#but cover art scary wears a lot of pink actually

[variksel]

i know that fanon (and canon? idk) scary has at least partially dyed pink hair but what if . thats not actually scary dyeing her hair black and pink, its a remnant of terry who had fully pink hair

scary dyeing her hair an artificial box-colour black, but for some reason leaving a stripe of pink. its faded and clearly not as well taken care of as the black in her hair but its still there

[languajix]

There’s a knock-knock-knock! at your cabin door. Luckily, whomever knocked waits for you to answer, so the cabin’s automated defenses don’t get him. Outside, you see a very familiar box turtle, shuffling nervously with something hidden behind his back. He brightens when you open the door.

“Mike! Nibbles! Hi!” Smokey greets, smiling up at you. He pulls one hand out to wave at the nibbles, then returns his attention to you. “I’m glad you’re here! I have something for you. Oh! And the nibbles, if they’re allowed.”

From behind his back, he pulls out a plate from the mess hall. On it lies 4 little cupcakes, each topped with colorful buttercream and sprinkles. “I don’t know if they’re allowed to have sugar,” Smokey admits. He pauses, then adds on, “Or if Angie is even old enough to eat cake.” He shrugs. “Honestly I figured if they can’t have them, you’ll be able to. Oh! And you have your own present too, one sec-” Holding the plate with one hand, Smokey carefully pulls something out of his shell. He shifts on his feet nervously, but smiles as he offers it up to you.

It’s a very carefully constructed arts and craft. On a laminated piece of paper is a colorful drawing depicting you, the nibbles, and Smokey in your cabin’s bathroom. The nibbles are all in a full tub, splashing happily and sending water everywhere. Bright pink bubbles adorn the page, highlighted with glitter as a nod to the incident that led to the bath time, and Mike’s mask is crafted with a little carefully cut piece of bright craft paper. Smokey’s mask is similar, but where Mike’s is crisp, clean cuts, Smokey’s is a little jagged with holes with his tails and singed just like it is in real life. Around the artwork is a frame of colorful popsicle sticks - some of which still have jokes visibly printed on them - held together with hot glue and decorated with fun stickers.

“It’s been really fun hanging out with you. It’s been fun hanging out with everyone, but you’re one of the first people I met and you always kept a really cool head when I probably didn’t deserve it-” Yeah, his brothers definitely would’ve killed him for the glitter bomb. Well. Specifically Donnie. And April. April definitely would’ve killed Smokey. “-and when things got kinda scary-” The crystals appearing. The bugs. The flooding. The flooding had been particularly scary for Smokey, even though it had turned out to be harmless. “-and hard.” The homesickness had been…rough.

Ugh, this was harder than he anticipated. He cleared his throat before starting again. “Anyways, uh, I know everyone is going home soon and I dunno what’ll happen, but I made this to remember me by. And as a thank you? It was kinda terrifying showing up here, not gonna lie, but you made it a lot less scary.” Try as he might, the thirteen year old on your doorstep sniffled, eyes shining. He’d rub them, to get rid of the gathering tears, but both of his hands were currently occupied with presents. He was happy to go home, he missed his family, but… “I’m gonna miss you a lot, Mike.”

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

"Thanks, Smokey. This art? A masterpiece. Gonna be fist-fighting the Louvre for it, and I'll win, because I love it the most." The present was incredibly thoughtful. In fact, it was one of the most thoughtful and personal things Mike had been gifted throughout the Reunion, and he took it gently. He'd have to keep it out of prying nephew hands, stow it away in his duffel before they could cover it with drool or accidentally crease it. He'd hang it up on the wall next to his bunk, but. Well.

He'd hang it up on the wall in his bedroom, at least.

At home.

Where he was going.

And he'd never see Smokey again.

"Actually," Mike said, "I had something for you, too." He rummaged around in his duffel and pulled out a very large bandana, something loose and breathable that Smokey could wear around his neck, as a skirt, over his shoulders, whatever. He'd tie dyed it orange and yellow, like Smokey's markings, like Smokey's shell. If Smokey wanted to hang it up on his wall, or throw it over the back of a chair or something, that would be fine with Mike. He wasn't the fabric police.

He took the cupcakes, then, too, and tried to muster up a smile. "I think Angie might be a little young, but I'm sure the others are gonna love these." He went to go set them down on the end of his bed, but little heads started popping up from the bedside nest with little grabby hands, and before he could blink Lee was trying to crawl out towards them, eyes on his prize. He swiped the nibbles, blanket nest and all, into his arm and heaved them up, walking back over towards Smokey. "No you don't, kiddos, we're saying goodbye first."

He blinked back tears. His voice got soft, no matter how much he tried to keep it steady. "You were one of my first friends, too, Smokey. When I was looking for Dee, you dropped everything to help me look for him, and for that I can't thank you enough. You're a great kid, with a great heart. I'm gonna miss you too. You and Sparky; being at camp, hanging with the both of you, has been more fun than I've had in a long time."

El and Angie picked up on the melancholy they were both feeling; Angie pat Mike clumsily on the wrist, while El leaned forward, looking for a hug from Smokey.

Dee, seeing a familiar face, poked his head out of the blanket scrunch that Mike was holding and blinked slowly, which Mike was going to interpret as a good thing. A greeting, maybe. Lee chirped and wiggled his own hello.

"Say goodbye, guys," Mike tells them softly, smiling at Smokey in a way that he hoped was comforting.

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

[jakekiszkaenthusiast]

songbird || buzzkill

warnings: swearing, arguing, jake being a bit of an asshole lmao.

author’s note: i don’t really have much to say except thank you everyone for reading chapter one, i really hope this series is good for you guys!!

“okay- before we go in, let’s discuss how things are going to be.” 

she and rory are sat outside of a large, unfamiliar building, still clipped into their car seats. they were meant to be there for 10 am sharp, but timing had never been either of their strong suits- they were always late, to everything, even though the building was in reality a short walk from robin’s apartment.

robin anxiously checks the time on her phone, before setting it down on the dashboard. her hands rested on the skirt of her dress, running the soft, flowing fabric between her fingers. this was one of her most favourite dresses- decorated with soft pink flowers and verdant leaves, the bodice was made of a delicate broderie anglaise, with a full skirt, stopping mid-calf. 

she always preferred to wear dresses. there was just something about them that made her feel soft, delicate and beautiful. the swish of her skirt with every step she took was something she adored, and actively detested wearing anything like pants.

“fine, shoot.” she replied.

“right. things are about to move really fast, and it’s gonna feel like you’ve been hit by a bus. we have a lot of ground to cover- photoshoots, going to his shows, going out and about with him; we basically just need you guys to be seen together constantly. and of course, the first course of action is actually meeting jake. that’s what we’re doing today, he’s inside right now.” 

rory’s final sentence sent a bolt of nervous energy through her stomach, and she had to hold herself still for a long moment, for fear of vomiting. rory watched her friend swallow thickly, gripping the side of the car door with white knuckles. 

“o-okay.” she whispered, closing her eyes tightly. 

“i know this is really, really scary. but i’m here, okay? every step of the way.” rory said, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. 

“let’s just get it over with. i know i said i wanted to do it, but the longer we sit here the more convinced i am that this is a mistake.” she spoke quickly, her tongue feeling fat in her mouth.

 “once you guys meet, things will be better. he’s nice, apparently.” 

“sure.” she humphed, undoing her seatbelt and stepping out into the slowly rising warmth of the day. 

despite the blast of cool air hitting her face as she entered the reception area, she couldn’t feel more warm. her raised heartbeat only added to her panicked state, and she twisted her sweating palms into her skirt. suddenly, her legs felt ready to buckle, but she was lucky to have the front desk to lean her weight onto.

 as rory checked them both in and received directions to the necessary floor, she stared blankly at a stack of business cards, feeling the urge to reorganise them into neat, straight lines. this was it- the defining moment for, well, the whole ‘relationship’. the elevator quietly thrummed to life as the two girls stepped inside, rory swiftly pressing a button, taking a nervous breath of her own. they stood in silence, neither one able to make conversation, not with the knowledge that life as they both knew it was about to change drastically. 

the doors slid open, revealing a well-decorated office space- art, framed photos of the band and the various awards they must have won over the years covered the walls, and a large table sat in the middle of the room. people she assumed to be the band’s team stood up at the sound of their footsteps, wide, phoney smiles upon their faces. 

she could see three men she recognised as jake’s bandmates stood to the side of the room with paper cups in their hands and apprehensive eyes watching her every move. she gave them a small, timid smile, and the only one to return it was…she wanted to say his name was sam? 

introductions were made, her assistant doing almost all of the talking. a single, reassuring hand rested on her shoulder as rory made up an excuse for their tardiness. the man she guessed was jake’s manager waved off the explanation with a carefree hand, telling them he was just glad they showed up. 

“we weren’t so sure you were going to appear.” he laughed, and her lips tugged up into a forced smile. she didn’t find it funny, but politeness was necessary in situations like this. not that she had ever been in a situation like this, but she had to assume. 

“jake is just through here, in one of our more quiet meeting rooms. go on, go right ahead.” his manager lead them through a short hallway, resting his hand on the handle of a door to their right. 

the door cracked open just slightly, and she felt rory’s hand on the square of her back- whether it was a sweet gesture to remind her that she was still with her, or to push her into the room, she wasn’t so sure. 

“we’ll be out here, waiting for you two.” 

“wait- it’s just us in there?” she pauses, resisting against rory’s hand, which was definitely trying to shove her into the room. 

“yes, we thought it would be best for you two to chat, get to know each other, discuss the situation in private, away from everyone.” 

“you’ll be okay, rob. just step right in.” rory whispered, and she whipped her head to glare daggers into her face. 

she brushed rory’s hand off of her, sighing a frustrated gust of air from her mouth, before pushing the door open and stepping inside. 

jake was sitting with his chin resting on his fist, staring at the table with a sullen look on his face. he wore a light yellow linen shirt, rumpled and unbuttoned down to his navel; he wore long necklaces, and a well-loved bracelet wrapped around his wrist, clearly once white, but now a dirtied, almost grey colour. 

he took a while to look up, as if he was convincing himself to do it. when his eyes did flick over to look at her, her heart picked up its pace even more than before- his stare was heavy, laden with displeasure and reproach. 

“hi.” she says quietly, forcing her feet to move closer to the table, begging her hands to do something. she takes a chair opposite him, dragging it out and awkwardly perching herself on it. looking over at him, she found him already staring with that same, displeased glare in his eyes. 

he remained silent, pursing his lips. she cleared her throat, darting her eyes around the room in hopes of avoiding his stare, but no matter where she looked she was achingly aware of his eyes boring into her face, silently judging and analysing her. 

“so.” she says with uncertainty, forcing herself to look him in the eye. 

he still doesn’t answer, and she can’t help but feel helpless. if he wasn’t going to speak, how are they supposed to get to know each other? 

“do you- do you have any, uhm, favourite musicians?” she stutters and stumbles over her words, aware of how stupid and awkward her question was before it even passed her lips. 

she couldn’t just sit there, though. she needed something to break the ice, to crack his barely-contained anger and guide them into a conversation. 

he takes in a deep breath, flexing his hand against the wooden table. 

“listen- i don’t want this any more than you do, so there’s no need to talk, or even be pleasant towards each other, okay?” his voice is husky and low, matching his dark eyes. 

“o-okay.” 

she opens her mouth to speak again, her eyebrows creased with confusion, but jake quickly pushes his chair backwards, shoving himself out of it and onto his feet. he swiftly leaves the room, slamming the door behind him. 

she releases a tense breath, eyes wide with panic. what now? does she stay here in hopes that he comes back? 

a knock sounds after a long five minutes, and rory pokes her head cautiously through the door, an apologetic look on her face. 

“everything okay?” 

she buries her face in her hands, resting her elbows on the table. tears of anxiety wanted to fall from her eyes, but she squeezes them tightly shut, blowing a stuttering breath from her mouth. 

“he’s an asshole, rory.” 

“he’s just- angry. he’ll soften over time.” 

“what if he doesn’t, though? what if i have to spend months pretending to be in love with someone who hates me?” she slams her hands down on the table, the noise echoing through the room. 

“i don’t know, hon. things will work themselves out, and you’ll forget this even happened. he’ll come around, robbie.” rory tries to sound comforting, but she can’t help but feel even more hopeless at her friend’s words. 

if this was how things were gonna be, she wasn’t so sure if she could handle it. 

••• 

robin’s head hurt. 

trying to listen to rory’s incessant nagging and ignore the throbbing sensation in her left eye was a task robin found was soundly kicking her ass- every twinge made her wince, every light was too bright for her over-sensitive eyes, every sound much too loud. 

“and remember, you have to actually be near him. you can’t ignore him. are you listening to me?” 

she pushed the heel of her palm into her forehead, looking up at her assistant with bleary, hazy eyes. her makeup just barely took away the ashen colour of her face- almost ridiculous amounts of bronzer had saved her this evening, and gave the outward impression to anyone who didn’t yet know her that she was perfectly fine. 

of course, if she hadn’t spent all week drinking too much wine and barely sleeping, she would be feeling a lot better in this moment. now that she was actually required to leave the house and look semi-decent, she regretted those lost hours of sleep, tsking at her dark circles and pale skin. 

there had been a feeling of dark, disgruntled heaviness fluttering over her head for the six days that had passed since meeting jake. she, as she so often did, hid away from the world to recover, to soften her angered mind and step back- take time to create music, write poetry, drink, relax. 

robin called it recuperating. rory called it sulking. 

“i said, are you listening to me?” rory repeated, tapping her foot against the wooden floor. 

“yeah, yeah- i’m sorry. this migraine is just- it’s kicking my ass.” 

“i know, but we gotta go soon. pop some advil, pretend you’re having the time of your life and be. nice.” 

“why should i have to be nice? he was the one who stormed out like a fucking child when all i did was say hi.” 

“and who was the one who shut herself away for a week, ignoring calls and clearly having a tantrum?” rory countered, pushing herself up and off the back of robin’s couch. 

the two were clustered inside robin’s tiny apartment. the smell of the dinner they had forgotten about in the midst of getting ready lingered around the room, the dishes sat piled in the kitchen sink. 

robin ran her hands over her skirt, picking at a loose thread and tugging on it. it was a nervous habit ingrained into her from as long as she could remember, and she often didn’t notice the fidgeting anymore. 

“i just- i can’t do this thing if he won’t cooperate with me. i don’t wanna do it any more than he does- why was he so rude?” robin sighed, adjusting the pendant on her necklace while her friend paced the small room. 

“he’ll warm up to you, and you’ll warm up to him. i don’t know, maybe you’ll even enjoy this.” 

robin scoffed, “please, as if i’ll ever enjoy this, or even like him, for that matter.”, and turned on her heel to give herself the final once-over in the mirror. 

it’ll do, she thought to herself, noting her glum and reluctant face. 

••• 

as she stepped out of the car, robin hissed. 

almost in response to the sight before her, the pounding in her head increased until it was all she could stand to think about. 

jake and his two brothers stood outside of the bar, wearing matching faces of trepidation. the building practically bounced with energy, a party raging from within which robin would rather miss out on. bright flashes of light made her wince, but the look in jake’s eyes was what made her feel like throwing up. 

he was glaring with such an ugly scowl she wondered how he could ever resemble that startlingly beautiful man in the document she looked over weeks ago. she felt the sudden need to hide- to scurry away and take cover from that dark, dangerous glint in his eyes. 

the quiet, unfamiliar greetings between a group of people who did not yet know each other or know how to approach the situation at hand were exchanged. she smiled an awkward, pained smile to josh and sam, and very pointedly avoided looking at jake altogether. she muttered a mere ‘hello’ to him from the corner of her mouth, clasping her hands together across her abdomen. 

rory cleared her throat when all three boys make their way towards the door. robin hadn’t even noticed her friend slink out of the car behind her, and quickly melted into a less tense version of herself at the feeling of a soft hand pressed into her back. 

“i just need to speak to robbie and jake, alone.”

“don’t call me that in front of them.” robin interjected with a hurried whisper, feeling her cheeks heat up. 

josh and sam stiffen, casting nervous glances in jake’s direction. they clearly had no idea how to react or behave what with the strange circumstances of robin’s presence, nor how to treat jake with his stormy mood. josh seemed the most reluctant to move. his brow set into a defiant furrow and his shoulder bumped  jake’s, just barely putting himself in front of his twin brother. 

rory waved the men off with a waggle of her fingers in their faces and a firm but still teasing, “you two run along now.”  

sam took her send-off with an amused roll of his eyes and stepped towards the door, but josh lingered. he gave jake a hard look in which something not a single person alive could ever work out for themselves transpired, a silent conversation punctuated only by the most minuscule of twitches in their eyebrows and gentle shrugs of their shoulders. whatever they had communicated seemed to satisfy josh, and he stalked off into the bar- though not without a sly, accusing look shot towards robin. 

there’s a momentary pause, where the awkward tension between jake and robin was so present and so violently there it should be screaming and jumping up and down- it made her throat feel tight. she refused to look at him, and he refused to look away. 

“okay. both of you, eyes on me. i know neither of you want to do this, but unfortunately you both agreed to it. that means you listen to me, and i’m telling you the rules for tonight.” rory clapped her hands together, and used a voice not too dissimilar to that of a preschool teacher dealing with sulking, petulant children. 

they both hummed in lieu of a verbal response, scuffing their feet along the floor, shoving clenched fists into pockets. rory sighed, shaking her long blonde hair out of her face before steeling herself and carrying on. 

“neither of you is to be without the other tonight, okay? this is a big press event, and as the supportive guy coming out to celebrate your friend’s album release, jake, you will need to take every photo opportunity presented to you.

that means the both of you acting like a couple- a real one, who stand near each other and everything. make sense?” 

again, neither of them elected to give a proper reply, simply nodding their heads, while simultaneously feeling icy-cold dread leech through from their stomachs to their throats. 

“now, i need you both to stop glaring at me and hold hands as you walk in together.” rory flapped her hands towards their bodies, urging them to step closer to one another. 

“go on, get within three feet of each other, i dare you.” she was poking fun at them now, a mischievous glint in her eyes and a smile she barely bit back dazzling her face. 

“i know you can do it- there we go! now, take her hand- yep- no- robbie, stop getting all stiff. stop being a baby and hold his hand!”

robin had never focused more energy into a facial expression than she did in that moment. she miserably wished she had the supernatural capabilities to make a person vanish into thin air, and hoped, maybe if she put enough venom behind her glare, it would become possible for her to cause such a thing. 

“stop calling me robbie.” she hissed through her teeth, so distracted with interrupting rory’s fun that she lost all sense of her surroundings. 

feeling jake gingerly grasp her hand in his sent a shockwave through her body, and she felt a very strong urge to pull away from him. his fingers pressed into her skin, as if to cement her to him, while his eyes flashed with an unfamiliar emotion. any emotion belonging to jake would be unknown and uncharted territory for robin, she mused- how could she know what the quirk of an eyebrow, or the twitch of a nose meant for a total and complete stranger? she couldn’t read him, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. 

she faltered for the briefest of moments underneath his touch, still gently trying to pull away without much conviction. there wasn’t much either of them could do, so she probably shouldn’t try to fight it. anyhow, robin had a sneaking suspicion if she tried anything close to an escape, rory would hunt her down with the tenacity and determination of a bloodhound. 

“well done, you guys! you won’t get a gold star but you can drink in there, so get your asses inside. bye, bye.” rory’s sarcasm almost distracted robin, interrupting her rolling eyes to flash a panicked look back at her friend. 

“wait, you aren’t coming in with us?” robin asked, feeling jake tug on her hand and lead her towards the door. 

“no, no- you’ll be fine! just play nice.” 

“wait- rory, no.” she protested, trying and failing to resist jake’s much stronger hold on her hand. 

it was too late. the door closed behind robin, and she watched her friend, her only solace in this entirely terrifying situation, walk away from the sidewalk. she let out a quiet moan of displeasure, feeling her face crumble as her headache worsens. 

somehow, they find josh and sam. the crowd of people is so massive she feels as though she can hardly breathe, and almost felt compelled to clutch tightly onto jake’s rough hand. his grip on her had slipped in the time it took them to walk through the building, until she was just holding onto his thumb and trying hard not to let him shake her off- she was almost certain that was what he was trying to do, but she wasn’t going to let him do that so easily. 

“you made it- did you get busted by her assistant?” sam joked, pushing a pint glass filled with beer towards jake’s free hand. 

the brothers make idle chatter, waving to people they recognised, sipping their drinks. they seemed comfortable here- there was no halt in their breaths, no reservations in their eyes. the only moments she saw them falter was when their eyes would sweep over her face, as if they had temporarily forgotten her sequestered to the side of the table. 

someone approaches the table, and the three men suddenly stand a little taller. smiles plaster their faces, while they quickly abandon their drinks to take the new man into fast hugs. jake is the only one who doesn’t move- still connected to you by his thumb, he merely lifts his free hand in a friendly wave.

“and who is this, jake?” the man asks, and her chest feels tight again. 

jake swallows thickly, scanning over her and darting his tongue out to wet his bottom lip. 

“this is my- uhm, this is- she’s my…”

he can’t seem to get the words out. he mumbles, clearing his throat continuously, while fumbling with the hem of his shirt. a nervous habit, she supposed. 

“…i’m his girlfriend, robin.” 

 she wasn’t sure why, but to actually speak those words out loud, to actively lie to someone none the wiser, left a hollow feeling in her chest. she felt guilty when the man lifted his eyebrows in a knowing fashion, and even more guilty when the man clapped jake on the back and told him he’d chosen well. 

jake seemed to think it smart to really sell the image of them being a couple, quickly stepping close to her and resting a hand on her waist. neither one of them knew how to respond to the contact and moved stiffly, as if they weren’t quite programmed for that type of thing. she tried to manoeuvre her body closer to his and stood on his foot as she did so- jake tried to wrap his hand around to rest on her stomach, and she tried her hardest to pretend it felt normal. 

they both smiled fake smiles until the man left, still frozen in this strange, uncomfortable position with his chest pressed against her back, and her hand gripping his wrist. to an outsider, it would look like an affectionate gesture, but she was simply waiting for an opportunity to rip his hand away from her body. 

“don’t touch my stomach.” she spat, freeing herself from his arms and grabbing the table to steady her suddenly dizzy head. 

“try not to stand on my toes again, ok?” he sneered back. 

“i’m- uhm, i’ll go get a drink.” she speaks after a tense pause, nodding her head at the empty spot on the table just in front of her. 

“we didn’t know what you’d want, so you’ll have to go and buy your own.” josh muttered to her, giving her a cold, uninviting look. 

robin nodded and let go of her tight grip on the edge of the table, breathing a quiet sigh of relief to get away from jake- he was stood so close to her that their shoulders would bump every time either one of them moved, and it made her feel sick. she scurried off to the bar, chewing anxiously on her bottom lip at the thought of drinking alcohol, or being drunk in any capacity while surrounded by such a tense atmosphere. she didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of jake’s judgemental eyes, nor did she want to say the wrong thing and give any of the boys ammo to pounce on her, as josh seemed to be waiting for a reason to do so. 

she orders a coke, choosing the safest option she could think of, before finding herself paralysed. the front door of the bar looked so tempting, so easy to walk through and slip away from this uncomfortable situation- she could just run away, escape the tension and sleep off the headache she was sporting. 

her eyes flick over to jake, and he’s already staring at her. he cocks his head to the side and shakes it, as if he knew exactly what she was considering. she purses her lips and tries to ignore jake waving her back over with an inclined chin. 

clearly, she takes far too long, because soon she isn’t alone. jake stomps over to her, puffing an angry breath and getting far too close to her. 

“we’re taking a photo, you need to be in it.” he huffed. 

“no.” she says stubbornly, firmly decided that she was not doing anything he told her to, rory’s fury be damned. 

“listen- i don’t want to either, but you have to, we have to.” 

“no.” she repeats, quirking an eyebrow. 

jake sighs loudly, looking off to the side and shooting a smile at someone she didn’t recognise. when he looks back at her, his face melted into something she could only call an attempt at a smile- his lips twisted, and his eyebrows smoothed out, but his eyes stayed the same. hard, dark and angry. 

 “these are my friends, you can’t embarrass me in front of them, robin-”

“-oh, so you do know my name?” she interrupts, laughing humourlessly. 

“shut the fuck up. i don’t like lying to everyone, but i have to, and you’re making it really fucking hard to pretend i can even stand to be near you.” 

“fine, i’ll leave.” 

“i’m not supposed to be seen without you.” he takes a step forward, blocking her body from the front door she was so desperate to run through. 

“i don’t care, in all honesty.” 

she makes a step past his body, towards the door, but he has other plans. his hand darts out and wraps around her bicep, squeezing so tightly her fingers tingle. she makes a small noise of effort as she attempts to slip out from his grasp, and he quickly pushes them both back into the bar. 

“don’t embarrass me, robin. play nice.” he mutters, casting an eye out to the people around them. how they didn’t notice this tussle going on, she didn’t know.

he grabs her drink from behind her and takes a sip, ignoring robin’s frustrated grunts. he makes a face, looking down at the glass before back at her face. 

“you aren’t even drinking alcohol? buzzkill.” he scoffs, and she rolls her eyes so hard her head throbs again. 

jake uses his grip on her arm to tug her away from the bar and back through the room, wrapping his free arm, still clutching her glass, around her waist and pulling her flush to his side. 

“now, stop being a little bitch and smile.” he whispers against the shell of her ear, as they approach the table. 

she forces her face into what she hoped was a contented smile, pressing her cheek against jake’s in a move far too familiar and close to a man who had just angered her to the point of wishing she had those same supernatural abilities as before to explode him into nothingness. if she could only just squint and use powers to make him cry, or feel any sort of discomfort- anything close to how she felt in this moment. 

oh, how she wished it was possible. 

[dealwithwarlords]

Ikemen Vampire and their Godly parents

Inspired by Percy Jackson.

Mozart: Apollo

Son of the God of light, of sun, of music, of truth, of poetry, and arts. May not be a leader but set trends. I will start with the most obvious fact and that is Mozart’s talent for music, as all of us know Apollo’s children are exceptional for the arts in general. Mozart is not someone that tends to laugh frequently but as a good children of Apollo, you can hear the sound of what it could be beautiful Bells when he does, and a smile as warm as the sun. Because of his prolonged time on practicing he sometimes has little to none sunlight, that makes him really moody (more than he already is) so taking some walks or playing with Schelm in the garden are necessary for his health even if he claims to not need it.

Not all of Apollo’s children are blond, some of them have physical traits that are related to the sun such as freckles, warm skin subtones, and even if their hair is black if you see it in the sun light you can see a golden or brownish reflection on their hair, in Mozart’s case if we see carefully there’s also warm subtones such as beige, and pink :

While other white haired characters have cold undertones like blue:

Because of Mozart’s incredible fair skin it’s easy for him to get freckles. Apollo’s children are lie detectors, as they say, you cannot cover the sun with your thumb, Mozart knows from miles away when someone is lying.

Apollo’s children are scary when they get mad, be aware of what they could do when they lose control, just like Mozart, it may seem like he’s always angry but he actually isn’t, when he’s angry you will know.

Apollo’s kids are naturally over dramatic, they turn everything into inspiration for music, plays, etc. remember that time when Mozart said that dry things like cookies are his “worst enemy”? Just because Marie Antoinette gave him a bunch of them, he didn’t know what to do and decided it was a good idea to stuff everything in his mouth...

To what MC finished laughing because ... bruh 😂

Isaac: Athena

Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, knowledge and warfare. Children of Athena are gifted with a sharp and brilliant mind. Do I have to say more ? Isaac is a genius, he has an incredible hunger for knowledge, and curiosity that makes him discover the most incredible things in this world. Children of Athena enjoy reading a good book and most of the time you can see them lost in their thoughts.

We know that Athena’s children can be street smart and book smart, the majority likes to be street smart since they already have a facility to keep info from books, but in the case of our apple boy he’s chosen to be book smart, this kind of children tend to have difficulties to relate to others and create deep bonds since their brilliant minds make them feel detached from the world that surrounds them.

Napoleon : Zeus

Charismatic

Natural leaders

Children of Zeus are the leaders struggling with the pressure of being leaders. Since they are such a reliable people, their friends usually seek for them when they need help, maybe they are not as wise as a child of Athena, but their empathy makes them good advisers too. They’re strong and resilient.

Serious but yet humorous

Assertive

Children of Zeus are prideful, they like to tease others but when the tables turn they don’t really know how to react (not like they are doormats but more like in a teasing way something like pikachu face: “you ... you just teased the son of the lightening.. right in front of my salad” that kind of reaction. It’s actually kind of cute 😂

They can be flighty or warm, depends of the person they are dealing with and their mood.

Physically traits could be grey, blue or in some cases green eyes. Children of Zeus usually have gray hairs since a young age.

Arthur: Dionysus

God of wine, madness, ecstasy and theatre

Children of Dionysus are sociable, charismatic and the life of the party. The ones with all the connections. They’re the friend that everyone references when they say ‘I know a guy’ and we all know that Arthur knows or at least recognizes a lot of faces in Paris.

Children of Dionysus are not only party people, they are really clever too, people usually don’t give them credit for how smart they really are, but they prefer to keep that intelligence hidden ‘cause they don’t want to intimidate anyone, after all the party needs to continue !

They are the ones you can always count on to have a good time. The best telling jokes and reading the atmosphere of a room. they are the ones you call when you’re upset and just want to forget about reality for a night.

Stubborn, determined and chaotic nature.

Most of Dionysus children are empaths, that’s how they can feel the mood so well and make everyone have a good time, nevertheless if they don’t have a control over this ability it can be bad for their health, appropriating other people's problems or feeling guilty if they cannot help their friends as a good “host” would do.

Another thing, Arthur really seems to enjoy alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, etc. besides coffee.

Talking about physical traits Dionysus children rock semi long hair, this chill and laid back appearance is the signature of the god of party and wine. Even when they wear formal clothes you can see this relaxed look on them.

I remember one time I read a post where it said that Dionysus children often have the nicest shoes in the room (idk why? 😂) BUT DUDE that’s true, there was also other post where you guys were talking about who had the best taste in shoes and guess who was one of the best fashionistas 👌👌😂

Also, olive undertones, in hair, skin, etc. if we see Arthur’s hair for example, sometimes it doesn’t appear to be entirely blue, it also has olive undertones:

Jean: Hades

God of the underworld

Talking about children of hades we can see that they are not only the “quiet ones” but also people with a sharp intuition. They observe everything and everyone, quietly. Tend to hold grudges and feel out of place, they stay a lot of time inside their heads and because of this children of hades usually have a hard time finding their “meaning in life” or “their place in this world”. Since they are deep they have a difficult time relating to others, meanwhile everyone is talking about the trends of the year, children of Hades are in other Chanel .

They like to be by their own, or maybe with someone that actually understands them.

I think most of the time people only focus on their “dark personality” and forget to appreciate other traits like the incredible willpower that they have to achieve anything that attracts their attention.

Physically talking, as we all know, children of Hades have dark tones in their hair, eyes and skin tone. There’s something cold in their appearance that makes them look intimidating and mysterious

Vincent : Apollo

Do I really need to explain this one ? 😂😂

I will just cover some facts that relate to Apollo’s children since Vincent is like the PERFECT example of what is being an Apollo’s child.

I think Vincent has a BIG potential to learn any instrument that he likes, also archery but I doubt it since he wouldn’t like to hurt anyone.

Is easy for Children of Apollo to tan, just imagine our angel with a beautiful sexy tan 🙌🏻😫✨

EMBODIMENT OF LIGHT

also, Apollo’s children are healers, and Vincent wants not only to help but if possible heal everyone’s suffer, as we can see in his route, he wants to help MC with her anxiety to return to her time nevertheless he’s never too pushy and waits until MC feels prepared to open up to him.

Apollo’s children are people pleasers, in a mini drama, Vicent tells Leonardo that if there was a girl in the mansion he wouldn’t know how to behave, since he only wants to give a good impression.

Leonardo : Hephaestus

Children of Hephaestus , Their minds are constantly working on something and their ideas running wild.

They have SO many ideas that they have dozens of project running AT THE SAME TIME, they can even compete with children of Athena.

Some of this children may not be geniuses but out of their curiosity and hunger for knowledge is because they can become worthy opponents to the other god or goddesses children.

Masters on none, but master of many.

They also got that freaking cheeky smile of their father.

Intelligent, good looking and good jokes.

Physically talking children of Hephaestus have strength in their upper body, just like their father, they have enough strength in their hands, arms and back to carry or forge any metal and turn it into a weapon (or any creation but you get me) what usually makes them have (on males) big shoulders or backs and in females, they have shorter but stronger fingers.

Comte : Aphrodite

Who was the one that fell in love in the middle of war ????

YUP this guy ☝️

Children of Aphrodite are hopeless romantic, they find beauty and love in the darkest places and times. They are the ones that you go for advice (not the kind of advice you would go to Athena, but one that helps your heart to find a solution).

They like luxury and aesthetic stuff, Comte with all the money that he has could be living his life like Leo, relaxing, giving little attention to appearances, etc. BUT NO

DADDY COMTE NEEDS TO WEAR HIS DIOR PAJAMAS AND RELAX IN A ROMAN BATH THANK YOU. It’s not like he’s superficial, but he just likes to pamper himself.

Children of Aphrodite have charm speak, Idk you but every time Comte speaks is like velvet for my ears. Most of the time people only see Aphrodite’s children as superficial, not so intelligent and unnecessary at battle but they are dead wrong, actually they are really observant and can be manipulative since they understand and almost feel others people emotions and intentions.

Even though their mother is the Goddess of Love, they can hide their emotions pretty well

It is known that Aphrodite’s children can speak fluently French and Oh look at that Comte is French, coincidence ? I DONT THINK SO.

Theo: Ares

God of war

Children of Ares are topically seen as this really short-tempered guy /girl but there’s more about them. I’m gonna start with the basic personality traits, Children of Ares are stubborn as hell, does it reminds you of Theo ? 😅 they are also really protective of those they love, it may not appear like it but they don’t like injustice, so when they see someone that’s being a jerk they fight with everything they got, sometimes they exaggerate tho.

HATES GOSSIP they like to say thing straight to the point and don’t have filter, sometimes they may seem rude but they are just saying the truth

Doesn’t take shit from anyone

Determinant and never gives up, they also give (its rare but they do) advices when they see you really struggling with something, an example of this could be when (in Leo’s route) MC had a hard time deciding what to choose between staying in 19th century France or coming back to her time with Leo, to what Theo noticed her struggling and gave her a brief but nice advice.

HARD ON THE OUTSIDE SOFT ON THE INSIDE

Children of Ares are aware that they intimidate their siblings, that’s why they become silent and prefer to stay in their cabin, but if you want them to open up to you, a nice smile and kind personality would be a great combo to go with them.

Children of Ares are really intelligent, after all their father is also a strategist.

Shakespeare: Hades

Again ... do I have to explain this one ? 😂

Shakespeare is deep af. Children of Hades see the deepest and darkest things in life, that’s why they tend to feel depressed, but because of that they also can see the brightest parts. This contrast usually is embodied in an artistic way, it may be in plays, dancing, singing, stories, etc.

The goth friend

Children of Hades are one of the kindest siblings among all God and Goddesses out there since they know what loneliness feels like.

guess who feels like that ? YUP Will does

they like to be alone but not lonely.

Dazai: Dionysus

Dionysus was known to be a Reckless, crazy god that resembled freedom and fun. Children of Dionysus are usually found smiling for ... no specific reason, some could say is even scary or suspicious, like if they were drunk 😅.

Dionysus has parties where everyone dances and can fall into madness and ecstasy. Dazai is a sensual man, he has this aura that is just so appealing and comfortable to be with, but he is still a mystery, just like his father. Dyonisus was a god that usually doesn’t get in other’s people problems but it is known that he has a lot of powers, and the majority remains a mystery to humans.

Dazai is someone that craves to feel and be loved, but is scared to be rejected for who he really is, instead of that he prefers to show the “clown facade” that everyone likes, after all is easier to have “company” in a party full of people that you don’t know but they don’t really care about you than opening up to someone and being vulnerable.

People usually describe children of Dionysus as “crazy”

They are normally underestimated, but they have an incredible ability for the arts, they create the most crazy yet deep monologues.

These people tend to get obsessed over things they like, this is somewhat bad for them since they can get addicted to things like alcohol, tobacco, etc.

Talking about physical traits, Dazai is like the perfect definition of a Dionysus child, chill appearance, medium long hair, PURPLE HAIR, likes (maybe a little too much) alcohol, smooth voice.

Sebastian : Demeter

Goddess of agriculture, fertility, nature, and seasons.

Children of Deméter have this motherly figure in their group of friends.

Natural protectors.

Great cooks

They can be really strict at scolding their friends, family etc. but they just want the best for their loved ones.

Children of Deméter aren’t really aggressive, but don’t get in their wrong side which would be trying to hurt their family, because they go havoc.

They have an amazing intuition, just like a good mother.

Their personalities are calm and collected, they may panic on the inside when something bad happens but never let it show.

Deméter children are so aware of the details they are the ones that give the best gifts since they know deeply their loved ones, what they like and what they don’t, again, like a good mother.

Faust: Hecate

Goddess of magic, witchcraft, ghosts, necromancy and crossroads.

Children of Hecate are really intelligent and have an amazing memory, after all they have to memorize dozens of spells.

They usually have lots of books, since they have to know the functionality and sources of the magic they are using.

CU RI O US

They may appear frightening since they face and aesthetic aren’t really welcoming sometimes, but they are actually pretty nice.

SNAKE PERSONALITY

cunning and ambitious

Children of Hecate know how to handle necromancy, which makes them closer to death, that’s why talking about this kind of topics doesn’t scare them.

Children of Hecate can be obsessive, they can stay all day and all night practicing their witchcraft, PLS SOMEONE TAKE THEM OUT OF THEIR ROOM.

They have a different type of aesthetic, maybe is not totally GOTH but there’s something religious or spiritual there, they believe that there is a superior power in the world.

Incredibly good teachers. They may not be as charismatic as Apollo kids, but they are patient and good listeners.

Calm but can be sadists too so be careful.

Vlad : Nemesis

Children of Nemesis, as their mother, tend to hold grudges and is really difficult for them to forget those who wrong them.

They can go ExTrEMe lengths in their revenge, elaborate plans that doesn’t matter how much time they take, they will do it.

Maybe scarier than Children of Ares.

Yandere personality who ?

They are really observant and intelligent, they have the ability to find Achilles ankle of any of their enemies.

Manipulative, that gives them the ability to awake rage on the ones they want like allies.

Curiously children of Nemesis have a strong sense of justice and balance, and they will do anything to carry on with their ideals, even if that means taking extreme measures.

Physically talking there’s always red on them, and I’m talking about red hair, liking for red color, and oh ! Look at that, who has red eyes ??

Charles : Tyche

Goddess of chance, fate and fortune.

I really had a hard time deciding for this one, and I don’t know a lot about him but from what I’ve seen I can say he’s a Tyche’s child.

Children of Tyche are extremely friendly and enthusiastic.

J O K E S

very hyperactive

Smarter than they look, observant and empaths, also they like to prank people like a pixie would do.

Pretty smiles, and they giggle like a lot.

Usually green eyes.

Obviously they like to gamble or if the other participants doesn’t like to, Children of Tyche conform with just playing

They love nature and animals.

A kid in an adult body

Don’t let their cute smiles, dimples or freckles fool you, they can be manipulative.

Idk why but I imagine Tyche kids with fairy like features, maybe that’s why lots of them have a short height.

[cursedcataclysm]

I should be doing my APUSH work right now but if I have to read one more sentence about Columbus I will tear out my own eyeballs so-

Summer Camp AU

feat. Dream Team, BBH, Sleepy Bois, Tommy and Tubbo, Fundy and Eret

DREAM 

One of the boy’s cabins counselors, helps out at the waterfront sometimes

Has this white snapback hat with a black smiley face embroidered on the front, refuses to take it off, somehow never gets dirty

Also this lime green sweatshirt, he wears it around his waist if it gets too hot though

Often paired with George as co-counselors, they’re absolutely chaotic together but surprisingly good at leading the campers, they’ve got the whole play-fighting dynamic going on and nobody is really sure if they’re dating or not, they wear each other’s clothes so often they just share a dresser at this point

Whenever there’s a spider or a bug in the cabin Dream is the designated one to kill it (or take it outside)

Actually really close friends with Techno but they have a whole fake rivalry going on at camp for the ✨ drama  ✨ (not really, they just got in an argument once and it spread across the entire camp, now it’s basically just part of camp lore that they’re ‘enemies’)

They play it up a ton at camp events and team games, but they almost always sneak out to the docks at midnight after and talk for hours

Dream and Sapnap together almost always means trouble

They’ve been friends for as long as anyone can remember

The shenanigans they get up to usually ends with them both on kitchen duty

Loves climbing trees?? Can be found just chilling in trees sometimes

Known for being a really cool camp counselor though, intimidatingly tall and won’t hesitate to step in when breaking up a fight or disagreement, has a way with kids

GEORGE

Also a boy’s counselor

George has these awful white sunglasses he won from an arcade on a staff trip, nobody has ever seen him without them, he wears them on his face when he’s in a bad mood (only Dream can talk to him without being ignored when this happens)

George is known for being a stickler for the rules, but surprisingly he’s often the counselor who starts the annual prank war, he somehow managed to dye Dream’s hair bright green in his sleep once 

A bit awkward with the campers, but he loosens up around Dream and Sapnap

Constantly steals Dream’s green sweatshirt

Makes Dream and Sapnap friendship bracelets once, is a flustered mess when he gives the bracelets to them, muttering excuses about them looking terrible because he’s colorblind, Dream and Sapnap wear them on their wrists at all times (even though the colors clash just a little bit) 

SAPNAP

Also a boy’s counselor, hosts the game nights in the main lodge every week

Has a white bandana tied around his forehead, Dream yanks it down over his eyes sometimes and they end up chasing each other around the camp for hours (and then they end up on kitchen duty, obviously)

KING of the ropes course

Spends most of his time there, actually

Ends up in the infirmary more times than he probably should after trying to do obstacles blindfolded or without a harness

Can and will carry a grudge for months on end

References a meme or vine every other sentence

Unironically wears crocs

Starts water balloon fights with Dream every opportunity he gets

Yells ‘parkour’ every time he does something cool on the ropes course, even if it’s not actually parkour

Loves giving out hugs, very physically affectionate, will sling his arm around your shoulders or punch you gently on the arm

Wrestles with Dream

Which leads to kitchen duty

BBH

In charge of sports/archery/rifle range

One of the nicest counselors, always chides the other staff (and campers, sometimes,) for cursing, helps out in the infirmary whenever he can

Campers trust him with their secrets, he knows a little bit about almost everyone but he’d never let any of it slip, he’s well aware of how important it is to the campers to have someone they can absolutely trust

Helps sort out disagreements between campers, he’s probably the best one with kids

Scarily good with a gun, holds most of the top camp records

Constantly reminding people to wear sunscreen, carries around three different types in his bag

Also a bunch of individually wrapped muffins, he gives them to campers if they want a snack

Definitely the worst at telling ghost stories

Has a lot of survival skills, will teach campers how to tie ten different types of knots in his free time

Only one who consistently wears his staff t-shirt

WILBUR

Everyone’s favorite counselor, at least according to him

Often paired with Techno

Grey beanie for the aesthetic, but also because his hair is absolutely a mess and if he shoves a hat on it it immediately looks better

Carries his guitar with him most of the time

Went through the ropes course one time with his guitar on him because of a dare

Really good at telling scary stories, but usually plays campfire songs on his guitar instead (sometimes with a kazoo if he’s in the right mood)

Absolutely torches his marshmallows and insists it’s the only right way to eat them, once ate a flaming marshmallow whole (for fun, apparently)

Coffee addict

Pretty much spends the entirety of breakfast at the coffee table

When Wilbur was a CIT he gets this black bandana from Philza, he never wears it but keeps it tied around his bed frame every summer, until one staff campfire when Tommy is a CIT. They’re all sitting around a fire and singing and joking around and Tommy surprises Wilbur when he knows all of the lyrics to one of Wilbur’s songs, and Wilbur impulsively gives Tommy the bandana (Tommy makes a joke about how it’s ‘rather plain, innit?’, Wilbur rolls his eyes and punches him on the arm, they both know how much it means to Tommy though)

Kind of sarcastic, mean in a nice way 

TECHNO

Technically a counselor but nobody knows where he is most of the time

Has pastel pink hair and will 100% help kids dye their hair too, but not before a long lecture about bleach damage and regret

Also a pink face mask (for fashion), only takes it off to eat or swim

The best at making friendship bracelets, it gives him something to do with his hands

Teaches the campers how to make friendship bracelets in the art cabin

Gives his closest friends a pink and black friendship bracelet (it’s not confirmed to be him, they just show up on your bed overnight, but everybody knows it’s Techno)

One legendary summer, Dream and Techno were paired as camp counselors for a cabin, the campers from that year all have matching pink and green bracelets, there’s still whispers about what went down then

A god at toasting his marshmallows to perfection, golden and crispy on all sides with just the right amount of melting

Gets the best care packages from home (so many cookies!!)

TOMMY

CIT with Tubbo

Only his second year at camp, but he hit it off really well with all the other staff and Philza so they offered him a position as CIT

(which he accepted, obviously)

Likes to claim it’s for all the free stuff and staff perks but secretly really wants to learn how to be a good counselor

Curses like a sailor though

BBH has to threaten to take away his access to the staff coffee table to get him to stop cursing as much around the campers

Chaotic gremlin, probably shouldn’t be put in charge of children

He’s actually very responsible when he needs to be though, likes to joke around a lot but looks out for the campers as much as possible

Self-proclaimed king of the gaga pit

Seriously, can hit the ball so hard he’s bruised some people a couple of times

Always covered in scratches and bruises and bandaids

A little too eager to throw a punch

Has a black bandana (from Wilbur) and wears it around his neck at all times, keeps it as clean as possible (even when he’s covered in dirt from various scuffles the bandana somehow stays clean)

Goes absolutely ham on a kazoo during sing alongs

Him and Tubbo sneak out one night and take a paddleboard out to the middle of the lake to look at the stars, the only reason they get caught is because Tommy falls off as they paddle back to shore, Philza yells at them for ten minutes straight but it’s worth it

Basically never wears his staff shirt

TUBBO

Also a CIT

Has been going to the camp for years

Brings his ukulele with him, sometimes he plays with Wilbur at campfires, loves sitting on the dock and playing random little tunes for the campers

Hangs out at the waterfront a lot

Volunteers for kitchen duty, surprisingly

He actually really likes cooking and hanging out with Fundy, whenever he and Bad are in the kitchen together they make muffins

Makes flower crowns!! Absolutely vibes while sitting in the fields, loves the bees, teaches campers how to weave flowers together

Lets Tommy drag him off into all of his shenanigans

Is definitely the type to laugh off insults

Very, very hard to anger but when he gets mad, he gets mad

He and Tommy have only had one disagreement ever at camp, it started with a screaming match for an hour at the waterfront, they ended up not talking for days. Wilbur’s never seen Tommy that quiet, and Eret watches Tubbo with concern when he just sits on the dock for hours, not moving. One night Tommy shows up at Wilbur’s cabin, covered in scrapes and blood in the pouring rain, he just starts crying and Wilbur carries him to the infirmary before finding Tubbo, the two finally talk for a couple of hours after BBH bandages up Tommy’s wounds, the next day they’re back to talking and laughing and causing chaos together like nothing ever happened

Tubbo still feels guilty about that

Loves hanging out with the campers, everyone is excited for when he’s an actual counselor

Wears his staff shirt most of the time, but it’s under his green flannel so you can’t really tell anyway

PHILZA

Camp director obviously

Basically a tired dad, wears a green and white bucket hat, has a fanny pack and will use it

Curses a lot but hides it from the campers

Constantly reminding everyone to wear their staff shirts even if nobody listens to him

Loves telling the campers embarrassing stories about Wilbur and Techno as often as he can

When giving Tommy a tour of the camp to prepare for being a CIT Tommy somehow manages to climb onto the roof of the dining hall, Philza has to hide his laughter while yelling at him to come down

Tommy just stands and yells “POGCHAMP” as loudly as he can, Wilbur records it on his phone and makes sure to send it to all the staff in the group chat

Refers to Wilbur and Techno as his ‘sons’

And eventually Tommy too

Also references vines and memes

ERET

Waterfront manager/lifeguard

Really chill vibes

Also makes pride friendship bracelets for the campers!! It’s kind of a tradition, if you come out to him you get a bracelet

You also can get a bracelet if you ask for one

Has a whistle, loves to sneak up on the other counselors and blow it as loud as he can

Brings a lawn flamingo to camp every year and stakes it outside of his cabin

Really close with Tubbo

Helps Bad in the infirmary sometimes

Also hangs out with Sapnap at the ropes course, loves climbing the rock wall and sitting on the top

One of the best counselors to go to for advice, along with BBH

BUDDY SYSTEM OR ELSE

You better have your buddy when he blows his whistle twice

Tubbo helps him organize the swim tests and give everyone the appropriate tag to hang on the buddy board

FUNDY

Fundy absolutely cannot be trusted as a counselor, so Philza sticks him in the kitchen as head of the kitchen crew

Fundy doesn’t actually mind, he doesn’t have to do much and he gets access to all of the snacks

Extremely chaotic when handing out snacks to the campers- sometimes he throws them, sometimes he just dumps them out into a pile on the ground, sometimes he hands them out individually, there’s no way to predict it

Needs at least 8 hours of sleep or several cups of coffee before he’s ready to interact with campers

Very sarcastic

Plays piano in the main hall sometimes

Bullies Tommy with Wilbur

A picture of him in a fox costume surfaced in the staff group chat and now everybody calls him a ‘furry’ 

He hates it

So much

Capture the flag games that go for days on end, Dream and George captaining a team against Wilbur and Techno, spies and sabotage and elaborate heists, Eret betraying his team during one of the games, water balloon skirmishes, color war but Intense Mode

Prank wars between the counselors and campers

Building epic pillow forts in the cabins and the counselors sneaking in snacks even though there’s not supposed to be food in the cabins

Just, so many possibilities

[in-superbloom]

okay so. i never really did a review (feels weird to call it a review tho so let's say a very opinionated essay that's totally the opposite of what college taught me) for wfttwtaf but i never really know how to do that for any album, doesn't matter how much it makes me feel feelings, bc i simply can't write about my own emotions in cohesive thoughts ✌🏻😔

so instead, i let my brain do this thing he usually does when i listen to an album that leaves an effect on me, which is pretty much just creating visuals for the songs bc apparently my feelings translate better into images/vibes rather than words lmao but since i am unfortunately not skilled to drawn/paint/created actual visual stuff, i just wrote them so i'm gonna leave them here bc why not <3

i just really love when music (art in general, but especially music for me) makes your mind run wild & be so inspired that you can't help but create something based on that feeling <3 a great example of that is the amount of art everyone here (on tumblr!sos verse, but also tumblr & the internet in general) create based on other peoples' art & i just *clenches fists* really love that 💜

anyways !! if you're reading this, i hope this makes sense to you & if you wanna chat about the album, my mail box is always open 💜

• track one: starting line – like the mv, but he's running like he's trying to get away from something, always looking behind his shoulder, stumbling on things/people on the streets. also maybe not flying?;

• track two: saigon – then he reaches a tiny but unique/eye-catching door, gets intrigued & enters. he has to go downstairs through a dark and narrow corridor, he hears muffled music coming down there. he reaches the door & the music is now clear, it looks like there are disco balls everywhere ((pink, blue and purple bc ofc)), the place is packed with people dancing & just vibing™. he goes to the dancefloor, but soon it gets overwhelming so he tries to reach a wall or the other end of the club, but he can't. the more he walks, the furthest he feels from the walls. everything has a psychedelic look, also some of those trippy effects he used on motion, and no one seems to notice/ care about him. this goes on until the end of the song, then he finally finds a door ((not the one he came from)) and opens it;

• track three: motion – he expects to find a street, but instead he's inside a room. it's a bit dark, all he sees are shadows, but then suddenly everything turns into an explosion of colors ((when the songs picks up in the beginning)), all dancing in front of him, making him feel lost & dizzy. he keeps walking, but every now and them he stumbles on something ((random things like animals or weird props or stuff that aren't supposed to be alive, but are)). he admires everything with a childlike wonder, touches things and then they turn into something else, or change form/shape/color. in the end, he's distracted looking at something and then falls like the floor reached an end;

• track four: place in me – he fell right there where he is in the mv/visualizer, it goes on like that;

• track five: baby blue – make it look like he fell asleep after the end of place in me, so he's very confused when he wakes up & it looks like the place is falling apart, like end of the world type ((like the lamentis thingy on loki)). things are exploding & he can see another planet very close to the one where he is. it's a bit scary but it's a breathtaking view nonetheless. he's mesmerized, but also kinda already accepted his fate? he's not trying to run to find a shelter/salvation or anything, just watching it all fall apart. at the end, he stops, turns around & looks at the path that he was walking ((full of nature things colored in every shade of blue and also glittery dust)) and he's just admiring it when he's hit by a big rock maybe? or a moon, who knows;

• track six: repeat – he's throw away to somewhere that's not collapsing, it looks like a pathway in the woods? but like, no florest too near, and it's sunny but not too warm, and the path is filled with green grass and flowers. he lands in a place that looks like a field but not quite. and then after walking for a while, he finds himself, but another version of him. maybe a younger one or an older one or both? like, they both just stop and stare at each other and kinda do this lil dance of trying to touch the other & watching the other, both a lil frightened but completely intrigued. maybe the older version of him? ooooh maybe it starts with an older version, but then every time present luke gets distracted by something else or turns around for a second, the other luke is getting younger, until he's just a lil kid. the ending is the mini luke offering his hand for present luke to grab, so he can lead him to a house that was near where they were. ((or maybe mini luke makes him run after him));

• track seven: mum – luke enters the house & immediately recognizes it as the house he grew up in. every step he takes, a wall or an object or a room brings a memory & it plays it out like a hologram. lots of memories. then in the guitar solo part, he finds a guitar in the room where he used to play the most when he was a kid ((maybe some cool&cute effects going around him, representing the sound coming from the guitar)). before the solo ends, you can see a shadow in the threshold of the door, and when he finished the guitar solo, luke turns around and smiles, getting up to hug the person ((it's his mum)) but maybe you never actually see her face?;

• track eight: slip away – he steps out of his childhood house and enters this big dark room. there's only a lil blue light coming from the very center of the room. when he gets closer to it, he sees it's a lil star, who looks very scared. as soon as she notices him ((he tries to reach her)) she runs out of the door on the other side of the room. he's worried&intrigued so he follows her, but when he opens the door, he immediately falls, this time he's in what looks like the clouds ((blue hues ofc but clearer ones, not as dark shades like the ones in place in me & baby blue)), and soon he finds out he can "swim" through them. he does that for a while until he sees the lil star and tries to follow her again. this goes on until he finally gets close to her, but when he touches her, she literally slips from his grasp bc he's being teleported again ((but make it look like she's the portal));

• track nine: diamonds – it starts with a close up on the water maybe? and then the camera keeps getting higher & suddenly he falls into it and soon the camera follows. he's distorted for a bit, especially when he notices he's already too deep into the water, away from the surface. then he tries to swim to the surface, but there's a bunch of things?? or like weird and mean seapeople maybe? trying to drag him down ((kinda like that scene on harry potter & the goblet of fire)). he tries his best to fight them, but what gets him away from them is a group of nice seapeople who came to his rescue. then they all swim away from the place they were ((also maybe slip in some diamonds or things that look like them around there?));

• track ten: a beautiful dream – he reaches a lil city? under water with the help of the nice seapeople & then there's this piano on the ground ((maybe covered in seaweed and stuff like that)) and he's immediately drawn to it. he plays/sings the song ((maybe like the guitar effects in mum, the sounds coming from the piano affect the place around him even tho it looks like he barely notices it)). when the song is finishing, he notices a white light coming from the surface. he looks at it & then follows it;

• track eleven: bloodline – then he's getting out of the water? at some beach perhaps? he's slowly getting out of the water & there's this beautiful sunrise behind him. he's singing along, looking like he just came out of a battle but at the same time he's in peace with himself, looking not exactly happy but relieved. he's walking on the beach, making his way home but he's not in a hurry. then in that lil bit in the end of the song, he gets out of the frame after looking straight to the camera maybe?? and the camera focuses on the sunrise and then everything goes black;

• track twelve: comedown – he wakes up in a bed ((like, this is him waking up from all these dreams)) & he's slightly confused bc the dreams felt so real, but he's feeling better & not so lost anymore. he goes out in a walk that maybe shows every place he was in his dreams? but like, this time you see what they really are bc every place in his dreams was inspired by a real location/thing, just reimagined. but like, he doesn't enter anywhere, he's just walking & you can see the places on both sides of the street. like, it's clearly a set up location but it's just representative. maybe you can see some of his friends/family at some of these locations or maybe they're all together in one place? but they don't look at him, they're just talking&laughing with each other. he looks happy, at ease & he's smiling, wearing a yellow or gold shirt. in the end, he reaches a cliffside maybe? somewhere that leads you to think that he'll go through another portal, but then he suddenly stops, looks down at the cliffside and crouches down bc he saw the lil blue star from slip away but it's now a necklace. he picks it up, with a small&easy smile and then looks at the camera, gives a bigger, real smile, gets up and turns around, going back to where his friends&family are, but the camera stays there, just watching him go.

// now some notes bc i love to over explain myself //

• the "water" one was supposed to be slip away, but alison @bandsanitizer was talking about a beautiful dream these days & said that something about the song reminds her of a sonar-like sound & the idea of searching for something, so that got me thinking about the ocean & relating it to this song and it also makes a lot of sense with what the album represents in my mind, so it made me change that. thank you for that miss alison, it's always a pleasure to read your thoughts 😌💜

• & it also fitted well with the “i can't fight the bloodline living in the seams back home” line from bloodline, so i wanted that one to be related to the water as well bc that's all i can think about when i hear that lyric;

• something in common that appears in every single one: an object or something related to time, since it's the big common theme on the whole album;

• in each song he's wearing the same outfit he wore in the starting line mv (white tee + black pants + converse) but in each one of them, that red shirt is in a different color;

• i had the visuals from starting line to mum very clear in my head on my first listen of the album, but i only truly finished writing all of this yesterday bc i wanna listen to halsey's new album and see if my brain does this thing again, but i wanted to finish wfttwtaf first <3

& that's it bc i already talked too much for a day lmao if you read all of this, you're a true hero & i love you <3 have a nice day 💛

[gaylotusthatexists]

Deceit with Memory Loss?

ghosts of the past

fandom: sanders sides

pairing: platonic moceit, platonic loceit 

prompt: memory loss

trigger warnings: all the sides are morally grey ig, remus is mentioned in the background but not by name, this one doesn’t go super heavy but if i need to tag anything let me know 

word count: 2996

a/n: this is written for the @badthingshappenbingo​! actually had a lot of fun with this :) thank you for the request, and i hope y’all enjoy

ao3

Janus stared at the wall, trying to remember, trying to conjure up that face in his mind again. It was getting harder and harder to remember the times that had past, to remember all the good things that he used to do with... with them. And to remember all the bad things, the things he was sure had happened but didn't know when or how or why. Because if nothing bad had happened, he wouldn't be here right now, all alone in his own apartment, an apartment that he could have sworn he used to share with someone else.

He glanced out the window at the street below him, watching people pass by, unfamiliar faces in a scary and strange world. Some faces he could have sworn that he'd seen before, but... no, he couldn't have. He didn't know these people. He didn't really know anybody, anymore. He barely knew himself.

But it was a warm day outside today, he thought, considering the sunlight on his bedroom floor, seeping in through the window, open just enough to let some fresh air in. He stood up and repositioned himself in the centre of his room, now sitting on the floor, basking in the warm sunlight. He closed his eyes and, for a moment, he didn't care that he still couldn't remember those faces, those names, those voices that used to be so important to him.

He wasn't quite sure when the last time he went outside had been. He... He had left his room, he thought, to get food and wash and the like, but he didn't recall any trips anywhere. Thinking back, he remembered how he used to take trips to the park, to the coffee shop on... on that street, he couldn't remember the name, and to the library and the supermarket and to his... to his friends.

He had friends, right? Maybe that was who he was trying to remember. His friends. He hadn't seen them in a while, because something bad had happened, and maybe... maybe they didn't want to see him? Maybe that was why he was all alone here, in this apartment. He'd had a friend here as well before, so why not now?

Maybe he needed to go for a walk. He was certain that walks used to cheer him up, and besides, it was sunny today! He liked the sun. He liked it when the sun shone on his skin, warming him up. He especially liked the spring, when it was cool enough that he could stick to his dark aesthetic, but with enough sun that he could feel warmth from the sun. And... Huh, what month was it again?

He glanced at the calendar on his wall - the last date that had been crossed off was February 23rd, but that couldn't have been right. It hadn't been updated in a while. The calendar wouldn't help. And his phone...

Where even was his phone? He'd had a phone before, hadn't he? He glanced around his room, and spotted it underneath his desk. He scrambled over towards it and picked it up, frowning at the cracked screen before trying to turn it on. It... wouldn't turn on. Maybe it was out of battery. Or broken. The cracked screen seemed to suggest the latter. Well. That wouldn't be helpful, either.

Oh well. He stood up and left his room, stumbling into the bathroom and checking himself out in the mirror. Christ. He looked like a mess. His hair had grown out to his shoulders, his brown roots mixing in with the bleached ends. And his face seemed to be sunken in, thinner, paler. He reached his hand up to his cheek, running his finger over the scar stretching out from his eye to his mouth. Since when did he have a scar there? A part of him told him that it wasn't new, but...

Shaking that thought away, he gave himself a quick wash and tied back his hair - Jesus Christ, his hair was long enough to put in a bun now, how had this happened? Maybe it was time for a haircut. Although, part of him did like the new style, just a little bit. He plastered a smile over his face, an art that he'd practised before - as long as he looked happy, people wouldn't see just how crushed he was inside. Maybe he'd be able to fool himself, as well.

Leaving the bathroom, Janus made his way to the front door, putting on a black beanie and grabbing a backpack as he went. He wasn't entirely sure what was in the backpack, but he vaguely remembered carrying it around with him before, back when he used to go for walks and hang out with his friends, so it must have been important. He noticed his keys still sticking out the keyhole of the door, so at least he wouldn't have to look for them.

Before he knew it, he was out of the building and on the street, amongst all those mysterious yet vaguely familiar faces from before. His eyes darted around, trying to find somebody that he knew, anybody that he knew, but if he couldn't even remember the faces of his previously closest friends then he doubted he'd recognise anyone now. And anyway, that didn't matter to him. He was outside, and the sun was warm against his bare arms - he never really went out with bare arms before, but he wasn't wearing a jacket inside and hadn't thought to get changed, apparently - and that was all that mattered. He had to make the most of his sunlight, of his warmth, before he inevitably locked himself away again.

He wasn't sure where his feet were carrying him, but his body seemed to know the way to... somewhere. Glancing around at the city surrounding him, he couldn't quite figure out where he was, but this all felt like... home. His mind showed him flashes of what used to be, people around him, laughing with him, roaming the city together. And also flashes of heartbreak, of tears, of bad things that had happened on these very streets.

Not before long, he found himself in a park, sitting on a bench. He'd been here before. He could almost see his... his friend sitting besides him, that blue polo shirt and grey cardigan, a single pink highlight in their light brown hair, freckles all over their face, a pair of round glasses sat upon their nose. Yes - yes, that was his friend. He couldn't remember their name, but... they used to come to this park all the time, to hang out and take photos and feed the ducks and just talk.

A small smile crept onto Janus' face - a real smile, this time, not the manufactured smile he wore as to not alarm other people. He wasn't entirely sure what other people there was in his life that he could alarm, but... well, maybe it was out of habit. Maybe he'd been on a downward spiral since well before that bad thing happened.

He looked out across the park, watching butterflies float past him and rest on the flower beds lining the paths. Another ghost manifested in front of him, another friend leaning over the flowers, and watching the butterflies with fascination in his eyes, his blue tie hanging around his neck. He imagined his friend pushing those square glasses up his nose and holding them in place as he eyes follow the butterfly, and then the friend would look up and grin at Janus, and at the other friend. Everything seemed perfect back then, but now Janus couldn't even remember his friends' names.

He stood up and continued his journey, heading out of the park and down the street again. He turned into a supermarket and walked down the isles, grabbing some food as he went - actually, he wasn't entirely sure when the last time he'd eaten was, and he imagined that his cupboards were getting bare. He used to come to the supermarket all the time, didn't he? With... With the twins. The twins in red and green, taking charge of the trolley, riding it around the store whilst Janus stood back and rolled his eyes. They were also his friends, weren't they?

He payed for his food - enough to last him a couple weeks, at the very least - with some money he'd found in the bottom of his backpack, before leaving the store, now with a shopping bag in his hand as well. He continued to walked down the streets and passed the library, half tempted to go inside but refraining himself from doing so. He saw another friend in the back of his mind, sitting on the wall outside the library - a black jacket with purple plaid patches, ripped jeans and black and white converse, that dark eyeshadow underneath his eyes that Janus was sure was just to cover up the actual bags under his eyes.

He took a deep breath and continued his journey, trying to push that memory down, trying to push all the memories down. The more he thought about his... his friends, the more afraid he felt, the more alone he felt. There was a reason that he was no longer with these friends, and he wasn't sure if he was willing to find out. They were probably better off without him. Maybe he was better off without them.

Janus found himself sitting in a coffee shop, at a table by the window, a caramel Frappuccino in front of him. He used to come here a lot, he was pretty sure. The barista had recognised him, asked where he'd been for so long, so... yeah, he must have used to come here pretty often. And this was his table, he was sure - or, their table, he supposed. Where he used to sit with his friends.

The coffee shop was quiet, only Janus and a few older couples sat around, until the bell rang and a group wandered in. Janus recognised them, and, after they all ordered their drinks, they seemed to recognise him.

The ghosts of the past had come back to life. The faces were no longer obscured, no longer blocked by the part of his mind that didn't want him to remember. They were standing right in front of him, frowning at him. They were here, and they'd come back with a vengeance.

He stared down at his coffee, hoping that maybe they wouldn't notice him. They all got their own drinks and sat down, every now and then glancing over at him, whispering amongst themselves as though formulating a plan. And he remained in his seat, trying his very hardest to turn invisible. He didn't know what he'd done to make them all so angry, to make them all hate him, to make them all abandon him, and he really didn't want to find out.

He continued to drink, and he ran out of coffee far sooner than he thought he would. The group was still sat in the coffee shop, and if he moved they would surely notice, and maybe they'd confront him, maybe those memories he tried so hard to push down would resurface again.

He'd stayed too long. One of them came over, slamming a hand on the table. Janus plastered on a smile and turned his head, trying to remain calm.

"Sorry, do I know you?" he asked, his voice smooth.

The- The stranger rolled his eyes. "You know exactly who I am, Janus. What the fuck are you doing back here?"

Janus blinked. He knew his name. Of course he knew his name - this was the friend from the library, the one in the black and purple jacket. Memories flashed through Janus' mind again, of an evening in which Janus helped to sow that jacket, helped to create something that his friend well and truly loved.

"Don't play dumb," the now-stranger growled.

Janus' eyes darted around, noticing that the barista was watching the exchange carefully, her fingers wrapped around something in her pocket.

"Listen," Janus said, "I don't know who you think I am, but I've never met you before in my life."

Others had joined now as well. Blue-Tie hovered behind Purple-Patches, and now Blue-Polo-Shirt sat opposite him, looking curiously at Janus.

"Janus," Blue-Polo-Shirt said, softly, "I'm sorry about Virgil, it's just..."

Virgil. That was Purple-Patches. His name was Virgil.

"We weren't exactly expecting to see you here," Blue-Polo-Shirt continued. God, what was their name. "And I do kind of agree that... well, it is a little weird, after everything that happened..."

What happened? Janus wanted to scream. He didn't know why he'd brought himself back here, or why these now-strangers were angry at him, or why there was now tears streaming down his face, or why Virgil had moved away, left the coffee shop with a scowl on his face, why the twins had moved as well, each refusing to look Janus in the eye, why Blue-Tie still hovered close by but refused to interact with Janus, why all of this was happening.

"Janus?" Blue-Polo-Shirt said again. "Are you okay?"

He breathed in and tried to wipe away his tears, but they still kept coming. "I-" He tried to speak, but choked on his words.

"Janus," Blue-Tie now said, sitting next to Blue-Polo-Shirt, "don't take this as a 'we want you back', but... I am concerned. You look..."

He looked like a mess, Janus knew that. He was fairly certain that it was due to these now-strangers that he was a mess.

When Janus showed no signs of calming down, Blue-Polo-Shirt reached a hand across the table, lying it on top of Janus' shaking hand. "Breathe for me, Janus." They began to count, and Janus followed their rhythm. After a few minutes, the tears stopped. "Now," they continued, "are you okay?"

Janus was half tempted to roll his eyes and shout, Yeah, of course, that's why I'm crying, but instead he just shook his head.

"I'm sorry about the others," Blue-Polo-Shirt said. "They, uh, well..." They didn't need to continue. Janus already knew that he had fucked up, somehow, he just... didn't remember how or why. "We weren't exactly expecting you to show up here. Especially..."

"I'm sorry," Janus just about managed to get out, cringing at how hoarse his voice sounded. "Whatever I did, I'm sorry."

Blue-Polo-Shirt and Blue-Tie exchanged a concerned glance, before Blue-Polo-Shirt looked back at Janus. "Do you... not remember?"

Janus' fixed his eyes on the table. "I'm trying. I really am. I don't... I don't know what..."

"It's been three months, Janus," Blue-Tie said. "Surely you remember something about what happened. It wasn't as if you were drunk or high or whatever."

Three months. Is that how long it had been? He hadn't talked to anybody since the bad thing happened, had he?

"I think he's telling the truth, Logan," Blue-Polo-Shirt said.

Logan. Another name. Yes, Janus remembered that now. Logan. And...

"Patton," Janus mumbled, before his eyes widened. "Patton!"

Patton frowned. "Uh... yeah?"

Janus cringed. "Sorry, I, um..."

"Did you forget?"

Janus nodded, sheepishly.

"Janus," Logan said, "have you talked to anyone since you left us."

Janus blinked. "Since I... what?"

"He doesn't know, Logan," Patton said. "He doesn't remember what happened."

Logan sighed. "Either way, have you talked to anyone?"

No. He hadn't. All he'd done was stare at his wall, occasionally leave his room for food, or a shower, but mostly just stare at his wall and sleep.

"I'll take that as a no," Logan decided. "You are aware of your current state, correct?"

"I know that I'm a mess, if that's what you mean," Janus said. "I'm... working on that."

Patton frowned. "Did- Did something happen? Other than, y'know..."

"No, actually, I don't know," Janus snapped, instantly regretting it as he saw Patton flinch. "Sorry, I mean, I... You guys abandoned me."

Is that what happened? That would make sense. It would explain why he had been sitting all alone in his apartment, slowly wasting away.

"Actually, I believe it was you who abandoned us," Logan corrected.

Janus sank down in his chair. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I hurt any of you. I don't... I can leave. You'll never have to see me again, I-"

"No, Janus, don't," Patton said, grabbing his hand before he was able to stand up. "We're sorry, as well. Have you been all alone, all this time?"

Janus nodded slowly.

"Have you even left your apartment since then? Before now, I mean."

Janus didn't respond.

"Alright." Patton sighed. "Come with us. You can stay with me and Logan for a while, if you want."

Janus blinked. "I..."

"Maybe you can get some of those memories back," Patton said. "Or at the very least have a good meal."

Janus stared down at the table.

"It's alright," Patton said, "you can trust us. We're... We were your friends. And I can forgive you for what happened. I'm sure you can find it in you to forgive us, as well."

Janus wasn't sure if he could. He still didn't know what had happened, whether he was the victim or whether he was in the wrong, whether Patton truly was a friend.

But, at the same time, he had nothing to lose. It was either accept Patton's offer or return to his cold, empty apartment, all alone.

"Okay," Janus said. "I forgive you. And, yes, that... would be nice."

Patton gave him a small smile, and then lead him out of the coffee shop, Logan trailing behind. He walked around the streets again, this time with a guide, and recognised more, understood where he was and what he was doing. He remembered that he used to crash with Patton and Logan a lot, back when they were all friends. So maybe... maybe this would be alright.

He would be fine. The ghosts of the past were back, and here to stay.

[eeriefeelingsat3amuwu]

Oc’s

Nina Heath

Skin tone: dark

Eye color: blue

Hair: curly, dark brown with a blue ombre

Height: 158cm

Weight: 90kg

Age: 23

Gender: nonbinary

Sexuality: bisexual

Details: vitiligo on their left shoulder/right hip/stomach/back/over the left eye, eyebrow piercing, nose ring, lip ring, ears pierced all the way up, sleeve tattoos on both arms, tattoos all over their body (thighs, ankles, torso, back, calves,...)

Personality: confident, chaotic good, gremlin, dumb but kinda smart, loyal, would kill for their friends, would kill their friends, angry, smol and chubby, disastrous bisexual, scary, yell-a-lot, bunnies!, strong, caring

Hobbies: baking, crocheting, arguing, painting nails, reading (but their head hurts), cuddling, kissing, calming their girlfriend down, Fighting with people who hurt their friends/girlfriend (is totaly the embodiment of:

Nina: You made Sophia cry!

Tray: Sophia always cries!

Sophia, crying: That’s not true...)

Hates: dysphoria, homophobes, transphobes, Karens, birds, tall people who make fun of them, their glasses (but their head hurts if they don’t wear them), contacts (but their head hurts if they don’t wear them), headaches

Job: baker

Sophia Georgening

Skin tone: caramel

Eye color: green

Hair: really messy,straight (unlike her), bob cut with a triangle undercut at the back if her head, ginger

Height: 186cm

Weight: 78kg

Age: 24

Gender: cis woman

Sexuality: lesbian

Details: freckles all over her face and shoulders, bushy eyebrows with an eyebrow cut in the left one, tongue piercing, tattoo of a Phoenix on her back between the shoulder blades, Nina and a heart tattooed on her right bicep, ripped (seriously, she’s buff, she has abs, biceps, triceps, she could crush a melon with her thighs, the CaLvEs,...), wears her hair tied up in a messy bun almost 90% of the time, vegetarian and whenever she eats a product that came from an Animal like milk or an egg, she apologizes to said animal

Personality: calm, thoughtful, lawful good, a TrEe, loving, caring, silent, secretly anxious, strict, tidy, colected, extremely smart but almost never shows it, a bottom, sensitive, crybaby

Hobbies: blacksmithing, archery (but she never shoots at living targets and cries when she needs to shoot at plastic animals), working out, running, kickboxing (even tho she apologizes to her oponent afterwards), helping people out, petting animals, kissing, cuddling

Hates: sad movies, Animal cruelty, mean people, social interactions (but she’s good at hiding it), not much else, she thinks that everyone deserves another chance and that all people have some good in them

Job: works in a flower shop, part time blacksmith/gym trainer

Tray Black

Skin tone: light

Eye color: yellow

Hair: short, bright blue

Height: 175cm

Weight: 69kg

Age: 20

Gender: genderflux (using all pronouns, mostly they/them, so they’ll be refered to as such while description is going on)

Sexuality: asexual panromantic

Details: nose ring (changes up every day), extravagant earrings, sleeve tattoo on their right arm, a snake tattooed around their left thigh, colorful/black clothing (they either look like a neon paint bomb or as a black hole), they rarely bind but pack rather often (bottom dysphoria is worse then the top one), a lot of rings and bracelets (you always know when they’re near since you hear clanking), hats, always wearing earphones

Personality: they’re really extra in every way, chill, sarcastic, funny, flegmatic, pesimistic, both love and hate attention, very competitive, potterhead but hates JK, totaly a Slytherin (and not just because of the snakes), a bit arrogant, very good leader, very very smart, good at arguments (seriously, you so don’t want to get into an argument with them, they’ll obliterate you)

Hobbies: singing, drums, gaming, playing the guitar, sketching people/sceneries, reading (mostly sci-fi/fantasy), dying hair, combining jewelry with clothes, listening to music, taking care of their pet sneks

Hates: shoping, overplayed pop songs, dogs, teeth, the summer (it’s too damn hot for them), homophobes/transphobes, J.K. Rowling, terfs, politics (the people)

Job: part time at Nina’s bakery, studying politology and sociology, in the school band

Connor Wearings

Skin tone: lightly tanned (not as pale as Tray but not as dark as Sophia)

Eye color: heterochromia - left eye is green, right eye is grey

Hair: curly, short, hazelnut brown

Height: 168cm

Weight: 64kg

Age: 21

Gender: demiboy (using he/him pronouns but not quite cis)

Sexuality: asexual, aromantic

Details: freckles. everywhere., always smiling (he’s got dimples), dressed freely (skirts, dress, pants, blouses, shirts, heels, crop tops, hoodies,...), he’s really comfortable in his body and yet he’s not fully comfortable with all that comes with it, smol bean, the cutest little pout, ALWAYS covered in paint, fingers are pernamently covered in bandaids, wears a bandana to hold his hair back while working

Personality: he’s a total sweetheart, kind, helpful, outgoing, happy-go-lucky, loving, caring, funny, always laughing/smiling, really hard to piss him off, really easy to make him upset (another embodiement of ‘he always cries), ‘Maybe I can drink my problems away’ *opens capri-sun*, dog lover, puppy-like personality, loyal

Hobbies: drawing, cooking, baking, petting animals, fluffy things!, crocheting, sewing, painting, dressing up, making tea, helping his friends, hugging, holding hands, platonic relationships

Hates: arguments, people who make fun of someone, rude people, loud music, the dark, the cold, octopuses, dark colors, unfinished jobs

Job: studying art, psychology and doing a baking course at the moment (very productive and capable), working a part-time at a convinience store and a daycare centre (the kids love him)

Abram Hayze

Skin tone: dark

Eye color: hazelnut

Hair: deep brown, curly and fluffy

Height: 197cm

Weight: 78kg

Age: 19

Gender: agender - e/em/eir/emself pronouns

Sexuality: pansexual, demiromantic

Details: e has a lot of moles all over eir body, mostly presents androgynous, yet sometimes likes to present feminine, had very unaccepting parents so whenever e is forced to go to a more profesional setting or to meet with older people, e presents masculine even though e hates it, very proud of eir hair, love to play with them when e’s nervous and try new hairstyles all the time, e never dyes it tho, piercings on both ears, piercing under the lip, piercing in the bellybutton

Personality: e is really calm, likes to think and be alone, yet also loves to spend time with eir friends, smiling a lot, always there when someone needs em, really perceptive and no one really knows how e does it, but e seems to know about a lot of stuff that other people don’t (it’s just the fact that e is very trustworthy and so a lot of people let their guard down around em), e is also really into debates, but not the political ones like Tray, eir partner, but rather ones about books, headcannons and interests, e is also really sneaky and likes to play tricks and pranks on people, especially confusing them with the food that e eats, e is chaotic good

Habbies: reading, hiding around places and letting emself be found in the most ridiculous positions, putting stuff on the top shelves when e is hanging out with eir friends (the short ones), sitting in strange places where no one knows how e got in, sleeping

Hates: homophobes/transphobes, people with no sense of humor, long waits, queues, places with a lot of people, the dark

Job: studying psychology, working part-time in a hairdressing shop

Tenzin Arish

Skin tone: slightly tanned

Eye color: purple

Hair: deep black, short (one side is totaly buzzed and the other is a bit longer) the ends are bleached and dyed (purple, blue, green, pink) depending on their mood

Height: 164cm

Weight: 58kg

Age: 22

Gender: nonbinary (xe/ xeir/ xem)

Sexuality: queer

Details: xe are really skinny and fairly androgynous, no one actually knows what xeir biological sex is and xe aren’t gonna tell anyone anytime soon, xe present androgynously, yet sometimes xe like to present masc/fem, depending on the day, xe love xeir hair and that’s why xe dye them so often, if xe don’t like the color, it can even change daily

Personality: sarcasm and irony are the two languages xe speak in, xe like coffee and practicaly live off of it, no one ever saw xem sleep, xe are always online and always awake when someone knocks on xeir door at any time (so xeir friends know that when they need a friend, xe will be awake whenever they decide to come there), xe love helping people with their mental problems yet xe never try to solve xeir own, the only other language xe speak is memes

Hobbies: taking care of stray animals, helping people out (whether it’s an old lady who needs to cross the street or a protestor who needs protection from the rubber bullets/tear gas), protesting, breaking down gender boundaries, educating people on the LGBTQ+ history, history itself, archeology, xe love caves and everything that has to do with geology

Hates: homophobes/transphobes, terfs, anyone who’s stupidly using history (especially against the LGBTQ+ comunity), plants (xe have alergies), flowers (xe think it’s overated)

Job: part-time job in a museum, studying history and geology

Okay, so I hope you enjoy...this? Please inform me if my autocorrect misgendered one of my sweethearts, I proofread it but one can never be so sure. To be clear: all of them hate transphobes/homophobes, racists, terfs, neon*zis, Tr*mp supporters and everyone else who is somehow harming people or disrespecting their rights, I just really didn’t have the willpower to write everything of this down in every Single one of the hate columns because that would mean I have to think about it and that would do me no good, because I really didn’t want to have a mental breakdown while writing about my oc’s. That’ll be all, thanks for comming to my TED talk.

Tags: @exhaustedauthor @definietlynotsatan @detroit-become-snail @nyamafriend and @ anyone who wants to read this. Bye!

[amphtaminedreams]

A/W 2020 Fashion Month: Before Vogue Went Blank

Hi to anyone reading,

I’m sorry this post is so late! I really have no excuse apart from all my mental energy being taken up by shooting and editing my Euphoria lookbook up until now and me being too much of a lazy, nap-loving twat to face the mammoth task of a fashion month review; honestly, by the time it’s done, it’s like a dissertation-level amount of characters, so let’s say the final push to get this out is in sympathy with all my 3rd year friends I started uni with finishing their ACTUAL dissertations.

Things have got scary since I originally started saving the photos for this post, and the world has been turned upside down. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the likes of which have not been seen since the Spanish Flu, Italian Vogue’s April cover was blank. As I’m writing this, 26,000+ people have died of coronavirus in Italy, the worst affected country behind the U.S in terms of sheer numbers ( though quick update: as I post this, I’m pretty sure our incompetent prick of a PM has made sure we’re up there too). Proportionally, the actual death rate is even higher, along with a handful of other European countries. There have been some complaints made about the cover and it’s supposed “lack of imagination”; all I know is that in a country whose death toll accounts for 10% of worldwide coronavirus deaths, something of a visual silence feels appropriate. 

That being said, for me, writing is one of the only things giving me a sense of purpose right now. Yeah, surprise surprise, working in a grocery store isn’t all that fulfilling. Who would’ve thought it? So what better time to reflect on a time when all the rich people of the world were going about their lives as usual and sitting front row at fashion week rather than crying on Instagram live to their millions of followers about how trapped they feel in their 10 bedroom mansions.

I’ve got to say, this year’s A/W offerings were a lot better than I expected, mostly due to the fact that I’m not generally a big fan of winter fashion; it’s hard to be disappointed given my preconceptions! There’s only so many knits and coats and jeans you can see before it begins to get a bit tiring, and I expected that to be reflected in the presentations. Fortunately, even the brands which are known for their bohemian, Coachella-esque collections generally managed to translate that into something recognisable and consistent on the runway whilst actually being weather appropriate. Of course, there were a few disappointments-I’m sure if I say one of them begins with D, you can guess which brand I’m talking about-but that was more than made up for by the standouts. Gucci in particular was my 2013 Tumblr wet dream and the Moschino show was what I can only describe as a live continuation of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, though I’ll stop with my praise there and wait til I get to actually reviewing before I go overboard with kissing Alessandro Michele’s ass. And on that note, in chronological order, I’ll get one with the reviews! First up, Acne:

Continuing on a winning streak when it comes to catering to my personal preferences (if someone tries to tell me designers don’t care about my personal preferences I’m going to whack out that “just found out the world doesn’t revolve around me, shocked and upset” Marina Diamandis tweet), Acne once again channels futuristic hippy commune living in a dystopian wasteland. I know, those are very specific personal preferences

I love the shredded hems and the burnt velvet, the rawness of it all, and the baroque/your-nan’s-wallpaper patterns are actually a surprisingly nice touch. I imagine if Giselle from Enchanted had to make her dresses out of a thrifty goth’s curtains rather than an upper-middle-class New Yorker’s, they’d look something like this collection. You’ve even got the odd bit of classic fresh Scandi tailoring in there with the oversized coats and blazers which holds it back from being a bit TOO flea market. Plus, the renaissance painting detailing on the black leather-look coat is a stunning detail as well; I’m so glad it seems this trend is here to stay, why wouldn’t I want random nude bodies all over my clothes? 

As for the styling, I can’t get enough of the tousled hair. As an eternally tired person who can't be arsed to pick up a brush most of the time, I feel represented. Along with the outfits, it says “I’m an art student/transient painter in the 70s living in a city loft who smokes a lot of weed and does acid on the regular” and that is a life worth manifesting.

Alberta Ferretti was dreamy, and a perfect example of how to translate the bohemian aesthetic of their S/S show to A/W. Somehow despite the furs, ruffles (pussy-bows under tailored jackets and knits/generally heavier pieces always looks really chic imo), tulle, metallic tapestry style prints and chunky jewellery, it all still looks very effortless, like a natural continuation of what we saw last summer; the typically masculine structure of the oversized suits with the ornate patterns and the accessories lends to the careful navigation along the line where maximalism and minimalism meet, the looks as practical as they are decorative. Picture it: you work some high-flying, powerful job in the city, commute on a motor cycle and roll up in one of these suit sets. This collection is for the edgy businesswoman who is completely comfortable telling all the twattish males she works with where to stick it and I want to be her. 

The evening gowns are, of course, stunning too. In this analogy where I am a powerful businesswoman and not a pushover who works at a grocery store right now and only beefs with rude customers, I would be wearing one of them to the boujie work Christmas party. The ruffled dresses remind me of something Valentino would put out with the colour palette and the ruffles, and whilst we’re on the topic of colour palettes, this one is beautiful. The lilac and hot pink is SO right.

Though predictable, Alessandra Rich is just as much of a treat as usual, the first brand you’d go to if you were styling a throwback it-girl, Chanel Oberlin in Scream Queens if it took place 30 years earlier. Reminiscent of an amalgamation of vintage Chanel and Versace, there are so many cute details I love here, from the white tights with the black heels and the double breasted blazers to the gold chainlink belts and the pearls. The tartan suits with the shoulder padding are very Heathers, the prints the best of your mum’s 80s wardrobe, and nobody else out there is doing bows as well as this; these are the outfits that prissy bitch wears in the cartoons of my childhood that turn out to actually be quite good fashion inspo 15 years later, Trixie Tang from Fairly Odd Parents I’m looking at you. 

This girl was the blueprint. 

I think someone like Lilly Collins or Daphne Groeneveld would be an ideal fit for any of these looks, or Lana Del Rey if she wanted to stop serving us middle-aged suburban soccer mom and took us back to those H&M ad campaign days. Lana stans please don’t come for me for saying that, I am one of you; I say this because I love her. It’s all altruistic. 

Whilst I admittedly didn’t love it as much as last summer’s, I really enjoyed the Alexander McQueen collection too, plus I had a better idea of what to expect this time round; no, we’re not gonna get a repeat of the Plato’s Atlantis show but we do always get some beautiful pieces. Again, like with Alberta Ferretti, this seems like a natural continuation of what we saw in the summer, just with adjustments made for the colder, darker, and altogether moodier months. A/W being the gothier older sister of S/S, it seems right that a lot of the looks turn their back on the ethereal, almost fairy-like feel of what we saw before and embrace the vampier side, reds and blacks (the ultimate Bratz Rock Angels colour combination), plenty of dramatic structures and formidable suit sets. It’s punk but it’s classy, and even with the lighter pieces, we’ve got the grunge inspired harnesses on top to contrast with the elegance and effectively, toughen the whole look up, something Gucci does well too. 

The patterned suits with the clunky boots in particular are very cool and I need a gun metal grey heart detailing harness, but undoubtedly the MOMENT of this collection is Adut Akech in what appears to be a silver chainmail dress. She looks like an Amazonian goddess, and whilst I could never dream of pulling something like that off myself, I could happily admire her in it for hours.

There wasn’t much to get excited about at Altuzarra. The collection was very elegant for sure and the feathered belts are cute but it was all quite pedestrian and nothing new-the only detail I really like is the cut out on the second dress from the left, 3rd row down.

As for Anna Sui:

I’m not altogether sure why I wanted to review it. A lot of the outfits as a whole are a bit messy, and not in that avant-garde, expensive-looking Margiela kind of way, just in a “how many fabrics can we possibly get on this model” kind of way. Plus, the styling seems weirdly outdated-a lot of the jewellery looks like the kind of thing you’d see if you searched “gothic choker” on Ebay and ordered the results from low to high, and the makeup and hair in particular is very 2012 Tumblr fashion blogger. Backcombed hair and red lipstick? We’ve got a Zoella thumbnail on our hands.

When the collection did go down the bohemian route though (and when that route wasn’t a failed attempt at what Etro does a lot better), there were a few nice pieces and prints. I mean you really can’t go wrong with a teal fur trimmed coat.

Ashish, on the other hand, took their aesthetic from a similar era and did it a lot more creatively and kookily; this collection looks a lot more deserving of being on a runway. The prints are so loud and costume-y that at times the garments risk looking like something you’d wear at a decades themed dress up party, but they’re saved by understated and much more commercial silhouettes, plus some gorgeous hair and make up. On the whole, very groovy, unintentional disco queen, despite the few risks that didn’t quite pay off.

Next is a brand I always look forward to. In the words of Myrtle Snow:

BALENCIAGA!

Seriously though, if any brand knows how to blend costume and high fashion, it’s them. They take over-the-top, almost absurd silhouettes and turn them into theatre. This year we’re taking it in the direction of Phantom of the Opera, I guess? Dracula? The Woman in Black? An off-broadway production of Harry Potter where Snape is the protagonist? Whatever the direction of the collection is, I live for the dramatics of it all. Demna Gvasalia got these models walkin’ down the runway like they’re members of the Volutri, which is a reference you should all understand given the renaissance Twilight is having online atm.

Straight off the bat, I adore the staging, and all the models are exquisite-the theme of the show was climate change, and I always love when there’s a story behind the presentation of the clothes. I can’t imagine how amazing this must have been to witness in person, though I’m guessing equal parts mystical and intimidating. There are so many things I love here: billowing coats, cinched in waists, the pattens that are sprinkled sparingly in amongst the black, and the bloody shoulder pads that almost run PARALLEL to the model’s necks. This is really a collection that Myrtle Snow would be proud of and brb whilst I get rid of my padlock necklaces in favour of putting whatever meagre amount I can get for them on Depop towards a Balenciaga padlock belt (as if, lol, I don’t even think selling my soul would cover it).

And then there’s Balmain, which isn’t always the fashion critic’s favourite, but which I do tend to like. 

I mean there are some really good takeaways here-though the 80s inspired suit, as wearable as they are, can get a little repetitive, they are staples which here seem to pave the way for Olivier Rousteing to try something new for the brand. The moulded breast plates (reminiscent of the Tom Ford one Zendaya wore though I’m not sure which came first!), for example, along with the Matador-style capes and the flowing silk dresses are the most glamorous incarnation of Lara Croft one can possibly imagine, probably just as equally suited for a Roman goddess as they are for an Assassins Creed style action heroine. And yes, I am aware of the fact that Tomb Raider and Assassins Creed are two separate games, okay!  I just don’t know enough about the visuals of either to firmly plant this collection in the camp of either one, so I’m going down the crossover route with it!

Not to say there weren’t any bad choices-I omitted a good portion of the looks that were shown; there were definitely pieces that I found to be a little tacky, particularly a recurring chain print which has got to be one of my least favourite patterns out there. Overall, though, it’s gonna be the richly coloured art-deco prints, the wet-look boots and the gem-encrusted scorpion brooch which stick with me, so I’ll let it slide. 

Bottega Veneta was very meh; even of the looks I picked out, there are a lot I’m now looking back at and wishing I hadn’t included. Some of the men’s pieces are nice, sure, and I feel like one of those vaguely sick, victorian ghost looking male celebrities everyone obsesses over (Timothée Chalamet and Dane DeHaan I’m looking at you) would make those suits on the second row look fine af, but it’s mostly the womenswear that I’m here for and on this occasion it wasn’t great. A couple of the coats are nice and that’s about it. Like I really had to act as if the tassels weren’t there on a lot of the clothes and go from there because I really don’t like them in this context and if I was to veto looks purely on one of the garments having tassels, there’d be nothing to show or reference when giving my opinion on the show. They were EVERYWHERE. In a summer collection, done right, they can be a nice detail but here they just feel unnecessary and if I’m being honest, are quite ugly. 

Thank god for Brock taking the sour Bottega Veneta tassel taste out of my mouth. Never a let down. Literally, everything they put out sends me into a daze of imagining I’m in some romantic drama wearing one of the pieces, in a man’s idea of “no makeup”, running round in a field looking forlorn and windswept because my ghostly lover has-

Okay, you get the picture. I’ve never read Wuthering Heights, but it goes something like that, right? If not, lets just say envisioning myself in any of these catapults me straight into some period drama where I’m born into wealth and sit by my mansion window looking sad all the time and writing poetry and lusting over some stuffy upper-class man I can’t have and who is probably played by Colin Firth because I’m pretty sure that’s what happens in most of them (about to enrage my future English lit undergraduate sister with that line).

Nobody does modest, muted sexy to such a masterful degree. I mean, when Maison Marigela did face veils I was just mildly afraid, but here they’re subtle enough that they’re quite beautiful and almost other-worldly, acting as some kind of boundary between this world and the past that Brock aims to recapture through its designs-the red lip popping out from underneath is a perfect touch too. I don’t like it AS much as the summer collection but I would say that’s solely on the basis of the more autumn/winter appropriate colour scheme and the heavier fits, which is just a personal preference. I mean, I’m usually not a fan of empire waistlines at all and Brock even manages to make that work.

Burberry this season was a real mixed bag, mostly due to the styling. There are some really gorgeous, London back alley vintage shop looking pieces, especially the 70s style coats, reminiscent of outerwear a slimy record exec would've worn back in the day repurposed by someone like Alexa Chung or Zoe Kravitz or whichever effortlessly cool woman it is we all want to be-also the private boy’s school rugby gear looking shit is classic Burberry and I’m a fan of that, even though it’s not the most inventive or exciting. I just don’t get why there had to be SO much ill-fitting plaid over ill-fitting plaid. Again, like with Bottega Veneta, I thought the menswear was a lot stronger; whilst I wasn’t really wowed by anything, it seemed a lot less forced, whereas a few of the womenswear looks gave me the vibe of a design team desperately grasping onto some ill-conceived ideas of street style and relevancy. 

The design team at Carolina Herrera for example, know their niche. They never try to be something they’re not, always sublimely preppy and pretty and predictable-when it comes to target market, the bag is reliably secured. Laid- back princess dresses never get old for those constantly “summering” in one expensive coastal town or another, for the rich American moms attending charity galas and the Spencer Hastings and Blair Waldorfs of the world; women with glossy hair and fresh faces who act as if they woke up looking like that polished but are actually anal as hell and take 2 hours to get ready and would NEVER, I repeat NEVER, shit in a public toilet. 

Yes, I managed to worm toilet habits into a review of a Carolina Herrera collection. I’m sorry. Enough with the pearl clutching. 

Next is Celine:

I mean, when there are THIS many looks, it’s hard not to find something you like, and though VERY predictable and verging on lazy when you’re putting out the same shit every collection, Celine’s aesthetic is so similar to my own ideal style, it’s hard to be mad at it. That being said, a lot of the pieces, as per usual, came across as cheap YSL knock offs; the overall outfits are cute, but the more you look at the details-it particularly pained me to include a metal bow belt and an ill-fitting velvet skater skirt but I liked the rest of the outfits-the worse it gets. Please, PLEASE someone drive it home to Hedi Slimane, I’m begging you: QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. I get what he’s going for, 70s hipster Jane Birkin is a vision I can very much get behind, but not when it seems to be so rushed.

With the men’s looks, you can get away with it a lot more; when so much of menswear is so plain and unchanging, the slightest hint of Mick Jagger is enough to make a outfit edgy. But even then, I still feel like we’re seeing a load of variations of the same outfit. There are always some pieces that catch my eye, this time round the capes and the velvet blazers, and I would wear most of these things, sure, however I don’t think the combinations SHOULD necessarily look like something I’d personally put together; a runway collection is supposed to be aspirational and cutting edge, not pedestrian (entirely intentional self-drag, lol). Also, side note, the lack of diversity really bothered me. 111 looks and not one of these models has a body type that is naturally achievable for most people. It’s 2020 for fuck’s sake. I’m tired.

SO, let’s liven things up a bit with the Central Saint Martins collection, a breath of fresh air in terms of diversity (though a few more plus-size models would be nice):

As a former University of London student, I hate to heap praise upon them. If you’ve studied in London as well, you’ll know CSM students are ANNOYING. I mean, I’m sure they’re lovely as individuals but you can’t fully understand the meaning of the word pretentious until you’ve seen a group of them at a Uniqlo Tate Late. That being said, they are very good at what they do and I’m so glad that Vogue Runway includes them; this is what Off-White thinks it is, and really it makes sense that a bunch of current fashion students are able to come together to present one of the most experimental and forward-thinking shows of this season. 

And let’s talk about the RANGE. From catsuits worthy of comic book heroes to  dresses Twiggy would’ve worn in a 1960s editorial, every subgenre of fashion has been fully delved into here. Whilst we’ve got the adrogyny of the suits and suspenders combo and kitschy gender-bending co-ords David Bowie would be proud of, at the other end of the scale we’ve also got models walking down the runway dressed like wood nymphs or some other kind of siren-like creatures. There’s looks that wouldn’t be out of place in a Gucci or Come Des Garcons collection but at that same time would be equally at home in a Berlin techno club. 

Honestly, credit where credit’s due-it was a really interesting show and I wouldn’t expect anything less.

Chanel was quite literally the polar opposite of the CSM show. 

Very blah. 

It’s crazy because before you properly get INTO fashion, Chanel is like the epitome of style. And then you do, and you see the runway shows get lazier and lazier (with some exceptions) every year, and you realise that same prestige that had you aware of Chanel at the age of 7 or 8 is literally all that’s keeping the brand going at this point. I’m not saying the collection is flat out ugly, a lot of it’s cute, but you’re CHANEL for fuck’s sake. Yeah, I like the crucifixes but SCALLOPED HEMS!? No. I do NOT recall travelling back in time to witness Primark’s Spring 2013 collection on the runway and I am NOT having it.

It’s not at all surprising that a lot of the time newer brands Charlotte Knowles (above) tend to be more interesting than those more established-and yes that was a Chanel indirect if the transition wasn’t obvious.

With no room to rest on laurels or reputation, everything has to be bolder and smarter and more distinctive and most importantly, has to appeal to its target market with the fervour of an L.A sign spinner. I only found out about Charlotte Knowles because of a Vogue article citing her as Bella Hadid’s new favourite brand to wear, and once I saw the collection, it was clear why; daringly modern, slick, and edgy is both her street style (say what you want about her as a model but her outfit game is unbeaten) and Knowles’ USP to a T. If Dion Lee, Off-White, GCDS and Acne had an orgy, this would be the result, and that is a GOOD compliment.

Next, Chloe:

Not a huge amount to say, to be honest. Low-key, wearable, and cute. Like Emma Roberts’ Nancy Drew if she did an autumn exchange program at the Sorbonne and studied art history, libraries and coffee shops on the weekdays and galleries and protests at the weekend. On reflection, that definitely makes this collection sound more exciting than it is but there are some effortlessly beautiful pieces here. The 4th row in particular is full of stand outs-the vest with the watercolour faces on with the shirt underneath is perfection, and the burgundy suit with the saffron ruffled collar peeking out from underneath is adorable and not at all reminiscent of the Ronald McDonald inspired nightmare that any combination of red and yellow tones should theoretically be.

As for Christian Siriano, I see why people hate it, I really do. I understand that it seems kinda unfair to have it show the same week as Brock and Rodarte and Oscar de La Renta. We’re talking 2 very different kinds of quality here. BUT, at pure face value, his clothes are FUN, plus Coco Rocha will always have a special place in my heart as someone who lived on The Face and America’s Next Top Model and every show that could possibly give me an unhealthy body image ever.

Like are you telling me you wouldn’t wear these dresses to a party!? Live a little. They just need tailoring...which ideally would be done BEFORE the model’s walking down the runway in it but...you know...can’t have it all.

Christopher Kane is a show I always look forward to.

I would say his designs are the only thing that make geometry look fun but I’m going to expose myself and admit that would be a lie because I actually found geometry really fun. Trigonometry was my shit, lol.

He is a designer who perfectly demonstrates that juggling interseasonal consistency and taking risks can be done. There’s always something DIFFERENT about his collections, fresh and subtly experimental. There are occasionally a few misses, sure, but I’d rather that than for a brand to keep playing safe, plus he never goes too far in the opposite direction either; no going weird for the sake of weird. I don’t like it AS much as the summer collection but it’s mostly because of the more muted, autumn/winter appropriate colour palette.

Comme Des Garçons? Too weird?

Never.

Honestly when it comes to a CDG collection, I have to really shift my perspective to appreciate it. I’m not looking at fashion presentation, I’m looking at a moving piece of experimental art. I know, it’s a stretch. But you know you’ll never be bored by one of their shows. Not gonna lie, this specific collection crossed the line into plain ugly a couple of times for me. We had padding so extravagant it looked like several models were walking round with Ikea pillows stuck to their chest and headdresses reminiscent of the kids’ game Headbandz. In amongst that though, we did get some gorgeous veils like the ones seen above and the shoes and socks combo is actually quite wearable.

I’d say Dilara Findikoglu is the cut-off point after which things get a little too avant-garde for my personal taste, and it hovers over that cut-off point flawlessly; despite the other-worldly elements of her collections, they remain somewhat grounded by nods towards conventional fashion that allow the beauty, be it inner or outer, of the wearer to shine through. Comme Des Garcons garments undeniably have character but they tend to swallow up any trace of the individual underneath, whereas the character of Dilara Findikoglu garments seamlessly merges with the wearer and in turn elevates both to something transcendent and ethereal. If the Pussycat Dolls got transported into a rugged, post-apocalyptic future, they’d scrape together these outfits to perform in, I know it; the energy of the collection, with the body jewellery and the frayed cut outs and the chalk white faces, is very warrior princess, just as raw and intimidating as it is hot as fuck, and I want that energy in my life. Along with a Dilara belt, of course. I would wear her name like a badge of honour anytime she wants. Dilara, pls pls let me be part of your tribe. PLEASE.

Anyway, this is where I thought I’d cut things off, so as to end on a positive note. You know what that means: Dior is coming up. I feel bad knowing my first post was defending Maria Grazia and yet here I am now, looking at the bar down on the floor, but I mean, you never know; maybe girl is doing this on purpose and one day she’s gonna come out with a Gucci level quality show like a phoenix from the ashes.

If you got this far, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING even if you’re just here for the pics. Part 2 will be covering some of my most anticipated shows from Elie Saab, Fendi and Etro to Gucci and Moschino, Miu Miu and Marc Jacobs, and everything in between. Yes, the shitty ones too.

I’m plowing through all the material as quick as I can so I hope to get the next post up really soon, and yes-you can count on the overwhelming sense of needing to be productive pushing me into fulfilling that statement. 

Thanks again and I hope you’re well!

Lauren x

[cynicalrainbows]

The Next Best Thing Chapter 12

In which Anne’s parents are Awful Nouveau-Riche and Cathy realises her skill at Scary Stories.

There’s pizza and birthday cake for supper when they’re called downstairs, flushed and ruffled from much entombing and raining down of curses. 

(They even managed to include Anne’s birthday present: the doll became the sacrifice, like in the story of Abraham and Isaac that they learned in R.E, except that no one replaces the doll with a sheep at the last minute.

It’s ok. The doll doesn’t seem to mind being a sacrifice. It doesn’t mess up her dress or her ringlets anyway.)

At home and at Catalina’s house at her old house, it’s tea but at Anne’s house, it’s supper. She knows not to call it tea because Anne’s Mum and Dad like to pretend that they don’t understand when people call it tea.

(Once, Anne says, Jane asked what time she should bring Anne and Kitty home for tea and Anne’s Mum made a big show of looking confused and told Jane that Of course they didn’t let the children drink TEA, Jane, oh goodness no…. Oh I’m so sorry, do you mean supper? and Jane had just sighed really big.)

Cathy wonders if she or Anne should have warned Anna about the tea/supper thing in case she gets it wrong and has to listen to Anne’s Mum doing her I’m Very Confused face...but it turns out to be ok because Anna calls it abendessen, and Anne’s Mum gets a funny look on her face, like she isn’t sure whether or not to correct her, and ends up not saying anything at all.

The pizza is delicious- real, proper pizza ordered from a pizza delivery place- not the frozen pizza that Catalina buys or the homemade pizza that they have as a treat sometimes, when she gets to help knead the dough herself and choose her own toppings. 

(She always makes her pizza into a face- with olives for eyes and a red pepper smiley mouth and pepperoni cheeks and a button mushroom nose, even though she doesn’t like peppers very much and she doesn’t like olives at all. 

She picks those parts off before she eats it. 

The very first time, she’d wondered for a moment in Catalina would be cross at the waste but when she’d asked to check, Catalina had just laughed and said that they could probably just about afford it and that if Cathy valued The Aesthetic that much, who was she to stand in the way of art? 

Which turned out to be a fancy way of saying that she didn’t mind.)

The birthday cake is even more exciting than the pizza: it has two tiers like a wedding cake, except it’s pink rather than white and there are little pink and white roses on the top rather than a bride and groom and Happy Birthday Ann written around the side.

Mary laughs and asks Anne’s Dad if he noticed that they missed off an E and Anne’s Dad tells her not to look at him, he didn’t order the bloody thing and Anne’s Mum goes pink and quickly says that it must have been a typo and then snaps at them both that it doesn’t matter, isn’t it still a beautiful cake?

(Anne whispers to Cathy that it doesn’t seem fair that grown ups can make all the spelling mistakes they want: why doesn’t it matter that the cake maker spelt her name wrong when she gets told off if she forgets about the secret E in Boleyn?

But she only says it quietly, so no one thinks she’s being Ungrateful.)

She and Anna and Anne’s Mum (who is holding her magazine open with her finger so she doesn’t lose her place) and Anne’s Dad (who is still wearing his suit and is drinking something dark brown from a fancy glass) and Mary (who is home from Group) and Baby Catherine (who is enthusiastically gumming a rusk) sing Happy Birthday to Anne while she blows out her candles and cuts the cake to make a wish.

(She doesn’t get to do more than the first cut though because Anne’s Mum is fussed about mess.)

Cathy makes sure to hold her cake fork in her left rather than her right hand when she’s eating her slice of birthday cake (she’s getting quite good at it now) and feels pleased with herself when she doesn’t drop even a single crumb. 

Anne is….less careful, but it’s her birthday, so her Mum only frowns at her a little bit and her Dad doesn’t notice at all because he’s looking at his phone.

Baby Catherine is a lot less careful and drops bits of rusk and crumbs of cake all over the carpet and Anne’s Mum sighs and frowns and then scolds Mary for letting the baby have CAKE and what were you thinking?

 Mary tells her it was only a tiny taste and to lay off her, it’s HER daughter, and Anne’s Mum snaps back that if it’s her daughter, maybe Mary should pay for her clothes and toys and nappies and food from her own pocket and how would she like that?  and they snap back and forth until Mary crossly whisks Baby Catherine away to clean her up.

Then Anne’s Dad says he needs to make a phone call and Anne’s Mum turns to them and asks if they wouldn’t like to go back upstairs to play now so that the grownups can have some peace and quiet even though they haven’t been downstairs all that long, and that’s it, the cake bit of the party is clearly over.

Anna looks a tiny bit surprised, and Anne looks a tiny bit disappointed (Cathy just feels relieved) …….but it’s alright really.

The pillow fort isn’t going to build itself, after all.

*

Making the fort is fun.

Climbing into the fort and playing that they’re Arctic Explorers in a blizzard is even more fun (especially when Anna’s Captain Oates decides he wants to come back into the tent after he’s left and she and Anne have to fight really hard to keep him outside in the snow)......and then Anne says they should do scary ghost stories.

Because it’s her sleepover and her birthday and everyone in sleepovers on tv tells ghost stories and so they should too.

This is….sort of a good idea.

It’s a good idea because it’s true that a proper sleepover needs ghost stories- they all agree on that.

It’s less of a good idea because… well, at first she thinks it’s a less-good idea because she doesn’t really know any proper ghost stories.

(Both her parents and Catalina have been very clear in letting her know that Ghosts- and monsters-under-the-bed and Vampires and Witches are all Just In Stories…..but they haven’t supplied her many of the stories themselves. Not ones that are scary enough to make them worthy of a sleepover anyway.)

Not only does she not know any real scary stories though, neither does Anne (as far as she knows) and so it’ll be just boring.

However it soon turns out- once the lights are turned off and they’re sitting in the pillow fort with their torches under their chins to make their faces all spooky- that actually Anne DOES know quite a few ghost stories.

At least, they’re not exactly ghost stories, more plots-of-horror-films-that-Mary-watches-and-Anne-Isn’t-Supposed-To-See….. but they work perfectly well even if they ARE more about zombies and men with chainsaws and big sharks than ghosts (and even though Anne has to make some of it up because she- unluckily for her- never gets to see more than a minute or two before Mary tells her to go and play.)

Anna knows stories too- stories that are old, stories that her Omi learnt from her Omi when she was a little, little girl. 

There’s the story of the maid who tricks a princess into being a goose girl and who gets rolled around the city in a spiked barrel as her punishment and now haunts the town every night- which makes them all wince- and the story of the peddler who is given a gun with seven bullets in by a man in a cloak who turns out to be the devil and who ends up shooting his wife by mistake and now haunts the forest- which makes them all sad.

And then Anne says it’s time for Cathy to tell a ghost story and she wonders what she could possibly say.

She has no idea how she’ll be able to match Anna’s devil-with-a-gun story, and certain she won’t be able to top Anne’s man-who-cuts-off-peoples-skin-and-wears-it anecdote.

She hasn’t seen any scary films herself at all- not even a bit of one because Catalina doesn’t watch those sorts of films, just old, old films that are all black and white, or serious grown up films where people do lots of looking out of rainy windows while sad music plays in the background.

Once or twice, out of curiosity, she’s tried picking something that looks scary and grown up from the dvd section of the library to see if she’ll be allowed it but Catalina just makes her put it back and choose something else.

(‘You wouldn’t like it, querida.’

Catalina has barely even looked at the dvd case and it makes her cross. 

‘I might. You don’t know I won’t like it.’

Catalina raises her eyebrows. ‘I can make a pretty good guess. Remember the detective program that you didn’t like because of the scary music? Well this would be even scarier than that. It would give you nightmares for sure.’

‘Maybe I LIKE having nightmares.’

‘Maybe you do but I don’t. Just choose something else please.’

‘Well I ONLY want this one.’ It’s a challenge but Catalina looks unimpressed.

‘Well I am more than ok with you getting nothing at all mija if that’s what you’d like.’ Catalina nonchalantly examines the case with a picture of a tiger in a sailboat on the front and puts it back. 

Annoyingly, Cathy knows she means it. ‘Now shall I pick out another dvd for myself or would you like to choose a different one?’

‘......A different one.’

‘Ah, I thought so.’

Grudgingly, she lets Catalina put the dvd case back on the shelf but it’s still frustrating.

It’s too hard to explain that what really made her hide her eyes and cover her ears from the detective program wasn’t really the scariness but how normal it was. 

Scary films, she thinks, should be Scary. And she doesn’t think she’d mind Scary Scary.

 What she doesn’t like are normal things that turn scary and remind you of all the bad things that could happen to you at any time at all.

But explaining that is too hard so she doesn’t even try.)

She wonders if Catalina would have changed her mind about the dvd if she knew she was leaving Cathy in such a position as she is now, the only person at the sleepover without a scary story to tell. 

(Maybe she’ll tell her tomorrow. She hopes Catalina feels bad about it when she tells her.)

Anna and Anne are starting to look a bit impatient now so she decides she’s just going to have to make something up.

She takes a deep breath.

‘Once upon a time-’

Anne giggles a bit- maybe because she’s using the fairy story beginning, maybe because she’s making her voice all spooky and different, maybe just from sheer nerves, but Cathy can’t tell which so she throws a stray cushion at Anne to make her be quiet and listen properly.

‘Once upon a time….there was a little girl. She lived with her Godmother in a big, big house. It had hundreds of rooms and ten floors and a big big garden….’

‘Was there a swimming pool?’

She wants to be annoyed at Anne for interrupting but she supposes it’s only fair considering that she interrupted Anne’s story about The Scary Murder Hotel to say that it was really the ladies fault she got stabbed in the shower and why didn’t she lock the door like a normal person?

‘No- Yes.’ She changes her mind. ‘She DID have a pool, and she could do the backstroke and dive and hold her breath underwater-’

Anne scowls (it’s still a point of contention between them that Cathy learned how to do the backstroke in swimming lessons first even though Anne has a nicer swimming costume.)

‘Bet she couldn’t really. Bet the dive was only once and she couldn’t do it again.’

Cathy is on the verge of asking Anne just whose story it is (and possibly adding that maybe the little girl could only manage to dive once but at least she didn’t cry when she got pushed fell off the floaty raft even though all that happened was getting a little bit of water up her nose like some people she could name…) but then Anna interrupts because she wants to hear what happens next.

‘Go on Cathy!’

‘Well, she lived in a big big house, anyway. She was allowed to play in every room except the attic. Every day she asked her Godmother if she could go into the attic and every day, her Godmother would say, maybe when you’re a bit older. 

And she would come up with reasons about why the little girl couldn’t go up there, like one day she’d say that the roof was leaking or that there were some presents she wasn’t allowed to see or that it was too cold. 

But the little girl didn’t really think that was really why. And every night when she was in bed, she could hear noises coming from the attic. And if she ever asked about it, her Godmother would say that it was the wind. 

But it didn’t sound like the wind. It sounded like-’ Cathy drums with the heel of her hand on the carpeted floor a few times and then makes her fingers all witchy and scratches them along the side of the fort.

‘One night, she decided that she couldn’t wait any longer to find out so she got out of bed really quietly and snuck up the stairs to the attic. On the first step, she heard a little voice in her head telling her to go back but she ignored it. When she was half way up, she heard a little voice telling her to go back to bed RIGHT NOW...but she ignored it. And when she got to the top step, she opened the door really slowly….’

Cathy pauses dramatically- she’s not really been paying attention to the other two while she’s been talking but they’re both staring at her, eyes wide. Anna is holding a pillow to her chest and Anne is biting the nail of her littlest finger.

I did that, she thinks. My story did that….

It feels exciting. It feels powerful.

‘She opened the door and saw...nothing.’ She lets her voice drop back to normal and Anna and Anna both relax. ‘It was just an ordinary boring attic….and she thought maybe her Godmother had been telling the truth the whole time, and she was just turning around to go back to bed when she felt….a hand….close around…..her wrist…’

She lets her words fall slowly until she gets to the last part, and then she grabs Anne’s bare wrist as she says it. 

Anne gasps and pushes her away and takes back her arm like she’s afraid of what Cathy might do to it; Anna puts the pillow over her face so only her eyes are peeking out.

‘The hand was all cold and thin….and the little girl was too scared to turn around. She heard a voice- just a little girl's voice- in her ear, and it said…’ 

She makes her voice all scratchy. ‘It’s my turn now. You’ve lived downstairs for all these years and your Godmother promised that one day, we were going to get to swap places and now you’re here so we will. 

The little girl tried to run but before she could, the other little girl had pulled off her dressing gown and put it on over her own raggedy dress, and she pushed the little girl down and she took a big needle and she sewed up the little girls mouth so she couldn’t even scream-’

Anne presses her lips together tightly.

 ‘The little girl lay there with her mouth all sewn up, and she watched as the attic girl escaped out of the door and shut it hard…. 

And then the little girl heard her go downstairs. And she tried and tried to open the door but she couldn’t, no matter how hard because it was locked up tight.

And after a while, she heard her Godmother coming into the hall and so she banged as hard as she could on the door, hoping she would hear her and come and rescue her and let her out…’

‘And then?’ Anna’s voice is nearly a whisper.

‘And then…’ Cathy took a deep breath. ‘Then she heard the other little attic girl saying What’s that funny noise? Can I go up to the attic today? 

And she heard her Godmother say That’s just the wind, come and have breakfast. Maybe you can go to the attic when you’re a little bit older. 

And it made her wonder if she’d be able to escape when the attic girl came up to see her….

But then she heard the little girl reply That’s ok. I don’t really want to go up there. I don’t ever want to go up there, not ever!

 And the attic girl and her Godmother walked away, and the little girl was left all alone. Forever. The end.’

There’s a long quiet after she finishes and she wonders if maybe she was wrong, if Anne and Anna don’t like her story after all….but then Anna lets out a shaky breath.

‘Wow Cathy, you’re really good at scary stories!’

‘Thank you.’

‘Did Catalina tell you that one?’ Anne asks and Cathy shakes her head. ‘No. I just….made it up.’

‘How? How? Teach me!’ 

‘I don’t know how-’

‘Please Cathy!’ Anne grips her arm like she wants to shake the stories out of Cathy for herself and Cathy pushes her off, giggling.

‘I don’t know how to!’

Anne subsides reluctantly. ‘It was SO scary! What happened to the little girl?’

‘Yes!’ Anna joins in. ‘What happened to her?’

They’re looking at her expectantly- it’s so strange to think that now, this little girl exists not just in her head but in Anna and Anne’s heads too, she exists now when five minutes ago she was just nothing at all.

She’s made something out of nothing- and although she’s written stories before, in school and just for fun, this feels different. This feels real.

It occurs to her that she could say anything- anything- and that would be The End….so she has to think for a minute before she asks (and this is quite clever she thinks really) if they want a Scary Ending or a Happy Ending.

(It’s like when Catalina asks if she wants truth or lies when she asks what Catalina did at work that day, and sometimes she says lies and sometimes she says truth.

When she says she wants lies, Catalina will tell her about the tiger that got in through the office window and how everybody but her ran away and how she had to fight it off with just the contents of her handbag until it fled, never to be seen again. 

Or she’ll talk about how she got lost on the way to work and as she walked and walked, the buildings around her got bigger and bigger and it was only when she came across a dandelion the size of an umbrella that she decided she should maybe turn back….

When she says she wants truth, Catalina will tell her about the new person who made a mistake and tried to blame it on her, and the annoying woman who talks about being on a diet and then goes and takes the last biscuit anyway, and the annoying man who listens to what she says and then repeats it and pretends it’s his idea and how much she’d like to throw something at him but of course I wouldn’t really querida because that would be very bad.

Whether she chooses truth or lies, it’s usually a good story anyway.)

Anne says Happy Ending just as Anna says Scary Ending, which is no help at all.

‘Tell us both!’

‘Yes, tell us both!’

She gives in, and tells them all about how the little girls Godmother noticed that the attic girl wasn’t wearing the same pajamas as her real daughter and went up and rescued her and unstitched her mouth and made the little attic girl say sorry and go and live with her neighbour who was going to have a baby the normal way but then decided that babies were too much trouble but that she’d still quite like a daughter anyway.

‘-and they all lived happily ever after.’

‘Was the little attic girl her sister?’ asks Anna and Cathy shakes her head.

‘She came with the house.’

‘Ohhhh.’ Anna nods understandingly. ‘Yes. The new house has some furniture Mutti didn’t like because it was ugly and Vati said that it came with the house and that we had to put up with it.’ She pauses. ‘I’m glad we didn’t get a creepy little girl too.’

‘You MIGHT have done!’ Anne bursts out. ‘Maybe you did and she’s in the attic and she’s waiting for you to go up-’

Anna shakes her head. ‘We don’t have an attic.’

‘Maybe she’s in the cellar!’

‘We don’t have a cellar either. Vati said houses with cellars and attics were too much trouble and if Mutti wanted either, she could be in charge of sorting them out when something went wrong and Mutti said there was no way she was doing that, so we just got a normal house.’

‘Oh.’ Anne looks stumped. ‘That’s a shame. Nowhere for the little attic girl to live just because your Daddy didn’t want a cellar.’

Anna says if Anne is so sorry for the little attic girl, maybe she can come and live in Anne’s attic instead and Anne squeals and says she better not even try, it’s not her fault Anna doesn’t have an attic.

‘Can we have the scary ending now Cathy?’ Anna asks (possibly to distract Anne from further scrutiny of her father’s potential disregard for the welfare for little attic girls) and Cathy nods.

‘The scary ending…..is that the little girl stayed up in the attic forever. She got hungrier and hungrier but she couldn’t eat anything because her mouth was all sewn up and no one was bringing her food anyway. So she died. All by herself and she never saw her Godmother again and no one noticed or was sad about it because they didn’t know.’

It’s not a very long ending but it’s the saddest, scariest ending Cathy can think of, and the others must agree because they just nod, like it makes sense that of course you can’t eat with a mouth all sewn up.

They’re thinking about it so hard that when there’s knock on the door, they all jump and Anne gives a little scream and Cathy grabs tight onto her hand….but it’s only Mary, telling them that Anne’s Mum says it’s time they went to bed.

Coming out of the pillow fort feels funny after all the stories- especially as the big light is still off and they have to shine their torches so Anne can find the switch by the door.

(She makes it across the room ok, no scary hands reach out to grab her or anything.)

(Not that they can see, anyway.)

At least things feel a bit more normal when the light is on- and finding pajamas and toothbrushes is at least a reassuringly prosaic distraction.

It also helps that she’s excited to show off the new pajamas Catalina brought her as a special treat- her old ones were just pink and purple plaid but her new ones are very cool and blue and have little otters and ‘Otterly Exhausted’ on them.

(Catalina says that’s a pun, which means getting words wrong on purpose to be funny. Cathy decides she likes puns but from the way Catalina rolls her eyes when she’s explaining it, she thinks Catalina might not feel the same way.)

(But it’s ok because Anne says that Jane likes puns a LOT.)

Anne’s pajamas are just plain green (although they’re made of special silky stuff) but Anna has pajamas patterned with little skulls and crossbones like a pirate.

 (Anna says they’re from the boys section because why should boys get the cool pajamas and Cathy and Anne agree that’s a very good point.)

The fort gets a bit demolished when they’re getting into bed to sleep because they need the pillows and blankets back, and Anna goes back to her bag for a minute and fishes out a slightly worn grey and white toy fluffy thing.

She tells them her Vati brought one for her and one for her sister when their old dog, Albrecht got put to sleep, even though Amelia was too little at the time to know what Put To Sleep meant. So her dog is Albrecht The Second.

Albrecht The Second barks and lollops around the remains of the fort until Anne’s stuffed dragon blows a plume of smoke and fire and scares him away… and then Anne turns to Cathy and says they need Tarka (who is important enough to have a whole book written about him) to throw water on the fire…

It makes her wish very much that she hadn’t left Tarka under her pillow at home for fear of looking like a baby. When Anne asks why she didn’t bring him, she just shrugs.

‘I forgot.’

‘Oh.’ Anne loses interest and makes Rothko dragon burrow under the duvet.

(Rothko dragon got his name from the big red painting on Anne’s living room wall because Anne’s Mum and Dad were having a fight about it the same day that Anne was trying to think of a name for him: Anne’s Dad kept shouting that it was a completely ridiculous waste of money and Anne’s Mum kept shouting back that it was an original Rothko Thomas, an original Rothko! Anne doesn’t care much about the Rothko painting- she says it’s looks like something someone even younger than Kitty could paint- but she does like Rothko dragon very, very much.)

Cathy tries to remind herself that not bringing Tarkar means she’s obviously very grown up and that’s a good thing….but it’s quite hard to do.

Anne says that one of them can have Kitty’s bed and one of them can have the camp bed and one of them can have Anne’s bed and that her Mum said it was up to them to decide, so she thinks they should draw straws for it like in Oliver Twist.

(This is, Cathy thinks, more that Anne likes the idea of drawing straws than really caring where anyone sleeps.)

In the end, Cathy ends up on the fold up bed, Anne has her own bed and Anna has Kitty’s. 

Anna asks, while they’re waiting for their turns in the bathroom, whether Cathy really minds being on the camp bed and does she want to swap and Cathy says it’s ok.

She feels a bit bad when Anna smiles at her like she’s being nice.

She isn’t sure if she should tell her that the real reason she doesn’t mind having the fold-up is because she knows from Anne that Kitty has started wetting her bed again after her visit to Edmund.

(Jane says that it’s nothing to worry about, it’s easily fixed, and it doesn’t matter in the slightest so please don’t cry Kitty-Kat, which is pretty much the opposite of what Anne’s Mum has to say on the subject. But then again, she and Jane often say opposite things and Anne and Kitty are mostly used to it by now.)

She decides not to tell Anna because Anna seems happy to have the proper bed anyway, but she also feels a tiny bit guilty that Anna thinks she’s being more nice than she is, so she lets Anna clean her teeth next.

Which sort of makes it fair.

They get into bed and turn off all the lights, apart from Anne’s lava lamp and their torches. It’s sort of exciting- to be somewhere new, for the real sleepover part to begin….but it’s also, for some reason, suddenly really quite easy to imagine little attic girls and scary hands grabbing at their wrists and people wearing skin and what it must feel like to be rolled around in a spiky barrel…..

When there’s another knock on the door, it makes them all jump….but it’s only Anne’s Mum, checking that they’re really in bed and reminding them to not touch the special soap in the bathroom.

There’s a little uncomfortable silence after she goes: Cathy can still feel her heart beating a bit faster under her pajama top and she can tell that Anne and Anna are feeling the same way (although they at least have a dragon and a dog for protection while Cathy has nothing at all.)

After a bit, Anna says that attic girls probably can’t knock on doors to make it less scary- and they all feel better for a moment.

Then Anne says that little attic girls probably don’t knock because they can just come straight in whenever they want to…...

And they go right back to being scared again.

[witchcraft-in-wonderland]

Cori's Tale (Pt.1)

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

I was never much for listening to the old stories they told us about monsters and humans fighting. It wasn't that I didn't care- I just had better things to do, like drawing. I had a black backpack with gold spikes for all my sketchbooks and drawing materials, I never leave home without it. The other kids at school think it's weird, I've never taken the thing off since I got it, but I like it! That's all that matters.

Oh, how rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself have I? Cori Sable, resident nonbinary disaster child. Not that it's of any consequence what my gender or lack thereof is, after all I'm only twelve years old aren't I.

But back to the important stuff! I live in a community of lots of people, it's fun, we get along pretty well when people aren't calling me names or telling me the backpack I wear is pointless and stupid and I should just get rid of it.

If I had to complain about anything, it would be the fact that no one seems to notice how many kids go missing at Mt. Ebbot every year. Every year some kid gets dared to climb it, and every year they don't come back. With the way the other kids look at each other sometimes, I worry they know exactly what they're doing when they send someone up there.

"And that's the story of how the humans were victorious in the Battle of Mt. Ebbot," the teacher closed her book, placing it on a shelf next to her. I hadnt heard a word of what she said, not that it mattered since I already had the whole thing memorized to begin with. I glared enviously at the back of the room, where teenagers sat on their phones, willingly able to ignore the story and not get in trouble. We werent allowed to get phones until we were fourteen, and even then we had to get jobs first, and recite the story of monsters vs humans. I don't think I'll ever get a phone, I'm terrible at doing work for one. For two the way everyone here tells the story of our fight seems very biased, it's almost like they didn't try to cooperate with the monsters at all, just maim and kill and lock away where no one else can find them. It's rather rude in my opinion, monsters just seem like weaker magical humans, they just look different and have a different culture, I don't see what's wrong with that.

Of course, bringing this up would be a detriment to my already tediously hanging reputation here. A kid who isn't well liked would be ill-advised to go spouting off about how monsters and humans aren't so different, about how maybe if we'd shown a little mercy we wouldn't be in this situation.

See, we used to be able to live in separate houses, used to be able to get stuff whenever we wanted. But it turns out a lot of that was because if decent trading with monsters, and of course, no monsters, no nice things. Not to mention, going through an entire war is hardly good for anyone involved, it's actually probably the worst possible event to go through. That's what led us to here, with so many orphans the human race decided "why not just make all children orphans" and took us away from our parents nearly as soon as we were born to be raised in these communities, only able to escape once we prove sufficient enough to survive on our own.

I'll probably never get out, they'll kick me out at twenty-one of course, but the problem with that is, I don't think I'll get the hang of life by then, or ever really. There's just to many things to learn! How to drive a car, how to use a phone, how to get a job, how to talk to people, it's all way to much. And with no one helping me out, I'm basically trying to operate a plane where all the buttons are the same color and the switches don't have labels.

Recess was my least favorite part of the day. I used to like it, but now I get pushed off of everything I try to use. On top of that, recess is when The Choosing happens. If you haven't figured it out yet, that's when someone gets dared to climb a giant mountain or risk being labelled a coward and ostracised, one time a kid refused and they got them kicked out entirely!

"Cori!" I heard a rough grumbling voice call my name. I turned to face the girl, her name was Ulana, and she was the one who decided what happened to all of us. Red hair braided behind her back, Jean's ripped in so many places it couldnt possibly be intentional, the only thing scarier than her was the twin brothers that always followed close behind. Sora and Pevril were oddities of their own, with Sora having black and blue eyes and Pevril being abnormally tall for a child. They were of course, only scary when around Ulana, other than that, I didn't see them as much of a threat, sometimes it even seemed like we could be friends.

"What is it, Lan," I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't call me Lan," growled the girl, she was nearly a foot taller than me, and almost old enough to age out of the community to. But she was looking for a reaction, and I learned long ago that I should never give one to a bully, not if I had any self-respect.

"Right, well what do you want then?" I tilted my head to the side, focusing more on the sound of children playing in the distance than Ulana.

"I bet you can't climb Mt. Ebbot and survive," I froze for a second. I was aware I wasn't well liked, but perhaps i should've paid attention to just how deep that disdain went.

"And if I don't accept?" I said, digging my feet into the ground.

"Then I'll take that nice backpack of yours and chuck it in with the next kid, and you'll get kicked out," I wrapped my hands around the backpack straps subconsciously.

"Fine, I'll play your game, but if I do make it back, you can't send anyone else down ever again," I said, looking her directly in the eyes. There was a glint there, one I that sent shivers down my spine.

Mountains were, of course, cold, but my legs had a weird relationship with temperature. I had a blue and indigo striped hoodie on, one with little grey horns at the top, and black shorts with black boots. The ever important backpack was still tossed over my shoulders, sketchbook and art materials jostling around inside.

I reached the top of the mountain soon after, there was a crater at the center. I thought to myself for a second, whether Ulana had mentioned anything about going into the mountain, or if I could go home saying I had climbed it myself. I was in fact, so caught up in this decision, that I was caught off guard by a light shove from behind, and sent hurtling down the crater, my backpack clutched to my chest.

I landed, miraculously, in a pile of soft flowers, that seemed to cushion my fall.

I couldn't tell where I was, just that I was really far down, and the sky was really far up. I made the decision to keep walking.

After a few mere seconds of this I came across a patch of grass, where an orange tree stood at the center. I paused for a second before realizing- the tree had a face.

"Howdy! I'm Orangey, Orangey the orange tree!" It spoke, in a voice that sounded cold and calculated.

"Uh- hi- I'm Cori- the not orange not tree-" I said, doing a sort of two-finger salute in return.

"You're new to the underground arentcha?" Said Orangey, I nodded in response.

"Let me help you," suddenly something jumped out in front of me. It was glowing, different shades of pink blue and yellow faded in and out of what looked like a heart.

"This is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!" Said Orangey, he seemed unphased by the tri-color phenomenon of it.

"Your SOUL can get stronger when you gain LV, that stands for LOVE," he said. I wasnt sure that sounded right, Love didnt seem like the kind of word one would need to abbreviate.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through friendliness pellets," spinning orange shapes appeared on all sides, I eyed them suspiciously "Go on! Catch as many as you can!" Said the tree. I chose to go the opposite route, backing away as the shapes closed in on me.

The tree's expression changed, it was one of anger and hatred "Smart kid, aren't you," its voice was deeper, less calculated, more angry and bordering on psychopathic.

The pellets surrounded me on all sides, preparing to close in. The tree began to laugh, a cold and unfeeling cackle that sent a chill down my spine. The pellets were inches away from my skin, when suddenly they'd disappeared, the tree was gone. Something- no- someone- walked out if the shadows. He was tall, with white fur and horns, and a tossle of light brown hair at the top of his head, adorned with glasses, a blue shirt, khakis, and a grey cardigan.

"What a cruel creature, torturing such a poor innocent youth," he spoke in a softer voice, one that reminded me of how the guardians back at the community spoke to the younger children.

"I am Patton, caretaker of the ruins, come with me, I will keep you safe," Patton held a hand out, I accepted it after a few moments hesitation. Patton walked with me through an archway, into an elaborate structure, covered with vines and flowers. I felt something spark in me, I thought back to the sketchbooks in my backpack.

"Can I sit down for a second? That was a little scary," I said. Patton smiled and nodded, setting himself down in a pile of flowers between two sets of stairs. I sat down as well and pulled out a sketchbook, beginning to draw the things surrounding me.

"Oh! An artist!" Patton said excitedly.

I smiled and brushed it off slightly "Not so much artist as bored little kid with to much creativity," was my only reply as we sat there, trying to ignore the things my head was telling me.

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

Tag list:

@nerosdayinhell

@that-artsy-gay

@official-lucifers-child

@spooky-scary-virgil

@youtuberswithalex

@misunderstoodshadowling

[toughaqua777]

Homestar Runner OC: Little Miss

I can’t make art for the life of me, so I’m just gonna describe her appearance here.

Little Miss is interesting in that she has hands and feet...but no arms or legs! She doesn’t even have a neck! They just kinda...float nearby her (think Rayman).

Anyways. Like Coach Z, her head is all white, but she has tall, black oval eyes and a tiny visible mouth that’s also pitch black, usually in the shape of a small circle/dot. She also has black hair, with spiky bangs over her forehead (like with that one Mii hairstyle) and has pigtails, the hairties being pink in color.

That mouth can grow very wide, though, into a smile/frown that kinda look like those you’d find on cartoon/clip art theatre masks. It will maintain its original shape if she’s surprised by something or other, it just grows bigger.

Her eyes can turn into lines like this: -_-. And she spontaneously gets eyebrow-like black lines to help with expressions like sadness and anger. They can also take the form of u’s for closed eyes and n’s for cheery eyes.

She wears a pink dress with a black heart on the front. A little below that, she’s wearing little black dance shoes (think of Preshy’s shoes).

She wears white gloves, which show to only have three fingers (if the thumb counts as one), so she has rather small hands. It’s debatable whether or not these are actually her hands, but they do seem to cover her would-be wrists, so...who knows?

During the wintertime, she wears a black-and-white hat with a pom-pom on it. No scarf though, because no neck.

She’s pretty short. Like, Strong Bad short. Except a bit shorter. Taller than the Cheat (obviously), but still rather short.

For the same joke as Homestar’s missing(?) arms & hands (along with all the other characters this applies too), sometimes her hands and feet will move far from her to the point where no normal arms or legs would reach. Same goes with her head. Try pulling the glove off? Doesn't even hurt, you just stole her hand. Same goes for her shoes.

Her voice would sound somewhat childish, but she’s actually in her early twenties. I might follow-up this post with my personal example.

Her personality ties into this slightly. She seems childish and energetic to some, acting similar to Homestar even. But to others, she’s violently murderous. Think of her as being like Homestar’s cousins, the rejected characters Preshy & Rafferty. She’s sadistic to some people, but when others are around, she’s very nice & kind.

But nobody can deny that, regardless, she’s kinda creepy. Not Coach Z creepy, but like...scary creepy. That freakin’ smile, for example. Remember, it can get very wide. She also shares some of the more artistic talents that Strong Sad and Marzipan share, but she tends to paint odd things, like...eyes. A lot of eyes. And she likes to whisper for no real reason other than to scare people, especially if it’s to say something off-putting, like “I know what you did.”

She’s kinda supposed to be a character that jokes about the “creepy little girl” trope in horror movies overall, from her color pallet to her personality. She’s also based off of the rejected characters I’ve already mentioned, Preshy more-so.

And that’s it. I hope you enjoy me not remembering that I made this post by the time I wake up.

[mimzy-writing-online]

Writing A Blind of Visually Impaired Character: Mannerisms

This post is part of a multi-step guide to writing blind characters, and it’s master post to all parts is linked here: https://mimzy-writing-online.tumblr.com/post/185122795699/writing-a-blind-or-visually-impaired-character

All posts on writing blind characters will be tagged #blindcharacter for you to search on my blog for.

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Disclaimer: I am a very real visually impaired person who has been living with my disability for two years and these are little things I specifically do, little mannerisms that developed because of my blindness

Part Five: Blindisms or Mannerisms that Breathe Life into Your Characters

Biological Things

-My eyes get tired so easily, and when I say tired I mean they start aching and my vision gets even worse as the day progresses. The muscles start to ache and I’ll press or pinch the area around my eyes because of the pain

-Eye strain will cause headaches. When I get eyestrain I have to take off my glasses, stop looking at screens, and just relax for a while in bed until my eyes feel a little better.

-Weather has a huge impact on how I see, and any light sensitive person with a fair amount of remaining vision will probably have the same problem. Light sensitive people will find sunny days much harder, but overcast days can be a little difficult too because the sun tends to diffuse all across the sky through the clouds and the entire sky is bright

-Snow. This isn’t a me thing because I don’t live in this climate and never have to deal with it, but snow days are incredibly disorientating to people with vision issues. It covers any ground land marks you might use to know where you are (sidewalk versus grass versus street)

-Rain puddles are difficult to see and obnoxious to walk through, and your cane just sloshes through them (my mom usually warns me in advance and tells me how to avoid them)

Hobbies and Interests

-We’re actually not bared from many hobbies and activities. There are some very athletic blind people out there who play sports. Molly Burke used to rock climb and teach at a rock climbing gym when she was younger, she also learned to surf at one point. She’s gone bungee jumping and sky diving. There are lots of athletic blind people out there.

-Martial arts is very possible for blind people and certain organizations for the blind teach self defense classes. So, in case any of you were mad at me for saying you shouldn’t write Daredevil, my point is that you shouldn’t give your blind character unrealistic super senses. Your blind character can still kick some ass when needed.

-I play video games. It’s not impossible, although it is very hard for me. I still love it. I personally play Overwatch on PC and I’ve been playing Sims for years

-Reading is something a lot of blind people enjoy, and it’s sometimes described as the blind person’s version of TV, a way for them to see in their minds eyes what they can’t see with TV. So for this reason I have and will continue to tell you to keep your blind readers in mind and not traumatize, kill, assault, or victimize your blind characters for plot.

-We read in different ways. Some only read through audio books, some read through screen readers, some read on their tablets or laptops because they can enlarge font, some read printed books with magnifiers. It all heavily depends on how much sight your character has left and where they like to get their reading material. For example, if you read fanfiction a lot you will probably have to rely on screen readers on your laptops to read to you, but if you like reading published books then you will rely more on audio books.

-We do watch TV and movies, even if we can’t see the screen at all. Some movies and tv shows come with audio description for the blind, and they describe visual details on screen. You have access to lots of examples of this, because Netflix does have audio description for a lot of their shows and movies. Check audio description on your favorite Netflix Original and minimize your browser window to the background to experience movie going the blind way

-We can cook, and sometimes amazingly. Christine Hà is a blind chef who won the third season of master chef and she is amazing. She published her own cookbook too. Some schools for the blind will offer cooking classes as part of their rehabilitation services

-Art. I recommend hopping on google and checking out some blind artists out there. I’m sure you’ll be surprised by a few. There are painters, sculptors, pottery makers, photographers, and many more. My second blind character is learning to draw in school and will over time develop his own cartoonish style of drawing.

-Music. Yeah, I know I said I didn’t want to see the blind music prodigy again, but that’s because I wanted to see you guys come up with your own stories and your own unique characters. There are some wonderful blind musicians and your blind character deciding to learn to play an instrument for the first time during the course of your story would actually be pretty cool.

Theatre. It would be really cool to see some acting blind characters. Doctor Who had Ellie Wallwork, a blind actress play a blind character on their eleventh season. She was amazing and I really loved that episode, it was my favorite in the whole season. (I also adore Jodie Whittaker)

There are so many more hobbies that you can have, even with vision loss. Some might require you to adjust how you do that hobby, but with the right accommodations you can do just about anything really. (Except drive. Please don’t drive.)

Little Enjoyable Things

-Interesting textures. The less your characters see, the more obsessed they get with interesting textures. Hard ceramic mugs with decorative bumps, soft and fluffy blankets, crochet blankets and pillows, tile lines and patterns, any raised surface like slightly raised letters on a book cover, rocks with interesting but not too sharp textures. The more vision loss you have, the more you rely on your hands and your hands become a way of seeing for you.

-I have bought bumpy mugs and soft blankets and textured pillows for exactly this reason. My fingers touched them and just enjoyed the hell out of it.

-Your hands becoming a way for you to see makes you want to touch everything (except faces) Shopping in stores is especially bad because I’m touching everything even though I have quite a bit of sight left.

-There are favorite outfits, purely because what you’re wearing has the comfiest texture

-Soothing sounds and music. I’m not big into ASMR but some people might be. I like quiet background music

-Sometimes I tap my cane on pavement or other hard surfaces just to hear the way it sounds. I can’t echo-locate, most people can’t, but it’s a weird form of sensory

-Loud environments where sounds seem to come from all directions is overwhelming and not enjoyable

Cane Safety Things

-Bring your cane everywhere

-Have a backup cane when travelling long distance in case something goes wrong

-Don’t ever touch my cane. I mean it, don’t! My cane is an extra limb, it is part of my body and I get incredibly nervous when people touch it, especially if I don’t know them well. I only trust a few people to hold my cane with them for even a minute (my mom, maybe my best friend if I’m trying to put on a sweater and can’t hold it the whole time)

-Cane height: your character’s cane should be as tall as their shoulder, at least, or maybe a few inches taller to their chin.

-Because of this I like to lean forward and rest my chin on my cane when I’m bored and waiting for something (like a line)

-In general I just fidget with my cane so much

-You can actually get custom canes. I have a cane with a royal purple tip instead of red. You can get a cane that’s entirely pink or blue or black or whatever. You can add reflective tape to make you more visible.

-Some people prefer long canes that don’t fold, some people prefer folding canes. It’s really a personal decision. I’ve heard long canes are better for tactile feedback because the vibrations when they hit an object or tap the ground are more accurate. I like folding canes because I like storing it away when I don’t need it right away (in class, sitting at a booth in a restaurant, in my backpack) My preference for folding canes goes back to my paranoia of people touching it when I’m not paying attention

-Long canes that don’t fold are not easy to fit into cars and you need to get creative.

Guide Dog Things / Animal Things

-I will include a more serious list about guide dogs in my Part Four about tools and things blind people use to survive (canes, guide dogs, accessibility tools, braille) but for now this is more of a fun list

-I can’t say this from personal experience because I have never had a guide dog, but I’ve had pets and let me tell you, everyone loves spoiling their pets with gifts and hugs and pets

-Soft animals are so fun to pet

-Please tell me when there’s a cat nearby, even if I can’t pet it. I love cats? Wild bunnies too? (I’m super allergic to bunnies, I should never pet them, but I love their existence, they’re so cute)

-Some blind people are not dog people and will not get a guide dog for this reason. They are still valid. People who aren’t dog people are still valid, regardless of ability or disability.

General Safety Things

-Depending on the orientation and mobility skills of your character, they may not feel super comfortable walking out alone, and this comes down to how much training they have, how independent they are, and if they’re generally and anxious person or a self-assured person. Some blind people are great at inner city travel and can do so confidently, others feel less confident (I’m personally not great at crossing busy streets by myself and parking lots are scary to me)

-They may not like bars or nightclubs- this comes down to who your character is. Bars and nightclubs are loud, it’s hard to talk, they’re crowded so using a cane or guide dog isn’t easy or sometimes possible. They’re also poorly lit and if your character has some remaining vision but is night blind, this is especially bad. Because of how preyed upon women are, especially disabled women, your character probably won’t feel safe in a bar or nightclub because they know creeps might target them because they can’t see

-Being blind, you develop this awareness that there are predators out there in the world who see your blindness as something to exploit, that will make you easy to assault or abuse.

NOTE: please don’t use this as an excuse to write a rape as part of your plot. The general consensus of readers has come to the conclusion that using rape as something to further your plot is a terrible thing to do, it is cheap and unoriginal plot development and that you shouldn’t do it. You especially shouldn’t put your blind characters through something traumatic like this. Seriously guys, blind people are coming to your stories because they want to see themselves represented. Seeing themselves victimized will only hurt them. DON’T hurt your readers like that

-Because of this awareness of how vulnerable you can be, you learn to walk in groups and avoid places where predators frequent (bars and nightclubs)

God, this thing is getting long and there are so many other little blindisms that I’ve probably not thought of yet. I will probably make more posts in the future about blindness, including little stories or things I experience.

Follow this blog for more writing advice (and posts about experiencing the blind life)

[whocalledhimannux]

The Avatar State is such an amazing Zuko&Iroh episode. I actually think it’s one of the first episodes that actually makes it clear not only how much Zuko’s experience of abuse shaped his motivations, but how it warped his sense of relationships.

Like, how when Azula first tells him he can go home, he doesn’t quite believe it at first. It reminds me of a dog that’s been hit, who curls up in a corner and won’t even take food when it’s offered because it’s too suspicious, too wary of getting hurt again. But then, when he has accepted it, Zuko embraces it wholeheartedly and doesn’t have any room for doubt. The tiniest hint that something is wrong would shatter the illusion... the illusion that he’s about to get exactly what he was hoping for at the beginning of the episode—his honor, his throne, for his father not to think he’s worthless. When Iroh (very gently) tries to suggest that something doesn’t fit with the story, Zuko lashes out.

And not only does he tell Iroh he’s wrong, but he goes on the offensive, suggesting that Iroh’s “always been jealous of his brother.” Which is such an interesting accusation, because we don’t see any canon basis for it anywhere! it’s Iroh who has the more distinguished military career, and he never gives a whiff of indication that he would rather be Fire Lord. So I have to wonder—is Zuko parroting things he’s heard from Ozai, here? Or is he projecting his relationship to his younger sibling into his uncle and his father? (Getting some Isaac/Ishmael and Jacob/Esau generational vibes here, the elder shall serve the younger, etc.)

Then that moment where Iroh tells Zuko he’s changed his mind! Ugh! It’s such a quick moment, but I think the art and the acting are both great. One of the few genuine moments of happiness we see from Zuko in the first season and a half... and actually, now that I’m reflecting on it—maybe the first genuine moment of happiness we see from him? I can think of a few triumphant moments from Zuko in season one, but no real joy? Oof.

And I know Zuko’s art shift has been talked over to death, but in the meta I’ve seen, people have mostly pointed to the end of this episode and beyond—beginning with the haircut. Definitely the longer hair covering the edge of his scar, and making his face smaller plays a major part, and so does the fact that his expressions change along with his growth—in season one there are a lot of really dramatic expressions of rage that contort his face, and while those don’t go away entirely, there is a marked shift towards more subtle expressions of frustration, resignation, hesitation, etc, even still focusing on the negative side of things.

But I do genuinely think there’s already an art shift happening in the beginning and middle of this episode. The clothes, I think, are a big deal. Previously we’ve seen Zuko mostly in armor or tactical wear (the black clothes as the Blue Spirit and the white ones sneaking into the North Pole). I can think of one or two “leisure” outfits but still dark reds, greys, and black. In this episode, Zuko’s wearing a much more casual tunic, with a red accent, but mostly a pale pink. And something about his face and his eyes... He just looks younger. More vulnerable.

Granted, it’s hard to find a screencap of S1 Zuko with anything close to a “neutral” expression, but still. The warmer lighting, the close shot on his face, and the subtle shift in art style do a lot. Even when Zuko is fighting Azula, his anger is tempered by a more genuine fear than we usually see from Zuko in season one (aside from flashbacks).

It just makes me think about how, really, this episode is showing us Zuko from Iroh’s point of view. In season one, he seems old and scary and a much more classic villain-with-a-tragic-backstory. In this episode, the writers and artists are signaling that he’s something more—not someone with a tragic past and an evil future, but someone angling for redemption. And it starts with them going “hey guys, friendly reminder that Zuko had a really fucked up family—and oh yeah! he’s SIXTEEN, BTW!!”

[thequeenoffish]

Moulded into a Proper Omega

Warning: Rape/ Non Con - (Non-explicit Sexual Assult)

Summary:

Tony Stark, is an omega, as such his life is controlled by the alphas that own him, and even past his death, Howard Stark is determined to control his son. At 21 if he is unmated he must attend 'The Primrose Omega Finishing School’ till he finds a mate. At 21 he finds himself sans mate or way out and has to go. He regrets not picking an alpha after less than a week.

At 31 Tony is still there, still without an alpha, now practically unwantable, just how he wants it, at 35 they will let him go. But then one Alpha comes to find an omega, 18-year-old Peter Parker. Perhaps there is an alternative too waiting four years more.

Read on Ao3

Tony wants to cry. He looks up at the 18th-century mansion and hates his life. He’d spent four years trying to find a loophole, four years trying to find an alternative, and he’d come up empty-handed. He had found no legal loopholes, and he’d found no alpha who he was willing to mate with, he has no choice but to submit to the guidelines in his father’s will. His Father’s will had been clear, if his omega son Tony had no alpha mate by age 21 he was to attend the best finishing school for omegas in the country till he had a mate. Only once he had a mate could he inherit the company. So Tony stands in front of the doors having just got out of the taxi, he looks at the building that contains ‘The Primrose Omega Finishing School’, and thinks that from the outside it doesn’t look so bad. The first week is terrible. The staff had known he’d be a ‘problem’ case and so as soon as he arrived they’d set about breaking his will. As soon as he had he knocked on the door and it opened, they sprung into motion. His bags are taken from him, and he is ushered in to see the headmaster, who sits him down and reads his last school report and testimonials from his college professors about his personality. Despite their scathing comments, this barely affects Tony, nor does the alphas rant about how they will ‘fix’ him into a ‘proper omega’.

Tony will not allow them to change him, his father can force him here, even after death, but he will not submit to societies expectations, especially not the schools even more traditional ones. The headmaster tells him he is being taken to have a bath to wash away ‘the sins of the world’. Tony’s eyes roll so far back in his head he almost goes blind. The staff insist on helping him bath, scrubbing him and touching him, he doesn’t enjoy it, he especially doesn’t enjoy them attempting to wash his genitals for him. He slaps their hands away, “Don’t fucking touch me there, I can do it myself,” he hisses. The servants glare, and no doubt he’ll be told off but he doesn’t care. The insist on helping Tony dry too, he hates how they are trying to infantilise him. The staff give him a robe and lead him to his room, they explain that he has two hours of free time until dinner, and then leave him. After a minute he realises his bags aren’t in the room, he goes to the wardrobe and find it full of only lacy nightwear and lingerie, his eyes widen and he searches for his bags but they aren’t anywhere. He attempts to open the door and finds it locked, he bangs on it demanding to be let out but there is no response. He wants to cry again. He squares his shoulders, this is what they want. He can just stay in the robe, he doesn’t care. They have given him any of his personal items either, but he does not care about that, there is drawing pads for art and pencils and rulers. Tony sits are starts improving the design of his SI gun prototype. Screw them, all he needs is his mind and something to draw with. Two hours later four staff enter and scold him for not dressing. “I want my clothes,” he demands, looking at them coldly. One of the betas sighs softly, “They are practically alpha clothes, you will not be getting them back, and to ensure you remember your designation, you will be just wearing what is in that wardrobe for the foreseeable future,” she tells him sharply. Tony’s eyes flash, “I’d rather be naked,” he growls. The beta’s ignore him and go to the wardrobe, discussing what he should wear and ignoring him. “Take of your robe,” one orders, “It will be easier to decide if we can see your body shape,” they must be crazy if they think Tony would comply with that. He keeps it on. The woman in the middle sighs, and gestures with a hand, the other three descend on Tony and roughly grab him and force the robe off. He fights back and tries to get out of their grasp as they hold him between them for inspection. The woman looks him over like he’s livestock before picking out baby pink baby doll whose top is almost completely sheer. Tony hates pink, but luckily doesn’t give a fuck about who sees his nipples. “Now Tony, will you be good and put this on, or do we have to,” Tony glares and considers his options. He doesn’t want them touching him. “I will,” he snaps. They let him go and stare as he dresses. Once he is the lead woman inspects him and tugs at it to have it all laying ‘right’. Tony thinks that he should have run away rather than deal with this. After she is done she gives him pink heeled slippers. They are very low heels so Tony has no problem walking in them. “Now dinner with everyone else,” she announces. Tony looks at her like she's stupid, “I am not going to dinner like this,” “Yes you are, now, do we need to carry you like a little boy?” Tony goes under his own power. He even goes up onto the stage and tolerates how the headteacher introduces him as a,   “Disobedient omega you all must set a good example for”. He eats in silence and does not engage with the other omegas around him. He just wishes he was anywhere else. In bed that evening he stares up at the ceiling and in a quiet act of rebellion fingers himself to climax. The pleasure is good and he falls asleep feeling better. The next morning an alpha is the first person to enter his room and it freaks him out, throwing him off balance when he opens his eyes are there is an alpha stands in his bedroom sniffing. The man’s eyes narrow and he yanks the covers off Tony who shrieks, “He touched himself,” the man announces to the betas in the room. Tony snatches back the sheet to cover himself. “So what?” he snaps. The man laughs, “That’s not allowed here omega, you are in a lot of trouble,” he taunts. He looks at Tony at then says, “One week with no hands, full baths every day, with spreader bars if they are needed,” he orders. Tony has no idea what the man means but he feels intense dread. The betas force him into leather gloves that completely take away any use his hands have, he struggles and fights as they put them on and as they drag him to the bathroom, his own private one this time. They bath him again, locking the gloves to points on the bathtub itself. He hates it even more than before, once again they attempt to touch him between his legs and he kicks them. Two more betas are called in and they grab his legs cuffing them to a bar which is extended spreading his legs, they attach this to the bath and he is helpless to do anything but scream as and shout as they wash between his legs, taking their time as they calmly remind him that good omegas do not touch themselves here, ever.

After they dress him in the stupid underwear and make him go down to breakfast. He’s been crying, and everyone can tell. They can probably tell why he has got the gloves on. One of the staff go to feed him, and he refused to eat, the beta sighs and leaves him to sit in silence. Breakfasts ends and classes start. Someone shows Tony to his first class. He sits in the back and pays 10% attention while in his head he draws the idea he had for a new plane wing, “Omega Stark!” Tony blinks, and looks up at the stern woman at the front of the classroom, “What piece of equipment is needed for finishing garments?” she snaps. Tony realises she is testing to see if he was paying attention, he rewinds what she said in his mind and, “An interlocker Ma’am,” he responds. She gives him a long look before saying, “Good,” She is clearly annoyed that she hasn’t caught him out. Throughout the day several teachers try this, none of them catch him out. Each time he easily remembers what they had been saying. After class, they are allowed back to their rooms, study, or socialise. Tony goes to the reception desk, there is a young beta woman working it, he smiles charmingly, hands hidden behind his back as he says, “Excuse me Miss, but I was wondering if you could tell me where my bag has been put, I never received it in my room yesterday,” he says smiling winningly. She smiles back, “I’m sorry omega, but if you didn’t get your bag, it has been decided that you can’t have it,” she answers a tad apologetically, Tony decides to try to use his omega charms to his advantage. It is easy to let his eyes fill with tears when he is actually already upset. “Please Miss, the photo of my mother is in there, this is place is so strange and scary, and I miss her more than ever,” he says voice trembling. The woman blinks sympathy filling her face, “Visiting day is in a few days, don’t worry omega,” she soothes. Tony lets out a sob, “She’s dead Miss, she can’t come,” he sniffs. The woman looks taken aback, “I, omega, I’ll see what can be done if you tell me your name,” she says a little panicked, probably not wanting to be seen making an omega cry. He sniffs and smiles at her a little, “Tony Stark, thank you so much Miss,” he says smiling. She smiles back, “Go do something to take your mind off it,” he nods. Later he does get a visitor, it is the alpha from this morning. Tony glares at him as soon as he enters, the man smiles, “I didn’t introduce myself earlier Omega, I am the alpha assigned to your care, you may address me as Alpha Hammer,” he says. The name is so ridiculous Tony snickers, the alpha's face darkens. “Now I am here to discipline you for your offence this morning, touching yourself is absolutely banned here, even in the bath you are not to touch yourself, you belong to your alpha, clear?” he asks. Tony shrugs casually, “I’ve been fucked before, knotted, and I have been touching myself since I was 13, so I think my cunt belongs to me, okay? Alpha Hammer,” he says stretching the man's name out mockingly. The Alpha’s eyes flash, and he strides over to Tony, “So you are a slut omega? Don’t worry, before you meet your future alpha we will have beaten that out of you, hopefully, we can work you into something that despite your loose cunt you will be sweet enough and rich enough to attract someone,” the man sneers as he yanks him over to a chair. Hammer bends Tony across his lap, Tony yells and struggles as the man pins him and the hand comes down with a resounding crack. Hammer spanks him till his ass is on fire and he is crying. He leaves him in a crumpled mess on the floor. As he leaves he says, “Don’t try and use those charms of your on the receptionist again Omega, you will get your suitcase when I say so and not before,” Tony hates this. Hates himself. He cries himself to sleep.

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

Three months of the hell that is Primrose Finishing fucking School. Tony hates it. He hates the lingerie and lack of real clothes. He hates the classes and the way at every turn they try and make him believe that he is below alphas. He hates not being allowed to touch himself, having no choice over his own body. He isn’t even allowed to decide where and if he shaves, it’s chosen for him, and they make him smooth all over, he hates it. Now three months of not touching himself and his cycle are driving him up the wall. Tony takes heat suppressants, however despite this, his body still has a strong natural rhythm, and in the periods where he should have heats, he becomes very horny. This has never been a problem before, touching himself once or twice a day makes him feel so much better. But now he isn’t allowed anything. He makes it two days before touching himself after waking up from a wet dream. His ‘care’ alpha Hammer smells it of course and he is put in leather gloves and later spanked till he can’t sit. But he doesn’t even make it a day before he tries to get off despite them. He should be baking for alpha guests when a staff member comes him and finds himself grinding against the arm of a chair, desperate and panting. Hammer arrives and growls when he hears the smell, he talks in low voices to the other staff, and then grabs Tony’s arm, yanking him up and out of his bedroom. “Ow!” Tony exclaims, “Alpha Hammer you are hurting me!” he exclaims trying to pull free. Hammer slaps him, and his head snaps back. “Shut up, I am going to show you what happens to bratty, slutty, omegas,” he growls.

Hammer drags Tony outside in front of the school. The staff bring out something, his two suitcases, Tony watches with growing dread as they open them. Another staff member brings out, a petrol can? “Look omega, use those ever so smart brains of yours to understand this,” Hammer pauses and puts his lips to Tony’s ear, “If you ever, ever, touch yourself again, I will have them pour petrol over those, and set them on fire,” he says voice low and angry. Fear seizes Tony’s heart. The photo of him and his mother with her writing on the back is there, the book of fairytales she gave him, the sweater she made for him. “No, no please, please you can’t burn them,” he gasps voice panicked and cracked. Hammer squeezes his shoulder. “I think you finally understand omega, that I can burn them, and I will if you ever touch yourself again,” he snaps. “Do you understand?” he demands. Tony nods, feeling like something has been taken from already, “I-I understand Alpha Hammer,” he whispers.

The suitcases are shut and taken away and Tony feels himself cry. He wants his mother, wishes she was here to hold him so badly.

Tony never touches himself again.

-----

Tony had always thought of himself as a strong person, able to take whatever the world threw at him. But it has been 6 months, he’s tired. Tired of fighting the staff every second of the day, tired of being spanked, tired of being paraded around in lingerie no matter the temperature. He is tired of worrying that one day Hammer will just decide to burn his suitcases and his mother with them. He is tired and he wonders if resistance was ever the way to go. He feels like with every beating they take a piece of him, of the real him. He promised that he wouldn’t change, wouldn’t lose himself, would never submit. But he can’t have all three, he doesn’t think it’s possible. Maybe if he fell into line, externally submitted, but never internally. If he pretended that he had given up and fully submitted, but locked his real self away, he could save himself. So that’s what he does. No more answering back, no resisting during bath time, no insulting his care alpha, no outbursts in class. Submissive and quiet. He hates it so much, but it worth it to just be mostly left alone. Slowly but surely they give him privileges. Proper clothing. The photo of his mother. His books. His drawing things. His suitcases with all his old clothing, he’s even allowed to wear it in the evenings. He then gets a proper drawing table. If he is good, follows the rules, then he is mostly left alone and allowed to do as he wishes. It is so much easier, even if sometimes it makes him want to cry to bow his head.

[chenoehi]

1, 10, 17, 18, 44, 49 for the bts asks!!💕

👋👋👋 Thank you for these questions! They made me think lol (also you're an MVP for always keeping up with me when I live blog performances 😭)

FUN BTS ASKS <-

1. How and when did you get into BTS?

This is the shorter version bc I'm working on a personal post about this actually:

When: Last week of October 2018 in Orlando, Florida, where I was 'vacationing' while also working and basically having one of the most miserable, low weeks of my life.

How: I'd known about them since at least 2017 and watched them perform at the AMAs from afar, I listened to DNA after that, the song didn't grab me (it still doesn't 😭), and for a while I was seeing BTS content come across my tl, specifically Jimin content and he became my recruitment fairy, but the day LY in Paris had also happened recently and jikook decided to do them and all of a sudden a blog I followed spammed my tl with the jikook lap incident. At that point I'd seen BTS trending on tumblr tons of times and I saw them trending for the Waste it On Me teasers. I got interested and I listened to it when it came out but I was totally confused bc they were singing in English. So that led to me watching the classic YouTube "Who Are BTS?" videos which led me to watch one video that tested your knowledge of their voices and played clips for you to guess, and that led to my absolute obsession with Let Me Know which led to a mini breakdown when I couldn't find the song on Spotify so I listened to every. damn. song. starting. from. love yourself. Until I realized I could just Google the English lyrics and find the song that way. And then the Muster DVD content came out or was circulating literally at the same time so I got to see all the nice KM content and yeah, I basically just got hooked over the course of my week in Orlando, I walked around Disney Springs blasting Anpanman in my headphones, worked all through the night with Magic Shop, slept with my headphones on and The Tturh Untold in my ears, all because they're crackheads I love and not to be dramatic and shit but they kind of saved me when I was drowning.

10. Your favorite cover of BTS? (Doesn’t matter if it’s one of Jungkook, Taehyung, Jin, etc.)

I guess this means covers of BTS songs that other artists have done right? I really don't listen to many covers of BTS except sometimes I listen to piano versions on SoundCloud. I do listen to a cover of "The Truth Untold" by Emma Heesters on Spotify. It's probably not the best cover but I just haven't really sought out any others. .

17. Whose fashion style do you like the most?

Hmm. Well, Jimin is our pretty boy and I do always like seeing what he's wearing, I love Hoseok's style, I feel like Namjoon, Jin, and Yoongi are more ambiguous, and I like Taehyung's unique style.

But, it's JK. Big. Black. Comfy.

18. Which member matches with your personality the most?

Yoongi/Namjoon/Taehyung

I'm like Yoongi in the sense that neither of us tend to be the most outgoing or life of the party, he can be very quiet when he wants to be and he's pretty laid back in general. We also both like to sleep a lot, and I don't think Yoongi has a black and white view of the world, or at least that's the impression I get. So I'd gather he's one of the least judgmental among them. I also connect to his mental health struggles.

I'm like Namjoon in the sense that we both love nature, trees, and although I don't have immediate access to parks, museums, things like that, if I did I'd be on a bike roaming around or walking or going to see cultural events and all that good stuff. Alas I am not. I also think we have similar ways of thinking with regard to life. I specifically connect to his mental health struggles similar to Yoongi, although I believe Namjoon has dealt with and still deals with things more in line to what my experience is like, but with different contexts of course.

Taehyung. Sweet child. He was the member I connected to the least really just up until these past few months. But the truth is I may be more like Taehyung behavior wise than any of the others. I've caught myself lately watching him say or do things and saying to myself "Taehyung is me I am Taehyung." It's honestly scary sometimes. One time I was watching BTS play this quiz to see what member they were (which lol) and I found a lot of my answers aligning with his. I think coming from a background of farmers and from things I've seen he likes nature as well and like Namjoon he's a lover of art. He also has a habit of wearing less expensive clothes and making them look nice; I lol'd when I saw that he'd been buying inexpensive women's blouses marketed to women around 40 or so 😭 He just has a unique style and while I wouldn't say that I dress like him exactly I do sometimes gravitate to more old school styles. I also wear clothes for the opposite gender a lot.

44. If you were given the chance to say one sentence to all of them, what would you tell them?

To JIMIN: Jimin, you do have jams.

To JK: What was tasty in Busan?

To HOSEOK: What did JK text you on your last day in Malta?

OK OK time to get serious

To JK: Be confident in yourself because you are a wizard, our smart Ravenclaw, and you can accomplish anything you put your mind to; your 50% effort blows away everyone else's 100%.

To JIMIN: I think the way you sing is healing and I think you know best what works for your unique voice.

To HOSEOK: You are a son your parents can be proud of, and you should be very proud and confident in yourself because you're perfect.

To YOONGI: Please never stop writing songs about things that matter because people care and we want to hear your voice.

To SEOKJIN: "Tonight" is one of my favorite songs. You should feel happy with how you honored your pets.

To TAEHYUNG: Your grandmother would be very proud of you if she could see you.

To NAMJOON: Thank you for being the gravity holding our galaxies together.

49. What kind of concept would you like to see in the future?

Hmmm. They've done so much already. . I think it would be interesting to explore the route of Dionysus a little more, maybe a little more similar to their earlier styles with heavier rap parts, maybe an infusion of rock? I'm seeing a lot of hip hop lately that's been inspired by rock so that would be interesting. Or they could do something else and maybe infuse some EDM tracks? I know what they've done lately is more pop but I think they've only touched on EDM.

As for concepts. . I don't really know what to add?? They've done light, dark, PINK, youthful, school, soft, grrr, . . . Maybe something mature like a look more in line with MOTS: vol. 2 & 3? Those were more serious like Tear but instead they could go more toward vol. 2 and come out with like evening wear, suits (fitted), or ugh more pajama wear my god, and looks similar to what they did for SY tour Singularity and Fake Love performances? I'd love to see Hoseok in another red suit like his Final Just Dance stage . . Yes.

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Hope you liked this 💜