#gonna call this naruto too ig

[evelynismahnameboi]

My mom’s been watching Boruto for awhile and I’ve only seen this character 5 times, but I love him

Inojin my beloved

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for sending my mutual anon hate because it was the only way she would listen to me then breaking the mutual when she took anon off???

my mutual (f, like 16 to 18 while we knew each other) and i (genderfluid, 17 to 19) became mutuals back in 2021 since we had some shared fandoms. (genshin, bnha, naruto, etc). imma call her rose. rose seemed nice and pretty funny so i thought she was chill and we ended up adding each other on discord a few months into the mutualship. we were casual friends tho and only really talked abt fandom stuff

a big thing w/ her tho was that she thought she was hot shit for having 1000 followers on tumblr and she took anons super seriously cuz, in her own words, "i know anons can be anyone but most likely theyre one of my close followers and i want to be loyal to them". like she would call them smth like her "anon gang" and make posts thanking people if they sent a lot of asks. she was a wannabee infulencer on tiktok & insta so i think she translated that on tumblr too. but i quickly realized that meant she took what anons said seriously.

one time, i said she should change her theme colors because they were major eyestrain (bright orange background with teal text) and she told me "nah i like it this color, no one has complained." i waited two weeks... then sent an anon saying "im sorry ur theme is rly eyestrainy :((" and she immediately replied with "i looked up color palettes that are easier on the eyes and changed it!! i hope that helps"

and so basically after that, if i ever had an issue with her stuff, i would send an anon in instead of telling her because it would work. i need her to trigger tag smth? send her anon asking it, she would do it. do i think she needs to tag really long posts? send her anon, she would do it. do i think she has a bad take on a ship i like?? send her an anon, she would apologize and rewrite the post to be nicer / fairer. because otherwise she would just go "ehhh its fine" to my face and refuse to consider it because "idk thats just ur opinion im just doing my own thing"

but like a few months back ig she got into a bad fight with someone popular in a big anime fandom so /their/ followers started sending anon hate, so she got overwhelmed and turned it off. after a month i asked her if she was planning to turn it back on and she said she was actually gonna keep it off indefinitely cuz ""as much as i like my anon gang sometimes its nicer not having to respond to so many requests"

so i waited like a few weeks, quietly broke the mutual and unfriended her on discord because with the amount of issues i had with her blog / vibe was not worth it if she did not have anon turned on. i didnt send any rude messages, i always asked politely and i was always friendly to her face when we dm'd. aita???

What are these acronyms?

[hellbubu]

If you don’t like what I post, filter tags and block me. I’m not gonna argue with anyone.

At least Violet is hiding his reaction somewhat well, the rest just want to be arrested ig. pendejos

Why does Arden have some cheap-looking rinnegans?

"Mom, can I get the rinnegan"

"We have the rinnegan at home" The rinnegan at home^

Also, does Cheslock not think that the P4's reaction is weird? Are they always weird? Maybe. Then what about Arden? Is he acting like he's hypnotized not weird? Maybe it's also not weird, they live in a world with Reapers and Demons ig. Maybe all young lads act like they're hypnotized and love the smell of tea.

They're gonna kiss 😍💕

Welp, there goes his career in whatever sport he plays.

I want to hire Sebastian to perform magic tricks (like this one) at my birthday party in August

He's the magician Undertaker hired to entertain you guys. He just forgot his uniform

The Queen should give Ciel a police badge or smth so he can show people. Because if a thirteen-year-old just randomly told me he's a detective, I'd pat him on the head and mentally coo at the baby.

One, Midford is right, don't fuck with Ciel. Two, what's with that lackluster reaction? Clayton, a dude is a zombie and a baby is pointing a gun at a bitch, shut up unless you want that gun pointed at you.

Maybe I'm wrong, but you guys go to a pretty religious school and I'm pretty sure god said not to kill. The bitch could've been kicking puppies and stealing kid's ice cream and you still shouldn't kill him. Beating him up on the other hand...

They jumped him??? I thought one of them killed him and called the rest to help hide the body.

Baby, he'll go to court and the lawyers with the wig will be there then he'll go to jail. You might go to jail for helping him hide the body. How will you guys get the blood off the carpet??

Is this the same Dr from BOA? Did Undertaker rescue him?? I only remember Undertaker fleeing and panicking that Ciel had his locked chain.

Everyone's reactions to Undertaker are so over the top. The only Understandable ones are Midford's and Ciel's. I know the rest of them had never ever heard the headmaster speak. They're acting more shocked at the Headmaster saying that watching them was fun than the literal zombie.

It's bullshit that that hat hid his hair. No hair tie? No bobby pins? I put my hair in a bun and it'll last me an afternoon at best unless I make it tight enough it'll give me a headache. This is bullshit. I find it easier to believe that Charles laid an egg and that the hen came out of it.

I miss my girls. I miss Madam Red. I miss Grelle. This season has too many boys.

Why- why is he drooling while holding Ciel?

He's so touchy with Ciel. I'm surprised Sebastian hasn't pushed him off.

This episode got the Naruto treatment. So many flashbacks I thought I'd see that damned swing.

Back then you probably just needed to forge some documents to get a job. It's not like a good chunk of the population could read/write plus it's not like they're gonna email the school or call your last job.

Yet you guys are allowed to step on the grass. And be at the Swan Gazebo.

Oh, so he was a snitch? Murder is understandable

What's with the Red House and shitty prefect's drudges? Like, this has to be more than just a coincidence at this point. It's probably the environment that breeds these fuckers

[chattegeorgiana]

Hello! Thank you again for always taking the time to respond to any notes I send, can’t wait to see what comes next! On your IG I noticed how Sakura’s Crown of the Sun seal reminds me of Hashiram’s warrior monk sage mode from a cosmetic pov. Which made me think about how you pointed out how Sakura is thematically a Senju or represents them in the overall themes of the story. Which leads to a head cannon I wanted to bounce off you. Shinachiku in other fanfics I have read he’s never written to have Sage mode which would be something that fits his universal traits given to him. From the show/manga I felt that Sage mode you a character who had the physical, mental & spiritual fortitude. Shina fits the bill but if he were to have a Sage mode it would look similar to Hashiram that way he’s not following directly in his father footsteps but it gives Sakura homage as Shina powers align closer to her. Which I like that Shina both in designs and abilities come from Sakura. It makes him unique not just to be another Naruto clone which only really works when you have a tragic backstory like him. My point is that I felt like Shina that warrior monk sage mode shows his duality as a character. He’s universally acknowledged as a skilled medic which implies he has a value and sanctity for life and seeks to prevent death and heal others but at the same time he’s expert hand to hand combatant and wields tanto blades which are specifically made for killing. It’s one of things I love about his character that duality, he’s both the yin and yang. Much like his parents. Sorry for the long paragraph I just enjoy sharing these thoughts!

Hi dear,

Welcome back!

I'll start by saying please stop apologizing for these long asks, I love them! Even if I'm not always able to respond right away to them, do know that I love getting them and reading them and exchange all these headcanons with you.

Makes my heart smile when I see someone is really analyzing Kaika in such a beautiful way. Feels like an honor, tbh.

Now to get to the actual point of the story...

First of all, Sakura's seal... well, there's a reason why I made that seal the way I did it. Those old theories of mine echoes so hard and far away, that nowadays they're used as commercial hook in the franchise.

And it's not the first time that I see in the franchise concepts that have been used that I talked about at some point in my theories.

One of the biggest I've seen is ironically the one theory that I couldn't recover after losing my blog 2 or 3 times already (lost the count tbh cuz when you have to build it from scratch every time, it's so tiresome honestly) called Spiritual Enlightenment: Sakura Haruno, Slug Sage mode and possible genjutsu connection.

Most of what I see in the sequel nowadays in terms of certain power-ups are mechanics that I've laid down in that theory that I lost.

Most will say that eh, I'm talking BS cuz I don't have that theory so I don't have a way to prove it. But the thing is, there are certain residuals/artifacts if you may say so of that theory around the internet.

So then, the reason I had her seal look like Hashirama's is precisely because I'm making use of my own theories in a way that I think Kishimoto wanted to develop Sakura, like I said so many times.

Now, as for Shina, the way I plan on developing him has connections to that and doesn't at the same time. I won't go too much into detail, but I made him that way because I wanted to have something unique to him, in a way, like you said. I don't want him to be a copy of anyone.

That's why some of the power-ups I have in mind for him are and aren't connected to that specific similarity. I have a little twist in mind.

But what I do have prepared for Shina, is the Heaven & Earth symbolism in his power-ups. He's not gonna necessarily fit the warrior monk archetype tbh. If anything, the monk type will fit more for Arashi, the way I have him built.

But, in a way partially, it will also fit with Shina. So you see, that's why I say that it is and it isn't at the same time. But I do get from where you're coming and I agree with you in the sense that Shina has respect for the sanctity of life. After all, he is very laid back and respectable like Katsuyu. That's why she becomes his favorite summon and always has a Katsuyu plushie haha.

The thing is, I built all 3 siblings in a way that fit certain themes and symbolism, but with a unique twist, I'd say.

For example one of Shina's power-ups is going to be tied to Hanami, and through that, Hanami also gets her own power-up. Arashi in a way is the one who's more hermit/monk like so his power-ups aren't tied directly to his siblings per se. But that's because I want Arashi to be more connected with the Uzumakis.

And I did all that because I wanted to have the family theme represented in more ways than one, which is the classic blood relation.

I won't go exactly into too much detail because I don't want to give away the "juicy" parts so to speak, haha. But I hope everyone will find it as interesting as I seem to be finding them in my head, lol.

Once again, thank you very much for your ask, it's really a pleasure to talk all these things with you.

Have an amazing rest of your day/evening/night.

[dullahandyke]

yippee yippee yippee yippee eimear con haul!!!!

Hi. It was my birthday recently and I'm bad to shop for so instead of gifts I got money to spend at Kaizokucon. So here's a haul. Under the cut bcos I couldnt fit it nicely in one picture and I wanna ramble

ok we're gonna take it one picture at a time ^_^ the ID in the alt text explains what everything is if u just wanna see what i got without the rambling sure to come with it. links in rambling r to the artists of the fan stuff where i can find em ^_^ only one of them is a direct link to the product tho bcos some ppls shops r down and some ppl dont have all their stuff online. lemons_arent_green youre a real one

Ok the flat stuff!!! black rock shooter poster bcos i already have a figure but i liek her... badass anime girl ily.... was so so sure i saw a reigen keychain but when i went to go get one there weren't any so i got this sticker sheet instead :3 SPEAKING OF KEYCHAINS!!! yippee yippee kaguya i love you youre my special little tiempsy. yue you are a gay anime boy with a cool design. tomoyo ive always felt a kinship with you and its because im a desperate dyke. monokuma is here ig 🙄 i put him on my carabiner and hes fun to stim with. i am not immune to the sdr2 fanboying. also full disclosure ive not watched naruto (its in the spreadsheet) i just thought funko pop sasuke keychain was really really funny. my son who stares into my soul. comparatively i dont have as much to say on the badges!! luka luka fever for real girlie ily. the bandori ones were blind bags and i got himari on my first try <3<3<3<3<3<3 sorry eve i kind of dont care. 🙁 the dr girlies i kinda picked at random based on who i've been vibing w lately.

THE POKEMON DIORAMA!!!! its soooo cool, staff were setting up the trade hall so i was in there all day friday and this shop was one of the first to set up their stands and i was literally staring at it all day... so fucking awesome. the rings n the necklace r from the same shop look at them... im fucking obsessed w the catgirl necklace. literally look at her. i dont thiiink shes supposed to be a specific character but she might be. oh well. cat girl ily. aaaand the arisa stand is actually a little clip for papers n stuff!! she was also a blind box but specifically for popipa so i was gonna b happy w whoever <3

MIIIIKUUUUUU MY PRINCESS MY EVERYTHING!!!!! she was calling to me she beckoned..... shes actually rlly big irl shes the biggest figure i have, replacing my kokoro one... shes the one where i audibly said 'it was my birthday i can buy things' bcos figures spencey... she wasnt too bad actually i just like bitching. 6 euro axel for scale

BOOKS 💥💥💥 i was reading nana a while back and i dropped it but i gotta pick it up again... rlly pretty and awesome... aaaand the summer hikaru died!!! kay if youre seeing this then know you posting abt it convinced me <3 i originally got it bcos i was on door duty in a quiet area and didnt wanna spend my time draining battery life on my phone but after i bought it i realised that that was literally a terrible idea so <3 we'll get around to them soon

FINALLLYYYYYY TSHIRTS!!! the top yellow one was my staff t-shirt, it has 'staff' on the back i was wearing it all weekend and yippee i love it.... emotional bond.... and if this is a safe space can i just say. if kaito was a woman? would. next up FAYE FUCKIN VALENTINEEEE!!! do u remember that post i made going thru all the sellers that were gonna b at the con that started like 'i hate shounen fans. name a woman'? well this is the seller i was talking about but all was forgiven in the name of FAYE ! GODDAMN ! VALENTINE ! ugh i love you girlie. and the last t-shirt was given out free to staff after the closing ceremony!! it was the tenth anniversary of kaizokucon so we got this awesomes design yay.... wore it to classes today hoping somebody would comment on it and nobody did 😌and in the middle i got CLOW CARRRDS BITCHES!!!!!! i saw them and immediately all thought left my fucking brain. i needed them. so important. the seller also recognised the axel in my fanny pack yippee!!!! a few people recognised him over the weekend actually and i was always like yes!! the him

anyway. yippee! yippee! yippee! yippee! yippee! yippee! yippee! yippee! yippee! con con con con con :)

[icaruspartharmony]

I accidently hit post the first time so TAKE 2 BLOG INTRO and EDIT HERE i do update this

Version 3.8, updated Jul. 13, 2024

-Racist, ableist ("dIFFeREnTly AbleD!" Counts as ableist btw), pro cop, zionist, or Xenophobic

Who am i??

Hi!! I'm Joey, Joseph, whatever, but Nik or Icarus are perfectly cool too :) my pronouns page is at the bottom if you wanna scroll down there, there's more info. I live in the United States

DNI

-Transmed, Truscum, Exclus

-Royed (FMA) bakudeku (MHA) shippers

-Transphobic ("CiS iS a SluR") or Homophobic (not agreeing with that lifestyle counts btw)

-"give me money please" centered blogs

-Conservative, or Pro-life, people who call others Narcissists as an insult

Fandoms i sit in

No. 6 (Manga)

NANBAKA (Anime and Manga)

Mp100 (anime)

BSD (Manga)

TPN (anime and manga)

Naruto, Shippuden, Boruto (Animes and mangas)

TBHK (Anime)

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST (Anime and manga, half of 03 and brotherhood.)

The Owl House (show)

Gravity Falls (show)

Homesick, Weak Hero, Lost In Translation, Teenage Mercenary, Flawless, Windbreaker, Eleceed, Brimstone and Roses, City of Blank, Not So Shojo Love Story, Uriah (Webtoons)

Lookism (Webtoon and animated show)

I can talk movies and books 1-7(8) Harry Potter with you but i fucking loathe JK Rowling

Lord of heroes (game)

Haikyuu kinda (anime)

Hunter x Hunter (anime)

IDW Sonic (Comic)

Fruits Basket (Anime)

My Hero Academia (anime)

Dr. Stone (Manga and first season anime)

Howl's Moving Castle (Movie)

Sally Face (Watched Jacksepticeye play it through at ungodly hours of the night, through a podcast on spotify that did videos.)

I'm not a helluva boss/hazbin hotel superfan but i have watched it (Hazbin hotel pilot, know what happens in-series, keeping up with HB). Problematic media, but to each their own ig

Maybe a few more im forgetting

Stuff you might want to know

-this blog will contain swearing, maybe a sex joke here or there, some caps.

-spam likes and reblogs are 100% ok with me. I do that sometimes.

-if you fit my dni or if i fit your dni, i wont take it personal if u block me. Like if you've been my mutual for a year and suddenly block like maybe ill take it a little personal but dont feel obligated to interact or keep interacting.

-i can come off confrontational and as a jerk but im like a bug, im annoying and im more scared of you than you are of me

-im still learning. Everyone is always still learning. I request your patience in this trying time

-im not the brightest bulb in the box.

-i adore asks and questions because i am self centered

-i do take art reqs and i take them very well

-i have a huge interest in music and i do have a lot of character playlists on spotify! If you have a fic in a fandom i like that isn't pure smut, i will likely make you a playlist for it.

-most of my poor spelling and grammar is just set in for personality.

-do not imply or accuse me in that i am a pedophile. Try not make too many lighthearted pedophile jokes with me directly. I have intrusive thoughts and this will occasionally (and frequently) set them off. It's different if humor is your coping mechanism, I'm not gonna tell you how to cope.

Other socials

AO3: JoeyPartHarmony

Discord: JoeyPartHarmony

Spotify: Deeply Unserious1590

Pinterest: @.LivedAndWillMakeItTheBaneOfAll

Feel welcome to reach out at anytime! You're always welcome! Never a bother! Any questions you have are welcomed.

(Dazai's Bolo Tie :])

[miwtual]

fandom wise HMMMM naruto and character wise Tasm!Peter cuz im evil >:) i don't have alot of ships for you atm so no #2 here dgtfdgh

alright this is going under the cut because its gonna get long lmao

send me 1, 2, and/or 3!

fandom: naruto

Favorite character: ill be basic and say naruto like i love so many of the characters but naruto i will always go back to <3

Least Favorite character: danzo all the homies hATE DANZO

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): (in no particular order) nejiten, sakuhina, kakaguy........ dude i never ship anyone lmao this is hard so thats all ur getting rn HJBSDKF

Character I find most attractive: kakashi. call me basic but that mf FINE and i feel VERY strongly about it

Character I would marry: shino my beloved <3

Character I would be best friends with: SAKURA

a random thought: naruto and jjk are not the same. yeah they have a lot of similar aspects to them but i think thats more the fault of shounen animanga in general and its tropes rather than "jjk is trying to "copy" naruto!1!!!!!'11!!!!"

An unpopular opinion: i dont think boruto should exist!!!!! the show or the child!!!!!!! naruto should have just ended and maybe gotten a short epilogue thing but other than that i feel very strongly that boruto is just boring and is a rehash of naruto where it doesnt even take away the characters FROM naruto!!!!!!!!!!!!! if it was something more like legend of korra where a lot of time has passed and things have changed pretty drastically in the world THEN it would be fine ig but it just isnt!!!!!!!!!!! its boring! if i wanted to watch boruto have adventures like his dad I WOULD JUST WATCH HIS DADS ADVENTURES!!!!!! AND I HAVE!!!!!!

My Canon OTP: i dont really have a canon otp. i do think sasusaku is cute tho so ig i'll put them here JHBSDKFJ

My Non-canon OTP: nejiten theyre canon to ME and thats what matters

Most Badass Character: sakura idc

Most Epic Villain: orochimaru tbh SJFL hes just funny to me

Pairing I am not a fan of: naruhina, its just hard for me to believe that they fell in love or whatever after she literally said like. 6 words to him ever JHBKDF

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): literally all of the ladies + shino, need i explain

Favourite Friendship: team kurenai theyre so sweet ok

Character I most identify with: probably hinata tbh

Character I wish I could be: sakura <3

character: peter parker (tasm)

How I feel about this character: because of personal trauma reasons from Bad People in my life who literally were OBSESSED with this version of peter i. cant say i like him very much JSBHKDFN not in a bad way tho just in a personal trauma type of way

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: ngl i dont think i ship him romantically with anybody, like him and gwen are cute and all but i feel like gwen is just. way too good for him HSDNFL

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: him and his aunt may are so sweet <3

My unpopular opinion about this character: hes a better peter parker than he is spiderman. it makes sense in MY head ok

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i wish we got to see what he meant by how he "got dark" when he mentioned it in nwh.......... like what do u mean got dark peter? did u become more of a batman vigilante type who was more violent and didnt care about who got hurt in the process??? what do u MEAN peter TELL US

Favorite friendship for this character: i feel like if we were given more time with harry they'd be such cooler friends......... i want them to be besties i just dont think 1 movie did it SKDFL

My crossover ship: this variant of peter and kirsten dunst's mj watson just makes sense to me dont ask me why alright. they just Make Sense

[theweepingmonk]

Tagged by @rhyslahey ty bestie <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

97!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

451, 571

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? 14 I'm not listing all that agshshs

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Catching Up, Little Talks , Mistletoe Menace, Struck By Cupid's Arrow and Ghost of Mine

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Probably what became of us bc one them is murdered and the other kills themselves but ties them together so they can walk around as zombies together

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? Catching Up ig most of my fics have happy endings

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written? No

8. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, despite me knowing I hate the process I pop one out every now and then and never look at it again

9. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes, unless I forget bc my dumbass marked it as read intending to reply and then I like, remembered I had to take the trash out or I get called to do something while I was trying to think or I just can't think of anything to say

10. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yeah, I was intentionally writing their fave character to be kinda shitty bc the whole point of the fic was he changed, he matured and now he was gonna fall in love and continue to change even more but someone got really mad agshsh I ended up deleting the fic bc i just lost interest in it tbh

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I know someone wanted to, but I wasn't sure if I wanted that and then I forgot and never responded and it feels too awkward to say anything now ahshs

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I'm open to it tho

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Phutian 💞💞

15. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Perihelion, Little Talks, An Unconventional Family

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. Editing.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot, maybe developing the characters naturally in the story? Too much humor. Writing angst.

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

It's fine if you leave translations somewhere or at least leave enough context so ppl can figure it out themselves

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Naruto (NaruHina miss me with that Naruto/S*suke bs 🙄🙄 ) Fruits Basket (I'll never escape kyo/tohru I was crying over the newest adaptation earlier this year) anyways that was like middle school/high school agshsh

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

idk idk my top three without a definitive 1 are Little Talks, Catching Up and Rhythm of Love

I tag no one bc all my writer friends besides rhys have disappeared into the wind but feel free to tag me if you want to do this!

[tangerinegod]

hi tange ❤️❤️❤️ I hope this is ok to ask but as an art student was there ever any issues w/ submitting fanart since uv said u did naruto stuff at school? I only have experience w high school art class and the mortification of showing people my fanwork was too much for me so I just did original art I was less passionate about to show teachers etc 😖 but I dont look back on that art as kindly as I do my old fanart either yknow ?

hi!! oh my gosh if u or anyone ever had qs about art school please ask! i'm always down to answer to help unveil the mystery of it and also to help out haha, putting a tldr upfront and long post under read more

tldr: on the offchance ur school does allow it go for it cus no one will care, but i highly suggest taking the opportunity to explore original IPs instead because it's hard to do outside of an education environment, esp if ur normally into fanart (like me)

ok heres the long reply: its gonna be based all lot off of ur schools rules! to be honest a lot of my work was original, the only classes i submitted fanart for were my digital animation class bc i 1. was at the point where i didnt give a fuck LOL and 2. the professor did not check in with us before we started so we could do whatever.... and the other class was for character design because it was a fanart assignment 0: most other times i acually did strive to do original work and focused mainly on three different IPs i have.

i did dress up as naruto on multiple occasions tho because the opportunity popped up! probably like 5 times lol

i think something (and this is based on school) that you will discover is that professors genuinely do not care how outragous your content is! if anything if it's super whack then it's more entertaining and ull have more fun w it. i animated the nyan neko sugar girl rabies bite and my teacher didnt bat an eye and also made an oc in chara design whos biggest trait was being obsessed w how good she looked and having the BIGGEST tits and ass as a part of her character and my teacher was like 'yeah but this boot is uneven? watch the curve on her bra, etc'. i even used her in some of my bg paintings later haha. so i would say more than making fanart just feel out the vibe of ur school, it's honestly a REALLY good time to explore original work because once ur out u can make whatever you want, or do original work for ur assignments and fanart for fun? which is what i tried to do! when ur in you get feedback from other students and teachers which is something that becomes a lot harder post graduation, so learning how to build up strong original stories is great and you'll come out with lovable characters that r dear to u! but also some/most? schools don't allow fanart, mine normally didn't except for that animation class n i'm sure it's only cus he didnt recognize the source material haha..

also people really will not care if it is allowed because EVERYONE else at art school also draws for fun and is going because they want to. like no one is forced to go into art school and normally have to fight their way in. people at my school KNEW me as the naruto person who loved sasuke lol like i got coined the title of hokage for like the second half of my time there.. so do not fear! if ur talking and making connections with ur fellow peers (which u should really try to do) then eventually youll be talking about similar interests and sharing social medias anyways and unless ur drawing like. REALLY weird/yikes stuff it's fine! one of my best friends is making a living off of explicit furry nsfw rn lol

hopefully this helps i think i tried to answer like 20 questions instead of just 1 but i think fanart is a good segway into just type of content to make for school! also try to avoid putting fanart in your portfolio if you can, or keep it in a separate section. I keep my nice quality fanart in mine but specifically labelled in a section called fanart so people can look at my original work because that's where its All My Brain, which ppl wanna see if that makes sense. Fanart is something where someone would look to see how you executed a piece just for draftsmanships sake but ig another reason to not do a lot of fanart is you won't come out with as many portfolio pieces you can use confidently? some recruiters dont care and some do so its best to just be safe

[shewritestheblues]

The Elevator Bae x Chapter 4

Chapter FOUR

Erik x Black OC (Phoenix)

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

Reruns of Martin plays in the tv as Phoenix whips up her pancake batter. She has turkey bacon and hash browns done on the stove. A knock on the door turns into a beat brin made on the door.

Ava!

Phoenix swings the door open to find Ava and Mica holding up orange juice and liquor.

“What’s brunch without liquor?” Mica says walking in. She immediately looks through the cabinets for a pitcher and begins missing up mimosas. Ava sits on a stool at the kitchen counter while Phoenix starts making the pancakes.

“Let’s just get straight to it, what’s up with Erik?” Ava asks.

Mica pours their drinks. “Who is Erik?”

“A nigga that she want.”

Mica eyes Phoenix for her to explain. She tries to focus on the task at hand of flipping her pancakes.

“Ma’am, get to talking.”

“He lives here. I met him on the elevator. We’ve run into each other from time to time.”

Ava slams her hand on the counter. “Mica, she’s fucking with us. Coby said they be having moments on the elevator, flirting and shit. But come to find out, he’s messing with Sydney--”

“BIG BOOTY SYDNEY?”

“He’s not messing with her.”

Ava’s head snaps over to her. “How you know?”

Phoenix bites her lip as she makes their plates. “He told me.”

“When he say this?”

“Wait, wait,” Mica intervens, “How y’all know he was allegedly messing with Syd?”

Ava has a mouth full of bacon at this point just spilling the little beans that she has. “We seen her in the garage and she was all asking Philly about if she seen the nigga because he left her place like a theif in the night and never called her back.”

“Damn! This nigga a savage and you like him?” Mica turns to Phoenix with concern.

“That is not what she said, Mica. But, he told me last night, this morning, whatever… that she’s cool but he ain’t feeling her in that way.”

“Let me guess, on the elevator?” Ava sticks her tongue out teasing Phoenix. Phoenix gives her the middle finger. Mica swats her hand, “Focus. What exactly did he say?”

“Well… he mentioned having his eye on someone else,” Mica and Ava share a look as Phoenix continued. “And I told him he should tell Sydney he doesn’t like her.”

“...that’s it?” Mica says stuffing hash browns in her mouth.

“No, he-- well, I told him he looks tired and get some rest when I was getting off the elevator. Then he says, “Goodnight baby girl.” and winks at me all flirty and shit.”

“Oh girl, niggas love throwing in a baby girl,” Mica says refilling her glass. “I wouldn’t think nothing of that.”

Phoenix looks to Ava for her input.

“Honestly Philly, I don’t know. Because yeah, niggas just be talking but at the same time, we dont know who this man is. For all we know, you could be making all this shit up.”

“Why would I make this up?”

“No, no I’m not saying you are at all. My point is, only you can judge the vibe between y’all because we don’t know who he is.”

“What he look like?” Mica says with a mouth full of pancakes.

“He’s tall, brown, nice teeth, dreads.”

“Oh, so he’s a daddy. Yeah, you can’t trust those.”

Ava almost spit out her drink from laughing.

-------

The gold chain with a ring hanging from it that sits around Erik’s neck, swings back and forth as he does his last few push ups. He sits up on his floor, rolling his neck and stretching it. His phone lights up on the coffee table in front of him.

Text: Sydney

He swipes to close it without reading it. He gets up and goes into the bathroom, turning on the shower. He steps out of his sweaty clothes and steps in. The warmth of the water stings the new small scar on his abdomen. Biting his lip until the slight pain fades away. Allowing the water to run over his body, he closes his eyes releasing a long sigh.

After washing his body and face, he puts on fresh clothes and relaxes on his huge sectional couch. It’s been a long week for Erik and a day of just chilling is exactly what he needed and wanted. He searched through Netflix with nothing really catching his eye. So he picked up his phone, opening Sydney’s text. It was the 4th text she had sent him since he left her place a few nights ago.

Sydney: E, What’s up?

Sydney: So you’re not going to text me back?

Sydney: Are you okay?

Sydney: so you’re just gonna go ghost. Most niggas wait until after they hit. At this point, I dont even care.

His thumb hovered over the keyboard. Phoenix’s words singing in his ear, I think you should tell her. Communication is key.

She was right, just letting her know he’s not into to her like that is the right thing to do. But, he definitely took the part about communication being about him being more open about liking her instead. He finally types a response.

Erik: Hey. my bad, i’ve been busy. working.

Sydney: you have some free time now? You just left and i wanted to see you.

Erik: Im free but i dont really wanna chill. I like you Syd, but as a friend.

Sydney: wow. Ok

With that out the way, Erik opened his Instagram app, scrolling up his timeline. He comes across a picture that his friend, Shawn posted. Shawn went out to the opening of Club X the night before. He was one of the promoters. As Erik swipes through Shawn’s pics, he notices one that he’s in with four women. One of them being Phoenix. The caption says ‘ClubX now open. Come get lit with the dopest DJ in the city.’ Erik taps the photo to reveal the tags. @DJPhoenixBlue , @AmazingAva , @Micaxoxo , @CamrenMarie. Did he just find Phoenix’s IG page? Without a second thought, he clicks her page and yes… yes he did find elevator bae’s page. He carefully looked and admired every picture. He found himself looking at a pic from June 2016 when Phoenix was back in Detroit, walking through downtown with one of her old friends. That’s when he knew he was doing the most. He scrolled back to the top of her page, reading her bio. He clicks the soundcloud link that’s attached and takes a listen. He nods his head to the R&B beat. It was definitely a vibe. He let her playlist play. He laid his head back onto the couch, closing his eyes. He was on the 5th beat before he sat up to sounds of his stomach rumbling.

“Shit.” He goes into the kitchen, Phoenix’s music still playing. There wasn’t much left in his refrigerator with him being gone for days. He turns the music off to focus on searching through his various food apps to order something. He found himself back on Phoenix’s Instagram page. He leans back on his kitchen counter, completing forgetting about food. He debates with himself if he should follow her. He stood there with his thumb hanging over the follow button. “Fuck it.” he thinks. He taps follow. He came this far, he might as well like a few pics.

He orders from a cafe he likes that’s not too far from his home. It’ll be there in 20 minutes. He finds his way back into the living room, on the couch. He settles with rewatching Naruto. Only made sense because it was his favorite.

---------

Mica helps Phoenix load up the dirty dishes into her dishwasher as Ava rolls them a blunt. Phoenix gave more than enough detail about every encounter she has had with Erik since meeting him. She even told them about the dream she had about him. Mica doesn’t seem to like the idea of Erik while Ava tried to convince Phoenix to shoot her shot with him. Phoenix figured it wouldn’t hurt to ‘think about it.’

After finishing their breakfast and cleaning up, the women are sitting out on Phoenix’s balcony, smoking and trying to make plans for Camren. Her birthday was the weekend coming up and Camren made it clear that she wanted to do Hoodrat things with her friends. That was her only request. They already have a surprise girls trip that they planned months ago, but the three of them would make her ratchet dreams come true.

“Let’s do a surprise dinner and take her ass to the club,” Phoenix says, passing the blunt to Mica. “I can get us a section.”

“Yeahhhh, get some big ass pictures of her face and bottles.” Ava added.

“That would make her so happy.” Mica says between coughs and laughs.

They finalize their plans for the weekend. They are taking Camren out to eat, the club and will surprise her with their planned vacation when she wakes up the next morning with a hangover, contemplating life. Ava and Mica say their goodbyes to Phoenix and leave out to wait for the elevator. When the doors open, they come face to face with Erik. He’s alone in the cabin. He recognizes them immediately as the girls in the pictures with Phoenix and Shawn. He moves over to the left of the cabin. Mica stands center and Ava to the right. Silence sits over the three of them. Erik could feel that one of them is staring fire into the side of his face. When he turns to them, Mica is giving him the worst death stare he’s experienced in his life. They stare at each other.

“Is your name Erik?”

“Yeah. Do I know you?

Ava’s head snaps quickly in his direction. She hadn’t even thought about who the man was in the cabin with them. Mica remembered every detail Phoenix gave about what Erik looked like. He’s tall, brown, nice teeth, dreads.

“Nah, you don’t know me,” Mica says, turning to fully face him. “But what you do need to know is when it comes to Philly, I’ll kick yo’ ass, you pretty muthafucker.”

Erik is confused and caught off guard. Who in the hell is this woman. Is Philly, Phoenix? He really didn’t know how to respond to this threat. Ava pinches the bridge of her nose. She can’t take Mica, NOWHERE!

“Who the fuck is Philly?”

“Oh my God,” Ava intervenes, “You have to excuse her. She’s high as fuck.” Ava grabs Mica’s arm and pulled her to the right side of the cabin, away from Erik. “We’re friends of Phoenix, nice to meet you.”

Erik eyes Mica who seems uninterested in him. “Nice to meet y’all too… I think.”

The elevator doors open and Ava steps out, dragging Mica with her. Watching the two of them made Erik laugh. As he made his way to his car, it hit him what Mica and Ava said. She talked to her friends about him? What in the hell did she say for her friends to be so protective? Either way, he couldn’t stop the redness from forming on his cheeks.

Once Ava and Mica were in Ava’s car, without skipping a beat, Mica facetimes Phoenix. “Sis. We just seen your pretty ass man on the elevator.”

“What?”

“What?” Mica says in a mocking tone. “You love playing stupid. Ya’ boy Erik. I had to let him know he better be on some real shit when it comes to you.”

“MICA!” Phoenix covers her face with her free hand.

“You’re welcome. And he is fine though. I see why you pressed but I still don’t trust his ass.”

-------

The next morning, Phoenix started her day with some morning yoga. She had a few errands to run before a studio session later that night. She needed to go to the bank, do a little grocery shopping and reup on some hair products. She had used the last of her Miss Jessie’s curl cream the night of the club opening. Her hair has been in that same bun since. Putting on some dark denim shorts and a red one shoulder crop top, paired with some red vans, she headed out.

Luckily, when Phoenix arrived at the bank, her favorite banker, Ms. Kim was there. Whenever she’d have to go to the bank, she loved going to her to handle her money. Ms. Kim was an older, black woman that gave her all of the cool, auntie vibes. Ms. Kim was the one who helped Phoenix set up a seperate account for her business account and tax account. She honestly made everything easier.

“Good Afternoon, Miss Phoenix,” Ms. Kim stands, greeting Phoenix has she approached her desk.

“Hi, Ms. Kim.”

Ms. Kim motions for Phoenix to take a seat.

“How have you been little lady? Busy I take it since it’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen you in here.”

Phoenix smiles, “Yeah, I’ve been working like crazy.”

“That’s good. At least you’re busy doing something you love though, right?

“Yes. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, honestly.”

“I’m glad. Now what can I help you with today?”

Phoenix digs into her purse, pulling out two checks. “I want to deposit these and send a little something to my Mom. She’s been bugging me about a purse.” She shakes her head. Ms. Kim laughs and takes the checks and does her magic. She knows just how Phoenix wanted to break up the checks into each of her accounts, which is why Phoenix loved her so much. She never had to ask too many questions. She just knew what to do.

------

Phoenix made her way to the farmers market, getting as much food as she could fit into her basket. She always did this, knowing the struggles of carrying all of the tote bags up to her apartment. But without fail, she did this to herself, every time. Loading her groceries into her car, she heads home. She didn’t have much on her mind but she wasn’t fully there as she pulls into the parking garage of her apartment. She parks her car and starts grabbing her bags from her trunk when one falls and she smashes her carton of eggs. She pouts, pissed off with herself about dropping the bag.

“You have to be kidding me!” She stands there, holding her face trying not to be too upset about it.

“You need some help?” Phoenix turns to find Erik walking in her direction, his keys in hand. She was a bit frozen when she saw him. He was wearing a fitted white shirt with grey joggers and his dreads were braided back. She just stood there, staring at him until his laugh shook her from her trance. He loved how his presence would stall her.

“Umm, no. I’m okay. I don’t wanna hold you up.” She picks up the bag that fell and tries to grab more bags from the trunk. Erik didn’t say anything, he just reached for the bags in her hands, taking them from her.

“Erik…” she tries to protest.

“Girl, grab the rest of the bags and c’mon. I’m not in a rush.”

She was lowkey shocked but did what he said. She grabbed the rest of the bags and closed her trunk, locking her doors. He stood, holding the majority of her groceries so she hit the call button.

“You really didn’t have to--”

“I wanted to. If I’m right here, you don’t need to be carrying all of this up alone.”

“Thank You.” she says in a low tone.

The elevator doors open and they step inside headed up to Floor 7. Phoenix tried to avoid looking at Erik. One, he was looking damn good right now and two, she never knew how she’d react to him.

“You look beautiful today. I like the whole messy bun flow you got going on.” he finally says.

“OH SHIT! I'm sorry, Thank you. You just reminded me that I forgot to pick up some stuff for my hair.”

“What do you use on your hair?”

“Um this Miss Jessie’s curl cream and this Shea Moisture leave in. I completely forgot and I’m all out of both.”

The elevator doors open and Erik follows her to her door. Taking note of the ‘702’ on her door. She pushes the heavy door open and holds it open for him. He follows her into the kitchen, placing the many bags on the counter. Phoenix struggles to get her hand out of the handle of one of the bags, not realizing she’s still holding her keys. Her phone starts ringing in her back pocket. She’s panicking trying to get her hand free and getting her phone. Watching her struggle was a good time for Erik. He walked up to her, taking her keys from her hand and taking the bag from her wrist. His hands were rough and warm and it caught her off guard… as usual.

“Thanks.” She answers her phone just in time. It’s another engineer that she was suppose to have the studio session with. He called to tell her that the artist they were supposed to work with, cancelled so it wasn't a point in going tonight. She was disappointed. She hated when people would cancel last minute being that the studio was her happy place.

The disappointment she felt was all over her face as she hung up the phone.

“Everything okay?” Erik asked. For a moment, she forgot that he was there.

“Yeah, the artist I was suppose to have a studio session with cancelled on me.”

“Oh yeah, you’re a DJ.”

She never told him that. How would he know that? “Yeah… I’m just gonna go by myself though. I have some stuff that I need to get done.”

Erik sways back and forth, debating on if he should ask. Phoenix starts putting away her groceries. She assumed Erik would just leave at that point but he continued to stand there with his hands in his pocket. She stops what she’s doing and eyes him suspiciously.

“This is weird, but would you mind if I tagged along with you? To the studio.”

She was NOT expecting that. Suddenly Ava’s words rang in her ear. Shoot your shot. The thought of that made her nervous but she stopped the nerves in their tracks. What’s the worst that could happen? He wouldn’t ask if he wasn’t interested, right?

“Uh, yeah sure… wait, weren’t you going somewhere before you helped me with my bags?”

Erik leans over onto her counter, rubbing his hands together. “Yeah, but it wasn’t important. Just chilling with some homies.”

“So you’re just gonna bail on your friends to hang out with me? You don’t even know me.”

“You don’t really know me but I’m all up in ya’ kitchen right now.”

He had a point. She just shook her head and finishes putting away her groceries. He watched her every move. It’s still pretty early so Phoenix still has time to go out and get her hair products before heading to the studio.

“Well everything’s put away. I’m gonna go get my hair stuff. You can just meet me in the garage around 8. Is that cool?”

Eriks stands up straight, “Yeah.”

She smiles and grabs her purse, walking to the door. Erik follows. He waits for her by the elevators as she locks her door. When the elevators opens for them, Mya steps off.

“Hey Phoenix.”

“Hey, Mya.” she waves at her. Mya looks at Erik and then back to Phoenix, mouthing to her, “YAS SIS!” Phoenix laughs. Erik is going up to his place to wait for her so she says bye to him and watches him step in and the doors close. She patiently waits for the cabin to come back down to take her down to the parking garage. Making it to the beauty supply, she buys way more than she needed. Getting some new Mane Choice shampoo, a long, curly ponytail (because you never know when you’ll need one), the curl creams she came for and some hair accessories. She could never control herself in the beauty supply store. It was like a candy store for black girls.

She made her way back home and couldn’t resist washing her hair to try her new products and honestly, she couldn’t wait to retire that messy bun.

------

Erik waits in the parking garage for Phoenix. Checking his phone, it’s now 8:12pm. He’s not usually a patient man but he would wait for as long as he needed for her. Finally a ding from the elevators alerts him that someone is getting off. Phoenix steps out with fresh curls that are still partially wet. She had changed into some black joggers and a Snoop Dogg T-Shirt with her backpack hanging on one arm.

“I’m sorry. I really had to wash my hair.”

He smiles at her. “It’s not a problem, baby girl.”

There’s that name again. She stares at him. “Uh, yeah. You ready?”

“Lead the way.”

He follows her to her car. He steps around her, opening her door for her. She smiles a thank you and he walks around, getting into the passenger seat. She holds up the Aux cord.

“This is my only offer. Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

“You’re the DJ. Let me hear what you like to listen to.”

Phoenix proceeds to plug in her phone and put her playlist on shuffle. Megan thee Stallion x Cash Shit comes on blasting through the speakers as Phoenix pulls out onto the road. She raps along.

Yeah, I’m in my bag // but I’m in his too.

That’s why every time you see me // I got some new shows. AH!

Erik enjoys the show of Phoenix rapping along to every song that comes on. He even joins in when Dreamville x Got Me comes on.

I got you long as you got me // And I got you long as you got me

----

Walking into the studio building, Phoenix greets the security guy at the front desk. This is her favorite studio to work in so she knows everyone who works out of the building by name.

“Hey, Larry.”

“Hello, Miss Blue.”

She loves that he calls her that. Erik nods at Larry and Larry does the same. They continue to an elevator that takes them to the third floor. Walking into the huge studio, Phoenix flicks on the lights and begins setting up her laptop, pulling out her writing notebook. Erik looks around. Blue and green lights, light up the booth that sits in front of them.

“You want something to drink? There’s all types of stuff in the fridge.” Phoenix asks, sitting in a big, comfy chair.

“Nah, I’m good for now.” Erik sits next to her. He sits and just watches as she finishes setting up everything. She has a few samples that she made in her files so she starts with those first. A very smooth R&B Style beat with drums begins to play through the speakers. Phoenix digs in her backpack and pulls out a bag of weed.

“You smoke?” she asks, taking out a back wood.

“Yeah.”

“When I come here alone, this is how I set the mood.”

He watches her carefully as she breaks the weed down so effortlessly. She bobs her head to the beat, filling the back wood with the weed. He could tell, this was her zone. She seemed so relaxed here. Even he couldn’t shake her up right now.

“So, Erik,” She adds emphasis to his name. “Tell me something.”

“What you wanna know?” he watches as she begins to perfectly lick the blunt closed. He’s mesmerized.

“What do you do?”

“In the Navy… engineer.”

She looks at him as she lights the blunt and takes a drag. She slowly releases the smoke. “You from here?”

“Yeah. Grew up in Oakland. You?”

“Nah… I’m from Detroit.”

“Damn, that’s what’s up. When did you come out here?”

She hands him the blunt. “Last year. My career started taking off. I was flying out here like every other week so I just moved out here.”

“You like it?”

“I love it.”

They passed the blunt back and forth until it was gone. The same beat still playing in the background. Phoenix was feeling her high and the beat. Melodies started coming to her as she sung a series of Ahhhs and Heyyys until they formed into lyrics and she wrote them down in her notebook.

“Damn girl, you can sing?”

“I can hold a note or two.”

“Have you ever wrote and recorded any songs for yourself?”

“I have a few.”

“Can I hear one?”

She’s hesitant at first but she goes through her files and finds a song she wrote when she broke up with her ex. As the song played, Erik paid close attention to every word, every note. He felt like he could hear her pain in her voice. She noticed the focused expression on his face. Like he was trying to figure out the exact story that inspired the song.

“Wrote this last year when I came out here. My ex… he uh, he cheated and had a baby.”

The song ends and she goes back to the beats she was listening to before.

“You’ve been single since?” he asks.

“Yeah. Just been working. If I’m gonna give a nigga my time, he has to understand my work. He can’t get in the way of that, ya’ know?”

“I get it.”

“How long have you been single?”

Erik sits back in his chair, rubbing his beard. “I’ve actually never really been in a relationship.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Life just didn’t seem to allow me to do all of that.”

“Why?”

Erik was never one to open up to people. Maybe it was the weed or maybe it was the vibe, but he felt safe with Phoenix in this moment. “I had to take care of myself growing up. Parents died young so I didn’t have time for distractions. Got into college early. Went to MIT,” Phoenix eyes grew big at that. “Went straight into the navy after that.”

“Do you think things have changed for you now? Like… maybe you would be able to try out a relationship or something?”

“Well, where I am now, if that’s what I wanted to do, I’ll figure it out. But it’s like you said, it has to be somebody that understands my work.”

She nods and turns to work on the beat that’s playing. After making a few adjustments, she figured out just what it was missing. She looked to Erik and noticed he was vibing out to the new, improved beat.

“You like it?”

“Hell yeah. I fuck with this.”

That made her happy. She loved when other people were vocal about her work.

“Can I ask you something, Erik?”

“Wassup?”

“So… what really happened with you and Sydney?”

He looks at her. He couldn’t read her like he usually could. “Nothing. We hung out. Chilled at her place. Got so high, we both passed out and I left. She wanted to do more but like I told you, I wasn’t feeling it.”

She played with her fingers. He rolled his chair closer to her and lifted her chin so she’s looking at him. “You don’t have to worry about her.”

“What?” She moved back. “I’m not worried about her. I was just-- nothing, never mind.”

He didn’t push her to continue. She opted to ask him more generic questions.

“Anyways… um, what’s your favorite color?”

If this is how she wanted this to go, he’d play along. “My favorite color is black. Yours?”

“Blue.” she smiled.

By the end of the session, Phoenix had finished two beats. She even showed Erik how to work a few buttons so he could help her record a few hooks and a verse. By the end of the session, they knew a lot more about each other. Erik’s last name is Stevens and he was 31. He loved french toast and watching anime. Phoenix was 27 with a birthday coming in just a few months. Erik may or may not be plotting to get her something. She loved animals and told him about her most embarrassing moment in high school when she was performing for pep rally and tripped on her own two feet in front of the whole school. They had a good time with each other. It was almost 2am when they left.

As they waited for the elevator, Erik stood dangerously close to Phoenix. She could feel like body heat and she wanted so bad to wrap her arms around him for him to warm her up.

“I had a good time with you tonight, Philly.”

“I had a good time with you too, Stevens.” She poked his chest.

The elevator arrives and they step on, Floor 7 and Penthouse floor as their destinations. The ride up was a comfortable, tired silence. As Phoenix got off on her floor, Erik reached for her hand, stopping her right between the open doors. He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumbs. He licked his lips and she watched with her mouth parted slightly. He knew just what he was doing. “Goodnight, baby girl.”

If this nigga dont stop this!

“Goodnight, E.”

He was surprised at the nickname. Sure, most people called him E, but coming from her, at this moment, felt different. Like equivalent to his ‘baby girl.’ He felt a rush move through his chest as she slowly slid her hand from his, stroking his fingers and smiled at him. She stood on the other side of the doors until the doors shut. This time, it was Erik with jelly legs. He caught himself by leaning back on the back wall of the cabin as it traveled up. He has never felt like this with no woman… ever!

When he made it into his place, he stripped out of his clothes and took a hot shower. Thinking of the way her hand felt in his made his dick twitch under the warm water. He stroked it a few times before choosing to just wash up and go to bed. He really didn’t understand this feeling and didn’t want to process it right now. He just wanted to have this moment. Whatever it was. As he made himself comfortable in his cool sheets, he picked up his phone, opening Instagram. Phoenix’s story the first one highlighted at the top of his screen. He clicked it and 4 minutes ago, she posted a photo of the city’s view from her bedroom with the caption ‘Nights like This❤️ ’

There it is… that feeling in his chest again. He locks his phone and drifts off to sleep with Phoenix as the last thought on his mind.

[sasukelore]

For the fmk ask: 1) Itachi, Sasuke, Shisui, 2) Kakashi, Genma, Yamato, 3) Madara, Hashirama, Tobirama, 4) Tsunade, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, 5) I’m making this 4 characters (you can pick 2 characters for 1 of the options) — Shikaku, Shikamaru, Minato, Naruto, 6) Neji, Gaara, Sai, 7) Hiruzen, Danzo, Homura, 8) Obito, Kakashi, Minato, 9) Choji, Shino, Lee, and 10) pick two for each category — Itachi, Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Kakuzu, Hidan! Whew!!! Enjoy 🤗

OH BEOSUSHEVWHAIBAHWA OH BOIII I love you.

1

Kill: Shisui. Why you do this to me🥴 I love shisui to death

Fuck: Sasuke. We all know I would die to have sex with him LMFAOAOAOOA

Marry: Itachi. HES BABY. B A B Y. You don’t put baby in a corner 🥴🥴🥴

2

Kill: Yamato. Tbh I was never that thirsty for him. Kinda saw him as like my uncle LMAO

Fuck: Genma. He’s really hot but not my type long term.

Marry: Kakashi. Lol OBVIOUSLY. kakashi is one of my favs and ugh heart eyes.

3

Kill: Tobirama. He’s such a daddy I hate that I’m putting him here but I———

Fuck: Hashirama. Okay I would put him as marry but I have a weird thing against senjus all of a sudden. I still love him tho 🥰

Marry: Madara. I LOVE HIM I LOVE ALL UCHIHAS FUCK ME UPP

4

Kill: Jiraiya. 😐.

Fuck: Orochimaru. His tongue 🥴🥴🥴

Marry: Tsunade IS WIFEY. I love her so much UGH

5

Kill: I DONT WANNA KILL ANYONE. but ig... Minato. LOVE THIS BABY SO MUCH IFHSDBHWIWKS this is hard.

Fuck: Shikaku. 😕😕😕😕 honestly I’ll take what I can get from this man LOLLLL

Marry: Naruto and Shikamaru! I LOVE THEM naruto is a sweetheart and Shikamaru is a daddy sweetheart

6

Kill: Sai. Again, I never really got into him.

Fuck: Neji. Guys it was neji’s birthday the other day and I forgot about it and I didn’t post anything for him LMDAOAOAOA

Marry: Gaara. I LOVE GAAR GAAR 🥰🥰

7

I hate you

Kill: danzo.... cringing.

fuck: hiruzen I’m cringing even harder

Marry: homura. I hope you’re happy with how scarred I am.

8

kill: again I’m gonna have to kill minato LOLLLL. I’m sorry about this mino 😌

Fuck: kakashi... I know sHOCKING. but I wouldn’t mind have sleeping with this fine man🥰

Marry: obito. THIS MAN NEEDS LOVE OKAY. I love him so much I would die for him.

9

Kill: Choji: UGHHH I LOVE CHOJI but he would tempt me to stray from my diet

Fuck: Shino: too many bugs. I’d die if I married him lol.

Marry: LEE. I LOVE HIM HES SUCH A SWEETIE PIE

10

Kill: kakuzu. E w. AAND KISAME REEEE. I have a thing about sharks

Fuck: Sasori and Deidera. sasori is eh and dei is hotty. Dei is only good for sex at this point w me LMFAO

Marry: Itachi and Hidan. I LOVE THEM BOTH. Hidan is such a cool fun sexy character and I love being called a bitch 🥰 and itachi is PERFECT.

WOW IM DONE. Thank you for this. you have blessed me with a monster 😍😍😍

[dreamgirl4certain]

The Elevator Bae

ONE TWO THREE

Chapter FOUR

Erik x Black OC (Phoenix)

Word Count: 5k

Reruns of Martin plays in the tv as Phoenix whips up her pancake batter. She has turkey bacon and hash browns done on the stove. A knock on the door turns into a beat brin made on the door.

Ava!

Phoenix swings the door open to find Ava and Mica holding up orange juice and liquor.

“What’s brunch without liquor?” Mica says walking in. She immediately looks through the cabinets for a pitcher and begins missing up mimosas. Ava sits on a stool at the kitchen counter while Phoenix starts making the pancakes.

“Let’s just get straight to it, what’s up with Erik?” Ava asks.

Mica pours their drinks. “Who is Erik?”

“A nigga that she want.”

Mica eyes Phoenix for her to explain. She tries to focus on the task at hand of flipping her pancakes.

“Ma’am, get to talking.”

“He lives here. I met him on the elevator. We’ve run into each other from time to time.”

Ava slams her hand on the counter. “Mica, she’s fucking with us. Coby said they be having moments on the elevator, flirting and shit. But come to find out, he’s messing with Sydney--”

“BIG BOOTY SYDNEY?”

“He’s not messing with her.”

Ava’s head snaps over to her. “How you know?”

Phoenix bites her lip as she makes their plates. “He told me.”

“When he say this?”

“Wait, wait,” Mica intervens, “How y’all know he was allegedly messing with Syd?”

Ava has a mouth full of bacon at this point just spilling the little beans that she has. “We seen her in the garage and she was all asking Philly about if she seen the nigga because he left her place like a theif in the night and never called her back.”

“Damn! This nigga a savage and you like him?” Mica turns to Phoenix with concern.

“That is not what she said, Mica. But, he told me last night, this morning, whatever… that she’s cool but he ain’t feeling her in that way.”

“Let me guess, on the elevator?” Ava sticks her tongue out teasing Phoenix. Phoenix gives her the middle finger. Mica swats her hand, “Focus. What exactly did he say?”

“Well… he mentioned having his eye on someone else,” Mica and Ava share a look as Phoenix continued. “And I told him he should tell Sydney he doesn’t like her.”

“...that’s it?” Mica says stuffing hash browns in her mouth.

“No, he-- well, I told him he looks tired and get some rest when I was getting off the elevator. Then he says, “Goodnight baby girl.” and winks at me all flirty and shit.”

“Oh girl, niggas love throwing in a baby girl,” Mica says refilling her glass. “I wouldn’t think nothing of that.”

Phoenix looks to Ava for her input.

“Honestly Philly, I don’t know. Because yeah, niggas just be talking but at the same time, we dont know who this man is. For all we know, you could be making all this shit up.”

“Why would I make this up?”

“No, no I’m not saying you are at all. My point is, only you can judge the vibe between y’all because we don’t know who he is.”

“What he look like?” Mica says with a mouth full of pancakes.

“He’s tall, brown, nice teeth, dreads.”

“Oh, so he’s a daddy. Yeah, you can’t trust those.”

Ava almost spit out her drink from laughing.

-------

The gold chain with a ring hanging from it that sits around Erik’s neck, swings back and forth as he does his last few push ups. He sits up on his floor, rolling his neck and stretching it. His phone lights up on the coffee table in front of him.

Text: Sydney

He swipes to close it without reading it. He gets up and goes into the bathroom, turning on the shower. He steps out of his sweaty clothes and steps in. The warmth of the water stings the new small scar on his abdomen. Biting his lip until the slight pain fades away. Allowing the water to run over his body, he closes his eyes releasing a long sigh.

After washing his body and face, he puts on fresh clothes and relaxes on his huge sectional couch. It’s been a long week for Erik and a day of just chilling is exactly what he needed and wanted. He searched through Netflix with nothing really catching his eye. So he picked up his phone, opening Sydney’s text. It was the 4th text she had sent him since he left her place a few nights ago.

Sydney: E, What’s up?

Sydney: So you’re not going to text me back?

Sydney: Are you okay?

Sydney: so you’re just gonna go ghost. Most niggas wait until after they hit. At this point, I dnt even care.

His thumb hovered over the keyboard. Phoenix’s words singing in his ear, I think you should tell her. Communication is key.

She was right, just letting her know he’s not into to her like that is the right thing to do. But, he definitely took the part about communication being about him being more open about liking her instead. He finally types a response.

Erik: Hey. my bad, i’ve been busy. working.

Sydney: you have some free time now? You just left and i wanted to see you.

Erik: Im free but i dont really wanna chill. I like you Syd, but as a friend.

Sydney: wow. Ok

With that out the way, Erik opened his Instagram app, scrolling up his timeline. He comes across a picture that his friend, Shawn posted. Shawn went out to the opening of Club X the night before. He was one of the promoters. As Erik swipes through Shawn’s pics, he notices one that he’s in with three women. One of them being Phoenix. The caption says ‘ClubX now open. Come get lit with the dopest DJ in the city.’ Erik taps the photo to reveal the tags. @DJPhoenixBlue , @AmazingAva , @Micaxoxo , @CamrenMarie. Did he just find Phoenix’s IG page? Without a second thought, he clicks her page and yes… yes he did find elevator bae’s page. He carefully looked and admired every picture. He found himself looking at a pic from June 2016 when Phoenix was back in Detroit, walking through downtown with one of her old friends. That’s when he knew he was doing the most. He scrolled back to the top of her page, reading her bio. He clicks the soundcloud link that’s attached and takes a listen. He nods his head to the R&B beat. It was definitely a vibe. He let her playlist play. He laid his head back onto the couch, closing his eyes. He was on the 5th beat before he sat up to sounds of his stomach rumbling.

“Shit.” He goes into the kitchen, Phoenix’s music still playing. There wasn’t much left in his refrigerator with him being gone for days. He turns the music off to focus on searching through his various food apps to order something. He found himself back on Phoenix’s Instagram page. He leans back on his kitchen counter, completing forgetting about food. He debates with himself if he should follow her. He stood there with his thumb hanging over the follow button. Fuck it. He taps follow. He came this far, he might as well like a few pics.

He orders from a cafe he likes that’s not too far from his home. It’ll be there in 20 minutes. He finds his way back into the living room, on the couch. He settles with rewatching Naruto. Only made sense because it was his favorite.

---------

Mica helps Phoenix load up the dirty dishes into her dishwasher as Ava rolls them a blunt. Phoenix gave more than enough detail about every encounter she has had with Erik since meeting him. She even told them about the dream she had about him. Mica doesn’t seem to like the idea of Erik while Ava tried to convince Phoenix to shoot her shot with him. Phoenix figured it wouldn’t hurt to ‘think about it.’

After finishing their breakfast and cleaning up, the women are sitting out on Phoenix’s balcony, smoking and trying to make plans for Camren. Her birthday was the weekend coming up and Camren made it clear that she wanted to do Hoodrat things with her friends. That was her only request. They already have a surprise girls trip that they planned months ago, but the three of them would make her ratchet dreams come true.

“Let’s do a surprise dinner and take her ass to the club,” Phoenix says, passing the blunt to Mica. “I can get us a section.”

“Yeahhhh, get some big ass pictures of her face and bottles.” Ava added.

“That would make her so happy.” Mica says between coughs and laughs.

They finalize their plans for the weekend. They are taking Camren out to eat, the club and will surprise her with their planned vacation when she wakes up the next morning with a hangover, contemplating life. Ava and Mica say their goodbyes to Phoenix and leave out to wait for the elevator. When the doors open, they come face to face with Erik. He’s alone in the cabin. He recognizes them immediately as the girls in the pictures with Phoenix and Shawn. He moves over to the left of the cabin. Mica stands center and Ava to the right. Silence sits over the three of them. Erik could feel that one of them is staring fire into the side of his face. When he turns to them, Mica is giving him the worst death stare he’s experienced in his life. They stare at each other.

“Is your name Erik?”

“Yeah. Do I know you?

Ava’s head snaps quickly in his direction. She hadn’t even thought about who the man was in the cabin with them. Mica remembered every detail Phoenix gave about what Erik looked like. He’s tall, brown, nice teeth, dreads.

“Nah, you don’t know me,” Mica says, turning to fully face him. “But what you do need to know is when it comes to Philly, I’ll kick yo’ ass, you pretty muthafucker.”

Erik is confused and caught off guard. Who in the hell is this woman. Is Philly, Phoenix? He really didn’t know how to respond to this threat. Ava pinches the bridge of her nose. She can’t take Mica, NOWHERE!

“Who the fuck is Philly?”

“Oh my God,” Ava intervenes, “You have to excuse her. She’s high as fuck.” Ava grabs Mica’s arm and pulled her to the right side of the cabin, away from Erik. “We’re friends of Phoenix, nice to meet you.”

Erik eyes Mica who seems uninterested in him. “Nice to meet y’all too… I think.”

The elevator doors open and Ava steps out, dragging Mica with her. Watching the two of them made Erik laugh. As he made his way to his car, it hit him what Mica and Ava said. She talked to her friends about him? What in the hell did she say for her friends to be so protective? Either way, he couldn’t stop the redness from forming on his cheeks.

Once Ava and Mica were in Ava’s car, without skipping a beat, Mica facetimes Phoenix. “Sis. We just seen your pretty ass man on the elevator.”

“What?”

“What?” Mica says in a mocking tone. “You love playing stupid. Ya’ boy Erik. I had to let him know he better be on some real shit when it comes to you.”

“MICA!” Phoenix covers her face with her free hand.

“You’re welcome. And he is fine though. I see why you pressed but I still don’t trust his ass.”

-------

The next morning, Phoenix started her day with some morning yoga. She had a few errands to run before a studio session later that night. She needed to go to the bank, do a little grocery shopping and reup on some hair products. She had used the last of her Miss Jessie’s curl cream the night of the club opening. Her hair has been in that same bun since. Putting on some dark denim shorts and a red one shoulder crop top, paired with some red vans, she headed out.

Luckily, when Phoenix arrived at the bank, her favorite banker, Ms. Kim was there. Whenever she’d have to go to the bank, she loved going to her to handle her money. Ms. Kim was an older, black woman that gave her all of the cool, auntie vibes. Ms. Kim was the one who helped Phoenix set up a seperate account for her business account and tax account. She honestly made everything easier.

“Good Afternoon, Miss Phoenix,” Ms. Kim stands, greeting Phoenix has she approached her desk.

“Hi, Ms. Kim.”

Ms. Kim motions for Phoenix to take a seat.

“How have you been little lady? Busy I take it since it’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen you in here.”

Phoenix smiles, “Yeah, I’ve been working like crazy.”

“That’s good. At least you’re busy doing something you love though, right?

“Yes. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, honestly.”

“I’m glad. Now what can I help you with today?”

Phoenix digs into her purse, pulling out two checks. “I want to deposit these and send a little something to my Mom. She’s been bugging me about a purse.” She shakes her head. Ms. Kim laughs and takes the checks and does her magic. She knows just how Phoenix wanted to break up the checks into each of her accounts, which is why Phoenix loved her so much. She never had to ask too many questions. She just knew what to do.

------

Phoenix made her way to the farmers market, getting as much food as she could fit into her basket. She always did this, knowing the struggles of carrying all of the tote bags up to her apartment. But without fail, she did this to herself, every time. Loading her groceries into her car, she heads home. She didn’t have much on her mind but she wasn’t fully there as she pulls into the parking garage of her apartment. She parks her car and starts grabbing her bags from her trunk when one falls and she smashes her carton of eggs. She pouts, pissed off with herself about dropping the bag.

“You have to be kidding me!” She stands there, holding her face trying not to be too upset about it.

“You need some help?” Phoenix turns to find Erik walking in her direction, his keys in hand. She was a bit frozen when she saw him. He was wearing a fitted white shirt with grey joggers and his dreads were braided back. She just stood there, staring at him until his laugh shook her from her trance. He loved how his presence would stall her.

“Umm, no. I’m okay. I don’t wanna hold you up.” She picks up the bag that fell and tries to grab more bags from the trunk. Erik didn’t say anything, he just reached for the bags in her hands, taking them from her.

“Erik…” she tries to protest.

“Girl, grab the rest of the bags and c’mon. I’m not in a rush.”

She was lowkey shocked but did what he said. She grabbed the rest of the bags and closed her trunk, locking her doors. He stood, holding the majority of her groceries so she hit the call button.

“You really didn’t have to--”

“I wanted to. If I’m right here, you don’t need to be carrying all of this up alone.”

“Thank You.” she says in a low tone.

The elevator doors open and they step inside headed up to Floor 7. Phoenix tried to avoid looking at Erik. One, he was looking damn good right now and two, she never knew how she’d react to him.

“You look beautiful today. I like the whole messy bun flow you got going on.” he finally says.

“OH SHIT! Im sorry, Thank you. You just reminded me that I forgot to pick up some stuff for my hair.”

“What do you use on your hair?”

“Um this Miss Jessie’s curl cream and this Shea Moisture leave in. I completely forgot and I’m all out of both.”

The elevator doors open and Erik follows her to her door. Taking note of the ‘702’ on her door. She pushes the heavy door open and holds it open for him. He follows her into the kitchen, placing the many bags on the counter. Phoenix struggles to get her hand out of the handle of one of the bags, not realizing she’s still holding her keys. Her phone starts ringing in her back pocket. She’s panicking trying to get her hand free and getting her phone. Watching her struggle was a good time for Erik. He walked up to her, taking her keys from her hand and taking the bag from her wrist. His hands were rough and warm and it caught her off guard… as usual.

“Thanks.” She answers her phone just in time. It’s another engineer that she was suppose to have the studio session with. He called to tell her that the artist they were supposed to work with, cancelled so it wasn't a point in going tonight. She was disappointed. She hated when people would cancel last minute being that the studio was her happy place.

The disappointment she felt was all over her face as she hung up the phone.

“Everything okay?” Erik asked. For a moment, she forgot that he was there.

“Yeah, the artist I was suppose to have a studio session with cancelled on me.”

“Oh yeah, you’re a DJ.”

She never told him that. How would he know that? “Yeah… I’m just gonna go by myself though. I have some stuff that I need to get done.”

Erik sways back and forth, debating on if he should ask. Phoenix starts putting away her groceries. She assumed Erik would just leave at that point but he continued to stand there with his hands in his pocket. She stops what she’s doing and eyes him suspiciously.

“This is weird, but would you mind if I tagged along with you? To the studio.”

She was NOT expecting that. Suddenly Ava’s words rang in her ear. Shoot your shot. The thought of that made her nervous but she stopped the nerves in their tracks. What’s the worst that could happen? He wouldn’t ask if he wasn’t interested, right?

“Uh, yeah sure… wait, weren’t you going somewhere before you helped me with my bags?”

Erik leans over onto her counter, rubbing his hands together. “Yeah, but it wasn’t important. Just chilling with some homies.”

“So you’re just gonna bail on your friends to hang out with me? You don’t even know me.”

“You don’t really know me but I’m all up in ya’ kitchen right now.”

He had a point. She just shook her head and finishes putting away her groceries. He watched her every move. It’s still pretty early so Phoenix still has time to go out and get her hair products before heading to the studio.

“Well everything’s put away. I’m gonna go get my hair stuff. You can just meet me in the garage around 8. Is that cool?”

Eriks stands up straight, “Yeah.”

She smiles and grabs her purse, walking to the door. Erik follows. He waits for her by the elevators as she locks her door. When the elevators opens for them, Mya steps off.

“Hey Phoenix.”

“Hey, Mya.” she waves at her. Mya looks at Erik and then back to Phoenix, mouthing to her. “YAS SIS!” Phoenix laughs. Erik is going up to his place to wait for her so she says bye to him and watches him step in and the doors close. She patiently waits for the cabin to come back down to take her down to the parking garage. Making it to the beauty supply, she buys way more than she needed. Getting some new Mane Choice shampoo, a long, curly ponytail (because you never know when you’ll need one), the curl creams she came for and some hair accessories. She could never control herself in the beauty supply store. It was like a candy store for black girls.

She made her way back home and couldn’t resist washing her hair to try her new products and honestly, she couldn’t wait to retire that messy bun.

------

Erik waits in the parking garage for Phoenix. Checking his phone, it’s now 8:12pm. He’s not usually a patient man but he would wait for as long as he needed for her. Finally a ding from the elevators alerts him that someone is getting off. Phoenix steps out with fresh curls that are still partially wet. She had changed into some black joggers and a Snoop Dogg T-Shirt with her backpack hanging on one arm.

“I’m sorry. I really had to wash my hair.”

He smiles at her. “It’s not a problem, baby girl.”

There’s that name again. She stares at him. “Uh, yeah. You ready?”

“Lead the way.”

He follows her to her car. He steps around her, opening her door for her. She smiles a thank you and he walks around, getting into the passenger seat. She holds up the Aux cord.

“This is my only offer. Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

“You’re the DJ. Let me hear what you like to listen to.”

Phoenix proceeds to plug in her phone and put her playlist on shuffle. Megan thee Stallion x Cash Shit comes on blasting through the speakers as Phoenix pulls out onto the road. She raps along.

Yeah, I’m in my bag // but I’m in his too.

That’s why every time you see me // I got some new shows. AH!

Erik enjoys the show of Phoenix rapping along to every song that comes on. He even joins in when Dreamville x Got Me comes on.

I got you long as you got me // And I got you long as you got me

----

Walking into the studio building, Phoenix greets the security guy at the front desk. This is her favorite studio to work in so she knows everyone who works out of the building by name.

“Hey, Larry.”

“Hello, Miss Blue.”

She loves that he calls her that. Erik nods at Larry and Larry does the same. They continue to an elevator that takes them to the third floor. Walking into the huge studio, Phoenix flicks on the lights and begins setting up her laptop, pulling out her writing notebook. Erik looks around. Blue and green lights, light up the booth that sits in front of them.

“You want something to drink? There’s all types of stuff in the fridge.” Phoenix asks, sitting in a big, comfy chair.

“Nah, I’m good for now.” Erik sits next to her. He sits and just watches as she finishes setting up everything. She has a few samples that she made in her files so she starts with those first. A very smooth R&B Style beat with drums begins to play through the speakers. Phoenix digs in her backpack and pulls out a bag of weed.

“You smoke?” she asks, taking out a back wood.

“Yeah.”

“When I come here alone, this is how I set the mood.”

He watches her carefully as she breaks the weed down so effortlessly. She bobs her head to the beat, filling the back wood with the weed. He could tell, this was her zone. She seemed so relaxed here. Even he couldn’t shake her up right now.

“So, Erik,” She adds emphasis to his name. “Tell me something.”

“What you wanna know?” he watches as she begins to perfectly lick the blunt closed. He’s mesmerized.

“What do you do?”

“In the Navy… engineer.”

She looks at him as she lights the blunt and takes a drag. She slowly releases the smoke. “You from here?”

“Yeah. Grew up in Oakland. You?”

“Nah… I’m from Detroit.”

“Damn, that’s what’s up. When did you come out here?”

She hands him the blunt. “Last year. My career started taking off. I was flying out here like every other week so I just moved out here.”

“You like it?”

“I love it.”

They passed the blunt back and forth until it was gone. The same beat still playing in the background. Phoenix was feeling her high and the beat. Melodies started coming to her as she sung a series of Ahhhs and Heyyys until they formed into lyrics and she wrote them down in her notebook.

“Damn girl, you can sing?”

“I can hold a note or two.”

“Have you ever wrote and recorded any songs for yourself?”

“I have a few.”

“Can I hear one?”

She’s hesitant at first but she goes through her files and finds a song she wrote when she broke up with her ex. As the song played, Erik paid close attention to every word, every note. He felt like he could hear her pain in her voice. She noticed the focused expression on his face. Like he was trying to figure out the exact story that inspired the song.

“Wrote this last year when I came out here. My ex… he uh, he cheated and had a baby.”

The song ends and she goes back to the beats she was listening to before.

“You’ve been single since?” he asks.

“Yeah. Just been working. If I’m gonna give a nigga my time, he has to understand my work. He can’t get in the way of that, ya’ know?”

“I get it.”

“How long have you been single?”

Erik sits back in his chair, rubbing his beard. “I’ve actually never really been in a relationship.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. Life just didn’t seem to allow me to do all of that.”

“Why?”

Erik was never one to open up to people. Maybe it was the weed or maybe it was the vibe, but he felt safe with Phoenix in this moment. “I had to take care of myself growing up. Parents died young so I didn’t have time for distractions. Got into college early. Went to MIT,” Phoenix eyes grew big at that. 

“Do you think things have changed for you now? Like… maybe you would be able to try out a relationship or something?”

“Well, where I am now, if that’s what I wanted to do, I’ll figure it out. But it’s like you said, it has to be somebody that understands my work.”

She nods and turns to work on the beat that’s playing. After making a few adjustments, she figured out just what it was missing. She looked to Erik and noticed he was vibing out to the new, improved beat.

“You like it?”

“Hell yeah. I fuck with this.”

That made her happy. She loved when other people were vocal about her work.

“Can I ask you something, Erik?”

“Wassup?”

“So… what really happened with you and Sydney?”

He looks at her. He couldn’t read her like he usually could. “Nothing. We hung out. Chilled at her place. Got so high, we both passed out and I left. She wanted to do more but like I told you, I wasn’t feeling it.”

She played with her fingers. He rolled his chair closer to her and lifted her chin so she’s looking at him. “You don’t have to worry about her.”

“What?” She moved back. “I’m not worried about her. I was just-- nothing, never mind.”

He didn’t push her to continue. She opted to ask him more generic questions.

“Anyways… um, what’s your favorite color?”

If this is how she wanted this to go, he’d play along. “My favorite color is black. Yours?”

“Blue.” she smiled.

By the end of the session, Phoenix had finished two beats. She even showed Erik how to work a few buttons so he could help her record a few hooks and a verse. By the end of the session, they knew a lot more about each other. Erik’s last name is Stevens and he was 31. He loved french toast and watching anime. Phoenix was 27 with a birthday coming in just a few months. Erik may or may not be plotting to get her something. She loved animals and told him about her most embarrassing moment in high school when she was performing for pep rally and tripped on her own two feet in front of the whole school. They had a good time with each other. It was almost 2am when they left.

As they waited for the elevator, Erik stood dangerously close to Phoenix. She could feel like body heat and she wanted so bad to wrap her arms around him for him to warm her up.

“I had a good time with you tonight, Philly.”

“I had a good time with you too, Stevens.” She poked his chest.

The elevator arrives and they step on, Floor 7 and Penthouse floor as their destinations. The ride up was a comfortable, tired silence. As Phoenix got off on her floor, Erik reached for her hand, stopping her right between the open doors. He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumbs. He licked his lips and she watched with her mouth parted slightly. He knew just what he was doing. “Goodnight, baby girl.”

If this nigga dont stop this!

“Goodnight, E.”

He was surprised at the nickname. Sure, most people called him E, but coming from her, at this moment, felt different. Like equivalent to his ‘baby girl.’ He felt a rush move through his chest as she slowly slid her hand from his, stroking his fingers and smiled at him. She stood on the other side of the doors until the doors shut. This time, it was Erik with jelly legs. He caught himself by leaning back on the back wall of the cabin as it traveled up. He has never felt like this with no woman… ever!

When he made it into his place, he stripped out of his clothes and took a hot shower. Thinking of the way her hand felt in his made his dick twitch under the warm water. He stroked it a few times before choosing to just wash up and go to bed. He really didn’t understand this feeling and didn’t want to process it right now. He just wanted to have this moment. Whatever it was. As he made himself comfortable in his cool sheets, he picked up his phone, opening Instagram. Phoenix’s story the first one highlighted at the top of his screen. He clicked it and 4 minutes ago, she posted a photo of the city’s view from her bedroom with the caption ‘Nights like This❤️ ’

There it is… that feeling in his chest again. He locks his phone and drifts off to sleep with Phoenix as the last thought on his mind.

-------

Tags: @purple-apricots @abeautifulmindexposed @lostennyc @missshae @tip222u @janelledarling @lushloaded @chaneajoyyy **If anyone would like to be tagged in the next one, let me know.

[bamfoftheundead]

fic writer tag game

i was tagged by @dannybagpipesarecalling ! thank ya

fandoms: uhhh mostly x-men, the dark crystal, kinda bnha too and my middle school favs that i never truly grew out of Homestuck/Creepypasta. Im mostly active in x-men as of now and like dannybagpipes im really into Excalibur and catching up on a lot of the comics 0V0

number of fics: 1 lmaoo, i writer down my daydreams for potential comic script but they’re bad and suuuper unfiltered/edited.

fic i spent the most time on: desert winds of course, despite being a lil old thing. It took me abt an hour to write bc my ipad was charging n i was bored. Bead au would take the lead if i could get more of it done >:T

fic i spent the least time on: uhhh Queens bath? the new lil saucy drabble im working on but having a hard time bc WOW, i get flustered easier than i actually thought. Words are harder to write then drawing lines on a canvas

longest fic: actually this goes to that fanfic i wrote for my friends in 7th grade it was a slice of life of us living together casually, haven’t touched it since but it deffo is my longest fic

shortest fic: dfjdjdjjd middle school fanfic for the win again, this 800 word lil smut thing i wrote for my friend, it was between her and a naruto character and it was very badly written i can assure you

most hits: desert winds at 23 hits (what do those mean?)

most kudos: desert winds at 4 kudos :D

most comments: desert winds with 6! super proud, and i got a comment from a mystery user? love it

most bookmarks: desert winds, 1 (whoever u are ily)

total word count: 1,354

fav fic i wrote: definitely desert winds, ive never gotten so much feedback before :v

fic you wanna rewrite or expand on: uhhh desert winds ig, there still a lot of thing i don’t know abt writing and my learning disorder makes it hard to learn basic stuff so when i actually do get better at writing and understand things im deffo gonna rewrite everything i ever wrote

share a wip or story idea you’re planning on: well my bead au, still trying to get that done, im trying to make at LEAST one page 10k long, its my bare minimum and boy do i gotta long way to go. Another wip i think is something i did a long time ago (2017-18 i think) and i called it my “Pink diamond au” bc it was somewhat like pinks arc in su but instead it was abt kitty being a powerful/bratty princess whos also inhumanly tall (bc pink diamond/pearl dynamic ig) with a special bodyguard (kurt) whos somewhat strict and technically prince of a kingdom but since he was like more than a 5th son became a knight/paladin and how kitty suddenly became queen of a whole world and inherited amazing god-powers as a half celestial queen and struggled to rule and not be manipulated by others (azazel, belasco and mephisto who all have their own kingdoms) and how shes young/naive and just wanna do whats right and gets weirdass marriage proposals from kings/queens shes never even heard of, it was very high fantasy-ish and i definitely wanna do more with it.

tagging: uhhh @kurtty-drabbles if you haven’t done it yet? im afraid everyone i know has been tagged already :’)

[wild-moony-joonie]

Game Night

Author: Laura(me)

Warnings: Suggestive ig. Swearing, nerds being nerds. Lots of Gay.

Pairing(s): Sasuke/Naruto(Sasunaru).

Synopsis: Naruto has a lot of things he’d like to avoid, and as hard as he tries. He just can’t avoid some.

______

Somehow his mom had convinced him to come to this stupid game night, Kakashi-sensei was throwing at the academy. Naruto inwardly groaned as he thought about the torture to come, Sasuke would inevitably win all the games Kakashi didn't participate in. With that smug smirk and dark hooded eyes. Naruto shook his head, his orange and black snapback shaking slightly. He adjusted it so that the bill was in the back, his longish blonde hair poking out from underneath and hiding his blue eyes. He slipped his ear buds in as he walked along the sidewalk, his cream hoodie and dark green jacket with red accents perfect for the fall evening weather. His jeans made slight swishing noises as he continued the two city blocks to the academy.

"Hey Loser! Wait up!," The shout came from behind him. Naruto was considering ignoring the jerk, but instead turned around and pulled one earbud out.

"What do you want Sasuke?" Naruto snapped, impatient with the raven haired boy approaching him.

"I figured it wouldn't hurt to walk with you," He smirked at Naruto, his cocky expression always present. He had pushed up the sleeves of his black leather jacket and purple hoodie, with the gray shirt tails of a button down sneaking out from underneath. Sasuke pulled his hood up over his lavender baseball cap, attempting to hide his somehow effortlessly perfect behead, which shade matched his laminated blue-black jeans.

"You excited for me to kick your ass?" The taller boy whispered in the ear unoccupied by an earbud, shoving his hands into his pockets. Naruto jumped surprised by his sudden closeness.

"Uhmmm, what are you talking about? You know I'm only coming cause my mom made me."

Sasuke made a sympathetic face,

"I can practically stand my mom. All she ever talks about is me getting a boyfriend, I mean since she learned I'm gay. I swear, she's more obnoxious than Itachi constantly knowing everything."

"Hmmm, must be pretty bad. Itachi's such a know it all," Naruto muses.

"You come out to your parents yet?" He asks nonchalantly.

"Yeah, they accepted it pretty easily, my mom is now just glad she can talk to me about hot male celebrities,"

"Who's your favorite?"

"Tom Holland," Naruto says, now picking his nails as they slow down, prolonging this moment of comfort in each others presence.

"Ugh, Hiddleston," He wrinkles his face up at the thought of Holland. Just as he says this, they round the corner to their high school. They walk in the doors and check into the booth, run by a couple of fellow juniors. Sakura and Ino, and of course they both start obsessing over Sasuke, mainly because nobody but Naruto and his family knows that Sasuke is gay, despite the blonde being openly Pan Sexual.

He nods to them and then moves on, he quickly follows. they walk in to find Iruka-Sensei running Just Dance. They simply share a glance, and Naruto pulls his earbuds out and wraps them up.  They simultaneously step in line next to each other.

"Hey Naruto!," Naruto turns and sees his best friend Kiba, running towards us. Sasuke makes a  displeased noise, and the shorter boy elbows him hard, shooting him a firm glare.

Naruto's POV

" Sakura looks great tonight! Did you see her?" Kiba gasps like a fish, I hold my hands out palms facing towards him.

"Whoa slow down there Kiba, take a few breathes, don't die on me," I say laughing softly at his words, and mentally wondering what he brought it up.

"Yeah, but all she talks about is Sasuke," Kiba groans, standing up, and puts his face in his hands, dramatically pulling at the strings of his blue sweatshirt. He turns to look at Sasuke, with a woeful expression pulling at his face, "You're soooo lucky, you know that?"

Sasuke suddenly bursts out laughing, hard. Harder than I've ever heard him laugh in all my years of knowing the jerk. Laughing so hard it catches everyone's attention. Laughing so hard that he starts wheezing. He bends over holding his stomach, and I can't suppress a giggle, which soon turns into to full out laughing. I'm now wheezing, clutching my stomach.

Sasuke and I lean into one another gasping for air, between bursts of laughter. HIs hands grip my waist as he leans into my chest, his body shaking with laughter, gasping for lost breath. I lean into his touch, finally starting to calm down.

"What's so funny guys?" Kiba asks, peering curiously out of his sweatshirt, suspicion painting every feature on his face. Sasuke leans in close to Kiba, and whispers,

"Can you keep a secret?,"

I lean nonchalantly on Sasuke's shoulder, smiling softly at Kiba.

"Yeah, you bet I can." Kiba replies, brushing Sasuke's hand off. Crossing his arms. Sasuke glances at me, and I grin, imagining what Kiba will say once he hears.

"Kiba..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm gay...," Sasuke waits a moment for this to sink into to Kiba's brain. When it does Kiba's eyes get really wide and he burst out laughing.

"Do you see why it was funny now?" I chuckle, cocking my head at Kiba.

"Yeah. Also, you know that you two would make a really cute couple now that I think about it. Like realllyyyy cute."

"That's out of the question," I say firmly, removing elbow from Sasuke's shoulder, turning away from the both of them.

"Oh Princess, don't be like that," A voice coos in my ear, pale muscular arms winding around my small waist. Pressing me into a rock solid muscular chest. Everything fades away... except for Sasuke. His presence is sending my heart pounding in my ears, his smell, his voice the only thing surrounding me. I instantly panic and step on his foot and elbow him in the sternum, He catches my elbow as I turn, and raises his eyebrows slightly.

"What was that for?" He asks, trying to hide his disappointment at my reaction, " Am I really that far into the friendzone?"

" Honestly Sasuke, you're not in the friendzone by a mile," I whisper, shocked by whatever compelled me to say these words in front of him. He smirks and leans closer to my face, teasing me,

"What was that Na-ru-to? I couldn't hear you." His says loud and clear, I suddenly remember Kiba. I turn to him, and can't help but chuckle at the slack jaw. Clearly shocked by the sudden tension between Sasuke and I. Electricity is crackling, ready to strike. But I'm not ready, not ready to admit that I'm gay for Sasuke and have been for years so, I won't. I glance at the line, and realize that we only have two people in front of us. I pull out my phone, ignoring Sasuke's smug smirk. And realize that I have thirty-two text messages, and ten missed phone calls. All from my mother. I glance at the time on my phone, and my blood runs cold. It's ten twenty-two.

"Shit!," I swear.

"What?!" Kiba and Sasuke, look at me concerned.

"I was supposed to be home by ten, shitshitshitshitshit!" I ramble, shoving my phone in my pocket and grabbing Sasuke by the arm.

"Bye Kiba!," I yell over my shoulder as I drag a dead weight Sasuke behind me out the door.

"Bye Sasuke!" A chorus of girls cheer in a sing-song voice as we pass them outside the school.

"Whoa, slow down Blondie," Sasuke says behind me, twisting his wrist out of my hand, and grabbing my belt loop. Forcing me to stop.

"I'm soooo late my moms gonna kill me!" I panic, and shake my head at him. My earbuds jangling against my thigh. I look up and see Sasuke's calling someone on the phone.

"Who are you calling?" I say in distress.

" Your mom," He says in a bland tone. Then continues, "Hi, It's Sasuke... yes, it's my fault Naruto is late. I made him stay with me... no but thank you... yes, you too. See you tomorrow... okay, bye," He hangs up and slips his phone back into his pocket on the darkened street corner. In the streams of moonlight, Sasuke is gorgeous, his hair casting shadows on his narrow face. His skin turned silver by the bleached light. He leans in and looks at me, then glances at my lips, and I know what comes next. Normally, under any other circumstance, I would stop him. Go home, shut him out. Get some sleep. But he looks so good right now I'm dying, and the electricity I felt earlier could put power wires to shame right now. So I give in, I caress those pale soft lips with my own. I give in and slide my hands into his hair underneath his hood. I give in and part my lips. I give in, and honestly, it's about damn time.

[chattegeorgiana]

Hey Chatte hope all is well! I saw your special Narusakra comic and your most recent post on IG showing off the Crown of the Sun for Sakura. Can’t wait to read & see how she gets there. I saw a lot of awesome pieces for NarSaukra day so I want to thank you and the rest of the community for keeping it alive.

I have been rereading Kaika and the chapters 11-13 so far are my favorite. I’m excited to how you are going to make the aliens/gods work and to be honest you have done a better than the canon. As for everyone’s favorite snake sanin I’m interested to how he ends in the plot. While personally I didn’t care for him be a “good” guy in canon in the present. He will always be a creature of habit and self serving. So I’m excited. Also a headcannon I thought of regarding him and Shina’s Gen. He would be interested Shina the most compared to the U twins probably feed up with Uchilas in general. Also given the fact that he probably shoot’s himself for overlooking Naruto and Sakura originally for the more polished product in Sauake. Shina also looking and sharing personality with Minmato would be funny because he would take as Minmato ghost coming back and trolling him. Best part is Shina would have no idea how much his presence would be triggering for him lol.

One last point it’s a little something I wanted to share with you. So I used to live in this suburb next to Newark NJ, USA and in Newark there is this section called Forest Hills. This neighborhood is famous for two reasons one is its old fashion mansions and Branch Brooke Park, which has over 5,000 Japanese cherry blossoms trees planted there. They have their own cherry blossoms festival and everything.

Hiii dear, welcome back again to my inbox!

Glad to hear you liked the NaruSaku special and Sakura's Crown of the Sun art.

To be honest, can't wait to get there myself. I have sooo many interesting ideas about how she gets it. Too many even, lol. I finally got to understand what other writers were meaning when they said you will get to discard some ideas at some point.

In the beginning I was like naa, I won't be doing that. But with time the ideas developed so much, that I see no other way than to drop a few from the beginning or better said, reform some of them to fit the new, updated idea lol.

Also thank you for your kind words. It is my pleasure, and many other artists, I'm sure, to keep the community alive.

After all, it's just pure love for them and that's it. We're free of the shackles of canon, so yay for us!

Now, to get back to Kaika.

First of all, thank you once again for your compliments! I'm so happy to see you liked what - at least - I'm trying to do there with the Otsutsukis.

I believe that the idea with them was not bad. It's the execution that's problematic, imo. That's why I tried to take a different route with them, while still referencing the canon element. I will be referencing a lot of elements from the OG franchise, because I do like the idea. I just don't like the execution.

As for Orochimaru well... We have a here saying in my country that says the wolf changes its fur, but not its habits.

What I can say is that, that's what I'll follow. Narratively as well.

Because like you said, deep down, he's a creature of habit. Habits are our second nature. That's why it's not that easy to change one self and you first gotta change your habits.

In OG it is shown to us that Oro didn't actually changed his habits at all, he is just being let loose. Which narratively makes so little sense?

You tell me that the man who basically put in motion everything that we've been witnessing along the path of Naruto manga, is just going to be left to do whatever he wants because... he's a necessary evil?

That's not how you act with the necessary evil. You don't let it loose and just barely keep him under supervision, imo.

If anything, he's a "joker" type of character. You never know when he's gonna pop off the box to scare ya away with some machiavellian ploy.

As for your headcanon of him and Shina, well, there is a common element in there that we have. I can't say that he's fed-up with the Uchihas (after all, Uchihas were his obsession), but...

I have a certain idea in mind about the path I have with him and him overlooking Naruto & Sakura's family, generally, because well, Sakura Haruno doesn't come from any prestigious clan that could benefit his pursuits, right?

And yet, surprise-surprise, the ones you least expect are the ones who get to bring the biggest turnarounds.

The thing is, I have two routes I want to take with him in terms of his eventual demise and I'm undecided on which side to go with, lol.

One involved him and Tsunade and was kinda dramatic, and the other one involves NaruSaku family, ironically. So I really don't know which way to go.

Because all this will be happening in Kaika Shinsei's timeline, which I am yet to settle.

I guess I'll see after I finish writing Saisei how things evolve until then, so that'll probably help me decide.

And WOOW, thank you so much for sharing that piece of info with me?! I ADORE cherry blossoms.

I grew-up with them and other types of blossoms, so for me, spring blossoms, especially cherry ones, are very special.

Actually the city where I moved has some parks filled with

I dream of travelling to Japan one day and live the original cherry blossoms season experience. But until then I enjoy the wanna-be one from here haha.

ANyway, thanks once again for the ask. Hope you have an amazing rest of your time today/tonight. <3

[rqakira]

Heyo :)

yeah so I made this draft on march 2nd and now it’s...was gonna say april 7th but it’s 1:05am as I type this so now it’s the 8th--

now this was supposed to be a proper intro post, and I was holding off posting anything else until this got finished, but it’s been over a month so uh

screw that

y’all get an abbreviated BSed version instead

hiya, I’m rqakira or thefirstimagifabricator depending on platform, am mostly called rq by ppl online but some know me by tfi bc ik them from a site where I’m the latter name. Am sex- and romance-averse bi aroace and girlflux (which is odd bc I’m a huge shipper, but the difference is whether or not the relationship includes me ig), pronouns she/they. Tired sleep-deprived hs student, adhd but too ambitious for my own good so I end up buried in work, also the school system sucks but that’s not important here bc this is an intro not a rant. I draw a lot and post those drawings sometimes and also sometimes write and also brain comes up with many ideas so w ones regarding fandoms I might dump those here. I’m into kpop and anime and webtoons and books and also like music in general a lot and play the violin. Am in too many fandoms and ship too many ships lol but I like it this way

fuck a smooth transition im tired so just gonna list some fandoms and shit here--probs just those I might post art or smth abt or just talk or rb

oh ye before that I also like science bc it’s cool but the science classes at my school suck so fuck science class but otherwise science good

anyway

- bnha/mha - aot/snk - haikyuu - naruto - miraculous [ladybug] - absolute hate-love relationship here but as much as I complain abt it and have problems w it and hate so much abt it I also love it sm and it’s oddly special to me and also the fandom while it’s a mess sometimes a lot of the time kinda makes it all worth it also ladybug is in brackets bc ppl might not get what I’m talking abt otherwise buuuuut I hate calling it “miraculous ladybug” bc chat noir/adrien fuckin exists but also the official title is so long and hhhhh anyway need to remember once again this is intro not rant lol - riordanverse - hp - the gay side ofc, we don’t talk abt she who must not be named pfft

wanna list more but too brain dead w tiredness to think of more atm, also would end up listing a lot of webtoons-- will make webtoon rec list later

some music artists I like - stray kids, txt, enhypen, bts, mxmtoon, cavetown, girl in red, LiSA, U2, eric nam, burnout syndromes

aaaand this post is way too long already and idk what to cut and it’s 2:18 am now I need to sleep so ima just cut off here--

mayhaps make other posts later