even more excited. Now, you paint that side and I’ll paint this!”

After some hours of painting- they were finished with the gradient colors of purple, black, blue and pink… It actually looked like space! The only thing missing was the stars on the roof. Yuriko was currently holding the ladder while Keiko was placing the stars. She wanted to do it, and they both agreed with it! “Be careful, Keiko!”

“I’m always careful!” Keiko began tiptoeing as she placed the last few ornaments of stars. “I heard that if we turn off the lights it’ll start growing and-” She turned her head around to look out the window.

Wrong timing, SoreNa. Wrong Timing.

Keiko fell down from the ladder because of her soul coming out of her body once she saw her favorite ship and she was instantly caught by Yuriko, a happy sigh escaping from her lips. “My, My… Just when you said you were always careful.”

✎: Our muses find a magical pencil - everything drawn becomes real!

The two writers decided to write together in the room while sharing ideas with one another! They talked about their ideas so much, that they actually forgot that time existed. Right now, they were just leaning on the wall and writing… Well, at least that’s what Yoko thought. 

Yoko stopped writing for a moment since she saw Killian making different movements with his hands. She decided to move closer to look at what he was doing. She was one of the people who he allowed to do this anytime she wanted- and she felt honored that she didn’t need permission from him. “Oh! I’ve never seen you draw before~!”

Killian stopped drawing for a moment and he scratched the back of his head, a sheepish smile on his face. “Well… I don’t do it a lot, but I sketch time-to-time. It happens when I’m trying of how to word things and a random sketch happens.” He explains to her. He wasn’t the best in drawing, but he did find it fun if he had to think about something. “It’s supposed to be a creature for the fantasy story I’m making for Suzumi to read and-”

Before they continued talking- a light shone from the paper and it was so bright that they both had to close their eyes shut. Once they opened it again, a little creature with dragon like features appeared right in front of them. “Hmm? Wasn’t that the drawing you made?”

Killian grew pale as he changed his focus from the creature that appeared before them to the paper real quick. “… The drawing disappeared… This..” He didn’t know how to explain, considering that he tended to be more realistic. “This is impossible! What is this sorcery?” 

Yoko began petting the creature, humming happily while the creature acted like a cat. “It’s adorable, Killian~! It’s even acting like a cat! You’re a dad now!” She began joking around with him, and even if he knew it were jokes- he began flustering- even covering his face.

“Don’t say it like that…” He carefully placed his pencil down before he went over to the being. “I don’t want to be a dad… Not yet…” He softly mumbled and Yoko began laughing before patting his head. She always thought her new friend was amusing, and she always had fun with him!

“I was kidding!” She went away from the two for a moment before picking up the magical pencil they discovered. “I hope you don’t mind that I’m going to draw next!” She informed him about her next actions and he gave her a thumbs up, showing that he gave his consent. “I’ll draw one of my creatures now!”

Killian nodded. “Sure, sure. Go ahead. I don’t mind.” He carried the being that blew tiny breaths of fire or ice and placed it on his head. The being decided to mess up his hair a bit before sleeping and he couldn’t help but overthink about the whole situation. “Wait… BE CAREFUL WITH WHAT YOU DRAW!”

It was only now when he realized that Yoko wrote Creepypasta stories.

✿: One muse gives the other flowers… but they’re highly allergic and sent to the ER. [Ichiro and Tori belong to @polar-star-dorks!! Suzume, Masashi and Shigeo belong to @polar-stars!!]

Manami didn’t understand the reasons why her older brother disliked the Eizans. Nor did she understand why Suzume hated them too… Then Tori also showed hate towards another.The first Eizan she met was Naoki, and he never really did anything to hurt her. All he did was stare at her for a moment before walking away. It was nothing that bad, he might have been busy! At one point, Masashi and Shigeo approached her too! They even offered their services!

Now, she decided it was the best time to personally approach Ichiro! She never really had the time to talk to him, but she did offer him chocolates. She believed that everyone deserved some cookies or chocolates so they’ll know that they’re special. This week, she didn’t have time to do her usual sweets- so all she could do was pick up some flowers to offer it to the male.

She held the bouquet of flowers in her hands and she began running to catch up to the male. Her face brightened when she was able to be near him. This will probably be one of the only times she’d catch him off guard! “Ichi-chi!” She called out to him, and he knew who it was.

He felt his nose itching, and he had to sneeze a couple of times. Damn. Was there pollen around this area? He didn’t know that flowers would be growing in this location. He finally spun around, and he spotted the small female holding a bouquet of flowers with the happiest expression on her face. “... Kuga Manami-” He mumbles, and before he could continue, he sneezed again.

“Bless you!” She says, thinking that it was only a simple “sneeze”. “You see... I realized that you’re the one who didn’t say anything yet, so I thought that you might not like chocolates! so I got you flowers instead!” She handed it to him. “I’m sorry I didn’t think about your possible likes... I didn’t consider that you might not have a sweet tooth and-”

Her eyes widened as his eyes suddenly became red and he began rubbing it a couple of times, and there were some red spots on his skin. “Flowers are even worse-!” Manami began panicking and she quickly tossed the flowers away and began calling a local hospital. Her eyes began tearing up as she knew she gave him something worse. 

“H-Hello! We have an emergency here!”

Ichiro ended up in the hospital day and he began grumbling the moment he woke up. He cursed under his breath, but he knew that the girl knew nothing to him. Well, he could let out his anger on who he hates instead anyway. He sat up and he spotted the same female who attempted to give him a gift. 

She was currently in tears, but it wasn’t out of fear- it was out of worry. “I’m s-so sorry, Ichi-chi!” She began apologizing, even wiping the tears away from her eyes. “I decided to pay the whole hospital bill because this is all my fault...” She sniffed and Ichiro only stared at her... Why did she even care for him so much? He huffed before leaning backwards. He didn’t know how to react, if something- he only felt confused.

“Yeah. Whatever. It’s fine.” He shrugged. He had an image to keep, and he wouldn’t let anyone ruin it. He raised an eyebrow once he spotted a couple of boxes on his lap. “Is this from you?” He asked the only other person present and she silently nodded her head. He sighed a bit, hoping that it wouldn’t trouble him. “You didn’t have to.”

Once he decided to check what was inside- it were a couple of shades, piercings, rings and a bunch of other gifts that could have fitted the kind of person he is. Thug Aesthetic, if you may. He didn’t know... He didn’t know why someone was trying to be so kind to him. He literally did nothing for her. 

“Take that as... another apology gift... I don’t know if you’d like it but you don’t need to accept if if you don’t want it... I don’t really deserve to be accepted by you because I only cause you trouble...” She looked down at her clutched fists, trying to control her tears. 

Even if he did hesitate a bit, he was still able to say the only three words that she needed. “... Thanks, I guess.”

The girl stopped staring down at her hands to look at him. He was currently looking away from her, and she couldn’t see his face at all... What was the emotion he was showing? She would never know.