#anyhow… 1 hour sketch. back to work now

[kidovna]

creepy bastard (affectionate)

[realm-sweet-realm]

Prison Cell, chapter 1

Well, this one took on a life of its own. I intended to write a simple one-off taking place in an AU where the studio became the sketch dimension before most of the sacrifices were made. Turns out that this is going to take longer than that. While this AU will have an emphasis on horror, especially in the later chapters, I also want to show the resilience of some of these characters.

---

Joey Drew Studios was once an animation studio. Functionally, it still was. But before everyone’s eyes, it had become Hell.

The machine had been hard to ignore, but easy not to look into. No one seemed to know what it did save for a few, but no one was about to quit over it during the Great Depression.

The cult behaviour, in retrospect, had been the first sign. It isn’t everywhere that your boss demands an item from your workplace as a sacrifice to the Gods. But back then, it had seemed nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Pedestals had been set up in the break rooms. Sometimes your coworkers would go there to pray. It was strange. But again, not worth looking into, and not worth quitting over.

Joey had always been eccentric. Joey had always been unreasonable. Joey had always had an angry streak. If any of that was getting worse, it was getting worse at a fairly slow rate.

All of it happened so slowly. Until it happened all at once. The machine malfunctioned. It went into overdrive. Gent workers had rushed to quiet it. They turned off its power supply, and nothing happened. In desperation, they broke the pipes that had once fed it ink, and nothing happened. Finally, they frantically tried to dismantle it as it spewed ink, and... nothing happened. Even the strongest of men could not so much as loosen a bolt from the machine.

Then, something happened. An rapidly-growing area surrounding the machine lost its colour and detail- reduced to lines on a page.

In a last-ditch attempt to fix the machine, Joey and the closest members of his inner circle entered the ink machine room. No one knew what had happened. To outsiders, it had sounded like the ink machine had exploded. No one who had been in the room at the time emerged except for Sammy Lawrence, who came out limping and covered head-to-toe in ink.

From that point on, no one could leave. Doors to the outside were locked, and windows showed only black void. Sammy talked to many people in private in the coming days, and firm lines were drawn between those who were loyal to the cult, and those who weren’t- those who were donning masks and uniform. Those who were loyal left the studio occasionally- for meetings or to pick up supplies. Those who were not loyal had no way of knowing how they did.

Joey Drew still existed. Early on, there were rumours that he was dead and that his loyalists were merely following him in spirit, but before long, most people knew someone who had seen his new form.

Work remained much the same, albeit with a few fewer people, who had either not been in the studio that day, or whose primary duty was now distribution and getting supplies because they were some of the only people allowed outside. Everyone fulfilled their role. Gent workers maintained the machine. The others made cartoons, which, apparently, were still making it out to the outside world somehow. They ate. They slept. They mourned their losses. They formed small groups and tried to keep hope. A few small insurrections began, but but quickly ended in violence and were abandoned. With no access to medical professionals, no one wanted violence.

While no one in the studio had it easy, Susie Campbell held an additional secret. Every few days in the dead of night, a creature would come to her- a creature with a mask and curling, demonic horns made of ink. She’d wake up to the horrible creature sitting on her chest so she couldn’t move, and it would put a syringe in her neck and draw blood. This went on for weeks. Locking the door didn’t stop it. Eventually, it made her want to sleep as little as possible, and she began to wander the halls at night, oftentimes falling asleep in random places.

One night, after falling asleep in a hallway in the music department, she was roused by Norman Polk.

“Hey. Come with me tonight,” he whispered, helping her up. “That thing’s been stealing your blood, hasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Susie whispered back.

“I know someone else in that situation. But don’t worry- it doesn’t bother him anymore, either.”

Norman led Susie into one of the offices. Two cots had been set up, and one already had a person sleeping in it. “You settle in. I’ll go and look for another cot to bring in here. If the demon wants your blood, it’ll have to go through me.”

“Thank you,” Susie said. She wanted to say more, but didn’t know what to say. She was fast asleep before Norman returned.

Before the transformation of the studio, it would have been strange to see the two of them together, but times had changed. The big, strange, sneaky cryptid had gone from someone you avoided to someone you wanted on your side. And yet, on a social level Norman still mostly left the music room to themselves most days- he preferred to eavesdrop or hang out with the people who’d accepted him before all of this.

That changed after he started sharing a room with Susie, though. She started inviting him to talk with her and Wally, or any of her other friends in the music room, and he’d agree to it, mostly because he wanted to spend time with her. Eventually it became well-known what he was doing for his ‘guests.’

It continued like that for a few weeks. The creature found other victims before it found her. Then, one night, it slipped into the room, and it did not like what it saw. Two of its previous victims, including Susie Campbell. Susie was tucked into Norman’s arms. She opened her eyes for a moment, saw him, and went back to sleep. She felt safe and protected, and it made the demon’s blood boil. Blood wasn’t worth being clobbered for- not while he could get it elsewhere. But something had to be done.

The night after, Thomas Connor and two men nearly as strong as he was, each wearing loyalist uniforms and masks, entered the room. They pulled Norman out of bed, handcuffed and gagged him, and began to lead him away. Susie woke up to the feeling of him being pulled off of her.

For a moment, she was stunned. The next, she was yelling for help. The man in the other bed woke up as well. Susie had never gotten to know her “roommate,” but that didn’t matter now. “Come with me,” she said. “We need to wake people up!”

“What? Why?”

“You’ll see. Just trust me!” Susie had thought this day might come for quite some time, and she’d planned for it.

And so, the two followed the loyalists down the hall, banging on the doors and yelling to try and wake people up. Susie cursed herself for not finding out where people had been holing up. Her partner eventually found Emma Lamonte. Finally, one of the doors opened- it was Henry Stein- another person who could fight decently enough. “Henry, you’ve got to help. They’re taking Norman away. Hurry!”

Henry looked over to see it happening, and hesitated.

“Henry, if they get him on that elevator, we’ll never see him again!” Henry jolted into action, and soon he and Emma were in close range of the three loyalists.

It ended about as quickly. Emma managed to mule-kick one of the men in the stomach and knock the wind out of him before another one of the men snuck up behind her and began to choke her. Thomas was still holding Norman Polk as he squirmed in attempt to escape. Henry attempted to punch out the man strangling Emma, and he managed a few blows, but the man she’d kicked recovered and restrained Henry until Emma was unconscious. Once she was unconscious, her attacker rejoined Thomas, and they dragged Norman to the elevator. Before morning, Emma had been taken, too. Henry had run.

---

“I should have gotten in there,” Susie’s roommate said, breaking a long, tearful silence between them.

“You couldn’t have done anything. Those men were twice your size.” It hadn’t been as though they hadn’t spent the duration of the fight banging on doors in hopes of finding allies.

“I know.”

“What’s your name? I haven’t seen you around the music department.”

“Grant Cohen. Finances.”

“Oh. Norman’s talked about you. Well, I’m glad you’re from another department. Tomorrow, I’m going to try and get as many people together as possible- a rescue party, I guess. You could help. Tell everyone in your department to meet in the recording theatre after hours.”

Grant laughed bitterly. “Sure. I’ll gather all the bravest souls in accounting and finance.” There was a pause. “Don’t you get it? We’re helpless. People haven’t been forming big groups because when they do, things like this happen. And anyhow, I’d bet anything that Norman is dead already.”

A part of Susie agreed. But that wasn’t the useful part of her right now. “Look, I’m not going to try and convince you. But personally, I don’t like feeling helpless just because I can’t knock out Thomas Connor.”

---

The following evening, Susie had gathered quite a number of people. Henry’s friends had come, terrified that he was essentially a wanted man and that he had to be hidden from loyalists. Grant had showed up with a few others from accounting that had agreed to come along. And of course, the music department had all noticed Norman’s absence.

Susie began the meeting by telling the story of what had happened to Norman. Surprisingly, what followed was a number of other people coming out about various grievances. A few others had had the same experience as Susie, of having their blood harvested. There were also a few from other departments who had refused to work and had been punished by having one of their bones broken in the night. Wally complained about having to mop up blood.

“We need to handle all of that, too. But first can we talk about Norman?” Susie said, trying to regain control of the meeting.

“If he got onto the elevator, he’s probably dead,” Abby said, as gently as she could. “Or at least, he’s on one of their levels. There’s no way we can go down there and rescue him. But, since you’ve brought us all together, we might as well get organized. Maybe there’s a way for us to defend each other. And figure out who will be running the projector from now on.”

A knock at the door sounded, and everyone in the room went perfectly still.

“Do we open it?” Susie asked.

It seemed entirely ridiculous that the loyalists would try to get in by politely knocking.

“If they’re right outside this door, this meeting is over anyhow, and we can’t stay in here forever,” Abby reasoned.

On the other side of the door was Sammy Lawrence, holding a cardboard box. He was wearing the uniform of the loyalists, but thankfully he was alone. “I am not your enemy. I come bearing gifts,” he said.

Abby carefully opened the box, as though she were disarming a bomb. Inside were a few loyalist uniforms and masks of different sizes. She inspected them carefully and found nothing suspicious about them.

“Why?” Abby asked.

“Joey is working on a way out for all of us. None of us are getting out without his help. That is why I’m a loyalist. But, evermore since the machine cursed us, he’s been… worsening. I still have hope that he will get us out of here, but until then, you need to stand up for yourselves. Consider these a tool- they could let you visit the lower levels. But I beg of you- don’t interfere with loyalist work. Loyalist work is what allows some of us to visit the outside, and us going to the outside is what keeps you fed. Remember that.”

Abby nodded. “Thank you. This is very… courageous of you, Mr. Lawrence. But we’re still going to escort you to the elevator now. We can’t risk that this is just you trying to spy on us.”

Sammy did not resist as Henry and Jack escorted him to the elevator, and he left for the lower floors without issue.

“Well," Abby said, “I guess we have a way of finding out what happened to him after all.”

[stardust-aesthetics]

Stepping Sideways Ch.1 (Umbrella Academy x OC)

The day was grey. Rainy and grey. Which meant most people would be flocking to the indoors. Staying at home, or going to work. Some might try to plan outings such as shopping or even going to a museum. Like an art museum for example.

Baz Matsen was one of those people. The art museum in the city was free, and heated on cold days, which is one of the reasons it became a safe haven for the teen over the last year. Open from 9 in the morning to 9 at night, Baz could spend most of the day there, and not be kicked out as long as they moved around every few hours.

Baz was also lucky enough they enjoyed drawing, so any guard who saw them more than one day in a row, just assumed they were an art student, so in the end it all worked out, except during winter holidays of course, that wasn’t ideal.

Baz never drew the paintings, they drew the people, specifically what would happen to the people. Baz was blessed with the power to see the future, although it was a pretty hit or miss power. Sometimes Baz could draw a person tripping and it would happen in the next two minutes, and sometimes what they saw wouldn’t happen till years into the future. It was kinda annoying, and Baz didn’t think too far into it, they didn’t want to mess with ‘destiny’ anyhow.

This rainy day was like any other rainy day for Baz. They sat on a bench, in front of several large paintings in a large room with a balcony that allowed people to see the art from other angles, a sketchbook balanced on their knees as they started a light sketch of a man running into a wall. They laugh to theirself as they push white blonde hair out of their face. They could see the man clearly in their head, accidentally walking into the white wall to their left, instead of the hallway 4 inches to the left.

A loud voice breaks them out of the funny vision inside of their head. “I’m just saying, if Five gets to start picking places for our family outings, I think I should get to pick as well.” A tall man with uncontrolled curly hair and leather pants complains to a dark skinned woman who seemed rather annoyed.

“Klaus you don’t get to pick family outings because last time your idea of a fun outing was watching you shop for 4 hours, and then insulting the rest of our fashion sense.” The woman says, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

Behind her a few more figures filtered into the room, including a (very)large man, a small boy, another woman, and a grouchy looking male who scanned the room as if he was afraid of being attacked. His eyes scanned over baz, if only momentarily, before turning to the eclectic looking group, giving a small nod as they spread out through the room to look at the paintings.

Baz took this as a sign it was time for them to switch rooms, as the young boy had taken to looking at the painting right in front of Baz. He had dark hair, and wore what may have been a private school uniform, Baz had seen weirder, but something had stirred an image in the back of their mind. They start flipping through their sketchbook as a vision fills their eyes.

The dark haired boy stands in front of a large painting, dead center. There's a yell and then the sound of gunfire and he falls to the ground, blood splattering the painting in front of him. He looks up as there is more yelling, and more gunfire. He disappears after a few seconds in a flash of blue.

Baz blinks a few times, looking at their sketchbook, the image of the back of the boy’s head was in front of them, dated to about two weeks ago, that vision didn’t show the outcome. Ba scans the room, and up on the balcony are three men, all holding bags of various sizes. Baz throat tightens, they never interfered with a vision, then again they’d never been been this close to a murder scene.

“Uhh excuse me? Can you move a few inches to the left? I can’t see the painting.” Baz speaks up, deciding that today they were gonna tangle with destiny and fate. The boy is drawn out of his thoughts as he looks back at Baz. 

“Yeah sorry.” He steps sideways, away from the painting so it was now looking at it at an angle. Baz lets out a small breath, and starts flipping through their sketchbook, maybe they could make this work. 

They were running three people following them, yelling in a chaotic fashion, their voices all merged as Baz started to twist and turn through alleys. Left. Right. Duck. Stop. Continue. Left. Right. Left. Left. Climb. Jump. Left.

Baz blinks. That was going to be important. They reach into their pocket and write as much as they can in sharpie on the inside of their arm, with multiple other notes. They pull down the sleeve of their black hoodie, and stick their sketchbook and pencils in the backpack situated at their feet, they apparently had to be ready to run. Maybe.

The boy was looking at Baz strangely. His eyes were cold, much colder for someone his age, but Baz had no time to react as the loud ring of gunfire filled the room. Bullets spray the painting right where the boy had been standing. He looks over to the painting and then to Baz. “ You’re coming with me.” He grabs Baz’s arm before they can protest, and drags them over to where the other strange folks were beating the shit out of the three gunmen.

The boy drops Baz on the floor, as he disappears in a flash of blue light, appearing in front of one of the gunmen before tripping him, and disappearing again, only to end up behind the gunman with a small pocket knife, which Baz realizes was their pocketknife from their pocket.

The largest of the three gunmen is making a call, his words not quite making sense “Girl”, “Knew we were coming” “Umbrella”, were the words that stood out besides one right at the end. “Backup.”

Baz blinked and the three gunmen were down. Almost everyone had fled. Everyone except the group that had taken down the gunmen, and they were all looking down at Baz. The dark haired boy was holding out their pocket knife, and Baz takes it out of his hands, sticking it in their back pocket. “Well thank you for taking care of that very dangerous situation, I believe I should go before the police get here…” Baz says quickly, standing up. A knife embeds itself in the wall beside them, which Baz realizes was thrown by the Grumpy man who had checked the room earlier.

“You knew they were coming, didn’t you?” The boy asks, his tone harsh, yet curious.

“Nope, just getting ready to switch rooms you know? Just dumb, dumb luck.” Baz replies, taking the knife out of the wall, and dropping in on the floor.

“ Bullets hit exactly where I was standing, I would have gotten seriously hurt, but you asked me to step to the side.” He retorts back.

“I’m an artist, I couldn’t see the damn art.” Baz’s voice grows, they weren’t gonna win in a physical fight here, they needed to get out before the aforementioned backup appeared.

The large man looks as if he’s about to say something, but he’s quickly shushed by the dark skinned woman. “Look, we don’t want to hurt you, we’re just curious..” she says, stepping a bit closer. “And I heard a rumour that you’re going to tell us the truth.”

A/N: A New Fanfic, and I am so excited to share this! I love Umbrella Academy so much, and I’ve been developing Baz and their power set/story for weeks!

[theimaginesyouneveraskedfor]

Not Him (8)

So things are moving a bit quicker than I intended but whatever, I’m the one who can’t read my own handwriting. Anyhow, chapter 8 is here and soon! you will get to choose which way to go. Please enjoy and leave some feedback as well :)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

You awoke next to Bucky. His dark hair fanned out on the pillow, his metal arm bent across his bare stomach. You smiled to yourself as you admired his peaceful profile and shimmied closer. Your movement stirred him and he opened his eyes, looking over at you with a groggy smile. He spread his arm out to pull you to him and you rested your head on his shoulder, the vibranium surprisingly warm.

“It wasn’t a dream,” He breathed, kissing your forehead softly.

“Thank god,” You agreed, stretching your arm across him. You sighed, completely content. How many times had you imagined waking up like this? “So, before we got distracted, you never did say much about how your mission went.”

“Well, nothing serious really. At least, not from the enemy,” His metal fingers tickled your side as he traced circles along your skin, “It was...tense though.”

“Tense?” You echoed, “How so?”

“Well, I’m used to it just being me and Steve. Sometimes Sam too but...Thor’s a nice guy but his brother is, um, difficult.” He explained and you stiffened against him, “I don’t really know how to explain it. I mean, he wasn’t really mean or anything but he wasn’t exactly friendly.”

“That’s just the way he is,” You said darkly. You were suddenly less than content thinking about the trickster and his entitled attitude. You couldn’t help but feel guilty for how he treated Bucky. It was likely that it was due to your previous run-in with the Asgardian. “Well, you’re back now. No need to think too much about it.”

“Yeah…” Bucky’s word floated in the air as you tried to wipe the trickster from your mind. Did he have to ruin everything? You closed your eyes and recalled that night, in this very bed, when he had pretended to be the same man you laid beside at that moment. You sat up sharply and your eyes snapped open as the memory sent a wave of rage through you. “Y/N?” Bucky pushed himself up, touching your shoulder gently.

“I’m fine, sorry, I just…” You looked around, glancing the bathroom door, “I gotta go.” You smiled at him shyly before pulling away, feigning the panic which came from a full bladder as you fled to bathroom. You closed the door behind you and swore under your breath. Don’t let him ruin it, you told yourself, not now.

You sat in the lab, bent over some of Tony’s new sketches. He and Bruce had left to test one of their more explosive gadgets in an appropriate place and you had set to poring over Stark’s endless trove of genius. Your elbow was planted beside the folder and your lips moved subtly as you read the words, referring to the lines and circles drawn carefully by their author. You shook your head, knowing much of bringing this to life would be left up to you.

Your lower back began to ache and you sat up, stretching your arms above your head with a groan. You hated these stools Tony had in the lab but standing was worse as it strained your neck. You flipped the page, playing with the corner as you tried to keep your mind at the task at hand. You could easily retreat to your room and read the sketches but you expected that your co-workers would soon return and expect an in-depth discussion.

You bent the corner as a knock came at the lab door and your head popped up in surprise. Maybe Bucky had come to bug you again. It had become a habit since the beginning of your relationship, you were only thankful that he had started to do it when Tony wasn’t around to glower at you. You swiveled the stool, nearly toppling it as you saw who your visitor was. You stared dumbly at the door as Loki stood on the other side of the glass.

He attempted a smile and slowly opened the door, pushing inside carefully. “Um, may I?” He asked and you watched him silently. You slipped off the stool and crossed your arms. “I apologize if I’m disturbing you but, I, uh...Y/N,” His eyes searched your stony features. “Please, I need to talk to you.”

“About what?” You hissed.

“I...I want to apologize to you. Genuinely. What I did, I shouldn’t have done it.” He clasped his hands together tightly, keeping his distance as if he feared he would scare you away. “I don’t know what possessed me but it’s besides the point. What I did was wrong. Worse, it hurt you deeply and I am so very sorry for my actions and for the pain it must have caused you.”

“Am I supposed to believe you?” You snarled, shaking your head. “Really, you must think me dumber than that night I fell for your stupid trick.”

“Please, Y/N, I’m not lying to you. I mean every word,” He sounded convincingly desperate as he dared to step a little closer. “You don’t understand. I’ve been beating myself up over this ever since. I can’t stand the thought that I hurt you.”

“Loki, I don’t even know you. You don’t know me. And if you expect me to take you seriously, you’re out of your mind.” You scoffed, “You’ve been beating yourself up? Really? You don’t know the nights I’ve spent hating myself because of you. Questioning every little thing because I frankly can’t tell if it’s real or not. You’re a fucking joke.”

“I…” He sighed, his forehead wrinkled as he grasped for words, “I want to know you, Y/N. I just--I didn’t know how to...I didn’t know how to approach you and so I made a mistake. A big one. And I’m not expecting you to embrace me with open arms but I at least hoped you could accept my apology. Forgive me even for I am truly sorry.”

“You’re not sorry. You’re despicable,” You were so angry with him, your head hurt. You had held it in for so long that having him here before you, delivering some hollow apology had unleashed it. You shoved his chest as hard as you could, the act taking even you by surprise as he stared back agape. “You can’t even know what you’ve done to me. Ever.”

“You--You’re as stubborn as a mule,” He caught your arms as you tried to push him again, quickly releasing you as he backed away. “I’ve come here in all sincerity and all you can do is linger on my mistake. You can’t see past yourself for what I’m trying to do.” His own anger burst through the uncharacteristic earnestness which had masked him before. “I should have known you were like every other Midgardian. Too simple for reason.”

“Get out!” You shouted. “I mean--”

The door interrupted your next warning and you looked over to find Bucky entering the lab. He glanced between you and Loki who had turned to him as well. You rubbed your forehead, trying to brush away your scowl. “What’s going on?” Bucky asked.

“Nothing. Loki’s just leaving,” You said, resuming your stool and swiveling back to your work. “I have work to do.”

You heard the door open again and lithe footsteps faded as it closed. Bucky approached tentatively and leaned on the desk, looking down at you as you tried to feign concentration. He touched your shoulder and you realized you were shaking. “Y/N, what’s going on?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” You said quietly, pushing away the folder. “I just--Are you hungry? I’m hungry?”

“What--Uh,” He looked back at the door before slowly nodding. “Okay, let’s go get some lunch.” He stepped back so that you could climb out of your stool, collecting the folder and taking his hand.

“Let’s go somewhere outside the Tower,” You said as you led him to the door, “Somewhere I can think.”

Later that night, you sat in bed with folder in hand. You had failed to finish it by the time Tony returned and he hadn’t cared much anyhow. He and Bruce were too distracted by the device they had been testing all day. You wrote small notes in pencil along the margins in case they were useless anyhow, the warmth beside you tempting you away from your work.

“Don’t you ever stop?” Bucky teased as his hand found your thigh underneath the duvet.

“In an hour,” You promised him for the third time that night.

“You keep saying that like time is going to stand still,” He said, his fingers lightly grabbing the corner of the folder. “Come on, you can read the rest tomorrow when you’re actually on the clock.”

You looked over at him and sighed, relenting as you closed the folder reluctantly and placed it on the nightstand. You wriggled down so that your head was on the pillow and you nestled closer to Bucky as he wrapped his arm around you. “Much better,” He purred. “So, are you going to tell me what was going on earlier?”

“What do you mean?” You asked.

“With you and Loki. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so upset,” He mused, “What did he do? Plant a whoopee cushion on your stool?”

“I told you, I don’t want to talk about it,” You bristled, turning so that your back was to him. You didn’t want him to see how even the mention of Loki riled you. He pressed closer, his body flush against yours as he hugged you, his chin nuzzling against your shoulder.

“You’re going to have to tell me eventually, Y/N,” He said, “Or I’ll just ask him myself.”

“No.” You grabbed his arm tightly, “No, please don’t bother him.”

“Y/N,” He sat up, “Jesus, what in the hell did he do that’s got you so worked up?”

“I…” You pushed yourself up to meet Bucky’s gaze, “If I tell you, you have to promise not to get mad.”

“Why would I--What did he do?” His voice turned dangerous and you regretted your last question. “Tell me.”

“Swear to me you won’t do anything,” You begged.

“Fine, I won’t do anything but you have to tell me what’s going on.” He took your hand gently. “Please.”

You exhaled and pursed your lips, searching the room as you mustered your strength. “Back, um, you know before me and you--well, Loki, he, uh…” You blinked, trying to find the right words, “He pretended to be you and tricked me and I fell for it...He was apologizing today but I guess I’m still pretty mad about it.”

Bucky released your hand so quickly you barely had time to react as he climbed out of bed. His vibranium fist was clenched at his side as he started for the door in nothing but his sweatpants. You struggled to escape the tangle of the duvet and ran in front of the door just as he reached it. You blocked him with your body, your hands up as you tried to get him to back up. “You said you wouldn’t do anything.” You bartered, “Bucky, please, you don’t have to--”

“He humiliated you,” He grabbed the handle, his arm under yours, “What exactly did he do when he pretended to be me?”

You looked away embarrassed and he turned the handle, pulling open the door so that you were forced out of the way. He marched out of the room before you could stop him and you stared at his back in fear as he continued down the hallway. You hurried after him when sense returned to you, struggling to keep up and dreading what exactly he had in store for Loki.

[juleswolverton-hyde]

Your brand part 2

Genre: Tattoo Artist AU, smut, romance

Pairing: Tattoo artist!Taehyung x Reader

Warning: No warnings apply

Summary: ''Let me ink your ink your skin like you've inked your brand on my heart.''

For Ana, my partner in crime and source of inspiration.

What should have been a simple outing to get a tattoo at the most well-known tattoo shop in town, Ink Borough, results in being engraved by the biggest name in the world of ink and boss of the parlour, Kim Taehyung. However, getting a tattoo can entail a whole lot more than one might think.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Masterlist

Thoughts are briefly distracted from the painful prospect through the refreshing breeze and straying drops of fountain water that are refreshingly spraying the bare skin of my arms, one of which shall soon have a memory engraved into it by an artist with, suspected, hidden motives.

Although, it is clear he wants to have a drink together, albeit it on the job. Normally, one would not even consider doing such a thing, but something about Taehyung makes me do the opposite of what is seen as common sense. The two cups filled with bright red strawberry smoothies next to me obviously the evidence of that.

There are still ten minutes to go before the hour has passed, but if I simply sit here and do nothing more doubtful thoughts may slip in, causing me to contradict my own words in the end. I refuse to let that happen, partially because I do not want to grant the artist the knowledge of being right after all.

I stand up from the white marble bench, pick up the cardboard holder with the beverages, and head back to Ink Borough through the streets filled with tourists and locals who enjoy the warm weather. 

However, whereas they let themselves be warmed by the sun, I am doing quite a pretty good job doing so myself by unintentionally feeding a probably unnecessary fear.

Taehyung has not budged an inch since I left, sitting barefoot and cross-legged on the leather sofa in the exact spot, lost in sketching. Next to him lays a heap of papers torn from his purple notebook in the meanwhile, the finished options for the tattoo. His latest work joins the rest when I put the smoothies on the glass coffee table in front of the couch.

'You're early,' he remarks with a hint of humour. 'Don't tell me you're now actually looking forward to the needle.'

'Ha ha, very funny,' I retort sarcastically. 'I brought something to drink.'

'Strawberry smoothies.' His deep voice turns thoughtful when he glances at the refreshments. 'My family has a strawberry farm down south.'

'Really?' When you take a look at him, take in the predictions on his skin, the least you would expect is for him to be a farmer's boy.

'Yeah, can't say that I have tasted one in any sort of variety for a long time though.' A hint of a past trouble glazes over his eyes. 'Huh, funny.'

'Is there a reason for that?'

'Wouldn't you like to know, detective.' And we are back to the snark. 'Anyhow,' he gestures to the various drawings of phoenixes, 'see if you find any of them to your liking.'

Drink in hand, I place the pile on my lap. Page after page is filled with a sophisticated design of the mystical creature ascending from either a pile of ashes or the residue dancing around them. Some do not have the dust of its former body included, merely the impression it flies upwards.

After going through the stack, I find the perfect design. With a smile, I turn to him, once more almost bumping my head against his. The grin instantly transforms into a snarl. 'Do you have to be so close? It's uncomfortable.'

He feigns offence. 'I am only observing your reaction, Y/N. Nothing unseemly.'

'Sure.' Now it is my turn to be sarcastic.

'Funny and knows how to use sarcasm. Y/N, I may just start to like you.'

'Nothing unseemly,' I remind him.

'Would that angry face change if I did?' He leans back, lip caught between his teeth, expression smug.

An effort to offer a reply that fails, an averted gaze focused on the chosen symbol, a brief hush in which the heat is very tangible though it is uncertain whether it is due to summer or wild thoughts.

'Although, I do quite enjoy your current expression.' He takes a sip of the smoothie. 'You should drink as well before you pass out on the chair as I am doing the outline. That is if the cotton dabbed with alcohol already won't do the trick.'

'You find it really amusing, don't you, teasing me so much because this is my first time.' Gaze turned fierce and courage regathered, I snap my head up to look Taehyung in the eye.

'Calm down, Y/N. I'm just doing it because I like you and want you to feel more at ease about this big commitment.' He holds his big hands up as if I am holding a gun, ready to shoot him. Which, in some way, I am, completely fed up with his sass. Yet, hearing him say he likes me in that manner makes me think he does not simply say it to every customer, be it newbies or more experienced persons.

'Don't say that, you say that to everyone.'

'Y/N, I don't-'

A careful smile. 'Taehyung,' his eyes widen when he hears me say his name so kind-heartedly. 'Or better said: "person who handles the decorating tools",' I correct myself, the humour back in my voice, 'can we get started before I seriously run away?'

A square smile, a playful glint in dark eyes. 'I can bind you to the chair if you want.'

'Didn't know you're into bondage.' The remark has passed my lips before I even realize what I said. The rise in temperature is now certainly due to inappropriate imaginations.

Heartfelt deep laughter nuances the meaning one may find in the comment. 'I'm not, though I can't say I ever tried it,' he adds casually. This man is bad news when you try to preserve your sanity, but it is already too late in my case, the realization has dawned too late. 'However, there is one question I need to ask before we begin.'

'Which is?'

'Colour or classic black and white?'

'Colour. Life isn't black and white, so why would the piece of it I carry with me be?'

'You sound like a friend of mine, he's also a bit of a philosopher. But it'll take longer, just so you know.'

'I would almost believe you want me out of the place as soon as possible.' I give him a challenging glance, awaiting his response as I take a sip of the strawberry beverage.

'And lose my favourite target?' He shakes his head, locks of his hair sway with the movement and tempt me to run my hand through them. Fortunately, I am able to will them to keep holding on to the plastic cup between my fingers. 'Shall we get started?'

'Yeah, good idea,' I agree lest the conversation takes a turn for the worst. However, a voice deep inside says it would not mind if it did.

The alcohol soaked cotton feels chilly upon my skin as Taehyung cleans it, the gloved slender fingers of his left hand lightly supporting my right underarm. Afterwards, he removes any hairs, both visible and invisible, with swift movements of a disposable razor. Maybe it is part of the standard procedure, maybe it is not, but he lets his fingertips languidly glide over the prepared skin, almost in what can be called an appreciative manner. If that is indeed the case, it is not minded at all and in fact let it cost me all my might to prevent the goosebumps from rising, thus betraying what he does to me. It becomes even more difficult to do so when he places the stencil on my forearm and wets it to transfer the design in its entirety. The pressure of his digits reminds me of his grip on my wrist and the sensations that caused.

'You're awfully quiet,' he comments as he peels the soaked wet paper away. His eyes meet mine, wondering what has suddenly silenced me.

'Just watching you work is fascinating.' To add a flair of faked nonchalance, I shrug.

'And I haven't even begun in earnest,' he chuckles.

I bite my lip, initially placing the reply in a context which absolutely does not apply at the moment, and cast my gaze downwards at the outline of the phoenix. 'Sorry if it makes you feel awkward.'

'It's fine, Y/N. If anything, I-' A pause followed by a strangely confident answer. 'I like your eyes on me.'

Abruptly we lock gazes. 'What?' I ask.

'What?' he repeats the enquiry.

'Anyhow,' a scrape of the throat, 'do you like the placement?' He nods at the outline. 'Take a look in the mirror, see the overall picture.'

I get up and walk to the tall mirror opposite the chair matching the fake leather sofa to admire the soon permanent piece of art. In the reflection I can see Taehyung preparing the equipment, filling cups with ink and one with clear water. For a second his gaze strays from the tattoo machine to my backside and takes in my figure, every curve revealed by the lack of coverage summer clothes cause. The instant he notices I am on to him, he shifts his focus back to the original task. He takes a sip of the smoothie, hoping it will help, but nevertheless seems to have a bit of trouble.

'You like it?' Unconsciously, Taehyung runs a hand through his hair, his stare slightly arrogant due to the pride he has in his work. Yet, the ring in his deep voice can also easily be placed in another context. A context that resonates a pleasant stir within me.

'Love it,' I reply, corners of my mouth curled up into a small smile to hide what he does to me.

'You didn't pick the most painless of spots, so this may hurt throughout the entire time,' he informs when I sit down again.

I pick up the smoothie cup I placed beside the seat and take the last sip of courage, after which I return the empty version of it to its spot on the brown linoleum floor. 'I guess it's time to be brave then.'

In spite of the ointment to smoothen the skin, it is as he said. The needle penetrating and marking me with ink feels as if the fires of Hell are burning in my veins, searing the pure skin away to leave black lines behind.

It is agony at its finest, but also forms an unexpected source of pleasure. Somehow, in a wicked sense, it is as effective as a drug to have Taehyung engrave me with his brand. The careful yet tight hold his fingers have on my arm, gradually climbing up, and his concentrated dark eyes on me feed the frenzy. Especially each time he glances upwards from the tattoo to check how I am doing, the corners of his mouth curled up into the sliver of a satisfied grin when he sees how desperately I am trying to stay strong.

'Just tell me when you need a break. Don't want to make you cry,' he comments shortly when we have passed the halfway mark, briefly interrupting the process.

'As if you could.' Sarcasm has slipped in to hide the stinging yet bearable hurt, but he must be aware of my true feelings since he likely has experience with newbies that play it cool. Or try to do so, anyway.

'I wouldn't. Even if I did, I'd try my best to comfort you.' A rose-coloured flush tints his cheeks. Rapidly his stare shifts from me to the machine next to him.

Absolutely baffled I look at the snarky guy turned marshmallow. 'Did you just- are you flirting with me?'

'Guess you'd know if I do, right? You're a grown woman. Surely you recognize it when a guy is falling for you.' Feigned arrogance betrays his true thoughts.

'Are you?' I ask to test the water.

'Who knows? Maybe I do, maybe I don't.'

'You said you like me.'

'Let's just crack on, okay?' The return of the whirring and sensation of the needle interrupt the conversation and he is concentrated on the tangible part of his world of ink.

The pleased grin soon changes into something indescribable as we progress into the colouring stage, when the tears begin to form in the corners of my eyes and soft moans caused by conflicting emotions begin to spill from my lips every now and then, despite the endeavours to hold them in. It is desire and pain combined, a toxic potion I can drink any day. At least inhale its scent, as I do now. No longer able to mask it.

He changes as well the more the phoenix appears on my skin. Charisma fades, vague sonorously mumbled words meant to not be heard mingle with my utterances whenever they escape, a lush lip is caught between bright white teeth more often, awkward movements on the stool to hide a growing desire that hopefully will remain unnoticed but does not as it grabs my attention more than once, making the want for him greater. The tight grip relaxes, fingers undeniably wanting to stray but instead worshipping the piece of me they currently have within reach.

Moreover, Taehyung smells it too, without a doubt, but nevertheless tries to finish what we started. Focus weakens, dark glossy eyes trailing to the source of the new scent of a twisted nature until he remembers what he is doing and has priority.

After going on like this for another hour and a half, neither of us saying a word, the silence filled with images of his gaze regarding me in other ways than only this one and him occasionally uttering curses or barely audible groans of the word "baby" falls from his lips, the tattoo is finally completed. The gorgeous phoenix is bigger than intended and covers my forearm as it rises in a storm of scarlet red tinted with hints of gold and amber, ascending into the pastel sky, black ash falling from its wings and tail.

A deep sigh that contains a hidden impatience. 'Go have a look up close.' He nods to the white wall opposite us.

I walk to the mirror on the other side of the space to regard the tattoo, this new piece of me, and the overall renewed tougher image it creates. The only signs of vulnerability are the tears which are still present.

Fingers that are not my own rest on the underside of my arm, a big hand on my hip, a broad chest forms a wall to lean against, a hard heat source touches my behind, a husky deep voice speaks.

'What do you think?' Taehyung's gaze locks with mine in our reflection and although the question is meant to estimate my opinion on this symbol behind which hides a story, the tone he uses is out of place and his eyes look at me in anticipation.

'It's beautiful.' Gently I let my digits caress the reddened sensitive skin, secretly enjoying the last bit of remaining pain.

He bends forward to whisper in my ear, his warm breath making it seem as if the room temperature rises a few degrees. 'Just like you.'

'Taehyung-' His hands trail slowly up and slip underneath the fabric of my top, digits tracing a path to the edge of the black bralet that is concealed underneath it. A grunt falls from his lips when he rolls his hips and I meet the action by leaning into him.

'Can we go to the back office? The bandaging supplies are there.' An absolute ridiculous argument since I spy the needed tools for the treatment on the counter behind the chair, but chose to say nothing of it. Instead, I simply nod and follow him.

The tiger caught its prey, the phoenix all too willing to let it lead her to a new death.

[clexagiraffesandbrittana319]

Dancer Preview

About six months ago I teased a Prompt I was REALLY excited about. WELL I would like to share the FIRST chapter of that with you! It will be posted to Ao3 soon-ish. Until then... this is what I’m calling Dancer (for now.) Hope you enjoy.

Clarke Griffin sat in her Painting between Realism and Abstract Class, trying her best to keep her eyes opened. It was ten in the morning and she, Raven and Harper had been out till nearly three AM. It was the last week of school before spring break so parties were already happening. Nia, her professor whom was one of those just call me by my first name types, was going over their final projects.

“Any questions?” She asked.

Harper raised her hand.

“Harper?”

“So any form of movement?” Harper asked.

“Yes, but just one and only one model” Nia nodded.

“But multiple paintings?” Harper clarified.

“At least three, no more than five” Nia answered.

“Got it… dibs on Raven,” She leaned over and whispered to Clarke.

“What? No fair!”  Clarke huffed, she had been banking on going with Raven to her MMA class and using her as her model.

“I already asked her anyways, you can ask Octavia” Harper said.

“She’s my best friend!” Clarke wined.

“You like O” Harper said “she does jiu jitsu as well as MMA, it will be cool.”

“Why don’t you do O?” Harper asked.

“Because” was all Harper would say.

“Fine” Clarke sighed.

“Well, then I am done here. You can either stay and sketch or go” Nia said, “Have a great vacation I will see you in two weeks.”

“Two weeks!” Harper said, “I’m so excited.”

“Me too” Clarke said. “Though I still have one more class today… and two tomorrow.”

“I don’t think you do today, Jaha isn’t here anymore.” Harper said as they walked out of the room.

“No?” Clarke asked.

“Nope, big sign on the door… he left after his intro to drawing class, the advance classes are cancelled.”

“Thank god I need a nap, can I go back to Ludlow with you?”

“I’m going to go to the library” Harper said.

“Can I go back there and nap?” Clarke asked. “I don’t want to go all the way back uptown.”

“Yeah no problem, I will be back in a few hours.”

“Sweet, wake me when you get there?” Clarke smiled sweetly.

“Kay, see you.” Harper said.

Ludlow was one of the on campus housing buildings and Harper had a single. Clarke often hung out there when she had time in between classes or when Raven was gone for the night.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

Raven: Are we going to Grounder tonight?

Grounder was a bar that was near her and Raven’s apartment, they often hung out there.

Raven: 2 for 1 cause it’s ladies night!

Clarke: Sounds good to me Im currently getting ready to nap at Harpers… by the way… why did you tell her you would be her subject for our painting final?!?! IM YOUR best friend Rae!

Raven: She asked me, I didn’t know it was something you had to do too. I can tell her no…

Clarke: No it’s fine. I will just see if Octavia will do it…

Raven: I’m sure she will…

Clarke: I think she will too. But… im just more comfortable with you. Yeah she’s one of my good friends now but I was her friend threw you first… I don’t want it to be weird.

Raven: You’re not proposing, just asking if you can paint her.

Raven: … Ohhhhh I see it now, that does sound a little creepy.

Raven: Can I paint you like one of my French girls Octavia? Hahahaha.

Clarke: Going to sleep now. Bye ass.

Raven: When you coming home?

Clarke: I will be home when you get home.

Raven: I will be home at 2:15 just so you know.

Clarke: Check. goodnight… I love you.

Raven: Yeah yeah…

Raven: I love you too Whore 

Clarke walked into Grounder that night, she had gotten there a little after Raven and Harper.

“Hey” Clarke said walking to the booth where her friends were.

“Lots of people here tonight” Raven said.

“Yeah” Harper said. “Newbies it looks like.”

“Spring break I think” Clarke said, “Bringing a lot of people in…”

“Hey people” Octavia said walking over with her arm in a sling.

“What did you do?” Raven asked her.

“Oh Lincoln threw me against a wall…” the tall dark haired girl said as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Ya know, you really shouldn’t justify relationship abuse” Raven shook her head with a laugh.

“Shut up” Octavia said. “We were in the gym sparring and he flipped me and I twisted and landed against the wall, it’s my Collarbone.”

“Broken?” Clarke asked.

“Yep” Octavia nodded.

“Jesus and you’re here?” Harper laughed.

“It doesn’t hurt that bad” Octavia shook her head brushing it off.

“How long are you out of the ring?” Raven asked.

“Like a month or so, probably. Maybe more…” Octavia shrugged, “Fucking pisses me off so much.”

“Well maybe you can’t paint her like one of your French girls” Raven said to Clarke.

Harper laughed so hard she almost spit her drink out.

“What?” Octavia asked.

“It’s for a final project; we have to paint movement in some form. Harper stole Raven so I was going to ask you.” Clarke explained.

“I’m sorry” Octavia said. “I’m sure Lincoln or Indra would be down, oh or Lexa do you know Lex?”

Clarke shook her head.

“Yeah she’s my best friend, ballerina and shit too, that could be cool to paint, right?” Octavia said.

“Yeah cool and not at all weird to ask a complete stranger to be your model” Clarke laughed.

“Lexa is gorgeous” Raven said, “You should totally paint her.”

“You know her?” Clarke asked.

“Yeah she takes jiu jitsu with us sometimes” Raven sipped her drink.

“A ballerina takes jiu jitsu?” Harper asked.

“Yeah, it’s good for her coordination and shit” Octavia said. “She’s coming tomorrow you should come, I will introduce you.”

“Okay, sounds good” Clarke said.

Lexa just finished her last ballet class of the day, “Great class guys” Dianna said as Lexa walked over to her stuff and grabbed her water bottle.

“What are you doing tonight?” Becca asked taking a drink of her water as well.

“Nothing, going home showering and going to bed.”

“I hear it's ladies night at Grounder, wanna go?”

“No, I have class at--”

“Nine AM, I know I am in all the same classes you know” Becca smiled. “You could stand to have a little fun Lexa.”

“I do have fun” Lexa said. “Tomorrow I go to jiu jitsu.”

Becca just shook her head. Lexa had been a principal dancer at ABT for four years now and took it very seriously.

“You know, as long as I have been here I don’t think I have ever seen you let loose, not even a little” Becca said. “You don’t even take the contemporary class.”

“I don’t see the need for it” Lexa shrugged.

“It’s fun and another form of dance, just because it isn’t required or as disciplined as ballet” Becca said. “Let that hair down, Alexandria.”

Lexa just smiled, “I will see you in class tomorrow.”

She grabbed her dance bag and headed out the door. She couldn’t help it, it’s not that she didn’t want to make friends it was just… harder for her. She had always attributed it to the way she was raised, or wasn’t for the first part of her life. She grew up in a group home in San Francisco California until she was fourteen, that’s when her older sister Anya turned eighteen and was able to take guardianship of her. Anya and ballet were all she ever had; the friends part was harder for her, though she had a few close friends now that she lived in New York. Her best friend was Octavia Blake, whom she met through a jiu jitsu class she happened upon three years ago. Another instructor there named Indra, who was a few years older than she was, was also her friend, and now Octavia’s friend Raven, whom she liked pretty well so her circle was expanding. Since Costia though she just didn’t do much… going out.

“Hello” She said walking into her and Anya’s loft.

“Hi” Anya said, “How was dance?”

“Good, I took seven classes today.”

“Good lord Lexa, Why?” Anya laughed.

“I gotta keep in shape” Lexa shrugged. “We don’t have any performances we are working on right now, so we just take class all day... Anyhow, how was your day?”

“Good, I had court for an eight year old little girl who is getting placed permanently this week.” Anya told her.

“Wonderful” Lexa said opening the fridge.

“I made your dinner it’s in the oven keeping warm” Anya told her.

Lexa pulled the plate out of the oven, and removed the foil to see a piece of salmon, green beans and roasted sweet potatoes.

“Thank you,” Lexa said sitting down on the bar stool.

“Your welcome” Anya said.

Lexa’s phone beeped from her dance bag, “Do you want me to grab that for you?” Anya asked.

“If you don’t mind” Lexa nodded taking a bite of food.

Anya handed her the phone a moment later and she checked the message, it was from Octavia.

Octavia: Hey, my friend Clarke is in art school and she has to do her final project on Art and Movement or whatever… She was going to ask me but I broke my collarbone and am out for a month or so. I told her she should ask you since you do ballet and shit can I give her your number?

Lexa: Ballet and shit… Nice.

Lexa: What does she have to do, just draw me?

Octavia: Yeah, I think paint you dancing…

“That’s weird” Lexa said aloud.

“What is?” Anya asked.

“It was Octavia. Apparently a friend of hers has to do a final for Art School on movement and since O broke her collarbone she suggested she paint me.”

“That sounds pretty cool actually, to have someone paint you dancing,” Anya said.

“You don’t think it is… weird, I don’t know her” Lexa shrugged.

“I think you need to meet new people, Lex.”

Lexa thought about it for a moment then texted Octavia back.

Lexa: Sure you can give her my number, yeah.

Clarke crawled into bed around eleven thirty that night, she had decided not to stay out too late since the night before they had closed down the bar and she was exhausted. She put her phone on her nightstand and plugged it in, when she remembered Octavia had given her the number of that girl… Lexa. She grabbed her phone and found the number and sent her a text.

Clarke: Hi, this is Clarke Griffin. Octavia gave me your number.

She felt like she should have said more but didn’t know what to say, this way at least the girl had her info as well. She put her phone down and rolled over to close her eyes when her phone beeped.

Lexa: Hi Clarke, I am Lexa. It’s nice to… meet you … I guess… kinda.

Clarke: It’s nice to kinda meet you too. :) I hope I didn’t wake you…

Lexa: Nope, I was just stretching before bed.

Stretching, this girl was dedicated Clarke thought.

Clarke: Always on ballerina mode?

Lexa: I guess you could say that.

Clarke: How long have you been dancing?

She didn’t know why she kept the conversation going, but it felt… natural.

Lexa: Since I was eight, I have been with ABT for four years now.

Clarke: Wow… Octavia said you were a ballerina but I didn’t realize you were like a real ballerina and shit… ABT that’s a major company.

Lexa: Yes, yes it is. Ballet is kind of my job :)

Clarke: Well Im sure you’re amazing then, if you don’t have time for this I completely understand…

Lexa: I think I will, what all will it entail?

Clarke: I need to paint you dancing. So I would need to watch you dance… come to classes if possible… maybe even do some one on one things so I can sketch a bunch of stuff out pre-paint.

Lexa: That sounds doable.

Clarke: Great… do you want to meet for coffee tomorrow sometime to talk?

Lexa: I could do coffee, when are you free. I have a window between two and four PM, and then am available after seven.

Clarke: I have class till 1:30. so I could do 2… But I could also do later tomorrow night… Whatever you prefer.

Lexa: I’m done with jiu jitsu at seven.

Clarke: I can meet you there after and we can head to coffee or even dinner at that point? Raven is going to be there tomorrow… I think… so I’ll know where I’m going.

Lexa: You know Raven?

Clarke: Yes, She’s my best friend… since we were nine. You know Rae?

She knew she did, why did she ask that?

Lexa: Just threw Octavia and jiu jitsu, yes.

Clarke: Ohhhhh that makes sense.

Lexa: Okay, so I will see you tomorrow then.

Clarke: Sounds good.

Lexa: Okay well I should get to bed, I have ballet at nine tomorrow morning.

Clarke: Yeah… I have class at eight. See you tomorrow Lexa.

Lexa: Goodnight Clarke.

Lexa woke the next morning around six and went into the kitchen, Anya was up drinking a cup of coffee already, “Morning.”

“Morning” Lexa smiled.

“Ballet early?” Anya asked.

“Nine is class, but I am going to get there early and dance,” Lexa told her.

“Okay” Anya said.

“I won’t be home for dinner tonight” Lexa said pouring water into the tea kettle.

Anya just looked at her to continue.

“After jiu jitsu tonight I’m going to go to dinner with Clarke” Lexa said her name as if they had been friends always.

“Clarke?” Anya asked.

“Octavia’s friend, the art student.”

“You’re going to dinner?” Anya asked, “I thought she was going to paint you dancing…”

“She is” Lexa nodded, “But she asked if I wanted to go to coffee or dinner to talk about things.”

“When did you talk to her?”

“Last night, we texted before bed” Lexa told her.

“You texted her?” Anya asked with a look.

“Yes” Lexa nodded putting a slice of bread in the toaster. “What’s with you why are you acting all weird?”

“I’m not… I’m just well... glad.” Anya said.

“That I texted her, or that I am going to dinner with her?” Lexa asked.

“Both” Anya smiled, noting that Lexa was looking in the fridge. “I ate the half of avocado that was in there.”

Lexa shut the refrigerator and glared at her.

“Relax there is a new one” Anya pointed to the hanging fruit basket.

“Thank you” Lexa said walking over to the basket and rising up on her tiptoes to get it.

“Of course you had to relevé to get it” Anya laughed.

“I almost piqued to it, but ya know” Lexa said with a smirk.

“Too much for six am?”

“Maybe slightly” she shrugged.

“I’m surprised you aren’t in your leotard and tights already” Anya sipped her coffee.

“Too early” Lexa said mashing up the avocado and putting it on her toast. “I don’t want to get them all avocado-ey”

“I don’t think that’s a word dear sister” Anya laughed.

“Oh well” Lexa shrugged, “Do you know if my black leo is clean?”

“That narrows your question down to about three hundred leotards, Alexandria” Anya rolled her eyes.

“The new strappy one... I put it in the laundry room yesterday and you said ‘I will wash that for you’.”

“Then yes, it’s in the clean laundry basket at the foot of your bed” Anya said.

“You are the best!” Lexa said kissing her sisters cheek before she Chaîné turned to get a glass from the cupboard.

“I’m aware of that fact” Anya said. “I gotta shower and then get to the office; I will see you tonight then.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what time but not late though I am sure.”

“Have a good time Lexa, be a normal twenty four year old for once instead of a prima ballerina.”

Lexa just scoffed as Anya went up the stairs.

“WHY?” Raven yelled Clarke’s alarm went off.

“Because unlike you, I have classes today” Clarke said sitting up wiping the sleep from her eyes.

“Turn it off and lay back down and snuggle me back to sleep!” Raven wined.

Clarke wasn’t sure when Raven ended up in her bed, but she wasn’t surprised waking up beside her. Raven often ended up in her bed.

“Rae, I have to go to class!” Clarke said firmly, as she snuggled back in next to her.

“What are we doing tonight?” Raven asked yawning.

“I’m going to dinner with Lexa,” Clarke said.

“You are?” Raven asked.

“Yes, I texted her last night and we talked a little. We decided to go to dinner tonight after she’s done with jiu jitsu and talk more.”

“You like her!” Raven said.

“I don’t know her Raven, so I can hardly like her” Clarke laughed.

“Well you will, she is gorgeous and nice, she’s quiet though… very serious.”

“That doesn’t sound like my type at all” Clarke shook her head.

“You just wait and see” Raven smiled with her eyes closed.

Clarke kissed her forehead, “Okay crazy, we’ll see. But I gotta get up and get ready now.”

“Booo” Raven said.

“If you wanted a snuggle buddy you should’ve brought O back, you know I have class” Clarke said.

“She went to Lincoln’s” Raven mumbled.

“Well then we need to get you a snuggle buddy” Clarke said.

“I have you” Raven said.

“Well I have to go, if you’re still in bed in three hours then I will snuggle you more.”

“I will be” Raven informed her.

Clarke laughed, “Of course you will be.”

“Come get in bed with me when you get home?” Raven asked.

“Yes, love… Will do, Goodbye I love you.”

“Love you, butt head” Raven mumbled from underneath her blankets.

“Balancé, balance, pique…through, double pirouette, land then triple. You’re going to add that onto the combination we just did, have it?” Hannah asked the class.

Lexa loved barre and floor, it was her favorite class.

“Good” Hannah said, “group A on the floor first.” The music started and Hannah counted, “And five, six, seven, eight.”

Lexa absolutely loved everything about ballet, from the discipline down to the smallest movement, she felt free and control all at the same time when she danced.

“Becca, turn out!” Hannah hollered as they danced. “Shoulders down Bree.” “Very nice Lexa!”

The combination came to an end and Lexa walked off the floor as the other group walked onto it. She grabbed her water bottle off the ground by the bar taking a sip. Becca was leaned with her back against the ballet bar, and looked over to Lexa. “Want to go to TonDC tonight?”

“Can’t” Lexa whispered, not taking her eyes off the other girls. She wasn’t much for talking while in class and Becca knew that, but she didn’t care.  

“Why? Come on Lexa, you never do anything fun…”

“I told you I have jiu jitsu tonight” She said quietly. “Plus after I’m going out to dinner with… a friend.”

Sure Clarke wasn’t really a friend yet, but she more than likely would be, Lexa thought.

“Okay, well we need to make plans for this weekend” Becca said.

“I’ll see what I can do” Lexa nodded and then glanced to the wall to check the clock for the time. That’s when she saw her, standing there at the viewing window. Her stomach dropped, Costia. She knew she would have to see her after the breakup, whenever Costia came back to the city, but it always took her by surprise.

“Costia” Hannah smiled when she turned around and saw her, “Come in here.”

Great.

“How are you?” Hannah asked the girl.

“I’m well” Costia smiled.

“Great, are you here for the spring preview week?”

“Yes” She nodded. “Then back to Europe.”

Costia was selected as one of the principal dancers to go to Europe for four years, to preform and study there. It was a new program they were offering at ABT, and one of the main reasons their relationship had ended… Well That and the fact that Costia decided it would be fun to sleep with Maddie, another Lead at ABT, before they left.

“Come take class?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t have shoes or anything, but I’d love to watch…” Costia said eyeing Lexa whom was trying her best to avoid any sort of eye contact.

“That would be great, stay, sit.” Hannah said.

“Hey” Clarke said as she slid back into bed with Raven, who just as she promised, was in bed still when she got home.

“Hi” Raven rolled over and brushed the dark hair out of her face, so she could see Clarke.

“Today sucked” Clarke sighed.

“Oh no, why?”

“I will give you three guesses, and you more than likely won’t need the last two…”

“Why is he such a douchebag? What happened?” Raven sighed.

“He asked if he could come over here tonight…” Clarke rolled her eyes.

“The fuck… Why?!” Raven asked.

“Because he’s Finn… I mean really there is no other explanation necessary. I told him I wouldn’t be home, and then he said… well Rae will be right?”

“Um, yeah… no.” Raven scoffed. “Why did either of us sleep with him, ever?”

“I don’t know, and the fact that he got away with sleeping with the both of us for three weeks really still pisses me off” Clarke nearly growled.

“Right, he’s so proud of himself for it too, like he slept with best friends and we didn’t put it together for nearly a month!” Raven said.

Clarke snuggled into her best friends side and sighed. “So if he comes around here tonight while I’m gone, don’t let him in.”

“Eeww never,” Raven said “and I won’t be here.”

“Where are you going?”

To TonDC, Harper Octavia and I are going… You should meet us after you go to dinner with Lexa.”

“Maybe I will, I can see if she wants to come as well…”

Raven laughed, “Lexa won’t come to Ton!”

“Why?” Clarke asked.

“Because she’s Lexa, she doesn’t do things like that. She’s all ballet, seriously… jiu jitsu is her fun.”

“Well, that sounds like a challenge” Clarke said with an eyebrow wiggle.

“Clarke Abigail Griffin” Raven said. “I don’t think you can crack this one…”

“We’ll see” Clarke said.

Lexa had just gotten done with her class at two and booked it out of the studio while Hannah was talking to Costia, because the last thing she wanted to do was to have to stop and make small talk with her ex.

She got to her car and checked her phone, pleasantly surprised to see she had a few texts from Clarke.

Clarke: Hi! looking forward to meeting you tonight. Raven and O both tell me great things… Where do you want to go for dinner?

And another

Clarke: I’m going to just come to class with Rae and hang out there, so I will see you at 5:30.

She smiled, unsure of why this stranger was causing her to smile, but shrugged it off and texted her back.

Lexa: I’m looking forward to it as well, Clarke. I’m game for pretty much anything for dinner. What do you feel like?

--------------

“She texted me back” Clarke said. Her and Raven we’re still curled up in bed, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix.

“Why are you so excited?” Raven asked. “You don’t even know this girl, or what she looks like?”

“Why does it have to be about looks, can’t I just be excited to make a new friend?”

“Why do you need new friends? I’m all you’ll ever need, Clarke” Raven said.

Clarke laughed, then checked her text and replied.

Clarke: What’s your favorite kind of food?

“Why is it always Cordy who is getting chased by the monsters? She’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Raven said.

“It’s Cordelia, what do you expect? And I think that Zander has had it pretty bad too, he always falls for these women who turn out to be insects or something supernatural” Clarke said. “Then you have the whole Anya thing…”

Raven laughed, “You’re right.”

Lexa: Mexican, but not from here. West coast Mexican food.

“She’s from the west coast?” Clarke looked to raven excited.

“Yeah… San Fran I think.” Raven said.

Clarke: Oh god, I know just what you mean… worst part of leaving southern Cali was giving up the Mexican food…

Lexa: You’re from the west coast too? that’s crazy.

Clarke: Yes! I don’t miss it too much, just the beach and mexican food…  

Lexa: Agree. What’s your favorite thing to eat over here?

Clarke: Either… Pizza or… Chinese.

Lexa: Lets do pizza?

Clarke: Sounds great. You wanna go to Tipsy Tomato?

Lexa: never been there, but sounds great.

Clarke: We have to then... it’s one of my favorites.

Lexa: That works for me. I will see you in a little bit then. Are you taking class?

Clarke: UM No!!!! Just watching.

Lexa: Why not? Scared? ;)

Clarke: I have ZERO coordination… believe me.

“Seriously, Cordelia… don’t go in there!!!!!” Raven yelled at the Tv.

Clarke laughed, “You’ve seen this episode at least ten times, you know she does!”

Lexa: Okay, I just got done with Ballet and have time to kill before class.

Clarke: Are you there already?

Lexa: No, I’m going to try and sneak back into the studio and dance some more. But there is someone I really don’t want to run into.

Clarke: Who?

Lexa: My ex-girlfriend.

“Is Lexa a lesbian or bisexual?” She looked to Raven.

Raven shrugged, “I’m pretty sure she’s a lesbian, does it matter?”

“Not one bit, just curious” Clarke shook her head.

“SERIOUSLY CORDY!!!! NO!!” Raven shook her head.  

Clarke: Eeww, exes are the worst.

Lexa: Agreed.

Clarke: Rae and I are watching Buffy in bed, being completely lazy. So props to you if you go dance.

Lexa: I don’t know if I will to be honest.

Lexa: I’ve never seen Buffy.

Clarke: WHAT? We MUST fix that! And I’m sorry… I could tell you wanted to dance…  How long were you and this girl together?

Lexa: two years, and it’s okay. I have already danced for six hours today.

Lexa: And okay, I’m up for watching it.

Clarke: SIX HOURS, good lord Lexa… And two years is a good chunk of time. When did you break up?

Lexa: a year ago, I’ve totally moved on. I just don’t want to see her.

Clarke: That’s understandable…... I just saw my ex today. He’s an ass.

Lexa: I’m sorry.

Clarke: It’s okay. But he really is the worst… its a long story, I will tell you in person sometime if you ever want to know… lets stop talking about our exs for now though.

Lexa: Gladly, what would you like to talk about Clarke?

Clarke and Lexa ended up texting for over an hour. Lexa never went back into the studio partly because she was afraid of running into Costia, also because she was really enjoying texting with Clarke. She was so easy to talk to, though she didn’t know why, she didn’t question it.

Clarke: Are you here?

Lexa: Almost, are you there already?

Clarke: Yeah we just got here… Octavia and Rae are being mean and said they weren’t going to point you out to me... and I had to guess who you were.

Lexa: I’ll come say hi when I get there, I promise.

Clarke: :) I have really enjoyed texting you today.

Clarke: I’m looking forward to hanging out w/you tonite

Lexa: Same. I’m pulling in.

Clarke: Okay.

Clarke had no idea why she was so nervous, she and Lexa had texted for over an hour about tons of things, she already felt like she knew this girl.

“She’s here” She said to Raven. “She just pulled up.”

“Are you texting her?” Octavia asked.

“They have been texting alllll afternoon” Raven told Octavia.

“I seriously think you two would be amazing together” Octavia said. “Lexa needs someone like you, Clarke.”

Clarke blushed slightly, and rolled her eyes. “Guys we’re just meeting… slow down.”

Octavia looked to the door and Clarke looked to see one of the most gorgeous women she had ever seen walking in the door. She was tall and Clarke thought she looked like a Greek goddess, her chestnut curls were pulled up into a ponytail, and she was wearing a pair of charcoal grey yoga pants that sat low at her hip bones, and stopped before her ankles. On top she wore a black tank top with a sports bra on underneath it that didn’t make it all the way down to the top of her pants, so she could see a perfect amount of skin. Clarke couldn’t take her eyes off her perfect shoulders and neck. She stood tall and it was noticeable she was a ballerina from the way she held herself even as she walked.

“Hi” Lexa said walking right up to her, pulling her out of her mini-trance. “Clarke?”

“Hey” Clarke nodded. “Lexa?”

Lexa smiled slightly and Clarke couldn’t not stare into her perfectly green eyes, but shook herself out of it, and hugged the slightly taller girl standing in front of her.

“Nice to meet you in person” She said.

“You also” Lexa said letting her hands wrap around the blonde. Normally she would find this extremely awkward as she wasn’t a touchy feely person, but for some reason with the gorgeous blonde in her arms, it felt natural. “Hi” She said to Octavia once she had let go of Clarke.

“Hey” Octavia said giving her the regular side hug she normally did.

“I didn’t think you’d be here” Lexa gestured to her arm.

“I can’t do much I’m going to hang with Clarke, and watch.”

“Watch Lincoln” Raven clarified.

“Hi Raven” Lexa said to the smaller brunette.

“Hey Lexa” Raven smirked at her, as if to say I know what you’ve been doing all day.

“How was dance?” Octavia asked Lexa.

“Great, well… for the most part” Lexa looked to Clarke.

“Did you ever see her again?” Clarke asked.

“No” Lexa said, “Thank god.”

“Right? I get that,” Clarke smiled.

“Wait what?” Octavia asked.  

“Costia, I’ll fill you in later” Lexa said.

“You’d better!” Octavia smiled.

“I gotta go put my bag down and get my shoes off, I’ll see you after class.” Lexa smiled to the blonde.

“I’ll go with” Raven said and then both girls headed onto the floor.

“What was that?” Octavia asked.

“What?” Clarke asked.

“She just... full on gave you eyes. I haven’t seen Lexa give anyone eyes… ever. And I had seen her when she was with Costia.”

Clarke shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“Mmmhmmm” Octavia smirked, “She likes you! What did you guys talk about today?”

“A lot of stuff… her childhood, her sister Anya, Ballet and Costia.”

“Lexa? You were talking to Lexa right?” Octavia asked sounding surprised.

“Yes Octavia… why?” Clarke asked.

“I didn’t even hear about her childhood until we had been friends for like a year… she’s just very, reserved.”

“She was quite open about it today” Clarke shrugged. “Who’s teaching today, Linc?” She asked changing the subject.

“Indra” Octavia shook her head.

“She scares me” Clarke smiled.

“Careful then, she loves Lexa, and kinda… looks out for her.”

“Oh great” Clarke said.

“You DO like her!” Octavia smiled.

“Shut up, Octavia!” Clarke rolled her eyes.

Thoughts? This is just a preview, this story WILL be posted on AO3 within the next month or so. (I have to get some of my other projects finished before I post this and I would like to have it Completed or very close before I post. Though I do have a lot written!) 

Much love to you all, and as ALWAYS thank you for ALL your support!

[from-innocent-to-corrupted-blog]

{Chapter 1} Wrong place. Wrong time.

Here's chapter one. Hope you like it.

Prologue

Chapter two

Foxwing (C) PinkPanda109

Paint, Bill!Paint, Bemmie, Corruption, Sketch, Pyra, and Remnanttale (C) @wolfafire

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Foxwing woke up in a strange place. It was dark and cold, so cold. She stood and looked around all around her was this black goop stuff. "Isn't it beautiful here?" A distorted voice said from behind her. Foxwing turned around quickly to a red glowing eye in the darkness. "H-Hello t-there strange person! I'm F-" The distorted voice cut her off, "I know who you are Foxwing of Remnanttale... Now..... May I ask you something?" Foxwing stared at the floating red eye. "Sure." She said. "Do... You know what... HATE is?" The voice asked. Foxwings expression changed almost immediately from happy to worried. "HATE? .... Bemmie told me to stay away from it." Foxwing said worriedly. "Well, it's not all bad. You can use it for many things. Like becoming stronger, taking over the Multiverse." The voice snickered. When the red eyes appeared again Foxwing was already flying away. "Wait!" The voice yelled. "I have to tell Bemmie!" Foxwing huffed, this was the fastest she'd ever flown. Suddenly, she felt something on her leg. She looked back to see a chain. Then, there was a chain on her arm. These chains were making it hard to fly. It's like this enemy knew all of Foxwing weaknesses and strengths. "Come on! I'm almost there!" Foxwing was reaching out. The stranger tugged the chains back and Foxwing fell, losing balance, back into the darkness. "You're my puppet now..." The Voice giggled. It's red eyes beaming with joy in the darkness.

Back in Remnanttale, Corruption forced Bemmie to scold Pyrawing for destroying the pillows on the couch where she was napping. The TV was already destroyed from Bemmie burning it, thanks to Foxwings Hamilton obsession. Pyra had been a restless sleeper recently. Normally she can sleep soundly for ten hours straight. Foxwing stepped out of her room but something was off. Her eyes were different. They were blood red. Paint walked past her without saying a word. Foxwings eyes narrowed as she stared at her. "Hey, Foxwing! Me and Pyra are going to explore, wanna come?" Bemmie waved at her catching her attention. Foxwing looked at her and smiled "Okay!" She said. Bemmie looked at her oddly but shrugged it off. "Come on!" Pyra said breaking the silence and flew out the door. Bemmie and Foxwing followed. Though Bemmie walked cautiously, she knew something was up. She's known Foxwing all her lives, kinda, and she never acted like this. She also noticed her eyes both the look in them and the color. She felt like she recognized the look in her eye but she doesn't know from where. The hollow glowed from the Echoing Shards, they always looked beautiful at this time of day, or night. Bemmie flicked her ears at the distant whispers of the flowers. They were distant and broken voices long destroyed. Pyra was looking at one of the Echoing shards. Foxwing was gone. Bemmie scanned the area she wasn't anywhere in site. 'Oh no...' Bemmie thought. Something was wrong.

Foxwing had gone to get Paint. She had followed her to the outskirts. No one came out here. Why? The bigger ones resided here. The dragons that fed off of outside magic the biggest were out here it was more open a better place for them to fly. Foxwing was silent for most of the trip. "Foxwing? You okay?" Paint broke the silence, "You've been very quiet lately." Foxwing scoffed. Why does she even care? Hasn't Fox-I've done something to her to make her hate me. Anything? "Why do you care?" She asked. "Because you're my friend. What happened to you? You always cheer everyone around you up." Paint seemed confused. "Oh yes, I did. Even after what happened all those years ago. When Bemmie was made. When you were taken over." Foxwing said a demonic expression on her face. Paint took a step back. Her eyes were wide. The real Foxwing would never have brought that up. She would have never held that against her. She then realized. That. Wasn't. Foxwing. "Who are you? What did you do?!" Paint growled. "I'm Foxwing, is it hard to tell?" Foxwing asked pretending to be confused. "You're not Foxwing, at least the Foxwing I know." Paint seemed to be ready with her giant pen in hand. "Heh. You really think you can beat me. Ha! You underestimate how powerful Foxwing is...Bill!Paint." Foxwing snickered referring to herself in third-person realizing her cover was blown. Paint lowered her ears wincing, she'd never thought that she would hear that name again. Something deep within her, a feeling she'd locked away in the very back of her mind, wanted her to change into that MONSTER, but she refused. "S-S-Stop." She growled. "Stop what? Referring to you as Bill!Paint? I think not." Foxwing said again smiling. Everything was falling into place. Paint winced again feeling pain in her chest IT was trying to control her. Changing her soul into IT'S twisted one. "J-J-Just s-s-stop." Paint was digging her small useless claws into her pen making dents in the plastic. "You seemed to have lost your cool. Whats wrong with the name Bill!Paint? Does it bring back painful memories?" Foxwing smiled again infamously her eye glowed in delight. "I said stop!" Paint yelled the pain in her chest getting worse. Foxwings soul turned blue and Paint threw her onto the ground. 95/100 HP. "Hehehehehe. It worked......" Foxwing snickered wiping the blood off her face. Paint fell to the floor. She was clutching her chest, hyperventilating. It hurt. Everything hurt. Her body, her soul, Her heart...... How could she explain this to Bemmie? To Pyra. To Corruption. Even she couldn't accept it. She didn't have to. In mere moments she'll be gone. IT has returned and IT'S not going to be taken down so easily this time. Paint looked up at the cloudless and sunless sky. Her soul was fully engulfed, code started to surround her moving up her body as if she was turning to dust. "Goodbye Bemmie......, Pyra....., Corruption......, Sketch....... You were the best family I could ever have. Thank you....... I love you........" Paint whispered before the code took her over. She changed. Into the monster that could, and almost did, destroy the multiverse. IT'S eye opened revealing one of a cat. Her pupil was a slit, colored golden. A smile spread across her face. "We'll meet again. Don't know where. Don't know when! Oh I know we'll meet again some sunny day!" IT sang smiling. "Hahahaha! I'm back!~"

Bemmie felt something. She wasn't watching where she was going. Pyra grabbed her hood before she walked straight off the edge, small rocks fell off the island. "Woah! Thanks, almost fell to rock bottom!" She snickered at her own pun. "Ma, you okay?" Pyra asked with a worried expression. Bemmie hated it when Pyra called her and Foxwing Mom. It made her feel uncomfortable. "Y-Yea I'm fine. Just somethings bothering me." She gave Pyra reassuring smile. A shadow walked quietly behind her. Barely making any noise it was getting ready to launch an unsuspecting fire attack, but Bemmie had been listening to the stranger for quite a while. She turned and clawed the attacker's stomach. The stranger was able to dodge it but Bemmies attack position brought them into the open and the light. Bill!Paint hovered in front of them "Hiiiiiiiii~" She smiled unsettlingly. Foxwing walked up beside Bill!Paint. Her red eye gleaming with the wrong kind of joy. Bemmie turned to wide-eyed Pyra. Her face was serious and.... For once in her life, scared. She could only say one thing right now. "Run."

------------------------------------

Oh meh goush it's done. Chapter ones finally done! Woo! Anyhow Foxwings gone, Kinda... Paint has become what she dreads the most. Bemmies scared? What the heck is going on?! You'll have to wait and see. I actually almost cried writing the Paint part. Paint was one of the oldest characters in Remnanttale. Writing that hit me right in the feels. Honestly I think I deserve to be called The Feels Queen 3.0. Anyone else agree? No one? Oh that's okay. Anyway hope ya'll enjoyed

[mi5014dylancoulson]

A Souvenir of Hell

A Souvenir of Hell, this is the first story I read out of the ones we were given, it is also the story I have decided to work with. I really enjoyed this story more than the other stories that I have read. I have a big interest in supernatural stuff, so I was immediately drawn to it from the moment of reading the title. I got a sort of mysterious feel from this story, you are not properly introduced to the mystical beings/characters from hell entering the shop. This makes it harder to understand who these characters are and what their backgrounds were like. This gives me a more open, free mind to think of the possibilities for these unique special characters. The two main characters are Anna and her grandfather, there is also minimal information on her grandfather, which I think will make things challenging for me.

Hole in the Wall

This was another one of the stories I read, this was also very interesting, especially the unexpected sad ending. This story was also mysterious however in the end the angle was a lair and everything became clear, their also seemed to be a lot of information on the angle character, Udi seemed a little harder to come up with his backstory, I also did not feel as connected to this story therefore I did not choose this one.

Baymax Task

Here is my Baymax model after following along to Gary’s tutorial. I found the task quite easy to follow along with ran into minor problems was easily able to find a solution.

Head Retopology Task

Here I have screen shots from following Gary’s retopology tutorial. I found this task quite easy to follow I ran into no problems, that being said I have tried to do this in the past and found it difficult. The tutorials that were given made this very easy and clear to complete task without an issue. I found this task enjoyable.

Characters Backgrounds

When being given the task to find cues the author has given for the characters backstories, I found this really difficult after reading the story. There wasn't much information on any of the characters past, it was all mainly focused on the present time. However I was able to pick up some things on the characters, and have some sort of idea of what there background may be.

Anna:

Backstory

Anna is from Uzbekistan and has worked in her grandfather's grocery store for as long as she could remember. She will be very educated in running a shop as she grew up working in one.

She is not close to any of her family except for her grandfather as far as I know, signs she also doesn't like her father who is currently in hell, and is introduced as a nasty piece of work. This could be part of the reason Anna ended up working in her grandfather's shop.

Her grandfather’s store was built on the edge of hell. 

The customers that come to the shop don't understand Anna, this is because they are from hell and don't speak Uzbek, Anna would try to make friends with them anyhow. This must make it hard for Anna to meet people or have proper conversation with anyone other than her grandfather. This makes Anna different to a normal person, she will not be afraid of demons or other spirit like entities like a normal person would.

The village she was living in was very boring. This could open the character up to adventure as she might get curious and explore new things. Also the village and shop was so boring Anna and her grandfather talked about unique customers that weren't so unique for days

She was unclear whether she wanted to see her nasty piece of work father.

She loved someone from hell

Anna’s Grandfather: 

Backstory

Owns a Grocery shop

Has a granddaughter 

Has a condition that only lets him sleep 1 hour a night, he would appear tired all the time.

Special Visitor:

There is not much information on this character but there are few details I can take and understand about the character.

Has spent 100 years in Hell we do not know the reason why

Because the character has been in hell they must of done something bad or feel guilty for something that happened in there life

character is attractive  

A Souvenir of Hell Moodboard

Faithfull:

I have found images relating to the story to keep the story telling as true to the original story as possible. When reading the story I felt that the visitors would feel out of place being back in the world of the living after 100 years. I also thought about whether the beings are alive or dead in the time of being back or are they just spirits this is not stated in the story therefore I can let my imagination run wild with this.

Distorted:

I found it quite hard to think of an element to slightly change to distort the story a little, but enough to make a difference. I have decided to see what would happen if Anna’s special visitor was able to not leave and stay with her. I believe it would have a huge impacted on the current time which the story is focused on, leaving the ending with many more exciting possibilities, rather then Anna living a boring life. I get the idea that it would be sort of a prison break from hell, devils or angles being the police having to bring back the escaped prisoner.

Radical:

What if the people who came back from hell weren’t nice like in the original story, what if they acted just as they did back in the past, or what if hell made them even crazier than what they already were. Also I was thinking what if the people in hell weren’t just people, what if they were various different creatures, with terrifying unique shapes. I also thought about what if it became a war hell against earth? Maybe every 100 years there is an outbreak in hell, but not all people or beast from hell are evil, therefore the special visitor and love part of the story could stay true to the original storyline with major differences.

Character Designs

Special Visitor

This was my first idea for the special visitor character, I went with a more mysterious look as you don't get to know much about him and there is not much visual description said, therefore it is hard to understand how he will look. I decided to change my mind with this character design as I did not gather many images for my moodboard relating to this design.

Here is my second attempt at this character. This time I focused on taking more from the radical moodboard I created and implementing that into this character design, though finding this challenging I think I did a decent job on designing the aspects of this character from the moodboard. The design could still be better. I am not the best at sketching although I could spend time and sketch out more ideas for a better result, however I am happy with the current one for now.

This is the final outcome of this design. after putting the drawing into photoshop I traced over it to make it look better, smoother and ready to be model in Maya. I have also decided on the colours and added some minor details.

Anna

This is my sketch for the Anna character, I found some ideas from the story about what Anna’s background could be which helped me with the design a lot, I feel like There wasn't as much on the radical moodboard to go off for this character so I did more research and look at the fashion in Uzbekistan and went off of that. I felt more comfortable with this character as there was more description to go off. I tried to focus on the main point which was, she is a Uzbekistan grocery girl, because of this I found a great images with everything needed for the design of this character.

Here is the final outcome of this characters design. Overall I think it went pretty well, it is now ready to be put into Maya and 3D modelled. I think there is room for improvement here, finding more moodboard images would be a big help, I did struggled to find images I was looking for this character.

Environment Ideas

Here I have gathered some images on where the setting for the character could be, images of the mouth of hell and Uzbek villages and grocery store. For the setting I think I like the idea of the character inside of old sandstone built grocery store as this is where most of the story takes place.

Inside of grocery store

Sketch idea of inside the grocery store for the environment setting.

Here I have created a 3d model of the base of the grocery store which I will used for my animation. I have used the sketch I previously drawn as a reference so far I think its a good layout and is going well.

I have modelled the head of my character and unfolded the UV maps and is ready to be textured.

Here is my current character progressing I have modelled the hair and textured the head and hair using the UV editor I was able to use tools such as unfold, optimize, utilize and so on. it wasn't so easy getting a UVMap outcome that I was happy with, I had to play around with the the tools and manually use the them to get a reasonable UV guide, after that I took it into Photoshop and painted on my texture.

Now I have modelled the whole character as well as textured everything I am really proud of how my character turned out as the is the first time I have created a full character with textures, I got on well with this part of the project, due to computer issues I have had times when Maya has crashed and even my entire computer during this process besides that, this part of my project was very enjoyable. Next I will rig the character ready for animating.

I have started to rig my character here i have placed the joints and made sure the orientation of each of them is correct to make animating function correctly and a lot easier.

[onkey-bedtime-stories]

EUNOIA - chapter 2

Chapter 1

----------------

“I met Donghae yesterday.”

That’s how Taemin greets his sister on a random phone call one afternoon. As hard as she tried to be chill about it, Eunsook cannot help but shake in panic, intrigued by his words. She ran to the closest bench she could find and put her camera safely on her laps.

“You know that we’re adults, right? We don’t need to inform each other anymore like when we were kids and used to match our scenario to lie to Mom and Dad.”

The tremble on her lips seemed readable from the other line, making Taemin snickers on his bed.

“And since we’re adults it means now we lie to each other instead to our parents? Wow. Just wow, Lee Eunsook.”

“As I remember you were the one who banned me for weeping around on anyone whom acquaintance with him. Am I right?”

“You are. You’re always right beside this particular choice on men.”

“So?”

“I just let you know that yesterday I met Donghae.”

“Just let me know? You think I didn’t know how sneaky you are telling me stuff just because you are childishly curious on how I would react? Well, try harder, baby boy.”

“My smart lady. I always knew you went to Milan not for nothing.”

“Ha. So funny.”

“Do you want me to tell you what happened or I need to wait for another year until you gather up your guts to ask me how it went?”

“Actually, I don’t really care. That wouldn’t change anything, would that?”

“It depends, though.”

“On what? On how I handle stuff? On how bad my mood right now? Or maybe, just maybe, on how bad I weep last night?”

So she still cried miserably at night?

Taemin sighed and Eunsook regrets raising her tones, unveiled her unstable mind unconsciously. However, she didn’t lie when she said she doesn’t really care since she would still be broken hearted and desperately wants to turn back time hoping she could fix any mistake they did during their relationship. Or more like what mistake she did.

“Donghae asked how you are doing.”

“You can tell him that I’m fine, having a really nice summer escapades and eating lots of good food. Really, I think I will gain at least five pounds by the end of the trip.”

“Unless it’s not really Donghae who asked.”

“I know.”

“No you don’t.”

Eunsook scribbled on the ground with her shoes, making random pattern on it, “Yes I do, Tae. Because he texted me two days ago and I kept writing and deleting my rant until this morning on how I’m doing now after he decided not to be in the same page with me anymore. Believe me I know, because this is the first time I didn’t reply on him right away after I saw his name appeared on my screen.”

Taemin doesn’t say anything and just listened to the sound of the wind, trying to not make everything more complicated for his sister.

“Maybe he overestimated me.. thinking that I would be just alright after everything. Having a blast in Netherlands, enjoying summer, going shopping and meeting my best friend after a long time. You know I always this ‘his strong woman’ or.. or ‘his only iron lady’ you know.. So this trip, couldn’t it be better than that?”

“Don’t resent anyone. You’re the one who said to me that this is the best way for both of you to be happier.”

“I told you maybe.”

“Anyway, I said that you’re fine. A little tired and overwhelmed but you’re good now.”

“Should I thank you for giving the wise back up and being the best brother in the world?”

“Not really. Because I told Donghae as well how you’re calling me every day at 3 AM mopping around threatening people you’d kill yourself if tomorrow you’re wake up and everything is not only in your dream.”

“You should have added the part I didn’t eat anything for a week and ran into the emergency room when my coworker found me passed out at the toilet.”

“Ah, if only you did a proper briefing before.”

She’s really grateful for the fact that she might really have the best brother in the world. Taemin never fail making her laughed. Though he had this ice prince exterior, his heart is the warmest, far from all the cold and mischievous image people around him familiar with.

“Now that I told you what to do, can you fix that when you met him again?”

“Let see. I got studio schedule again tomorrow and he will be the producer assistant the whole week. Yeah sure, I will tell him everything until the IV shot part.”

“Good boy.”

“I know I am.”

“And stop texting or calling Minho behind my back. It’s embarrassing.”

Now it’s Taemin turn to burst into laughter. It’s still stuck in his head how he decided to call Minho instead of his wife because Taemin couldn’t stand the idea of being yelled or interrogated by Junghee. That girl can speak two hours nonstop without giving break the other person.

“I’ll go to sleep now, it’s almost midnight here. Be good, sister.”

“Don’t wet the bed.”

“I’ve had my diaper on, no need to worry. I love you!”

“I love you, too!”

The second she put the phone down, Eunsook feels lonely again. Actually, she prefers having endless argument with anyone rather than swimming in her own thoughts. Inevitably, she checked the phone again. Rereading the text Jungsoo sent two days ago.

‘Good morning, sunshine! How’s the vacation?’

Ah, sunshine. It was nice to be sunshine for someone, a thought cross Eunsook’s mind. It was. She was sunshine. Night star. Moonlight. Making her questioning herself, is it not enough being her for he needed her to be something else? Was she not beautiful enough for he had the urge to always comparing her to something else?

“Eunsook?”

She lifted her head up and found a face she expected the least.

“Kibum?”

The latter smiles and tell the other guys walking with him to leave first. He then casually sits next to Eunsook, looks like a supermodel he is, swiping his hair back. When he looked to his left, Eunsook almost stoned, left him chuckles nervously again, a habit he developed whenever Eunsook’s around him.

“What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you joined this group tour with the guy poking his umbrella to the sky!”

She squinted her tiny eyes, which in Kibum’s mind was too cute to handle.

“Oh, I was walking around doing some sketches taking photos and then my brother called so I gotta sit here and listen to him ranting about unimportant stuff.”

“You like taking photos?” Kibum almost jumped from his seat when he turned to face Eunsook completely.

“Just for fun. I love looking back to all the pictures I took while traveling. Give me lots of nice nostalgic feeling and of course a smooth slap on my head to work harder earning more money for the next trip.”

He cracks to her words, “That is actually hella true. May I see the camera?”

“Of course, Mr. Photographer.”

She smiles so bright while handing the camera, Kibum flustered involuntarily turned his ears all crimson red, “You always use 35mm film?”

He lifted the analog camera a bit.

“Mostly. Or Polaroid. One time I had the 120mm camera but nowadays it’s so hard to find the film.”

“Oh, you have no idea. It’s also freaking hard to find a place that can develop it. Tried to do it by myself, but I ruined it. There it goes all my memory in Hongkong. Gone in flash.”

Kibum cursed himself for convincing himself that Eunsook is the only girl in the world that makes a frown look that beautiful and amazing on a face. Before he embarrassed himself, he checked the camera again in his hand.

“By the way, this is nice camera. My friend had another type from the same brand. Where did you get this?”

“Actually, I bought it accidentally. It was from Porto. We were lost when tried to go back to the hostel and we found this street while wandering around with my friends.”

“Porto? As in Portugal?” she nods, “AH! I know that place! They sell cheap black and white films!”

“You really are a photographer, aren’t you?”

She cannot help but teasing when Kibum got so excited just on the thought of knowing the place she found the treasure. At this rate, not only his ears that rushed by blood.

“Only when I need money to pay my rent.”

“Hahaha!” she slapped his forearm lightly, he flinched silently, “And what brings you here?”

“We just finished a session with local teens. They’re quite having this too-cool-for-school attitude but fashion spread’s always interesting, isn’t it, Miss Designer?”

Eunsook secretly took out her imaginary good-deeds-book. Wits and jokes, checked.

“Anyhow, what are you doing after this?”

“Hmmm, nothing.”

“Fancy grabbing some sweets?”

“What kind of sweet?”

The way her eyes almost popped out her skull brighten Kibum’s day faster than when he received the first print of his magazine, “Pancake, waffle, crepe, anything you prefer as long as it can help with my sugar level.”

“Pancake sounds good.”

“Pancake it is! Let’s go!”

Kibum made a mistake almost embraced her by the shoulder then quietly pretending to push her to walk faster before the circumstance became more awkward.

Her phone beeps once again, she shook her head when she caught a text message arrived on the screen.

‘Eunsook, are you alright? Seems like the vacation is really great, am I right?’

This time she didn’t wait anymore.

‘Indeed, it’s the best summer escapade! I’m okay, by the way.’

***

“I told you not to touch her!”

Kibum massaged the back of his neck for the ten times, too tired for this silly confrontation.

“So, you said it’d better if I just left her alone there at the café while it was drenched outside instead of offering her a ride?”

“I’m tired of your excuse, you sweet mouth!  You should hadn’t dragged her to the café at the first place!”

“I’m the one who tired of your accusation! For God’s sake, Kim Junghee! I was just being nice! We lived under the same roof and I’m not allowed to cheer up someone I know who looked upset?”

“Not with such an agenda behind!”

“What kind of agenda are you talking about?!”

“Oh, don’t you dare testing me!” Kibum’s jaw dropped a few centimeter, disbelief with the whole sentence he just heard, “If you’re just being nice, you take her home right away after both of you finished your afternoon snack!”

“That’s the plan! But she said she needs more films for her camera! Am I wrong if I offered to accompany her looking for some?”

“Ha! You just saw your chance to slide in! What a little sneaky head!”

Kibum restrained himself not to raise his voice, he just didn’t want Minho finished his shower and found his best friend yelling to his wife.

“Look. It was raining. I offered her a ride to go back. She asked if I knew a place to buy films! I drove her there and it was still freaking rain. I got called by the people at work on the way. I said I’d get drop her off first at home before I headed to the studio. She said she could grab a taxi. Since I considered it’s not polite to let her do that, I asked her to come with me. That’s it!”

Junghee stomped on the kitchen floor so hard, “You could just drive her first!!!! You have no idea how stressful I was when I couldn’t contact her?!?!”

“Who knows her phone was dead?! She didn’t say anything to me! Had I know I would give her my phone to call or text you! At any rate, if she did find it necessary, she would ask me to make that damned call!”

“Stop it right there, it’s not Eunsook’s fault!”

“Neither mine!” he rolled his tongue inside his mouth trying to control himself, “I know she’s your best friend, Junghee, but she’s not a kid! She’s a grown up and let her be one!”

“Don’t talk like you know her!”

His fist getting harder on his side, “I didn’t. Look. I know you care about her. A lot. I understand. I’m aware that she’s somehow became more vulnerable after everything happened, but you shouldn’t treat her like this! She took the flight here to heal herself if you kept hogging her, when will she be able to heal?”

Kibum got his point but Junghee is too busy protecting her friend she doesn’t even try to swallow all the words from him.  

“I don’t need you lecturing me how I treat my friend! Just.. just keep your hand away from her!”

“What if I refuse?”

“What did you just said?!”

Kibum hesitated to say something more, so he just stood there, lips sealed together, his eyes drilling a hole through the air. Junghee flustered and doesn’t know what to do, she expected him to give some counter attack harsher than before. Not a serious answer like that.

“Listen, leave her alone or I would never speak to you again!”

She left him standing by the island counter and paced to her room upstairs. When she passed Eunsook who just went back inside the house after called her partner in Milan at the porch, she purposely darted her eyes away. The latter confused but knowing that her best friend has such a temper, she decided to let it go.

A small smile formed on her face when she saw Kibum’s by the kitchen.

“Is everything alright?” Kibum turned his head and just shrugged, “Kibum?”

Eunsook sensed something’s wrong by the flat expression on his face.

“Nothing.”

She’s the least person he wanted to encounter at the second, he tried to avoid her but the look she gave him just made everything more uncomfortable.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty much.”

“Hmm.. I don’t think so.”

“No, really.”

“Come on, you can talk about it.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.”

“Eunsook, I’m okay. Let’s just shake it off, I’m tired.”

He told her the truth, actually. Kibum’s just exhausted and he needs his time to compose himself after the heated conversation with Junghee.

“What’s wrong with you? Is Junghee okay?”

“Why don’t you just ask your best friend, huh? She’s the one who started! Why should I am the one who feel guilty here?!”

It seems like that was his final giveaway. His pitched showed up, startling Eunsook a little bit. The stern look he put is not making it easier for her. Inside, Kibum wants to kick himself on the shin for being such an asshole just now, helpless under the invisible spell Eunsook sent him.

And feels guilty he is, indeed. She had nothing to do and he just exploded ridiculously in front of her. So he dropped the glass he hold to the sink recklessly, the loud clank on its metal surface dropped a frown on Eunsook’s face, and just went to his room, leaving strange stagnant on the air for her.

Confused and a little disappointed, Eunsook just swallowed back all the sentences she prepared to thank him for the nice afternoon they shared.

***

Thirty minutes passed with Kibum paced back and forth behind his closed door. Sometimes he sat at the edge of his bed, tapped his foot on the floor restlessly, and stood up again, repeating the monotonous anxiety attack.

Seriously, he felt awful not only because he snapped on a girl that supposed to be his current major crush until this morning, but also because he realized how helpless he was in front of the girl. And all those feeling had taken him sunken deep on ocean of guilty.

Junghee might be right, the way he treated Eunsook just now could cause huge mess. This is the first time since almost forever Kibum does care about his image in front of other. Suddenly he’s afraid she might think he’s the biggest jerk on earth who had this hot and cold attitude, once a very nice and kind guy then yell on her face for something she didn’t even know just for the reason he lose control on stupid stuffs.

He doesn’t want that.

“Why are you so stupid, Kim Kibum…”

He threw himself on the mattress and kept staring on the ceiling for solid ten minutes before he jolted to the door, took one deep breath, and carefully pushed it forward.

The living room is empty, leaving only small aquarium at the corner being the source of light. However, when looked across the room, dim light seeped through small gap between the floor and the door of Eunsook’s room.

She’s still awake.

“Eunsook?”

The soft knock on the door didn’t reciprocate. The drumroll banging inside his chest became louder each second passed in silent.

“Lee Eunsook? Can I come in?”

He waited again but nothing happened.

Is she mad at me? Shit.

Various scenarios flashed on his mind and not any single of it makes him comfortable. He might regret it later, but his guts are so much makes sense more than anything.

Slowly he opened the door, but the scene welcomes him is way more unpredictable.

On her bed, Eunsook’s sleeping like a five years old, blanket tucked until her chin and hair splattered here and there but somehow framed her soft jaw as if someone did it on purpose. And Kibum, Kibum just stiffen right on the threshold, hand glued to the handle.

How come a girl can turn someone defenseless without doing anything?

She just breathes, her shoulder moves in a slow rhythm. Kibum knew he’s crazy but he swear in such distance he can see how her eyelashes intertwined each other hiding the beautiful eyes she had, kissed her cheeks in silent melody. If he had camera in his hand, he would had already taken hundreds picture of her sleeping.

Creepy, he knows.

But in Kibum justification, everyone should be creepy once in a while when they’re in love, shouldn’t they?

Ah. In love?

Kibum gripped his chest for a moment and decided to turn of the light before he closed the door cautiously.

“Forget it, Kim Kibum..”

***

Chapter 3

[okemian]

Artist Ask Meme :P

1. what is your favorite color to work with? To work with: various shades of dusty/earthy greens and browns. In general: deep violet. 2. who is your favorite character to draw? I'd say Rameroth but I haven't actually drawn him well enough to finish yet - I'm very critical of my own work - so I'd say probably jus Pokemon in general 3. what song(s) do you listen to when you do art? Feel Good Inc (on loop), Can't Decide (also on loop), and Seven Nation Army (you guessed it! On loop) 4. how often do you draw? When I have free time - which isn't often right now but usually maybe around 3-5ish hours a day or two. 5. digital or traditional? Used to be traditional, now I'm all digital baby. :P 6. tag your favorite artists/inspirations! @drfoxes and Arvalis on DA 7. do you prefer sketching, outlining, or coloring? Colouring is where my drawing talent really lies, though I still have much to learn and I love that! 8. show us at least 2-3 drawings from 1-2 years ago. I am so ashamed of my work back then I don't wanna show it xD it really isn't worth it anyhow 9. what drawing program do you use? (if the artist does digital art) Photoshop CC 10. are you right or left handed? Right 11. warm or cool colors? Warm-ish 12. draw one of your favorite characters in 15 seconds. Ahaha! No xD I can't even draw him in a day. 14. what was something that you used to draw a lot that you don’t draw as much anymore? I used to do a lot of landscape and still life work when I did traditional art but haven't really touched that area since digitalising my work. 15. when was the last time you did art? Not for a few weeks I don't think? College has been busy and I've been after the heart of a girl as well xD me and her are getting there slowly which is good at least.

[realm-sweet-realm]

Infinity, Chapter 1: Indestructible

This is for an AU in which the 13 characters are immortal.

At first, I wanted to do a simple story about where everyone would end up after a century. Then, I realized that those guys being unkillable would totally change the course of the loops Henry would go through, and how Henry would go through them. So, you’ll get an exploration of the characters and the philosophical aspects of immortality, but first, have some good ol’ fashioned violence and OCs.

Sorry that this chapter’s a little short for the ammount of time it took. I ended up having to split things up differently than I thought I would. The second chapter’s already halfway done, and will prominently feature Sammy going through the sketch dimension on a special mission. Expect it by Friday.

---

It had all started when Joey had sent that god forsaken letter.

Dear Henry,

It feels like a lifetime since we made cartoons together. 30 years really slips by, doesn’t it? If you’re back in town, come visit the old workshop. There’s something I need to show you.

Your best pal, Joey Drew.

And P. S., this is what I look like now. Haven’t changed a bit, have I?

Attached was a photo of Joey shaking hands with a celebrity who’d only risen to fame a couple years ago. The girl couldn’t have been older than 18 in the current year, so the photo had to be recent.

In the coming days, Henry wrote to Sammy asking for a recent picture of himself. Sammy, too, hadn’t aged.

Henry would have gone to the studio, anyhow. Why not take Linda for a little New York vacation? It was a nice place, he hadn’t been in years, and catching up with Joey could be nice. However, he was also curious about whether Joey’s... doings had anything to do with Henry’s own freakish youthfulness. Henry knew that Joey had been up to some strange, highly suspicious stuff- it was a large part of why he’d left the studio twenty years ago. That, and wanting to jump off a sinking ship. Back then, he and Joey had merely been young-looking for their age. Now, Henry was 58 and looked and felt less than half that. People sometimes mistook him for Linda’s son. Linda took that it good humour- sometimes she’d even call Henry “son” as an affectionate little nickname. And, now that Linda was beginning to slow down with age, sometimes Henry felt like he was her child- someone she couldn’t really keep up with anymore. Henry had had pets get old on him, and, well, he hoped it wouldn’t be like that with Linda. Aside from that, though, Henry loved it like anyone would have even though it was getting a little strange. He had always been in excellent health as well- he could bounce back from anything.

When Henry arrived at Joey’s apartment, Joey immediately started talking. “Henry. You look like you haven’t aged a day. That’s good. You’re going to need that. But anyhow, who are we, Henry? I thought I knew who I was, but look where that got me. I let our work become my life. In the end we both chose paths of our own making- you, a lovely family. Me, a crooked empire. And my road burned. And now I have to face eternity with all that failure and sin behind me.” Joey hunched over the counter, looking remorseful. “I don’t know what to do.” Joey looked back to Henry with mournful eyes. “Henry, go visit the old studio. There’s something I need to show you.”

With those words, Henry started walking towards Joey’s broom closet. He didn’t know why, or what could have been in there. He urged his body to stop- he had questions to ask Joey. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t even turn his eyes from the door. It was as though he was being piloted by an outside force until the door clicked shut behind him and he was staring into the studio’s sepia-toned halls.

A few hours later, Henry woke up in a pentagram surrounded by coffins, trying to remember where he was and what he’d been doing.

That’s right… I turned on the ink machine… and then that horrible monster chased me. And then I fell.

“Hello!” a cute, girlish little voice came from in front of him, making Henry jolt up. Before him was what looked like Alice Angel- from her halo to her pie-cut eyes to her four-foot stature.

“Uh, hi,” Henry said. “My name is Henry. And yours?” He offered her his hand to shake. She made an endearingly weak attempt at helping him up. Henry got to his feet.

“Alice Angel. You don’t look like you’re from around here. Are you here to save us?”

“Sorry to disappoint, but no. I’m completely lost and I need all the help I can get to escape from here. Could you help me?”

"Of course, sir! Come with me!" with that, the little angel turned to lead him down a dark hallway. At one point, they had to find three switches to open up a door. When the door opened, it was so dark within that it was impossible to see inside. "Oh, it's so scary in there!” she whined, a pitiful look befalling her face. “Can you lead the way, please?"

"Sure," Henry giving the little doll a fatherly look as he headed in. "You just follow right behind me."

No sooner had he stepped into the darkness had he noticed something sticky wrap around his face and wrists. Henry struggled to get out, but couldn't.

"Um... Alice? Know anything about what's in this room?"

Alice flicked on the lights, and Henry found himself eye to eye with a perversion of Edgar, suspended from the ceiling by a black, stringy spider's web. Henry realized that his hands and face were stuck in more of the same.

"Mmmm... thank you, Julie," the spider purred. The white of his face had dripped into where his mouth- if you could call that series of oval-shaped holes a mouth- should have been, and so Henry could see the creature's teeth moving as he spoke. There were tentacles behind those human teeth. "I guess you can stay here, after all."

"Thanks, mister!" the Alice said, making her way to the little fort made of plywood and bacon soup can that she had at the side of the room. The spider's teeth separated, and the tentacles, each with a tiny mouth at the end, went for Henry's face. Tore flesh from his cheeks. Sunk their fangs into his eyeballs. Henry screamed and felt one of them pull out his tongue. Straining and struggling to escape, Henry eventually broke free from the bonds and ran like hell for the exit, closing the door behind him and sitting against it. Thankfully, neither the spider nor Julie were strong enough to force open the door.

His escape had come at a price, though- in addition to being in awful pain, Henry was helpless. Blind. Deaf. Noseless and tongueless. After trying to come up with a plan, Henry came to the conclusion that he was solidly in a place of "wait for death, because there's nothing else to do." And so, for the following half-hour, Henry reflected on his life. It had been good, he decided, all things considered. He'd had a wonderful family, a great career, and met some amazing people. At the end of half an hour, Henry thought he could see the light. But it wasn't "the light." As more time passed, his vision improved, and the studio came into focus. Henry reached up and touched his face- a nose, ears, it was all growing back.

And that's when Henry knew: he wasn't just incredibly healthy and youthful. He was immortal. And in the coming hundreds of loops, he'd make good use of that.

[allomammal]

Resolutions 2K20

In the year of their lord 2019, I had nigh 10 resolutions set up for the new year.

1.     Run 600 Miles 2.     100 Push-Ups a Day 3.     Flexitarianism 4.     No Lattés 5.     Limited Take Out 6.     Practice/Learn Spanish Daily 7.     Reading (At Least) One Book a Month 8.     Writing/Journaling (At Least) Twice A Week 9.     Undefined Resolution On Programming (Python/R) 

However, the year would encounter me in the most precarious position that I have known to-date.  Having separated from my pair-bond in late March, my entire world fell to disarray – certainly not all at once, but in bursts of calamity with intermittent, fleeting calm, and frequent tears.

I accomplished a resounding… NONE of my 2019 resolutions (though, I did come close with 594 miles over the course of the year [Anxiety, Illness, & Injury, 2019]).

BUT…

As I’ve recently been reading up on and trying to practice mindfulness, I am learning to forgive myself for those things that I could never have foreseen. (To be completely honest, a more **MINDFUL** me should have seen it all unfolding and it is now painfully obvious that I could have and should have changed course; hindsight and all of that).

I intend to keep this post brief, as I’m still re-calibrating my self and trying to re-fashion a version of me that postures less and emotes more honestly; a me that takes account of and responsibility for his own emotions; a me that communicates sincerely from a place curiosity and care (I’ve been reading “Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication” by Oren Jay Sofer).

Resolutions for 2K20: 1.     Run at least 365 Miles This year, I’ve become increasingly aware how closely related my physical and emotional state are – having experienced the worst anxiety attack of my life during and after a 3 mile run over the summer. Additionally, I suffered through a two-day bout of depression after running 14 miles on Thanksgiving Day and then not eating or sleeping enough to allow my body (and mind) to recover. I don’t like how my physically-emotionally exhausted self interacts with the people who love me. So, I think I’m deciding to focus on shorter runs with more strength and flexibility training. I’m not sure how this will turn out, but let’s give it a go, yeah? 

2.     100 Push-Ups a Day I guess this is part of the strength training that I was talking about above. Really, this is a small, mostly cosmetic thing. I liked the way my chest looked and felt when I faithfully executed my daily 100 push-ups back in 2018. So, I just want to look and feel pretty. Is that a fucking crime???

 3.     Hiatus from Facebook Having separated from one of the greatest loves of my life, I find that Facebook inspires in me nothing but existential dread and a reminder of what I’ve lost. I suspect I will not deactivate my account, but I may adjust my settings on Twitter and Instagram so that those posts are automatically fed to the people that still check for me via Facebook. I’ll still have the Messenger app, too I guess.

4.     Practice Spanish Weekly In the past few weeks, I’ve occasionally practiced Spanish by listening to newly discovered acts like Fer Casillas, Kordelya, Los Mesoneros, Elsa y Elmar, and Siddhartha. I’ve also taken to writing out their lyrics and then annotating and translating their lyrics. I’m not sure how this will ever help with conversational Spanish, but… I guess… fuck it, right?

 5.     Read A Book (YOU ILLITERATE FUCK) or an Ecology Paper The books I’ve been reading lately are of the Buddhist, mindfulness, self-help variety. In lieu of expensive and infrequent therapy visits, these seem to be helping me engage and examine my emotions more thoroughly and I hope that, someday (with enough practice), I’ll be able to communicate my emotions sincerely and won’t hurt the people that I love with my imprecise or harmful language.

6.     Draw Some Shit Weekly In high school, I was active in my drawing classes and loved expressing myself with mixed-media (mostly pen and pencil, but occasionally oil or chalk pastel). In the past few days, I’ve been sketching again. I have a couple of sketchbooks so it’s about time I use them. I’ve rediscovered how focused I become when drawing and working on shading. The amorphous cloud of anxiety that I occasionally experience just seeps out of existence. And, at the end of an hour-long doodle-session (not to be confused with a 10-15 minute-long doodle-session), I feel pretty damn accomplished… and I have some tangible product to look back on (as opposed to the other kind of doodle-session).

7.     Blog on Ecology or Maths at Least Once a Month This one hinges on the one about reading a book and ecology papers. I wrote, like, one explainer on an interesting ecology paper back in 2018. I want to continue writing those sorts of things because I think I might be well-positioned to demystify some ecology and statistical things for people who aren’t as ecologically or statistically-minded. That, and I think I need to start writing again to hone any semblance of skill that I may have had. Maybe, I can position myself to apply for a PhD in the next few years.

8.     Fold and Put Away My Fucking Clothes After Laundry My Room… is my mind. If my room is cluttered, then my mind is cluttered. I think my short-term efficiency in the past few weeks and months have made me feel less accomplished and less organized. To rectify that, upon doing my laundry (which is often on a weekly basis), the gods command that I iron and put away my fucking clothes.

9.     Cook Weekly Meals (Less Take-Out) This has been difficult to do since moving in with my long-time friend and current roommate. Negotiating how much space my groceries take up, how much time I spend in the kitchen, etc. that has been a challenge that I have allowed to disrupt my normal habit of preparing a weekly meal for work. This has resulted in me spending more money than I’ve needed to. It hasn’t helped that I’m easily influenced by the eating habits of friends (this was the case when I lived with friends in the past). I definitely need to regain discipline in the culinary arena. I’m hoping that this will also help with my physical and mental health. 

10. Limit Alcohol Consumption This has been a financially unwise routine to help me get through grading my students’ work this semester. Daydreaming about simply talking to the pretty bartenders has also helped pass the time (though, it’s probably been counterproductive to healing and becoming a functioning human being again).  Anyhow, I need to cut back on how much I spend (it turns out that drinking IPAs at the bar is expensive AS FUCK). So I’ll probably limit myself to at most 2 bar-visits per week, a maximum of 3 drinks per outing, and I will probably forbid buying any beer that is not on special… at the bar. I’ll still be able to purchase my beloved fancy-boy IPAs at the local HEB. It’s just not financially sustainable for me to drink like that at the bar... Ya know, this also goes for getting coffee at cafés. I’ll have to rely on Valero and QT for my coffee needs if I’m ever out and about.

And finally, this is not really a resolution but I just want to directly address myself:

Leave Cigarettes in 2019 YOU STUPID FUCKING BASTARD.

I said I’d make it brief, but I’m my Dad’s son. So, there it is.

[crankyhamster29]

Tom Dubius Lap Chole Fanfic Chapter 1: Tom Isn't Feeling Well.....

First off, I want to explain why the heck I’m even posting this! On August 6th of 2017, my family and I went out to eat to celebrate my brother’s birthday which had been on July 30th. Unfortunately, I had a gallbladder attack roughly an hour and a half after I finished my meal. My dad and I originally suspected that I may have gotten food poisoning, but nope, it really was a gallbladder attack just like my mom said. For the record, gallbladder attacks are especially likely to strike after fatty meals such as the fried chicken and fries I had. The fact that I was, and still am, chubby as of this post certainly didn’t help matters any, nor does family history of gallbladder trouble. I’m a sucker for Ryuusei no Rockman AKA Megaman Starforce, so I decided to write a fanfic about my favorite character going through what I went through. There will be a grand total of four chapters in my fanfic, and I’m going to be making one corresponding animation for each. It’s going to be several weeks or months before the next part gets posted, so be patient. OK, it’s time to unveil chapter 1 of my fanfic. Thanks for reading and I hope you like it!

Tom Dubius was hard at work in his research lab at AMAKEN, sketching up blueprints for a meteorological satellite scheduled for launch a few months later. He'd also been helping his boss, Aaron Boreal, improve the energy output of a rocket engine still in development. Not only was Tom occupied with those two major projects, he'd been attempting to improve the Star Carrier's ability to materialize everyday objects as well. It was just shy of noon on Wednesday, August 6th, 2217 when he heard a knock on the door of his research lab. “Hey, Tom! What do you say we go out for lunch break today?” Aaron asked his slender coworker. “Come to think of it, Aaron, I am pretty hungry. Let's go!” Tom agreed. Mr. Boreal was happy that his once-paranoid associate had learned the value of friendship, and the pair left the aerospace facility. Aaron and Tom were seated about 5 minutes after arriving at the restaurant, and the waiter promptly took their order. “I love karaage and korokke – they're two of my favorites!” grinned Aaron once their meal was ready. “So do I, but they're kind of..... um, not so healthy.” replied Tom matter-of-factly. “Relax – everything is OK in moderation, Tom!” Aaron reassured his associate. After finishing their food at 12:45 pm, the pair paid the bill and returned to AMAKEN. Unfortunately, at 2:15 pm that afternoon, Mr. Dubius felt quite sick to his stomach! The slender aerospace engineer rushed to the men's bathroom and leaned over the first toilet he came across. “Uuuurrrrfffff..... all systems go for launch..... BLAAARRRGGGHHH! In T minus..... BLAAARRRGGGHHH!” he moaned as he began to vomit. “Th-The t-tower is clear..... BLAAARRRGGGHHH! G-Ground control, we have splashdown..... BLAAARRRGGGHHH!” Tom whined in discomfort. “A-A-Aaron..... I feel terrible..... I think..... I think I have food poisoning!” exclaimed Tom in a fit of panic. “If we both ate the same thing and food poisoning were to blame, I would be sick too. But I feel fine.” Aaron reasoned, frowning at seeing his coworker in such distress. “I just had severe diarrhea and I threw up several times. I'm also experiencing intense pain in my upper right abdomen and in my back on my right side.” Tom elaborated further, looking as green as a cucumber. “This might come as a surprise, Tom, but it sounds like you've just had a gallbladder attack.” Aaron replied. “A-A-A gallbladder attack!? How could that be!? I eat a healthy diet and I'm as skinny as a rail!” Tom sputtered in disbelief. “Th-This makes absolutely no sense at all..... BLAAARRRGGGHHH!” continued the nauseous aerospace engineer before throwing up again. “Tom! Go see a doctor as soon as you can!” Aaron advised his sick associate. “I-I-I'll be fine, Aaron..... I just need to get this bug out of my system..... BLAAARRRGGGHHH!” Mr. Dubius protested before vomiting yet another time. “Tom! You're sick! Go home!” Aaron commanded his subordinate. Tom did just that, and he called the doctor's office for an urgent appointment as soon as he walked in the door. “Hello, sir. How may I help you?” replied the operator on the other end of the phone. “I'd like to schedule an appointment as soon as possible, preferably today.” Tom answered. “I went out to lunch with my boss this afternoon, and I became sick roughly an hour and a half after finishing my meal.” the troubled AMAKEN worker continued. “What sort of symptoms have you been having?” inquired the operator. “I had both severe vomiting and diarrhea as well as intense pain in my back and abdomen on my right side.” Tom answered. “What's your last name, sir?” the person on the other end asked. “Dubius. D-u-b-i-u-s.” the nauseous engineer replied. “You have an appointment on Friday, August 8th at 10 am. I hope you feel better soon, Mr. Dubius.” said the operator. “So do I, thanks. Have a great day, miss.” Tom replied before hanging the phone up. There was one person left for Tom to call, and that was his boss, Aaron. “Hello, Aaron. I have a doctor's appointment this upcoming Friday the 8th at 10 am.” Mr. Dubius explained. “OK, thanks for letting me know. How are you feeling now, Tom?” Mr. Boreal inquired with concern in his voice. “M-Meh. I still feel pretty sick.” Aaron's subordinate answered softly. “Be sure to get plenty of rest, Tom. Take tomorrow off if you still feel nauseous, OK?” Mr. Boreal advised. “Th-Thanks, Aaron. I will.” Mr. Dubius replied before falling fast asleep in bed.

And that’s chapter 1, folks! In the first five frames of my animation, Aaron and Tom are having Japanese fried chicken AKA karaage and potato croquettes AKA korokke. The red cylindrical things are supposed to be traditional Asian lanterns. They’re not spot-on perfect, of course, but they’re not downright shitty, either! In the last 6 frames, the *BLARGH* *BLUGH* *BLEHH* signify poor Tom tossing his cookies while the *glorp* *plorp* *splorp* are Tom unleashing some liquidy number 2 doom upon the unfortunate porcelain throne beneath him. Sorry if that last part was too gross.....! Anyhow, thanks for reading and I’ll try to have part 2 up as soon as possible. Megaman Starforce and its associated characters belong to Capcom.