#but I've only done palette and expression ones on here before and I never had a huge problem with getting those done

[frokenkeke]

Making of Ashes to Ashley

Recently I posted my comic Ashes to Ashley, and got such a tremendously kind and loving response that I felt like sharing a little bit more about where it came from.

The story is about a transgender awakening, where the quiet and somber Ash explodes out of the closet as the loud and colorful Ashley. This was always the plan, however the details changed along the way. Quite quickly I realized that I was writing about myself and my own trans journey. I never played in a band and I don't imagine I'll ever grow bunny ears (sadly), but still Ashley is undoubtedly a reflection of myself. I just allowed life to become a stage and gender performance a rock concert.

Above are the first idea doodles I drew late at night in early April. I quite enjoyed giving Ashley lipstick and prominent eye shadow, since I hadn't ever done a character like that before. The idea was a bit of exaggerated femininity that accidentally becomes raw punk expression. One or two people have pointed out the Um Jammer Lammy similarities, and they are absolutely not coincidental. Initially I imagined Ashley would've been more reluctant about her transformation, which is why she looks a bit more annoyed in some of my sketches, but the story became more bright and funny if it was made immediately clear that this all happens off of her own volition.

Some method and color tests. My girlfriend suggested I instead go a lot more raw with it, which is why I ended up adamantly using an ugly sponge brush built into Photoshop. Sapphic Disaster are some form of punk-shoegaze band, so combining rough pencil linework with crunchy texture coloring felt like a fitting visual representation of them. This also side-stepped the biggest problems I've always had with drawing comics – dealing with inking is a boring waste of time, and working digitally always makes me fixate on perfection. By just using pencil on paper I had to stick with whatever errors couldn't be saved by a regular eraser, in fact I dedicated myself to only using an old worn down Bic mechanical pencil and embraced the idea that the comic would consistently look a bit off and amateurish. Of course I allowed myself the luxury of cleaning up my drawings digitally before coloring, but that can only take you so far. This way of working helped me make fast progress and kept each step engaging, I've never had as much fun drawing a comic as I had with Ashes to Ashley.

Here's a before and after from initial scan to finished panel. I often only tidy up around focal points like faces or hands, and allow the rest to remain as it is, usually parts like the legs or Ashley's ears.

Character references and my initial color picks, they went through small changes as I went along. I liked giving all the band members different sorts of rabbit ears to make them all look distinct from each other.

Here's some ideas for the Sapphic Disaster band logo and the comic's color palette, notice how Ashley is more vibrant than Ash.

While working I filled up numerous papers with doodles trying to workshop panels and layouts. It's too much to show all of them here, so I composed a few collages of my favorites.

It was pivotal for me that Ash would always look painfully cute. The sketch of the table scene with Floyd shows a rare out-of-character confident and laid-back Ash. In the presence of Floyd?! Never!

I was very concerned about the reader recognizing the old Ash when first seeing Ashley. She may be all excited about being a girl, but her nervous cluelessness remains. I ended up going back and redrawing two panels in Ashley's introduction to strengthen this impression.

For those not in the know, shoegaze is a rock subgenre that centers around noisey guitar textures, typically achieved through heavy use of effect pedals at the musicians feet; hence the name. When Ashley plays her guitar she produces a cacophony of strange sounds, the reader will have to imagine what they actually sound like, but I always imagined their opening number "I Wanna Be a Girl" to sound like a couple of amateurs trying to recreate Lush's Blackout.

The page where the band go around looking for Ashley while she's receiving her makeover was shoehorned in at a later stage for pacing purposes. That's why Gabriel is suddenly back to pulling cords after previously claiming they're all set, oops!

One of the core rules to this story is that everyone is always overly supportive of Ashley's transition no matter what. This is what makes the otherwise stern and serious Floyd especially funny, my girlfriend was pivotal in sprucing up his dialogue, adding bits like "have you seen the health care waiting lists?, "I know an endocrinologist who owes me a favor or two" and "give me 35% more danger"

Towards the end I discovered that Ashley and Debbie dancing was apparently the most important panel in the entire comic, judging by how much I tried to perfect it. (For the record, my favorite panel is when Ashley screams into the microphone that she wants to be a girl.) Maybe Ashley and Debbie dancing should've replaced the final full-page panel? Well, we got a lot of cute doodles out of it regardless. Just kiss already!

Initially I imagined Ashley to be standing alone in the "could this be the real me" final panel, but I realized her odd family of friends was equally a part of the real her. She was always right where she needed to be, she just needed to find herself within that place. (I ended up giving Ashley a cigarette because otherwise it looked like she was praying.)

Here are some ideas for the cover illustration, of course in 1:1 format to look like an album cover. Up until last minute I planned for the comic to have You Made Me Realize as its subtitle to distinguish it from eventual follow-ups, which is why the You Made Me Realize EP cover art is paraphrased in the top-middle. I ended up just going with Ashes to Ashley to keep it clean and simple. The title Ashes to Ashley was blurted out immediately by my girlfriend when I first showed her my concepts for the story. It's perfect, she's perfect.

I drew two Ashes and two Ashleys for the cover art and let my fingers smudge all over the latter. While most obviously riffing on the cover for My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, it's equally taking from the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa's Pigment.

And there you have it.

However I never intended this to be the full extent of Ashley's story, just a satisfying and complete end of a chapter. I've already finished writing the next story, Today Forever, and I hope I can get it out to you all soon enough. Your love for Ashley keeps me going.

/Kiki

[orime-stories]

Lost in the Lifestream

Aurelle Silmontier - Final Fantasy XIV

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The Warrior of Light grabs a chance to see her family while waiting on a companion's recovery. Full story below the cut. (843 words) Previous Story / Next Story / Read on AO3 / Tumblr Masterlist

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The Twelveswood embraced her return with breezes that did not sting and the warm greens she had so longed for. The palette she had clung to so faithfully for so long during her exile in the north, but had only recently begun to stray from. The robes she currently wore were of Ishgardian design — a deep turquoise blue with silver detailing, and a warm shawl about her shoulders in red and white, as befitted a white mage. Clothes she had picked out for herself from the markets and boutiques of the city in her first tentative expressions of preference. Beautiful pieces that made her feel a little more the part of the protagonist everyone kept clamouring for her to be.

But back here in the Shroud, the attention drawn by her new garb chafed horribly. 'Who does she think she is, to be dressed so finely', they must be thinking. 'Certainly not one of the forestborn'.

Lifting her heavy skirts from the sweetly fragrant earth of Gridania's pathways, she pressed on, wishing she'd thought to change back into her old conjurer's robes before coming. But there hadn't been time, with her story pressing ever onward. And if there was one thing that would see her through the discomfort of her shyness in this brief window she had snatched while Y'shtola shook off the last of her aetherial escapades, it was her desire to see her mother again.

Sitting at that familiar old table, steeped herbs flavouring the air, her mum sitting across from her, rambling about her day like it was any other, her nana perched by her side, topping up her mug whenever its warmth ebbed too low... the chill of Coerthas seemed almost a distant memory. A strange dream, but one that lingered beneath the skin long after waking. She wondered, if she were to crawl under the table and hide there as she had in childhood, whether her tale would continue on without her. Leave her in this place where time moved at a normal pace and her heartbeat might have a chance to slow with it. Where she might re-sync her breath to the seasons of the forest, and heal.

"But what about you?" her mother finished. "What have you been busying yourself with? How many grey hairs are you giving me today?"

"The full story might be a bit long for the time we have," Aurelle cautioned in answer, wondering where she should even begin in the telling of it. My best friend is dead and you never even got to meet him. I was on trial for heresy. I've been staying in a grand mansion and eating like a princess. I've treated with dragons and uncovered a forgotten history that had lain buried for a thousand years. I think I'm in love.

The hours and hours it would take to even just lay out the context for any one of those statements. The most straightforward of them being the one thing she had promised Aymeric she wouldn't share. And she was mired in enough anxiety about how things were going to be for them moving forwards without breaking his trust on top of it all. With the dissonance there had been between them the last time they had caught a moment alone. With the strain he was under trying to stop his beloved city from crumbling apart between his hands. With the horror she still carried of what had happened to him in the Vault and the part she might have played in enabling it. With the fact that once this was all said and done, she was likely going to have his father's blood on her hands.

A man she doubted had ever sat across a table from him like this, engaging in easy chatter over tea, asking how worried he should be about his son's misadventures. For he was a man who had ordered for that son to be imprisoned and maimed, and who had walked away without a backward glance even as Aymeric had staggered across the rooftops towards him, still begging for the man to listen to him and see reason even then.

That man had no right to the word father.

But nothing could change the fact that he had claimed it even so. And that surely that must mean something. To someone. She certainly couldn't imagine viewing a person in the same light if they had murdered her own father, even were he to become tempered or otherwise changed or— Gods she wished she had the time to see him before she went, to visit him at his post in the East Shroud. To steady herself in his solid optimism. His simple but always convincing reasonings for why everything would turn out alright.

But she reassured her mother of that truth even so. That all would be well. For what else could she say? She would just have to do all in her power to make that promise a reality in the end.

For those she could yet save, at least.

[12chumtoadsinatrenchcoat]

.

[punderfulowl]

TOP 10 ANIME (that I've seen) IN 2021)

Just like the title suggests, this is a list of the anime I've seen during 2021 and are not necessarily ones that came out that year. My hope in doing lists like these is to provide recommendations for any anime of any year. Here we go!

(Holy crap, my is sort of on time this year!)

Honorable Mentions: K-On!!, Beastars S2

10. When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace (2014)

I could be simplistic and just say that this is a harem show where the main protag is a chuunibyo...but that's exactly what it is. Unfortunately, this show falls to the bottom of the list because it's one of those shows that's more of a commercial for the original source material and it ends before the actual plot starts without a second season. Why recommend it? Well, I will give points for the protag for not being a complete idiot, the animation/character designs are pleasant, and the concept of having someone make believe they have powers then suddenly having them is pretty humorous. Plus, there's a good chance that you have seen a clip from this show without realizing it. This show is the home this scene.

9. Seitokai Yakuindomo S1 (2010)

This show only has one joke. That joke being: what if high school girls were openly perverted? And it's a joke that lands every time. I'll admit it, I enjoyed myself. It's kind of a breath of fresh air having a whole cast of female characters be openly expressive with things of a sexual nature. Sure, there have been harems where, typically, an older woman is more direct with her approach, but for high school girls to have no shame in exploring these kind of things? If it weren't mostly played for laughs, I'd call it a game changer. Even so, I can't wait to start season two this year.

8. Bubuki Buranki (2016)

I can't even be sure if I like the show this much, but I'm pretty sure Bubuki Buranki is this high up mostly on style points. I'll bring up the elephant in the room: this is a 3D anime (but a 3D anime done well). Character models move around just fine for casual scenes, but is turned up a few notches for the battle choreography! As for story, the set up is paced just fine, but then slams on the gas pedal and never lets up. The show reminded me of the early years of RWBY where the fight scenes were the main draw. If all style shows appeal to you, I'd recommend this one. It even has two seasons!

7. Joshiraku (2012)

Based off a gag comic, Joshiraku is a series about cute girls performing in a style of a one person theatre known as Rakugo. While I did have fun watching Joshiraku, I'll be honest and say that it's hard for me to suggest it. There's nothing overly wrong with it, the color palette is very pleasing and the humor goes over well. The best way I can put this is to paraphrase a friend of mine, "It's very Japanese." Again, there's nothing wrong with that, but if you are relatively new to the anime scene, this probably won't appeal to you. If you want to give it a shot anyway, I'd say go for it. If you're a seasoned weeb that hasn't seen this yet, definitely seek it out!

6. Higehiro (2021)

Higehiro is about a young man in his 20s who takes in a runaway high school and helps her get her on the right path and deals with her past. I wish I could bring myself to rank this higher. At the heart of it, the series is really touching and shows that there are still people, albeit rare, that can/will help you out of the goodness of their heart. On the other hand, this show had a habit of picking ill-timed camera angles and framing for certain moments that felt icky. If you're able to ignore those moments and focus on the wholesome parts, give it a watch. If you can't settle for anything less than 100% wholesome, I completely understand.

5. Demon Slayer (2019)

When it comes to my approach of popular shows, I usually wait until most of the hype dies down before I watch them. With that said, being able to watch with clear eyes unaffected by hype:

it's fine. Just fine.

Yes, Ufotable knocks it out of the park once again with its animation. Yes, most of the characters are fun and likable. And yet, I enjoyed just fine. I honestly don't know what it is, but I just wasn't blown away. Still looking forward to the next arc, though.

4. O Maidens in Your Savage Season (2019)

Watching a show about high school girls going through their own sexual awakening as a dude, gotta say, I've learned a lot. Not saying I'm an expert, but definitely have a better understanding now than I did beforehand. To further establish my lack of expertise, I'll just give it a high recommendation before I say anything that shows my ignorance.

3. Records of Grancrest War (2018)

This was the show that got me mad. Not at the show itself, but rather at the several people in the anime community who didn't watch this. I'm not one who's all in on waifu culture, but all y'all slept on this anime! Yes, the waifu game is strong here, but it also has decent animation, large-scale battles, political drama, and allegiances that change! Please check this out. Being three years late is better than never!

2. Den-noh Coil (2007)

This was an anime that had been stuck on my "Want to Watch" list for YEARS, but finally gave it a watch after I found the whole show on Blu-ray for a good deal! Den-noh Coil takes place in an alternate world where people wear glasses that not only connects to the internet, but allows interactive augmented reality. However, this technology isn't perfect, in fact, it's actually kind of sketchy. It's a sci-fi and supernatural story being led by a group of young girls, which is a combination I don't see often. It's a fun series that surprised me quite a bit and I hope it can surprise you, too!

1. HoriMiya (2021)

SCREW. BECOMING. A. COUPLE. AT. THE. END.

I want more romance shows that establishes a couple in the first few episodes and shows their growth throughout! Don't get me wrong, I understand the "Will they/won't they" model because it's a tried and true method to tease the audience to come back for more. But when shows like HoriMiya write relationships, it's so much more satisfying. Ahem, sorry. Yes, for all the reasons I just said as well as comedy with great timing, this was my favorite anime I saw in 2021.

[anystalker707]

You're like art

Pairing: Gerard x Reader Word counting: 1 603 Genre: Fluff / Cottagecore Summary: Gerard and (y/n) have a peaceful day, painting by the lake and laying down on flower fields

Requested on Wattpad

Gerard and I have been planning it for a time already, but the universe never seemed to comply with us until today, when the sun finally decided to show up in a day when we're completely free from any appointment. We shared the same thought as soon as we woke up, even without having changed any word. Our equipment has been prepared for a long time so we wouldn't waste time before just grabbing it to go, leaning against the wall of the bedroom, to a point a thin sheet of dust covered them objects when we moved to grab them.

I organize a bag with food and a few drinks since we obviously won't be returning so soon and make sure we have everything for us to leave.

We have had lunch about half an hour ago, in a way the sun is bright and high in the sky once we leave our house, but it isn't exactly a problem since the place we're going to isn't far from here and perfectly shaded by trees at this time of the day. The warm embraces us like a warm hug from the woods once we start walking into it, proving we were right in choosing lighter clothes to wear.

"Did you grab the solvent?" Gerard asks, voice muffled among the sound of the wind going through the tree's leaves and the dry ones cracking under our feet along with twigs. The woods so silent, yet so loud.

"Of course, I had left it along with the paints already," I tell him, glancing at Gerard with a smile before I press a kiss to his cheek.

Thankfully, the lake soon comes into view.

The lake isn't that wide, water almost completely clear as it is surrounded by bright green grass which covers the way until the small plants start turning into trees. Lilac flowers grow on a few points, along with a few yellow ones, giving the place an even more pleasing, comfortable, warm vibe.

Both of us have been working on a painting together – we made sure of bringing it with us today so we can work more on it. Maybe it's the excitement for doing everything, the whole time we spent wanting to work on this, even the setting, but the need to paint is so great. Seeing the paint laying around, having stains of paint all over our hands, observing the delicate result of the soft brushes against the canvas are almost like if a necessity as important as eating, right now, making us feel like the lack of it will drive us to death, in a way.

Gerard observes me throwing a blanket over the grass before he takes a seat beside me, carefully placing the canvas down on the ground. We start organizing everything, the brushes, bottle of solvent, paints and palette, along with the cloths to clean the brushes on. Bringing the stand wasn't really an option since it wouldn't be exactly convenient, so the ground it is.

A sigh escapes my lips as I observe Gerard carefully starting to fill the palette with paint and mixing the colors carefully to reach the tone he wants.

The sunlight casts over Gerard, squirming between the leaves and making its way through the trees, creating light spots that illuminate his pale skin and create beautifully contrasted shadows, giving Gerard a baroque air, which gets even richer when his eyes are illuminated the right way.

"What?" Gerard asks, a shy smile taking over his lips when he notices I've been observing him.

"You're just so beautiful," I tell him the truth with a smile, watching it as his cheeks gain a red tone with the compliment and his eyes drift downwards.

"It's just because you love me." Gerard turns back to the painting, thought noticeably happy with the compliment. "C'mon, paint with me, quit gazing at me so much," he teases lightly, momentarily pausing his actions to pull a dark strand of hair away from his face, hooking it behind his ear.

"Sure, love." Despite my words, I instead move to grab the polaroid camera from the bag and proceed to take a picture of Gerard. He only notices it due to the sound of the picture being taken.

"Hey!" He glares playfully, humming as he leans in closer to me. "Let me take a look."

The picture slowly appears on the small piece of paper and I smile pleased with it, though it absolutely doesn't make justice for Gerard and the beauty he holds right now. He doesn't share the same thoughts. I roll my eyes, giving his arm a light slap. "Let's paint," I say as putting the camera aside and finally moving to help him with it.

At some point, the attention we once gave the paint is reduced to neglect since we end up getting more distracted with snapping multiple pictures of each other, giggling as we roll around on the grass. I take more pictures of Gerard, easily snatching the camera from him, managing to capture all the moments in which he's giggling or trying to act angry at me. Gerard quickly tries to solve this and, before I can notice, he's straddling my hips to prevent me from moving and taking uncountable photos of me like I did to him moments ago.

"I guess we ran out of paper..." Gerard mutters, furrowing his eyebrows as he presses down on the button a few times, but nothing comes from the camera. He just stares at it in frustration, pouting.

"'Seems like it," I say with a sigh, calming myself down after all the laughter. My hand runs up and down Gerard's thighs in an affectionate motion while I observe him still fidgeting with the camera. "I didn't think we would take this many of pictures, so..."

"Sounds fair." Gerard puts it away and his expression changes into a loving one once he turns to me again, hands taking place on my shoulders. His lips meet to mine in a sweet kiss, his hand cupping my neck as his thumb traces my jawline softly. He pulls away at some point, but quickly pulls me to a kiss again, humming quietly against my lips. "We should go to the flower field nearby. You know how beautiful it gets during the sunset."

"Of course," I say with a smile, brushing my nose against his lightly. "There will be no problem if we leave our things here, right?"

"Well, if anyone wants a halfway done painting and pictures of two random strangers being weird... good for them, good for them," he says sarcastically and both of us break in chuckles. "Let's go." Pecking my lips, a last time, he moves to stand up.

We grab the cans of tea we brought with us and head towards the flower field. There's a small space on which we like to lay, mainly because we end up not damaging any of the flowers due to the lack of anything but grass there. The flowers aren't too tall and are the same lilac and yellow ones from around the lake, giving us a notion of their origin, though the field holds a greater variety of flowers and colors.

I press my lips to Gerard's suddenly, stealing a kiss from him and continue pressing kisses all over his face, what has him giggling. "I won't be able to drink my tea, that way," he complains, but all I do is to roll my eyes and press a kiss to his pouting lips. He stares and I can't help but to chuckle.

The sun is starting to set itself down in the horizon when we start sipping on our drinks and I start observing the field, which's down a hill that ends in another clearing in the woods. Gerard resting his head against my shoulder brings me back to reality – I observe him for a moment and sigh happily, pressing a kiss to his head.

Everything is quite peaceful. Our cans are empty by the time the sun has almost completely hidden itself behind the hills in the horizon – casting bright and beautiful colors on the clouds standing in the way of the sunrays – and we set them aside to get it again when we leave. We lay back on the grass to watch the sky, side by side, hands holding onto each other.

Gerard's fingers play with mine, in an almost tickling sensation because of how gentle his touch is. His hand wraps itself around mine again, giving it a squeeze before Gerard is rolling over onto his stomach and bringing himself up on his elbows, looking at me with a loving gaze, one that has me feeling my heart fluttering.

"You're losing the sunset," I whisper for no apparent reason, but it feels like the atmosphere is too delicate even for a loud voice tone.

"Why would I?" Gerard has an amused air on his expression, speaking with such a certainty, in the same quiet tone as me. "You're much more beautiful. I prefer to appreciate you."

"There'll never be a sunset like this again, yet, I'll continue like this for a long time," I tell him.

"And you'll never be under the light of a sunset like this again, so I guess I have the right of choosing my priorities." It's clear he isn't able to hold back the grin his lips part into and he seems pleased with how he makes me flustered, wordlessly bragging about it by pressing an unexpected kiss to my lips.

[stefciastark]

MJ ~ Webpril Day 10

A/N: So this was an older work of mine from years ago that inspired me to rework and rewrite it to fit the prompt fill. It's quite different from anything else I've done in this collection thus far, in that it's set in an AU where it puts Peter quite OOC compared to his MCU persona. The Peter I've portrayed in this short one-shot is quite jaded and pessimistic in his adult life, having been hurt in love before and instead has become a sort of tortured artist. Peter also doesn't have powers, Harrington is now an arts professor, and Ned is inexplicably clairvoyant. Peter somehow knows he's seen the woman he's painting before, and maybe he has, in another lifetime. This story is a bit darker in sub-tone and doesn't contain any IronDad, but what's a compilation without a bit of variety :) This is a project I've considered making into a full fic, but we'll see what happens with it.

~Read on AO3

~Read on FFN

Paintbrush in hand, he let each colour blend together in a unique dance of raw emotion, letting each stroke convey a secret that resided deep inside him, and he found that the strokes directed themselves once he began. Her face, though only seen ever so briefly, embedded itself into his memory.

The image was beginning to take place on what was once a blank sheet of white, and now a woman with olive skin took over the surface, framed by long and dark hair cascading down the figure’s shoulders. Hazel eyes stared back out at the artist, and the dimming light from the busy city below surrounded the piece of art with a haunting yet dauntingly beautiful quality.

What really caught the eye of the artist, however, was the dark necklace that hung just below her collarbone. It was a black dahlia flower made of glass, some petals cracked, and some completely missing. The memory of it stood out so clearly in his mind, just as her face had when they fleetingly passed each other on the metro during that midsummer afternoon.

An angel must have been looking down upon him and had granted him the opportunity to find love once more, but he couldn’t tell if it was an opportunity that could be defined as cruel, or a golden chance to redeem his heart that had begun to blacken as he got older.

Startled from his reverie, Peter turned around, paintbrush still in hand, palette now empty and canvas now full. The door had creaked open ever so silently and tentatively that he would have nearly missed it if it weren’t for his overindulged paranoia.

“Didn’t anyone teach you to knock?” His tone was laced with annoyance, and it was poorly covered up. This of course didn’t go unnoticed by Ned, but his urgency far surpassed his need to grace Peter’s biting comment with a response.

“Peter, there’s been an accident on Queens Boulevard, and I think this woman you drew may have been involved.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun had now completely set on New York as Peter turned right and onto where 71st Avenue met Queens Boulevard. Peter had come up to the scene first, the man he still called his best friend arriving moments later.

What met his eyes was an absolute catastrophe, and he wondered how anyone or anything could have survived what was the largest vehicle pileup he had ever seen in his twenty-eight years of existence.

A large semi-truck was keeled over sideways on top of a number of smaller cars. It was a mess that consisted of an assortment of wheels and metallic parts that once belonged to a whole. He could smell the acute tang of iron amongst the powerful odour of gasoline and burnt rubber. In a moment at the wrong place at the wrong time, the lives of ill-fated drivers and unfortunate bystanders alike had ended. Even if some had survived, there would be permanent scars, physical and mental, that would remain for the rest of their lives. It gave Peter a fleeting sense of sonder.

Quashing his initial surprise and his odd sense of apathy regarding what caused such an accident, he turned to Ned and frowned, indifference transforming into confusion and mild vexation. He sighed. “Why am I here, Ned?”

“So, you’re telling me that you’re not expressing an ounce of concern for these people? That’s cold, man.” Giving him a brief sidelong glance and pressing his lips together, Ned moved to be amongst the crowd and reached out to the first man he saw – a police officer – and swiftly made to gather all the information he could about the situation at hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The clock had ticked forward about thirty minutes since the two arrived at the scene of the accident. He returned around fifteen minutes later, having grown weary of (what was essentially) interrogating person after person. He shook his head slowly, communicating ‘nope, I got nothing’.

“Look, this is tragic and all, and I feel really bad, I do, but dude, did you really have to distract me from my artwork? I need to get this piece finished and handed in to Harrington by tomorrow, I don’t have time to be checking out depressing wreckages on the main road.” He paused, shifting his eyes away from the disaster zone and instead transferred his full attention to Ned. “Wait wait, why did you say the woman I drew might be here? And why did I believe you?”

“Because I’m usually right?”

Peter felt a small pang of unease dart across his mind despite himself. He trusted Ned’s intuition – it was rarely ever wrong. Most things that Ned had seen in his visions had come to pass, and Peter hoped that this mystery woman would be no different. He had to meet her, and not in a creepy way. He felt as if in another life or another timeline - should such a thing exist – they had been happy together. Unexpectedly, the image of himself giving the necklace to her featuring himself as a younger, less jaded version of himself, played through his mind. They were standing on a bridge in the night, in a place that was not their home yet was. He felt that anywhere she was became home. It was such an unexpected thought, and yet it was so strangely profound and vivid that it felt more like a memory.

He scanned the wreckage from afar once more, but most victims had long since been extricated from the pretzel made up of what was now just scrap metal. He knew who he was looking for. He was looking for that face he drew in his painting, the face that had been etched permanently into his mind for some time. Once more he recalled that figure silhouetted by long, dark curls that fell like a waterfall in the night. That necklace of a flower with a meaning he had yet to understand.

If she wasn’t there, he didn’t even know where to begin looking. New York was a massive city, full of seemingly infinite twists and turns he hadn’t discovered and probably never would.

He was taken aback by his own obsession with this strange girl. He’d never even truly met her.

His musings were broken by the sound of sirens echoing down the main boulevard, the final ambulances at last departing with the injured and deceased citizens of New York.

He wondered sadly if she was one of them.

A/N: SO, that was definitely different haha What'd you guys think? I enjoyed writing with a bit more of a 'serious' tone, but today's fill was a bit difficult for me, hence the shorter length as well. I also wanted to try something a bit different, so here we have it! See you back with another update tomorrow xx