#chromat media

[bossymarmalade]

Okay, here's the thing about the Netflix live action Avatar: the Last Airbender series --

Is it as complex and near-perfect in pace and characterization and message and narrative as the cartoon? No. Nothing could be. Sometimes a piece of media hits right the first time, and all you can do is make a different version of it.

Does it deserve to be watched anyhow? Absolutely yes. And you know why? I've watched white-focused media that was on the same level in terms of satisfactory adaptation (Sandman, seeing as I was reading the comics thirty years ago and am fond of it) and also media that's been way worse, and still enjoyed it for what it was.

You have to enjoy it for what it is, not that it's not the A:TLA cartoon. The story's condensed but it's not as wretched as all these reviews make it out to be. The problem with Katara's feminism/Sokka's misogyny not being satisfactorily represented is blown out of proportion imo. It's not a 1:1 ratio to the cartoon. The live action has to handle it in a slightly different way.

Honestly I'm enjoying it and I'll tell you why: it looks EXACTLY like the cartoon. Because it's people of colour in those costumes, in that world, using those items. Every episode produces some Asian actor I've known and loved in some new role and it's enough to get me teary-eyed because even if it's not a perfect and flawlessly-rendered version of ATLA, we're there and we're represented as real people. The voice actors for the cartoon were wonderful and mostly white. This is us in the LIVING FLESH.

Maybe it's a sign of my age that I'm more willing to go easy on this show and not hold it to the super-stringent standards that anything made by poc gets held to, I dunno. That's entirely possible. But I truly don't think it deserves the bad press it's been getting.

[internationalemeteorologie]

Shepard Fairey

Raise the level (Peace). 2023 Radical peace. 2022 Rose shackle. 2022 Rise above bird. 2021

[chromations]

Robert Plant - Golden God ☀️

[tiffanydaleo]

Chromatic

Meet my newest painting "Chromatic"

5/7” Mixed media on paper Instagram Facebook Pinterest Tumblr YouTube Link

[eros-elove4]

Another drawing from the vault! This one was made 9/14/23 last year and is one of my favorites. The bird claws are real are ethically sourced from a bird I found dead in my yard, It also was an art trade (Would post the other traders piece but we’re not in contact so I don’t have his permission.) The prompt was lyrics from “Twist the knife” by the chromatics.

[lejoursobre]

lesbian and lollipops ✨

(scanned and glitch version bellow)

[tpwrtrmnky]

debate

[ID: 4-panel "pills that make you green" comic.

Panel 1: A light blueish grey stick figure is talking to a green stick figure.

LBG: "Hey I think the way you debate could use some refinement."

Green: "Oh?"

LBG: "Yeah like maybe check out Dischorse, they're pretty good."

Green: "Dischorse? Didn't they say-"

LBG: "Yes they did but don't worry about that just watch a debate."

Panel 2: Green is sitting at a computer setup with two monitors. On the left monitor is a logo that reads "Disc Hors", without the e, showing a horse head emerging from some kind of disc. On the right is a social media app.

Green: "Well, time to learn debate tactics I guess."

Panel 3: A stick figure with a horse head is slamming their hands into a table while a long chat (transcript below) flies by on the right.

Dischorse: "Look, CouchTruther69, we've been over this already. If your only source is a ten hour rant video then you don't have a source. No, no. Don't try to change the subject again, yes you're trying to change the subject. Behave."

Panel 4: Green continues watching, with the monitors in front of them.

Green: "It's four hours of this? I mean if they're getting paid to do it, sure. Not for me though."

Dischorse: "No, listen to me. We've been over this. That was already debunked ten minutes ago-"

End ID.]

[Chat transcript:

very dark off-white: horse they did a logical fallacy get them. orange: outside is so cool. God damn. games workshop fenrisian grey: horse your take on the season finale of Bexing Mech Politics was reprehensible, I've never seen media literacy this bad. blue: Thoughts on chromomedicalism? I think we should consider it. the imperceptible idea of a color known as "man": hi everyone moss green: If the election comes to microtransactions child versus immortal jeff, I'm voting with violence, actually. fishmoder37: why is everyone in this chat chromatic? where are my grayscale dischorsites at? cyan: lol purple: lmao red: speaking of, when's horse going on hue replacement therapy? in square brackets: user red has been banned for prime directive violation. blue: horse wouldn't look good anyway.

end transcript.]

Start - Previous - Next

[sanctus-ingenium]

Just wanted to ask, please forgive me if you've already answred this, what program do you use? Your art fucks HARD and like. I was looking at your art of the two moths over the city they die in and I was hit with the wave of "oh that looks really fucking fun actually." Like i know my art program can't do some of those effects and like, I'd love to try fucking about with them.

hi there, thank you! all my art is done in procreate and paint tool sai

because you mentioned that drawing in particular i thought it would be fun to break it down and show ppl what exactly went into each part of it so check this out

sketch & lineart - the brushes come from georgbrush.club and the urban sketcher is my most commonly used lineart brush, it has a nice irregular shape. the square brush is nice for big blocky sketches.

the cityscape was REALLY hard but basically I got a photo of the skyline of florence, traced some basic building shapes, then bullshitted the rest using the vertical symmetry/mirror tool to cut down on the amount of work (so i only had to sketch one half of the city). then for lineart I turned off vertical symmetry, turned on the two-point perspective tool, and got this:

the rose windows were made using the radial symmetry tool.

I didn't like it being so flat, so I used the liquify tool to make a kind of fish-eye effect (limited success tbh). I liked how it looked but the buildings in front needed something to cover them up to make the liquification less obvious...

first pass colours. I felt they were very washed out, aside from the sun which i loved. I use the spectra brush (default procreate) for skyscapes a lot, I love the texture. Although the clouds were filled in using the lasso selection tool, I softened the edges using the square pencil again and added texture using true grit sampler grainy brushes. The translucency effect comes from my setting the brush as an eraser. The sun rays come from the radial symmetry tool.

Blocking in the moths' colours was done with the urban sketcher again.

Something people may not have noticed is the labyrinth hidden in the sky! yeah I had a bunch of versions where it was more obvious but I found that it clashed a bit and was too busy, so I made it subtle. But yes. I searched for "royalty free labyrinth" and picked one.

The toner grit brush is one you've seen before if you've looked at any art on tumblr lately (this is such a popular brush) and it's from the true grit fast grit set. The pointillism brush is from the true grit free sampler pack, like my grain brushes.

I added shadows to the moths, increased saturation overall, and changed the clouds to a translucent blue (you can even see in the sun where I forgot to block in the sun itself because the clouds over it used to be opaque lol). Moon rays were drawn using the radial symmetry tool but this time with rotational symmetry off. I also moved the moon down closer to the moths because I felt that it was a bit far away, and this served to visually divide the drawing into three equal parts, so I chose to lean into that and divide the sky colours too, to show passing time, or an endless moment - morning, evening, night, etc.

And then the oroborous, I tried a few different effects on it because I wanted it to be very clearly separate from the main scene - I settled on a dot matrix newsprint texture, using procreate's onboard tool, and some heavy chromatic aberration. This is because the oroborous isn't real, it's purely symbolic and the moths' demise started when they became photographers so I liked the print media aspect there as well. The story itself is about grief without closure, cyclical violence, and sunk cost fallacy, while everyone explores an endless labyrinth, so an oroborous fits I think

what makes art fun to me is thinking up ways I can tell a story using just a single image. and sure a lot of it will be lost to an audience who isn't familiar with the characters or backstory but i want to leave enough in there that even complete strangers to my work will be able to construct a narrative about what's happening here, rather than it just being a cool image. that's my goal.

Finally I exported it to sai on my pc to give it a once-over. this is really important because the retina display on an ipad is oversaturated on purpose, to make everything look amazing and vibrant. but what this means is that on other screens, your work might look washed out. it's especially bad at displaying yellows! so i look at it in sai on my pc and i make minor adjustments, in this case I actually added another multiply layer on the moths and an overlay on their non-shadowed parts to increase the contrast there.

finally if you've read this far, I played a little trick with the caption of the drawing. yeah, THEY die... but only one of those moths is a theythem pronoun haver... the other has to survive. he isn't given a choice in the matter.

[redgoldsparks]

Hi, I just read your book gender queer and wanted to tell you that i have never felt more seen by a book in my life (or any media for that matter). Im also genderqueer and somewhere on the aro/ace spectrum and your book put into words alot of things I’ve never known how to express. Thank you for putting yourself out there!

(also do you have any other comic book recommendations?)

Hello anon! Thank you for this kind message! I very much do have comic book recs. In no particular order, here are some favorites. Not all of these are books are queer, but many are. If you want queer specific recs, here are some other asks I've previously answered- books about nonbinary identities, nonbinary mostly fiction

Memoir/Nonfiction 

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley 

March Trilogy by Senator John Lewis, Nate Powell and Andrew Aydin

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home by Nicole Georges 

You & a Bike & a Road by Eleanor Davis 

Tetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown

The Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker

Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls 

Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka 

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha 

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang 

Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir by Tyler Feder 

Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook, Ryan Estrada and Ko Hyung-Ju 

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton 

Homebody by Theo Parrish 

The High Desert by James Spooner 

Fiction

Prince of Cats by Ronald Wimberly 

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

Skim by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley 

Nimona by ND Stevenson 

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang 

The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

This Was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews

Grease Bats by Archie Bongiovanni

The Chromatic Fantasy by H.A. 

Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock

Beetle and the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne

Kiss Number 8 by Colleen F Venable and Ellen Crenshaw 

Finder Library Vols 1 & 2 by Carla Speed McNeil

Castle Waiting: The Lucky Road by Linda Medley

The Deep and Dark Blue by Niki Smith

Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti 

O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti 

Snapdragon by Kay Leyh

Cyclopedia Exotica by Aminder Dhaliwal 

Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen 

A Frog in Fall by Lisa Sterte 

Thieves by Lucie Bryon 

The Great Beyond by Lea Murawiec

Short Stories

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola 

Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Last month, the Milwaukee Public Library's Arts & Media Department held its first Art Book Club session. Intended as an informal art book appreciation club that meets once a month in the Art, Music, and Recreation room, each session explores a different theme by looking at the wide variety of art materials in the collection. The collection is historical, non-circulating, and vast. I attended and spent an hour and a half mesmerized by the array of luscious materials presented.

There was design, architecture, fashion, and much more. As a type nerd, I was especially drawn to the several late 19th- and early 20th-century type specimen books on the tables. Here, for example, are some pages of chromatic initials by various European and American companies from Schriften Atlas, compiled by Ludwig Petzendorfer and published in Stuttgart by Julius Hoffmann in 1898.

MPL held its second Art Book Club session on the theme of "Animals" last night, but I missed it because I was conducting an evening instruction session. Dang! But I'll be attending future sessions when I can and I'll keep y'all apprised.

View other type specimen books.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

-- MAX, Head, Special Collections

[bossymarmalade]

It still astonishes me in this cancel culture how quick people are to denounce somebody for not disclosing their entire being in order to be “unproblematic” to play a role. I’m sure it happens to other actors but right now (due to something I saw in the tag) I’m thinking of the whole debate over Oscar Isaac “stealing Jewish roles” and it’s such a strange, narrow, bad faith conclusion. He’s played ... five Jewish characters that I can think of, and often served as a producer, and one of those roles has been explicitly about the Holocaust. Which to me, a person who’s also struggled with defining her faith because of being raised in the diaspora and dealing with the effects of imposed Christianity, says that maybe he’s working something out for himself. 

But instead there’s people creating whole youtube videos saying he’s got white-passing privilege, and is antisemitic for “taking roles from Jewish actors”, and Moon Knight should’ve gone to Oliver Jackson-Cohen (I’m not sure in what world Oscar Isaac is ... more white-passing than OJC but anyhow), etc etc. When recently Oscar Isaac himself addressed the whole gatekeeping thing:

Oscar, you mention identity. Sidney is Jewish as written and you were not raised Jewish. Does that make you feel any particular responsibility?

ISAAC: We could play that game: How Jewish are you? It is part of my family, part of my life.

Now I’m all about media representation for marginalized groups. But the fan demand that actors disclose their faith/sexuality/neurodivergence or be denounced seems so insidious. Not even really about the actors themselves (they’ll get over it, they get paid lol) but the message it sends to the rest of us who are questioning, or working through our shit, or in a process of defining ourselves. 

Is it useful to question the Jewishness of somebody who’s of Latam heritage  when there’s a known history of Latinx Jewry having to conceal who they are? Who does this serve? Is it only people who’ve figured out and choose to share how they identify who deserve recognition as being valid?

[possessedpasm]

i just found your account and i'm so so so so so in love with your ocs and your artstyle and it's all just so AMAZING!!!! leave some swag for the rest of us fr!!

i've seen some of your traditional stuff and wanted to ask what pens/pencils you use to sketch?? and have you ever tried coloring/making finished illustrations traditionally?

i'm a traditional artist (i just fill sketchbooks and never make anything finished) and everytime i see tutorials for comicbook/misprint/vintage-y art it's always digital (probably because of the aging and editing possibilities). so I'm curious if you've ever tried it (or if it's even possible lol)

thank you so much for sharing your art with us!!

Oh thank you so much!! 😭

I do make lots of traditional art, and I looove working with ink. I gravitate towards Pilot fine points and Speedball for making comics, but really just experimenting with different ones on different media is the best :]

And it is totally possible to make hand-drawn misprints! Once you got your linework, get yourself some alcohol markers (preferably in cmyk colors) and lay them down individually in layers, staggering each color to one side/outside the lines a little! Also tracing over your lines with a different color pen gives you a chromatic aberration appearance, too!

Also, even if you do a little ink wash/water color over your work, it can really make it pop! You can even add "stains" to the art that way...

Also, lastly, solid blocks of color and linework over it reflecta the UPA style, which is SUPER fun to do with paint and pens!

So there's tons of ways to get your traditional art to look vintage :D I'm glad you asked, thank you!

[ihavenomouthandimustmouth]

I wish people understood that you can talk about your experiences as a member of a marginalized group without dismissing the experiences of members of other marginalized groups.

I saw someone talking about trans rep in media who said “transmascs always get positive rep and transfems only ever get horrible rep”. Transmisogyny in media is a huge problem, and in the many transphobic storylines in shows, most of them have targeted transfems. But I have never seen a show with a transmasc character. I am lucky to not be seeing so many hateful representations of people like me, but I do not have the experience that “transmascs always get positive rep”. I have the experience of never seeing a person like me on tv/in a movie, which sucks. I was curious if this was a problem related to the kinds of things I tend to watch, but I talked with a transmasc friend today who has fairly different media tastes than me, and he also had never seen a tv show/movie with a transmasc character.

As a disabled person, it reminds me of conversations we have a lot about how this occurs in the disabled community (for example, mentally ill people talking about how they should be treated “as well as people with physical disabilities” and comparing troubles with access to medication to the perceived ease of accessing mobility aids, which then gets pushed back against because society also treats physically disabled people like shit and people who need mobility aids also often face great struggles accessing them). It’s a good rule of thumb to not make comparisons about how other marginalized groups have it easy in an area you struggle with—often it just shows that you don’t know a lot about the issues that group faces, and it actively minimizes those already minimized issues.

Side note, if anyone has recommendations of shows/movies they like with good transmasc rep (especially ones where you don’t have to watch a bunch of seasons first to get to that rep), I would appreciate it. Also, if you are also struggling with this, I have had much better luck with comics, primarily small press (this applies to representation across the trans community, not just transmasc rep!). Will be recommending The Chromatic Fantasy until the day I die.

[mellodicresonance]

Okay, hear me out.

What if Pern dragons were WAAAAY more like colony insects?

Gold = Queen

Bronze = Drone

Chromatics = Workers

Brown = Soldier/Major

Blue = Media

Green = Minor

So you've got these pretty obvious and almost perfect correlations. But if you make them actually function like their ant/bee counterparts, a bunch of fun things happen!

Queens are still the baby-makers, but Bronzes/Drones are the ONLY ones physically capable of mating with them.

Browns/Soldiers and Blues/Media are not actually "male", they're the same caste/sex as Greens/Minors (which is not exactly "female" either).

Bronzes/Drones do not have fathers! All Bronzes/Drones are born from unfertilized eggs (they have a set of single chromosomes, instead of the full set of chromosome pairs).

Chromatics/Workers can rarely lay eggs, but they can only produce Bronze/Drone eggs because they can't mate to produce fertilized eggs.

Fertilized eggs become Chromatic/Worker eggs.

To get a Queen egg, you need a Queen, a Drone to fertilize her eggs, AND THEN you need a bunch of Chromatics/Workers to coat a Chromatic/Worker egg in Queen goo, causing it to change from a Chromatic/Worker to a Queen.

TO RECAP:

To create a Bronze/Drone, you only need a Queen.

To create any Chromatic/Worker, you need a Queen and at least 1 Bronze/Drone.

To create a Queen, you need a Queen, at least 1 Bronze/Drone, and a hoard of Chromatics/Workers.

I'd also like to note, in RL insect hives, the Queen doesn't direct the workers to create or choose a new Queen. The workers collectively decide when and which egg to convert. I feel like this helps with the common Main Character Syndrome that Golds and Bronzes get in Pern stuff.

So... Yeah. For your consideration.

If anyone wants to do anything with this concept, do! Have fun!

[elioslover]

Silver Screen (Mingling)- Harry Styles x reader.

Here's another little blurb from the series of Harry and Y/n running into each other at various award shows.

Warnings: Use of She/her pronouns. (extremely non-descriptive).

Word Count: 2.5k

Part 1 / Part 2 / Other Writing

---

Another event- well, the after party of another pointless, meandering red carpet motioning him towards the flashing lenses, asking him questions that make less sense and lead him to melt into a puddle of confusion and complication- is this really where he saw himself? Spending his living days being dominated and feeding the demands of money-hungry producers and executives. 

Thankfully, the cherry carpet demanded nothing more than a brief snapshot- no interviews dissecting and disproving his passion and beliefs. Creating a lifestyle and accommodating others, only for it to be deemed ‘okay’- or worse, they may ask him a serious and inciteful question, and instead of a wave of relief washing over him, he feels as if he is drowning in confusion, re-examining every decision he has ever made- every word inked to a notebook, every harmony, and every insecurity crashing to the surface, swallowing the sand that he once thought to be an indestructible base. 

After the usual formalities, he finds the opportunity to disperse from his team, fulfilling all obligations and in dire need of a glass of scotch. One of which he orders at the nearest bar, taking a hearty sip to switch the temperament of his mood, and hopefully the rest of the evening. 

-He spends what he would describe as a decent amount of time strolling and exploring the venue, making sure to never linger, stand up straight, and use the glass of icy whiskey in his palm as a welcomed coping mechanism. But, as he rounds another corner, the space before him is large, scattered with big names and faces all huddled in boastful groups, their arms flailing arrogantly, animatedly telling the same stories told on a loop, hoping for new audiences and with that, fresh chuckles of admiration. He wants to roll his eyes, but he knows better, instead raises his glass to his rosy lips, but is extremely disappointed when his tongue is met with only a single droplet of drink. 

Thankfully, one positive of this room was the shining and welcoming bar set up directly in the middle. His feet have carried him over with little encouragement, the base of his polished boots almost bumping against the nearest stool. The bartender stands before him in the blink of an eye, eagerly awaiting to soothe his appetite and he aids, ordering his usual, deeply grateful as the waiter dashes off with great determination. 

In the meantime, he turns to face the crowded room leaning back and balancing all of his weight on his lower back. The place is a clusterfuck of chromatic garbs, glistening jewels, and jovial jealousy- most are reasonably recognisable after a good glance, but each patron moving so poignantly makes it a proper challenge. 

In the wake of the evening, he wonders if he would have even spotted her if not for the sudden outburst of obnoxious laughter coming from his left. Nevertheless, his attention snaps to the small but unnecessarily loud group of Grammy Guys and Golden Globers. Two of the men are mentioned far too regularly in the media, drowning in offers and loved by all; they are both donning bright, domineering, and fashion-forward fits- at least that’s how he thinks the public would profess so. Oddly though, there is one member of the group who seems greatly displeased, her arm folded across her chest, nursing a nearly-empty champagne flute and challenged with the task of faking enjoyment. 

He feels as if chances keep falling at his feet, the tightness of fright that stirred at his stomach the last fortnight has suddenly melted into a mess of frantic hope and successful manifestation. So frantic that her presence will be as fleeting as the past- worried that looking away would wash her existence from the earth. It's only when the waiter politely calls out a second time that he jolts to alertness, twisting his body to hastily receive the beverage as well as expressing his appreciation. 

Mercifully, when he looks over, she is as real and as present as earlier- bar the furrowing frown softly creasing at her forehead, lips begging to lull into a bored sulk. The group’s storyteller has geared up to start another riveting tale, and if it weren’t for the absolute fascination of her pout, he might have bothered to follow along.

Whatever the story, she is oblivious, slowly losing the will to act interested and attempting to drum up an excuse for leaving. Her gaze is glancing anywhere and everywhere, raking over the clothing of her peers, observing the other guests, and for a second, it seems she may have given the bar a brief look-over. Then she focuses her intentions on the clothing of the storytelling, her creased brows suddenly raising into ones of curiosity, and he wonders more than ever what she might be experiencing within. 

He knows it would be in his best interest to find a way to say hello- there is no reason he wouldn’t be embraced by a group of an A-list actor, a triple-platinum singer, and the most beautiful stranger- but his feet stay stuck to the shined hard-wood, and the voices in his head have started a barbershop, harmonizing to the tune of ‘you messed it up last time… you’ll mess it up again’. Perhaps it would be rude to interrupt, rude to assume she’s displeased, perhaps even rude for assuming she isn’t. 

By the grace of the gods, another bough of laughter breaks out, paired with the most gorgeous and gleeful giggle. He looks away bashfully, as if her laugh had been the result of his entertainment alone, shy within her presence- well, within the same room. Surely he had misread then, her discomfort must not have been real- and as he is about to shamefully accept his error, the group grows smaller and she begins to walk closer. Striding with stern confidence, she turns her back on the men and makes her way over to the bar- and in turn, hopefully, he. 

She seems to glance him over, painfully brief and somehow sending a shooting pain along his spine as she stops and tilts her body over the bar counter to catch the attention of a patron. With as much speed as moments earlier, he can hear the way the bartender scurries around at the mention of her asking for a margarita, but the scuffle is being drowned out by the swell of sweetness taking over his brain at the sugary song that slips past her plump lips and peppers love bites along his heart. Only a short while later her drink arrives and she sounds far too grateful in turn. 

The tips of his fingers tingle as she suddenly turns around, mimicking his stance of utilising her elbows for balance, her forearm mere millimetres from his own and for the love of god he prays she won't glance down and notice the goosebumps dancing along his skin. But she doesn’t- instead, she tilts her chin and cranes her neck to give his face a proper look. It's too late to start wishing she wouldn’t recognize him- he’s certain she does after their last… encounter- but if she had any ill feelings, it went unvoiced as she only smiled, the corners of her eyes creasing cutely. 

She sips lowly, her lips glossed with pink tonic to match- a droplet threatening to slip slowly and waterfall down the bottom of her cupid bow, balancing on her upper lip and begging to be licked free. Perhaps by his tongue. Her attention returns to the now two famous men fiddling on the roof for the opportunity to one-up each other. But her grimace is telling, the distaste gathering between her brows, her bottom lip sucked and trapped between her front teeth. 

He wants to giggle, or do anything, but he has become an inferno of self-doubt and cannot argue the fire into simmering long enough for him to string a sentence together. Why can't he just say hello, has he become such a hermit that the mere thought of a pretty girl has him in such a shameful frenzy? 

And then she speaks as if it is the easiest thing she has done all day, her voice deep, but silky, each word as wonderful and skin-tingle-inducing,

“Were you working up the courage to say hello…” she raises the glass, taking a classy sip, her lips glossy and decorated grains of salt- her tongue darting out to lick away the residue, “Or, do you just get off on watching me suffer?”

He almost choked on his scotch and saliva as she confirmed that not only had she noticed him, but she was certainly aware of the way his eyes remained hooked and dreamily dedicated to her direction. And she is mere centimetres away, he can practically feel her skin simmering, heating him with lack of intent. His thoughts are threatening to spew honesty, telling him to trust himself and slip into smoothness. Though, he can only muster enough courage to mutter with excessive haste,

“Would rather get off from making you feel good.” 

Half incoherent, but heard nonetheless, a burst of bashfulness attempts to paint her cheeks a beautiful blush red, but she shoves all flattery to the depths of herself and puts on a confident front, 

“Say that again?”

And now he is the one begging his face from blooming with splotchy pink, but he certainly doesn’t succeed, shocked that his inhibitions had invaded his thoughts to the point of saying stupid things out loud. With a quick, and vital switch in conversation,  

“Seemed like you were very interested in that conversation… didn’t want to interrupt.”

He hopes his aversion has done the trick, and when a soft bubble of giggles bursts from within her chest- symphonic and swoon-worthy, he feels he may never recover. 

She tilts her body to get a better look at her companion and the pearly crystals of her gown sparkle with such vigour that they flicker along her face, highlighting her features, only furthering his fascination. She speaks boldly, her words bemused and seeped with disbelief, 

“Interested? In the disaster of garments, those men are wearing?”

He glances over at the two men who are still engaged enthusiastically. She isn’t wrong, the first man’s entire suit is ill-fitted, crumpling in all the wrong places, chromatic lime combined with a loosely hanging fuchsia bowtie. Horrendous. And so, he laughs, loudly and lacking any shame, his lips letting his teeth peek past, cheeks swelling cutely, 

“Christ, I don’t wanna hear what you think about mine-” 

“Good.” She interjects with surety, “You look good.” 

And he wants to ask for more- for her to flower him with flattery and elaborate on all of the elements and flares that encompass the fashion she deems as ‘good’. Grievously, he gives in to the little voice in his head that whispers and pleas for him to play it cool,

“Yeah?” Very cool.

She nods stoically, wisdom coating her eyes, glittery silver mixing with a slight hint of endearment. It may be the meekest of motions, hardly a smile in sight, but his chest swells nevertheless and he hopes with everything in him that she keeps up the kindness as she speaks up,

“Don’t let it get to your head.” Glitter dances across his face as she rolls her eyes, playfully scoffing and allowing a small smile to peak out to the corner of her cheeks.

Now he needs to see her grin in action, needs to feel the butterflies negging at his stomach from the sound of her giggles turning to laughter. A million and one ideas spring to mind, silly anecdotes, flat-out questions, compliments, suggestions of attraction- literally anything and everything- and then, his bubble of blooming euphoria bursts as a man, mid-fifties and dressed with elegance, saunters over with ease.  

And when her eyes swell with recognition, it becomes definite that their conversation will now accommodate another body. But his disappointment does not dwell, he was savouring each second with her to begin with- after their last encounter, he felt eased to have had even a moment of restoration. 

The man joins with a joyous gesture of his raised arms and grinning teeth as he stretches out and embraces her with a classic kiss to both cheeks. She reciprocates with cheeriness and open arms, exclaiming “Andreas,” before the words “lovely to see you” are muffled from her mouth brushing the velvet material of Andreas’ suit. 

“You flatter me.” Andreas applies European etiquette, taking a slight step back to see her better. Paired with that, Andreas’ attention aims at her conversational partner, eyes widening with recognition and warmth at the reality of who stands with her. 

Opening his mouth to attempt a formal introduction, he is shocked to silence, jaw slack, as she delicately reaches out and just barely places her palm on her upper arm, 

“This is Harry.” She says it like she’s said it before- he wonders to who, when, what about? 

His ears are engaging in a soft ringing sound, sweet sirens singing at him the fact that she knows who he is. It’s hardly heard when Andreas extends a hand, greeting and praising the opportunity of finally having a chance to connect. 

Andreas speaks of a collaboration, marvelling over the creative concepts coming to fruition- all of them embracing the things he is best known for- whatever the topic, it proves hard to pay mind to, as the space on his arm where her hand once sat is still holding his attention.

The only thing that could tear his thoughts away- and does- is her voice, perking up with curiosity. She asks for some form of clarification, perhaps the location of another guest she hopes to mingle with. He’s struggling to hear her words, still stuck on the silky flow of her vocals, vibrating along the his already flaming skin.

Oh, but he definitely understands when she utters a polite, “Gentlemen, please excuse me”, her teeth peaking out from her peachy lips, a kind smile mirrored in her eyes.

He can confirm she is seeking out a woman, as her back becomes his only view, her body relaxed, shoulders straight, her silky gown shimmering as she sees what she wants and slips back into a crowd of gaudy party-goers.

She is gone and he is stood facing Andreas, his glazed gaze fading into focus as he maintains his manners and once more musts up the energy to engage in conversation. But, as always, he is late to the jump,

“So, how do you know, Y/n?”

This may be the best interruption of the evening- perhaps of the past year- he hadn’t known the pattering at his heart would be so poignant at the present of finally hearing her name. Pieces are fitting together like a puzzle- he wishes to find plenty,

“I don’t, really,” he hums honestly, “we keep bumping into one another."

[lejoursobre]

I’m trying to figures out how to give a second life to scanned doodles that aren’t that interesting all alone outside of a sketchbook ✨ (the original scanned version and a glitch version bellow)